A runner who got lost and fell down a mine shaft during a Sunday night run in the Spur Cross Conservation Area near Cave Creek was rescued Monday.
There are more than 100,000 abandoned mines in Arizona, according to the Arizona Mining Inspector’s office. The state estimated they’ve mapped about 19,000 of those and secured even fewer.
The woman fell about 25 feet down into a 40-foot open-pit mine, said Shawn Gilleland, a spokesman for the Rural Metro Fire Department.
“Fortunately [she] was not injured as a result of the fall, besides some minor abrasions and some cactus stuck in her,” he said.
“She determined that she obviously couldn’t climb out of this hole. Also posing a threat was apparently, there was a rattlesnake in there somewhere,” Gilleland said.
The woman’s father called the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office after she didn’t return home and deputies tracked her cellphone and heard yelling.
Rescuers hoisted her out with a rope.
In a high-profile incident last October, a man was rescued from a 100-foot-deep abandoned mine shaft after two days.
