GhostMiner

7 minutes ago, Lanny said:

So, in your original post, you listed the gold as placer, but later in the post you said it was ore. Did you get that straightened out as you've done more research?

As well, is the follow-up with the other people you've contacted for the search/the current search a factual account, or is this another fictional story (like your other story posted on this site) that you'll be writing? Just curious, and I'd sure appreciate the clarification.

I have a good factual story about lost gold, all placer, that is quite the dramatic tale.

All the best,

Lanny

It was placer un refined gold. Some called it ore but my definition of ore is gold held in host rock which it wasn't. In my continuing mining journal the beginning years were based on true events but added to. Kind of like what a movie is based on. All of the gold totals were real as well as some of the people but names were changed. Some parts were fictional or embellished accounts. Hope that helps. As far as the story my grandfather told me and my adventures in the treasure hunt, I hope to be able to have you watch it & the people described in a new streaming show soon. Cheers & thanks for your interest. 

  Day 2

   Our team had a meeting arranged at breakfast with a retired harbor master from one of the ports in Washington. His name was Jim and he was in his mid 80’s. Jim had come forth with information he claimed to have concerning our search. He had contacted the research team several months ago and was now going to tell us what he knew or heard. 

   Jim was straight forward and appeared to be a no nonsense individual. He told us that several close friends of his had known an old sailor whose grandfather had worked for a British merchant shipping company. This man's father who was called Cloudy had told him a wild story one night. Cloudy traveled all over the world on a British Trading vessel. They made numerous trips to the United States hauling all kinds of cargo. On one of the excursions the ship's captain who he knew well and had worked under for several years was suddenly removed at the last minute and another captain put in charge. His name? William Shears.

   The crew was not given a reason or explanation as to the sudden change but Cloudy thought it to be a bit strange. Also, the consignor, consignee, and holder of the Bill of Layden as well as the Bill of Laydon itself had been kept a secret. He remembered the crew being on edge about this as they were in effect sailing blind as they called it. But they were sailors and sail they must.

   Cloudy told his son that they eventually made their way up the coast of California and all the way north to the port of Bellingham where they docked briefly. He said that crates from some loading wagons were placed in the ship's hold and they sailed off north again until reaching Drayton Harbor. Somehow the crew had gotten hold of some leaked information about trouble on the waters ahead of them to the north off the shores of Canada.

   Captain Shears had now set anchor in Drayton Harbor off the coast of Washington and just south of Blaine. When it got dark a number of Jolly boats were dispatched layden with boxes of unknown cargo and goods. Neither the boats or the sailors who were on them returned. A lantern light was seen from shore and it went on and off several times. Then Captain Shears pulled anchor and headed south back down the coast.

   This was a fascinating story and we thanked the retired harbor master for relaying this information. Later that day our team disbanded leaving the metal detecting person, the two researchers, the producer / video person, and myself to begin the search. The meeting with Jim had been video recorded. We were to report to Jackson every day. The plan was to start doing some on the ground searching along the shores south of Blaine. We would be looking for any clues we might find and had another meeting scheduled for the next day with another man who was a local historian. I was getting pretty excited to be a part of this hunt.

8 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   It wouldn't be hard to dig there but the research jived with my grandfathers story about trying to take a freight wagon into Canada. But they never made it. I've got to be honest, when my grandfather told me the privateers name I wanted to laugh. But he didn't make up stories. Then, when we were able to verify the captains existence and records it could not be disputed. Everything suddenly lined up. What I was learning was how extensive this criminal ring was and the stolen gold shipment was only a small part of the entire story. Pretty fascinating stuff here.

   

 

42 minutes ago, Mike Furness said:

The video of Drayton Harbor showed plenty of remote places to send a crew in a row boat to bury treasure if that was the intent. Those sandy beaches would be good landing spots and the heavily forested land would hide any activity ... especially if done at night under the cover of a moonless darkness! Just my immediate thoughts after viewing the video.

Also, the area near Blaine Washington and Drayton Harbor is very close th the Canadian border so to me it made sense that if they were offloading there it was a short haul to Canada. The one thing I didn't understand was why they didn't just sale farther north and either off load to a waiting ship or onto the shores of Canada directly. Or did they?

23 minutes ago, Mike Furness said:

The video of Drayton Harbor showed plenty of remote places to send a crew in a row boat to bury treasure if that was the intent. Those sandy beaches would be good landing spots and the heavily forested land would hide any activity ... especially if done at night under the cover of a moonless darkness! Just my immediate thoughts after viewing the video.

