Old Miner Don

16 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Oh, & here is something else about those claims. Just a couple of yrs prior to selling the claims to this person the claim owner had leased them to greenhorns from New York State who had gold fever. They had never mined before just like the other guy. The cost? He charged them $25,000 for a lease. Did they get any gold? I heard maybe an ounce before they went bust. Can you say ouch? Or predator?

The seller sounds like he could be one of the guys selling on (ouch)bay.

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Here's a true story. I got a call from a guy that had a gold mining claim about 10 miles from my claims. He was losing his money & asked if my partner & I would come look at his ground. It was an old hydraulic operation from the 1800's. I asked him if he had done much research on it before buying it & he said no but it had an active permit & that's why he bought it. He had gold fever and wanted to mine gold immediately. Then my partner asked him if he had even walked the claim & done any testing. He said no but the geologist told him there was still gold on it.

   So we walked the claim from the creek at the bottom all the way up the mountain. It had all been commercially mined several times and was obvious that there wasn't much left here in the way of gold. Lot's of old hydraulic cuts & hand stacked rock. We ran some tailings through his trommel and found traces of gold but nothing mineable unless gold was $5000/oz. He had been taken and but good. However, it was his own fault for being in a big hurry. There were two claims completely mined out & he had paid nearly $100,000 for them. That's just one of several examples of what I have seen happen to people with gold fever. It can be ugly.

What?!?!? Paid almost 100 grand and never looked at them first? I thought you were going to say that he paid maybe $15 or $20 thousand dollars for those claims. I would love to talk to that guy. I have something here in Oregon that I could let him in on.

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

   July 8   1950

 

   After consulting with the geologist yesterday I am still convinced we will find a glory hole in the bedrock somewhere to the north of our current drifting. I have enough funds to continue mining and exploring for another week. The gravel is still not paying for the work but the slope is declining gently to the northwest away from the fault. 

   

Dang it!

You are hoping that they will leave you alone?

Well that's not what I'm hoping for lol. Let's see what the Thompson can still do!

Too bad you didn't introduce Jacob to Night Vision. He would have gone crazy being able to see in the dark!

Leave the spotlights off next time and just wait in the dark and see if they come back. Wink, smile...

21 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   This is one of the sketches from the geologist of the 1950 project. I have an entire trunk lode of information on thie 1950 - 1959 projects at the northern faultline area. I think because of the 1000 ounce gold strike of 1936 there was a lot of interest in the area after WW2.

Nice sketch work!

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 10   2002

 

   I got up at 5:30 AM this morning and Jacob had already nearly completed the final gold cleanup. I watched him finish pan the last of it with the aid of two lanterns. He weighed it up and there was three quarters of an ounce. When the crew was all gathered for breakfast about half an hour later Jacon showed it to them. It was a nice way to start the day and made us all anxious to dig gravel. 

   We got an early start. It was a great day for working. The sun was out and the morning temperature was in the 40’s. Despite the cool air I was sweating within an hour. We had over six yards processed by lunch and we gave it hell right up to dusk. When we shut down the pump I told the crew we had processed over fifteen yards of pay gravel. Jacob shook each of our hands and gave us one of his high compliments. He told us we were some of the best workers he’d had the pleasure to crew up with. We were all mighty proud miners. Jacob told us to get some grub in us and relax and he’d get the cleanup going early tomorrow morning. I told him I’d be up early to help him. It was a good day. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

Hmm... something about Jacob doing cleanups while the crew is still sleeping.

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

Yes. He always talked in tons but I converted to yards. I always use 2800 lbs to a yard. Not scientific but gives some reference. Jacob was a bit of a slave driver. The old timers were a tough bunch for sure or they were full of bs LOL.

Probably a healthy combination of both 🥴!

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 8   2002     Part One     JACOB GIVES A PEP TALK

 

   We were all up before sunrise and had breakfast as the sun was coming up. The Sierra Nevada air is clean and cold this morning and I am living the life I have dreamt of. We weighed up the gold before 9:00 AM and had .25 of an ounce. 

