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


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16 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Was his cabin in SW Oregon?

Not far from Medford.

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   April 26   2002     Part Two

 

   After looking at the gold in the pan there was no stopping us. Jacob said we were now seeing the beginning of the gold he was digging at this spot back in 1937. Now if we could only find that glory hole. Jacob reminded us that the entire base of the mountain was sprinkled with abundant gold and all we needed to do was put in the time and hard work. He figured we were starting in a good area but time would tell.

   We dug for a few more hours and got ready to call it a day. We were following a downward slope of bedrock. Jacob said we would soon need to make a decision to continue in deeper and cut timber for supports or dig out a wider channel and hope we hit a good spot that hadn't been buried too badly by the slides. I asked Jacob what he thought about the situation. He said we should work our way in deeper for a spell and see what the gravels produced. Jacob advised that we were on bedrock and following it into the mountain. We had begun to hit virgin gravels that were showing some promise. However, he reminded us that the work would be slower and harder from this point forward. He left it up to us. Vern, Jim, and I all agreed to get a drift going into the mountain and see what it held for us. Before we left for the day Jacob took another sample from the gravel sitting on the sloping bedrock where we had stopped digging. He panned it out and set the pan on the table. He had a smile on his face but said nothing. We took a look. The pan had some fines but there was more coarse gold now. We were all beaming from ear to ear. Now I know what gold fever was all about. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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47 minutes ago, Ken Walls said:

This has been the most addicted I have ever been to a story. You have been connected to a time in history that most here will never experiance.

   If you had told me years ago that I would be involved in an adventure on a gold mine in the Sierra Nevada Mts I would never have believed it.

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   April 27   2002     Part One

 

   This morning was cold and clear and it was Saturday. Jacob thought we should do some digging until mid afternoon and then go out to the Paxton Hotel for supper and a few drinks with the crew. He seemed to like that place I guess. So we all agreed and headed up to the site after breakfast. I took my Mcculloch Pro Mac 650 chainsaw up there with me. We would need to cut up some downed trees for support logs. There was plenty of deadfall we were permitted to use for our mining operation as well as a part of the plan approved to cut trees as needed for mining. Anything I cut would need to be replaced with two saplings so I preferred to just use deadfall if possible.

   Jim and I worked on the timber while Vern and Jacob went over to our newly opened drift. They dug out some holes to set posts and placed bracing supports overhead. We laid them in where needed and felt secure to drive the drift deeper into the mountain. Jacob told us we would need to keep a careful watch on the tunnel we were forming as we went in further. 

   It was slow going now and we were beginning to hit some decent pay gravels. The bedrock continued to gently slope away from us and we followed it in. By noon we decided to take a quick break and I went down to camp and brought up coffee and sandwiches. Jacob took another sample and it looked promising. We stopped for the day around 3:00 PM and headed back down to camp to get cleaned up. The day had been productive and we were all hopeful of seeing good gold soon. Around 6:00 PM we headed for the Paxton Hotel.

   On the ride over Jacob was telling us about the old days and that place. It was an old railroad hotel and there were once active gold mines along the river there. He said that Saturday nights were pretty wild. There used to be what he referred to as a Saturday night hoot. There would be a band and plenty of girls there. He said this sometimes caused fights to break out. He was wondering if they still had the hoots there. I told him I had no idea but probably not. I think he was hoping there would be something like that going on. When we pulled into the parking area the place looked nearly deserted except for a couple of cars.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

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2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   April 27   2002     Part One

 

   This morning was cold and clear and it was Saturday. Jacob thought we should do some digging until mid afternoon and then go out to the Paxton Hotel for supper and a few drinks with the crew. He seemed to like that place I guess. So we all agreed and headed up to the site after breakfast. I took my Mcculloch Pro Mac 650 chainsaw up there with me. We would need to cut up some downed trees for support logs. There was plenty of deadfall we were permitted to use for our mining operation as well as a part of the plan approved to cut trees as needed for mining. Anything I cut would need to be replaced with two saplings so I preferred to just use deadfall if possible.

   Jim and I worked on the timber while Vern and Jacob went over to our newly opened drift. They dug out some holes to set posts and placed bracing supports overhead. We laid them in where needed and felt secure to drive the drift deeper into the mountain. Jacob told us we would need to keep a careful watch on the tunnel we were forming as we went in further. 

   It was slow going now and we were beginning to hit some decent pay gravels. The bedrock continued to gently slope away from us and we followed it in. By noon we decided to take a quick break and I went down to camp and brought up coffee and sandwiches. Jacob took another sample and it looked promising. We stopped for the day around 3:00 PM and headed back down to camp to get cleaned up. The day had been productive and we were all hopeful of seeing good gold soon. Around 6:00 PM we headed for the Paxton Hotel.

   On the ride over Jacob was telling us about the old days and that place. It was an old railroad hotel and there were once active gold mines along the river there. He said that Saturday nights were pretty wild. There used to be what he referred to as a Saturday night hoot. There would be a band and plenty of girls there. He said this sometimes caused fights to break out. He was wondering if they still had the hoots there. I told him I had no idea but probably not. I think he was hoping there would be something like that going on. When we pulled into the parking area the place looked nearly deserted except for a couple of cars.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

So there were some girls in them thar hills. That's always a good thing unless it's your girlfriend that's getting hit on lol.

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   The Paxton Hotel sits along the Feather River. There are the remains of an old stamp mill just up the river from the hotel and several old gold mine workings including a drift into the mountain.  

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   April 27   2002     Part Three

 

   After we finished up our dinner Jacob went back up to the bar and was talking with the bartender. He was asking him about certain people from back in the old days. The bartender was middle aged and didn’t seem to know very much about that far back in time. All he knew was that the place had been sold a couple of times after the war and he didn’t think there was anyone left alive from that time period. 

   Then Jacob told him that he used to come in there back in his day. The bartender looked amazed and set him up with a whisky on the house. Jacob was telling him about the fights and all the loggers and miners that came in on Saturday. The bartender was getting a big kick out of it. While he was talking about the old times a group of three young men had come in and took seats at the bar just down from Jacob. They had been listening to his stories and could hardly believe them. Jacob noticed them and asked if they had ever mined for gold in this area. They told him they hadn’t actually mined but had done lots of prospecting. That’s all it took and the conversation was on.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

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