GhostMiner

Taking a look back at the 1936 journal & remembering Whisky Jack. Some have asked about him. Yes, he was real. He is in the old report as Jack Kemper and was listed as mine laborer / mine hand. His age according to records would have been 79 in 1936. Cause of death was snake bite / heart failure. Gravesite is unknown. I have not been able to locate any relatives but am following one lead that may produce something. However, in researching our mining property, I have found family members of old crews who knew next to nothing about their old relatives & actually learned about them from me. Such is life I suppose. Long gone & forgotten. I am doing my best to keep the old stories alive. Let's go back for a minute & remember when the crew met Jack. July 31 1936 Part One After breakfast we weighed up yesterday's pay and it was as expected. There was barely half an ounce. We were still sitting at camp talking over the digging results when I heard Sarge holler out that there was a man coming up the creek. He told the man to halt which he did. The crew walked over near the creek to have a look see. It was an old man with a white beard. Sarge asked him what he wanted. The old man said he had drove out from his place near town to talk with us. He wanted to meet the crew. I told Sarge to let him come into camp and I asked him what he was there for. The old timer said his name was Whiskey Jack and he had worked the claim here for a mining company about 50 years ago when he was in his twenties. The company he worked for named the claim after him. He was part of a 6 man crew who mined this area with monitors and also by hand drifting tunnels into the mountain. He said they had gotten a lot of gold up here. According to him they had water delivery issues late summer and started drifting into the fault and had found some signs of big gold. He was also on the crew that had driven the Eastern Drift Mine into the mountain. Part of the crew was called off to work at a big mine 8 miles away leaving only three men to continue the drift which they never finished. The following year the company had pulled out of the area and he went with them. They had marked the area on a big boulder on top of the fault. The drift was down near the bottom of the fault in gravels they hadn’t hydraulicked yet. They did it that way to keep the location of the drift secret. Before they left the area they backfilled the opening to hide it. He offered to show me the area and I gladly accepted the offer. The crew followed him out to the dig area and he said it was north from where we were working. We followed him as he walked north where there was no sign of mining. He pointed up to the top of the fault which was about 80 ft higher up. He said he was too old to go up there but told us to look for a big boulder with an X and a cross marked on it. The drift was 80 feet directly below it near the fault line. John stayed down at the bottom talking with the old timer and Jacob, Will, and me climbed up to the top. We searched around for a few minutes and about 75 feet further north than where we started we found the boulder. They had notched the markers in there pretty deep. We were all excited and came back down. I told him we had found it just a little further north than where he remembered. He said the drift was right where there was a kind of opening or hole in the fault line and they had followed it in and moved out rock and gravel. It was a natural cavern below the channel with country at the bottom and above. The country rock had cracked in that area and allowed gold bearing gravels to deposit inside the fault line. That’s why there were few timbers needed and the material inside was mostly smaller gravel with some small rounded river rock. He said there was real good gold in there and each man was taking over 2 ounces a day by pick and shovel work. He was of the opinion that there was big gold deeper in. It was a natural gold trap. Now he had our attention for sure. JULY 31 1936 Part Two I asked Whiskey Jack if he'd like to stick around while we tried to find the old drift. He said sure as he didn’t have anything better to do. We all took the picks and shovels up to the proposed area and started to work. Jack said it wasn’t very deep and if we were directly below that boulder marker at the top we should find it. They had timbered the adit and left a few timbers laying near the opening when they left so he said they were probably still there. The four of us fanned out a bit and started about 20 feet out from the hill as Jack directed. After several hours of digging Jacob said he found a timber. We went over and started digging the area and pretty soon we found another timber and the top of the drift. We shoveled out the area which looked to be backfilled and maybe also covered by slides over the years. We finally got it opened up enough and we had a look in. Whiskey Jack came over and let out a hoot and was stomping his foot on the ground saying there she is. He said it went back in about 50 feet or so and they had stopped for the year and never returned. He remembered the tunnel to be in very stable ground and they hadn’t needed to set much support timber. By now it was getting near dusk and I called it a day. We went back down to camp and fixed up some beans and bacon and I pulled out a bottle. I asked Jack if he wanted a cup. He grinned and said he didn’t get that name for nothing. We fixed him up a place to sleep in one of the tents and Whiskey Jack and me drank a few cups together and talked about mining. Jack told me he had mined for a good part of his life and had worked for several big companies. He said the big company that had worked our area leased out claims to smaller companies and got royalties as well as selling the water to them. He said he had worked one summer on the flume crew when water was brought 20 miles from higher up the mountain with the hand dug ditches. He got off that crew eventually and helped run one of the mining crews and ran a big monitor set on a tripod for one season. He said some of the old toms were 500 to 1000 feet long. He’d seen one of the forkers get hit by mistake from the blast of water from a monitor and get sent sliding down the tom on the side of the mountain breaking several bones in his body. He said the big companies controlled everything including the law. They ran the towns. He said he noticed we had armed guards here and he said the old companies had them too. He’s seen a thief get shot for stealing gold one day. Jack told me our crew was getting a reputation in town. People were saying there is a rough bunch of miners on the mountain not to be messed with. The town folk figured us as a mean bunch that stared down outlaws and spit in their eye. Whiskey Jack was full of old stories about mining back in the old days and I loved listening to them. Sarge and Ben were on watch duty and the crew had all retired for the night but Whiskey Jack and me sat up drinking Irish whiskey until deep into the night.

