GhostMiner

June 28 1937 Part Two When John and I got back to camp it was nearly evening. We built up a nice fire and I cooked up a good Hoover Stew. We sat at the fire and watched the light begin to fade away. I told John that something just didn’t seem right. I was thinking about Dan’s last statement. He had suggested we should clear out of here. Yet he and Luther were getting paid big money working for us. It just didn’t set right with me. John said he wasn’t sure and maybe it was just a suggestion coming from his concern. I told John that I don’t think anyone in this shithole county has any concern about anything but themselves. We were both dog tired. I told John to get some sleep and I would stand watch for a spell and then wake him up when the time came. He didn’t fight me on it and retired to his tent. I grabbed a bottle of whisky and went up to the lookout post to watch over camp. We were all alone out here and vulnerable. The dark of night settled in and I watched the campfire slowly die. I had a lot of thinking TO BE CONTINUED ..........

Any guesses as to what this bottle might have held? Whisky?

If you go out there, make sure you stay off this guy's claim.

Here you go.

This bottle was found at the old crew's camp. No markings except at bottom side where it says 18 OZ.

June 28 1937 Part One We didn’t know if Will and Hudson had been taken captive or were still somewhere on the mountain. It would be daylight soon and we could look for any tracks or signs. John and I took cover near a large tree in case there were hooligans out in the woods. Everything was eerily quiet, too quiet. Eventually the sky began to brighten. I stirred the campfire embers and placed some kindling wood on what was left of last night's fire. Then I made coffee which John and I needed badly. As the pot was simmering we looked around the outskirts of camp for any signs of what had happened but we saw nothing. A mystery. We had some coffee and tried to make a plan. The deputies would be back in town later today. Maybe they could help. I figured that someone knew John and I were in town last night and came out here to take advantage of the situation. Both Will and Hudson were heavily armed but there were no shell casings anywhere to be found. We took a quick hike up the mountain and saw nothing out of the ordinary. We walked out to the Eastern Drift Mine and all was in order. There was nothing left to do, so until we met with the deputies we decided to finish the gold wash and weigh. Around 2:00 PM we weighed up seven ounces. It all seemed so worthless to me now. We decided to take the gold with us and drove the truck into town to see if the deputies were back and also buy some supplies. When we walked into the general store there were several people talking about what they had heard about trouble in town last night. They were saying that a group of thugs had been cleaned out and the sheriff and judge were in with them and left town as well. John and I stayed in the corner and played dumb as they went on. The townfolk were saying that the deputies and our crew had removed the gang and put them in jail but the sheriff and judge had turned them loose. They said the sheriff was nothing but a gangster using his position as a cover and the judge was just as bad. The store owner knew us and saw us in the corner but said nothing. We got our supplies and loaded them into the back of the truck. Then we drove over to the sheriff’s office. The deputies were back and I told them what was being said in the general store. They smiled and said they had put out that information to certain members of the community and were happy to hear it was spreading. They had made a call to the state capital and there would be investigators showing up soon. Deputy Dan advised us to clear out of town until things cooled down. He said the sheriff, judge, and gang were gone for good and would not speak anymore about it. I told Dan and Luther about the disappearance of Will and Hudson. They were really disturbed by the news and promised to start a quiet investigation. They also warned us to be on guard for trouble if there were more thugs still roaming the area. Then Dan looked me in the eye and said that if it were him, he'd take what we had as far as valuables and get the hell out of the state of California. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

End of the crew?

June 27 1937 Part Eight It had been a long night and John and I were looking forward to getting back to camp and some sleep. When I parked the car we got out and saw the campfire had nearly gone out and no one was on guard. I checked for Will and Hudson but they were nowhere to be found. The camp had been ransacked. We feared the worst. Something very bad must have happened out here. My truck had not been touched and nothing was missing that I could see. This was a complete mystery and I was in shock. John and I looked at each other with fear in our eyes. We didn’t know what to do. We hollered out for Will and Hudson but there was no answer. I felt sick to my stomach. TO BE CONTINUED ................

June 27 1937 Part Seven Dan made a phone call to the judge from the hotel. The judge arrived and walked in through the front door where we waited. He was taken into custody quickly and without a fight. To say he was surprised would be putting it mildly. Dan had arranged for a good sized cargo truck to be brought to the hotel when he was ready for it. Around 3:00 AM it arrived and the prisoners were loaded into the back which was enclosed. There were the nine gang members, the sheriff, and the judge. Before the back door of the truck was closed I walked over and gave the thugs a message. I told them that this is what happens when you mess with our crew and if they ever see us again it will be the last thing they see. I told them to stay clear of us if they wanted to live. Then the door was closed. Dan and Luther got in the front seat and got ready to leave with the hooligans. Dan told me not to ask what was going to happen to them but promised we’d never see them again. He said they would be back in town sometime tomorrow. Then the deputies would fabricate a story stating the sheriff and judge had met up with a group of people from Mexico and they had all disappeared that night. He would tell any investigators that the deputies had arrested the four gang members in the tavern for creating a disturbance and had turned them over to the sheriff at the jail. The bartender and patrons had been paid to go along with the story as well. With that, the truck drove out of town and into the night. John and I headed back to camp. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

