GhostMiner

Going back to the ending of the first mining season of 1936 & the death of Jed Stevens. EPILOGUE At this point there were no further writings in the journal. Several days after the last entry Jed Stevens was found dead. His body had been discovered by some hunters about twenty miles from his claims. He had been shot through the back of the head and was lying on the ground near a large boulder. There was a small hole that had been dug out underneath it but when the hunters searched there was nothing there. He was identified and law enforcement notified his brother of his tragic death. Evidently he had been murdered for his gold. The perpetrators were never found. It is said that his ghost haunts the mine to this day. A NOTE TO READERS : Be sure to watch for the next edition of this series as the miners return to the claims and resume their adventures in the search for gold. See you up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. GhostMiner

August 25 2002 Part Two We stopped for supplies after visiting Jacob and got back to camp late morning. Neither one of us felt much like mining but I asked Conor if he would like to feed the trommel while I dug up gravels. After all, it’s what Jacob would have wanted us to do. So I fired up the water pump and trommel and Conor fed the beast as we called it. I did some digging with the excavator adjacent to the stockpile of pay and before you knew it was 3:00 PM and we had washed 100 yards of gravel. I signaled to Conor that we were shutting down. Then we washed up and got something to eat before heading to the hospital to check on our mining partner. The day had gone extremely smooth. We got to the hospital just as supper was being served to Jacob’s area. They told us we could stay for an hour this time which I figured was a good sign. Before I went in I asked the nurse how he was doing. She said he is feeling pretty good and wanted some canned stew and a cup of Bushmills whisky. She said instead of that he’s getting beef broth, pudding, & tea. Conor and I had a good laugh on that and we went into his room. The first thing Jacob asked was if I had brought his whisky. I had come prepared. I gave him a wink and told him to eat his supper and I had a surprise for him. After he finished the meager meal I pulled a small flask out of my back pocket. It contained a double shot of his beloved Bushmills. There was a grin on his face from ear to ear. He downed the whisky in two swallows and said it was the best medicine he’d had since being in the hospital. Then we all had a good talk and before you knew it the hour had passed and they kicked us out of his room. Conor and I drove back to camp in good spirits and we were hoping Jacob would be back with us soon. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

August 25 2002 Part One It was weird this morning without anyone in camp but me. I didn’t get much sleep last night and what I got was restless at best. I had some oatmeal and coffee and headed for town. I didn’t know what to expect. When I got there they told me Jacob was in intensive care. I was not allowed to go there at this time. So I went to the small lounge which adjoined a little cafeteria and found Conor who was sitting at a table looking forlorn. He perked up when I came in and sat down across the table from him. I asked him if there was any word on Jacob. He told me he was waiting for a doctor to come and talk with him. He hadn’t heard anything at all last night. He looked exhausted. We sat around talking for about an hour when the doctor finally came into the room. Jacob introduced me and the doctor told us how Jacob was doing. They had him on a heavy course of blood thinners and were keeping him quiet. The doctor said that Jacob was extremely dehydrated and was getting iv’s as well. It would take several days for the blood thinners to start dissolving the clot. If Jacob came out of that ok then he would be moved to a general room for a few more days. He also said they were going to do some tests on Jacob’s heart to determine its condition. He said Jacob’s pulse was strong and he seemed to be in good health for his age. I asked if we could visit him and he said yes but only for ten minutes. The doctor walked us to his room and announced to Jacob that he had some visitors. Jacob was sitting up in bed and drinking juice. When he saw us he smiled and gave us one of his winks. He said he needed some Irish Coffee. The doctor laughed and said none of that for you today. Then the doctor left us alone with him. Jacob said he was feeling pretty good and wanted to check out of the hospital and get back to mining. Conor and I looked at each other and chuckled. We told him they needed to fix him up first and then we’d make up for lost time. Jacob told us to get back to mining and he’d be ready to go back to camp soon. We talked for a little bit and then a nurse came in and said it was time for us to go. Jacob pulled me close and whispered to me. He asked me to smuggle in some Bushmills. He said it would do him good. I laughed and told him I’d never get away with it and we’d have some whisky when he got back to camp. I told him it wouldn’t be long and to listen to what the doctors and nurses told him. Then we shook hands and we told him we’d be back in to see him in the evening. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Amen. Last song he performed.

