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

[GhostMiner]

 Yes, he was very young when he went into the service as many were. 

[GhostMiner]

   May 27   1937

 

   I did not sleep well last night. The Indian Shaman came to me in a dream but it seemed very real. He told me once again that our crew is big medicine. We are brave warriors and held in the highest regard by the ancient people. But he told me that we have been marked to return home and are at this time walking dead men. I was shaking when I got up and stoked the morning fire. Part of it was nerves and part was cold. The crew gathered around for breakfast and I did not mention what I had dreamt. 

   I poured a good amount of whiskey into my coffee and started to think about the day ahead of me. Ben was anxious to work on the mine. I told him to take it easy and steady the first few days until his body got used to the hard work. We headed up to the dig site and cut back into our drift. This entire channel running east and west had good gold and had tested out well. I believed there were thousands of ounces of gold up here and aimed to get some of it.

   Ben was a good worker and he liked to talk while he dug. He told me how thankful he was to be with our crew and helping out in any way he could. He was real excited about finding the treasure and his part of it. I told him that hopefully we could make a deal to sell some or all of it. I wanted to keep some of it as well but every man would need to make his own decision on that.

   We worked until dusk and didn’t set any records for buckets but were able to send John 160 of them. It would be interesting to see what we got out of them because my test pans were showing a lot of coarse gold.

   At supper we all talked about the next day. We would be going into town to talk with the broker. John and I had come up with a plan to get him out to the mine and show him some examples of what we had and then go from there. We didn’t intend to let him leave knowing we had treasure. He would have to become a temporary partner. Once he was out here he was not going back to town.

 

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

[GhostMiner]

   May 28   1937     Part One

 

   After breakfast we all gathered around John for the first weigh in a long time. There was four ounces and we were happy to see gold in the pan once again. Today was the day to meet up with the jewelry broker. Since we were meeting him in town this morning the crew took the day off while John and I went into town. We sat outside the jewelry store and around 10:00 AM he showed up. He was driving a dark blue Cadillac coupe and dressed in a slick city suit. John and I introduced ourselves to him. He said he had some business with the owner of the jewelry store but would be back out to talk with us in about fifteen minutes. So John and I waited on him and he came out to see what we had to tell him. I told him we had some really unique jewelry to sell along with some gold. He asked us how much we had and I told him a fair amount. I told him we didn’t want to bring anything into town because there were thieves everywhere and the law around this area was next to worthless. Then I showed him one piece of the jewelry I had on me and his eyes got real big. He asked if there was more and I said yes, lots more. I told him we had it at our camp and asked him to follow us out there. 

   So he drove out there with us and parked just up the trail to camp a ways and we walked him up to the temporary camp where all the treasure was buried. I  had some of it out for him to look at. He said he couldn’t believe what he was looking at. He asked us if we knew what we had. He said this was treasure. One of the initialed coins was in the stash he was looking at and he had seen the HC on one of them. I proceeded to tell him the story.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

   May 28   1937     Part Two

 

   He told me that this had to be a part of the Cortez treasure from Mexico.  Conquistadors or some other group must have hauled it out here and buried it for some reason. He said it was worth a fortune and wanted to see exactly what we had. I told him we had buried it but would dig it up if he thought he could arrange a sale of some of it.

   His name was Roger and he told us he had contacts all across the country and they had contacts all around the world. We gave him a rough idea of the amount of gold bars and jewelry and he sat there stunned. He was mumbling to himself and told us the commission he would make for the sale would set him up for the rest of his life. Once again he asked to see it all. I told him we could get it dug up quickly and we set about doing just that. 

   We pulled the treasure out of some wooden crates we had placed it in that were buried just a few feet under the ground in camp. We showed him the treasure and the original chests that had contained it. Roger just kept repeating the same thing over and over saying this was all unbelievable. He said he would go through everything and figure out who to contact when he had a better understanding of what was there. He said once he evaluated the treasure he would head into town and make a phone call to a very special broker he knew. I looked at him and told him that he was now part of our crew for the time being and would not leave the camp or talk with anyone without John and I with him. John told him that if he crossed us he was a dead man.

