GhostMiner

June 10 2002 Part One We were up and at it around 8:00 AM. Jacob was busy with the gold cleanup chores and the rest of us shoveled gravel by hand into the tom. It was a giant step backwards and the weather was hot as all get up. Jim stockpiled the days pay gravel with the excavator first. This only took a short time because we could only process just so much by hand. After we’d shoveled for an hour we were all soaked in sweat and the temperature was already over 80 degrees. By lunch time it was over 90 and we took a break. I was too hot and tired to eat much of anything and had to fight the urge to have a cold beer. I told myself no, that’s for tonight after the mining is done. Around 3:00 PM the temperature was sitting at 95 in the shade. Then the water flow stopped. I hollered over to Vern who was the pump tender. I was angry and figured he had forgotten to keep the gas tank filled but he said no, he had been up there tending it not too long ago. The three of us hiked up the mountain to have a look. The lay flat line had been slashed and the pump's fuel cap was off. It wasn’t running. The oil cap was off as well. Upon inspection we realized someone had dumped some kind of grit into the oil reservoir and also something into the gas tank. The pump had seized up. Also, our hose had been slashed in about ten places in a 200 foot length from the pump and would need replaced. I was hot and tired and took it out on Vern saying he was responsible for guarding against this kind of sabotage but instead was down at the digsite working. I took off my hat and threw it on the ground and stormed back down the mountain in anger leaving Jim and Vern to look at the mess. TO BE CONTINUED ................

June 9 2002 Part Two We removed the sprocket and Jim and I took it along with the chain to a shop in town to see what could be done. The trommel itself was old and had seen a lot of mining in its day. At the machine shop they told us the best thing to do was order a new chain and sprocket as repairing them would not last and we’d be throwing our money away. It would take about a week to ten days to get the sprocket and the chain would come in five business days. So we were shut down. It was late morning when we got back to camp with the bad news. Jacob was still working away at the gold cleanup and we were now reduced to working with the tom again. So we set it up and by the time that was done it was nearly 2:00 PM and it was hot. None of us were in too good of a mood but we started to shovel pay gravel into the tom. At least we had the excavator to do the digging. By dusk we had processed 30 yards of pay gravel and called it a day. We cleaned out the tom and brought it over to Jacobs cleanout station for him to work on tomorrow. He had already finished up the concentrates from the 250 yard run and we were all anxious to see the results. There were 13 ounces of gold in the finish pan. Jacob didn’t like the number 13 much and said it was bad luck. Vern said he was thinking it would have been double that. We just laughed and said gold is gold and cracked open some cold beers as we fired up the cook stove. Jacob brought out a bottle of Bushmills and we all had a couple of shots of the good Irish whisky and chased them with the beers. We all had another round as the hot dogs and beans were cooked up and pretty soon we forgot all about the broken down trommel. TO BE CONTINUED .................

If only we could lol. I corrected it.

Hopefully you have started from the beginning in season one 1936. Good to have you on board.

June 8 2002 Part One I got to work early. The sun hadn't quite come up yet and the crew was just waking. I decided to start pushing tailings that had gotten ahead of us yesterday. So I pushed them and carried them away as well. Within an hour breakfast was on and everyone was at Jacob’s camper including me. Then we got to work. Or at least we tried. While Jacob started his gold cleanup duties Vern hiked up the mountain to get the pump running. I fired up the trommel and Jim started digging pay with the excavator. I dumped in the first load of pay with the steer and heard a loud clang and the trommel stopped as I saw the chain go flying through the air. I heard Jim let out a few choice words and I signaled Vern to shut down the pump. We were broke down before we had even started. Jacob had heard the ruckus and came walking over from his cleanup station. He said some words I didn’t quite understand but knew were not good. Then he rolled a smoke and just shook his head in disgust. Then he walked back over to continue processing yesterday's concentrates. Vern, Jim, and I looked over the situation. The chain was not repairable and we needed a new one. When it broke it had also done damage to the sprocket teeth. What a way to start the day. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Just catching my breath from some big adventures in the state of Washington. I will get more journal entries up tomorrow hopefully. Cheers.