August 24 2002 Part Two We got to the hospital and carried Jacob into the emergency room. This was a small hospital and there was only one person in the room waiting to be seen. I explained what had happened to one of the workers and they got Jacob into a room quickly. He was still breathing but looked to be unconscious as far as I could tell. Conor began to cry and was going on about how much he loved his uncle. I told him that Jacob was as tough as they come and not to count him out. After about ten minutes a doctor came out and said they were taking him into the hospital for some tests. He suspected a possible blockage around the heart but couldn’t be sure until they did further work. Then a lady came over and took Conor to the office to get information on Jacob. I sat and waited for about twenty minutes and Conor came back out. We went to a little waiting room. After another hour or so the same doctor came back out to talk with us. He said Jacob had a clot in an artery and the blood flow to his heart had been compromised. Then he said it was good we got him there fast and they were putting him in intensive care. He didn’t think there would be surgery but instead they had started a course of blood thinner injections to deal with the clot which of all things was not near the heart but actually in his leg. It had not traveled to the heart yet and he said that probably would have killed him. However, he was in grave danger of the clot doing just that and they were attempting to dissolve it with the thinners. He would be kept immobile and monitored closely. Conor said he wanted to stay at the hospital with Jacob and I agreed. I told him I would watch over our camp tonight and be back at the hospital first thing in the morning. We shook hands and I told him to buck up and Jacob would beat this. Then I headed back to camp. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

August 24 2002 Part One A Great Legend Goes Down The three of us had an early breakfast in the cool morning air. I had gotten into eating oatmeal most every morning but Jacob and Conor had their bacon and eggs. Conor was excited about the cleanup and was watching Jacob and I work at cleaning up the large tub of heavy concentrates from the 670 yards of washed pay gravel. By mid afternoon we were finish panning the last of it. Our total came out to a slightly disappointing 13 ounces exactly. Jacob didn’t like that number and said it was a bad omen. I didn’t believe in things like that but I could tell he was not only upset but also not acting like himself. Just before supper time Conor came out of Jacob’s trailer and said Jacob was having trouble breathing. I went inside and talked with him to see how he was. He would say a few words and then gasp for air. He wasn’t able to get out of his chair without help. I took one look and told Conor we were taking him into town and straight to the emergency room of the small hospital there. Jacob didn’t argue with us and was kind of going in and out of consciousness. We carried him to my truck and placed him on the seat. I told Jacob to hang on and we were getting him to the hospital. He kind of grunted and gave me a kind of really weird smile. Then he passed out. Conor jumped in and we sped off towards town. I was thinking please don’t let him die God, not now. TO BE CONTINUED ............

Something Not In The Journal : There were many things that happened during the 2002 mining season that weren't put in the journal. One of them concerns Conor and his obsession with finding a lost gold cache. This came from his brief friendship with Bill Anderson. Sometimes the two of them would discuss mining and their belief that there was 1000 ounces of gold buried in a casket near The Hidden Mine. Just below that mine to the south was what we called The Upper Drift Mine where Bill had spent years secretly working the quartz vein that contained some high grade material. Below that mine was our entrance to the lower drift mine which turned out to be the same mine as the tunnels connected. Evidently, according to Jacob, Bill had hinted at the possibility that he had hidden or buried a fair amount of his gold somewhere close to The Upper Drift Mine area. He had never come right out and said he had gold but on a couple of occasions after some heavy drinking he had mentioned this to Conor. Jacob went on to tell me that Bill never disclosed any locations of a gold cache but told Conor it wouldn't take him five minutes to get his gold if he needed it. So Conor was sure Bill's gold was close to The Upper Drift Mine area. There will be some information about this subject later in the 2002 journal. The other subject pertaining to 1000 ounces of gold hidden in a casket --- well, Conor spent quite a bit of time detecting all around The Hidden Mine. He was on a treasure hunt up there because of what Bill had told him. I think he told Conor more than he told us. I also think that the two of them were scheming to find the gold and take off without telling us. I have my reasons for thinking this. Conor was very secretive about that area - even with his Uncle Jacob. I think Bill knew more about that mine than he told any of us. I think he only gave us half the story. Unfortunately, what he knew went to the grave with him. There's a lot more to come before the season ends - some good and some bad. And there's a lot I didn't write down but may convey off the record. Cheers, GM.

Well ---- you are assuming Bill had gold hidden. Funny you brought that up. I did write about this in the 2002 journal. Conor was convinced that there was gold hidden somewhere above camp on the mountain and spent a lot of time looking with his detector. You're question will be answered before the end of the season of 2002. Hang in there.

Like Jacob told Conor -- Buck Up.