   We had a quick meeting before heading up to dig. Jacob was giving everyone a pep talk. He was telling us that we needed to buckle down and shovel more gravel into the tom. Converting his tonnage to approximate yardage he wants us to process 12 to 15 yards per day minimum. He said there is no reason why we can’t do it as we get our bodies conditioned to the work. He also said that he would help out as much as he could. At his age we don’t expect him to be a laborer and we told him we are happy to just have him be the mine boss and do all the sampling and help find good areas to dig. Anyway, we will try our best to step up the pace. Jacob said that when they were digging the crew could go from sunrise to sunset with just a few breaks. He told us we are too soft and need to toughen up. He told us he came out here to get gold and wants the crew to be successful.

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

Lol too soft and wants you to toughen up eh? Ohh...okay boss. A yard of gravel weighs well over 2,000 pounds.

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Not in the 2002 journal  :  On the subject of what Jacob called the secret lookout station - I went up there with him once. It is on the northernmost perimeter of the claims and very remote. The old road is still there and winds up to the top of the mountain although you would need a Jeep or 4 wheeler to make it all the way as much of the road has been washed out. In 2019 I tried to get a Ford F150 4 wheel drive up there but got hung up after a short distance and had to back all the way down in reverse as there are no turn around places and the road is narrow with dropoffs on one side and a mountain rock wall on the other. If you ran into a critter up there on foot there is nowhere to go and you would be forced to deal with it. 

   The old crew had a tree stand overlooking part of the road but none of us including Jacob could find it. He did show me the area of the lookout though. Someday, I would like to hike up there and set up a one night camp just to see what happened. There is no cell service either. Not there or anywhere on the claims. That area is known as a bigfoot hot spot but I have never heard or seen anything like that while there. I would be more concerned with mountain lion as I have seen those on the claims before. 

Seems like I recall in the beginning of Jed's journal that Sarge saw something like a hairy man one night while he was on guard duty.

18 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 2   2002

 

   I think Jacob will be limited to panning duties for a spell as his elbow looks swollen and is quite sore. He refused to see a doctor but I am keeping an eye on the injury. We resumed working the gravels and set a steady pace of digging. Every hour or so Jacob would take a sample for panning at the tub. We were seeing some color in the pan each time. Not a lot but enough to keep us interested. 

   The bedrock was a bit deeper here, maybe five to eight feet below our starting point which was the base of the mountain. It took more effort to get there but the entire ten feet or so above bedrock was beginning to show promise. We broke for lunch as usual and got back to digging around 1:00 PM. We continued straight through until 6:00 PM with only two short breaks.

   We were into the base of the mountain enough that there was a bit of overhang. Jacob took the last sample of the day and panned it out. Then he set the pan on the table and gave us a wink and a grin. I knew by now that was a good sign from him. We looked at the contents of the pan. It was loaded with fine and some coarse gold and even a few pickers. Jacob said we had hit a rich area of gravel and needed to start our mine right here. We let out a whoop and I threw my cap in the air. We were finally going to mine for gold. I can’t wait to get started.

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

Mornin'... don't forget a pic of Jacob when you get a chance.

That picture on the cover of your book isn't Jed and crew... correct?

4 hours ago, geof_junk said:

GhostMiner I think I found Jed,s Truck.

If it is not the36 Ford then it must be this one.

 

Nice truck!

9 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Then there was one more story I heard that supposedly took place in 2012. This came from what I would consider a very credible witness who claims to have seen some of the gold. The area was just off my claims at the southern end of the mountain. According to the witness who was not involved in any way with mining or treasure hunting, a crew had dug up a cache of 50 ounces. The funny thing is, I was actually there talking with this crew several times. They were digging areas at the base of the mountain with an excavator and also using metal detectors. They were out of Nevada and had been hired by the claim owner to do some prospecting to see if the claim had any good gravels to mine. At least that's what they told me.

   The crew looked pretty rough. The first time I met them I walked into camp unannounced and was met by two big dogs who they called off. They were sitting at a wooden table drinking whisky and smoking dope. I told them I was the claim owner of all the adjoining areas to their claim. They were all wearing guns and told me it was a good thing I told them and now that they knew I was up there on the mountain they would shoot their guns the other way. They lent me one of their detectors which was a Fisher Gold Bug. It was the only time I ever used one. It was darn friendly of them as they didn't even know me. 

