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


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23 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

A very colorful past,,,hoping the only color left is gold !

 

I wish but not always so.

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   September 27   2012

 

   We did some good prospecting along the north/south running creek in the morning. We took samples every 50 feet and there were good colors in 75% of the samples. We only dug down a couple feet in benches and sandbars so we were quite happy with the results. 

   We were finishing supper when Gary and one of his crew came up to camp. They had hustled up the mountain and were nearly out of breath. Gary asked me if I had seen anyone on our claims or near our camp today. I said no and asked him why. He said someone had tried to take some things from their camp down at the west/east creek where they were camped at. The dogs had started barking which alerted him and he caught a glimpse of a couple of guys running away. He said they got his Gold Bug detector but he didn’t think they got anything else. When he saw them they were heading up the mountain in our direction. 

   I told Gary I would take a look around and leave Dustin to watch camp. Gary and his partner headed on up the mountain. I grabbed my handgun with a couple of 15 round clips and started off to the west towards the creek we had been sampling. There was an old logging road on the other side of the creek going up the mountain and I headed up there. Wouldn’t you know it but I saw two guys coming down the old road with a metal detector. This area also happened to be on one of our claims. I played dumb and asked them if they were having any luck. They looked a little wary of me and said no, they weren’t finding anything. They said they were just looking for relics. I saw that the detector was a Gold Bug. I invited them to join us at camp and have a beer. They kind of looked at each other and said sure. So I walked them into camp and told Dustin to get a couple beers for them. I gave him a wink. We sat there drinking beers and talking and they had another beer. I asked them how they liked the Gold Bug. One of them laughed and said they weren’t sure as they hadn’t had it long. They said they had recently bought it from a prospector out this way.

   Eventually I heard Gary and his partner coming back down the mountain. The two thieves started to stand up and said they had to get going. I pulled my gun and told them to stay put as Gary came walking in. He had quite a surprised look on his face. Gary was the kind of guy you liked to have for a friend but I got the sense that if you crossed him he'd slit your throat. He didn’t say one word but just walked up to one of the thieves and stuck a knife under his chin. His buddy tried to run but Gary’s partner grabbed him and threw him on the ground and held him at gunpoint. I wouldn’t mess with him either. They thanked me and Gary said he owed me one. With that they took the two thieves back down the mountain. I wouldn’t have wanted to be them.

 

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

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   BTW, this really captures my story of how I got into gold exploration in California. It will take you from prospecting to mining with large equipment and more. The adventures took place over 9 yrs and are still going to this day. I've even had an engineer come all the way to the mines from Scotland. He was so interested in the real story of the area that he came out in 2019 with his girlfriend from China and worked with us. When you start projects like this you just have no idea where it will take you and the different people you will meet. Even two offers to be on one of the gold mining shows on Discovery - once in 2020 & once in 2021. It will all be told during this thread and it's my personal story. If you ever thought of getting into gold mining & what to expect it's a must read. Or if you're into adventure it's a great read. 

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5 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

Or if you're into adventure it's a great read. 

Aye GM indeed, I suspect I`m going to enjoy your recent journey as much as Jeds

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1 hour ago, Norvic said:

Aye GM indeed, I suspect I`m going to enjoy your recent journey as much as Jeds

Thanks much.

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   At this early stage of exploration on the claims I had no idea about the big gold strike that had taken place in 1936. I had not come across the government report yet. That didn't happen until early in 2013. I was not aware of the area up to the north where the prospector made his discovery. Another thing I had yet to learn was how gold fever can change people. I have seen the worst side of people at times because of gold. Not everyone but some. The fever is real and it can be dangerous as you will see. 

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   September 28   1936

 

   Dustin and I now had friends on the mountain. We would back each other up if there was trouble. Gary’s crew was a rough bunch but were not afraid to stand up to trouble makers. I felt the same way. Nobody was ever going to push me around on my claims and I had no problem with fighting for what was mine. 

   We set off on an exploration of the northern ravine where the north/south creek ran. The walls  got higher and steeper the further north we went and also it was much more remote. The creek was now about 100 feet below the top of the walls and fairly narrow with not much room on either side. There was good water flowing and we had our 12 volt highbanker and a spiral wheel I had purchased. We would use that to clean up the concentrates before a final panning.

   It was a cool and clear morning and the peacefulness of the location made me want to work there all the more. We shoveled away at the bottom of the steep banks and limited floodplain areas and fed the highbanker. We weren’t able to move much gravel through it at a fast pace but it was perfect for sampling. I found that using a 2200 GPH 12 volt bilge pump I could process about 200 - 400 pounds of gravel per hour and we could do about a yard a day maximum. That would be if we set down all day on one spot without moving but our intentions at this point were to just sample multiple locations and mark them on our maps. We were finding some good spots up there and we worked until around 4:00 PM.

   We headed back to camp with a little gold in our vile and were quite pleased with the day’s results. It felt good to be out here in the mountains and prospecting for gold. We were away from society and had no cell service. We listened to the radio at night when we relaxed and talked about the claims and life in general. I knew at this point that I would never go back to my regular life. I was hooked. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

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