GhostMiner

We didn't bother to take very many pictures in 2002. However, I will look around or see if anyone else has any. I am not much for taking pictures & didn't even own a camera back then. Even today I do not own a smart phone but have a chrome book for occasional pictures. There are some pictures taken on the mine from much later yrs that were taken by one of my partners but by then that 2002 project was completely reclaimed and buried. The bond was huge for the 2002 project because of all the ground we were disturbing. Cheers.

September 10 2002 Part Three We ended up the day stopping with 100 yards of washed gravels. The cleanup will be done tomorrow with Conor and myself while Jacob and Clay continue to dig and haul pay gravel to the processing site. It actually started to rain as the crew was getting ready for supper so we went into Jacobs camper and ate. We were all eager to get that cleanup done tomorrow and find out if the gold values were getting even richer. Jacob figured they were and I thought so as well. We were all talking about gold and mining. Jacob told us that this glory hole was something for all of us to remember. He said we would be able to tell our kin about it someday. He seems to think that there is over 1000 ounces in the hole but possibly much more. There is a big drop in the bedrock there for sure. He is down about 25 feet and also widening the dig to the west. We all want to see the bottom of that pit. We finished supper and hit the sack. Tomorrow will give us more answers. TO BE CONTINUED ................

A glory hole. Without an excavator we would have never found it. And on top of a faultline. A bit unusual. Kind of like walking down into a secret gold vault. I still get the chills. I found another in a remote area 2000 ft to the south on top of that fault line back in 2020. Completely mined out by the old hydraulic crews. They left me very little. But those old boys missed the one we found in 2002.

Hey Big Clay - you may soon be able to buy yourself an entire fleet of trucks.

September 10 2002 Part Two After lunch I helped Conor get the pump going and told him I was going up to the dig site to have a look at the area Jacob was working. I jumped in my truck and headed up the mountain. When I got over to the area where Jacob was digging I got a good look at what he was talking about. I was amazed. He had started into a section of mountain with a long trench and then was widening out the dig and descending his work down and forming a kind of rectangular shaped hole that was a good twenty feet in width and just as deep. He had backed out of the trench and reset his operation to form a deeper but less steep ramp which had increased his footprint. That allowed him to go deeper than the twenty feet his excavator arm was limited to. Jacob saw me and gave me a grin and climbed down off the machine. We were looking into a big hole where the entire north or back wall as well as the east wall was bedrock. I went down the ramp and got into the bottom of the hole with a pan and personally took out a good sample. Then Jacob and I walked over to a water tub and he watched me pan it out. I could hardly believe my eyes. There in front of me was a pan half full of black sand and the other half heavy gold. Pickers and coarse gold like I had never seen. Clay was in the truck waiting to be loaded and came over to have a look. He let out a soft whistle. I looked at Jacob and told him I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing. My hands were shaking. Jacob just chuckled and told us it just kept getting richer as he got deeper into the cut. I asked him how deep he thought it could go before bottoming in bedrock. Jacob flatly stated he was not sure but if it held up for another several days it was going to get pretty interesting. He said the rich ground might also extend to the west as well because it showed no sign of being contained to the twenty feet of lateral area. He said it was something like the 1936 strike but actually might be much larger. How rich the bottom might be was anyone’s guess. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

September 10 2002 Part One Staggering Prospects Clay fired up the old Mack and he and Jacob rode up to the digsite as the sun was coming up. It was fun to watch them in the truck. Jacob was in his element and the two of them were becoming good friends. I got the pump going and Conor and I started processing pay gravel. I was looking at the sluice and the concentrates were showing some nice gold. We were on a real pay streak that could turn our season into a big time strike. We will have to wait to see if the ground holds up over time. Around noon Jacob rode back down the mountain with Clay as Old Bulldog delivered us another lode. We decided to stop for lunch. Over some sandwiches Jacob was talking with us about the pay he was digging. He said he had stopped twice to take some pan samples and he had one with him. It was absolutely brimming with heavy gold. I had to ask him if this was just from one of his pans he sampled and he said yes. Jacob went on to say that this was starting to remind him of the big 1936 gold strike which was just northwest of where he was digging. He said our current dig site was just a little east of the faultline but he had a suspicion that he had started to uncover a big pot hole or kettle at the top of the fault where gold may have been trapped before it traveled along the ancient river another 100 feet and tumbled over the old waterfall in that area. He said the strike of 1936 had occurred at the bottom of the old falls. The gold had piled up in a pothole and was buried over time. He said he was butting up against a rim of bedrock that was dropping straight down. That, according to him, was the first signs of discovering a kettle or natural gold trap. Jacob told us that depending on the size and depth of the kettle there could be the potential for big gold. I asked him what he meant by big. He looked each crew member in the eye one by one and softly said maybe 1000 ounces or even more. TO BE CONTINUED .............