On the subject of the underground mines - here is a video of the old 1855 Nebraska Mine in the northern Sierra Nevada. I don't know if Bill is still working this mine but a number of years ago I got a lot of guidance from him. I know there is a lot of gold still in this mine.

Remember Bill Anderson's story of The Graveyard Train where the miners had hooked a number of ore cars together & one of the crew rode them on the rails down the mountain to the creek. However, the train of cars had failed to negotiate a sharp curve and plummeted into a ravine killing the miner. Bill called it The Graveyard Train.

A nice video showing some old ore cars. Note that the works were hand dug.

August 12 2002 The crew was up at dawn with the exception of Conor who didn’t come out of his camper until just after 8:00 AM. He didn’t have much of anything to say to me and he and Bill went up to the Hidden Mine with their new detectors. In the meantime, Jacob and I started up the trommel and got to mining gold. The place we were digging did have fine gold but it was all tailings from the upper mining area that had been shot down the mountain over 100 years ago. Occasionally we would pull up an old homemade bucket or some other bits of scraps from the old timers. We didn’t see anything of Bill and Conor all morning. At lunch Jacob said we would run the gravel where we were digging for the remainder of the day and do a cleanup and then do a gold weigh tomorrow to see if the ground was worth the trouble. He had been doing test pans with poor results and wasn’t confident we were going to make much gold there. We ran the trommel until dusk and processed a whopping 275 yards which gave us a two day run of 425 yards. I knew we had gold but how much gold? Tomorrow I will tell the story. Conor and Bill had already had their supper by the time Jacob and I got back to camp. I asked Bill if they had any luck and he shook his head no. Conor was silent. I asked Bill how long they were going to metal detect the area and he wasn’t sure. He said they wanted to comb a large area from the mine heading outward to see if they could find anything. I wished him good luck. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Moonshine, mineshafts, & old cabins. I have some shine to drink tonight as well. Cheers from GhostMiner.

