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

[GhostMiner]

36 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

Sure is better than watching TV !

Absolutely better than Todd Hoffman's new show called Family Gold LOL.

[GhostMiner]

   East of Jed's dig site. Some pictures of the old water flume that ran 24 miles down the mountain to the big hydraulic gold mines. This was dug by hand back in the early 1870's. It's the flume Whiskey Jack talked about working on when he was young. 

[maxxkatt]

Ok, have to ask a stupid question. did they just dig a 24 mile trench? The flumes I have seen in north Georgia gold mining area were elevated wooden structures maybe going 1/2 mile or so. I wonder if there is color in this trench since it cut through 24 miles of gold bearing areas.

[GhostMiner]

4 minutes ago, maxxkatt said:

Ok, have to ask a stupid question. did they just dig a 24 mile trench? The flumes I have seen in north Georgia gold mining area were elevated wooden structures maybe going 1/2 mile or so. I wonder if there is color in this trench since it cut through 24 miles of gold bearing areas.

I've never walked it up the mountain but perhaps someday if I have the time it would be interesting to backpack and camp all the way up to starting point which was a small lake made by damming a creek. When it got to the bottom there was iron pipe that diminished in size to create water pressure for the monitors. Not sure if I have any pics of it. There is some left at bottom of mountain. Checking my files. Never checked for color but wouldn't be surprised. 

[GhostMiner]

I think this was one of Jed's drifting operations.

[klunker]

14 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

 

Ok, have to ask a stupid question. did they just dig a 24 mile trench?

 Yes. 27 miles to be  more exact. there were a few fumes across some intersecting gulches but mostly they stayed on contour to pick up water at every intersecting water source. 'Nuff said from here, this is Ghost Miners story.

 There is a ditch that terminates on one of my claims that is 35+ miles long.

[GhostMiner]

  AUGUST 22   1936

   Last night Sarge woke me up around 2:00 AM. He said there were some people moving up the mountain towards our new dig site and he was heading up there with John and wanted me to come along. He was leaving Ben at camp and everyone was getting up and on guard just in case. I grabbed my boots and rifle and the three of us followed the trespassers up the mountain in the light of a half moon. They were well ahead of us and I couldn’t tell how many there were but Sarge said it looked like maybe three. They had seen our water line now and were tracking right along it. They had no idea we were behind them.

   When they got up to the kettle they disappeared over the rim and out of sight above us. Sarge suggested we split up and one of us come in from the east, one from the west, and he’d come up from the south along the water line. So I circled to the east and then up and John went in from the west. I had high ground when I arrived on the eastern rim and Saw Sarge and John on the rim a bit below me. I could now clearly see three men start to mess with the sluice run on the tom. It appeared they were trying to scrape out any gravels and when they saw none they went over to the hopper. 

   Sarge hollered out halt and they were surrounded by heavy weapons which startled the hooligans. He hollered at them to drop their weapons or be shot on site. John and I also hollered out the same command. They looked up and could see they were surrounded by armed men above them. Sarge fired off a warning burst from the BAR. They were sitting ducks in a pit with no way to get out alive in a gun fight. They dropped their rifles. Sarge told them if they had pistols to drop them as well. One of them did. Then he told them to leave the guns and come up to the top. They came up the south end of the kettle along the debris chute where Sarge was waiting. John and me circled around the rim over to where they were. Sarge had them on their knees with their hands behind their heads and his BAR pointed at them.

   I asked them why they had come out here in the middle of the night sneaking around. Sarge told them they better start talking. One of them said they meant no harm but worked for some investors. They had been sent out to take back some samples of ore so the investors could evaluate them and possibly make a deal with us. John said he knew exactly who these guys worked for and I agreed. I told them we had already talked with these investors and weren’t interested. I told them the area was guarded with heavy weapons and we don’t tolerate thieves or trespassers. John said to go back and tell the investors we aren’t interested. Then he looked over at Sarge and I saw Sarge give him a wink. They rammed the rifle buts into two of the guys faces and they rolled over on the ground moaning. They told the one doing the talking to get up. He was reluctant but finally stood up. John rammed him in the belly with his rifle butt and withdrew it and brought it down on his head knocking him to the ground. I went down in the pit and gathered up the guns. Sarge told them to start heading down the mountain and if they ever came back they would get worse. He told them to give the message to the investors as well. We followed them as they staggered down the mountain and left.

   In the morning we headed back up to the pit. Jack said he would stay at camp and Sarge and Ben were at their posts as usual. We were all pretty surprised that the investors who had appeared to be legitimate had sent these guys up to our mine in the middle of the night. Jack was even more worried now. The rest of the day was quiet and we worked the pit full on. We finished the weigh with two more ounces and headed back to camp before dark. John didn’t think the hooligans would come back but me and Jack weren’t so sure.

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

[deathray]

Never a dull moment!

[GhostMiner]

11 hours ago, deathray said:

Never a dull moment!

Not with this crew.

[GhostMiner]

Just a hint to the followers of Jed's journal - September 1936 is going to be a bad month for one of the miners.