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

[GhostMiner]

   August 16   1936 

   We sat around breakfast this morning and talked more about what Whiskey Jack calls the south kettle. The plan he suggests would be to process gravels at the site as there is no practical way to haul buckets to the creek. He says we would dig at the southern side of the kettle and set the tom in there. The south wall is lower and the old debris chute is there as well. It has partially collapsed and filled in with gravel over the years but there remains a slot about 10 feet above the bottom. We’ll just dig it out lower to discharge the tailings. We would need 4 water pumps and enough hose to reach the tom. The pumps would be set in series and each pump would feed water into the next until the water is lifted all the way over the top of the south kettle. There would need to be two pump tenders with two men in the pit digging. Since the tom could be set right at the dig site there would be no need to carry buckets but instead shovel directly onto the hopper grizzly of the tom. The tom could be moved around as needed to stay close to the dig site. The tom would send water and tailings downhill  at the south end of the pit and down the mountain. They would have plenty of time to filter out before reaching the bottom of the mountain where it re-enters the west to east running creek about half a mile east of where the first pump sits. As country is reach the tom would gradually be moved to the north so we never have to deal with tailings. One big loop of water as Jack puts it.

   Jack advised me and John to do the digging and operate the tom. He said let Jacob and Will tend the pumps. He called them young bucks and said they would need to run up and down the mountain keeping the pumps gassed up and operational. They would also have to start them up in the morning and shut them down at quitting time. Besides the pumps and all the hose we would also need foot valves to keep back pressure off the pumps so they could start pushing water every morning when fired up. He said otherwise we would need to purge them as the water lines with all that water in them would put too much back pressure on the discharge side and they wouldn’t push. Purging would take hours every morning so he said to do it right the first time and we’d be happy miners. Jack said he’d come up with us every day and supervise the operation and offer suggestions as well as help in any way he could but his mountain climbing days were behind him.

   We decided to take a vote and everyone was for Jack’s plan. We would need to get everything ordered in from town and then get the new operation set up. So John and me went into town and got everything ordered. We would move the tom up there and wait for our new pumps. We were all real thankful to Whiskey Jack once again.

  TO BE CONTINUED .................

[geof_junk]

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

This is one of the areas Jed's crew dug and is south of the first diggings. The slides caused by winter rain & snow have covered over their old diggings. It is actually on the side of the fault line well above the base. I don't think they spent much time here but rather were taking samples in an attempt to find mineable ground.

I see the red survey flags, are you GhostMiner looking at that particular spot. 

[GhostMiner]

Just now, geof_junk said:

I see the red survey flags, are you GhostMiner looking at that particular spot. 

We had several good samples in that area & marked them. The kettel they are moving to needs sampled as well. It's 2000 ft south of their first workings.Today I would just use a drywasher instead of all the work getting water up to the south kettle. The site with the pictures and flag wouldn't be hard to get water as there is a pond just north and at higher elevation that wasn't there back in the 1930's. That pond is from a flooded mine shaft from 1965. 

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 17   1936

   We took the tom up to the kettle this morning and set it in place at the bottom of the pit where we plan to dig. Our pumps and hose will arrive sometime tomorrow. We walked the route for laying the hose and marked it with ribbon as well. There are a few steep grades to traverse and we marked out the areas where our pumps will be placed.  While we were up there we took a few more bucket samples  down to the creek and panned them. The gold looks good being coarse mixed with some fine. We are all agreeing with Jack that there should be a lot of gold still in the pit. The mining venture continues to expand from my little one man operation I started with. I never could have expected this great success and am thankful for our gold. 

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

[bsieb]

This is SO good! Thank you for posting this!

 

[Zincoln]

Been a while since I've commented on the thread GM.  What I find so fascinating is that this story occurred in 1936, and not 1880.  I have always thought of our country being pretty civilized by the 1900s.  Heck, I was born only 34 years after this story.   Surprising amount of gunplay going on.  Just goes to show that when you have something of value, and wide open spaces with little law enforcement, you have a recipe for conflict.    The fact that the Great Depression had just ended likely also added some fuel to the fire.

Thx again for your generous sharing and daily updates!  This is no small time commitment you've provided us all with!

Brian

 

[GhostMiner]

9 hours ago, Zincoln said:

Been a while since I've commented on the thread GM.  What I find so fascinating is that this story occurred in 1936, and not 1880.  I have always thought of our country being pretty civilized by the 1900s.  Heck, I was born only 34 years after this story.   Surprising amount of gunplay going on.  Just goes to show that when you have something of value, and wide open spaces with little law enforcement, you have a recipe for conflict.    The fact that the Great Depression had just ended likely also added some fuel to the fire.

Thx again for your generous sharing and daily updates!  This is no small time commitment you've provided us all with!

Brian

 

Thanks for reading.

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 18   1936

   Jacob and me went into town after lunch time to check on our equipment delivery. We waited around at the freight office and finally it came in late afternoon. We took the pumps, valves, and some hose back to camp and Will and John started placing the pumps on the mountain while Jacob and me went back to town for the rest of the hose. By the time we got back to camp it was early evening and we stopped work for the day. The pumps were all in place. We have one set at the creek and three on the mountain. I also bought two reserve pumps in case of any pump failures and also have extra hose as well as lots of fuel containers that will set at each pump station and also have extras at camp. Those fuel containers will have to be refilled as needed which means Jacob going to town for fuel several times a week and keeping extra fuel on hand. Tomorrow we will lay the hose and give the pumps a test run. Whisky Jack is confident that his plan will work. 

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

[GhostMiner]

Continuing to test along the faultline south of Jed's workings. One nice area is showing about $500/cubic yard from small samples. Needs further work done but looks promising. Samples came from one - two ft in depth.

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 19   1936

   Today we got an early start in an attempt to get some of the heavy work done before the heat came in. By lunch time the temperature was over 90 degrees but we had most of the hose layed. In the afternoon we finished up and Jacob went down to the creek to start the first pump. Then Will started the second one and John fired up the third and fourth and came up to the pit where Whiskey Jack and me were waiting. It was a success. The water was flowing with good pressure through the head of the tom. We had a hand operated water pressure control lever on it and we started to set the water flow using shovels of gravel and then set the sluice angle. Whiskey Jack was hollering that everything was working and the gold was going to come fast. We ran the tom for half an hour and checked the sluice. We could see a few pickers and lots of coarse gold on the run. Jack started doing his gold dance and was singing some old miners song and laughing like a mad man. John was smiling from ear to ear. He said it looks like we got us an operation.

   It was getting pretty late with dusk not far off and I called it a day and we started the long walk back to camp. The sun was getting low and John hollered to take a look over there pointing down the mountain. There was a big lion standing down near the fourth pump and drinking water from a puddle where it had leaked some. We just stood and watched it for a minute and eventually it saw us and started to stare us down. John started walking down the pump line towards it and it started to walk away towards the south. Whiskey Jack said we’d need to keep an eye out up here for bear and lion until they got scared off. 

   Will and Jacob had already shut down the rest of the pumps and we finally got back to camp and had supper. Jacob and Will were real happy to hear about the gold in the sluice. I showed them the pickers I’d snatch out of the run before coming down. They said Jack was right, there’s still gold up there. We all sat around the fire and had a drink and toasted Whiskey Jack. Then we had a few more.

  TO BE CONTINUED ...................