August 11 2002 Part Two Another Confrontation Jacob and I worked the rest of the day without any issues. The trommel was running smooth as silk and we were seeing some gold in the sluice box. It was mostly very fine and it was hard to tell how much but at least we were seeing gold again. I always sleep better after seeing it. We ended up with 150 yards of washed gravel. When we walked into camp Bill and Conor were playing with their new detectors. Bill said they had been given instructions by the guy who ran the shop where they bought them and they even used them before bringing them back to camp. He seemed confident that he and Conor would find the supposed 1000 ounces of hidden gold. It had been a hot day and after supper we sat around camp drinking a few beers and talking about gold. Conor and Bill had gotten hold of some moonshine in town and they opened up a jar and started drinking it. I tasted it and it was powerful stuff. Jacob had a sip or two as well. After a while Conor started getting a little drunk again. Then he opened up a can of worms. He was saying that this mining property really was Jed’s and seeing how he had been murdered it should have gone to him. He just went on and on about it. After listening to this for about 15 minutes I heard enough. I told him that it was a tragedy that Jed died and the mine did go to Jacob until the crooks killed the crew and took it over in 1937. I tried to explain to him that I had legal rights to all of the mining claims that made up the vast property. However, he didn’t want to hear it and told me he should be getting a big cut of the gold we had worked for this year. I laughed in his face and told him that wouldn’t happen. He knew that he and Jacob were splitting up Jacob’s gold and they had their own agreement that didn’t concern me. After a spell Conor staggered back to his camper in a fit of drunken anger. Jacob got up to follow him in. I told Jacob that he needed to rein Conor in or I would do it for him. He didn’t say anything and Bill went to bed as well. I stayed up for a spell and had a drink of the moonshine to settle down. I looked up at the big sky and finished my beer. It was nice to have some quiet time alone. I was thinking that Conor had the worst case of gold fever I had seen and he could become unhinged - especially when he drank. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Same here. Must be an issue with the site. Tried posting some pictures but got same message.

Sorry about that. I was attempting to add a picture & link but am unable to do so.

-- checking --

August 11 2002 Part One The morning came without further incident and Jacob and I were up bright and early with the sunrise. I couldn’t say the same for Bill and Conor who were still sleeping it off at 9:00 AM. We let them sleep and got busy with our own mining operation where we had started down near the creek. It seemed like an eternity since we had mined any gold and we were both chomping at the bit to get some gravels dug. We continued where we had left off and by noon we’d processed 50 yards. The sluice on the trommel was showing some promise. We took a quick lunch break at camp. Bill was sitting in a chair and Conor had just gotten up. They both looked pretty sick and hung over. They had some coffee and a little food. Bill said they were going to town to buy a couple of metal detectors. Then they planned to start scanning the grounds around the Hidden Mine for buried gold. I asked them if they knew how to operate a metal detector and they said no but would get some directions from wherever they were buying them from. Jacob agreed that it might be a good idea and if anything would give them a new skill. As for Jacob and I, we were just happy to dig holes and test pan gravels. The thought of a casket with 1000 ounces of gold buried somewhere on the claims seemed incredulous to me but I figured it would keep them out of my hair while I mined. Jacob told Conor to make sure they bought some good equipment and get some instruction on operating them as well. With that we left them to nurse their hangovers and got back to work. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Not In The Journal : At this point I was having thoughts of closing down the mine for the year and heading home. The makeshift crew was loose and dangerous. I had no idea what was coming next & it was probably a good thing I didn't. Whisky, gold, & guns aren't a good mix. Barrooms, broken hearts, & bad decisions were coming.

August 10 2002 Part Eight Gunshots After Midnight I thought about trying to wake Jacob but decided against it. Our other two crew members were dead drunk and out cold. I didn’t like being in this situation and realized it could be dangerous or possibly nothing at all. I did have my semi auto handgun on me with an extra magazine on the holster. I got situated in a dark place against some bushes where I would not be seen. As the two men got closer I could see they were drinking and also could hear them talking about finding a campsite or something like that. Then they got close enough to see our campers and tents. The two of them stopped and were looking around. They were whispering something and got into a quiet discussion. Then one of them slowly approached Jacob’s camper. The other one was following him. They were sizing it up for sure. I couldn’t see any guns on them but wasn’t positive. The first guy was now close to the camper and looking around the outside of it. Obviously he was looking to steal something. The other guy motioned to him and pointed over at an area of camp where we had some various tools and supplies sitting on a wooden table. Just as I was about to intervene the door of the camper swung open and out came old Jacob with the Thompson in hand. He hadn’t gone to bed yet. I jumped out of my hiding area and pointed my handgun at them and hollered for them to get on the ground. Then Jacob fired off a short burst into the ground near them with the Thompson and they turned and ran. I fired off several rounds in the air as well. Jacob was actually laughing and yelled out for them to come back and fight like men. They disappeared into the night. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