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

   Jacob & crew. It's a fine line between being miners & becoming gangsters. Expect the un-expected.

[GhostMiner]

   May 28   1937     Part Three

 

   When Roger heard this he was not happy. He told us he understood our concern but needed to move freely. I told him that was not possible now and we had been through all kinds of issues with people in this area and trusted no one. He gave in and said so be it and repeated that his commission would set him up for life. I shook hands with him and told him welcome to our crew.

   Roger stated that he needed to get into town and make a phone call to a very big broker in San Francisco. He said that this man’s name was Logan Collins and he had big time connections. So John and I rode into town in Roger’s Cadillac. He drove to the jewelry store and told the owner he needed to use his private phone in the back office. John and I went back there with him and listened to the conversation. We told him to hold the receiver out from his ear a bit so we could hear everything being said.

   Roger told the man he had the chance to broker a deal that was the opportunity of many lifetimes. He explained the situation and Collins wanted to drive out to see the treasure for himself. He said he would bring a deposit of cash if we came to terms. The rest would be handled at another location to be determined later. Roger told him to bring a very large amount of cash. He told him that we had security at our location and that we were not to be trifled with. Collins said he understood. We arranged to meet him at the jewelry store at noon the next day. Then Roger hung up the phone.

   Roger said he needed a drink and wanted to go to the bar. I told him there was no way we were going in there now and that place was nothing but trouble. I told him we had plenty of whisky at camp if he needed to steady his nerves. With that we got in the Cadillac and headed back. John repeated his warning that if anything went wrong he was a dead man. 

    TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   Big question ---- can these brokers be trusted?

[GhostMiner]

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Big question ---- can these brokers be trusted?

And are they really brokers?

[GhostMiner]

   May 29   1937     Part One

   I woke up real early this morning. I had a hard time sleeping last night even though I sat up until midnight drinking with John and Roger. I tried to get an idea of Roger’s character but he was a hard one to read. Sometimes he seemed pretty down to earth and at other times very quiet and secretive. He knew we meant business and we wouldn’t tolerate any shenanigans. 

   Eventually Roger, John, and I went into town to meet up with the other broker. We sat outside the jewelry store on a bench and waited. Eventually this big, fancy Packard 120 coupe comes down the street. It was something to see. The car pulled up in front of the store where we were all sitting and out came four guys. They were dressed in sharp suits and the one that was in the passenger seat came over to us and introduced himself as Logan Collins. He was a real slick kind of guy and when he shook hands he looked the other way. He said the other three guys were his buyers from San Francisco. They looked like a rough crew to me and I glanced over at John to see what he thought but he wasn’t looking in my direction. I wasn’t expecting four people.They wanted to go straight to our camp to view the treasure. I told Collins that John and I needed to get a couple of things from the general store across the street and to wait for us. When we went into the store I asked John what he thought about this. I told him I had a funny feeling in my stomach about this crew.

  

    TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   May 29   1937     Part Two

 

   John told me not to worry. We were armed with revolvers and everyone at camp was well armed. He said if there was any trouble we would be able to handle it. Against my better judgment we led the brokers to our camp. 

   When we got there we parked just south of camp and we all walked up to where the treasure was located. We had to walk right past Sarge with his BAR and the brokers and buyers could see we meant business out here. Will and Hudson were sitting at the site and holding rifles and Ben came over with the Thompson. John and I pulled out our revolvers as well. I took the offensive and   told the buyers we had been through wars out here and we were not to be messed with. I told them that if anyone tried to screw us we would take care of business. They looked surprised and assured us they were not here to screw anyone.

   I told Collins that they were free to look over the treasure now. Then I told him that if they thought they were going to lowball us on a price it would not go well for them and that we didn’t like having our time wasted. With that out of the way they went to work evaluating the goods. They were amazed and said so. Collins said this had to be Cortez treasure but it would be difficult fencing it. After an hour they called a meeting amongst themselves to talk. After another fifteen minutes had passed Roger and Collins came over to talk with me. I asked them what they wanted to do. 

  

   TO BE CONTINUED .................