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


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On 1/23/2022 at 6:55 PM, GhostMiner said:

   APRIL 17   1936

   Got a good nights rest. I was able to drive the truck up to the dig site with my buckets. I worked on getting in further and as deep and close to country rock as I could. Then I filled about a quarter ton of good gravels in some buckets and drove down to the creek. I set up the tom and grizzly and set a good angle on the tom. Worked the rest of the day processing and finished up the panning from the heavies that were pulled. When weighed out it was about 20 cents to the ton. Not glory days but working wages at least. My thinking is there is better pay in there to be found. Tomorrow I will begin doing the road work out to the eastern drift mine I sampled. There is an old wagon road out there I can use once it's fixed up some. Then I plan to get a good test on that mine. Fixing a good supper of hoover stew with coffee spiced with Irish whiskey and turning in.

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

Interesting going back in time on this journal to the beginning & seeing who was posting likes.

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   The Journal has now hit 200,000 views!!! Many thanks to all the readers who are still here & also to the new readers as well. Also, a big thank you to Steve who allows me to post the entries on his site. My dream would be for this to go to a weekly TV adventure series someday & run for years. That would really be a great show. I have no idea where the story is heading as each entry is written as it comes to me. So let's continue the ride with the crew. Much more to come!  GM.  

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   June 24   1937     Part One

 

   This morning started out good. The number of buckets washed was 100 and it must have been our lucky number because we saw twelve ounces of coarse gold in the pan. That is a lot of gold considering the amount of gold washed. 

   Will and I went up to start our day around 8:00 in the morning. My plan was  to try and work into the hill a bit further into the northerly direction until we are so far under the overburden that there is a danger of collapse. I told the crew this morning that if this particular spot proves extremely rich we may go into the mountain further with a drift and timber operation. I’ve got a feeling this spot may hold some big gold.

   Once again the weather was a bit cooler and Will and I were under the overburden of the mountain now. As we worked our way in we were also digging down. I noticed that the country rock was falling away beneath our feet as we got in further. Pretty soon we had dropped down another five feet or so with country rock disappearing. There was a solid rock wall to the north and we had been stopped out by it except for going straight downward. 

   By now it was around high noon and we broke for lunch. I grabbed a sample pan and we took it down to camp. Everyone was gathered for lunch as I came back with the results of the sample I had washed at the creek. It was heavy and loaded with coarse gold. I showed it to the crew. Everyone’s eyes were wide open and Hudson let out a holler. There had to be a quarter ounce there from one full pan of raw gravel. As I held the pan in front of them I told them that we may very well be entering another kettle in the old channel. It seemed to me that it could be a glory hole. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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   June 24   1937     Part Two

 

   Will and I resumed our digging after lunch. I decided to attempt to get an idea of where the back wall of the kettle ran so we dug across the top gravels and followed the solid rock wall in a westerly direction until we ran out of room to dig. We had gotten a good thirty feet west of our initial discovery and were in undug gravels again so were temporarily stopped out in that direction. We would have to open up more ground by going back outside the hill and working in with a drift heading from south to north to determine if the back wall continued further. There was nothing to show us it didn’t at this point.

   So we went back over to the east where we discovered the wall and started digging down. Country rock was hit at about eight feet in depth. It seemed to have a gradual slope towards the south which told me the country rock would most likely deepen some. 

   Will and I took pans full of gravels over to the wash tub. We slowly panned them out and could see the heavy gold that started to show itself amongst the black sands. There were small nuggets and pickers and loads of coarse. It was a bonanza. We set the pans down in a shady spot and took seats on a log. I pulled a metal flask of whisky out of my back pocket and we had a swig. Then a few more. I laughed until I couldn’t laugh anymore. Will looked at me in wonderment. I told him this is where the ghosts of Jed and Whiskey Jack had been pointing. They had been showing us the way and were sure as hell watching us right now. I told him I had a feeling we were opening up a massive gold vault. 

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

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 June 24   1937     Part Three

 

   When Will and I drove back up to the dig site we had a surprise. There were two men just a few feet from our hill we were working and one of them had a wooden post and sign. We parked the truck and got out with our Thompson’s in hand. I was in no mood for any more of the trouble the rif raf out here were providing.

   One of the men was placing the wooden post in the ground and it had a sign attached to it. I asked them what they thought they were doing. There was no answer. I saw that the two of them were armed with shotguns and also had a stack of signs with them. I asked them again what they were up to. They looked over at me and one of them said they were filing a claim and discovery monument. Will and I just looked at each other. Then I told him the ground was under claim and he was mistaken if he thought the ground was open to filing.

   The man looked at me with a dead pan face and said the ground was open. He said the claim filing here was not legitimate because criminals had filed false mineral claims and the ground was considered open. I told him that was bull shit and lowered the Thompson right at him. Will did the same. I told them that if they didn’t remove their post it would serve as their burial marker. Then I rattled off a burst that passed directly over their heads. They were now lying face down in the dirt. I told them to leave their guns on the ground and crawl on their bellies over to where we were standing. They complied. Then Will and I opened up with the Thompsons and chopped the post in half. Will walked over and took the claim marker signs and put them in the truck.

   I asked them who had sent them but they were reluctant to talk. I rammed the stock of my Thompson into the guys back and he let out a holler. Then I fired a burst into the ground no more than a foot from his head. I told him to talk and he did. He said the sheriff had sent him out to file the claim. He had hired the two of them to place claim signs around the border of the entire property. He said he was just doing what he was hired to do and didn’t want any trouble. 

   We kept their shotguns and signs and told them to git and never come back. I said they were lucky to be walking out of here in one piece. With that, they got to their feet and started to run down the mountain. We fired a couple of bursts from the Thompsons over their heads to make sure they kept moving. I told Will that it looked like we were going to have a problem with the sheriff. He nodded in agreement.

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

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   Some of the crew's treasure stash? Pouch of gold coins, jewelry, & more in an old chest. Some old maps & papers. Silver. Treasure? Just the thought of that word drives men to extremes. Enjoy the episodes. They will take you into a world of adventure & mystery. 

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   Sarge's abandoned White military truck. There's some truth behind the fiction.

WP_20150125_10_52_56_Pro.jpg

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One of the crews partially collapsed workings at the Eastern Drift Mine circa 1937.

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