August 10 2002 Part Seven We got our samples crushed up and panned out to see what gold was in them. The results were very poor. Jacob figures that’s why this vein was not mined but just abandoned in the east wall. This was nearly more than Bill could handle. It was as if the old miners had taunted him somehow. He had believed in the old stories. That trophy quartz sample he carried all these years may have indeed come from that mine but there was nothing remaining but a low grade vein now. He opened a bottle of whisky and began to get drunk. I turned to Jacob and asked him what we should do now. He said that Bill and Conor could work the lower drift mine that contained the gold rich quartz and that he and I would get back to work sampling the bottom of the mountain for any remaining gold in the gravels down there. He told Bill to buck up. I reminded Bill that I was giving him the opportunity to continue working our mine and he now had Conor to help him. He seemed to be coming around to the reality of the situation now. Conor was all for the idea of working with Bill. I figured the two of them could process enough gold out of that lower mine to make some decent money for themselves as well as Jacob and I. And who knows, maybe Jacob and I will get lucky and find ourselves a nice pocket somewhere down here. As it got dark Bill was still drinking whisky. He was drunk as hell and still rambling on about the rich ore that used to be in the Hidden Mine. Conor was also getting drunk and talking about trying to find a buried casket with 1000 ounces of gold. He asked his Uncle Jacob about it. Jacob told him that it would be a wild goose chase and there probably was no buried casket out here. Conor and Bill were starting to talk about hunting for it. I told them to do as they wished but it would likely be a waste of their time. Along about 11:00 PM Bill went into his tent. He was so drunk he had to crawl. Conor wasn’t in much better shape and Jacob and I helped him into the camper. Jacob and I went back over to the campfire and did a little talking. Jacob said Bill and Conor were washing out their disappointment and would be ok tomorrow. I told him I was ok with trying to work the sparse gravels at this location and get a little more gold before the season ended. I asked Jacob what he thought about Bill and Conor looking for buried gold. He said they should give it a try and get it out of their systems. Jacob turned in but I stayed up for a little longer to do some thinking. I poured a small cup of whisky and let the fire burn down. It was getting pretty cool now and I put on a flannel shirt. The stars were all out and all I could hear was the creek running slow and calm. It had been a hell of a day. Actually, a hell of a Summer so far. I was starting to look forward to heading back home in the Fall. It was close to midnight and I was tired and ready for bed. I made sure the fire was out and covered it with dirt. As I got up to head back to my camper I thought I heard something. I stopped and listened. Yes, there were a couple of people with flashlights heading east along the creek towards camp. I saw two lights bobbing around and getting closer. My fire was out and our camp was dark except for a small light that was on in Jacob's camper. Who would be walking around out here this late at night? TO BE CONTINUED ..................

August 10 2002 Part Six Bill didn’t say a word and we took the paper with us. We explored the north drift until it ended abruptly just 60 feet from the storage room. There was no sign of a quartz vein. The only thing left for us to do was take samples from the one vein we did find in the east tunnel. Then we went back up to the surface. Conner was asking us if we had found gold down there and I answered him that there was only one vein showing and we had brought up some samples from it. Bill seemed to be devastated. His dreams of finding quartz with streaks of gold through it had been dashed. We hiked back down to camp. It was well into the afternoon and we fixed up some grub and discussed the day's events. I gave the note to Jacob and he shook his head saying something bad must have happened at that mine. Bill figured that one of the partners may have murdered the other and buried him in a casket loaded with 1000 ounces of gold. Perhaps he had to leave the area and couldn’t take all the gold so he hid the rest. As to why he had left a note we didn’t know. Maybe he had a morbid sense of humor. If there was a casket full of gold buried on the mountain where might it be? Jacob said probably not far from the mine they got it from. I agreed. I told Bill that we would find out this afternoon if the vein that was left was worth mining. I also consoled him by reminding him that he still had the lower mine with a good run of gold bearing quartz to work. Maybe it wasn’t loaded with two or three inch streaks of gold but it was still rich. It didn’t seem to help much. TO BE CONTINUED ................

