GhostMiner

I've had the pleasure of firing Thompsons. It's a real experience to say the least.

Ben's weapon. These guys are not kidding around.

Sarge's BAR.

JULY 25 1936 This morning we weighed up an ounce of gold which was a welcome sight and made us all feel a little better. Jacob and me resumed the digging chores and worked the gravel about 5 feet deeper below the raised area. We began to encounter broken country and then rounded channel rock. We made ourselves a short ramp to begin walking out buckets at this depth. I panned a few samples and saw nice color. Late in the afternoon John’s friend Sarge and Ben had arrived at the camp. Jacob and me knocked off early with a total of 97 buckets for the day. We all helped our new security men set up their camps and got acquainted after supper. Ben was a neighbor of Sarge and had served under him in the war and acted as though he was still his sergeant. Sarge was a gruff character and I got the impression he didn’t take any nonsense from anyone. I could see why he and John were good friends. They had come well prepared and packed heavy weapons. Sarge had an M1918 BAR from his Army days that was able to lay down heavy fire. He also had a light machine gun and service rifle. On his hip was a Browning hi power semi auto pistol. He also brought a box of grenades. Ben carried an Enfield six shooter in his holster and brought a shotgun as well as a Thompson sub machine gun. Sarge had an old White military surplus truck with a hidden floor that housed a gun safe where he kept his weapons. I thought to myself that these guys are not fooling around. As it was getting near dark the plan was to take Sarge and Ben up to the dam area in the morning for a look and let them decide how to deploy. I watched Sarge set up an observation post near camp and drank some whiskey with the crew. John said he was going to sit out in camp on watch for awhile as well and Ben would take the second half of the shift. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

One more thing. It is great that Clay took the time to educate and post this info for everyone. Many thanks.

A fair amount LOL.

Clay is the man! Great info and yes, I pay my share of taxes on land the claims are on. We need more people like Clay for sure.

Some tough guys on the way. War vets.

JULY 24 1936 When morning came we helped John wash up the gravels from yesterday and did a quick weigh which was poor and showed just a trace of gold. Last night John said he had a buddy in the Army that he had stayed in contact with since the war. He was a sergeant and now retired on his own farm. John wanted to contact him and bring him on as security. John and me would pay him a wage. So John went into town and contacted him while Jacob and me dug gravels and Will took over John’s job for the morning. When we broke work for lunch John was back at camp. He said his buddy who he called Sarge was more than happy to come up to the mine for a few weeks. He said Sarge would also bring up another friend of his named Ben who had also served in the Great War. We were all agreeable to this and happy to have more help. We were in a position to be able to afford to pay for security now. Sarge and Ben would drive out in Sarge’s truck and would arrive tomorrow. For the remainder of the day we decided to have Jacob and me do the digging and John do the washing with Will standing guard over the camp and wash area. We had to stay on high alert. Jacob and me worked a hard day and got deeper into the new trench just south of the raised country slab. The digging continued to be fairly easy again and we made a good day of it with 185 buckets. There was no trouble with hooligans so I figure they haven’t seen what happened to their dam and ditch yet. We will be taking our turns on night watch as usual. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Yes, you guessed correctly as you will see. Going to get interesting to say the least.

Let's have another look at Jed's dig site as it is today.

Something like that.

I will say one thing about Jed's claim - I am starting to think the place is cursed. Lot's of things have happened to people who have worked there. Some of these things will be talked about at the end of the journal or in the book. As far as Jed & crew, I can't divulge anything on that at this time.

