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


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24 minutes ago, dagaroAU said:

Really great story! Everyday I look forward to the new entries. Rooting for Jed and crew to make it out with all of their gold and their lives! Thanks for posting.

Thanks for reading the journal.

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Just got back from a week of holidays. Have caught up with JED journal  now I have over 20 other topics to read here. 

Thanks GhostMiner so expect a heap of well deserve likes soon.

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7 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Just got back from a week of holidays. Have caught up with JED journal  now I have over 20 other topics to read here. 

Thanks GhostMiner so expect a heap of well deserve likes soon.

Thanks for reading!!

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 JULY 9   1936

   We had an early breakfast in the cool morning air and did the final weigh of the glory hole. There were plinkers and pennyweights in promiscuous amounts as well as heavy coarse gold. It all added up to 52 ounces. I told everyone to take a good look at it as we may never see gold like this again even if we mine for another 40 years. We were both happy and sad at the same time. We had mined over 800 ounces of gold in less than three months. Now we needed to find another place on the fault line to mine.

   John did some work down at camp while Jacob, Will, and me went up to the the dig site and looked down into that rich kettle one last time. I told them to move just west of the kettle about 20 feet and we would start digging down and sampling. We got down about 4 feet and I panned some gravel but there was no color. We all busted our tails and got down to the 6 foot level and I panned another sample but still no color. We tried to get deeper but hit country. We all took sample pans but there was no color. I told them we need to get back up against the fault line and start digging test holes. All I wanted to see was some color for now. We spent the entire day digging and panning with very poor results and no gold. Could we have mined the only rich area on this claim? We stopped for the day at suppertime and I just said we’ll find another good spot. There has to be more.

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

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fantastic journal read. One thing is clear to be a gold miner or detectorists you have to ever be the optimist or you will never make it as either.

 

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1 hour ago, maxxkatt said:

fantastic journal read. One thing is clear to be a gold miner or detectorists you have to ever be the optimist or you will never make it as either.

 

Very true.

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   JULY 10   1936

   This morning at breakfast we talked about where we might find more gold. John wanted to come up to the fault line and help dig but we needed to leave one person to guard the camp from hooligans so I told Jacob to stay down there until we came back for lunch break. So the three of us went up and started testing gravels. We spread out north and south of the glory hole near the base of the fault line. I told the crew to dig down three feet and take a quarter bucket to the tub and pan it. We were just looking for any color. John and Will headed up to the north a bit. Will was 20 feet north of the trench we started and John was 20 feet further north of Will. I went 20 feet south of the first glory hole. We dug samples and panned all morning with poor results. Around noon we went back down to camp and had our lunch. I said it is likely there is much more gold here and we need to prospect. At the same time our creek was drying up but still had enough water for the pump a few hundred feet to the north. We needed to get on gold as soon as we could. 

   After lunch Will stayed at camp and John, Jacob, and me went back up to the dig site. We kept widening the test holes by 10 foot increments. The fault line to the north was covered by gravels but it was exposed where I was working. I took a sample to the tub and relief came over me. There was color in the pan. Some coarse mixed with fine. I went back up and dug down to four feet and took a sample. More gold. Now I moved south another 10 feet and dug down three feet. The sample was showing good color with coarse and fines. I took one more sample 10 feet south of the last one at the three foot level. Once again I had color.

   I hollered over to Jacob and John to come down to the tub. I showed them the samples and pointed to where I got them. They were happy as all get up. It was late afternoon and I said let’s get a hole started. So the three of us worked each test hole trying to get deeper. We took 20 buckets down to the tom and washed it. When we finished panning we had about 2 grams. Those was upper level gravels and held promise for sure. We had our new dig site.

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

   

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3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Very true.

 

4 hours ago, maxxkatt said:

fantastic journal read. One thing is clear to be a gold miner or detectorists you have to ever be the optimist or you will never make it as either.

As GM said ...... Very true.

Hand of faith .......875 troy ounces  That what started the optimistic detecting prospector rush of today when Kevin H. found it.
Weighing 875 troy ounces (27.21 kg, or 72 troy pounds and 11 troy ounces), the gold nugget was only 12 inches below the surface, resting in a vertical position. 
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