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

[GhostMiner]

5 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

It's really quite amazing to read of their successes, we are vicariously living our dreams through this timeless journal.

Thanks. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this crew. A real band of brothers.

[GhostMiner]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Thanks. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this crew. A real band of brothers.

When I'm at that dig site I feel like Jed's crew is right there with me sometimes.

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 22   1936

   John finished up the weigh after breakfast and we had a treat in store. From the 145 buckets of trench gravels we got 2 ounces. When we weighed up the raised country gravels we had a heavy pan of 5 ounces for a total payday of 7 ounces. We were all happy and eager to dig more in the trench. We were just about to head up to the dig site when a group of seven greenhorns came trudging down the mountain in a big hurry. I hollered over to them and asked them how the gold was higher up the mountain. They came over close to our camp and we went over to talk with them. 

   They told us that there was a good area about 4 miles or so up the creek but it had already been staked and filed. There was one big group that had all the good ground claimed and it was controlled by the co operative. They had armed thugs guarding the claims and no trespassing signs posted everywhere. A few people had tried to file some claims near the co operative area but were run off by the goons they employed. Everyone was packing up and heading back home. We wished them well as they walked down towards the road. 

   John said it is only a matter of time before they come for our claims. I said it was possible but they know we will fight them. The guys they sent for us were cowards and had no heart in the fight. Perhaps that will keep them away. Time will tell.

   Back up on the dig site we went to work with renewed vigor. The gravels dropped on either side of the raised area of country we had cleaned up and I tested some of the side pay. It showed good color and was worth working for sure. We knocked off a couple hours early due to extreme heat but still ended with 260 buckets. 

   Down at camp John asked me how long I thought we would keep mining and if we had enough good areas to dig until winter. I told him there was no way to tell how many good pay streaks were left on the fault line but my best guess was there were a lot. And after that was all mined out we had the eastern drift mine to work. There are many years of mining left on the claims. He seemed relieved and said he was hoping to mine for a long while. That is my plan as well. I will mine gold as long as my body is able.

  TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

There are some interesting things about to happen.

[Cascade Steven]

I am waiting in anxious anticipation.😀

[maxxkatt]

I wonder if it is realistic to work a productive area like they did in the same manner they did just four guys &  picks and shovels. If so think of finding 3-7 oz of gold each day. Especially at today's gold prices. Or would you be tempted to bring in the heavy machinery? I guess that is what ghost miner is doing or something close, meaning not bringing in the heavy machinery.

[GhostMiner]

4 hours ago, maxxkatt said:

I wonder if it is realistic to work a productive area like they did in the same manner they did just four guys &  picks and shovels. If so think of finding 3-7 oz of gold each day. Especially at today's gold prices. Or would you be tempted to bring in the heavy machinery? I guess that is what ghost miner is doing or something close, meaning not bringing in the heavy machinery.

      The ground would need to be very rich to mine by pick and shovel not to mention the toll it takes on your body. Bringing in heavy equipment involves Forest Service Plans of Operations (POO's) and a Reclamation Bond. You are limited to 1000 cubic yards of disturbance for each plan. Anything over that level triggers the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) which is a whole nother ballgame. That requires much more difficult, expensive, & time consuming permitting taking months to years with no guarantee you will get one. Welcome to mining. That's why in this case I want to work the ground as they did back in the day and not involve Federal, State, & County government. 

https://www.conservation.ca.gov/dmr/lawsandregulations

[GhostMiner]

 JULY 23   1936

   The gravels in the trench produced good pay once again with 2 ounces in the pan. We now have a total of 842 ounces for our season and everyone wants to make 1000 ounces now. I have assured them we have a good chance if we can keep finding good areas to dig. We have seen several more groups of prospectors heading back down the mountain as they pass our camp. They are all saying the same thing. The good areas of the mountain are claimed by the co operative and they are told to leave and not look for good ground under threat of violence. It is a real shame that these prospectors are being run off by a group of thugs and gangsters. Some of the prospectors are telling us that the ground they were testing was unmarked and not claimed yet but they were still told to leave at gunpoint by the gangsters. It seems we are now the only ones mining on the mountain other than the co operative group. They have employed about 20 men from what we are hearing. 

   We were working at the digsite when I saw John walking up. He said the water from the creek had completely dried up. We all came down to have a look and sure enough it was bone dry. That was a bit mysterious to me because we had been pumping from a good area of water several hundred feet to the north. I told Jacob to stay at camp and Will, John, and me walked up the creek to the north to have a look see. After a long hike of over two miles or so we saw the problem. Someone had blocked the creek and diverted the water over to some new claims that the co operative had staked.

   I told John and Will to have a look at the claim markers. There were no legal numbers on them but only lettering stating Mine Co Operative Claims and any trespassers will be shot on site. They had dug out a holding pond for the creek water. I told the boys that it looked like they intended to mine this ground and took the water from the creek. They hadn’t even legally filed a claim. They must have found a hot spot up here. 

   There was nobody anywhere on site to talk to about all this. We looked at each other and I said we needed to knock the dam out of there and get the water flowing down the mountain again. It was  late afternoon and we had only dug 60 buckets and now were forced to deal with this. We walked back down to camp and grabbed some picks and shovels and we also had our rifles which never left our sight. Jacob stayed at camp to guard our goods. When we got back up there we made short work of opening up the water flow. The co operative boys had dug a trench about 200 feet or so over to their holding pond. We filled it in about a quarter of the way to their pond and headed back down the mountain. 

   It was early evening by now so we stopped work for the day with only 60 buckets. None of us were happy. John said they would be madder than hell when they saw we had opened up the creek again. The water flow was weak but still enough for John to wash gravels. After supper we sat around the campfire and drank whisky and talked about the trouble we knew would eventually come. We started to make a plan for the morning.

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

[flakmagnet]

Good real life drama

[Reg Wilson]

I smell big trouble brewing.