September 9 2002 Big Time Gold Again The morning finally came. I didn’t sleep all that well. I kept thinking about the gold weigh. What if we were wrong and were over estimating how much gold was in the concentrates from 100 yards of washed gravel? Today we found out. We finished the cleanup just after noon. It was a good one. We had 29 ounces of gold. Nearly 9 grams to the yard. Jacob was right, we are onto something special. If this holds up we are going to end the year on a high note. Big Clay was dancing around camp at lunch time like he was a new millionaire or something. Everyone was in a good mood. We finished lunch and got back to mining and worked straight through until dusk. The tom had processed 60 yards of gravel and we could see the pickers practically jumping out of the sluice. Jacob said we would run another day and then do a cleanup. The morning couldn’t come fast enough for us. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Yes, ours weren't very good and we had safety concerns as well. More on Dreamwind Canyon in the future.

MORE ON DREAMWIND CANYON : I've got a lot of information on this canyon and a few more experiences to relay. This particular one came about in the Fall of 2016. My brother in law & his wife along with my wife Lindy and I were doing a bit of exploring in the canyon. The weather was much cooler than the extreme Summer heat that sucks the water right out of your body. There had been some old rumors of an old mine entrance on the west side of the steep cliff. We had an old map from way back but there was no date on it. It did show a drift marked out in a location that seemed to match up with the stories. We hiked out early in the morning wearing heavy back packs. We were heading north from the lower elevation and climbing in altitude. The going was tough and slow. The canyon floor was strewn with heavy rocks and boulders as well as thick Manzanita. All four of us were also sporting snake gators for safety as the rattlesnake here may be more abundant than the gold. We took a short break around noon and the girls stated they thought we ought to go back. I talked them into continuing for another hour. What happened next is something I can't explain. About 45 minutes into the extended hike my brother in law hollered out and pointed to the left. There was the entrance that was marked on the old map. I couldn't believe it - the stories were true. The entrance was timbered but they were old and partially rotted. They looked to be hand hewn and were probably set back in the mid 1800's. I shined a flashlight inward and the tunnel looked to be solid. The adit was just tall enough for me to stand upright and was about five feet in width. Who wanted to venture inside? My brother in law and his wife said they wanted to take a look so they headed in as my wife and I watched. I asked them how the air was and they replied it was good so far. As they got in about 100 feet both their flashlights died. They came back out. It was strange for two flashlights with new batteries to die at once. More than strange. However, they were not ready to quit so my wife and I gave them our flashlights which also had new batteries. Well, about the same distance in both lights went dead and back out they came. Now they were visibly disturbed. This just wasn't right. Reluctantly, the four of us eased on out of Dreamwind Canyon. The mine had seemed to want to keep its secrets. And it did, at least for that day.

September 8 2002 Well the day finally came and we were mining as the sun came up. It was perfect weather as well. I told Conor to go ahead and feed the new tom with the skid steer. I wanted him to get his confidence back. He was being extra careful but after an hour I could see his confidence return and he was operating the machine like a pro. Jacob was up on the mountain digging pay gravel and Big Clay was hauling. Jacob loves to run that excavator and he knows how to stay on the pay gravel. At noon I jumped in my truck and took some sandwiches up to Jacob and Clay. Jacob climbed down off the machine and walked me into a fresh cut in the mountain. He scooped out a pan of gravel and panned it out for me to see. There were seven pickers and a lode of coarse gold. Jacob gave me a wink and told me he was onto something special in this location. I asked Clay to come have a look as well. He blinked twice to make sure he was really seeing the pans’ contents for real. I told him he was hauling some very rich material. Then I headed back down to tell Conor. The plan was to process carefully and not overload the tom. That way we could get a good read on the values we were mining. The toms’ sweet spot seemed to be around ten yards an hour so that’s how we fed it all day. We shut down at sundown having washed 100 yards. Then Conor and I pulled the mats. The concentrates were heavy and we could see abundant gold in them. Tomorrow morning we’ll do a cleanup and get back to work after lunch. I am hopeful that this gold weigh is going to be a whopper. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

LOL. But only after working hours. Never on the mine site.

