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


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   June 22   1937     Part Two

 

   He said his name was Joe Allen and looked to be in his mid fifties or so. The sheriff told me he had heard more than just a little bit about our crew. He said it was a shame my brother had been murdered. He said that half the town considered us heroes and half wanted us thrown out of the area. He said that if he wasn’t so short handed he might have done just that if there could have been the resources for a proper investigation. Sheriff Allen seemed to be at odds with himself as to what to do about our crew.

   I told him we were good people and hard working miners and had been harassed ever since we came to this area to work our mine. I was blunt with him just like my brother Jed would have been. I told him I'd heard plenty about the law in this area and it wasn’t good. I told him that there was little respect here for the lawdogs and had heard they were not doing their jobs very well.

   Sheriff Allen bristled at these remarks. He told me I had a lot of nerve coming into his office and talking to him like that. Then he calmed himself a bit and started asking about how much gold we were mining out on our claims. He said he’d heard we were doing mighty good and were rich men. He said he admired our hard work and the way we stood up to bad men. I cut him off and told him to stop beating around the issue and asked why he invited me to this meeting.

   He threw his head back and let out a laugh. Invited? He was laughing at that word. He said he had ordered us into town for this meeting. Up to now John had sat in silence but suddenly stood up and leaned over the desk. He called the sheriff a two bit tinhorn corrupt law dog with no smarts and told him nobody orders us anywhere. I stood up and backed him. The sheriff had a look of utter shock and surprise on his face.  

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

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   June 22   1937     Part Three

 

   The sheriff quickly changed his tune and said we were misunderstanding him. He told us he had done us a favor with a certain treasure buyer who he found out his deputies were holding prisoner. He told us the buyer was now working as a slave laborer in an underground mining operation in the middle of the Nevada Desert. Sheriff Allen told us that we were now the ones who  looked surprised and that he had found out some information concerning our treasure find and illegal ring of foreign buyers who were wanted by the FBI and a few other foreign law enforcement agencies. He told us he knew way more about us than what the town did.

   I asked him what the point of all this was and if he wanted to arrest us why didn’t he do it? John was shifting around in his chair and looked like he was ready to explode. I was playing it cooler with this guy.

   Sheriff Allen told us he was not interested in arresting anyone at this time and had no presentable courtroom evidence to back his statements. However, he indicated that with some effort a case could be made for our arrest. Then, quickly, he began to chuckle and stated that we need not worry about all this and there could be some mutually profitable deals to be made. He said that he and the county judge were quite interested in our mining operation. He leaned forward and looked us in the eye with a sneer on his face and said “Gentlemen, let’s talk business.” 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

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   A note about the character "SARGE"  :  My inspiration for Sarge in the journal came partly from my father who was a sargeant in the Army during WW2. Of course the journal's time frame is slightly before that time period. After my dad got out of the Army he worked for the railroad and eventually as a prison guard at Attica State Prison in NY State. After that he got into industry and was a supervisor in a large factory that forged aluminum & zinc castings. He was old school and very strict. We went to the barber shop twice a month. He would tell the barber to cut my hair just like his - a 1/4 inch all the way around. I had no say LOL. If I did wrong I was punished. If I crossed the line too far I got a strap across my backside. I was tought to respect my elders and call them Mr & Mrs or mam & sir. He also taught me to never back down from a fight if I knew I was in the right. I took him up on that many times. 

   My dad passed away yrs ago but I often think of him. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and drank whisky and beer on the weekend. I remember one Saturday night when my dad came home from a bar. I could see that he'd been in a fight. My mom had been with him and told me that there was a group of three ruff necks in the bar that had disrespected her. My dad had taken on all three of them and whipped them good. She said he took the last one out with a flying drop kick that she had never seen before. He had learned it somewhere in his military training when he was an MP.  

   At some point I had gotten it into my head that I wanted to be a boxer. I used to work the bags and tried to train myself in his garage. One day he came in and watched me working out for awhile and said if I was really set on this I should get trained properly or I would get hurt. He had a buddy who was a professional prize fighter and he used to train me. It was one of the high points of my life that I will never forget. Yes, old Sarge and my dad had a lot in common. 

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   June 22   1937     Part Four

 

   John and I looked at each other and we were both thinking the same thing. This guy is no better than the gangsters we’ve been dealing with out here. The sheriff continued on. He asked us how much illegal treasure money we had and how we got it. He also wanted to know how much gold we were mining on our claims. He said he and his judge friend would be willing to look the other way for a reasonable fee and a cut of the gold. He said they could also help us protect ourselves out there for a fee and guarantee no questions would be asked if we were forced to deal with hooligans. All for a fee of course. 

