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

[GhostMiner]

21 minutes ago, DOOGY-MD said:

9 oz, holy mackerel, thats $17,000 in one pan, at todays market!

Abour $315 back then. Inflation? Oh yes!!

[GhostMiner]

Hoping to get another entry on tonight. Having a bit of trouble reading it because at some point it got wet and faded, Using a magnifying glass LOL. Most of it is ok though. 

[GhostMiner]

   JUNE 30   1936

   We are on the gold for sure. May God bless old Ireland. This morning I saw 22 ounces in the pan. To this gold I say one hundred thousand welcomes. There must be a jackpot awaiting our shovels. We all stood and stared at it. The most glorious of sites. I broke out a bottle of Old Bushmills and we drank a toast to the gold. The crew was all busy slapping me on the back and handing out praises for finding another kettle. All I could do was laugh out loud and thank the good Lord.

   After we settled down we went about our work in a most light hearted manner with a whistle and a song. We are moving 6 inch to 12 inch river rock out of the hole. We clean it over a bucket at the top and put the clean rock in the reject pile. Anything stuck to the rock goes in a bucket to be washed down at the tom.  As buckets are filled with washable gravels they are loaded two at a time on the old truck. Some buckets are completely filled in the hole with smaller gravels. It’s all tedious labor and takes a toll on one’s back and shoulders. There is no speed now, just a steady and determined movement of rock and gravel up and out of the hole. Today’s count ended up at 155 buckets and we worked until nearly dark to get them.

[DOOGY-MD]

OMG! .....22 Oz's, unbelievable!

[GhostMiner]

22 minutes ago, DOOGY-MD said:

OMG! .....22 Oz's, unbelievable!

They took over 7000 ounces out of a glory hole under the falls in McKinley Creek Alaska. They diverted the creek at the top of the falls and mined out the kettle. Early 1900's. 

[GhostMiner]

3 hours ago, DOOGY-MD said:

OMG! .....22 Oz's, unbelievable!

Yes, it is a lot of gold.

[GhostMiner]

*

[DOOGY-MD]

Good thing you don't have to part the river!

[GhostMiner]

An interesting video of finding an old mine shaft. 

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 1   1936

   I am not sure if we are nearing the bottom of the kettle. All I know is that we are all four of us glory bound. We saw gold in the pan in quantity once again. I took a look at the gold on the scale and it was top of the mornin to ya. There were 31 ounces of an aisling if ever there was one. We cheered it out loud with a mighty hoo rah and Jacob danced an old jig. A treasure for our eyes to behold. We may all be rich before we leave this mine. We all sat at the camp and ate bacon and biscuits and talked of the rich gravels we had found. We had a toast of whiskey and headed out to work.

   We are seeing a bit of larger river rock mixed with the smaller and rounded rock at this depth of around 12 feet. The labor is getting more intense but no one is complaining. The afternoon heat tries it’s best to wear you down but we battle through it and are drinking large amounts of water. We know we must pace our efforts or be beaten down by our own work. There is not much talk and the digging is monotonous. We are focused on finding the bottom of the kettle and getting all the gold out of it. We worked until an hour before dark. This was the hardest day we had on the mine and took only 88 buckets. They were hard fought for as well.

   Back at camp we ate bacon and beans and the boys drank Lucky’s that were cooled in the creek. I drank a cup of whiskey as we talked about our mine. The night air chilled and we put on heavy shirts and Jacob took the first watch. The rest of us got some rest. 

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