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GhostMiner

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  1. I am talking about the Slim Saunders in the season 2 of the journal I post on hear.
  2. Low life high grading claim jumpers beware LOL. I don't think you ever heard of Slim Saunders.
  3. Also, I'd rather have the law confront a thief or thieves in the act of stealing minerals we own. If one of us approaches them they may not like it and who knows what could happen. To me this is no different than calling a cop when you see a criminal stealing items out of your back yard and saying "Not my problem, deal with it yourself." We pay fees and taxes ane legally own the gold that is being stolen. Just doesn't set right with me.
  4. I don't think they have gotten more than an ounce of gold at best but probably less. The spot they are digging actually surprised me. We tested several areas with heavy equipment and results were just ok. I have info that there are rich areas on that claim. There was a guy who stopped out there yrs ago when we were sampling and he took us to a depression. he claimed he got 80 ounces there 30 yrs ago but never found any more. I had another guy that said he took 60 ounces out of a bank just south ot that spot. There may be areas of good deposits and areas of nothing at all. I guess that's mining.
  5. I don't know how rich it is but I know that one spot is LOL. The guy that has it leased is out there taking samples from time to time while waiting for the plan to be approved. He carries a 45. So if you are reading this and are the guy stealing gold all I can say is beware.
  6. That claim is leased to a guy in the process of a Plan of Operation. He lives hours away. My partners stop out there on occasion to check the claims. They are all under lease except one.
  7. https://goldcountrymedia.com/news/53437/gold-dust-theft-arrest-at-placer-county-claim/
  8. I should have been more specific. I asked them if they would come out if we caught the thieves in the act. Would they help us confront them while they were actually digging. They said no. It would be our job as it's a civil matter.
  9. We have a rich area on one of our claims in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California and have had issues with tresspassers who are highgrading. We have not caught them yet. They opened up a big dig site on a bench near a creek. We tested the ground. My partner processed 20 buckets and got 5 grams of gold. Now I see why they are digging in there. We posted a claim sign on a tree right where they are digging and they have to look right at it. We put up two cameras which they found and stole. One was higher up in a tree and out of sight so they are be cautious and looking for traps. I called the Forest Service & they said it's the Sheriff's departments job. The sheriff's dept said they don't get involved in that kind of thing and it would be our job to catch them in the act, find out their names, and get proof they are stealing gold from us. Even if we call them while the thieves are there digging they won't get involved and say it is a civil matter for us to deal with. My younger partners want to lay in wait, catch them, and beat them up. I told them that's not a good idea as they could face charges and the thieves could bring back friends and relatives. Then you have a war. It's frustrating to say the least. One of my partners saw a green Dodge Dakota with a cap driving up and down the road many times while they were working there. It may have been the thieves waiting for them to leave. Not sure. Does anyone have any good suggestions other than shooting them or hanging them?
  10. May 1 1937 The crew gathered around John for the weigh this morning. We all had high hopes. John brought out the gold and placed it on the scale. There were nine ounces and we let out a whoop and a holler. John stopped us and said to wait, there is something else. He then took out a small jar and dumped it on the scale. There were three more ounces of nuggets and pickers for a total of twelve ounces. I dropped to my knees with my head in my hands and felt all the pressure I’d been feeling leave my body. We were on big gold again. We broke out a bottle of whiskey and had a toast to the gold and ourselves as well as Jed and Whiskey Jack. Then we headed up to the mine to start digging. As much as I wanted to dig I had to continue my lumberjack work. We were going to need timbers soon. Will and Hudson would need to step it up and work like devils. From my area in the woods not far from the mine I could hear the shovels banging away against the gravels and the occasional curse word. I just laughed to myself and kept dropping and bucking up trees. By the end of the day they had dug 210 buckets. It was all hard work but we knew it would pay us well. We sat around the fire and talked mining and gold. Will and Hudson were more than ready to see big gold weighs. I was more than ready as well. TO BE CONTINUED .................
  11. Well, The Journal has 150,000 views! Many thanks to all the great people who read it.
  12. April 30 1937 Well now, the crew had good news this morning. We had six ounces of gold in the pan from the weigh. This is the best for the season so far and I bet it gets better. We are going to drive in a drift deep into the mountain and chase that dark red gravel streak. Everyone is pretty excited and can’t hardly wait to dig more gold. We spent the day working the hill and widening out a good opening. Country rock is only five feet or so beneath our feet as we go into the mountain. That’s because the old hydraulic boys cut everything down to bedrock and stopped at this point so we are just following the country in now. The color change happened right around the five to six foot area above country. That seems to be the rich gravel. We will dig in as far as we can safely go and then will need to timber the tunnel we form. As long as that color is there we will stay on it. We went back to camp for lunch and John had some gold in a pan to show us. This was just a little bit from the buckets we had brought down on the truck early this morning. The pan was loaded with heavy, coarse gold. I am talking about a lot of gold. John was grinning from ear to ear. We went back up to the dig after a quick lunch and worked until dark again. We had the start of a nice drift into the mountain and took out a total of 290 buckets. I think we will need to cut bracing tomorrow so we will divide the crew. John will stay at the tom while I drop trees and buck up timber. Hudson and Will are going to keep working the drift. It will most likely take me a few days to cut enough timbers to get the start of the tunnel safer. This is going to be an ongoing job as most of the drift will probably need to be timbered. TO BE CONTINUED ....................
