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

[GhostMiner]

5 hours ago, Cascade Steven said:

GM:  Thanks for sharing such a very interesting real-life adventure, and for the effort of transcribing it into the forum for all of us to enjoy.  Greatly appreciated.🙂👍

You are welcome & thanks for reading.

[DOOGY-MD]

Here comes the mother load!!

[maxxkatt]

Here is an 1828 - 1848 miners pick axe looked like. I found this many years ago near Auraria, GA which is about 4 miles sw of Dahlonega, GA. I was using my Fisher Gold Bug, and it went off real loud on that target.

One of my best finds. You can see this vintage pick axe was hand forged by a black smith. Of course by 1936 they would have been using more modern pick axes.

This is a great story. One of the best I have read. Thanks for the time and effort you put into getting the story to us on this great forum. Ancient rivers and creeks indeed do change their course and the old channels do get buried over time. But the gold remains in the pot holes or as you guys call them accurately glory holes.

A retired state Georgia geologist now passed, Larry Otwell told me of a guy from Canada who found a glory hole in the  Etowah and the Chestatee Rivers near Dahlonega and sucked out enough gold to be spread out on a full bed back at his motel room. Larry said he was there when they spread the gold out. He left a week later. This would have been back around the 1970's since Larry and I worked on a gold project  in the late 1980's. I got a great education about gold mining from Larry. Then a practical education also, it is hard work, but boy are you motivated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GhostMiner]

1 minute ago, maxxkatt said:

Here is an 1828 - 1848 miners pick axe looked like. I found this many years ago near Auraria, GA which is about 4 miles sw of Dahlonega, GA. I was using my Fisher Gold Bug, and it went off real loud on that target.

One of my best finds. You can see this vintage pick axe was hand forged by a black smith. Of course by 1936 they would have been using more modern pick axes.

 

 

Looks medieval.

[maxxkatt]

Maybe, but what would it be doing in Georgia? I think it was just a method that maybe a single black smith in the area used to make pick axes for the more than 10,000 miners in the area between 1828 & 1840's. Anyway, it is one of my prized finds.

[GhostMiner]

21 minutes ago, maxxkatt said:

Maybe, but what would it be doing in Georgia? I think it was just a method that maybe a single black smith in the area used to make pick axes for the more than 10,000 miners in the area between 1828 & 1840's. Anyway, it is one of my prized finds.

Yes, it's really cool. I wish I had found it!

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 8   1936

   The weigh was done this morning. The 47 buckets of wall gravels gave us half an ounce. Not too bad we thought but very hard work to get it. Then came the weigh from the 3 buckets from the seam in the wall. There was heavy gold in the pan that brought us another ounce. An unbelievable amount of gold for such a small amount of gravel. This gives me even more confidence that the trench holds a fortune in gold as I think much of the deposit lies below this depth in a depression or kettle in the old channel. We have now mined a total of 284 ounces which is already far beyond anything I could have expected. 

   We all decided to take a day of much needed rest as the work has been hard on our bodies. I have run out of holes in my belt and have had to punch in a new one as I have lost quite a bit of weight from the heavy work. I told the boys to head into town and gave them a list of supplies. When they came back we talked about the operation over hoover stew. We built a small fire. The night sky was filled with stars and I broke out a special bottle of Four Roses I had stashed away. We filled our cups and toasted the mine and the gold. Eventually we all retired and Will took first watch.

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

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 9   1936

   Jacob, Will, and me again worked the east wall at the fault. About mid day John came up to the dig site with a visitor. He said he was a bounty hunter out of Nevada. This guy looked worse than the hooligans we had encountered. He was wearing two Colts and carrying a rifle. I asked him what he wanted. The man said he had been hired by a certain company to track down a gang of murderers and thugs who he believed were roaming our neck of the woods. He said he dealt in people -  dead, captured, or detained. In his words he was hired to capture or eliminate the gang by whatever means possible. He was wearing some kind of tin star and showed us paperwork giving him all authority in both Nevada and California. He did not give us any information as to who exactly it was that hired him. I asked him if he was a law dog. He just said he was a bounty hunter and made his own law when he was working. 

   He wanted to know if we had seen this gang and showed us some pictures. He said they were wanted in Nevada and California for strong arm robery and murder. I looked at the pictures and passed them around to everyone. It was the same group of rag tags we had encountered. Everyone knew the rule which was keep your mouth shut and we will handle our own problems alone without involving the law. We all told him we hadn't seen them but would keep a watch. He gave us his card and said to notify him if we saw them. He said if we didn't it would go hard on us. 

   We watched him walk back down to camp and John followed him down. I told Will to go down there also just in case there was trouble. A little while later Will came back up and we continued our work. We were slowly widening out the dig area to the east. Some of the gravels had loosened up around some round rock and we made hay. I panned some as we dug and saw color. We ended up with 215 buckets which was a pretty good day. We'll see what we get tomorrow.

