GhostMiner

I will be getting back to transcribing the 1950's operation soon. I didn't forget about it. The papers are spread out on my desk.

June 1 2002 When we got up to the dig site Vern hiked up the mountain to start the pump. When he got it fired up we noticed the water flow was weak so Vern & I followed the water line back up the mountain. It looked to have been cut in several places. We wondered if we had been sabotaged. We didn’t have the parts to make the splices so Jim went into town and got what was needed plus a few extras just in case. By the time we were done it was nearly noon. Jacob shook his head and told us this was a bad sign. He reminded us that bad things can happen when gold is involved. We shook it off and got to work. Everything went pretty smooth for the rest of the day and we put a big cut into that mountain. By 7:00 PM we had processed 40 yards of gravel and cleaned out the tom. We decided that Jacob would begin doing the cleanups every day while the three other members of the crew would do the mining. Seeing as we were now processing more gravel the cleanups would likely to take longer. So we figured that when Jacob finished the cleanup he would head up to advise us on the mining operation. He was more than happy to do it. We told him that if this became too much for him or he got bored we could switch off from time to time. Jacob laughed and said he never got bored when working for gold. I couldn’t help but agree. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

May 31 2002 We were all up early before daylight and had breakfast and coffee. We finally got the excavator delivered around 10:00 AM and took it up to the dig site. Vern and Jim were already working on a big grizzly setup to protect the tom. Our plan was to feed it directly from the bucket on the machine and also use it to remove tailings as needed. We set the tom up high on a platform of compacted gravel so the tailings would have a place to fall away. Then as needed when they piled up near the tom we would push them aside and remove them. The excavator had a blade on the front which could be used to push them away. We wanted to find out how many yards of gravel the home built tom is capable of handling. We are hoping for a minimum of 5 yards an hour. That might be pushing it so we will see. Part of the day will be used to deal with tailings so we are planning on washing pay gravel for 9 or 10 hours a day. If the tom is capable of the 5 yards then we should get close to 45 - 50 yards of processed material in a day. Also, we are already discussing the possibility of buying a small trommel. One step at a time for now as the season is still early. We also added a larger water pump that should handle the increased volume of gravel being washed. It was past 5:00 PM by the time we were ready to give the new setup a try. Vern fired up the pump and Jacob hollered out “Here she comes” as the water came down and across the mountain. Jim ran the excavator and the first load was fed into the grizzly feed hopper. We didn’t push it too fast and just let the tom take what it could. I set my watch on the operation and calculated nearly 7 yards for the first hour of run time. We decided to shut down and do a good cleanup. By then it was around 7:30 PM and we hauled the concentrates back down to camp and set them off at our cleanup station. We decided to go ahead and do the cleanup which we finished around 9:30 PM and called it a day. We took a look at the gold as Vern weighed it up. There was ½ ounce. We figured if we could run 9 - 10 hours a day we could get around 5 ounces of gold per day if those numbers held up. We were all pretty darn happy when we finally sat down to eat our supper and have a drink with Jacob. He was already saying that if we proved those numbers over the next week or two we should buy a trommel and triple our production. He was really getting into the operation now. Everyone’s eyes were full of dollar signs. Then Jacob gave us a stern warning. He said that when the big gold comes we must be very careful not to talk about it with any outsiders. He also said we should not let anyone near our camp or dig site. Period. He said big gold means big trouble. Then he said absolutely no woman will ever come near the claims because they are a jinx to miners. TO BE CONTINUED .................

May 30 2002 We ended up with 9/10 of an ounce of gold out of yesterday’s work. Jacob was saying that if we are going to bring in an excavator we should just do it now. He didn’t want to wait. I explained to him again that we need to wait for our permit to be approved. As if on cue, while we the crew sat around camp this morning eating breakfast, who decides to show up? The government agent from the Forest Service. He came walking into camp with a fine howdy due and told us we were going to be approved and needed to post our bond. He said the paperwork would be sitting in his office tomorrow, which was Friday and the last of the month. Then he said we’d needed to post our bond. If we wanted to start immediately, we needed to put a CD in place at the bank payable to the Forest Service and we were good to go. Hallelujah, we are in business. When the agent left we all started talking about our plan. Jacob was really excited to mine with some digging equipment. We decided to buy a mid-sized excavator at a lot in town.We had been eyeing it for several weeks. This would put a sizable dent in our gold count but we figured to make up for it in pay gravel volume quickly. So we took the day off from digging and Jim and I went into town to conduct business. When we concluded, I stopped and bought some good whisky and beer for the crew. We had ourselves a big supper and sat around the campfire drinking and talking about the mine and all the gold we were going to get. Before we knew it the time had slipped right past us and it was 1:00 AM. We all headed for our campers. Tomorrow will be a big day for us. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