   It wouldn't be hard to dig there but the research jived with my grandfathers story about trying to take a freight wagon into Canada. But they never made it. I've got to be honest, when my grandfather told me the privateers name I wanted to laugh. But he didn't make up stories. Then, when we were able to verify the captains existence and records it could not be disputed. Everything suddenly lined up. What I was learning was how extensive this criminal ring was and the stolen gold shipment was only a small part of the entire story. Pretty fascinating stuff here.

   I have had several of what I refer to as "Great Adventures" in my life. My wife was amazed at some of the things I have done. I didn't meet her until I was nearly 30 years old. By then I had already lived what many would call a full life. Hitch hiking across the country to California with only $8 dollars in my pocket when I was just 18. Living along the way in abandoned buildings or sometimes off grid. Riding freight trains to far off locations. Playing in several rock bands. I had a tryout back in the day for third base position for the Houston Astros. I could have had a contract with them to start out in one of their minor league franchises but passed. I also boxed for a number of years and sparred with a number of professionals. Mining for gold in California. And just last year going on a treasure hunt and looking for something based on a story that was passed down through multiple generation of our family. I am not finished yet. For me, life is an adventure to be lived to the fullest. I really hope all of you readers will enjoy this particular journey that I was blessed to partake in. See you on Day 2.

  Day 1

   I was quite nervous when I arrived at Drayton Harbor just outside the town of Blaine Washington. I was alone and preparing to meet my team. I will use names that may or may not be the actual names based on authorization from each individual. There was Gary, the metal detecting expert, professional treasure hunter Jackson & assistant Dave, research team Larry & Frank, & film producer Nelson. Six people in all plus myself. I immediately felt outnumbered and was thinking to myself what I had started. There was no turning back now.

   There was a large motorhome parked near the water and we sat outside at a table looking out at the water. Pleasantries were exchanged and then Jackson asked me if I knew why we were all meeting at this location. My answer was a quick no. He proceeded to tell me that his research had indicated that this location, not Bellingham, was the area where Captain Shears offloaded the hijacked gold shipment onto the waiting freight wagon. He told the team that Bellingham was only a stop off point to pick up some stolen jewelry and coin plunder that had arrived days before. Evidently, there was more involved here than a simple gold shipment robbery. The heists were likely committed by a sophisticated ring of thieves. Then he turned over the meeting to researchers Larry and Frank.

   According to them, there had been multiple strong arm robberies in Nevada and northern California involving banks, gold shipments, and jewelry heists. This was all planned out by a master group of thieves and their henchmen. The stolen goods were stored in several clandestine locations with the intent to ship everything out in a large-scale move into Canada where a very wealthy criminal ring based out of England was waiting. The large treasure hoard was to be sold at a reduced value to its real worth. In other words, it was being laundered for pennies on the dollar. 

   Larry and Frank told me that what my grandfather had told me was just the tip of the iceberg. They took out a briefcase and set it on the table. When they popped it open there were copies of old newspaper clippings as well as a number of very old police reports. I was blown away. These people had done a tremendous amount of research work and knew much more than I could have ever dreamed of.

   Jackson had lined up a place for all of us to stay for the night and eventually we all headed to our lodge. I was given copies of the research and spent quite a bit of time reading and rereading everything. What they didn’t give me was the plan for the treasure hunt and where it would begin. They told me that information would be disclosed the next day.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

   “ My Grandfather’s Tale Of A Privateer And Hijacked Gold Shipment “

                                                      The Beginning

   The realization of what I wanted to do hit me in the Spring of 2022. I actually was seriously contemplating putting a team of treasure hunters together to look for a supposed lost gold shipment that had occurred nearly 160 years ago. Then it was pointed out to me that the value of this gold in today’s currency would be somewhere between 5 & 8 million dollars. Could this even be possible? Would anyone take me seriously? 

   It all started one cold Winter night early in 2022. I had been posting this information on several websites. It was just before dinner time when the phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and figured it was probably some scammer or spammer trying to sell me something or get my information. I let the answering machine take a message. It was someone who I had actually heard of before and I was somewhat familiar with his work. I googled the name to dig up further info on him and told my wife who had called. Her response was why would he bother calling me? I explained everything and she thought I should call him back. What would I even say? After all, the only thing I had was my grandfather's story that had been handed down to him and then my father who had scoffed at it. The only concrete thing I actually had was the research that had been done on the name of the privateer. That and my grandfather's word that what he told me was true. I decided to return the call.

