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


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23 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

                                 EPILOGUE 

 

   At this point there were no further writings in the journal. Several days after the last entry Jed Stevens was found dead. His body had been discovered by some hunters about twenty miles from his claims. He had been shot through the back of the head and was lying on the ground near a large boulder. There was a small hole that had been dug out underneath it but when the hunters searched there was nothing there. He was identified and law enforcement notified his brother of his tragic death. Evidently he had been murdered for his gold. The perpetrators were never found. It is said that his ghost haunts the mine to this day. 





 

   A NOTE TO READERS :    Be sure to watch for the next edition of this series as the 

                                            miners return to the claims and resume their adventures in

                                            the search for gold. 

 

                                                        See you up in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

 

                                                                              GhostMiner

   

Wow wonder how that happened?

Seems like it would have been very difficult for someone to tail him for 20 miles to where the gold was hidden.

Amazing that the killer never bragged about it and was found out.

UNLESS Jed was double crossed by someone in the crew!

Thank you very much Ghost Miner for telling this tale and are the same guys coming back next season to mine? Guys from the same crew?

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Just now, Bedrocker said:

Wow wonder how that happened?

Seems like it would have been very difficult for someone to tail him for 20 miles to where the gold was hidden.

Amazing that the killer never bragged about it and was found out.

UNLESS Jed was double crossed by someone in the crew!

Thank you very much Ghost Miner for telling this tale and are the same guys coming back next season to mine? Guys from the same crew?

OR perhaps Jed was jumped by someone while he was alone at the camp and then was forced at gun point to drive to the gold.

On the promise they wouldn't kill him, but they did anyway.

Would Jed do that or would he rather die first and keep his gold a secret?

Wish we could ask him!

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Bedrocker; I would go with your probable   theory..........The wrong people knew he likely had a lot of gold hidden near by.  He was jumped and forced at gun point to reveal the cache in return for  his life.  The worst kind of sort knew that "dead men tell no tales"  so after digging up the dust he was killed on the spot. 

Life can be  so unfair and tragic

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37 minutes ago, Hard Prospector said:

Bedrocker; I would go with your probably  theory..........The wrong people knew he likely had a lot of gold hidden near by.  He was jumped and forced at gun point to reveal the cache in return for  his life.  The worst kind of sort knew that "dead men tell no tales"  so after digging up the dust he was killed on the spot. 

Life can be  so unfair and tragic

   It is also interesting that this happened as soon as the crew left. Perhaps they were watching & waiting?

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   Here is a part of what the journal was based on. The miners name was changed by me. I have much more information on this site which is on one of our claims. There are several pages devoted to this miner & his gold strike in the report.  At some point I will be leading a crew of hand picked people to go back in and mine this ground. The gold is too deep to be worked exclusively by hand. 

                                    BEYOND THE JOURNAL

 

   This information comes from the 1966 Department of Interior Office Of Mineral Surveys in the year of 1966. A few years after the cessation of hydraulic mining the ground involved in this gold strike was included in a timber purchase. In 1936 the miner in my journal obtained a lease from this company for the purpose of mining. This miner employed and was advised by California state geologist C.S. Haley for advice on location of work. At some point the miner encountered an area of raised bedrock with mixed gravel on top of it. The area was 20 feet by 30 feet and was glory holed. The gold taken amounted to over 1000 ounces. 

   Within weeks of the strike the miner was evicted for failure to pay a royalty to the lumber firm. The miner was murdered a short time later when he showed his gold while in poor company. 

   There was another lease granted to a friend of the president of the lumber company but he was unable to raise the money to work the claim and the land was eventually sold back to the government in 1947. 

   Between 1950 and 1959 there were several attempts at mining this property all of which either failed or the results were unknown. The people involved during these years were inexperienced and practiced poor mining methods. 

 

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   Area of the strike was 20 ft X 30 ft and 40 ft in depth on raised bedrock. The raised area was all the miner got to. There has to be much more gold on the lower areas of bedrock that weren't raised. I think he got a very small portion of the gold at that spot. This would be at the bottom of an ancient waterfall that was buried deep over time. The old hydraulic company of the 1800's removed about 40 - 50 ft of overburden and stopped. The gold was still 40 ft deeper. Another 15 - 30 ft beside the raised area will be bedrock again. That's where the majority of the gold awaits.

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GM,

I thoroughly enjoyed your narrative and hope you continue with your creative endeavors as you are a gifted writer.  I wish you the very best going forward with your work on the claims in the Sierra Nevada, with your skills and modern equipment things should go well for you and your crew.

Thanks again for sharing this story with all of us around the virtual campfire, a quote borrowed from the late great geologist and nugget shooter Mr. Jim Straight.

Jeff

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13 minutes ago, paradiceau said:

GM,

I thoroughly enjoyed your narrative and hope you continue with your creative endeavors as you are a gifted writer.  I wish you the very best going forward with your work on the claims in the Sierra Nevada, with your skills and modern equipment things should go well for you and your crew.

Thanks again for sharing this story with all of us around the virtual campfire, a quote borrowed from the late great geologist and nugget shooter Mr. Jim Straight.

Jeff

Many, many thanks.

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