June 27 1937 Part Six The police car was parked on the street in front of the tavern. Dan went to the front door and scanned the interior through a small glass window and came back over to where John and I were standing near the car. He said he recognized the gang and they were sitting at a table in the far corner. There were a few customers at the bar and no one else. It was now or never. We figured they would probably be carrying sidearms. Dan said he would walk in through the back door with his shotgun in hand. John and I would walk in through the front door with the Thompsons. We synchronize our watches. We would watch our second hands and go in one minute. This gave Dan time to walk around to the back door. Dan left us and we counted. The 60 seconds hit and we walked in with our machine guns leveled at the corner table. As we entered we saw Dan burst in from the back. He had his shotgun pointing directly at the gang. Dan hollered out for them to put their hands in the air and not to make any sudden moves or they would be shot. He told them they were all under arrest. We had taken them by complete surprise. Dan put them up facing the wall and frisked them while we held our guns on them. They had pistols and knives. Once those were removed we handcuffed them and marched them out the front door and jammed all four of them into the back seat of the police car. Dan got in the driver seat and I got in the passenger side keeping my 45 pointed at them. Then Dan drove back behind the hotel slowly while John walked behind the car. We had pulled everything off perfectly and without any shots being fired. We had one more thug to collect- the judge. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

June 27 1937 Part Five John sprung the door with a big kick using all his weight and we burst into the hotel room with our guns in hand. The gang had been at a table drinking and playing cards when we charged in. We had taken them without a shot being fired, or so we thought. Then we realized there were only five of them in there. Dan asked where the others were and they told him they were at the tavern. We had plenty of rope and we tied and gagged them. We put them face first on the floor and told them if they moved they would be shot. Then Luther came in and held them at gunpoint with his shotgun. Dan, John, and I jumped in the police car and headed for the tavern. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be as easy as capturing the thugs in the hotel and there may be a fight. There would be four of them that we would need to confront. We were going in with guns drawn and ready for anything. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Bedrocker in the house!

Don't forget the judge. This crew is bad to the bone.

June 27 1937 Part Four When we got to town we parked at the back of the general store and met up with the two deputies. Then we drove over and parked on a side street behind the hotel where our car wouldn’t be seen by the gang in the hotel. The deputies parked on the street in front of the hotel. Then Luther made a phone call to the sheriff. He told him there was some trouble with the gang members and they wanted him to come to the hotel. He said that he and deputy Dan would be parked out front in case of trouble. John and I then waited around the back corner of the hotel. We left out Thompson machine guns locked in the trunk of my sedan but had our 45’s holstered under our coats. It took about ten minutes for the sheriff to arrive and he parked in the back parking lot. We waited for him to get to the back door and John started to walk towards him and yelled “Hey you.” As the sheriff turned to see who it was John was close enough to nail him with one of his deadly right hands to the jaw. The sheriff went down like a sack of wet laundry. We dragged him back to my car, tied him up and gagged him, removed the Thompsons, and locked him in the trunk. Deputy Luther stayed at the front door in case any of the gang tried to get out that way. He was armed with a shotgun and side arm as was Dan. Then John, Dan, and I quietly opened the back door of the hotel and walked over to the door of the room where the gang was staying. We were ready to have John kick it in and charge in without warning. I gave John the signal to break the door. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

A closer look at the contents.

The bottom of the chest is starting to rot and can no longer be trusted to hold any weight.

Here is the chest showing a part of it's contents. The old papers & maps are not shown.

As promised earlier this week, I have opened the old chest and will soon show part of the contents. It's even better than I expected. Must be part of a hidden stash. I did not include the old papers & maps as they must be kept secret.

Check out that bridge footing in one of the pictures. It's sitting on one of the rocks. That's not the Paxton bridge but another larger one down the road.

Here's a few more pictures of the Feather River in the Paxton area.

BTW, the caretaker there was big on gold detecting. They would take a truck with a winch and park it on the bridge. Then they would move boulders and detect. Pretty cool & yes, they found small nuggets.

And big boulders. The drive on highway 70 to Oroville is beautiful. It follows the Feather River across the Sierra Nevada Mts and a couple of cool tunnels to drive through as well. There is a nice prospecting shop in Oroville as well.

Here is one of the old cabins up in Paxton. The cabins date back to 1930 and are located near the old hotel and bar. They are just about It is rumored that the original crew from the 1936 journal I'm writing stayed here on a few occasions and were quite rowdy. There were numerous fights in the bar. I think the 1936 crew came out here to blow off steam & spend some of the gold on various things. By the way, my wife & I stayed in that cabin for a month. That's my lantern on the table. You have to drive across an old bridge over the Feather River to get up there and it's all privately owned including a drift mine into the mountain.

June 27 1937 Part Three We quickly put a plan together and set it in motion. Dan went back to town and we planned to meet up with him and Luther outside of the general store. The Mexican gang was staying in a back room of the hotel. Dan said there was a back entrance and their room was the first one near the door. He said they had probably planned this as a strategy of escape in case of trouble. Now we would use it as our surprise attack point. Dan said the sheriff could be called at home to bring him to the hotel before our attack. The deputy would phone him and say there was trouble inside the room where the gang was staying. We would jump the sheriff and then take on the gang. It had to be successful as the two deputies would be exposed as enemies of the sheriff. After this was done the deputies would call the judge and tell him there was urgent business that needed to be attended to and to meet them at the sheriff’s office. The judge lived alone and the sheriff had lived alone for the past few years because his wife had left him. We left Will and Hudson at camp to guard our goods. John and I headed for town in my sedan. We were loaded heavy and ready for a fight. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

The old Paxton Hotel on the feather River and one of the residents who stayed too long. Yes, I have spent time at this location but didn't hang out with that guy. The old crew may have also frequented this place. There is a nice bar in there.