   To my surprise the person I spoke with did not make fun of the story or try to shoot it full of holes. The first thing he wanted to know - was I on the level and did I believe it? I answered yes. Then he went on to tell me that he had personally verified my information about the privateer and he was real. He also had information on certain times when this privateer was actually sailing on the west coast of the United States.This had caused him to dig deeper and he was able to verify that my great great grandfather was indeed a partner in a fairly large scale gold mining operation in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. This verified for me what I had been told.

   He also told me he had in his possession a list of gold shipment robberies that had taken place and they fit the time period. Several were by Black Bart himself. There were several other’s done by unknown robbers. He told me that to cut to the chase he was of the opinion that what I was told was true. He was not able to verify the amount of gold in the stolen shipments but explained that the values were most likely in the $5 to $10 million area in today’s currency. Possibly more. He wanted to meet with me to further discuss a treasure hunting venture. 

   We set up a meeting for a week later. He flew into an airport near me and I picked him up and took him directly to my house. He was all business but also quite pleasant. I told him I had been getting ready to personally fund a treasure hunt. He was impressed by my conviction and offered me a deal where he would supply some key personnel on the research end. He would take a small percentage if we found anything and he also recommended several people he had previously worked with for a team. I would still be able to pick people as well and would be involved in the decision making.

   His percentage was very reasonable and we seemed to hit it off right from the start. The two of us spent the next day drawing up a Memorandum Of Understanding and we took it to my lawyer. Then he left and told me to call him when I was ready or if I had any questions. My lawyer advised me to request several small changes and when that was done our agreement was complete. I was to help lead a treasure hunting group in the quest to find an actual lost gold shipment. I had no idea what an adventure this was going to become. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

1 hour ago, Mike Furness said:

Guilty as charged I guess! But I do have respect for Jacob ... he is a rough character and seems quick to the fist but aren't many of us? LOL I meant no harm in my observation. And you are probably right Jacob would have at least raised his fist to me if I had been able to say that to his face. He may have even let me have it! So please don't stop with the postings ... I am one of your long time readers and one of your defenders on a now dead forum. Keep with the postings ... PLEASE!

   No worries. That's why I started that response with an LOL. Just taking a short break. 

   So my small crew of treasure hunters did indeed spend the last part of Summer 2023 as well as early Fall out in the state of Washington. We hired a purported expert metal detectorist ? that was with us part of the time. He (or she) (we aren't allowed to disclose the name) seemed to know what they were doing. Lord knows I am clueless on that subject. I am also not allowed to disclose the brand of detector at this time but it is a well known company and the detectors used were quite expensive. There was a producer with us on certain days when we had significant things to film and record. Of course now everyone might want to know what we found (if anything.) And where exactly did we search? I guess we had better go back to the beginning and start there so it all makes some sense. We'll start with some further preliminary info and then get into Day one. I will say that it took me a lot longer to get this hunt started. I learned some very valuable lessons along the way such as who is reliable and who is not. I spent a year and a half of my own time and money before I ever stepped foot in the state of Washington. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

   I was in the path of the total eclipse. Pretty cool. Temperature dropped 15 degrees for a short period of time. As the eclipse got completed it went dark and fast but only for several minutes. I could hear large groups of people cheering from everywhere.  

16 hours ago, Mike Furness said:

He wasn't ... and that is the problem! The 'old days' are gone but not for him. What is he 70 something at that time of the fight. He hated the loggers as much as the loggers hated him ... maybe more! Or at least that is how I read it.

Just an old man talking with two woman. No cause for young men to start shoving him around. 

17 hours ago, dig4gold said:

Jacob can take full responsibility for starting that s#it fight. Not fair on the rest of you. What was he thinking??

D4G 

He was thinking that he wanted to talk with two ladies at the bar. Should not be a reason for two young guys to start shoving an old man around.

On 3/19/2022 at 11:06 AM, GhostMiner said:

   This is a story that originated with my great great grandfather & was told to me many years ago by my grandfather. It has never been verified  :  A raw gold shipment from a mine in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California bound for processing was hijacked on a lonely mountain road & taken to a port on the west coast. The haul was purported to be somewhere between $50,000 - $75,000 at the time of the theft. A ship sat waiting to be loaded and a man by the name of William Shears was the captain. They sailed north along the coast all the way to Washington state where they unloaded the booty & buried most of it. My grandfather told me he believed it is still there. 

   According to my grandfather the shipment was placer gold & was heading for a small smelting operation not too far from the mine. Someone had advance knowledge of the date of shipment and planned the robbery. He said there were five armed men on horseback who did the strong arm robbery while taking the two freight men hostage. By the time the mine owners were notified of the heist it was too late to find it. The thieves had planned everything out. They took it by water to a remote location far from the place of the robbery.