   At supper we were talking about the scroungy bounty hunter. John said we should have kicked his ass for the way he talked to us. And he meant it. I just said not to worry about it and I wondered if that crew was still in the area. Will said that the thugs most likely had a pretty good idea we were getting gold and he wouldn't be surprised if they were still somewhere on the mountain. I said to just keep on guard and keep standing watch at night and we should be ok. Secretly I was worried.

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

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 10   1936

   We got another 4 ounces from yesterdays dig. The ground continues to pay like a glory hole. The three of us continued north into the easier gravel in the wall. There was a lot of broken shale that didn't provide us much resistance. We swung and chopped and shoveled with sweat flying and the occasional curse word when a pick bounced back off some hard stone. This was one of our better days as far as bucket totals and we kept John working with 260 of them. We were all exhausted by dusk and drove back down to camp with the last load on the bed of the old Ford. We'll help John finish up in the morning before we go up and dig. 

   It was a pleasant evening and we were all sitting around the fire before first watch and toasting each other when we heard someone holler out as he came up our side of the creek from the south where down below the main road runs. It was the tin star bounty hunter again. John didn't think mutch of this guy to put it mildly. The bounty hunter yelled out he was comin' in to our camp. John got up and bluntly said that nobody here invited you into camp and we had no business with him. 

   It was starting to get dark and we wondered what he was up to out here roaming at night. The bounty hunter didn't exactly like John's comment and told him so. John asked him why he was here. The guy said another robbery had taken place up on the mountain maybe 2 miles away. He figured this gang was still roaming up & down the creek robbing prospectors and also going into town and doing the same. He was sure they were hiding out. Then he said the wrong thing to John. He asked how much gold we were getting. Then he said he couldn't believe we hadn't run across this crew and who knows, maybe we were tied in with them in some way and helping them. 

   My heart sank. I thought to myself why did he have to go and say that? John looked at him and said he'd had enough of his mouth and called him trash. I jumped in and said we don't know anything about the gang and we were hard working miners minding our own business. The bounty hunter asked again how much gold we were getting. John told him it was none of his damn business and to get the hell out of camp or he'd kick his ass.

   The guy said to look at his star. He had all authority to question and interrogate. John told him we don't know anything and if you ask about our gold one more time you're gonna' have a problem. He looked at John and could see he meant business. He started to leave but as he was walking out he turned and said he might be back again with paperwork to take us to town infront of a judge and make us give sworn testimony. Then he was gone, hiking back down to the road.

   I told everyone that he thinks we know something but doesn't have any real authority and is trying to bluff us. John said if he comes back and tries to force me to go into town he's in for big trouble. I just said not to worry about it and lets just keep getting our gold. John was so angry he couldn't sleep so he took first watch.

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

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 11   1936

   Yesterdays 260 buckets were a big disappointment to us all and yielded barely an ounce. The ground continues to be fickle. Just when I think we are once again glory bound we have a light weigh. I know that one ounce out of that volume of gravel is very rich. However, we all believe the pot of gold awaits us here. We must just keep working.

   Just before supper we once again were visited by the bounty hunter. Now he was becoming a nuisance. He announced himself and strolled into camp like he was one of us. He told us his trail had gone cold and he may quit the search for the gang of thugs. John looked at him and said why are you out here telling us your problems? Yesterday you were threatening us with some kind of order from a Judge you were going to serve on us? The bounty hunter said his name was Bill. He said he was sorry for that but was desperate to make a bounty as his funds were running low. He asked if he might join up with our crew. This was incredible and John laughed in his face. I just said sorry, we don't need any help. John told him to get out of our camp and fast. Bill the bounty man looked at John and said he didn't like being talked to like that. John said he didn't care what he liked and he wasn't welcome. The bounty hunter looked at me and said that I was the leader of the crew, can't I give him a try? He refused to talk with John anymore. He started to argue his point for joining up with us. John said we don't hire trash like you and to git. Bill said he wasn't talking to him. John simply reached out and pulled the guys hat down over his eyes and let go with a right hand to his jaw. The bounty hunter went down with a thud. 

   John grabbed the guys rifle as the man got up shaking his head. He started to reach for one of his side arms but John clocked him over the head with the rifle butt and removed both revolvers. The guy cursed at John and John rammed the rifle butt into his belly and brought it up into his chin. This must have been something John had learned fighting the Germans in the Great War. The fight was all out of Bill. John told him to git or he'd get worse and thanks for the guns. Bill stumbled out of camp heading down towards the road.

   Now John and I got into a heated argument about all this. I told him this wasn't the way to handle things and he couldn't just haul off on anyone that crossed him. I don't know if he listened or not. I actually think he likes this kind of thing and it will catch up with us at some point. John just said that Bill wasn't leaving as told and he just helped move him along. 

   The rest of the night was quiet and all of us had a few drinks to settle down. Jacob's eyes had been big as saucers during the beating. He was not used to this kind of thing and neither was I. John went up on first watch while the rest of us turned in. I feel like I am running out of time here and this mining venture is getting more dangerous by the day.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................