JULY 23 1936 The gravels in the trench produced good pay once again with 2 ounces in the pan. We now have a total of 842 ounces for our season and everyone wants to make 1000 ounces now. I have assured them we have a good chance if we can keep finding good areas to dig. We have seen several more groups of prospectors heading back down the mountain as they pass our camp. They are all saying the same thing. The good areas of the mountain are claimed by the co operative and they are told to leave and not look for good ground under threat of violence. It is a real shame that these prospectors are being run off by a group of thugs and gangsters. Some of the prospectors are telling us that the ground they were testing was unmarked and not claimed yet but they were still told to leave at gunpoint by the gangsters. It seems we are now the only ones mining on the mountain other than the co operative group. They have employed about 20 men from what we are hearing. We were working at the digsite when I saw John walking up. He said the water from the creek had completely dried up. We all came down to have a look and sure enough it was bone dry. That was a bit mysterious to me because we had been pumping from a good area of water several hundred feet to the north. I told Jacob to stay at camp and Will, John, and me walked up the creek to the north to have a look see. After a long hike of over two miles or so we saw the problem. Someone had blocked the creek and diverted the water over to some new claims that the co operative had staked. I told John and Will to have a look at the claim markers. There were no legal numbers on them but only lettering stating Mine Co Operative Claims and any trespassers will be shot on site. They had dug out a holding pond for the creek water. I told the boys that it looked like they intended to mine this ground and took the water from the creek. They hadn’t even legally filed a claim. They must have found a hot spot up here. There was nobody anywhere on site to talk to about all this. We looked at each other and I said we needed to knock the dam out of there and get the water flowing down the mountain again. It was late afternoon and we had only dug 60 buckets and now were forced to deal with this. We walked back down to camp and grabbed some picks and shovels and we also had our rifles which never left our sight. Jacob stayed at camp to guard our goods. When we got back up there we made short work of opening up the water flow. The co operative boys had dug a trench about 200 feet or so over to their holding pond. We filled it in about a quarter of the way to their pond and headed back down the mountain. It was early evening by now so we stopped work for the day with only 60 buckets. None of us were happy. John said they would be madder than hell when they saw we had opened up the creek again. The water flow was weak but still enough for John to wash gravels. After supper we sat around the campfire and drank whisky and talked about the trouble we knew would eventually come. We started to make a plan for the morning. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

The ground would need to be very rich to mine by pick and shovel not to mention the toll it takes on your body. Bringing in heavy equipment involves Forest Service Plans of Operations (POO's) and a Reclamation Bond. You are limited to 1000 cubic yards of disturbance for each plan. Anything over that level triggers the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) which is a whole nother ballgame. That requires much more difficult, expensive, & time consuming permitting taking months to years with no guarantee you will get one. Welcome to mining. That's why in this case I want to work the ground as they did back in the day and not involve Federal, State, & County government. https://www.conservation.ca.gov/dmr/lawsandregulations

There are some interesting things about to happen.

JULY 22 1936 John finished up the weigh after breakfast and we had a treat in store. From the 145 buckets of trench gravels we got 2 ounces. When we weighed up the raised country gravels we had a heavy pan of 5 ounces for a total payday of 7 ounces. We were all happy and eager to dig more in the trench. We were just about to head up to the dig site when a group of seven greenhorns came trudging down the mountain in a big hurry. I hollered over to them and asked them how the gold was higher up the mountain. They came over close to our camp and we went over to talk with them. They told us that there was a good area about 4 miles or so up the creek but it had already been staked and filed. There was one big group that had all the good ground claimed and it was controlled by the co operative. They had armed thugs guarding the claims and no trespassing signs posted everywhere. A few people had tried to file some claims near the co operative area but were run off by the goons they employed. Everyone was packing up and heading back home. We wished them well as they walked down towards the road. John said it is only a matter of time before they come for our claims. I said it was possible but they know we will fight them. The guys they sent for us were cowards and had no heart in the fight. Perhaps that will keep them away. Time will tell. Back up on the dig site we went to work with renewed vigor. The gravels dropped on either side of the raised area of country we had cleaned up and I tested some of the side pay. It showed good color and was worth working for sure. We knocked off a couple hours early due to extreme heat but still ended with 260 buckets. Down at camp John asked me how long I thought we would keep mining and if we had enough good areas to dig until winter. I told him there was no way to tell how many good pay streaks were left on the fault line but my best guess was there were a lot. And after that was all mined out we had the eastern drift mine to work. There are many years of mining left on the claims. He seemed relieved and said he was hoping to mine for a long while. That is my plan as well. I will mine gold as long as my body is able. TO BE CONTINUED .................