August 23 2002 Conor worked with Jacob and I today. Our tailings piles were in a mess and Conor pushed them with the skid steer while Jacob and I mined. This helped us out quite a bit and it would be great to work together like this and run more yardage before the season ends. We leave that up to Conor who is still hell bent on finding a hidden cache of gold somewhere up on the mountain. We have a good trench working north and into the mountain. Jacob doesn’t think we are digging old timers tailings but he says it’s lower grade virgin gravel the old boys passed up. Jacob said the crews from the 1800’s usually high graded the best and easiest material and left the rest for scavengers like us. I don’t mind being a scavenger if it makes me wealthy by today’s standards. I was running the excavator this afternoon and pulled up some old logs. Then a bunch of old tin cans. We had hit another old miner’s cabin that was buried by the mountain slides over the years. I stacked the logs in a pile and kept pushing north deeper into the mountain pay zone. I was wondering about how that old timer who built the cabin did out here back in his day. Hopefully he did ok but left us some gold. Most likely he was working the lower pay zone by pick and shovel and using a rocker box to wash the gravel at the creek. Hard work for sure. It seems like the more we dig and work the mountain the more history we uncover. Jacob took some pan samples and said there was some gold so we should do fine on this cut. We ended the day with 260 yards of washed gravel and it was one of our better days as far as smooth running. We pulled the mats and will spend tomorrow cleaning up the concentrates from a total of 670 yards of pay gravel. That’s a big cleanup for a crew like us. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

If you recall, Conor is retired from a position on the railroad & is either 66 or 67 at this time. He's not a kid even though he acts like one at times. Remember, he was Jed's son. Jed died in 1936.

August 22 2002 Part Three I left Conor to his detecting work and went back down the mountain to camp. I told Jacob what had happened. He wasn’t surprised that we had a run in with Nick Allen but he was surprised to hear how Conor had reacted to Allen’s insults. Jacob said Conor had more of Jed in him than he thought he had. I was concerned that Allen might go to the sheriff and report the incident. That might be trouble for Conor. Jacob didn’t think he would because according to him crooks don’t ask the law for help. They deal with things on their own. If that was true then we might be in for more run-ins out here. Jacob just shrugged it off saying he’d been through plenty of run-ins with thugs and we’d deal with it if and when the time came. I couldn’t be so easy about all this as Jacob was but he really didn’t seem to care one way or the other. When we finally got back to work we had lost most of the morning so we worked straight through until 6:30 PM before shutting down. We had made up some time and washed 180 yards of gravel. I didn’t say anything to Jacob but I was getting sick and tired of having our mining operation stopped or delayed over and over. It was frustrating. All we wanted to do was mine for gold but for whatever reason we had to fight something or other every week. I was starting to look forward to the end of the season out here. Jacob was actually talking about staying the Winter and working at the upper drift mine where the ore samples had been so good. He figured he and Conor could work the vein and stockpile ore for Spring when I came back out. Jacob really didn’t want to go back to Oregon and sit in a cabin by himself all Winter. He wanted to work the mine. I asked him if Conor was up for that and he said he hadn’t asked him yet. I am not sure if that is a good idea or not but I am good with whatever Jacob wants to do here. TO BE CONTINUED ................

I hear you Mike. My great grandmother lived to 111 and my grandmother to 103. My great grandmother always said she lived that long because she stayed away from doctors. I expect & am hopeful of making the century mark. Got a ways to go though. Take care.

Many thanks. Yes, my wife Lindy has been reading all the posts and it's taking her back in time as well. She's been on the claims several times and helped work them with a crew. She says the old mine gives her the creeps and refuses to go back to the original dig site of 1936. I guess I don't blame her. I camped there alone several times but won't do it anymore. Not by myself. It's almost like they are all there watching. Hard to explain. Then I recall the last day of mining in 2015. One of my closest partners was the last one to leave except for me. I'm always the last and take one last look around before heading out. We shook hands and for some crazy reason my last words to him were "God's Speed." A few weeks later I got a call that he had died of heart failure. Only 53 years old. That was a tough one to take.

The sad thing for me in posting the journal is that they are all gone now except for Vern. Sometimes when I am on those claims at night and alone I still see them and hear them talking about the dreams of gold. There's no one left to tell the story now but me.

Conor passed away some yrs back. He had told me about his personal problems and about his wife leaving him which I don't think he ever got over completely. This was a song he would listen to every now and again. This one's for you Conor.