September 7 2002 Part Two Just like the Forest Service agent said, when I got to the ranger station my paperwork was approved and waiting for me. I asked if I needed to talk with anyone and the lady in the front office told me I was good to go. When I got back to the mine I drove up to where the crew was working and showed them our approved permit. As long as we didn’t go near those reclaimed areas we were good to mine. Clay hauled gravel until dark and the crew got together for supper, just like a family would. We were all anxious to put the new tom to work in the morning. We had a huge mound of pay gravel to start working on until we got the trommel back. I fried up hash and cooked up some hot dogs to go with it. We all had a couple of shots of whisky to celebrate. Clay was going on and on about how anxious he was to see that gold come out of the mountain. I told him we were digging on rich pay ground up there and we should have gold soon. We all turned in except for Clay who once again sat up drinking beer. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Howdy Skip. Hope you are doing great. Dave offered the crew a chance to buy the mine in Alaska with all equipment for one million but supposedly they turned the offer down which may have been smart. The operation there was prone to flooding which caused many problems. I think Dave was just sick of fighting everything and wanted to spend time with family.

September 7 2002 Part One Uncle Sam Pays Another Visit I was actually up an hour before sunrise and had breakfast and coffee ready for the crew when they rolled out of their sleeping bags. It was a cold but clear morning with temps around 40 degrees but we all knew that as soon as the sun rose they came up quickly. The high temperatures lately have been in the mid 70’s to maybe 80 degrees. Perfect for working and a much needed change from the Summer of brutal heat. The crew got to work hauling pay gravel and I headed for the ranger station. I was at the door when they opened and actually caught our minerals agent before he headed to his office. He was quite surprised to learn that we had completed the reclamation process where required. With some kind words just short of begging I plead my case to him and asked if he could possibly head out to our mine for the inspection first thing before he got caught up in other paperwork. To my relief he agreed, saying that since we had an active permit and he was only tending to a few late applications that wouldn’t start operating until next season he could do it for us. I thanked him and told him I’d be waiting when he got to our property. I actually didn’t have to wait very long before he arrived. My crew were all up on the mountain working. The agent walked through the reclaimed sections taking some notes and also some pictures. He seemed quite pleased and told me he would take his report to the ranger for his signature. He told me to come back to the ranger station at 4:00 PM and our new permit should be approved. I shook hands with him and he drove away. This was great news and I could hardly wait to tell the others so I jumped in my truck and drove up the mountain to the dig site. When the crew heard the news they were hooting and hollering like we just won first prize at the county fair. We were hopefully back on the road to mining gold once again. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

These shows are quite manipulated by the producers I think. I don't know if you remember way back in Gold Rush when Todd Hoffman moved his crew to the High Bar mine in Oregon. I talked with the head of a group that was trying to sell it. Just a small part of the acreage was permitted. He told me that when Todd & Dave & rest of crew got there they only spent a few hours actually mining for the show before they moved to Fred Dodge's claim in Colorado.

I think there were 6 shows where he visited possible mine sites.

My wife thinks they use the same pans of gold over & over on the Gold Rush shows LOL.

I wonder if Sanchez still owns that claim. If it's for sale I might be interested in partnering with some people if it proved out. He owns a bar somewhere in Montana as well. Maybe I can hunt him up.

Here it is.

Yep. Dave is attempting to sell his Alaska claims & all equipment for somewhere around one million dollars from what I am hearing. His attempt to mine in Alaska with his hand picked crew ended in failure. He is about 64 or 65 yrs old & said he was done with gold mining. Looks like he is now going to do some smaller stuff on TV.

If I'm not mistaken that was one of the areas he was looking to mine for his past show that he quit. The guys name was Jason Sanchez or something like that. He was digging with the excavator and pulling some nice nuggets but to actually mine they needed water which wasn't available. I might be able to find one of the scenes on the internet & post it here for you. I will look.

I just hope people watching don't quit their jobs and think they can go out and find enough gold to make a good living. Yes, it's possible. But the odds are not in your favor. It's sure a great hobby though. Also, if gold continues to climb in value as I think it will then it will become easier to make a living by prospecting. I once spent a month just panning on an overworked gold bearing creek in northern California. It was tedious and I only got an ounce of fine gold. At the time it was worth about $1100. Now it would be over $2000. Of course everything else is more expensive as well.

An answer or clarification to a question received : No, Big Clay in the 2002 journal is not Clay Diggins from this forum. I have not worked with him on our mine or anywhere else. Cheers.