   Eventually I returned the detector with a new battery to boot and thanked them. A week later I went down to their camp but they had packed it up and were gone. Later on, I was talking with a guy who knew these guys. He said I was real lucky they took a liking to me or I would have had my throat slit. For real. This is the kind of crazy stuff that happens out there. One night while camped up near one of the old dig sites by myself I awoke to gunfire at around 2:00 AM. It was a ways off and lasted for at least 15 - 20 minutes and there was a lot of it. I have no idea what was going on.  

I want to go camp out there, but I don't want to either.

18 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   April 28   2002     Part Three     Jacob Talks About The Old Days On The Claims

 

   We sat around the fire after supper tonight and listened to Jacob talk about water pumps, the tom, and running water lines. He was going on about how John wouldn’t let anyone near the tom. He took us over to the edge of the creek and pointed to where the tom had been set. When the creek dried up where the tom was located  back in late Summer of 1936 a Myers pump was set up to the north where the creek still had water and they ran line down to the tom. He was telling us how they ran two pumps in series spaced 1000 feet apart to get the water up to the southern kettle dig site. Jacob said the crew let out a cheer when water arrived at the dig site higher up on the mountain from all the way down below. 

   Then Jacob turned the conversation to the big gold strike on the northern fault line. He said the crew was going crazy with every gold weigh. His brother had somehow stumbled onto a big kettle on the west side of the fault line and there were a couple of smaller ones as well. They had glory holed the entire area up there until the gold was gone. He said he thought there was still a good amount of gold still up in that area waiting to be discovered. It was most likely deeper down in the ground to the north and south of their old diggings. He was reminiscing about the drinking that went on. Mostly, he said, it was kept under control. However, there were nights that it got out of hand. One of the crew would get out a gun and start shooting cans off a rock with only the light of the campfire to go by and then the rest of the crew would start in. Sometimes it would go on for an hour or more and the drinking would continue as well. Mostly though, they had always been able to work the next day although with some hangovers.

   He said they were all fairly young and wild. They felt like they were a rough and ready crew and proved it on many occasions. They had gotten a bad reputation in the neighboring towns but there were some townsfolk that admired them. He said that’s when the crew started to make mistakes because they were getting pretty big heads. They carried guns and felt like outlaws. They had gold. The law, or what there was of it, left them alone. He said they looked out for themselves and made their own rules.

   Jacob told us about his older brother Jed. He said he was short tempered and would fight at the drop of a hat. He said that the crew respected him and he was a good leader even if he did drink too much on occasion. Once Jed started a dig he was relentless. Nothing could stop him. Jacob mentioned working in what he called the big heat. It would be 110 degrees or higher some days in July and August. Their clothes would be soaked in sweat and they could never drink enough water to keep up with it. Yet Jed would dig away, cursing up a storm when he’d hit a big rock that needed a pry bar and giving a big hoot and holler when the crew cleared it out of the way. Jacob said his brother was just plain tough.

   I asked him about the prospectors up on the mountain back then. Jacob shook his head. He said when word somehow got out about their crew being up there and getting gold the mountain suddenly saw lots of activity. Some of the people were ok and some were rif raf as he called them. He said there were a lot of greenhorns like us who came out there with no idea as to what they were doing. He said the old crew didn’t make much of any of them as long as they stayed off their claims. If they didn’t, all hell broke loose. He said that Jed and John beat the hell out of more than a few of them. Those were lawless days. 

 

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

So now that you know the place on the creek where the tom was set up have you done any prospecting or panning just downstream from that location?

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   April 27   2002     Part One

 

   This morning was cold and clear and it was Saturday. Jacob thought we should do some digging until mid afternoon and then go out to the Paxton Hotel for supper and a few drinks with the crew. He seemed to like that place I guess. So we all agreed and headed up to the site after breakfast. I took my Mcculloch Pro Mac 650 chainsaw up there with me. We would need to cut up some downed trees for support logs. There was plenty of deadfall we were permitted to use for our mining operation as well as a part of the plan approved to cut trees as needed for mining. Anything I cut would need to be replaced with two saplings so I preferred to just use deadfall if possible.

