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


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   July 4   1937

 

   I am hurriedly writing this with the aid of a three quarter moon while trapped at the watchpost. It is 3:00 AM and today was to be a gold weigh and celebration of our country's independence. Instead, we are fighting for our lives. I took the second watch last night and all was quiet until an hour ago when we were suddenly attacked by what seems like a small army of well armed men. There has been heavy gunfire until the last ten minutes. I hear no more return fire from camp and I am nearly out of ammo up here on the mountain. I am taking occasional rifle fire and volleys of rounds from at least ten positions which have me surrounded. I am unable to move from cover. I can only think of the Shaman who warned me of our demise. I fear this may be the end. I am seeing my brother Jed and Whisky Jack coming down the mountain towards me with their arms stretched out to greet me. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

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Gold is the driver of men. Brave men who faced down death and fought with their brothers in arms. 

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3 hours ago, Mike_Hillis said:

Looks like we made it to the end.    Its been a good read.

Mike

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. It's been a long, hard ride.

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   Sheriff’s Dept Incident Report July 7, 1937 

   Acting Sheriff Dan Caldwell

   Concerning shooting at Stevens Brothers Gold Mine

 

   INCIDENT : Sometime in the early morning hours of July 4, 1937 a gunfight broke out at the Stevens Brothers Mine. A small mining crew was attacked by a group of heavily armed and unknown gunmen. A gun battle ensued whereas the mining crew attempted to defend themselves. Six of the attackers were killed in the incident as well as three of the mining crew. The identity of the six deceased attackers is not known at this time. The identity of the three deceased miners is as follows : John Denham, Will Roberts, and Hudson Kane. The fourth man of the crew is identified as Jacob Stevens who remains missing.

  INCIDENT DETAIL : At approximately 4:00 AM I was contacted in town by a prospector named Ken Stallings. He was camped on his mining claim approximately one half mile north of the mining crews camp and was awoken by gunfire around 2:00 AM on July 4. Upon his investigation into the cause of the gunfire he witnessed what he claimed to be about thirty to forty armed men shooting into the mining crew’s camp. He stated the miners were returning fire. At that time he headed into town where he informed me of the situation. Being the fourth of July and having no staff at the present time as well as being unable to bring in neighboring departments that night I deemed it unsafe to drive out there alone to be of any assistance although I did travel out to the camp later that morning. When I arrived at 11:00 AM there was no gunfire or armed men. There were a large amount of spent rounds piled in the camp as well as at a watchpost on the mountain. I have secured the neighboring Sheriff’s Department and Federal Agencies to assist in a formal investigation into this incident. At the time of this report there are no leads.

 

   Filing Officer : Dan Caldwell  Acting Sheriff

                                  July 7, 1937

                                  Case No. 747

   Status : OPEN  

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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   WHAT FOLLOWS NEXT WILL PROVE TO BE ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES IN MY LIFE.  


 

   April 20   2002

 

   My name is Mark Price. I am the president of a small mining group. In 2002 we filed and took control of the old mining property now referred to as The Dead Man’s Mine. The ground had sat dormant for many years. After researching the rich and wild history of the claims we were able to explore them and file our paperwork to own the mineral rights. 

   While beginning the research on the property I came across an old government report with an outline of the history of work done there with a portion of it dedicated to the Stevens brothers in 1936 and 1937. This also included an old journal kept by both of the brothers who were Jed and Jacob. Jed was murdered and Jacob had disappeared after an attack of thugs back on July 4, 1937. The 1937 gold take was recorded in the journal as 218.75 ounces which was rather large considering the crew only was able to mine part time because of all the issues they faced as well as a complete work stoppage on 4th of July 1937.

   The crew had been murdered with the exception of Jacob who had somehow made an escape and disappeared for years. According to research, there was some kind of escape tunnel at the watchpost the crew was using on the mountain. Jacob was only twenty years old when he vanished like a ghost in the night.

   A sheriff named Dan Caldwell then took over the mine along with a group of small investors working with a foreign controlling cartel. This group worked the claims for the next three years and then abandoned the property. It remained that way until the time of my filings except for a few brief mining attempts. 

   The mines on this property have what I would call a legendary or notorious  reputation and are supposed to be cursed. There were several attempts to work the area back in the 1950's which met with disaster and in some cases death. 

   After I completed the necessary paperwork I began to research the Stevens brothers. I wasn’t coming up with much information so I turned to researching one of the partners named John Denham. This proved to be most fruitful. One of his living relatives told me that Jacob had contacted John’s family about a month after the shootout. He was hiding out in the Sierra Nevada mountains and fearing for his life. The amazing part of this find is that Jacob is still alive and John’s family and descendants have kept in contact with him all these years. They informed me that he never married and was living alone in a cabin up in the remote mountains of Oregon.

   When I found this out I was beside myself with excitement and contacted my partners back East. We decided that we would attempt to make contact with him. With the aid of John’s descendants I arranged to go up to his cabin with one of them who wants to remain nameless. The two of us will be traveling up to Oregon to meet Jacob tomorrow.  

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

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So if I do the math young Jacob is now 85 yrs old. "Wonder what he'll have to say?

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