GhostMiner

Thanks Reg. That's a great one!

Slim is either going to proove to be a good person to have on the mine or perhaps a very bad idea taking him in to the crew. Time will tell. More to come today.

My goal is to lay these stories out here like a movie with occasional soundtracks that fit the action. It is my hope that rhe reader can use his or her imagination to read the story and picture it as a movie using their own imagination. I suppose that's what reading adventure stories is all about. It takes everyone to their own private place.

April 18 1937 Part Five Slim said he lasted until the law dogs caught up with him in Cody, Wyoming. He said there were two of them and he could have easily gunned them down but didn’t want to kill any more men. He got thirty years and got out when he was 51 years old. More than half his life had now been spent in prison and he had no one to call a friend. He was on his own in a strange world. He was forbidden to own or carry a gun and had no training except in gun play and cow punching and bronc busting. He thought about the rodeo circuit but everyone told him he was too old. He decided to give it a try anyway. He got on with the Cowboy Contest circuit in Cheyenne and found out he could still hold his own in the bronc riding division. He made himself a living for nearly ten years and was the oldest cowboy to qualify for a trophy and prize money. Then he eventually hooked up with a ranch in the area and now he was sitting at our campfire drinking whisky with us. We all pulled out some cups as he talked about his life and drank whiskey with him deep into the night. Around two in the morning we all turned in. When we got up none of us were feeling too good and took the day off nursing bad hangovers. There was no gold made that day. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Slim, you shot down two men.

So far the crew hasn't got much gold but there's a whole bunch of action about to hit the fan. Buckle up because Season Two is Season One on steroids. Gold, guns, brawls, shootouts, whiskey drinking, and that's just the beginning. Might be more than some here can handle. New characters ready to die for gold. Hang on, it's coming right at you.

Slim, you're an outlaw now.

So that would make me somewhere between 160 - 180 yrs old. Man, I didn't think I looked that bad. Must be all the whiskey drinkin'.

April 18 1937 Part Four Slim said when a man told him he was going to kill him he took him at his word. So he raised his right hand as if to give up but as he did so snapped the six shooter out of its holster with his left hand and fired three times. The rancher dropped to the ground lifeless. Just that quick he had taken two lives but felt he had no choice. The cowboys were real upset now because their boss and one of their friends were eating dirt. Slim said there were five of them left and some had sidearms. He told them not to make any moves and walked backwards towards the barn. He saddled a horse and road off into the night leaving what few belongings he had. However, he did have a full poke now. Within the space of a few minutes he had become an outlaw. Then he told us the rest of the story. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

April 18 1937 Part Three Slim said that back when he was just out of prison he got a job working on a ranch. He didn’t have a whole lot of cowboy skills when they hired him but learned real fast and was soon one of the best cowboys on the ranch. He was in a poker game one night. It took place in the main bunkhouse and Slim was losing real bad. The cowboy who had all the money was the best bronc buster on the ranch. Or so he thought. Slim challenged him to a bronc busting contest. Slim put up one of his Colts against the money in the purse. The other cowboys got the meanest horse out of the barn. They called him Freight Train. He was bad to the bone. The first cowboy took a turn on him and got thrown after just a few seconds. Slim got on and rode out the horse and broke him. The cowboy who lost refused to give up the purse. One of the other guys was holding Slims Colt & gave it back to him. The losing cowboy challenged Slim to a duel. Slim said this guy thought he was pretty quick on the draw. They walked out fifty paces and stood looking at each other. Slim told him to make his move when he was ready. After a wait of about thirty seconds the cowboy slapped leather. Slim came up with both guns firing just as they cleared their holsters and the slower guy went down on his knees firing off a round into the dirt. Then he slowly rolled over on his side. He was dead. Both of Slims shots had pierced the chest in the area of the heart. Slim calmly walked over and took the money out of the cowboy’s vest pocket. It was covered in blood. The ranch owner had heard the ruckus and came out of his house with his rifle. It was way past midnight. When he saw one of his top hands laying dead on the ground he wasn’t happy. He pointed the rifle at Slim and told him he was going to shoot him dead. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

April 18 1937 Part Two Slim told us his father had worked in a wild west show back in the day. He did all kinds of tricks with guns and ropes. His father had begun teaching him these skills from even before he could remember. His father traveled all the time and when Slim was sixteen he and his mother and sister never saw him again. He just left on a show tour one day and never came home. He had no idea what happened to him. Slim kept practicing his father’s trade until he figured he was better than him or anyone else around. However, by this time the wild west shows were all dried up like the dust in the western wind. There was no market for his trade. Slim developed a real bad attitude and began to pull strong arm robberies when he was still a kid. He used his gun skills to intimidate people all the time. Not surprising, the law eventually caught up with him when he was nineteen years old and he spent two years in the Wyoming state prison. When he got out his mother and sister had moved on and abandoned him. He never saw either of them again. Prison hadn’t helped his attitude but it hardened him as a man. He had been in many fistfights and brawls while in lockup and had developed some good hand to hand fighting skills to go along with his gunplay. He was a truly dangerous individual and didn’t think twice about using his guns or fists at the drop of a hat. By now Slim had downed a third of his bottle. Then he told us a wild story. We all leaned in to listen closely. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

Yep, that's GM. Picyure taken Friday June 17.