May 29 2002 The morning warmed up quickly and I think it was a hot day for mining. We got 1.3 ounces of gold from yesterday’s work. We headed up to the trench around 9:00 AM. Jacob was saying that this might be the start of the heat but it was a bit early in the season. We will find out that come June things start to get more difficult according to him. If we could just get our permits it wouldn’t be bad for us but as of now there is still no word. We wait as usual. For now, we dig and work the claim by hand just like the old crew did. I sort of take it as a challenge. Can modern man, pampered by equipment to do his work, compete with the old timers who worked so hard to get their gold? I suppose we will find out if our permits don’t come soon. By noon I felt exhausted and was starting to feel the dry, 90 degree day sap my strength. I drank water like crazy to keep up with the fluids draining out of me. None of us had much of an appetite for lunch but we ate a little and hurried back to work. I think stopping was the worst thing to do as it was hard to get back into a rhythm for digging. We stayed with it until nearly 8:00 PM. Even Jacob had got down in the pit with us for a spell. We ended with 15 yards of gravel being washed. The heat had definitely taken its toll on us today. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

May 28 2002 The mood at camp this morning is low. However, I am unable to disclose the reason here in my journal. However, we have all had our breakfast and are more than eager to get back to our dig site. All of the crew including Jacob was up at the site today and we sent gravels singing through the tom at a good clip. By day’s end we were bushed and had washed 17 yards of pay. Jacob’s test pans were all looking very good with plentiful gold in them. We will see what the morning brings. We are all ready for a good night’s sleep I think. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

And this sure didn't look too good out near the 1936 dig site.

So just to refresh everyone's memories - this is what we're discussing when talking about the old crew's dig site of 1936. That was the first one and the area of the big strike before they moved to the south kettle 1/2 mile south. There is an old road there where they trucked the buckets down the mountain to the creek to wash them at the tom. That road is not passible for anything but a 4 wheeler or Jeep now - & that's after we worked on it with a skid steer.

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you have been here from the beginning.

A Story Not In My Journal : Part Three Jim and I sloshed through the cold water flowing through the little creek and went over to where Vern and Jacob were standing. We took a look at the pans contents. Jim let out a soft whistle and I stood there shaking my head in disbelief. The pan was loaded with pickers and coarse gold. There had to be fifty colors. Jacob was nodding his head as he told us this was exactly what he remembered of this area. He said nobody knew it was here. He also said he thought the source of the gold was not too far away. We were all surprised and couldn't believe what we were seeing. We did several more test pans both at the creek and higher up above the creek. The pans higher up were close to what we saw on the bench as far as values. The pans down at the creek were nothing special. I told Jacob it would be worth it for him to file a claim here but the mining would be tough because of the remoteness of the area. It would be difficult to set up a camp and keep it supplied as everything would need to be carried in by hand over very rough terrain. It would take a very determined crew to make it work. Jacob said that back in his younger days he wouldn't have worried about all that but at this stage of his life he was too old to make a go of it up here. He had taken us up here because he wanted to show us this place. He had done it for us. Then he dropped a bombshell on us. He gave us a kind of long, sad look. He said that before he had come out here he had been to a doctor. This is where I have chosen to stop this side story and is the reason I never put this in my journal. Things will unfold as my journal of 2002 continues so I will now get back to posting the rest of it. There is much more to tell about Jacob and the mining season of 2002.

A Story Not In My Journal : Part Two. We spent the morning on a long, slow hike up into no man's land as Jacob called it. There was no trail and he was right about the going being tough. To Jacob's credit, he made the hike all the way to an area where the little creek narrowed. We could tell that there had been some alteration in the ground up there. When Jacob saw the area he determined that the creek had shifted over to the east a little. Sure enough there were some logs laying scattered about in the area. That was what was left of his dam. Jacob let out a few cuss words and then started to laugh. He said he really didn't expect the dam to be as he left it many years ago. He started rooting around the western side of the creek. He waded through two feet of water to get over there and Vern joined him with a pan and a shovel They started to test the gravels along a little bench where the creek had once carved out an area. After a few minutes Vern told us to come over to their side of the creek and take a look at the pan.

Here you go Jacob.

May 27 2002 Part Two We worked a steady pace through the afternoon and knocked off around 6:00 PM. Everyone wanted to know how much gold we got so we did the cleanup as soon as we got back to camp and ended our day with another 1.9 ounces. We seemed to be on to something now. We are taking the day off tomorrow to do some work with Jacob. TO BE CONTINUED ..........

