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Fifty Feet From Glory ** My Adventures At Jed's Dig Site


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On 5/2/2022 at 4:51 PM, GhostMiner said:

   SEPTEMBER 23   2012

   We were up bright & early and i had a breakfast of freeze dried bacon & eggs (MRE'S). Just add hot water. The Forest Service agent had also told us there was a crew down at the bottom of the mountain working with equipment on the floodplain of a creek. We were up on the old commercial hydraulic mines about 300 ft higher in elevation but we could here their heavy equipment running. We had claims that captured part of that creek as well. I told Dustin that before the day was over we ought to go down and say hello.

   After breakfast we set off with buckets and shovels and started prospecting and marking out test areas. We ran the gravels through a little recirculating highbanker and processed the concentrates with a Gold Cube. Then we finish panned the material. There were good signs of color from what we were testing. We worked pretty hard and had a late lunch. Then we hiked down the mountain to say howdy to the miners. The crew was on break and they had two big guard dogs that stopped us at the camp entrance. The crew leader came over and called the dogs back and told us to come in. They had a table set up under a canopy. There was a bottle of Jack sitting there and a few of them were smoking joints.

   None of these guys looked too friendly but the crew leader said his name was Gary and they were out of Nevada. He had a 45 on his hip. They had been hired by the claim owner to run gravel and had a nice washplant set up and a shaker table. He asked us if we wanted to hang out with them until quitting time and work on the washplant. I was pretty excited for the opportunity and took him up on it. When they processed the concentrates there were lines of fine gold coming down the table. He said this was coming from the mountain where our claims were. He said the old timers had shot tailings down the mountain and they missed a lot of the smaller stuff. I told Dustin that this gold had probably been up on our claims at one time. We were really getting excited about our prospects. 

   After quitting time we hung out with them for awhile before heading up to our camp. We had a couple shots of Jack and Gary told us his story of mining. He had been rich and he had been broke. He'd been through two wives. He seemed to know a lot about geology and we soon made friends with him. I invited him up to our mine and he said he'd come up and have a look at the claims sometime when he had the time. With that we shook hands and Dustin and I hiked back up to camp. As we left Gary hollered out that now that he knew we were up there they would shoot their guns in the other direction. I said that was mighty nice of him. 

He kept his word.

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Later in this thread I'll be explaining what 50 feet from glory really means. It kind of has a double meaning in a way. Life is all about adventure & gold.

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16 minutes ago, Lost Scout said:

Wow! I'm going back and read your other threads. Interesting and you write really well! And you've found gold. I'm hooked.

Thank you.

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Sounds like the claim is having it's way with you....and Gary's crew too.

The names change but the claim remains the same.

Maybe you should look up some grandsons of the previous security team ....?

Do you think the "voices" belonged to some..................... BIGFOOT'S ?😳

 

 

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44 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

Sounds like the claim is having it's way with you....and Gary's crew too.

The names change but the claim remains the same.

Maybe you should look up some grandsons of the previous security team ....?

Do you think the "voices" belonged to some..................... BIGFOOT'S ?😳

 

 

We heard then several times as you will see. Someother weird happenings as well. 

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4 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

There IS another option,,,,,,ghost miners ! 😏  Maybe Jack ?

Couldn't resist.

The claims there have quite a history. There were several real gunfight there. They took place between the miners & the ranchers in the 1800's. The mine superintendant was shot to death on the main st of the town & that is real, not fiction. 

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  September 26   2012

   

   Eventually everything settled down on the mountain last night. That crew down on the creek seems to be a rowdy bunch. The mornings are nice and cool or even chilly but it warms nicely by late morning. Great for working. Everything out here is really dry and they could use some rain. I didn’t hear any equipment running down below until late morning. Hopefully no one got shot.

   Today we decided to go over to the north/south running creek just to the west of camp. It’s a seasonal creek and is dry except for some water at the north of that claim. We took the little 12 volt highbanker over there and set it up about 50 feet from the creek. Then we dug in some benches along a mountain that started up at the west side of the creek. We ran material through the highbanker all morning, broke for lunch, and worked until nearly 5:00 PM. We carried everything back to camp and processed the concentrates through the cube. Then we panned it up. Again we saw color. Some really nice little coarse pieces mixed with fine gold. Not bad at all. This area along the creek is a lot easier to work because of available water. In the Spring and early Summer there should be plentiful water all along that area. I am thinking of a big  highbanker or a small trommel. I see several areas already that might be mineable on a small to medium scale and plenty of areas to run small hand dug operations with a highbanker or drywasher. 

   We sat around camp talking after our supper and it got dark. Once again we both thought we heard voices in the woods just a short distance north of camp. Once again I took a flashlight into the area but could find nothing. I shouted out to see if anyone was there but it was quiet again. Not sure what is going on.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

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