June 7 2002 When Vern fired up the pump this morning he had trouble with it holding prime and we ended up messing with it for about an hour. Not the best way to start the day. Jacob was giving us a good going over about getting the day started. He had little patience with equipment it seemed. When we finally got to digging the sun was up over the trees and the heat was coming on strong. We decided to run the trommel for a full day before we pulled the mats. Then Jacob would be doing full time gold cleanups the following day. We have him set up in a nice, shady location near camp for when he starts tomorrow. I will keep an eye on the trommel while I feed it with the steer and when Jim has enough pay dug with the excavator to last the day he will help me with tailings using the blade on the excavator. Vern will be up and down the mountain as pump tender and general mine hand as well as security. We shut down today at dusk after having only a few minor issues with the trommel. We got it overloaded on one occasion due to my overfeeding it. The beast as we call it processed 250 yards of pay gravel. I’ve got some tailings to deal with before we start mining tomorrow morning. I made the mistake of calling our operation work and was instantly corrected by Jacob. He said it’s not work, it’s mining. Point taken. The temperature hit 93 at the digsite. We are all on a learning curve out here and we are loving it. I may never go back to civilized society again. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

No worries blackjack. I didn't see any malice in the question either but sometimes words on the internet get mistaken as far as the meanings. Many thanks to you & Tahoe for your interest and for reading the journal.

The permits are approved by Federal, State, & County agencies. All plant, wildlife, & water are considered in the plan. The tailings water is contained in a settling pond. This operation is about 1/2 mile from any creek. The water is actually being taken from a flooded mine shaft which formed a pond 1700 ft or so to the NW on the mountain. The State of California granted the water license and the operation was monitored. All disturbance was put back under the plan and was covered by a bond to the Federal government. After two years it was hard to see that any mining activity had taken place. The Federal government holds the bond as security until all reclamation has passed muster. If you don't follow the plan you are pretty much finished as miners. Reputation means quite a bit. Ours is very good. That is why our permit applications continue to be approved.

June 6 2002 The crew was up before dawn and we had coffee together. Everyone was in a hurry to fire up the trommel and see what kind of yardage the plant could handle. At sunrise the temperature was nearly 60 degrees and we expected a sweltering day. Jacob said this may be the beginning of the big heat he had talked about. He said it could last until well into September. I know one thing, I am happy to not be digging with a pick and shovel now. Those old crews must have been as tough as they come. We had all taken night watch shifts and everything was quiet. Vern fired up the big pump and the pristine morning air and silence was suddenly broken with the smell of diesel fuel and throbbing gas and diesel engines. Jim ran the excavator while Jacob tended to the trommel and I got in the skid steer. Jim dug up piles of virgin gravel while I loaded the trommel with pay gravel from the bucket of the steer and pushed tailings. Within one hour we had processed roughly 20 cubic yards of gravel and we were hardly running the trommel at half speed. We had it up on a pad with a ramp for the steer to come up to its hopper and feed it. It was a beast. After a few minor adjustments to the water flow we cranked it up to about 80% and let it work. By 2:00 PM we had run 150 yards through it and shut it down. We wanted to see how the recovery was so we cleaned out the mats and all four of us participated in the cleanup. Jacob had the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen. In the holding pan there were 17 ounces of gold. We broke out the whisky and beer and had a toast to the old crew. If only they could have been here. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

June 5 2002 We were all up early this morning. Jacob was all wound up about getting heavy equipment on the mine at last. And the timing was good because some of that big heat that jacob had been talking about was supposed to be starting. I was having morning coffee with the crew when Jacob came out of his camper with a bottle of Bushmills and poured a generous serving into everyone’s coffee cup. We had a good breakfast and waited for the deliveries. Vern stayed at camp while the rest of us drove down to the main road. First to arrive was the old skid steer and the two pumps. It had tracks and the motor seemed willing to work. We put the pumps in the bucket of the steer and Jim drove it up to the digsite. After a wait of what seemed like forever but was actually late morning the trommel arrived. It was mounted on an off road trailer. We hooked it up to my truck and I pulled it up to the mine site. Then we got to work setting up our new operation. It was like Christmas had come in June for us. Everyone was excited to get everything set up just right. We worked until dark and finally had everything set up like we wanted but it was too late to do a test run and we were all exhausted. The temperature during the late afternoon had climbed into the mid 90’s and we were all feeling it. We buttoned up the last details and walked over to camp and had cold beer and hamburgers. It had been a very good day for our crew. TO BE CONTINUED ................

