Jump to content

** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **


Recommended Posts


   I will post a map of Jed's area tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying the journal. It's about to get pretty interesting.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ghostminer,

Fun to hear this first person back when times were simpler.  THx for sharing this....and looking forward to the daily dose of Irish Whiskey!

Zincoln

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

   Another note from me here :  I tried to figure a rough calculation on what Jed got on his first test of the fault line. Gold was about $35/ounce in 1936. I like to figure my estimates in American dollars per cubic yard. He was figuring his values based in per ton. So doing the calculations I estimate somewhere arounf $25 per cubic yard based in today's gold values give or take a few dollars a yard either way. So when he said working wages I figure if he worked hard all day he might have got 2 - 4 yards a day so maybe $50 - $100 a day in gold in today's values. Also, it's hard to figure dollar values exactly as the price of goods has inflated at different rates. I also found it kind of humorous when he said glory days weren't there yet. We all know that feeling for sure when prospecting. However, not to give too much away, but he had no idea what was about to happen to him. I also found out he was working innitially under the direction of a very prominent geologist so that must explain why he chose to file claims in this location. I have tested this area as well & will give my values at a later date. Let's just say for now that there are some very good areas. 

   

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

   APRIL 18, 19, 20   1936

   Snow is all melted off and the creeks are running hard. I spent all three days out on the old wagon road that leads to the eastern drift mine. The road is now passable for my truck. There's a lot of exposed country rock and old iron pipe out near the drift which tells me this was worked bt hydraulic method mostly but for some reason someone drifted into the virgin gravels. The hill is a good 90 feet or more in height and the facings were hydraulicked to country. The old hand dug water flume runs up the mountain but is overgrown with brush. My guess is that the old boys had water delivery issues. Anyway, I will get my truck out there to haul samples to the tom. I noticed a  lot of bear tracks out along the way out there. My goal is to find the best ground for my efforts. I'm getting anxious to start mining gold but I know that this early work will pay in the end. Turning in now after a supper of dried beef and crackers and a small cup of Irish whiskey.

   TO BE CONTINUED .............. 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

   April 21   1936

   Got the truck out to the eastern drift mine and worked the old adit gravels. I went back in about 100 feet and dug down into the old river gravels along the bottom of the west wall. I took out ten buckets and hauled them to the creek to process. Once again I was not seeing the glory gold I had hoped for. The values were a little less than what I got at the fault line. Some fines mixed with a bit of nice coarse. Tomorrow I will go back out there for another try and perhaps get down to country rock which I think is still another five feet deeper. The weather warmed a bit today and the days are getting longer. I haven't seen a soul around this area since I came here. I will be heading to town sometime soon for a few provisions. I am finding the prospecting life to be most fullfilling but lonely at times. It will be nice to get into town. 

    TO BE CONTINUED ...................

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, GhostMiner said:

   April 21   1936

   Got the truck out to the eastern drift mine and worked the old adit gravels. I went back in about 100 feet and dug down into the old river gravels along the bottom of the west wall. I took out ten buckets and hauled them to the creek to process. Once again I was not seeing the glory gold I had hoped for. The values were a little less than what I got at the fault line. Some fines mixed with a bit of nice coarse. Tomorrow I will go back out there for another try and perhaps get down to country rock which I think is still another five feet deeper. The weather warmed a bit today and the days are getting longer. I haven't seen a soul around this area since I came here. I will be heading to town sometime soon for a few provisions. I am finding the prospecting life to be most fullfilling but lonely at times. It will be nice to get into town. 

    TO BE CONTINUED ...................

   A side not here : We were able to find the drift mine on the side of the mountain based on what Jed wrote in the journal. There is still a rough trail out there that a 4 whl vehicle can use. At first we weren't exactly sure of the location because there had been lots of slides from above and the addit was buried. Luckily we're permitted for heavy equipment & have a bond in place so we took a mid size excavator out there and started digging into the side of the mountain. We hit it first try after about 30 minutes of digging. The 2 man saw was even still in there but it was broken. The timbers were all rotted out and large hanging rock everywhere. I told everyone to stay out but we scouped sampled with the excavator bucket allong the side wall near bedrock.  We got anywhere from $15 -$60 per cubic yard out of the test which sampled bedrock to 20 ft above bedrock.. Not bad. We leased this mine out to a guy from Nevada who is now permitting for an operation. Anywhere into the sides of the mountain there have gold bearing gravels. 

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

   APRIL 22   1936

   Once again I worked the eastern drift and once again I found gold. I got deeper although it was mighty tough on both me and my tools of labor. The old channel has a lot of river rock to deal with but I got my buckets out with good material that was on the top of country. My results were a bit better than yesterday but the work to get it was twice as hard. I would need a dozer or dragline to continue further. I don't have the stake for that without finding a partner so I have decided to concentrate my work at the fault line on a full time venture. I am happy to have made a decission and will stick with it. 

   I also had time to go into town for provisions, I met a nice gal at the general store who talked with me about prospecting. I was careful not to say anything of my venture or location but just talked mostly of camping and hunting. I am having a feast of hash and hot water corn bread tonight and washing it all down with some good whiskey. Tomorrow is the start of my mining season.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................. 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • The title was changed to ** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...