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


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   MAY 5   1936

   Last nights watch was quiet. There didn't seem to be anything moving on the mountain. After breakfast I told John I wanted to divide our day. We would dig in the morning and take 30 buckets directly out of the fault as we worked it into the east. We moved rock with our bars and picked away at anything compacted. Around early afternoon we made two trips with the truck taking the buckets down to process. About supper time I had the panning finished with Johns help. He was learning fast. Then came the weigh. I had pulled what I thought were very good pay gravels out of a nice pocket under some boulders. When we saw the scale I just blinked and started laughing. John asked if it was good. I said hell yes John, this is a good one. We had pulled just shy of an ounce out of 30 buckets. This must be a glory hole. We will glory hole the spot and get rich.

   This was beyond rich to me and we proceeded to hoot and holler and broke out the bottle. My glory days are getting closer every day. We drank into the night and never did go up to the dig site on our watch shifts.

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

   

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You just gotta love hydro pits....!!!!!  Enjoying the story also, helps us get thru the winter months.... big THANKS!

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58 minutes ago, oneguy said:

You just gotta love hydro pits....!!!!!  Enjoying the story also, helps us get thru the winter months.... big THANKS!

Thanks oneguy. Never mined in Montana. Yes, the old pits were fun to explore. We have several on our property and i've worked on others in the Sierra Nevada as well.  Thanks for reading.

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   MAY 6   1936

   John and me woke up late this morning as we were both deep in our cups well into the night. We decided to go up to the dig site together and bring down 20 buckets and then wash them. Neither of us is up for hard work today but the excitement of seeing gold is pushing us to dig. The morning was clear and quiet with a warm sun. As we arrived with the truck we once again had a surprise. Three men I had never seen were at the hole and looking around. I did not see side arms on them but one carried a rifle. John always wore his Colt and we both got out of the truck with rifles in hand.

   The three men looked to be in their thirties or forties and looked like a rag tag crew. I was in no mood to be pleasant and gruffly asked them what they were up to. The oldest man said they were looking to mine gold and were roaming the area looking for likely places. He said it looked like we had a big dig going and asked if we were on good ground. I told him the ground was all claimed up with all the filings done legal. He asked me if we needed a crew for digging and said they would work for gold. I just laughed and said we hadn't even found any gold but were stubborn in our efforts. He asked me if I knew of any good areas ready to be tested and worked. I bluntly said no, nothing around here. The three of them kind of looked at each other and said thank you and hiked up the mountain. We watched them until they were out of sight.

   John looked at me and asked me what I thought of them. I said I didn't think much of them and they looked no good to me. He agreed and said we need to make sure to stand our watch tonight. My head was pounding from all the whiskey but I worked the bar and shovel along with John. We kept the rifles close. As we worked the heavy ground east into the heart of the fault we encountered a large boulder maybe six feet in diameter. We went to work with pick and shovel while using a bar to move smaller rock beside and underneath the big boulder. The digging was very hard but we got 20 buckets down to the tom. We worked until nearly dark as we had got off to such a late start. Then we did a weigh. We had three and one half ounces in the pan. I nearly passed out and John started to cry.

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

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6 minutes ago, DOOGY-MD said:

How did Jed and John do today?

Did you read the May 6 entry?

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Yes, it just came across!

Thank you!

Wow, 3.5 oz in 20 buckets, Awesome!

This is a great journal!!

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6 minutes ago, DOOGY-MD said:

Yes, it just came across!

Thank you!

Wow, 3.5 oz in 20 buckets, Awesome!

This is a great journal!!

Thanks. Not to give anything away but Jed is on the site of quite a discovery as well as all kind of trouble. 

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  • The title was changed to ** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

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