GhostMiner

A map of the area as Jed worked it.

Yes, it's a good one.

Very interesting! As for Jed's midnight screechers, I have heard them while camped out there also.

We don't quite look as rough & tough as the above crew LOL. There's one more gal taking the picture.

AUGUST 6 1936 Last night we were woke up by the return of the midnight screechers as I call them. The bobcats come in from the west and screech blood curdling calls to each other as they approach camp. Then eventually they leave. There have been no more trespassers up here since we cleared out the co operative goons. That has been a relief. Jack weighed the gold and we had 5 ounces. He did his dance and we went to work. The slope in country continued and we cleaned out gravels as we went deeper on down. We now had about 7 feet of head clearance and the width of the drift began to narrow here. It was about 5 feet wide and only one man could work it so we took half hour shifts at digging and the other two hauled out buckets. This slowed down the amount of gravels but my test pans continued to improve in quality. After a long day we ended up with 107 buckets. Back at camp we all sat around supper speculating on how long the drift would hold out. Whiskey Jack thinks it will terminate in solid country soon as it is beginning to narrow quickly. He tells us that the golden pot may be waiting for us there. The crew is anxious to find out what is there. Jack praised us tonight saying we are a rock solid team and work together better than any crew he’s been on. He told us he’d witnessed many a dust up over gold and how to best mine it. Sarge and Ben still haven’t given me an answer on whether they can stay longer. I sweetened the pot for them as far as pay and it has them thinking. The problem is they both have farms to run and we would need to pay them for the extra help they would hire. Even then they are not keen to stay more than two extra weeks. We will see how this works out soon. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Thanks so much!

I was able to enhance the old photo a bit & got it to rotate.

Can't get one of them to rotate.

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Well you sure made up for it all at once LOL.

Just might do that someday,

AUGUST 5 1936 Once again we had Whiskey Jack weigh up the gold this morning and saw 7 ounces. We were all happy but no one was happier than Jack. He was hopping up and down and threw his hat in the air. We all had a good laugh before we went to work. Jack came up to the drift with us and was offering advice before we went back in. He was saying to drive in a solid bar if we hit stubborn gravel and rock. Then sledge against the bar side to side to break things up. Once loosened then swing the pick. I tried it and it seemed to work ok and from then on rather than beating the pick over and over against a stubborn wall we used Jack’s method. Eventually we started to encounter more solid material and the drift curled to the southeast. We were well into the fault and beginning to drift in a somewhat lateral direction but still going in on an angel. There were no large rocks or boulders to move, just gravel and small rounded rock. I broke some of the wall down and encountered a sloping area that contained mostly gravel and was on a grade of about 30 degrees. I started digging out some of it for a test pan. It was rich. Jacob and me were in there banging away at it and it contained the entire width of tunnel which was about 7 feet. We were digging it out and following the natural feature down. The roof of the drift did not drop with it so we were gaining in headroom. I could now stand straight up in the tunnel. After several hours I took another sample pan. It was full of course gold. Jack was hollering out encouragement and saying we were finding the big pot. By quitting time we had dropped about 4 feet and no sign of a bottom. We were slowed a bit but still ended the day with 162 buckets. I think they are the richest of this drift to date and tomorrow will tell if I am correct. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

Not stopping. Just a comment about social media which I am not used to LOL. No worries.

I didn't know that. Very interesting.

AUGUST 4 1936 This morning Whiskey Jack did the honors and weighed up another 4 ounces. He is encouraging us to continue working hard and thinks the jackpot awaits us. He came into the drift with us and did an inspection and said the roof is stable. He told us to work like the devil and get the gold out. He said this is our time and we will likely never see gold like this again. We continued to move out gravels bucket by bucket at a steady pace. The test pans continue to look rich. We stopped work before dark and ended our long day with 219 buckets. Down at camp everyone is in a good mood and spirits are high. Jack keeps us entertained with his stories of the old days. Sarge and Ben have had an easy time of it lately with no hooligans around. The word is probably out that we are not to be messed with. I am hoping things will remain this way for the rest of the season. John says when he gets back home he is going to use some of his gold to pay for a new barn and several work horses. Jacob and Will now want to stay in the area and buy a ranch. As for me, I plan to keep mining. I am hoping to work these claims until my body gives out. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

I didn't mean I was stopping LOL. Just an observation about social media. My guess is those guys were shanghai'd to a foreign country. Thanks for reading the journal. I love posting it.