   How did my grandfather know this? It seems my great great grandfather was one of the mine owners. My grandfather called the ship captain a privateer. According to his story the  thieves ran into problems moving the raw ore once back on land in Washington state & buried a good part of it. He said there was information given to the family back in the early 1900's that the gold was never found due to changes in terrain due to severe storms. However, my grandfather told me he thought he had a good idea of where the gold was hidden but was too old to look for it & my father had no time or interest in conducting a treasure hunt. 

   My grandfather believed a man named William Shears was responsible for the planning of the heist. He said he was a sea captain from England with a bad reputation. As he told the story, Captain Shears took the ore into the harbor at Bellingham, Washington where it was off loaded into a freight wagon to be transported into Canada which he said was about 30 miles north. He said something happened on the way to Canada but refused to tell me what for some reason. At this time in his life he was very sick & frail and I didn't want to push him for more than he wanted to give. He said the gold was hidden in freight containers that were disguised as other items. He said there was an old road up there where the freight wagon stopped and the gold was buried not too far off the road. Why they didn't make it into Canada & who was waiting for it there is a mystery.

   With some help in research I found out there was indeed a Captain William Shears recorded in the 1851 census records. His address was Elliot Court Enumeration District Marlborough King in Devonshire county. His place of birth was Devonshire England and he was 46 years old in 1851. He was listed as married to wife Sarah age 43 & had a son James age 7 & daughter Mary age 2. Occupation was listed as Master Mariner. I have no idea if there really is a buried cache of gold somewhere between Bellingham & Canada but the story is intriguing.

   Well, it has been just over 2 yrs since this story was posted and I have much to tell everyone  including my adventures looking for this treasure last yr. Expect more to come on all this very soon. Cheers.

3 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

What would have happened? I was complimenting Jacob...not trying to disrespect him in the least. I can't tell if you misunderstood me or not.

I was referring to another comment. No problem.

3 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Ohh no no man. I love Jacob and don't hold it against him one little bit for walking down to talk to the ladies. He had huevos rancheros man! All he did was what every red blooded MAN would want to do. But at the same time I am glad nobody got seriously hurt.

   He was the real deal. I only wish some of you could have known him. When you're insulting Jacob you're walking on the fighting side of me as Merle put it. 

2 hours ago, Mike Furness said:

He wasn't ... and that is the problem! The 'old days' are gone but not for him. What is he 70 something at that time of the fight. He hated the loggers as much as the loggers hated him ... maybe more! Or at least that is how I read it.

   LOL. Oh how I would have loved to see you say that to him back then. Face to face & man to man. Anyone who knew Jacob back then knows what would have happened.

It's been a long, hard ride. That I know from experience & the school of hard knocks.

   I also thought about not posting that entry in the journal concerning the fight but figured it all should be there and it wasn't for me to decide what gets read. My problem now is this - I don't think Jacob would want me to post something where he gets trashed by some readers and isn't here to defend himself. He was one hell of a man. That is a fact. That's about all I have to say on this for now. I'm going to give the postings a break for awhile. 

   As far as what was Jacob thinking is concerned - well, I can see your point but as I recall he was only talking with the two barroom beauties. The loggers were kind of making a bigger deal out of it than it needed to be. And then there's Clay with the first punch. However, he was only doing what I was about to do which is defend Jacob. It could have been talked out but the loggers were drunk and looking for trouble as well. So we ended up getting 86'D out of the place. Yes, Jacob should have stayed down at our end of the bar I suppose.

   September 17   2002

   The weather today was bright and sunny and temperatures were in the low 80’s. The rains are long gone now and the creek has come down some. Yesterday Conor and I worked until nearly dark on the haul road while Clay and Jacob did some maintenance on Old Bulldog. We were able to get the washed out areas repaired so Clay could get his truck about halfway up the old mountain road. We dumped rock in the bottom of the bad areas and then we were able to scoop loose gravels from the side of the road into the washed out places. I mixed in some coarse tailings with the gravels and the repaired areas are good enough to drive a car over. 

   Clay got his Mack over the bridge and close to the processing area. I loaded him up with tailings and he proceeded up the mountain in reverse. Conor followed him with the skid steer. There was no room on the haul road to turn a truck around and until we got the last part of the road repaired Clay had to drive up there backwards. There was just room enough to get the skid steer out of his way so that he could drive back down the mountain. It’s not an easy task going up there in reverse as the turns are tight with a few bad drop offs but Clay was more than up to the job. We had the old mountain road completely repaired by dusk so tomorrow we will begin hauling pay gravel and running the tom. There is nothing to stop us now.