   Jim and I worked on the timber while Vern and Jacob went over to our newly opened drift. They dug out some holes to set posts and placed bracing supports overhead. We laid them in where needed and felt secure to drive the drift deeper into the mountain. Jacob told us we would need to keep a careful watch on the tunnel we were forming as we went in further. 

   It was slow going now and we were beginning to hit some decent pay gravels. The bedrock continued to gently slope away from us and we followed it in. By noon we decided to take a quick break and I went down to camp and brought up coffee and sandwiches. Jacob took another sample and it looked promising. We stopped for the day around 3:00 PM and headed back down to camp to get cleaned up. The day had been productive and we were all hopeful of seeing good gold soon. Around 6:00 PM we headed for the Paxton Hotel.

   On the ride over Jacob was telling us about the old days and that place. It was an old railroad hotel and there were once active gold mines along the river there. He said that Saturday nights were pretty wild. There used to be what he referred to as a Saturday night hoot. There would be a band and plenty of girls there. He said this sometimes caused fights to break out. He was wondering if they still had the hoots there. I told him I had no idea but probably not. I think he was hoping there would be something like that going on. When we pulled into the parking area the place looked nearly deserted except for a couple of cars.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

So there were some girls in them thar hills. That's always a good thing unless it's your girlfriend that's getting hit on lol.

1 minute ago, Bedrocker said:

Was his cabin in SW Oregon?

Also curious when you say names were changed. Is this the real Jacob a.k.a. Jed's brother that was with you in 2002? Kinda confused 😕🤔

7 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   He was with the 1936 - 1937 crew. Names were changed. He didn't drink much at this time and had an occasional smoke. I'd say he had a small drink or two per day. Part of his lifestyle.  He was able to work at a slow pace part of the time. He didn't out dig us but did quite well because he prospected all the time when in Oregon. For someone 85 yrs young he was quite impressive. Read on. 

Was his cabin in SW Oregon?

Welp... back in the old days someone would have been shooting at y'all by now lol 😂.

9 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   One of the areas with the marked boulders Jacob showed us. Were there actually some with the circled  X  he talked about? Yes. We were 65 yrs too late as usual.  

I'm confused on the timeline. I would have sworn that the marked boulders were in the fiction part of this gold tale. 

So if not fiction this means that there's actual Spanish gold coins stashed up there somewhere. 

Plus a whole bunch of gold 😂. Nice!

9 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Based on info we got as to buried treasure and gold from the mysterious person who stopped by our claims as well as advice from Jacob we went treasure hunting. Not with a pick and shovel but with a proper digging tool. I won't say here if we found anything but keep reading.  

The Trac hoe was there while Jacob was with you guys?

4 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

Up that draw on the right looks interesting.

It all looks interesting to me!

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   That old shaft looked creepy as hell to me. Those old boys were half crazy I think. Jacob told me some things I can't tell here. 

PM me anytime I'm good with secrets.

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

This is a picture of the shaft Jacob was talking about.

 

Wow how exciting having Jacob in person for a tour guide.

The guy is worth his weight in gold at this point!

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   I didn't write this down back in 2002 but at this point I began to realize there wasn't much that would scare Jacob. He'd seen it all and been to hell and back more than once. He was my hero in every sense of the word and I suddenly understood what the brotherhood of gold mining and prospecting was all about. I had much to learn as did Jim and Vern. We would protect our new partner in good times and bad. Little did we know what lay ahead for us. 

   Also, today marks one year of posting this adventure with over 230,000 views. A BIG THANKS to Steve and all the readers.

Hopefully before it's all wrapped up you post a picture or two of Jacob. 

Or perhaps it'll never be wrapped up LOL.

So was it the deputy, the rancher or both that set them up? The deputy most likely and if so then the crew left back on the claim could be in a whoopass bunch of trouble right now.

I told you!