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

[GhostMiner]

  April 24   2002     Part Three

   UP TO THE NORTHERN FAULTLINE WITH JACOB

 

   After about fifteen minutes we all headed back down the trail and headed north to the old road going up to the northern faultline dig site. Jacob was surprised to see the condition of the road. There wasn’t much left of it and we hiked about half a mile to get up there. Jacob told us this was a dangerous area back when he was working there. You never knew who might be up on the mountain and there were people who would try to rob you and steal your gold. Hooligans traveled up and down the mountain all the time and some were quite dangerous.

   When we got up there he led us over to a forty foot deep ravine that was located against the west side of the faultline. Whisky Jack had shown it to the crew back in 1936 and told them the old company was getting some good gold here back in the late 1800’s before the company moved them to another location. Whisky Jack had told them they never approached bedrock or country rock as they referred to it back then and they figured there was a pile of gold deeper down.

   Jacob gave us a wink and said he was going to tell us something he didn’t put in his journal. It seems he and the crew went up there in 1937 and dug out a shaft about thirty six feet deep where they hit bedrock and a pile of gold. He wouldn’t tell us how much they got but said it was plenty. He said they had dug a couple exploration drifts at the bottom but the bedrock dropped away nearly vertical and they had no idea how deep bedrock was from there. Then the entire workings flooded and collapsed so they moved on. He said there was never any mention of it in the journal. He said there were other things that happened that he and Jed never wrote down but didn’t want to talk about at this time. 

   We got down in the ravine and sure enough, the old shaft was there but collapsed and flooded out. Jacob told us that there could be thousands of ounces still down there. We all looked at each other with our eyes as big as saucers. 

   Jacob said the crew all had their hiding places for their share of the gold. He figured almost all of the gold from 1937 was still hidden somewhere on the mountain. He said that he was trying to remember where his was buried. The ground had changed some and he remembered hiding gold in five locations. 

   He took us a bit further north along the faultline and showed us more of their old diggings. We were amazed at the amount of work they had done with pick and shovel work. Jacob talked about the difficulty of moving the bigger rocks by hand and how long the days were. Jed had taught him the value of hard work and none of the crew ever complained. He said he could still hear the ringing of the pick and shovel striking against stone and gravel.

    

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

This is a picture of the shaft Jacob was talking about.

 

[Bedrocker]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

This is a picture of the shaft Jacob was talking about.

 

Wow how exciting having Jacob in person for a tour guide.

The guy is worth his weight in gold at this point!

[GhostMiner]

8 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Wow how exciting having Jacob in person for a tour guide.

The guy is worth his weight in gold at this point!

   That old shaft looked creepy as hell to me. Those old boys were half crazy I think. Jacob told me some things I can't tell here. 

[Bedrocker]

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   That old shaft looked creepy as hell to me. Those old boys were half crazy I think. Jacob told me some things I can't tell here. 

PM me anytime I'm good with secrets.

[geof_junk]

Your account of the contact with Jacob is very interesting keep it up. 

[GhostMiner]

   The Eastern Drift Mine area with it's many slides that have buried the old workings Jacob was talking about.

[GhostMiner]

   Supposedly, back in the 1980's there was a man who discovered a stash of gold on one of the claims. I won't give the amount here but if true it was enough if converted into today's prices to buy a couple of new pickup trucks. This was told to a partner of mine by an unidentified person who mysteriously showed up on the mine one day about 8 yrs ago. He even pointed to the general area. He gave no other information and left. Very interesting. 

[GhostMiner]

   April 24   2002     Part Four

 

   After looking over the old northern faultline digsites Jacob wanted to head over to the Eastern Drift Mine. I offered to go back to camp and bring the truck up as it was nearly a mile hike from here and the road was still usable over to that area. Jacob agreed and I hiked down to camp and drove the truck to the point where the northern road was not passable and Y’d to the east. The crew was waiting there for me and we drove over to the mine. When we got there Jacob climbed out of the truck and had a good look at the ground. He tried to find the original tunnel that went into the mountain but there had been many slides in that area over the years and he could only point to a general area. He said they had cut channels into the mountain and had found a rich kettle in there somewhere. Jacob said that if he could find the original drift then he might be able to find the kettle. He said the gold in the kettle was richer than anything the old crew had ever seen and he figured that there was still a fortune in gold sitting in that mountain. He said the crew was just getting started on working it when they were attacked by the army of thugs. Jacob told us he never found out who had attacked them and killed his partners. 

   He walked back and forth across the base of the mountain trying to remember where the old mine was but wasn’t able to do it. It would take some serious work to find it by hand. Jacob said that the entire area up there had gold in the gravels and there were a few good hot spots. We would need to dig into the base of the mountain to get in behind the slides and overburden.

   Jacob took a seat on a log and just stared at the mountain. He rolled another smoke and took out his flask of whisky. We took a seat with him and he told us about something that wasn’t written down in the journal. Something about his brother Jed and his gold. 

    

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   Here's another picture from the southern kettle. I'm in the bottom if you can't tell LOL.