When I'm at that dig site I feel like Jed's crew is right there with me sometimes.

Nickel hardened armor plate and was used in ordnance & anti aircraft guns. I think we could see gas rationing to bring down price.

Even better is nickel. An unreal $100,000 / ton. Russia produces about half the word supply. EV makers can't find enough for batteries. Palladium over $2000 an ounce also. Copper has also doubled. Oil, coal, everything going higher.

Thanks. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this crew. A real band of brothers.

JULY 21 1936 The morning air was cool but not cold which meant we were in for more heat today. The weigh gave us our fuel for digging with 5 more ounces shining in the pan. After a good breakfast we went up to start digging before the heat settled in. By noon it was nearly 100. We paused for a quick lunch break and resumed the battle with the gravels. The rounded channel rock was becoming more plentiful as we got deeper. We were used to seeing this and it meant more gold to us. That gave us the energy to swing the pick and shovel the gravels. The buckets always seemed heavier in the later part of the day. The smell of pine is heavy in this heat and the sap runs like the devil. If you make the mistake of leaning against it on a tree trunk you nearly become glued to it. Late in the day Jacob hollered over for me to take a look at something. He had hit on a large boulder. The three of us grabbed bars and began to pry. As we got it to move we wedged a timber for support and kept working it out of it’s resting place. After about an hour of hard labor we had moved it a good three feet. I grabbed an empty bucket and scooped some gravel from where it had laid. I took it up to the tub and we all three of us grabbed some pans and worked it. In a few minutes we began to see our treasure. All three pans were full of heavy course gold. We were drenched in sweat and so tired we could hardly talk but we just stood there and laughed. After a short break we went back to prying the boulder another couple of feet away until all was clear. We dug out the gravels another three feet and encountered country rock. The slab was raised in that area and we cut across it with our shovels keeping the buckets separate from the other gravels in the trench. It was nearly dark when we finished up the raised country area and took 89 buckets out of it. From the other gravels we had 145 buckets. John processed them separately and we will see what we get out of them tomorrow at the weigh but I think it will be a good payday. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

OK & thank you.

To Jed and his crew. Make sure you watch it to the end. Cheers!

JULY 20 1936 Yesterday’s dig got us much lower in the gravels and the results were good. We had 3 ounces in the pan. There seems to be very rich pockets remaining in the fault line. I don’t know how many there are but we will keep exploring and digging. There is always the hope of finding another kettle. We didn’t see any new groups of prospectors this morning. Maybe the rush is slowing. John said they will probably all be robbed by the roaming gang of thugs and if they stake a claim will be forced into the co operative. We all know by now that mining here is a dirty and dangerous game. The more gold we mine and the longer we are here the more the risk builds for us. None of us want to leave our mine and if pushed we will fight to keep it. We can’t rely on the law dogs to protect our interests and must take care of ourselves. At the new trench we are down about 6 feet and there is no country showing. Hopefully this holds up for us and we get another pot. We set ourselves a ramp of gravels and flat stone to walk out the buckets. The ground is clear and we are able to get the truck close. We took an afternoon break in the shade with the thermometer kept at the trench showing 109. I rolled a Burley and sat on a log with the crew. We were all feeling the work. We take salt pills and drink gallons of water. It is too hot to eat much during the day. When we finished up near dusk we had another good bucket count of 310. Down at camp we unloaded the truck and helped John finish up. We cleaned up in the cool creek and warmed up beans and bacon with hot water corn bread. The crew drank some of the cool Lucky’s and I poured a big cup of whiskey and rolled a Burley. The work felt good for my soul and I was both exhausted and happy. After my first cup the soreness in my body started to fade. By the end of the second it was gone. John took the first watch and I stared into the night sky for a spell and retired to my tent. TO BE CONTINUED ...................