GhostMiner

May 11 2002 The cleanup this morning brought us one ounce. Jacob said the ground is very rich. There is no way for us to know how much gold is here. We just need to keep working the ground as best we can. I am actually starting to get used to the hard work now and have already lost a little weight. I have a good place to stash my gold. I have no idea what the others are doing with theirs. Up at the mine we worked a total of eleven hours today and washed about sixteen yards of pay gravel. It is dark and we're ready for supper. We’ll do a cleanup first thing tomorrow. TO BE CONTINUED ................

So there we finally have it in the 1950 log. The Stevens brothers were mentioned in this tunnel project of 1936. This area was alluded to by Jacob in 2002 but I was never told this story. I highly doubt he would have forgot such an undertaking as he seemed to recall most everything else. These old logs from the 1950's have given me confidence that much gold still remains trapped beneath the ground on the western side of the northern faultline. The reasons that give me this confidance will unfold here as the logs continue.

May 9 1950 The drift is now well underway to the northerly direction. We are keeping a uniform tunnel being 6 ft in width and 6 ft in height. To date Drift 2 is well timbered and stable. We have made 5 ft of headway. There has been nearly 11 tonnes of material removed with nearly a quarter of it being heavy stone 6 to 10 inches in size. Gravels were washed and some light gold was extracted although it failed to pay for the work done to remove it. We are working the bedrock up to 6 ft above of gravel and rock in search of the heavy coarse gold we believe is in this channel. The old workings were completely mucked and washed providing nearly one ounce of gold. That was the remnants of the big strike of 1936. The Stevens brothers crew did not miss much and left us little. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Many thanks Mike.

About the 1950's projects on the claims : From what I have read in the trunk of information I received on the work done in the 1950's these crews were not after a gram or two per cubic yard. This would be very rich numbers for any tipe of larger scale mining through a washplant running over 10 - 20 yds/hr or more but the scale of this operation was small and slow. They were not hard rock mining rich quartz deposits but were working placer gravel deposits. The depth of the rich deposit was such that they decided to continue the tunnel work done previously rather than run a drag line to excavate although there was an attempt at that later on by another crew and we will get to that later on in the 1950's work. This crew was after the big strike of ounces per yard that the 1936 crew had hit. Over 1000 ounces of gold taken off an area of raised bedrock about 20' X 30' in diameter. They wanted the deeper deposit rumored to be in the thousands of ounces that was expected to be lying at either side of the raised bedrock deposit. Now we will begin to find out what happens here.

i AM ENJOYING POSTING THE 1950 PROJECT LOG ALONG WITH MY 2002 PROJECT JOURNAL. Lots of memories here.

May 8 1950 We have completed the rehab of the mainshaft and drift. We are opening a new tunnel extending northward along bedrock near the fault. A drifting drill is employed where the rock is heavy and solid. We are calling this Drift #2. I expect to make some good advances into the gravels in this area. I also expect the bedrock to drop away at some point according to the geology reports. If this happens we will need to excavate a shaft down to find true bedrock and an expected jackpot. TO BE CONTINUED ...........

No, we trusted him LOL.

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 .............

May 2 1950 Slow progress continues on the drift. We’ve had to use the pump several times but incoming water has begun to slow some. We are pumping the water into a holding pond formed by a low lying area. We will use this water to wash gravel once we begin to mine. The mucking and tunnel bracing is nearly half completed. Traces of gold are showing in the extracted material so we are confident of finding a deposit somewhere further past the end of the old workings. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

April 29 1950 Late yesterday we experienced a near tragedy when a small portion of the drift collapsed near the opening at the bottom of the mainshaft. This is the 36 ft level and is unstable. There were two crew members further down the drift to the north. The ground is heavy and there was a fracture of the tunnel ceiling just past the entrance. All hands were busy shoveling out the caved material from the shaft side and the two crew members dug away from the north side. We were able to get it open fairly quickly and there were no injuries. This just serves to register the potential danger here with all the crew. We are presently working at taking a second look at the walls and ceiling of the drift and may need to use more timber in any suspect areas. The progress is slow. We are also pushing fresh air into the drift.The last thing I want to do is make a trip to a crew member’s home to deliver tragic news. TO BE CONTINUED .............

