GhostMiner

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Sheriff’s Dept Incident Report July 7, 1937 Acting Sheriff Dan Caldwell Concerning shooting at Stevens Brothers Gold Mine INCIDENT : Sometime in the early morning hours of July 4, 1937 a gunfight broke out at the Stevens Brothers Mine. A small mining crew was attacked by a group of heavily armed and unknown gunmen. A gun battle ensued whereas the mining crew attempted to defend themselves. Six of the attackers were killed in the incident as well as three of the mining crew. The identity of the six deceased attackers is not known at this time. The identity of the three deceased miners is as follows : John Denham, Will Roberts, and Hudson Kane. The fourth man of the crew is identified as Jacob Stevens who remains missing. INCIDENT DETAIL : At approximately 4:00 AM I was contacted in town by a prospector named Ken Stallings. He was camped on his mining claim approximately one half mile north of the mining crews camp and was awoken by gunfire around 2:00 AM on July 4. Upon his investigation into the cause of the gunfire he witnessed what he claimed to be about thirty to forty armed men shooting into the mining crew’s camp. He stated the miners were returning fire. At that time he headed into town where he informed me of the situation. Being the fourth of July and having no staff at the present time as well as being unable to bring in neighboring departments that night I deemed it unsafe to drive out there alone to be of any assistance although I did travel out to the camp later that morning. When I arrived at 11:00 AM there was no gunfire or armed men. There were a large amount of spent rounds piled in the camp as well as at a watchpost on the mountain. I have secured the neighboring Sheriff’s Department and Federal Agencies to assist in a formal investigation into this incident. At the time of this report there are no leads. Filing Officer : Dan Caldwell Acting Sheriff July 7, 1937 Case No. 747 Status : OPEN TO BE CONTINUED .................

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. It's been a long, hard ride.

Gold is the driver of men. Brave men who faced down death and fought with their brothers in arms.

July 4 1937 I am hurriedly writing this with the aid of a three quarter moon while trapped at the watchpost. It is 3:00 AM and today was to be a gold weigh and celebration of our country's independence. Instead, we are fighting for our lives. I took the second watch last night and all was quiet until an hour ago when we were suddenly attacked by what seems like a small army of well armed men. There has been heavy gunfire until the last ten minutes. I hear no more return fire from camp and I am nearly out of ammo up here on the mountain. I am taking occasional rifle fire and volleys of rounds from at least ten positions which have me surrounded. I am unable to move from cover. I can only think of the Shaman who warned me of our demise. I fear this may be the end. I am seeing my brother Jed and Whisky Jack coming down the mountain towards me with their arms stretched out to greet me. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

OK, waiting for that 4th of July gold weigh. Any guesses?

July 3 1937 There was nothing moving on the mountain last night except for a bear and some mule deer. At breakfast we had a brief meeting and were concerned that whoever had taken those buckets out of the mine while we were in Nevada most likely knew we were on rich ground. We would need to keep a close watch on the mine. Will and I got an early start as the sun was coming up behind the trees. The intense heat was back once again. We worked at a good pace and cut a trench trying to find the depth of country rock. We hit it at twelve feet. I took a sample pan over to the tub with Will and we couldn’t believe the result. The pan was full of small nuggets and pickers as well as coarse gold. We had never seen a pan like this. It was even richer than last year's kettle dig. We still didn’t know how far back into the hill the kettle went. The deposit had the potential to be massive. I kept a thermometer in the shade and it was already reading 98 degrees. It had to be 110 or more in the sun. I sent Will back down to the creek with a lode of buckets filled to the brim with rich gravels for John to wash. I told him to bring up more water and some cool Lucky’s we kept in the creek. When he got back up to the site we found a shady spot and drank a few of them. I have to say that I have never had beer that tasted better on a sweltering hot day. We got back to work and didn’t stop until dusk. We had removed a total of 170 buckets of super rich pay. The weigh tomorrow was going to be a good one as most of the material we took down to John was from deep in the kettle. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