  13. April 29 1937 We were all anxious to see the results of the weigh. After breakfast we went over to John’s work station and John placed yesterday’s results on the scale. There was half an ounce which wasn’t too bad for 120 buckets. Not the glory days of last year but at least it held promise. We went back up to the dig site and told John we’d have some buckets down to him in short order. We were all hungry for gold and ready to work. The three of us were getting a good channel going into the base of the hill. The problem will be that when we get in deeper we will need to brace the top to keep it from collapsing or we could just keep cutting laterally across the face without going in to the point of collapse. My way of thinking is that if the gold gets better the deeper in we go then we will cut bracing. We will be ok for a few days and will cross that bridge when we get to it. We had buckets delivered down to John right quick and were building up a head of steam with the picks and shovels. It just felt good to be digging. Along about the third hour I noticed a color change in the gravels from brown to dark brown or dark red. I took a pan of this over to the wash tub and worked it down. I hollered over to Will and Hudson and they came over to get a look. Sitting there in the pan were seven nice pickers and a load of fines. This was rich. I told the boys that now we knew what we needed to follow into that mountain. I had a feeling that Whiskey Jack and Jed were looking down on that pan with a smile and saying to go after it boys. We worked until dark and ended our day’s dig with 312 buckets. When we got down to camp John said he was seeing lots of gold in the sluice. We were talking about the new dig site until we hit the sack. I can’t wait to get the results from John tomorrow morning. TO BE CONTINUED .....................
  14. April 28 1937 Today we made our plan to mine at the eastern drift area. The drift cut into the virgin gravels of the mountain about half a mile northeast of our camp. Jed had fixed the old wagon road last year and it was good enough to get our truck out there. Seeing as the distance was quite far and the elevation was about 200 feet higher than our creek we would need to haul buckets again. That was the one thing we all liked about the southern pit - not having to haul gravel to the creek. So the labor will be double what we did there. The entire crew went up to the area and we took a good look around. The old tunnel was in very poor condition and unsafe to work. We decided to begin digging into the side of the mountain about fifty feet south of the drift. Whiskey Jack had told us that the gravels on that entire hill were good to mine and contained gold. It was decided that John would run the tom down at the creek and Will, Hudson, and myself would handle the digging chores. We would keep Sarge down at his post near camp and Ben would set up a watch post near the dig site. Three shots fired would mean trouble. We all carried guns with us and kept them close even when working. This entire area had seen many hooligans last season as word of a gold strike had got spread around and we expected the same or worse troubles again this season. We are as prepared as we can be. We helped John get the tom set up and after a good lunch went about mining once again. It felt good to be in a new area and I hoped I could forget some of the past. We opened up a good area of virgin ground and hauled a total of 120 buckets down to John. We didn’t get in very deep yet but my test pans showed some color so I think we should do ok here. When we do the weigh in the morning I am hoping we have made a good decision. TO BE CONTINUED .....................
  15. April 27 1937 I got up late and had a bad hangover. Some of the crew was already up and ready to work except for John who eventually staggered out of his tent. I had some coffee spiced with whiskey and John did the same. We went up the mountain and started our day two hours later than normal. Nobody was saying a word and the mood was grimm. We worked right through lunch time and finished the weigh before dark. There was almost no gold. John was cursing up a storm and we decided to have a meeting at supper. I broke out a fresh bottle of whiskey and we talked about the lack of gold in the south pit. Even though we were all sick and started late we had worked hard and moved a lot of gravel into the tom. The crew was ready to revolt. They wanted to move the operation. I told them I couldn’t make a good argument to stay in that hell hole any longer and starting tomorrow we would begin to change our location up to the eastern drift mine that Whiskey Jack had recommended. That seemed to make everyone happy and we ate beans and bacon and drank some beer and whiskey. I told the crew that the season was still early. We had a little gold in our pokes and hopefully the good gold was waiting out there for us this Summer. We all turned in early as we had a big day tomorrow. There was a lot of work to do. TO BE CONTINUED ........................