May 9 2002 This morning Jacob told us at breakfast that we should now start dividing up our gold according to our partnership percentage. Then he said each man would need to hold himself accountable for its safety. He also suggested that we locate a good hiding place for it. One thing I learned this morning was that when it came to gold, Jacob was all business. Period. Of course he is 100% correct. So after breakfast we divided the gold and just kept it on our person for now as the amounts are still small when divided. However, I intend to take his advice and find myself a good hiding place. Once the gold was divided we got back to work. The crew is a bit tired and sore from the faster pace of digging yesterday but we have no intention of slowing. We are bound and determined to show Jacob we are capable of working as hard as his crew did back in their day. We worked a good pace until 2:00 PM and took our lunch break. Jacob said we should shorten it from one hour down to 30 minutes so that’s what we are doing. Make no mistake, he is the crew leader and we listen to what he has to say. At day's end we had processed a little over eleven yards in my estimation. We got back to camp after dark and we are tired and hungry so we will get an early start on the final panning and weigh in the morning. TO BE CONTINUED .............

The raised bedrock area they are referring to in the 1950 report was supposed to be a gold strike of over 1000 ounces.

This is where the old report I have helps me with this new information dealing with the 1950 project & crew. There is no mention in any of the reports about crew size but the 1965 government report gives the same name of crew leader as the 1950 log does. Jack Murphy was from a nearby town and I am thinking the rest of the crew was from this area as well. The 1965 report states that this project was underfunded. As to how much experience in mining any of these people had, there is no information. So what I have to go by is pretty much what Murphy is writing about in his activities log. I have read through all of this before I started posting and know the result of the project but even that is a bit vague. It was interesting to me that Murphy was able to get back into the old workings there because when the 1964 - 1965 crew was there they lowered the president of the company into the first part of the shaft & he deemed it too unsafe to reopen. He stated that the work previously done there was not in accordance with safe mining practice. The 1964 - 1965 company president was a mining engineer. This tells me the crew in 1950 may not have known what they were doing. There is good evidence of unsafe work a few years later but I'll wait until I get that far in the posting for that info.

April 28 1950 Some of the crew's families visited the project this morning. We have now fenced off the entire area for safety. Mucking and light bracing has begun in the drift. This will be a lengthy process. While mucking operations are advancing I am panning the material being removed and seeing some signs of gold deposits. This is good news and has buoyed the spirits of all involved. We are employing a mechanical winch to remove material from the drift. Funds are tight and we are hopeful of our first gold in the next 10 days. Everyone is hard at work with their designated jobs and expecting good results. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

I would think that horshoe shaped drift would have been full of some nasty muck and really tough to get through.

April 27 1950 We were delayed today dealing with some water in the lower drift near the 56 ft level. We got our pump in place and have sent the water up and out. The mainshaft will need some additional timbering in certain areas before it's safe for the crew. The drift also needs work. I figure at least a week or 10 days before it is done. We are taking timber from the nearby trees and sawing them to width and length. I think the ground water will dry up some later in the season. For now we are working in heavy ground. TO BE CONTINUED ............

May 8 2002 Part Three We worked hard for the rest of the day. I found that by taking several short breaks rather than one long one I was able to get more gravel through the tom. We were working old school and I was starting to like it. We all were. I think we got around twelve yards of gravel washed. We got back to camp before dusk and did the cleanup before supper. We were all anxious to see what we got. Jacob had a big smile after weighing the gold. He set the jar on a table in front of us. We had half an ounce for the day. This was our biggest weigh to date and I felt like there would be no stopping us now. We are all going to get rich. For six days work we now have 1.7 ounces of gold and we are starting to get into the richer gravel now. The canned stew and bread never tasted so good tonight. A few beers with the crew and the day was done. I am living my dream. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

May 8 2002 Part Two We went up to the mine bound and determined to impress Jacob and show him we could work as hard as the old crews. Of course, at this stage of the season and the shape we were in, we were just kidding ourselves. It was a warm Spring morning and the sweat poured off of us as we pounded away at the gravels with pick and shovel work. We broke for lunch around 1:00 PM and I was soaked in sweat. My hands were sore and my shoulders were aching. Vern and Jim were in the same condition. However, we had sent a lot of gravel through the tom - about 50% more than our previous slow pace had done. Jacob gave us his highest compliment. He said we were starting to look like a top notch gold mining crew. I was beaming with pride. TO BE CONTINUED ............

