GhostMiner

May 2 2002 I think Jacob will be limited to panning duties for a spell as his elbow looks swollen and is quite sore. He refused to see a doctor but I am keeping an eye on the injury. We resumed working the gravels and set a steady pace of digging. Every hour or so Jacob would take a sample for panning at the tub. We were seeing some color in the pan each time. Not a lot but enough to keep us interested. The bedrock was a bit deeper here, maybe five to eight feet below our starting point which was the base of the mountain. It took more effort to get there but the entire ten feet or so above bedrock was beginning to show promise. We broke for lunch as usual and got back to digging around 1:00 PM. We continued straight through until 6:00 PM with only two short breaks. We were into the base of the mountain enough that there was a bit of overhang. Jacob took the last sample of the day and panned it out. Then he set the pan on the table and gave us a wink and a grin. I knew by now that was a good sign from him. We looked at the contents of the pan. It was loaded with fine and some coarse gold and even a few pickers. Jacob said we had hit a rich area of gravel and needed to start our mine right here. We let out a whoop and I threw my cap in the air. We were finally going to mine for gold. I can’t wait to get started. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Some thoughts not written in any journal. Searching for truth has led to so many dead ends. Gold, guns, whisky, fights, murders, and treasure. Some days it's a bit overwhelming as the research continues. If I am to believe the information of three seperate people who came to the claims there have been three gold caches found and removed totalling 190 ounces of gold. Two of them were on the claims and one on an adjoining area very close to the claims. The murders for gold in 1936 and 1937 came in a government report and verified by Jacob. The initial gold strike of 1936 produced over 1000 ounces from an area of about 900 square feet. In 1937 Jacob's crew removed 218 ounces from another area even though they only mined part time in April, May, & June of that year.The fights and mayhem came from stories told to me by not only Jacob but also a knowledgeable professional person involved in gold mining. Some of the shootouts on the mine involved the gold miners against the ranchers in the area. Some were between gangsters and miners. There was also an incident that occurred in town between a local doctor and a miner over a woman. There was a shootout between the two of them on the main street and the miner was killed. The search goes on for gold and treasure as well as the truth behind the legend of the mine. I am also now of the belief that there was another gold strike on one of the claims very near the southern faultline that occured in either 1964 or 1965. This was nearly half a mile from the 1000 ounce strike of 1936. This information was given to me in a report from a credible person. There was a vague reference to this in the original report I found but it left me hanging. Supposedly, a very large gold deposit had been identified and referred to as sizeable tonnage. There was a vague description of the location as it related to the big strike of 1936 and talk of taking a pay loader into the area. This led me to believe it may have been at or near the surface. There was no more about it in the information I have so I didn't know what they found. I'm guessing it may have been a good amount based on the information that has since been provided to me. Possibly several hundred ounces of gold. This was not a cache but a rich gold deposit missed by the crews in the 1800's and also 1936 - 1937. I was able to track down the location of the crew leader from that era. His location? A graveyard in Tonopah Nevada. He died not long after his time on the mine. Another dead end in the truest sense of the word. Maybe this place really is cursed as I have been told. I still remain convinced there is a huge deposit remaining near the strike of 1936 that will be in the thousands of ounces. Getting to it would require shafts and drifting. This is something out of my wheelhouse. I may one day put a team together capable of taking on a project like this. More on all this at a later date.

May 1 2002 We worked all day at the new test site with only a few short breaks. Jacob has a slight elbow injury from when he struck a rock with his pick and is taking it easy but still doing sample pans. By mid afternoon we finally started to see some color and we all let out a whoop of relief. The crew took a rest in the shade and Jacob pulled out his flask and we all had a shot of whisky. He rolled one of his smokes and started talking about prospecting during his time out here. He reminded us that gold prospecting was hard work and gold mining was ten times harder than prospecting. He told us that if we eventually found a mineable spot and saw some gold every day we would know it was all worth the effort. Keep working hard is what he was telling us. We just might get rewarded. We ended the day close to dusk and the last sample pan was promising. Hopefully this area will get better with the digging and not prove to be a dead end. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

