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

[GhostMiner]

The Rif Raf bar in town can be a dangerous place. Coming in the next entry in a few minutes.

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 13   1936

   After breakfast Whiskey Jack weighed our gold from yesterday’s gravel. There was 27 ounces. Once again Jack did his gold dance and we all had a good laugh. Jack brought out a bottle and we all took a drink. I sent Jacob and Whiskey Jack into town with the truck for supplies and told them to bring back a lode of beer for the crew as well. Me, Will, and Ben walked up to the mine and Ben took his lookout post as usual while Will and me went into the drift to work. The heat seemed here to stay and was always over 100 degrees by early afternoon. 

   I worked the pit in the drift and Will pulled out buckets and carried them to the truck. It was slow going and we broke work for lunch around noon. Jacob and Whiskey Jack hadn’t returned from town and I was concerned. Sarge and me took his truck into town to see if we could find them. It wasn’t long before we found out the cause of the delay. My truck was loaded up with supplies and parked in front of the hooligan bar. Sarge pulled his truck in behind mine and we went in to see what was what. Jacob and Jack were in a card game in the corner with three other guys. All of them had been drinking including Jacob and Jack. When they saw us coming over they looked surprised and said they had won a whole bunch of money and were getting ready to leave. When they started gathering up the money that’s when the trouble started.

   One of the three rif raf they had cleaned out said Jacob and Jack weren’t leaving until they had a chance to win their money back. I told him they were supposed to be at work and they were leaving now. He said they weren’t going anywhere and the three of them stood up from the table. Whiskey Jack told them to sit down if they knew what was good for them. The loudmouth of the three hauled off and cracked Jack in the face with a punch out of nowhere and Jack stumbled backwards over his chair and onto the floor. That was it. I came over the table and latched onto the guy with one hand and caught him with a punch to his ear. He started cursing and his two pals came at me. Sarge grabbed one of them and got him in a head lock and rammed him into the wall. When the other one turned Sarge drilled him square on the jaw with a right hand. Then I got taken to the ground from behind. It seemed they had  friends in there. I saw Whiskey Jack pull the guy away and crack him over the head with a beer bottle. There was blood spurting everywhere. He went down and I got back on my feet.

   The guy that Sarge bounced off the wall was coming for him and I hollered to look out. The guy caught Sarge with a solid punch but he shook it off and came back around with his own and it sent the guy backwards. I saw Sarge do some kind of kick to the guys knee and he went down hard. Then Sarge stomped him in the face. Two were down and out and the other two backed off. Sarge hollered  what’s the matter? Don’t you want anymore? One of them said to Sarge that he didn’t leave a man much. I will never forget what Sarge answered. He told him that he didn’t bring much. I didn’t have a chance to see it but Jacob had been busy with a fifth guy who had tried to get into the fight. Jacob had put him on the deck and I saw the guy crawling towards the door. I kicked him in the side and he rolled over on the floor.

   I hollered to everyone in there that they had started the trouble, not us. I told them if they come outside they’d be sorry. And then we left. Anyway, that’s the way I remember it. When we got back to camp John was madder than hell that he wasn’t there. I was madder than hell that Jacob had gone into that rif raf bar. Whiskey Jack was all wound up and pulled out a bottle of whiskey saying everyone needed to blow off some steam once and awhile. He said he hadn’t been in a brawl like that since the old days. It seemed to make him happier than all get out and I couldn’t stay mad and just started to laugh about it. By now it was late afternoon and it was hotter than hell to boot. Jacob, Will, and me went back up to the drift and worked for a few hours and knocked off early with 32 buckets for the day. I told them we’d make up for it tomorrow,

   When we got back to camp Whiskey Jack was drunk as all get up and still talking about the fight in town. We ate supper and all sat around camp drinking and talking about it. Jack finally passed out and we put him in his tent. The crew retired for the night but I sat outside with a bottle of Bushmills. 

  TO BE CONTINUED .................

[Jim_Alaska]

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

A noise caused one of my partners to take cover. Just to the right was a bobcat.

 

Bobcats are normally very secretive and shy, avoiding people. To get to see one should be a treasured experience, not many are  so fortunate. Aside from stories people tell, they are not a threat to people. I trapped Lynx for many years in Alaska, they are twice the size of any Bobcat, and also very shy.

Being in the cat family, they, like most cats, make a lot of noise when breeding. I think that is what Jed was hearing when he talked about "the midnight screechers".

[GhostMiner]

8 minutes ago, Jim_Alaska said:

Bobcats are normally very secretive and shy, avoiding people. To get to see one should be a treasured experience, not many are  so fortunate. Aside from stories people tell, they are not a threat to people. I trapped Lynx for many years in Alaska, they are twice the size of any Bobcat, and also very shy.

Being in the cat family, they, like most cats, make a lot of noise when breeding. I think that is what Jed was hearing when he talked about "the midnight screechers".

Yes, it most likely was. I was fortunate to see one right where he camped one night at dusk. It stared at me for about 20 seconds and ran off. Really quite an experience.

[Old Miner Don]

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

"John was madder than hell that he wasn’t there"

Haha! I bet he was!

 

[D&P-OR]

2 hours ago, Bedrocker said:

 

and fun was had by (almost) all!!! 😁

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 14   1936

   Jack was still in his tent sleeping it off when we did the weigh after breakfast. It’s too bad he missed it as we got 7 ounces from the 32 buckets. We drove up to the drift early morning and started to working the gravels. Picking, prying, clanging, and cursing. We were down a good 7 feet and running into country. By late afternoon we had 61 buckets and were out of gravel to dig. I tried to find any loose material below or to the side but there was none. The drift had come to an end. 

   About that time Whiskey Jack arrived and had a look inside the tunnel and pit. He said he was sad to say she was mined out. I told him we had some nice buckets out of the last of it and thanked him again for steering us to this gold. We called it a day and went back down to our new camp. We all needed a break anyway.At supper we had some beans and bacon and Jack asked me what I figured on mining now. I told him we would need to go back to prospecting or maybe go way out to the eastern drift mine. Jack said there was gold there but told us he had another idea for us to consider. We were all ears.

  TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

14 hours ago, Bedrocker said:

 

For sure!

[flakmagnet]

👂

[GhostMiner]

14 hours ago, D&P-OR said:

and fun was had by (almost) all!!! 😁

Yes, Jack passed out LOL.