FROM THE 1950 RECORDS OF JACK MURPHY April 26 1950 The last of the crew arrived today with the diesel pump which was taken up to the shaft via the old mining road. We have pumped out the mainshaft. We are digging a sump area 12 feet below the old level to manage water issues if required. We needed to blast the bedrock to get below the 56 ft level. The actual shaft is 36 ft in depth with a horseshoe drift dropping the level to 56 ft and ending nearly beside but 20 ft lower than the mainshaft where an area of raised bedrock exists. This is the area of the 1936 strike and is nearly against the western side of the fault. According to the state geologist maps bedrock should drop away to the north and south of the mainshaft bottom at some point. The mainshaft itself is sitting just 20 ft west of the fault. It is our intention to drift along the raised bedrock in a northward heading staying close to the fault. There may be gold on the unexplored raised bedrock area but it is our understanding that large deposits may exist in the lower unraised levels where the main deposit was not disturbed. A significant discovery may occur anywhere along the raised areas but more likely at dropped depths going down from 56 ft to 110 ft. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Most likely LOL.

Something not written in my 2002 journal : I am deep into the process of going into all the old 1950's era info I recently received. There is a bunch of info that I didn't have going back to the 1936 gold strike and what areas were worked. One of them was the shaft Jack Murphy is talking about in the first entry. Jacob told me once that neither he or his brother ever put all the info involving where they worked or how much gold was found in their journals. I also think the original government report is off as to the total ounces mined as well. The reason I think this is one day Jacob took us all up to the northern fault line. He said he wanted to show us something that they didn't include in their journals. I asked him what it was on the walk up there but he just winked and said it's buried deep and safe. When we got out to the area we walked into the woods and there was a drop off about 40 feet down. At the bottom of that was a hole filled with water. There were also some timbers laying there. Jacob told us they never put that part of the mining project in the journals. It was kept secret because they thought there was still big gold there but buried deeper. When I asked him how much gold the crew had mined there he wouldn't say. However, he did tell us they could have gotten much more gold there but they had removed enough for that time and went into easier areas to work thinking they'd get back to that place someday. He said the work would have involved going deeper and further out from the shaft. That day never came. The 1950's reports talk about a strike there at the 36 - 56 foot levels and it was big. I'll save that for the actual report being posted. Based on what I am reading from the 1950's info so far, I am beginning to think that the Stevens brothers only scratched the surface on the amount of gold in this area. They may have only gotten a very small % of what is buried there. The 1950's reports are beginning to tell me I may be correct.

An interesting reference to the state geologist here. This would have likely been Charles Scott Haley who was involved in many projects in California and Alaska and also wrote books on gold deposits and mining. He was listed in the old report I have. It said he was an advisor in the 1936 operation involving the Stevens brothers. In my opinion, I think he was some kind of partner in the 1936 project. I asked Jacob about this. I never got a straight answer. It was either memory issues or holding back info for some reason. The reason may be that the Stevens brothers owed Haley a gold royalty. A royalty they never paid. There is a brief mention in the old report of an unpaid gold royalty but to who it was owed was not mentioned. Probably no way to ever find out what the truth is on that point.

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.

LOST GOLD AT THE DEAD MAN’S MINE THE 1950’s ERA This log is based on mining crew records and stories about the gold claims known as The Dead Man’s Mine during a period of exploration and mining from 1950 to 1959. The work was not continuous and some of the crew members changed over the years. At the request of remaining relatives of the old crew members, names have been changed.This record of mining activities comes from claim owner Jack Murphy and two people who leased the claim from him during this period and also includes additional information based on several old reports and stories given to me by local historians. April 25 1950 Attempting to re-open an old mine shaft on the north claim. It is flooded out and there are some safety concerns. Historical data indicates rich gold deposits partially mined in 1936 but more deposits remaining at sloped bedrock to dropped zone bedrock from main shaft depth of 56 ft. Depth of deposit not yet known but according to geologist may be 20 - 50 ft lower than shaft bottom. Crew is assembling today and tomorrow with camp being set up on site. I was told that several of the 1936 and 1937 crew members were killed over gold here. This was confirmed to me by state geologist who had input in the previous work. TO BE CONTINUED ................