I am recalling another occurance from the 2002 season that I never wrote in my personal journal. It was a hot Summer night sometime in mid July 2002. The crew was sitting around Jacob's camper as we often did until he signalled to us it was time for him to retire for the evening. A bear must have smelled some food we had previously cooked. We were always careful about cooking and garbage because there are a large number of black bears in this area. Well, this big old black bear came waddling down the mountain making it's bawling / low growling sounds. It was curious about our camp and started to circle it for about half an hour or so. It seemed like it was too timid to actually come all the way in. Well, after putting up with this for the half hour, Jacob got tired of it and grabbed up the Thompson. He put it on full auto and aimed it a little over the bears head and let it rip. I could see tree limbs snapping off and bark flying in the three quarter moonlight. The bear high tailed it up the mountain and was gone. Jacob never said a word as he took a sip of whisky from his cup. The rest of us had a good laugh about it. That was Jacob.

April 30 2002 The morning broke clear and cold. We got ourselves back up to the new dig area and went to work. By noon we had a nice lateral cut started and broke for lunch. As usual, Jacob took a sample of gravel to pan. Nothing, not a flake. I noticed he had a concerned look on his face. He told us we were digging virgin material as far as he could tell. He said nothing had been disturbed at this location. Then he said that sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes not so good. He said it might have been tested by the old timers way back and there were no values and they moved on. Or, we just may need to keep working in farther. He wanted to see some sign of gold there soon, even just a flake or two for starters. After we had lunch we worked deeper into the mountain. We had a nice, steady pace going. No one was saying much but I knew we were all thinking the same thing, we wanted to see some gold. Around 3:00 PM I saw Jacob take another sample over to the tub and pan it out. We stopped digging and watched him. When he finished he just tossed the remains out of the pan with a quick shake of his hand and shook his head in disgust. Nobody said anything and we just went back to work. By 5:00 PM we were pretty tired and hungry. We decided to knock off for the day. Once again Jacob took a sample and once again there was no gold to show for all our hard work. I was feeling discouraged but Jacob said we needed to stay in this location a while longer. We all agreed. We’d give it more time. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Posting my writings from back in 2002 is sure bringing back a lot of memories. So many things I didn't write about at the time. I am going to post them as I recall them. One that comes to mind was a hot Summer night sitting with Jacob outside his camper. It was dark out. Vern and Jim had gone into town for dinner at a bar they liked while Jacob and I decided to stay at camp. He kept thinking he heard voices up to the north of camp. This was creek and mountain on the west side of the creek. He always kept the old Thompson close. I didn't hear anything but he was convinced we were about to be attacked. He was clutching the Thompson and insisted that I arm myself which I did. After about half an hour and nothing happening he told me the hooligans may have left the area or they might be circling us. Another half hour passed and he finally put the Thompson down. I never heard a thing and he went to bed. A little later Vern and Jim came back from town and I told them what had taken place. We just chocked it up to Jacob remembering some bad things from the past out there.

April 29 2002 Part Three Jacob told us that the government agent was about as welcome here as a rattler at a square dance. Then he gave us one of his winks and we all busted out laughing. We eventually all got back to work digging. We had no idea what the gravels here would hold as far as gold values but intended to find out as fast as possible. Everyone wanted to start mining and seeing gold. We dug the rest of the day and got a nice cut going into the base of the mountain. Jacob took a pan of gravel for sampling and he let out a curse or two. Nothing but some black sand. Not one single flake. It was getting late and we had skipped lunch as well. We decided to call it a day. When we got back to camp what did Jacob want to eat? More of that canned stew. It seems like he can’t get enough of it. We sat around the fire eating and Jacob was going on about how life was at camp back in his day. They usually bathed down at the creek which he said wasn’t too bad after a real hot day but wasn’t much fun if the weather was cold. Jed kept saying he would fix up a hot shower with a tub heated by a fire and a pull chain but they never got around to it. Jed loved his hot water cornbread and cooked it up quite often. Sometimes it turned out good and sometimes not so good. Beans, bacon, stew, corn bread, and crackers mostly. And of course whisky and beer. He said the crew also played cards for gold some nights. Knife throwing contests were also popular with them as well as shooting cans and bottles set in various locations. The life of a mining crew up in the mountains. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Yep, that's it LOL.

