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


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5 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Welp... back in the old days someone would have been shooting at y'all by now lol 😂.

Yes, luckily that didn't happen - or did it? 

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   Just a sample of what we found in the mountain in that first gold run of our 2002 season thanks to Jacob. This picture came from a later date but shows what's in there. More about 2002 to come.

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   April 25   2002     Part Three

 

   We worked on removing overburden until about 6:00 PM. Unbelievably, Jacob worked the entire time and was actually ready to keep going. The rest of us were shot. Jacob was just itching to get to the pay gravels he had discovered 65 years ago. Each man was working a five foot wide cut into the base of the mountain so we had a twenty foot wide drift heading north. We had gotten nearly eight feet in because the ground came down at a slight angle and as we removed ground there was more of it to deal with as far as height. So we made good time today. Tomorrow will be slower. Before we left for the day Jacob did a test pan at the tub. He gave us a wink and held out the pan. There were a few flakes of gold. He said we just needed to keep working our way deeper into the hill.

   When we got back to camp we washed up andJacob asked if I had any more of the canned stew. I told him I had plenty and we heated up a mess of it in a big pot. Before we ate Jacob brought out a bottle and we all drank a little whisky with him. He seemed fresh as a daisy and was beaming from ear to ear. He told us we were on gold now and might see some in the pan by day's end tomorrow. We could hardly wait. Vern was a seasoned prospector but Jim and I were greenhorns. We’d never seen more than a few flakes of gold in our brief time out here. 

   After supper we all sat around the campfire for a bit and talked about the claims. Jacob was convinced that there was still a fortune in gold sitting in the ground. He told us of a few hot spots that might still be holding gold up on the northern faultline as well as some secret places he would show us. Night settled in and it got cold. We headed into the campers for a good night's rest. I was hoping to see my first gold tomorrow. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

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   One of the old closed & collapsed drifts from the old crew. It actually starts as a shallow shaft and turned into the mountain on the right. 

 

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   April 26   2002     Part One     OUR FIRST GOLD OF THE SEASON

 

   I was up early with Jacob and we had coffee. We seemed to be the early birds of the crew. Eventually Vern and Jim were up and about and after a good breakfast we all got in the truck and headed up to the old drift mine area. It was a sunny morning and a bit cold. I couldn’t wait to get to work even though my body was sore. Everyone was hurting but Jacob told us we would get used to the work soon. I sure was hoping he was right.

   We went right back to where we had left off and by lunch time the drift was starting to show promise. We had gotten in a good ten feet or so and broke for a quick lunch. It was a quick break and we were back to digging. 

   By mid afternoon we were into the mountain base about twelve feet and progress began to slow because we had higher gravels to deal with. Jacob called a halt to the digging. He wanted to evaluate the ground. He pointed out to us that the base gravels were beginning to dip away from us on a gentle downward slope. There was the beginning of an overhang developing. Jacob said we needed to make a plan and follow it at this point forward. The dig was becoming dangerous. He also told us that he believed we were now into the hill past the overburden from the slides that had buried the virgin gravels. He showed us the difference in the gravels and rock. It was tighter material and had a natural lay to it as well. He said he noticed the digging was harder because we were now in virgin material. 

   Jim, Vern, and I started getting excited now. Jacob took a full pan of the gravel  over to the tub and we watched him pan it with great anticipation. It seemed like forever waiting on that sample but finally Jacob backwashed the black sand away and we could see the result. Plenty of fine gold mixed with some nice coarse gold as well. He set the pan down on a wooden table near the tub. We all just looked at it in amazement. Jacob gave us a wink and a smile. I had seen my first real gold here. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

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On 1/26/2023 at 7:22 AM, GhostMiner said:

Some didn't want their real names used.

Hi Ghost Miner. I didn't ask about names. That didn't answer my question about is this part of your story with Jacob still alive & getting involved with you & your crew fact or fiction. For a guy that drank a lot of whiskey & smoked many cigarettes to reach 85 years of age is damn good going. Let alone have the energy to out dig you guys when he probably hasn't done that for decades.

D4G

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16 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

Hi Ghost Miner. I didn't ask about names. That didn't answer my question about is this part of your story with Jacob still alive & getting involved with you & your crew fact or fiction. For a guy that drank a lot of whiskey & smoked many cigarettes to reach 85 years of age is damn good going. Let alone have the energy to out dig you guys when he probably hasn't done that for decades.

D4G

   He was with the 1936 - 1937 crew. Names were changed. He didn't drink much at this time and had an occasional smoke. I'd say he had a small drink or two per day. Part of his lifestyle.  He was able to work at a slow pace part of the time. He didn't out dig us but did quite well because he prospected all the time when in Oregon. For someone 85 yrs young he was quite impressive. Read on. 

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7 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   He was with the 1936 - 1937 crew. Names were changed. He didn't drink much at this time and had an occasional smoke. I'd say he had a small drink or two per day. Part of his lifestyle.  He was able to work at a slow pace part of the time. He didn't out dig us but did quite well because he prospected all the time when in Oregon. For someone 85 yrs young he was quite impressive. Read on. 

Was his cabin in SW Oregon?

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1 minute ago, Bedrocker said:

Was his cabin in SW Oregon?

Also curious when you say names were changed. Is this the real Jacob a.k.a. Jed's brother that was with you in 2002? Kinda confused 😕🤔

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6 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Also curious when you say names were changed. Is this the real Jacob a.k.a. Jed's brother that was with you in 2002? Kinda confused 😕🤔

Yes. They were brothers. Names changed for posting here. Jacob was the younger brother. The older brother was murdered and gold stolen in 1936. No one knows if the killer or killers got all of it. Mystery. 

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