I was on tour with my rock show. Break time now.

April 18 1937 Part One We are continuing to get wild hooligans from town who want to come out here to the mine and either meet us or work with us. Last night I heard Ben and Sarge holler out at someone who was trudging up the side of the creek toward our camp. The crew came over and had a look at what the hollering was about. I nearly laughed but held it back. Sarge was not so kind and began to laugh and hoot. There in front of us stood an old guy dressed like a cowboy from back in the 1800’s. He wore a large cowboy hat that nearly covered his face and also some old jeans and fur leggings. He had on boots with spurs as well as two six shooters in a holster. He was smoking a home rolled cigarette and gave us all an evil stare. I walked over to him and asked what he was up to. He said his name was Slim Saunders and he was from a ranch just outside of town. I reckoned him to be about 60 in years or maybe a bit more. He told us he had done everything from ranching to mining to logging and even bounty hunting in his day. I started to like him. John asked him what we could do for him. He said he had heard quite a bit about us in town. Some of the groups that hung around in the tavern said we were the mining crew from hell and we took names and kicked ass. He said he was looking for work and wanted to join up with us. I asked him what kind of job he was looking for. He said he was a scratch shot with his 45’s and could work as security. He said he could also handle a rifle with the best of them. Before I could say anything he pointed to a limb on a pine tree about 100 feet away. He said to look toward the end of the limb and there was a small branch starting off to the right with a pine cone hanging on. I said that I saw it. He slapped leather with both hands and quick drawing his Colts and fired off a round from each gun. The pine cone flew off the limb. Then he twirled the pistols and put them back in their holsters as slick as grease. Then he told Will to set out two empty tin cans about 100 feet away. Will set them up on a rock and came back over. Slim said to watch and he pulled his right hand quickly and shot as the gun cleared leather. One of the cans flew off the rock. Before the sound of the shot died he pulled his left hand with the Colt and did the same thing. The can flew off the rock just like the first one. He twirled them back into the holster as slick as could be. I asked him what kind of pay he wanted. He said just his grub and whiskey, a dollar, and a little taste of gold from time to time. I told him to hold on while I talked with my crew. Everyone liked Slim. We decided to give him a go. I went over and asked him when he wanted to start. He just looked at me and said “Well, I’m here aint I ?” and that was that. Then he asked if we had any whiskey. I handed him a new bottle and we all sat around the fire as darkness fell. Slim took a couple of pulls from the bottle and began to tell us his story. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

April 17 1937 We are getting some unusually warm weather here for this early in the season. The crew is in good spirits even though our gold count is modest. I am set on finishing the kettle before we move the operation. We are pretty much working the leftovers from the old boys from the 1800’s but we are getting some gold. Today we got well into the northern section of the kettle. The gravels are getting sparse and the depths to bedrock is only a few feet. It appears to me that the bedrock has been cleaned fairly well by previous miners. We are just mining sluff and some gravel from what has eroded from the sides over the years. We aren’t able to work anything in the sides as they are solid rock. By the end of the day we had a meager one half ounce and John was grumbling about moving to a new location. I asked him to be patient as we only have a week or so at most until we finish here and as we are all set up we may as well make the most of it. Tonight at camp we had a few beers and started to talk about our next move. It will be way over to the eastern drift area that Jed and Whiskey Jack were keen on. For now we can only dream of another big strike as the gold has become elusive. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

April 16 1937 I was up early this morning. It was way before the first of the crew got up and it gave me a chance to do some thinking. It seems we are getting off to a slow start. It is very early in the season so I am not too worried but the crew doesn’t seem focused on mining like we were last year. Also, we have a new crew member in Hudson. I am feeling a bit of doubt on my leadership skills. I try to think of Jed and what he would do and say. We all need to start concentrating on our jobs at hand and not so much as being mining legends and ruff characters to the town folk. I think John enjoys the fame but I could do without it. When breakfast was finished I called a quick meeting before we headed up the mountain. I laid it all out there on the line and asked them if they were ok with me leading the crew and wanted to know if I had their confidence. They all to the man assured me that they were 100 percent behind me. Even Sarge and Ben expressed much confidence in me. I was relieved to say the least. I have big shoes to fill here and I can never be Jed. He was one of a kind and I miss him every day. I keep expecting to see him coming down the mountain and into camp and uncorking a bottle of whiskey. It has been hard for me and it’s not getting any easier. We all worked our jobs today without drama and collected one more ounce of gold. The southern kettle was not paying well. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