I actually had a guy come all the way from Scotland to work with us back in 2019. Send him over.

Something else to figure out here. Didn't Bill call those wrecked mine cars the Graveyard Train?

August 10 2002 Part Five An Old Chest And A Poem Bill shined his light in as well and it quickly became evident this area was some kind of old storage room. The walls looked to be cedar. It was about fifteen by twenty feet in size and at the north wall was another five foot wooden door. We opened it to expose another tunnel heading straight north and inclining up the mountain. The dimensions were five by five by six just like the others. We could feel fresh air coming in from somewhere which meant ventilation of some sort. We took a good look around the big room. There wasn’t much of anything in there except some old gloves and rags. Then in the southeast corner we saw an old blanket that seemed to be covering something. We went over and uncovered an old wooden chest made of pine. There was a latch but no lock. I took a look at Bill and his hands were shaking a bit. Without saying a word he opened it up. The only thing in there was an old piece of yellowed paper with some words written on it. It looked to be a poem of some sort. Here is what was written. THE GHOST MINER I dig a hole cover up my tracks far as I know I ain’t comin’ back A mystery they may never solve hidden gold from the motherlode Ghost Miner is the name he’s called a thousand ounces in a casket culled The old Ghost Miner starin’ down a forty five out in the Sierra Nevada he didn’t survive The graveyard train rollin’ down the track will never bring that miner back The gold is gone sad and blue gone for good without no clue I looked at Bill and he was just staring at the paper with the flashlight illuminating it. What the hell was this supposed to mean?

Some of you readers may have wondered how I came up with my name GhostMiner. I have spent over 23 years of my life prospecting, mining, & exploring old gold mines in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Ghost mines you could call them I suppose. Sometimes I swear I can still hear the old timers working them. I've lived off grid on them with crews and also by myself. I've got so many interesting stories aside from the journal that someday I may write a book about it all. This all started when I quit my business I ran for yrs to chase a dream of gold. I knew nothing about prospecting or mining before 2002. I learned on the go with the help of some good people who were also chasing golden dreams. Not a good plan but somehow it worked out for me. I no longer have to work and am able to live off a nice retirement plan thanks to gold. I am thankful that my wife and love of my life was able to put up with all of this and my being gone for so much of the time. She did travel with me at times but mostly stayed at home to take care of things while I chased gold. Many of the areas I explored were dangerous and remote. Too dangerous for me to bring her. I've had some close calls including several bad falls that should have killed me. I've been shot at, robbed, and involved in a few all out brawls both on the mines and in bars. A crazy Humphrey Bogart life at times. But getting back to my nickname and how it started is coming up in the next entry of the journal today. I just thought I'd take a minute to explain it first. Also, I'd like to dedicate this song to my wife Lindy and thank her for sticking with me all these years.

I will look. I might have some from the ladder looking up on one of the levels in the shaft.

So much gold we might "Walk Like An Egyptian."