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

   September 16   2002

   Everyone had breakfast together this morning and we were all talking about what had happened last night. I don’t know for sure if we are banned from going into the tavern now but we all agreed to stay away from that place for the rest of the mining season.

   The weather has made a turn for the better. We listened to the radio forecast and the prediction was for hot and dry weather again. This was good news. It will help dry things out. As of this morning the creek is still running hard and there is water all the way across the floodplain to the base of the mountain. We walked across the bridge and inspected the footings which still looked ok. Then we walked up the haul road. There are several areas that have been washed out and need attention. The water isn’t too deep around the processing site and we are going to use the skid steer to take some coarse tailings up the road and at least get the first washout repaired if possible. Then hopefully tomorrow Clay can get Old Bulldog back in action and we can finish the road work and start hauling pay gravel again.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

   September 15   2002     Part Four

   The guy that Clay had sent flying over the barstool was not getting up but the one I had punched was turning towards me. I started to raise my hand to block his punch but it turned out I didn’t have to worry. Clay clocked him but good with a blind sided right hand from hell that sent him flying back over a table near the crew that was still sitting and taking everything in.

   Now there were five more coming towards us and cursing up a storm. By now Conor was looking for a weapon and latched onto a beer bottle. Jacob had pulled his buck knife and was standing with his back to the bar ready for action. All I could think was that this awful place hadn’t changed much since the 1930’s and the plan of having a relaxing evening had vanished with the first punch. 

   Somebody in the barroom hollered that the police should be called but I heard the bartender behind me say that there was no one on duty right now. We decided quickly to make our stand at the bar by letting the loggers come to us. Jacob was hollering for them to come on ahead and he’d cut them to ribbons. He looked half crazed. Come ahead they did and the punches were flying. Conor and I took care of one of them while Clay sent two of them reeling backwards. Conor turned and caught another one of them on the head with the bottle he was using as a weapon. Then I got caught with a punch that sent me crashing back into the bar but Jacob grabbed the guy from behind. He had a hold of his hair and had stuck the knife across his throat. Everything stopped. Jacob told him that if he even breathed hard he'd cut his throat. And I think he meant it.

   Lucky for us the logging crew was drunk and they didn’t have a lot to bring to the fight. The two gals that had been sitting at the end of the bar were long gone. The second logging crew had not made a move. There were only two of the loggers we were fighting still on their feet now and one had a buck knife to his throat. Before we could figure out our next move the bartender had pulled a shotgun out from somewhere under the bar and he squeezed off a shot into the ceiling. The entire place went quiet except for the jukebox. He told us to clear out. He said he was going to close the place for the night and wanted us gone before anyone else left. I looked over at Clay and he said “Let’s go.” Jacob released the logger and we eased on out of that sh.. hole. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

  September 15   2002     Part Three

   We were all at the end of the bar drinking and everything was fine. I was talking with Clay and Conor and suddenly noticed that Jacob had wandered down to the other end of the bar and was talking with the two women. I didn’t think too much about this at first but after a few minutes I could see several of the loggers getting agitated with Jacob. The music was kind of loud and I couldn’t hear what was being said. I pointed this out to Conor and Clay and we walked over there to see what was going on.

   When we got there Jacob was confronting two of the loggers from one of the crews. I knew from experience that loggers stick together, even if they are from different crews. And they like to fight. These two in particular looked to be in their thirties. I don’t think either one of them had seen a shower or bathtub for more than a week. One of them was wiry but the other one was burly. They were what I call dirtbags. Now we didn’t look a whole lot better than they did but we had cleaned up some before heading to town. These guys still had saw dust on their filthy clothes.

   Conor asked Jacob what was going on. Jacob laughed and said that the low life loggers didn’t like him talking with the two ladies. I for a fact knew that Jacob despised loggers and he may have come over there just to get under their skin. Or he may have genuinely been interested in the barroom gals. Hard to tell.

   Well, when Jacob used the words low life that ignited a spark in the two lumberjacks. One of them grabbed old Jacob by the front of his shirt and pinned him up against the bar. I had just started to holler “Hey” when a big arm and fist came sailing past me and into the face of the logger. Big Clay had let a punch fly before anyone could say howdy. 

   I saw the logger go flying backwards over a bar stool. His partner stepped into the action and was about to hit Clay from the side but I caught him with a good right hand that grazed his jaw and stopped him in his tracks. Now the rest of his crew was up from their table and coming towards us. The second logging crew was still watching but I figured they’d get in the mix as well. It was looking like we might have started something we might not be able to finish. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..........