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

[strick]

15 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   A phisicist using arial lidar worked at Jed's old site awhile back & we have his results. According to him there is a large gold deposit at the diggings that Jed worked. As good as Jed did & it was very good it appears he only scratched the surface & there is a bigger deposit beside his dig in a small drop zone fault. The amount that could be in there is big but deeper than Jed's workings. Jed probably would have called it a kettle - a very deep one. It will require some tipe of verticle or sloping drift. He is working on some ideas for a hand digging operation. He told us it won't be easy.

At least you spelled Lidar properly   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physicist

strick

[GhostMiner]

14 minutes ago, strick said:

At least you spelled Lidar properly   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physicist

strick

Yes, how stupid of me LOL. I knew it didn't look right. Need spell check. Thanks for pointing that out. Thankfully it doesn't Change what he told us. Cheers.

[GhostMiner]

   MAY 14   1936

   The weather has warmed considerably. The days are getting hotter but the nights are cold. There have so far been no more hooligans to disrupt us. Today I once again did the digging to get us a good direction and a descending trench heading along the fault towards the first dig. I have dug down a good eight feet below the second hole and lowering a trench five feet in width from there. That way I can walk a ramp out with the buckets once pay is discovered. We have not run the tom for two days now. The dig is slow with abundance of heavy rock that either gets worked around or moved. I am gambling a bit here but after seeing the gold in the first dig I feel the gamble will pay off.

   We have also decided for the both of us to stay at camp at night as there is little chance of anyone stealing gravel out of the dig that would be worth while at this time. I am going to alternate digging with John tomorrow, We can't leave camp unmanned so one of us must always be here in case of robbers.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

   MAY 15   1936

   Last night John and me sat around a campfire drinking whiskey and talking of many things. John retired to his tent after telling me stories of the great war and getting his fill of spirit. I sat and looked at the stars for a time when all of a sudden there was gun fire. This was way up the mountain at quite a distance, maybe a mile or so. It went on for a good ten minutes. John had heard it and came out of his tent. It eventually quieted and we both retired for the night.

   We took turns at digging and panning samples but there was still no color. I finished up before dark and fixed my supper at the stove. Hash and beans and my beloved Irish whiskey.

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

[GhostMiner]

   Here is a picture of the creek where Jed's tom sat and camp was near.

[GhostMiner]

   We were told there were numerous gun battles on the mountain over the years, 

[GhostMiner]

   MAY 16   1936

   I talked with John at breakfast about the prospect of bringing in a third person to the claim. The digging is getting more difficult and as I plan to get much deeper I will require a person to help both in digging and gravel removal. I may also need to cut some timbers to support the walls of the trench work. I have a brother Jacob who works on a farm. He can come out to the claim for a month or two or maybe longer. In order to be fair in all regards John and me will pay Jacob in a small gold percentage equally divided between the two of us. I will personally promise Jacob a wage if no gold is found. John agreed to this new plan and I contacted Jacob today. He will be here in a few days.

   This afternoon I worked at widening the trench to six feet and panning gravels at the site. There is little color but my plan is to work towards the first hole but at a deeper level. I am hoping to hit a rich gravel deposit in the deeper depth of gravels. For now all I can do is take my turn at the dig with John taking his turn as well. Removing the gravels is taking more time now and the work is slow. Once Jacob arrives the two of us will dig and timber the trench walls where needed as well as bring out buckets of pay. John will watch our camp and work the tom. I think this is a solid plan for our future.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

 

[GhostMiner]

   Just a note as to where Jed is working those gravels. He is at the bottom of the western side of a fault. The ancient gold bearing river was almost a mile wide & ran east to west. Then it moved and the old channel was buried under dirt & gravel over many years.  So he is working the bottom of a waterfall which is now dry and the kettle he found was a pothole that collected gold over many years. He is now trying to find another gold trap in the same location as he feels there must have been more than one. Speculation for sure but not a bad bet. As the journal unfolds we will see if his thinking was correct. 

[GhostMiner]

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[GhostMiner]

6 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

==

You will soon see that Jed is digging against the wall of an ancient water fall. A deposit for fold.