   I felt like laughing in his face. He pulled his sidearm and had it in his hand as he rested it on the desk and pointing right at me. He wanted an answer. John and I both had our 45’s tucked in holsters covered by our shirts. He hadn’t been smart enough to have us checked before entering his office. It was just the three of us. Most likely he didn’t want any witnesses to his corrupt business dealings. I slowly slipped my hand down to my holster and felt the handle of the 45. John was doing the same thing. I was thinking that if this guy wanted trouble he was going to get it in spades. I stared directly into his eyes and tried to measure him. His eyes were darting from John to me over and over. He was scared and I could tell. He was used to having people back down and follow his orders. He should have known our crew doesn’t take orders from anyone. I told him he had five seconds to put his gun away or be ready to meet his maker. I asked him if he had the stomach for a gunfight because John and I did. I could see his hand start to shake. My 45 was already out of the holster and coming up. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

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The mining crew are mining a legit operation. All is above board & legal outside of having to deal with the hooligan's & thugs who keep harassing them.  Why can't they just tell the sheriff that & yes they are finding a bit of gold & how much is our business & no one else's. You do your job & we will just stick to doing ours. If we keep getting hassled by thugs we will deal with it ourselves. If you think you are going to be another one of those thugs then we will deal with that too. 

Instead of always taking the aggressive approach. After all they are just having a meeting with the sheriff . They  need to draw a line in the sand & tell the sheriff if that if he crosses it, it may not turn out too good for him.

D4G

 

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   June 22   1937     Part Five

 

   The sheriff put his gun back in his holster. He said grimly that what he had heard about us was probably true, that we were a rough bunch. I told him we only protect ourselves and his county is overrun by thugs. I put my 45 away and nodded at John to do the same.

   I told the sheriff that we aren’t going to be intimidated by his tactics and we don’t have any illegal money from anyone. The sheriff gave out a big sigh and said we seem to be at an impasse. He told us to give serious thought to what he had said and we would talk again soon. Then he told us to get out of his office. John and I got up and walked out without saying another word to him.

   When we got back outside Deputy Dan was standing near our truck. He asked us how our meeting went. I told him it didn’t go too good. He said he was sorry to hear that. I asked him how well he knew Deputy Luther. Dan said he had known him for about three yrs and that was when he was hired on to Sheriff Allen’s force. I told him that the sheriff seemed to know quite a bit about us and maybe Luther was a stool pigeon for him. Dan said no, he could be trusted. I wasn’t so sure. 

   We left town and went back to camp. I told John that we needed to keep quiet around these deputies as to what we were doing. They didn’t need to know anything about our gold or money. If we needed information from them we would get it. That’s really what we were paying them for as well as getting rid of our problem criminals. John said he didn’t like the law dogs and he would like to give the sheriff a good beating. 

   When we got back to camp it was nearly time for supper so we decided to wash the gravels in the morning. The crew sat around the fire and I brought Will and Hudson up to speed on the meeting. They were real upset about how the sheriff had acted and wanted no part of him. I had a bad feeling that we were going to have to deal with him one way or another. 

 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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5 hours ago, dig4gold said:

The mining crew are mining a legit operation. All is above board & legal outside of having to deal with the hooligan's & thugs who keep harassing them.  Why can't they just tell the sheriff that & yes they are finding a bit of gold & how much is our business & no one else's. You do your job & we will just stick to doing ours. If we keep getting hassled by thugs we will deal with it ourselves. If you think you are going to be another one of those thugs then we will deal with that too. 

Instead of always taking the aggressive approach. After all they are just having a meeting with the sheriff . They  need to draw a line in the sand & tell the sheriff if that if he crosses it, it may not turn out too good for him.

D4G

 

Read on.

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   June 23   1937

 

   The entire crew helped John process the buckets this morning and we weighed up three more ounces. By then it was nearly noon and we broke for lunch. The weather had cooled a bit and Hudson and I went up to start digging gravels. By now we had a nice lateral cut going across the face of the mountain. We were working it from east to west and inward ten to fifteen feet until the cut became unsafe without support. When the time comes we just move west and continue. We will do this until we run out of the channel at which time we will be forced to drift into the mountain heading in a northerly direction. At that point the digging will require timbers for support and the going will be slower.

   Even with our late start Hudson and I dug 100 buckets even. Not too bad of a day for us and all my sample pans were still showing coarse gold. Things were  quiet and we had no visitors to our camp. That’s the way we like it. Plenty of gold and good friends to share it with. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

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On 12/1/2022 at 12:34 AM, dig4gold said:

My thoughts exactly.

D4G

He's working as a prisoner in an underground mine somewhere in the middle of Nevada. Not good. 

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