My partner Vern was actually run off the claims by gunshots a couple of years ago. He recorded it on video. I will see if he is willing to release it. We think there is millions in gold & treasure still on the claims. I would advise that the area remains a dangerous place.

Not a place for feigned of heart.

You would be most welcome. This Summer we are planning on some events out there.

April 29 2002 Part Two Jacob Loses His Cool We started working the new site hoping for the best. Around noon or so we had a visit by one of the government agents who wanted to clarify something on my paperwork I had submitted for our plan to explore and possibly mine with heavy equipment. Evidently,there was an area near one of the creeks that needed to be protected and monitored if we used an excavator there. Jacob was looking at the plan that the agent was holding in his hand with the area circled. The agent told me that part of the plan was going to be temporarily set aside for review. He said the paperwork had a notation as to that change and I needed to sign it. At this point Jacob decided to speak up. I could tell he didn’t like paperwork. He said that sense when does a government agent have anything to say about what a miner does or where he works on his claim? Before I could intervene he told the agent he could stick his government paperwork up his ass and light it on fire. Then he told him he wouldn’t give a bucket of piss for a job like his. Well, needless to say, that didn’t go over too well. I got a hold of Jacob and asked him if we could have a talk. I kind of explained how things had changed since he worked the claims and told him everything will eventually be approved and we can keep working as we are until then. He calmed down some and I apologized and told the agent Jacob was pretty touchy about paperwork and things like that. Lucky for us the guy was pretty understanding and actually laughed it off and Jacob even ended up shaking his hand before he left. Now I knew Jacob had a temper that was quick to flare just like his brothers. Even though he was 85 years old, I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. I could only imagine what Jed, Jacob, and the crew were like back in their day. TO BE CONTINUED ......................

April 29 2002 Part One This morning we got a bit deeper into the drift and hit a rocky area that we couldn’t penetrate. Jacob said it was some kind of a very unusual fault line that was running east/west and highly unusual. We all took turns swinging a pickaxe against the wall of rock but couldn’t make any headway. Jacob advised we move out of the drift and start a dig a bit to the west. It was disappointing as we had seen signs of gold before we came to the dead end. Jacob thought the area might have been mined out in that area by the people who ran him off in 1937. When he started thinking about that night he became agitated to say the least. He told us that he still had nightmares about it. He now wished he had tried to find out who the gang was and shot it out with them even if it meant dying. I tried to get his mind off the subject and asked him where a good spot might be to start digging again. We had a look around and ended up moving about 300 feet west. The base of the mountain looked about the same and we started a new site. Jacob said we would need to keep prospecting this area until we found a good place that hadn’t been worked. He figured there was gold all along the base of the mountain up there and it ran for half a mile. I was thinking to myself that we might be up here all Summer trying to find a place to mine. This might be harder than I had thought. TO BE CONTINUED .............

