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


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8 minutes ago, Cascade Steven said:

Off Grid: you have a very good point.  Ground Penetrating Radar may be of value in detecting  depth to bedrock and possibly the unevenness of the bedrock surface.  This then could theoretically predict the presence of "kettles" and potential gold collection sites.  This link (https://www.guidelinegeo.com/ground-penetrating-radar-gpr/) provides a general overview of the process and its capabilities.  Another potential tool is a shallow seismic survey.  Such surveys can be conducted with field portable equipment and the energy source for the wave is either a "shot shell" or a sledge-hammer on a steel plate.  I have been involved with such surveys on abandoned mine tailings and seismic surveys worked well in that environment.  GM: From my experience it appears that it may be worthwhile to at least contact a vendor for a discussion of capabilities to learn if either method is a worthwhile tool for your specific application.  Just more food for thought and best wishes on your endeavor.

Do you know how expensive this process is? We have reords done that way for the tailings piles on the sides of the mountain. They are mapped out. Some are 100 ft deep. In some areas like the faultline there are few or shallow depth.

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   Where the best gold seems to be found along the faultline are either in the kettles (pot holes) or on areas of raised bedrock that came near the surface at the time the fault occured. These raise areas could be just below the surface or as much as 40 - 50 ft deep from our understanding. When you find one there is concentrated gold that is much richer than the normal historic pay layers which average about 50 - 100 yards to the ounce. The rich areas can be ounces to the cubic yard. We found a few but there was not much gravel in them. The hope is to find a good one that could provide many cubic yards of rich pay. Now we are talking about 2000 linear ft of exploration as well. 

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1 minute ago, GhostMiner said:

   Where the best gold seems to be found along the faultline are either in the kettles (pot holes) or on areas of raised bedrock that came near the surface at the time the fault occured. These raise areas could be just below the surface or as much as 40 - 50 ft deep from our understanding. When you find one there is concentrated gold that is much richer than the normal historic pay layers which average about 50 - 100 yards to the ounce. The rich areas can be ounces to the cubic yard. We found a few but there was not much gravel in them. The hope is to find a good one that could provide many cubic yards of rich pay. Now we are talking about 2000 linear ft of exploration as well. 

   I should also add that I found a large kettle at the souther end of the faultline about 1500 ft south of Jed's mine works. This was actually at the top of the fault and maybe 60 - 70 ft above the bottom. It was about 100 ft X 75 ft and 25 ft deep. It was very obvious and looked like it had been mines or partially mined but not sure if bedrock was found. When I discovered this it was by accident and I was alone and getting ready to leave the area for home. I had little time but getting in there was tough and getting back out even tougher. I found it by walking the ridge of the fault down there which is very remote. I had been following fresh bear tracks as well. It made me a little nervous as I had forgot my bear spray and my gun was locked in my truck far away. I know - stupid of me. Anyway, when I was making a decision to go in out popped a very large black bear higher up the game trail on top the ridge maybe 50 yards from me. I decided not to go in there because I wasn't sure what that bear would do. That is the first place I want to explore and test gravels at. I think carrying a small 12 V puffer drywasher up there would work well in the dry summer. No water anywhere near it.

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   JULY 18   1936

   We ended up with another ounce from the last of the trench gravels. We sat around at breakfast and talked about everything that had taken place recently and tried to figure up a new plan to mine. I told everyone we will just go back to basics and start prospecting the fault line again. I told them we are getting good gold for our efforts and don’t be discouraged. We were still all talking at camp when we noticed a large group of prospectors heading up the creek & right behind them another group. They were all dressed in new clothing and packing heavy gear. I hollered out to them and we started walking over in their direction. They said someone at the tavern had talked about making a big strike about 4 miles up the creek high on the mountain. He said there were nuggets found the size of gold eagles. The word had spread all over town. There were more prospectors on the way out to the mountain besides them. I told them what was going on and to be careful. I also told them it sounded kind of odd that someone who had discovered a big deposit would be in town bragging about it at the tavern. They listened to what I said but I could tell they all had a bad case of the fever. 

   After they left we all shook our heads. We doubted there was any big gold strike like they said but more likely some drunken prospector shootin off his mouth in town. Now we had to worry about more strangers with gold fever roaming the mountain.

   Will stayed at camp to guard our goods and the rest of us went up to the dig area to try to find gold. We walked south of the mined out trench about 100 feet where I saw a likely place to test. It looked like the old boys had worked there at one time but there appeared to be virgin gravels remaining. I dug down about two feet and we took some quarter buckets up to the tub to pan. We had some real nice color and chunky gold in the pans which was enough to make me want to work it. I don’t know how much is there but we gave it a go. John dug with us until we loaded up 20 buckets on the truck and he drove them down to the creek and Will came back up with the truck. It was real easy digging and some nice small rounded channel rock. The day ended with 265 buckets. We’ll see what tomorrow’s weigh tells us about this spot.  

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

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GM:  I do not have any current price information.  Sorry.  The seismic survey work of which I was involved was with the US 
Bureau of Mines, and we had our own equipment and did all of the work in-house.

For Ground Penetrating Radar, I do not have any current price information.  However this link provides a few parameters to consider and some possible ball-park cost estimates: https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-survey-with-Ground-Penetrating-Radar-generally-cost

An interesting seismic survey applications article can be found at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10451-6

For those interested in a do-it-yourself approach for seismic work, here are two articles that may be of interest: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323452070_How_to_build_your_own_simple_low-cost_seismic_system. and https://www.scirp.org/html/8-9401345_8137.htm

Hope this helps without being an overload of detail.