  16. April 26 1937 Last night was cold and I kept waking up thinking I heard voices but it must have been something else I was hearing. Anyway, the crew had a good breakfast and went to work at the south pit. The pumps were sending a good water supply up there for John and I and we made hay. We moved a large amount of gravel into the hopper of the tom and worked straight through lunch and stopped around 5:00 PM. We cleaned up the heavies and got done just before dark but only had one ounce again. We were all discouraged when we ate supper by the fire. The weather matched our moods. It was cold and a light rain was coming down. We fixed a tarp over our sitting area after we got done eating and the crew broke out Lucky’s to drink. I brought out a bottle of Jed’s favorite Irish whisky and we proceeded to get drunk as skunks. The only sober people were Sarge and Ben. Around midnight we were on a second bottle of whiskey and forgot about the cold and the rain as well as the lack of gold. I passed out sometime after that. TO BE CONTINUED .................
  17. April 25 1937 Last night when I got back to camp the crew was sleeping and I didn’t wake them. I told Sarge and Ben what had happened and they said it was probably for the best. In the morning I told the crew what had happened. They were shocked and surprised. I asked Will to go into town after the pumps were running and see what he could find out about the shooting. When we broke work for lunch Will got back from town and told me what he had found out. He went to the general store for a few supplies and there was a group of men playing pool in the back room talking about the previous night. Slim had been gunned down in a hail of gunfire. He never saw it coming. He had gotten off a few shots as he went down and wounded one man. That was about all there was to it. We all decided we were far better off without him but I hated to see the killing and violence that seemed to dominate this area. Our cleanup and weigh got us only one ounce. Things need to get better fast or I may not have a crew much longer. No one has any answers and I will give the south pit one or two more days and if we can’t find more gold we will move to the eastern drift mine. TO BE CONTINUED ....................
  18. April 24 1937 Part Two Slim had a bottle of whiskey in his left hand and his right hand was near his holster. I didn’t see any cars at the Sheriff's office and it appeared that there was no one there. He was calling the law all kinds of names but there was nobody to hear it. He finally realized this and began to walk off down the street towards the middle of town. I could hear him saying he would shoot anyone that got in his way as he walked into town. I figured it was just a matter of time before something happened and I was right. I saw several men with rifles approach him from the side of a dark building. There were shots fired. I saw muzzle flashes from Slim and also the men with rifles. Then it was quiet. I heard some hollering and more men with guns arrived. They were deputies and some armed citizens. Slim was laying in the street. The armed men were standing over him. I headed back to camp. TO BE CONTINUED ...................
  19. April 24 1937 Part One Last night after supper I had thought we’d all turn in early and get a good night’s sleep but Slim had other ideas. He said he was restlas. Everyone had finally gone to bed but I stayed up with him for a while. He started drinking and talking about how the deputy had a lot of nerve coming into our camp and threatening to arrest him. He said he wanted to go into town and talk with the law and straighten them out. He said he was going with or without me and would hitch a ride. I told him to hold on and went over to Sarge and told him we were taking my truck into town. I said I was just dropping Slim off and would be back soon. We drove onto Main Street and I dropped Slim off in front of the Sheriff's station. He was his own man and on his own now. I was going to drive off but decided to wait and watch from about half a block down the street. I parked the truck and turned off the lights. I heard Slim hollering outside the building. He was hollering for the deputies to come out and face him man to man. I felt sick inside and figured this was not going to end well. I smelled death in the air. TO BE CONTINUED .................
  20. April 23 1937 I wasn’t up very long and was making a good breakfast when a deputy came trudging into camp. What now I thought? He was investigating the incident with Slim and the shooting demonstration from last night. I played dumb and told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He asked the crew and they all said the same. Slim was not in his tent. He must have seen the deputy coming. The law dog told us that Slim was bad news and that if we were hiding him it would not go well for us. I told him we didn’t know any “Slim” and had seen many drifters come and go on or near our claims. The deputy said he had a warrant for his arrest for reckless use of a firearm as well as strong armed robbery. I just told him that if we see any strangers we will let him know. With that the deputy walked out of camp. I continued with my breakfast and about fifteen minutes later Slim walked back into camp. He had been hiding at the edge of the woods and heard everything the deputy had told me. I asked Slim what the facts were. Slim said it was all a bunch of bull and he never robbed anyone. He said that one night he had scared the hell out of a guy and the man gave him some money just to avoid a well deserved beating. Slim said the guy had made some remarks he didn’t like and he was about to kick the shit out of him. As for the shooting display with Dutch, he said it was all in good fun. I let it slide but told Slim he might want to avoid going into town for a spell. Slim just looked at me with a grin and said there would need to be way more deputies in that town to take him back to jail. I just shrugged and said it’s his decision and we all went to work for a change. We busted our tails and tried to make a good day of it in the pit but only got one ounce. I think we have another week or so of gravels to finish up and then it will be time to move our operation. I will be glad to get out of there as every time I turn my head I think I see my dead brother. It’s giving me the creeps. TO BE CONTINUED .................
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