Then there was one more story I heard that supposedly took place in 2012. This came from what I would consider a very credible witness who claims to have seen some of the gold. The area was just off my claims at the southern end of the mountain. According to the witness who was not involved in any way with mining or treasure hunting, a crew had dug up a cache of 50 ounces. The funny thing is, I was actually there talking with this crew several times. They were digging areas at the base of the mountain with an excavator and also using metal detectors. They were out of Nevada and had been hired by the claim owner to do some prospecting to see if the claim had any good gravels to mine. At least that's what they told me. The crew looked pretty rough. The first time I met them I walked into camp unannounced and was met by two big dogs who they called off. They were sitting at a wooden table drinking whisky and smoking dope. I told them I was the claim owner of all the adjoining areas to their claim. They were all wearing guns and told me it was a good thing I told them and now that they knew I was up there on the mountain they would shoot their guns the other way. They lent me one of their detectors which was a Fisher Gold Bug. It was the only time I ever used one. It was darn friendly of them as they didn't even know me. Eventually I returned the detector with a new battery to boot and thanked them. A week later I went down to their camp but they had packed it up and were gone. Later on, I was talking with a guy who knew these guys. He said I was real lucky they took a liking to me or I would have had my throat slit. For real. This is the kind of crazy stuff that happens out there. One night while camped up near one of the old dig sites by myself I awoke to gunfire at around 2:00 AM. It was a ways off and lasted for at least 15 - 20 minutes and there was a lot of it. I have no idea what was going on.

Another weird thing that happened but not in any journal. A guy stopped by one of the claims one day and was talking with Vern. He asked him if the claim was his. He said he was one of the partners. Supposedly, according to this stranger, a friend of his had one of the claims back in the 1980's and found a cache of 80 ounces of gold buried not far from one of the creeks. He even showed him the approximate location. Then, according to a guy we talked to who was from Nevada, he personally witnissed someone who was prospecting the claim before we had it find a cache buried into the lower side of a mountain south of where John had the tom set. He said it was 60 ounces. The two of them went wild digging up the area for weeks without finding anything else.

Also, wait until my journal gets to the part of trying to locate the gold caches they hid. Crazy.

Yes. But there have been so many floods over the years and the lower creek has even changed course several times. More about what we found will be in the 2002 journal.

April 28 2002 Part Three Jacob Talks About The Old Days On The Claims We sat around the fire after supper tonight and listened to Jacob talk about water pumps, the tom, and running water lines. He was going on about how John wouldn’t let anyone near the tom. He took us over to the edge of the creek and pointed to where the tom had been set. When the creek dried up where the tom was located back in late Summer of 1936 a Myers pump was set up to the north where the creek still had water and they ran line down to the tom. He was telling us how they ran two pumps in series spaced 1000 feet apart to get the water up to the southern kettle dig site. Jacob said the crew let out a cheer when water arrived at the dig site higher up on the mountain from all the way down below. Then Jacob turned the conversation to the big gold strike on the northern fault line. He said the crew was going crazy with every gold weigh. His brother had somehow stumbled onto a big kettle on the west side of the fault line and there were a couple of smaller ones as well. They had glory holed the entire area up there until the gold was gone. He said he thought there was still a good amount of gold still up in that area waiting to be discovered. It was most likely deeper down in the ground to the north and south of their old diggings. He was reminiscing about the drinking that went on. Mostly, he said, it was kept under control. However, there were nights that it got out of hand. One of the crew would get out a gun and start shooting cans off a rock with only the light of the campfire to go by and then the rest of the crew would start in. Sometimes it would go on for an hour or more and the drinking would continue as well. Mostly though, they had always been able to work the next day although with some hangovers. He said they were all fairly young and wild. They felt like they were a rough and ready crew and proved it on many occasions. They had gotten a bad reputation in the neighboring towns but there were some townsfolk that admired them. He said that’s when the crew started to make mistakes because they were getting pretty big heads. They carried guns and felt like outlaws. They had gold. The law, or what there was of it, left them alone. He said they looked out for themselves and made their own rules. Jacob told us about his older brother Jed. He said he was short tempered and would fight at the drop of a hat. He said that the crew respected him and he was a good leader even if he did drink too much on occasion. Once Jed started a dig he was relentless. Nothing could stop him. Jacob mentioned working in what he called the big heat. It would be 110 degrees or higher some days in July and August. Their clothes would be soaked in sweat and they could never drink enough water to keep up with it. Yet Jed would dig away, cursing up a storm when he’d hit a big rock that needed a pry bar and giving a big hoot and holler when the crew cleared it out of the way. Jacob said his brother was just plain tough. I asked him about the prospectors up on the mountain back then. Jacob shook his head. He said when word somehow got out about their crew being up there and getting gold the mountain suddenly saw lots of activity. Some of the people were ok and some were rif raf as he called them. He said there were a lot of greenhorns like us who came out there with no idea as to what they were doing. He said the old crew didn’t make much of any of them as long as they stayed off their claims. If they didn’t, all hell broke loose. He said that Jed and John beat the hell out of more than a few of them. Those were lawless days. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Unless it was the gold the thieves stole.