April 15 1937 Last night we had a visit by four hooligans. It seems they had liquored themselves up with false courage at the tavern and came out to the mine for a visit just before dark. Sarge and Ben had stopped them before they made it all the way into camp and the crew went down to see what was going on. They were running their mouths and talking about how they were ruff and ready guys and thought they would be a good fit as a part of our crew. They said they could handle themselves in a fight and were hard workers to boot. John was getting a laugh out of all this and asked them who the toughest one in the bunch was. They immediately pointed to the biggest one who was probably in his late twenties. He said he would take on any one of us in a brawl and prove he could handle himself. John surprised me and took him up on it. I knew that John didn’t mind a good fight if he had the reason to do so so maybe he just felt like he had been challenged. John asked the hooligan if he was up for a game. He said they would stand toe to toe. They would flip a coin. The winner would get the first punch and then the other man would return it. This would continue until someone gave up or was knocked out. The hooligan was all for it. I flipped the coin and the hooligan won the toss. The entire crew and the other three hooligans formed a circle around the combatants. They squared up and I saw John brace himself. The hooligan delivered the best punch he could throw from the close quarters. It caught John square on the jaw and his head snapped to the side. He looked at the guy and smiled. Now it was his turn. John is about as ruff and tuff as they come and he let his right fist sail into the hooligan's jaw. The guy’s knees started to buckle but to his credit he stayed on his feet. He was a little unsteady as he threw another haymaker that found its mark. John just shook it off again with the same smile. Now John let his hip turn as he threw a cross from his shoulder. I saw the hooligan's lip split open and he spit out a tooth. He was still on his feet but more shaky now. He let a good right hand fly once again and John’s head snapped back and he started spitting blood. He was still smiling. John kind of gave a grunt as he let his right hand fly once more. It was a crushing blow to the nose of the hooligan. There was blood everywhere and the guy sank down on one knee. He got up and gathered himself. John braced himself for the next punch which connected but it was a weaker punch and only grazed John's face. John asked him if he wanted to quit. The guy shook his head no. John let one fly and there was a sickening crunch and more teeth were spit out but the guy stayed on his feet. He was tough. He let John have another punch but this one was weaker still. John delivered his next punch into the gut and the guy doubled over and went down on his face. All the fight was gone out of him now. His friends picked him up and they left camp telling John they couldn’t believe what he had done to their friend. They said he’d never been beaten in a fight. They said they were going to tell everyone in town that the rumors about us were true, that we were not to be messed with. The next day we worked the kettle. John’s face was badly bruised and he couldn’t eat solid food because his teeth were sore and one was loose. We did a good day’s work and ended up with one ounce of gold. John was eating oatmeal for supper. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

April 14 1937 Last night was a rough one. We were woke up by the constant screeching of bobcats in the middle of the night as well as gunfire by Ben and Sarge to scare them off. I was up well before dawn and cooked up breakfast for the crew who got up a little later than me. We were all a little tired and the morning was clear and cold. John and I worked the kettle and Will and Hudson were doing good work keeping water heading up the mountain. I found an area of sunken bedrock full of cracks big enough to work and John and I took out some rich gravels. When we ended the day and did the weigh and got three ounces. That put us all in a good mood. Sarge and Ben are also in for a small percentage of the weighs. I think Jed would approve as he always wanted to be fair with everyone and was quite generous with people he trusted. TO BE CONTINUED .................

We have lidar coming this Summer & I will look at the info you sent as well. Many thanks.

April 13 1937 The sun was rising this morning and the rain had stopped. The temperature had warmed a bit and it was time to get serious about mining. The crew is depending on me for leadership and if Jed were here he would tell me to get going and find more gold. That is exactly what I intend to do. We have the southern kettle to finish. We went up there and shoveled with a vengeance. There was good humor amongst the crew once again and the tom was kept busy with our constant shovel fulls of fresh gravel. By the end of the day we were all tired but had made some gold with an ounce in our jar. We talked over supper about finishing the kettle and moving out to the eastern drift mine and surrounding area. That would require a new plan and I was already mulling one over. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

The area was partially hydraulicked but not finished. It is in a more remote area than most of the work done in the 1800's and they must have been stopped by the Sawyer Decision and the big companies left the area. They hydraulicked about 50 ft to form a ravine or gulley. Then the 1936 crew dug a shaft 36 ft deeper and from there did a decending drift in a horshoe ending 50 ft east of the shaft but at the 56 ft level where they encountered the area of raised bedrock. It was glory holed for over 1000 ounces. The miner was later murdered when he showed his gold while in poor company. That's just part of the report. So the 1936 crew was 56 ft below the 50 ft already hydraulicked out for a depth of 106 ft roughly. Bedrock in that area is around 120. I would need to dig near the strike and go down another 10 - 15 ft to find bedrock. I'd say 65 - 75 ft deep. That's just a guess because bedrock depths vary along the west side of the faultline. I could get lucky and find bedrock closer to the surface like the 1936 crew did. Getting permits for more than 1000 yards of disturbance would be hard to do & costly. Still thinking on all this.

Many thanks for your input here.

$10 - $15 K per drill hole because of depth and difficulty but there still are no takers for a few holes. I know the gold is there. When the small area of bedrock raised during upheaval the sides that stayed low had to have nearly as much gold as well, maybe more. This is according to professionals who have visted the site.

No. The drilling is very difficult there nad I haven't found any companies willing to try it. They want easy money with big dollar jobs.