June 4 2002 We had 2.7 ounces of gold out of the 60 yards we ran yesterday. I guess it’s ok but none of us are getting rich after a four way split. We had a quick meeting and discussed a way to process more yards per hour. It would require a large trommel or multiple toms. That would require more water and we’d have to deal with triple the tailings to move. The excavator was capable of digging all the pay we could dream of running in a day so I made a few calls to see what was available. Jim and I decided to go to Reno to look at a couple of trommels and Jacob and Vern stayed at camp. We ended up buying a real nice rebuilt 40 yard per hour trommel. At least that’s what it was rated at. I figured even with a worst case scenario of processing 200 yards a day that would triple our production and hopefully the gold weighs. We also bought two brand new pumps and an old skid steer. We will have everything up and running in two days. The equipment will be delivered to the mine tomorrow. Jacob said he is going to miss seeing the tom processing gravel but is very happy to hear about running three times the gravel. Tomorrow will be a busy day. TO BE CONTINUED .................

THE JOURNAL HAS REACHED ANOTHER MILESTONE. IT NOW HAS 300,000 VIEWS. MANY THANKS TO ALL THE READERS.

I might be up for that if i'm in the area & not busy with the mining crew. Hopefully that town has lots of cold beer.

Now getting back to posting here about what Jacob had told me about our minesite being cursed. Of course we all know what happened to Jed back in 1936. He was murdered for his gold and that story is completely true. His brother Jacob was run off the claim in 1937 and was lucky to escape with his life. Others in the crew were not as fortunate. And Whisky Jack died from a rattle snake bite to the face. That is probably enough to get you thinking about the place having bad karma. As far as my own experiences go, I have witnessed some things and some of the people that have worked there have had some problems. One group next to our claims at the lower area of the mountain had a really nice gold strike one season. However, they got themselves into problems with the law and were arrested. I used to visit this crew now and then and they were a rough bunch of outlaw types. But they were good to me and I learned lots about mining from them. The fact that they got arrested did surprise me though. Curse? I don't think so. There was a really good guy that worked with us on several ventures on the claims. He was very smart and was a good miner as well. We had many long conversations about our claims and gold mining both in person and on the phone. One day I got an email from one of his partners. He told me he had died but I won't say how on this forum. He was 50 yrs old and I was shocked. Curse? I don't know. There was a crew who worked on one of our claims, hit it big, then lost it all on another venture on another area of our claims. Curse? I doubt it. That's just gold mining. High risk. I've heard voices out of nowhere and so have my partners. This kind of thing you can't explain. One of my partners was run off Jed's digsite of 1936 by gunfire. He had his young son with him. I don't think anyone was shooting at them but just trying to scare them away. It worked. Is that a curse? Doubtful. We've had our share of highgraders or what some would call claim jumpers. I look at that stuff as just a part of mining on a gold bearing claim. Cursed? Nope. So there you have it. There is always something weird that happens every year.

Maybe I'll do a post here about how someone might think this minesite is cursed. I'll put it out tomorrow when I get the time. Cheers.

I will say something about these claims - Jacob told me that he believed they were cursed. He said just about everyone that spent any time there ended up with big problems or worse - they died untimely deaths. From my own experiences there I can somewhat agree. There will be more about all that in future writings.

There was a crew in 1936. The gold strike really happened. The crew names were changed. Some of season one was real, some was fictional. Only I know what was fiction & what was real LOL. Same with season 2 1937. The 2002 is real and I lived it. Jacob was real as well but names were changed.

Our lessee just had 2 approved permits on our claims in northern Cal including state approved water license. No digging or washplant within 300 ft of creek & you are good to go.

The Season One book.

Paxton has a rich history which our little crew added to when we stayed there. Card games until 2:00 AM with plenty of beer, wine, & whisky. A few of the permanent residents who lived there in cabins were real party animals. As a matter of fact, that's about all they did. New owners have changed it from what it was back then. Or at least that's what I hear. There is a drift mine going into the mountain you can enter as well as the remains of an old stamp mill on the Feather River. One interesting note about the drift mine (tunnel mine) - two of my partners went in to explore it one day. They both had new flashlights with new batteries. After they got into the tunnel a ways both flashlights went out and the batteries were dead. We figure that mine to be haunted and the old timers don't like tresspassers searching for their gold. Tommy Knockers.

The Paxton Hotel - one of Jacob's old haunts from back in 1936/1937. The place is said to be haunted. My wife & I stayed on the property for a month back in 2015 but we never saw the ghost.

We found Sarge waiting for a train at the Paxton Depot. He had been waiting for over 78 yrs.

The 2002 digsite area.

The old road that goes up to the 1937 dig site which was our 2002 dig site.