April 28 2002 Part Two Deeper Into The Mountain We got back to digging gravels. Jim and I had the privilege of working with Jacob in the drift while Vern bucked up small diameter deadfall for tunnel supports. This is not what I expected when I came out here to mine. I figured we would be opening trenches or pits and doing surface mining. However, if Jacob believes we need to drift into the old river channels buried in the mountain we will give it a try. The digging was steady and not particularly easy and Jacob worked a bit as well as giving us guidance. No one felt like stopping for lunch and we continued working straight through to 5:00 PM. We were bushed. I was fascinated at the way the bedrock continued to drop and slope away from us as we gained ground. Jacob had taken a few samples throughout the day and had the results sitting in three pans on the wooden table next to the wash tub. The entire crew went over to have a look at them before we headed back down to camp. There was some nice coarse gold. Jacob had calculated some numbers based on bucket samples he panned out. He told us the best sample was around 15 grains to the yard and the worst was around 6 grains to the yard. This was encouraging. Jacob believed the numbers would improve soon. He said we just need to keep going deeper into the mountain. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

April 28 2002 Part One Jacob’s Outlaw Life After Mining We were all up at sunrise for coffee and breakfast. While we were sitting around the morning campfire Jacob seemed to be in a very talkative mood. I had brought up a question the other day about what he did after leaving the mine when he was still a young man and his life was really just beginning. He didn’t answer the question at the time and I didn’t pursue it but it must have stuck in his mind because out of the blue he brought up the subject. Jacob told us that after the night of the attack he hid out on the mountain. He went way up to the north for two miles and tried to figure out what he would do. At first he thought about revenge. He said he couldn’t trust Dan anymore and felt that if he went into town to see him he might be arrested. He wasn’t sure who the gang was. He couldn’t go back to camp to retrieve any of his goods because he suspected there may be armed gangsters waiting for him to show up. He didn’t even attempt to get his car and truck as he figured those were staked out by the gang. Also, the vehicles were known in the area and if he drove into town with one of them someone might spot him. Jacob decided to leave the area. He debated on where to go. He did have some money and gold on him and had one cache way up to the north where he hid out for the first few days. The rest of his money was back home or buried on the mountain where he couldn’t get to it safely. He thought about Mexico or Canada but decided against it. He felt like he was now an outlaw. Later on he heard unconfirmed rumors that he was wanted by the law. He never found out if that was true but in my opinion it was more likely he was wanted for questioning. He said he finally decided to head for a town in Arizona. He didn’t give the name and I didn’t ask. He hid his Thompson in a secure and dry location on the mountain but kept his 45 in a holster under his coat. He got several rides which took him to his destination. Once there he bought a truck which he paid cash for. He said he rented a cabin there and stayed for two years. When he finally left Arizona he made a stop near the claims and saw that they were being worked by a small crew. He snuck up the mountain and retrieved his Thompson and another cache of gold he was able to get to. Then he headed for Oregon where he said he had some connections. He spent the rest of his days in that state. Jacob told us he had been at the cabin we picked him up at for about twenty years. He didn’t go into any more detail on this subject. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

