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


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   JUNE 22   1936

   One more ounce at this mornings weigh. We need to get deeper. We all saw the law dogs coming back down the mountain today. They said they had no luck in finding the gang of rif raf. Either they have a hideout in another area or are very well hidden. I think they are still on the mountain somewhere. 

   I took a few hours after breakfast to go into town for some new work clothes which were badly needed. I don't know how many prospectors the town folk see but I seemed to be a curiosity to them. Maybe it was just the ragged look I now present.

   The heat is getting worse now it seems. We are hitting 90 degrees most days and we all know it will get hotter in the next few months. I tell Jacob and Will to work at a steady pace and take breaks when needed. We are getting steady gold which is a miner's dream. No one ever complains about the work. The gravels have not changed and the work is not too bad. We filled 230 buckets today.

    TO BE CONTINUED ................

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   JUNE 23   1936

   Three ounces of gold from the weigh. It seems nothing will stop us now. I am now sure we are digging a glory hole once again. Also, more prospectors were seen heading up the creek by John. He said they were a group of three and he talked with them briefly. They were from the coast of California with no experience but wanted to take a try at mining gold. John said they seemed like an honest bunch and he wished them luck. More and more people are looking for gold as an answer to the hard times this country is facing. It makes me realize how lucky our group is.

   We are getting about chest high in the hole now and are having to winch the buckets out to the top of the hole. Then the buckets are walked out two at a time up the ramp of the trench to the surface. This has become slower and harder work. I am hoping our gravels get richer now as our bucket count will drop. The smooth facings of rock in the kettle are something to behold. Our digging is contained to this area and we go deeper every day. We took 210 hard earned buckets down to John. He is washing them with a determined grin on his face every day. 

   We all sat at the camp fire after supper and talked about our strike. I rolled Ripple and Burley and passed them around to the crew and poured cups of whiskey. We all speculated on how much gold was waiting for us at the bottom of the kettle. John and Jacob said they would buy their own farm. Will said he wanted to go into the automobile business or maybe own a feed mill. I told the crew I was going to keep gold mining until my body quit on me. We all had a few smokes and drank our cups. Eventually it was time for first watch and we broke up the get together. 

  TO BE CONTINUED ................

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For those new to gold mining, they are digging in an ancient river bed that is now dried and covered up. It was formed way before man looking for gold walked the ground. So what their glory holes are a natural bowl or hole carved out of eons of water falling in that place. Water and rocks falling and also gold dig the hole. Gold being so much heavier than rocks will not be washed out of the bowl, kettle or glory hole. Thus when they come upon a kettle or glory hole it is a huge concentration of gold.

gold gets washed into the stream and river upstream due to eons of erosion. This is the simple explanation of finding gold in gravel and rocks. Gold in hard rock is a different creature.

So enjoying this journal.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Tahts-a-dats-ago said:

I know absolutely nothing about finding natural gold or mining, but your post(s) (journal entries) are fascinating. Thanks for taking the time to share the journal with us.

Thanks so much & you are welcome!

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Thanks for your posts. The rate that you have push them out lately you must now being using the scan to text mode. If this is not the case, Jed is looking at your effort and will want you to WORK for him or he might give you a go at his spot.

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37 minutes ago, Reg Wilson said:

Please put me down for a copy of this saga. I can identify with some aspects of this tale.

Will do.

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