August 10 2002 Part Four This northerly tunnel seemed to head in a fairly straight direction and climbed a gentle slope. There were signs it had been worked and after about 100 feet it gradually began to incline a bit steeper and slowly turned to the east but only slightly. After another 50 feet we came to a wall of rubble. There had been no sign of a vein. I turned to Bill and said his specimen of quartz may not have come from this mine after all and perhaps he had been chasing a myth all this time. Bill shook his head no. He said he was going back to the junction for his pick and shovel he had brought in. As I waited on him I shined my flashlight around the walls and ceiling. There was no quartz to be seen. There were timbers in some of the areas that required shoring. It was a creepy place and I didn’t much enjoy being in there by myself. Eventually Bill made it back with his digging tools. He also had a five gallon metal bucket. Bill said that he didn’t think the mine ended here. He advised me to take a look at the rocks and rubble that ended the drift. He said this had likely been pulled down to close the rest of the tunnel. He figured that whoever was working it had to leave and didn’t want anyone finding the rest of the mine. So we started to work by pulling away the loose gravel and rock and after clearing about a foot of the loose wall I spotted part of an old wooden door. It looked to be about five feet across and six feet or so in height. It completely sealed another entry. We hurriedly moved the lower part of the false wall away to fully expose the old mine door. It was hinged to a heavily timbered opening. I pulled it open and shined my flashlight in. I hollered for Bill to take a look at what I was seeing. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE GhostMiner.

August 10 2002 Part Three As we rounded a curve the tunnel began to flatten out and continued to curve slightly south. It was obvious there had been a lot of work here in the heavy ground. It was void of any artifacts though. Once we were in a ways we shined our flashlights along the walls. We didn’t see much of anything but as we slowly kept walking in there it was. A large quartz vein that poked out of the south wall. It had been chopped by pick and shovel work and there was a long streak of it running along the wall. Bill poked me and said quietly “There she is!” The drift continued on for another 50 feet and then started to descend quickly to the southeast. The quartz vein had disappeared. After another 100 feet or so the drift popped out of the side of the mountain about 150 feet above the lower creek. We could look down on it from there. The opening was hidden by lots of Manzanita bushes and small pine trees. A hiker could walk right past it and never see it. That’s where the air was coming from. I radiod Jacob and let him know what was going on. Then we went back to the intersection and started to explore the tunnel that headed north. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

August 10 2002 Part Two We Enter The Hidden Mine Jacob and Conor made their way over to our discovery. Jacob told everyone to stand back a ways from the timbers. He said we needed to inspect the opening and make sure there was nothing ready to collapse. Bill and I carefully started to remove the old lumber that covered the entry. The shaft seemed stable and was about 5 feet by 5 feet in diameter. An old wooden ladder made from cut timber disappeared into the dark down below. We shined our flashlights down. There was a wood plank a few feet below the surface and fastened against the wood side wall supports. On it was painted a crude skull and crossbones with the words dead men tell no tales. Bill laughed and said the old miners must have put it there to scare off unwanted intruders. I volunteered to be the first to go in. Bill shined his light on the ladder and I carefully tested each step as I went down. At about the 10 foot below surface level there was a wooden floor with a hole cut for the ladder to continue down. Everything was still solid and Bill came down and shined his light through the opening as I continued down. Each level of 10 feet in depth had a floor. We did this for 80 feet until we made it all the way to the bottom. Then the shaft opened up quite a bit with tunnels running south back towards the buried opening we had been working on and also to the north and east. Everything that needed support looked to have it at this junction. I radioed to Jacob at the top and told him that Bill and I had made it all the way down and were going to check the three tunnels. I could feel fresh air coming from somewhere so we figured there must be at least one or more air shafts or pipes that were still functioning. The first tunnel we took was to the south. We didn’t get far. The entire drift had collapsed. There were cracked and broken timbers and heavy rocks lying in with the gravels. We didn’t see any sign of a quartz vein but it may have been buried under tons of material. It would have taken our little four man crew a full year to make entry from our initial sight. We carefully eased on out of that tunnel and headed into the one that went east. We shined the flashlight down the drift and it looked to make a slow turn south and sloped upwards on a gentle angle. There were big support timbers on the sides and ceiling which was high enough for us to stand upright. There was also a lot of overhanging rock. We carefully made our way in. TO BE CONTINUED ..............