The Meredith Mine is an abandoned silver mine, home to nearly a mile of underground tunnels on five levels including a 45 degree incline shaft.  The mine was established in the 1920s w/ the incline shaft sunk nearly 600 feet, wood & railing still in great shape & held together w/ wedges against the bedrock.  The mine was in operation during other decades up until the early 1980s.  This view is at the 500 level facing a secondary escape manway raise leading up to a stope.  The ladder angles out of view from this location but ascent high up into darkness.  When an emergency occurred, this was the place to get to & climb up, though I'm not sure how trustworthy the wood is today.  The entire area is braced w/ square set stoping, built following up this nearly vertical stope.  An ore chute lies nearby.  The mine is comprised of very rotten & fractured epithermal material, to which I would NOT recommend anybody visit as a cave-in could occur at any given time.  There are also vertical pits leading down to large stope workings & a secondary route that has missing ladders.

A few mining terms:

Adit - A horizontal passage leading into the mine, not to be confused w/ a "tunnel", which would have an opening out the other side.  Adits are sloped slightly upwards to allow for drainage of groundwater.

Crosscut - A horizontal opening that does not run along the vein. Typically a shaft will lead to crosscuts at each level that give access to drifts along the vein. Crosscuts typically run straight as an arrow through worthless rock.

Drift - A horizontal opening that runs along the vein. Typically there are many ore chutes from stopes above, and the drift will wander to follow the vein.

Level - If you follow a ladder down a shaft, you will arrive at horizontal workings every 100 feet or so, and these are called levels. The levels have a station near the shaft, and are named by the distance down the shaft.

Manway - Any kind of passage with a ladder in it could be called a manway. Shafts are divided into "compartments" and one of these is very often a manway. Sometimes the manway of a shaft is crowded with pipes and cables and such.

Ore chute - A "spout" built of wood used to load broken rock from above into waiting ore bins.

Raise - A raise is like a shaft that starts undergound and goes upwards. Typically a ladder next to an ore chute along a drift goes up a raise and gives access to a stope above.

Square set stoping (timbering) - The most expensive mode of underground mining. As ore is removed in a stope, it is replaced by a 10x10 foot lattice of 12x12 timbers. The ground was unstable here & the lattice helps protect from potential collapses. Many times the sets are backfilled with broken rock to help support the stope.

Stope - An excavation underground that actually removed whatever it was they were after. These are typically irregular in shape as they follow the ore whereever it goes. If the vein is wide and/or the rock is poor, the challenge in mining is to keep the rock supported while extracting the material in the stope.

Winze - A winze is like a vertical or inclined shaft that starts underground & connects one level down to another.

Source: Mining Terms: http://cholla.mmto.org/mines/terms.html