July 2 1937 Part Three Seeing as we had devoted our dig time to determining the breadth of the kettle and only brought a small amount of buckets down to John which he had finished we decided to do the weigh after supper. We ended up with three ounces with nearly a quarter of that from the bottom gravels we had placed in one pan. We now knew that this entire area was a gold bonanza with super rich gravels and we hadn’t even found country rock in the drop of the kettle. There was no determining how much gold was in there but we were starting to think in very large terms. After we completed the weigh and hid our gold we gathered around the fire and talked about our current situation. The crew was rightly disturbed to find out about someone working in our dig site while we were in Nevada. We decided to rotate guard duty in a hidden area with a view of the site. If someone came back to steal our gravels we would be ready for them. No one was in favor of hiring an extra man at this point. I volunteered for the first shift as night watchman while the rest of the crew turned in to get some sleep. I grabbed a bottle of Bushmills as well as my Thompson and headed up to the mine on foot. I got to the watchpost and settled in for my shift. It wasn’t long until the cold night air settled in over the mountain. TO BE CONTINUED .................

July 2 1937 Part Two When Hudson and I got up to the dig site we could see some of the empty buckets we kept there were nowhere to be found. I sent Hudson back down to camp to get more of them. Obviously, someone had been up here digging and hauling out buckets when we were in Nevada. They also had to know by now that this was a very rich gold deposit. No doubt they will come back. We may need to guard this area at night. Our resources are stretched thin. We don’t have the manpower to post enough guards and there are very few if any trustworthy people in this shit hole of a county. It seems like we are fighting an uphill battle every day. When Hudson got back we got to work digging. After about an hour we were at country rock which suddenly plunged nearly vertical. We cut laterally across the base gravels and were able to determine that the drop continued to the west for nearly sixty feet. This took us the better part of the day and we worked like devils to try and determine the depth of the kettle deposit. By sundown we had got down ten feet in the west corner with no sign of country rock yet. I took a quick sample from this depth over to the wash tub and panned it out while Hudson held a lantern for me to see. We had only dug twenty buckets from the higher level which had been taken down to John earlier. Hudson held the lantern directly over the pan and when I took a good look I nearly passed out. The pan was chuck full of small nuggets and coarse gold. There had to be half an ounce. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

July 2 1937 Part One This morning we weighed up a whopping eight ounces of gold from yesterday’s run. The gold is real coarse with plenty of small nuggets and pickers. We all had a shot of whisky and prepared to get the day underway. Will was the watchman today while Hudson and I do the digging chores. About the time we were ready to head up to the hill Deputy Dan made an appearance at camp. What now? I was thinking about more trouble. He told us that there was a phone call from Nevada about an investigation into the death of the thugs at the mine out there. Dan said that he was worried about Luther possibly making a deal with them. He said Luther was the only one other than himself that could positively identify us as the crew that took out the gang. I laughed and told Dan that the law dogs from Nevada ought to give us an award for doing their jobs for them. Dan shook his head and said that ain’t the way things work. He had an idea. He knew people who could get Luther Shanghaied out of the country. They operated a ring in San Francisco and could make him an imprisoned sailor never to be heard from again. He wanted $100 to get it done. I placed the money in his greedy little hand and told him I didn’t want to hear about it again. He gave me a nod and quickly headed out of camp. With that out of the way we headed out to work the mine. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

July 1 1937 This morning Will and Hudson rested up at camp while John and I took Luther into town where he was placed under arrest. Deputy Dan said there was a big investigation going on into the widespread corruption in the county. It seems the corruption did not end with the sheriff and judge but was also deeply seated into many of the county agencies as well. Dan seemed confident that they would get a handle on it and make quite a few changes. To our crew this was neither here nor there as we only wanted to be able to mine gold in peace. We filled Dan in on what had taken place in Nevada and he was a bit shocked to say the least. He was concerned that there could be an investigation into all that had taken place. I informed him that neither Will, Hudson, John, or I had given any information to anyone out there as to our true identities. I also informed him that we had only acted in self defense. I made it clear that if any law dogs attempted to come for us we would fight them to the end and would never allow ourselves to be placed in a prison. With that being said, we headed back to camp. When we got back we all had lunch and I suggested we do a little mining before the day ended. So John worked the tom with Hudson on guard duty while Will and I went up to the Eastern Drift Mine area and worked the rich gravels. We ended our day with 70 buckets. We were finally back to doing what we all came out here for. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Here is a better picture of the collapsed drift referred to in the journal as well as a picture of the "hill" they mentioned.

There are also heavy black sands in that area. Here is a picture of the results of a larger test showing what the old crew up there was after. Some nice pickers, coarse, and fine gold.