A Story Not In My Journal : Part One : Written On April 15 2023. The following is not in my 2002 journal but I think it should be included here. This is the first I have ever written about these events. After I conclude this story I will return to posting from my journal. So here goes. Jacob had mentioned to us that there was a very remote area about 2 1/2 miles heading north up the mountain. He said back in his day he didn't think anyone went up that far as the going was pretty tough and there were no trails. The creek narrowed up there and he had gone up to a certain spot twice and found big gold. I asked him what he meant by big gold. He smiled and said there were plentiful small nuggets and pickers. Panfuls. He never told Jed or the crew about it for some reason. He said he had planned to file a claim up there someday but after being run off in the deadly shootout of 1937 he had never made it back. Jacob said that on his second trip he had built a narrow dam and spillway to retain the gold and keep it from coming farther down the creek. He said he thought there might be source gold somewhere in that area but wasn't quite sure. The dam he built was made of heavy timber packed with rock and gravel. He said he didn't know if any of it was left after all these years but wanted to hike up there and have a look before the big heat came in for the Summer. I asked him if he thought he could make it on his 85 year old legs. He said he thought he could but if he couldn't he wanted us to see if the dam was still there and test the ground along the creek and in the creek. It would be a tough excursion but we figured to give it a try. So early in the morning we packed up for the hike and headed north following the creek up the mountain to higher elevation. TO BE CONTINUED .............

The next part of the journal will talk about some exploration based on something Jacob told us. It will take us on an adventure to the remote northern areas of the mountain that are off our claims. What happens is something I have never forgotten and never put in my own journal. This will be the very first time I have written about this part of the 2002 season.

May 27 2002 Part One The entire crew was up early and we did our cleanup right after breakfast and saw a whopping 1.4 ounces of gold. What a great way to start the day and we all headed up to the digsite. We had quite a large trench going but still nothing to even remotely compare to the crew of 1936. That area is amazing to see but Jacob is confident we can achieve the same results. If we get our permit approved I know we will make a larger dig site but by hand I can’t imagine digging that much gravel in one season. We were fired up but Jacob reminded us to pace ourselves. He said it’s a long season and a long way to the finish line. So we worked a nice and steady pace and even Jacob got in the trench and chopped away at the gravel. I always worry when I see him in there working hard but he won’t have it any other way and he knows when to stop. That’s exactly what Jacob did around lunch time. Before we went back down to camp for our break he showed us one of his test pans brimming with coarse gold. He gave the crew a wink and a smile. That is always a good sign. TO BE CONTINUED .............

Absolutely! There is nothing like hearing about the old days from a guy who's been there & done it. I will always remember that season.

May 26 2002 There was .7 of an ounce in the pan this morning. Everyone is in a good mood and ready to work out here. Once again, all four of us headed up to the site and Jacob wanted to do a bit of digging before returning to camp. So all four of us worked the dig and I couldn’t help but think of the old days when Jacob was here back in 1936, 1937. I could almost see the old crew digging away with us shoulder to shoulder. I looked over at Jacob and he was hard at it and was really moving gravel. The weather was perfect for working, cool and sunny. By lunch break I could tell Jacob was getting tired and I suggested we all go down to camp for something to eat. Vern shut down the pump and we drove back to camp and had a good lunch together while talking about the claims and the gold. It just doesn’t get any better than this. All four of us got back to work and Jacob put the pick and shovel down and took samples until nearly dark. We have really made good progress today and washed 19 yards of gravel. All the pans Jacob tested were looking rich as well. He always made sure to show us the good ones to keep us working hard. Based on what I was seeing I am expecting close to an ounce tomorrow at the weigh. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Not bad LOL.

Just be careful who you hang out with.

This is more fun than should be legal. Miners, you have to love this old time equipment. Love this old mining equipment.

I also witnessed the complete destruction of a mining crew one night. I was at their claim helping out & decided to sleep in my truck where the crew was camped. These were a rough bunch of guys out of Nevada. There were 5 of them and 2 big German Shepards used as guard dogs & they were all mean as hell - the dogs & the crew. They were up past midnight drinking whisky and doing a gold weigh when the trouble started. Why I stayed there is beyond me except by then I was too scared to make a move. They all had side arms & knives. Somehow, there was a discrepancy concerning the cut & distribution of gold to 2 of the crew. Knives were pulled and a big fight erupted. There was a big wooden table near their campfire and one guy got pushed over backwards and crashed across it and was hit over the head with a whisky bottle. The guy that had the bottle was suddenly attacked from behind by one of the crew with a big knife. He had it up against the guy's throat and I figured he was dead but the crew leader shot off 3 rounds from his 45 and hollered for everyone to cool it or eat lead. The dogs were going nuts and I was afraid to make a move to get to my truck & get out of there because they didn't know me & I would have been ripped to shreds. The crew boss finally got everyone calmed down enough & they all started drinking again. That's when I took my exit & pronto. I heard the crew was never the same again & broke up a few days later. Yes, mining in the Sierra Nevada - I could write a book. Oh wait, I have.

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?

Yes, pretty stupid wasn't it. He got sucked in because there was an active permit he could use to start mining without waiting. The problem was he was mining low grade tailings. He paid the $100K because it included the permit which proved to be worthless. Gold fever is real & it's scary. People's eyes glaze over & common sense goes out the window.

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.