April 27 2002 Part Four Vern, Jim, and I walked over to the bar to listen in on the conversation. Jacob was giving the young guys pointers on how to prospect. He told them that if you take the time to prospect and find good results then you should get an active mine site up and running. He was telling them about how he did it back in the 1930’s. He explained how they ran the tom and used what water was available. They asked him where he had mined but of course Jacob was vague with his answer. They asked him if he had mined much gold back in his day and he answered that he had found a little here and there. I looked at my partners and just smiled. Jacob was giving all of us a crash course on prospecting and he had a captive audience. We were all learning from him and his wealth of knowledge. After about an hour he gave us a look as if to say it’s time to leave so back to camp we went. On the way back I thanked Jacob for sharing his expertise on gold mining with everyone. He just laughed and said he couldn’t take it with him. When we got back to camp we got a nice fire going and Jacob decided to stay up with us while we had a few more beers and talked mining. He was still concerned about what he called hooligans. He seemed uneasy as we sat there talking. I understood completely. He had been through more than I could ever imagine and it always seemed to be in the back of his mind. When he sat with us he had the old Thompson sitting near him and when he got up and went anywhere it usually went with him. He said he slept well at night but sometimes I wondered. Then Jacob got on the subject of our dig site. He was telling us about finding the kettle up there and how rich he thought it was. I asked him if he thought anyone might have mined it out after he was driven out of the area by thugs. He wasn’t sure. He said that if we kept working where we were currently digging we might get lucky and find it. Jacob said there would be no mistaking it because it was well defined and the gravels were beyond rich. Vern, Jim, and I were all hoping we could find it and it still contained all of its gold. Jacob wanted to find it as bad as we did. TO BE CONTINUED ................

April 27 2002 Part Three After we finished up our dinner Jacob went back up to the bar and was talking with the bartender. He was asking him about certain people from back in the old days. The bartender was middle aged and didn’t seem to know very much about that far back in time. All he knew was that the place had been sold a couple of times after the war and he didn’t think there was anyone left alive from that time period. Then Jacob told him that he used to come in there back in his day. The bartender looked amazed and set him up with a whisky on the house. Jacob was telling him about the fights and all the loggers and miners that came in on Saturday. The bartender was getting a big kick out of it. While he was talking about the old times a group of three young men had come in and took seats at the bar just down from Jacob. They had been listening to his stories and could hardly believe them. Jacob noticed them and asked if they had ever mined for gold in this area. They told him they hadn’t actually mined but had done lots of prospecting. That’s all it took and the conversation was on. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

April 27 2002 Part Two Jacob looked a little disappointed and said back when he was here the place was real busy on a Saturday night. I told him that the night was still young and we went inside. There was a family sitting at a table eating and a young couple sitting at the bar. Jacob wanted to go up to the bar and have a drink before we ate so we took seats at the bar just down a ways from the couple. Jacob ordered whisky for all four of us. They didn’t have any of his favorites so he substituted another brand. He did a toast to the mine and our partnership and we slugged down the shots. Jacob ordered another round. I told the bartender to make mine a beer this time. I wasn’t much of a whisky drinker. My partners ordered a glass of ice with theirs but Jacob took his neat. He turned to the young couple and asked them if they were gold miners. They just grinned shyly and stated they were tourists from back east. Jacob turned to me and said back when he came here the place would be full of miners and prospectors on Saturday night. He said the trouble usually started when a few of the local logging crews showed up looking for trouble. He said the loggers were pure trash and rif raf. There was always a fight over women sooner or later. He told us about one bad fight he’d seen where one of the miners got thrown through a plate glass window and got cut up real bad. He said the miners and loggers were going at it pretty good and he and his brother got into the mix. He couldn’t really say who but when the brawl ended the place was all busted up. They all paid for damages and came back on Sunday to help fix the place up. Even the logging crew showed up to help. I asked him if anyone contacted the police. He just laughed and said there was no real law anywhere around there back then. They just handled their own business and that’s the way they liked it. He ordered another round for us before I was half done with my beer and then we moved over to a table and ordered supper. Jacob said he really missed the old days. He said he could still hear his brother cussing up a storm during that fight. Then I saw him drift back in time. He sure had stories to tell. TO BE CONTINUED ............

The Paxton Hotel sits along the Feather River. There are the remains of an old stamp mill just up the river from the hotel and several old gold mine workings including a drift into the mountain.