We also worked with a geologist out on that area back in 2013. He told us the area has a crazy history for finding gold. There can be ounces per yard or yards per ounce. There were over one million ounces of gold taken there by the hydraulic miners back in the 1800's when they hit a huge kettle which is actually called a drop zone fault. The hot spots we have found so far don't hold up long but there is hope that we fine one that does.

As stated, that was the best pan of all the ones we did. Evidently someone found it humorous. This was just above bedrock.

We found the actual Eastern Drift Mine and outside area from the journal. It has collapsed & is unsafe to re-open for now. We also did numerous test pans with this picture of our best one which was about 1/3 gram from one spade shovel of gravels near the old adit. We dug into the hill about 20 ft from the adit and got in about five ft to do the test.

June 30 1937 Part Five We were still over 100 yards from my truck and bullets were whizzing over our heads and flying all around us. We were never going to make it out alive and my decision had been made for me by the thugs. Will and I took cover behind rocks on the right side of the trail while John and Hudson did the same on the left side. I could see muzzle flashes down range and we opened up with everything we had. They picked this fight and they sure as hell were going to get one. We had good cover and plenty of ammo. There was also more at the truck. The firing ceased after a minute or so. They were no doubt trying to figure out what to do next. I decided this would be a good time to climb up on the rocky ledge above me and get a good angle to shoot from. When I got up there I could see the gang grouped up behind some boulders. I had a clear shot from fairly close range and I put the Thompson on full auto. I layed down heavy fire and saw three of them go down instantly. There were still five more and suddenly I heard John’s Thompson firing up on the ridge on the other side of the trail. They were in a deadly crossfire now. We kept on firing until every last one of them was down. John and I got down off the ridge and I saw Will and Hudson coming up the trail towards us. Then we went back to their camp. On the way back we saw Luther still sitting tied up on the trail. I told him that his buddies were all shot to hell. He didn’t say a word. There was still one thug left in camp. Stupidly, he tried to fight it out with us and began firing. I circled right with Will and John circled left. Hudson watched the trail out of camp. I called out for the hooligan to give it up but he kept on firing. Will and I kept the bullets flying and then I saw John come around behind him and spray him with the Thompson. It was over. John checked the guy I had hit in the back of the head and he hollered out that he was finished. We had killed them all. We told the workers why we were there and they said they were going to stay there and work the mine by themselves. They must have thanked us ten times. On the way back to the truck we grabbed Luther and headed back to California. We had cleaned out another rat's nest. Now we need to get back to mining gold. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

Remember what the Shaman told Jacob.

June 30 1937 Part Four There were about ten men inside the building. They all looked to be mine workers. I quickly stated that I was not there to hurt any of them but to rescue my two partners. Then I heard Will give a yell and looked towards the far corner. He was standing there with Hudson. They came running forward and I gave Will my 45 and Hudson a rifle. As we ran out of the building John was just coming down off the rock outcropping towards us. There was no time to talk and we hightailed it back up into the rocks. I could still hear Luther yelling on the trail outside of camp. It looked like most of the guards had gone over in that direction leaving just two of them near the building. John said that if we don’t take them out they will be back up to our camp for revenge. I wasn’t so sure but we had to make a quick decision now, either take them out or try to get back to my truck. My mind was racing. I wasn’t afraid of a gunfight but we also had a chance to leave unharmed. They probably wouldn’t see us in the dark but Luther might tell them where the truck was parked. I told John that we needed to get back to the truck but if we were followed we would shoot it out with the gang. We made a run for the truck following the rock outcropping near the trail and watching our backs as we went. Luther had gone quiet now and he had probably told the guards where our truck was. We needed to move quickly as we had little time to waste. As the truck came into view some shots rang out. TO BE CONTINUED .................