 

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1 minute ago, Cascade Steven said:

GM:  I do not have any current price information.  Sorry.  The seismic survey work of which I was involved was with the US 
Bureau of Mines, and we had our own equipment and did all of the work in-house.

For Ground Penetrating Radar, I do not have any current price information.  However this link provides a few parameters to consider and some possible ball-park cost estimates: https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-survey-with-Ground-Penetrating-Radar-generally-cost

An interesting seismic survey applications article can be found at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10451-6

For those interested in a do-it-yourself approach for seismic work, here are two articles that may be of interest: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323452070_How_to_build_your_own_simple_low-cost_seismic_system. and https://www.scirp.org/html/8-9401345_8137.htm

Hope this helps without being an overload of detail.

 

I will look at this information and thank you so much for taking the time tp post this info.

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Absolutely loving this cracking tale.

 

just a small point, in a couple of entries around page 3 and 4 Jed’s prospecting returns are measured in grams. I suspect he was measuring in grains. 
 

Just can’t imagine Jed using metric. Lol

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18th century[edit]

Immediately after independence, the United States used a variety of units of measure, including Dutch units and English units.[5] The 1789 Constitution grants Congress the authority to determine standards of measure, though it did not immediately use this authority to impose a uniform system. The United States was one of the first nations to adopt a decimal currency, under the Coinage Act of 1792.

In 1793, Thomas Jefferson requested artifacts from France that could be used to adopt the metric system in the United States, and Joseph Dombey was sent from France with a standard kilogram. Before reaching the United States, Dombey's ship was blown off course by a storm and captured by pirates, and he died in captivity on Montserrat.[5]

19th century[edit]

In 1832, the customary system of units was formalized.[6] In the early 19th century, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the government's surveying and map-making agency, used a meter standard ("Committee Meter", French: Mètre des Archives) brought from Switzerland.[7][8] Shortly after the American Civil War, the 39th United States Congress protected the use of the metric system in commerce with the Metric Act of 1866[9] and supplied each state with a set of standard metric weights and measures. In 1875 the United States solidified its commitment to the development of the internationally recognized metric system by becoming one of the original seventeen signatory nations to the Metre Convention, also known as the Treaty of the Metre.[10] The signing of this international agreement concluded five years of meetings in which the metric system was reformulated, refining the accuracy of its standards. The Metre Convention established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (Bureau international des poids et mesures, BIPM) in Sèvres, France, to provide standards of measurement for worldwide use.

Under the Mendenhall Order of 1893, metric standards, developed through international cooperation under the auspices of BIPM, were officially adopted as the fundamental standards for length and mass in the United States, though some metric standards were used in practice before then. The definitions of United States customary units, such as the foot and pound, have been based on metric units since then.

The 1895 Constitution of Utah, in Article X, Section 11, originally mandated that: "The Metric System shall be taught in the public schools of the State." This section was repealed, effective July 1, 1987.[11][12]

On July 4, 1876, Melvil Dewey (known for his Dewey Decimal Classification) incorporated the American Metric Bureau in Boston[13] to sell rulers and other metric measuring tools. Dewey had hoped to make his fortune selling metric supplies.[14]

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8 minutes ago, 1515Art said:

18th century[edit]

Immediately after independence, the United States used a variety of units of measure, including Dutch units and English units.[5] The 1789 Constitution grants Congress the authority to determine standards of measure, though it did not immediately use this authority to impose a uniform system. The United States was one of the first nations to adopt a decimal currency, under the Coinage Act of 1792.

In 1793, Thomas Jefferson requested artifacts from France that could be used to adopt the metric system in the United States, and Joseph Dombey was sent from France with a standard kilogram. Before reaching the United States, Dombey's ship was blown off course by a storm and captured by pirates, and he died in captivity on Montserrat.[5]

19th century[edit]

In 1832, the customary system of units was formalized.[6] In the early 19th century, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the government's surveying and map-making agency, used a meter standard ("Committee Meter", French: Mètre des Archives) brought from Switzerland.[7][8] Shortly after the American Civil War, the 39th United States Congress protected the use of the metric system in commerce with the Metric Act of 1866[9] and supplied each state with a set of standard metric weights and measures. In 1875 the United States solidified its commitment to the development of the internationally recognized metric system by becoming one of the original seventeen signatory nations to the Metre Convention, also known as the Treaty of the Metre.[10] The signing of this international agreement concluded five years of meetings in which the metric system was reformulated, refining the accuracy of its standards. The Metre Convention established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (Bureau international des poids et mesures, BIPM) in Sèvres, France, to provide standards of measurement for worldwide use.

Under the Mendenhall Order of 1893, metric standards, developed through international cooperation under the auspices of BIPM, were officially adopted as the fundamental standards for length and mass in the United States, though some metric standards were used in practice before then. The definitions of United States customary units, such as the foot and pound, have been based on metric units since then.

The 1895 Constitution of Utah, in Article X, Section 11, originally mandated that: "The Metric System shall be taught in the public schools of the State." This section was repealed, effective July 1, 1987.[11][12]

On July 4, 1876, Melvil Dewey (known for his Dewey Decimal Classification) incorporated the American Metric Bureau in Boston[13] to sell rulers and other metric measuring tools. Dewey had hoped to make his fortune selling metric supplies.[14]

Very interesting.

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2 hours ago, Pogo said:

Absolutely loving this cracking tale.

 

just a small point, in a couple of entries around page 3 and 4 Jed’s prospecting returns are measured in grams. I suspect he was measuring in grains. 
 

Just can’t imagine Jed using metric. Lol

I went back in the journal and he said grams. 

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