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

[MikeT]

This is a very interesting story. Please let us know when it comes out in print, I'll be in line for a copy.

 

Mike

 

[GhostMiner]

8 minutes ago, MikeT said:

This is a very interesting story. Please let us know when it comes out in print, I'll be in line for a copy.

 

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. Will do.

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 3   1936

   We finished up the weigh after breakfast. There was 9 ounces. We continue to add to our treasure chest. Today was very hot with the afternoon temperature over 100 degrees. We are working with fairly large rock in the bottom and it takes time to clean it and move it out. There is a lot of rock bar work involved as well as pick and shovel. I don’t think any of us want to see rocks for a long while after we leave the mine at season’s end. Our work is steady and we are trying to fill buckets with washable gravels but it is slow work. We just keep pushing on. I had a test pan that was filled with coarse gold and some small nuggets. I didn’t say anything to Jacob and Will but just set the pan at the base of a tree out of view. When we ended the day’s dig we had a total of 82 buckets of what I think are extremely rich gravels. Before we drove the last buckets down to John I brought out the pan for Jacob and Will to see. They were nearly out of control when they saw it. There was well over an ounce in there for sure. All from half a bucket. When we got down to the creek we showed John. He asked if we had hit the jackpot. All I could say was we may be getting close. There’s only one way to find out, and that is to dig like hell.

    To Be Continued .............................

[GhostMiner]

   Here's a question for everyone  -  who would have liked to have worked with Jed and his crew? You can sign me up right away.

[Jim_Alaska]

It would have been great to work with them; but right now I would be content to be able to re-work their tailing piles and the creek, below where they had the Tom.

In 1936 sluicing equipment and methods were very crude and many operations lost a lot of gold. I especially think back to where Jed told about what they filled the buckets with. He said in one place that if it fit in the bucket, it went through the sluice.

That is pretty course stuff and basically unclassified. Today we know that classification is extremely important.  Also, of great importance was the development of the Hungarian riffle, as well as under-current sluice boxes. Many of those old Long Toms used nothing more than small sticks laid at right angles to the sluice, not very efficient. There is every possibility that they lost a lot of gold due to these factors.

[beatup]

i would sign on to the crew

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, Jim_Alaska said:

It would have been great to work with them; but right now I would be content to be able to re-work their tailing piles and the creek, below where they had the Tom.

In 1936 sluicing equipment and methods were very crude and many operations lost a lot of gold. I especially think back to where Jed told about what they filled the buckets with. He said in one place that if it fit in the bucket, it went through the sluice.

That is pretty course stuff and basically unclassified. Today we know that classification is extremely important.  Also, of great importance was the development of the Hungarian riffle, as well as under-current sluice boxes. Many of those old Long Toms used nothing more than small sticks laid at right angles to the sluice, not very efficient. There is every possibility that they lost a lot of gold due to these factors.

Interesting. I think they hauled whatever fit in the bucket to the longtom but I think John only washed off the bigger rocks from the buckets into the sluice head and didn't send them through. Of course that is speculation on my part but it seems logical. As far as where they worked at the creek we have an approximate location and have dug the area with pick and shovel and got decent gold. As there is nearly no gold elsewhere along the creek I think this may be the spot. Here is a picture of what we have found there. It's around 4 grams to the cubic yard of gravel. The creek has changed course a bit since 1936.

[deathray]

Dude!!!! Holy crap, what a story. I have not been on here in a looking time. I decide to check out the forum this morning before work...let's just say I didn't make it to work. Read through everything! Awesome! And yes, would love to work alongside them, kick some ass with John, haha. Thanks for posting these!

[GhostMiner]

3 minutes ago, deathray said:

Dude!!!! Holy crap, what a story. I have not been on here in a looking time. I decide to check out the forum this morning before work...let's just say I didn't make it to work. Read through everything! Awesome! And yes, would love to work alongside them, kick some ass with John, haha. Thanks for posting these!

You have the right name to work with them LOL. Thanks for reading.

[DOOGY-MD]

Oh yes, no question, I would have loved to work with them!!