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


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10 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   I woild like to put a crew of hard working people togerher to work Jed's site once again. It is a true treasure hunt. 

I would possibly be interested if it's not too far from Sierra or Sacramento County.

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10 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   I woild like to put a crew of hard working people togerher to work Jed's site once again. It is a true treasure hunt. 

I’d dig it!

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

   We got high graded again by the claim jumpers and they stole our cams to boot. Not much changes out there in 86 yrs.

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   MAY 12   1936

   I went up and dug gravels again while John worked the tom. I tried to work deeper into the fault but got stopped out by heavy boulders. Then I decided to move 10 feet to the north onto the buried area. This required heavy work on my part and I busted the handle on my pick and had to go down to camp and put on a new one. I took what few buckets I had down to John at the same time to give him some work. I eventually got a good excavation going and started moving rounded river rock towards the end of my day. This told me I might be getting into more good gravels but I only got 23 buckets for the day and am dog tired to boot.

   John washed them and I panned the heavies out before supper. Compared to the previous days weigh this was disappointing. We got 3 grams for all my labor. John looked kind of down but I told him we would probably get onto gold again soon. He had gotten a bad case of gold fever and wanted to see color in every bucket. I figure to keep working at the dig for awhile as I need to get back on pay.

   I felt better after beans and hot water corn bread and a cup of whiskey. I'm going up on watch and taking the bottle with me.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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   I'd like to take a brief pause & dedicate this song to Jed Stevens & John.

 

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   MAY 13   1836

   Today I worked the gravels in a U pattern starting at my new hole and going east into the fault and slowly turning south back towards the kettle. Fractured rock is abundant but I haven't seen a sign of country yet. I've panned some of the dig to test and there is a lack of much color. Somehow I have run completely out of the pay area. There were no good gravels to take down to the tom and this is the first day here with no gold.

   My theory is to go deeper into the fault and lower the excavation to find country. This will require the most effort i've had to put in since I started. I am convinced there must be a vast amount of gold still trapped in the channel in this area near the played out kettle. The old river must have brought more gold near it. If I can find another pot hole or an area of raised country rock it may prove rich in gold and we will be high on the hog once again. John is a bit discouraged but I am keeping his spirits up and saying look at what we have accomplished so far and surely we will find more.

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

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This is a very informative and addicting story.     Its almost like a primer for placer mining.   Thank you for sharing it with us.

Good luck with your highgraders.   You'll  need to get identifiable pictures to prosecute, so you'll have to get clever with your cameras.  They won't quit until it costs too much in sweat or in personal injury.   

HH
Mike  

 

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On 1/23/2022 at 3:55 PM, GhostMiner said:

   APRIL 17   1936

   Got a good nights rest. I was able to drive the truck up to the dig site with my buckets. I worked on getting in further and as deep and close to country rock as I could. Then I filled about a quarter ton of good gravels in some buckets and drove down to the creek. I set up the tom and grizzly and set a good angle on the tom. Worked the rest of the day processing and finished up the panning from the heavies that were pulled. When weighed out it was about 20 cents to the ton. Not glory days but working wages at least. My thinking is there is better pay in there to be found. Tomorrow I will begin doing the road work out to the eastern drift mine I sampled. There is an old wagon road out there I can use once it's fixed up some. Then I plan to get a good test on that mine. Fixing a good supper of hoover stew with coffee spiced with Irish whiskey and turning in.

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

I'm really enjoying reading this.  I'm not a miner or prospector, so please excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb question, but when Jed says "weighed out it was about 20 cents to the ton".   Does that literally mean that for every ton of material he processed, the return was only 20 cents?    

Love the special dinner with"spiced coffee" 🤠

EDIT:  You shared details later about his "working wages" thank you (I'd say 50-100 a day wasn't bad for the 1930's).    I don't quite understand the 20 cents a ton part though?

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