June 30 1937 Part Three At dusk all four guards were changed. This told us there were at least eight and likely more. From where our lookout post was they looked to be carrying rifles. Some of them had sidearms as well. We decided to use Luther as a diversion. We put him down on the trail just outside of camp as the night set in. We instructed him to call out for help and warned him that if he tried to warn the gang of miners he would be shot dead. John stayed with him while I worked my way around the back side of the camp. There was a big wooden structure where it appeared the workers were being held. There was only one guard back there. I had told John to give me ten minutes and then have Luther Holler out for help. Then John would try to Join up with me at the back of the camp. We were hoping that Will and Hudson were in there. I layed flat out on the gravel waiting for Luther to holler out. It seemed like forever but finally I heard him. The lone guard I was watching turned quickly to see what all the fuss was about and worked his way around the far corner of the building. As he did so I snuck up to the building. The area was dimly lit with a couple of lanterns. I inched my way along the wall of the building until I was three feet behind him. I brought the but of my Thompson down hard on the back of his head. He made a slight cry that was covered up by Luther hollering for them not to shoot and the guard dropped to the ground motionless. I went over and checked the door of the building. It was unlocked and I swung it open with the Thompson pointing inside and ready to open fire. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

June 30 1937 Part Two We were forced to leave the camp and mine unguarded. Our gold is well hidden so we are not worried about that. We drove out of California and into the heat of the Nevada desert using the directions and map Luther had given us. When we got close to the location we got Luther out of the back of the truck. He was half baked to death under the tarp and we gave him water. We untied his legs and parked the truck behind some large boulder outcroppings. We would need to hike into the area and be careful doing it. John and I had our Thompsons and 45’s as well as two rifles. We were packed heavy with ammo. When Luther told us we were getting close we headed off the rough trail and up onto a rock ledge that was about thirty feet above the mine. We could see activity at their camp and there looked to be four guards with one on each side of the camp which was close to the entrance of a mine tunnel tunnel. It looked like they were keeping a tight watch on everything. We would need to make a quick plan of action and wait for dark. John wanted to just go straight on in with guns blazing. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

June 30 1937 Part One We kept Luther at our camp and Dan headed back to town after our meeting last night. He would need to stay in town as there was no other law. John and I would be on our own. We would take Luther with us to make sure of the location and would need to bring him back alive if possible but he was not a priority. Once we had Will and Hudson we were getting the hell out of Nevada but not until all of the rif raf associated with the mine out there were dealt with. We planned to take no prisoners. We would take my truck with Luther tied up under a tarp in the back. We’d have to go in on foot for the last mile according to Luther. We will pack heavy as far as weapons and possibly fight our way in. John and I will figure all that out after we scout the place. We had a big breakfast and started to load up the truck for the trip. We will rescue our partners or die trying. TO BE CONTINUED ............

June 29 1937 Part Seven He said two men had taken Will and Hudson to Nevada where there was an active mine in operation. They had considered them highly valuable as far as the operation of gold mines went and would be used as consultants and workers. They were prisoners there. The location was very remote and highly guarded. He said there were slave laborers kept there and about ten men who ran the operation as well as protecting the property. Dan told Luther he had betrayed his badge and was disgusted with him. I told Luther he was going to take us to the location and then he would be arrested and turned over to the custody of Dan. As long as he cooperated we would not harm him any further. I told him if he refused to cooperate we would hang him right here and now and bury him on the mountain where he would never be found. John said that we meant business and Luther believed us. He gave us the location which was on a map in his coat pocket. There were a few names on the paper as well. He said the only way in was by mule, horse, or on foot. The group that ran the mine were from back east and weren’t making much money. That’s why they figured Will and Hudson might be of help. They had also planned on getting me and John at some point. I told Dan we would need to plan a trip to the mine in Nevada. First,we needed to find out more from Luther about the details of the operation and how it was guarded. This was not going to be easy. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

June 29 1937 Part Six Dan Began to protest the treatment of Luther and hollered for us to stop. I told him to back off if he wanted to live. Luther was struggling for his very life at the end of a rope now. We stopped just short of lifting him off his feet. I told him to talk or it was over for him. He cried out and begged us not to hang him. He said he’d talk. I gave a nod to John and we eased the tension off the rope. I looked Luther in the eye from a foot in front of his face. I told him I was tired of playing around and this was his last chance. I told him I wanted to know what happened to my partners. He said that he and two other men from town had come out to camp. Will and Hudson had been taken by complete surprise. He figured that once they got rid of them they could get John and me next. Then they would have complete control of our mine. They intended to deal with Dan as well. He said that Dan was not involved. I asked him where my partners were and that they damn well better be alive. He hesitated for a few seconds and looked like he was stalling. I cracked him across the face with my 45. He let out a yell and blood was streaming out of his mouth. He begged me not to hit him again. I grabbed him by the throat and asked one more time where my partners were. He started to cry. TO BE CONTINUED ...................