I'll take all the gold I can get any day. U.S. dollar? Doesn't buy much anymore.

Ruble is nearly worthless now. Worth less than one U.S. penney. I think if the war gets worse gold will hit new highs. Russia talking tactical nukes now. Putin is most likely a dead man walking. He is talking about cleansing his country of anyone who doesn't go along with his ideas. Bullet or most likely poison waiting for him.

Lee Marvin was a great actor. He was actually a plumber working in Woodstock, NY and used to drink every night in a nautical themed bar called the Seahorse Tavern. His drinking was legendary. He got into acting at the Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock ane eventually went into movies. The tavern is now a coffee shop. I've been there several times.

No worries, just an interesting observation on my part.

1000 views & a few likes? The journal deserves something better rhan that.

It could also be most anything you had on hand to make up a quick stew.

AUGUST 3 1936 This morning we had another 4 ounces of gold from our weigh. We talked about our water issues over breakfast. There is another creek on our claims that is year round in supply. It runs near the main road down at the bottom of the mountain. If needed we could set the tom down there and drive the truck down with the buckets. What I don’t like is we would be near a road where hooligans and rif raf might see our workings. John and me went down there and scouted a potential sight. The seasonal creek has dried up except for the small area up north of our tom. It meets the larger creek as it tee’s into it down south near the road. We found a place about 300 feet north of the full time creek where we can put in a short road to the west from the north south trail and set up the tom in privacy. Then we could set the pump in the big creek and pump water up to the tom and let the runoff filter back down the mountain in a south west direction. We should have plenty of water working that way and hopefully not be seen. For now we will continue at our current location. Sarge and Ben are able to stay another week or so but I am trying to talk them into staying for the remainder of the season. I would need to pay them a larger amount to compensate them if they agree. Sarge told me they are giving my proposal some thought. We continued digging about mid morning and made good speed. The drift direction is beginning to curve gently to the southeast but still heading under the bottom and into the fault line. The gravels are becoming finer here with an absence of the larger rounded rock. The test pans are showing rich material. I’m wondering how far this little drift will go before terminating in solid rock. Whiskey Jack has come into the tunnel a few times to look at the gravels and overhead country rock. He pointed out the cracks overhead, some of which are as much as 4 to 6 inches in width. These cracks allowed the rich pay gravels to drop out of the river in a concentrated amount. He thinks that if we can find the original area of the deposit we will hit a big strike. We are taking our turns at hammering away with the picks. I have had five new notches punched into my belt and have no more weight left to lose. We could all use a week off to rest our tired bodies but the gold is driving us like mad men. Today we made headway and hauled 203 buckets to the tom. The last load was delivered just before dark. I cleaned up in the creek and had a plate of beans and bacon. Jack and me rolled Burleys and drank whiskey for a few hours before retiring. The rest of the crew had gone to bed long before us. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

I remember my grandfather telling this story more than once when I was a little kid. I don't think my father ever believed it or maybe he thought it was only partially true. However, he thought enough of it to write down all the details my grandfather told him. I remember wanting to go look for the gold. I was about 10 yrs old. My father just laughed & said it would be a waste of time & money. My dad was a WW2 vet and became a prison gaurd & eventually got into industrial production with a big company. He had no time for things like this nor was he interested. I think if it was buried it probably wouldn't be very deep. I have a few ideas of where it might be because my grandfather took me aside one day about a month before he died. He told me a few things that he hadn't told my father because he said he didn't believe him. He gave me some landmarks to look for and very vague locations to check. I'm not sure how much of the story I believe either. My father said that my great great grandfather was a part owner of a gold mine in California but there were several other partners. I was only able to verify one descendant of one of them and when I contacted them they thought I was completely off my rocker. That was the end of that LOL. I've always wondered about the story and now that I have a grandson who is 2 yrs old i'm thinking of telling him about it when he's older. Maybe when he's old enough the two of us will go looking for that buried cache of gold. Perhaps we just might find it.