Ghost Riders or GhostMiner In The Sky

August 22 2002 Part Two After I hollered out I saw Nick Allen and the other three of them turn quickly towards us. We were about 70 feet apart as Conor and I walked toward them. Allen looked surprised. I asked again what they thought they were going to do on our claims. Nick Allen gave me a sleazy sort of half grin and said arrogantly that they were testing gravels from our unfinished dig site. I told him he had not asked our permission to take any samples and we would not give him permission. Nick Allen quickly changed the subject. By now we were ten feet away from each other. He said we should keep a close eye on Conor because he had told him all about our mining operation when he was in the bar. He said we should put him on a short leash. He continued to insult Conor and was saying he was a drunken cry baby who couldn’t hold his liquor and that we needed to kick him off the claims. I looked over at Conor and he was fuming. His face was red and his teeth were clenched. I noticed his right hand start slipping towards his 45 which was holstered on his right hip. I touched his arm and shook my head no. I told Allen that he had no call for that kind of talk. Conor was more blunt. He called Nick a big mouth con artist and said he’d put a hole through his head with his 45. Allen wasn’t carrying a gun. I only saw one sidearm on one of the men unless some were concealed. I told Allen to put the buckets down and get off the claims. He said they needed to make a few tests on the digsite before his investors made us an offer. Once again I told him we were not interested. Before I could stop him Conor pulled his 45 and fired a round about a foot over Nick Allen’s head. He dove face first into the wet gravel by the creek. I told the other three to get the hell off the claims and pronto. They said they were just prospectors who had been hired by Allen to do some sampling. They didn’t know anything about the claims or who owned them. I told them to git and never come back. They turned and walked off following the creek south towards the road. Allen got up slowly. He had some nice clothes on that were now covered in dirt. He was the type that didn’t do manual labor but was there to supervise the other three prospectors. Conor walked over to him and smacked him across the face with his 45. The blood gushed out of his mouth from the front teeth that had just been removed. I told him the same thing, get out of here and don't ever come back. He had his handkerchief stuck up in his mouth in an attempt to stop the bleeding and staggered off in the same direction the prospectors had gone. I looked at Conor and we gave each other a nod. I told him his father would have been proud of him. He was showing me that he had some sand to him. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Yes, all heck would break loose.

August 22 2002 Part One Thugs On Our Northern Dig Site We were up and working by 8:00 AM. Once again, Conor took his detector up to the northern area of the claim. Jacob and I hadn’t been working much more than an hour when I got a call from him on my walkie talkie. He sounded excited and told me there were people on our rich dig site that we had left for now because of the lack of water. He saw four of them and one of them was Nick Allen. They were digging in the last trench we had worked up there and were taking sample buckets of gravels and carrying them west over to the creek that came down the mountain. There wasn’t much of any water in that creek now but there were a few low pools where you could still do a little panning. He gave me his exact location and I told him to sit tight and I’d be up there as quick as I could. Jacob had his radio turned low and hadn’t heard Conor’s call so I told him what was going on. We shut everything down and Jacob stayed at camp. I charged up the mountain and found Conor behind some rock outcrops just east of the creek. We were looking straight down at the four claim jumpers from a position just above them and maybe 100 feet away. They had taken the bucket samples to the water and were getting ready to start panning the material. Then Conor admitted something to me. He said that the night he had gone into town feeling sorry for himself he had run into Nick Allen and some of his crew at the bar. He had told them about some of the rich ore on our claims and where we were working. Conor said he didn’t mean to divulge anything but was drunk and got to bragging. Then Allen and his crew left. Later that night we had come and he was afraid to tell us what he had done. He begged me not to tell Jacob. He said Jacob would throw him off the claims and disown him. I told Conor we’d talk about all this later but right now we had thugs to deal with. I looked him straight in the eye and asked him if I could count on him because things were about to get rough and it would be us against them. He nodded and said yes, I could depend on him. We both had our sidearms and plenty of ammo. I stood up and hollered out as loud and with as rough a voice as I could muster “Hey! What in the hell do you guys think you are doing? You’re on our claims.” Then we started walking in their direction. TO BE CONTINUED ............

I have been on this forum for just over two yrs now. I just wanted to thank Steve as well as all the readers. It's been a long & winding road. More journal to come.

August 21 2002 Part Two We had a good afternoon of mining and ended our day with 230 yards of washed gravel. Conor didn’t have any luck finding buried gold but was having a good time searching. I encouraged him and told him he just might find something if he stayed with it. It was getting dark when we had our supper and cracked open some cold beers. Conor said he was going to stay clear of the whisky. Jacob had a couple of shots of Bushmills and started talking about Jed. He was remembering Jed and how much he hated it when uninvited people came into camp. He told Conor and I that Jed could be a dangerous man at times but only if provoked. He said Jed never backed away from a fight and had started a few as well. When he did start one he usually had good cause. I asked Jacob about that 1936 gold strike and the gravels they moved up there. That excavation remained to this day and was quite impressive. Jacob said the crew were working fools. They’d set out in the morning and settle into a steady pace. He said there was little talking and a hell of a lot of pick and shovel work. There used to be arguments about who moved the most gravel. Every man took it seriously. They were a prideful crew. Jacob said that once you toughen your body to long, steady days of hard work it becomes second nature. He said the worst mistake was acting like Conor had when he tried to work too hard and too fast. The three of us talked about the claims and how much gold might still be out here. We talked about trespassers and the old days. We went on and on and the night chill was setting in. Before we knew it the clock was past midnight and we turned in. It was a good day. TO BE CONTINUED ............

Yes, we just wanted to keep our small scale operation and 100% of the gold as well.

I never trust anyone wearing a slick outfit on a mine site. Just ain't right.