First visit was in 1978 I was just a year out of college ,and starting to get into Leather in a big way.The Mineshaft was in the meatpacking district on little West 12th off of Jane.(when there was still a lot of meatpacking before gentrification of the area)
You entered at street level and climbed the stairs for review by the doorman if you passed muster you paid and were granted membership.(I must have impressed the hell out of somebody that night because when I was leaving the doorman gave me a "C" card,granting me free entry and no wait in line as long as they were open for business)
You entered a large room where there were a couple pool tables ,the bar and the clothes check.I usually just checked my shirt and jacket,always keeping chaps and boots and a vest on(I liked the way a filthy junk stuffed yellow jock looked hanging out of my levis under tight chaps)
You could smell and feel raw sex almost pulsating when you walked in,hell the first night I was there saw two men check their
jackets and looked both had decent uncut dicks but their foreskins were hooked together by a pair of tit clamps. guess it was a good way to keep track of each other.
From the big room you could wander through a passage way in to a large playarea, there were a number of slings, rows of glory holes at all levels, some semi private corners, it was a huge area dimly lit just reeking of sweat and cum and leather.Pretty sure there were shackles on some walls and a form of stockade on this level.
Then down the stairs to the first level,pig fucking heaven.a warren of fetish areas,truck cabs and the most notorious area the PISS area(I have always flagged yellow so it was like finding nirvana) the first night there I walked over to one of the big tubs to piss and there laying was a man I knew in Houston who while at home always passed himself off as a total top I looked at him and he shouted at me to "PISS in my fucking face I know you've wanted too" I did
The whole attitude of the place was so magic,hyper masculine but at the same time kind and good,I saw lots of really fucked up men helped out by total strangers,the management and staff never intrusive but always around if there was a pig in trouble(usually as a result of too many chems)
Through the years I went to a number of "April Showers" parties these were huge Piss parities on the roof of the mineshaft,have not been to larger or more intense PISS parties since.
I traveled to new York three or four times a year and spent a couple nights at the Mineshaft every visit.it really is hard to describe to anyone that never visited,like the first time you danced at "THE SAINT" there was an intensity I have not experienced anyplace else ever