GhostMiner

This stuff is sometimes confusing for new claim owners. Having done filings for many yrs I still dread it LOL. Mine is done, filed, & payed. So now I just got my tax bill for the claims LOL. It never ends. Remember, a clean, well maintained, & organized claim is a happy claim.

June 29 2002 Part Three Well, the crew never did get back to work for the rest of the day. We pulled the mats on the sluice and brought them to Jacobs' camper. We had only run 14 yards of gravel and we decided to clean the gold together Just to see if we were really in a super rich area. Jacob poured the gold onto the scale. There were 23.4 more ounces. This gave us 103.1 ounces today. Jacob said this now surpassed the best weigh of the 1936 strike. He looked at us and calmly stated “Boys, we are glory bound.” We all just sat there for a minute to take it all in. We figured once we got the trommel running again we would be rich beyond our wildest dreams. We had a big supper and the whisky and beer began to flow. Even Jacob had more than his usual. He rolled a smoke and began to talk about the glory hole of 1936. He said we could very well pass that season's gold total easy as they had no heavy equipment to work with. He said the ground where the 1936 strike happened may have been richer because they got big gold by hand but as far as total numbers were concerned we should be able to pass the old crew’s totals with ease because we had an excavator and trommel. That is if the gold held up. Now we all sat and wondered. Would the ground stand the test of time? TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Set 'em up Joe (Jacob). Set em up we did that night.

June 29 2002 Part Two We all were sitting around the table when the towel uncovered the jar. It had quite a bit of gold in it for sure. I asked Jacob what the gold weighed. He smiled and said 50 ounces on the nose. We all started whooping it up and jumping up and down. Then Jacob hollered and told us to hang on, he wasn’t finished yet. Wait? What was he saying? Before we could respond he reached under the table and brought out another jar that had been covered up like the first one. He said there was another 29.7 ounces in that one. It was the heaviest, most coarse gold I had ever seen here by far. A whopping 79.7 ounces of beautiful gold. Jacob laughed a long laugh and lit up a smoke he had previously rolled. Then he set a new bottle of Bushmills on the table and brought out four cups. He said we had hit a jackpot. This cleanup was just over 2 ounces to the yard and he figured it could get even better. He filled the cups with his Irish whisky and we started to drink with him. We were all shaking hands and suddenly Jacob began to cry. He told us we had definitely found the big strike the old crew from 1937 was starting to mine before the tragic night of July 3 1937. He said his friends had died for this gold. He was afraid the same could happen to us. TO BE CONTINUED ................

June 29 2002 Part One Surprisingly, we had a quiet night on the mine. I am hoping against hope that the intruders or gold fiends have been scared away for good. Time will tell. We got an early start to our day and were shoveling gravel as the sun came up. There is nothing more satisfying than the sun rising over our dig site and hearing the clanging of shovels against rock and gravel. These are some of the things I will miss when Fall comes and I am sitting at home thinking of this place. Along about noon Jacob came over to Vern and me. He told us to shut down for lunch and bring everyone to his trailer. Then he turned and walked away. I wasn’t sure what to think. He had no expression on his face when I saw him. We hurriedly shut everything down and the three of us headed over to Jacob’s trailer at camp. When we walked in there was a big towel covering something that was sitting on the kitchen table. Jacob was just sitting there with the Thompson at his side. I knew this was about the time the gold weigh was done and I asked him if there was much gold from the previous day's wash of 38 yards. Jacob looked us over and his look was somber. We didn’t know what to expect. He told us we had better sit down and hang on to our chairs. None of us spoke as we took our seats in his kitchen. I started getting real nervous and excited at the same time. I looked over at Vern and Jim and they looked like they couldn’t take a breath. Then he gave us a wink and removed the towel exposing a jar of gold. TO BE CONTINUED ................

June 28 2002 Part Four The rest of last night was quiet but the crew was restless and tired. We were being tested, Jacob told us. Trial by fire and only the toughest survive and take the gold home. We had all been through too much to ever turn back now. The hooligans would not win and if they pushed us they would not survive. That was the crew’s mind set as we set out to work the mine. I could imagine the gold hiding in the gravel as we threw shovel full after shovel full into the grizzly on the tom. Jacob came over before lunch and showed us 13.7 ounces in the jar. Vern and Jim took turns on patrol all day long and there was no sign of anyone but our crew on the claim. Tired as we all were we managed to wash 38 yards of pay gravel. We finished up the cleanout of the tom and placed the concentrates in the capable hands of Jacob. I wouldn’t give a plug nickel for the lives of anyone attempting to steal gold from that man. Supper was ready just as the sun set and we watched the stars roll out against the darkening sky. The sky out here was as pure as pure can get. We could see every star in the universe and sometimes my thoughts would turn towards home and my wife patiently waiting for me to get back from this wild adventure. She didn’t know half of what was going on out on the mine. I wanted to come home in the fall with jars full of gold to show her and prove to everyone that someone like me and our crew could still get rich by gold mining. Nothing was going to stop us. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Very sorry to hear of this. Prayers go out for him.

The trespassers usually have the advantage. They can sneak in & out without being detected at times. And yes, who in their right mind would want to be in a partnership with people like that?

June 28 2002 Part Three These guys were not backing off. They were insisting on becoming mining partners and threatening us with vandalism if we refused. I told them to get off our mine. I said we are all heavily armed and as they could hear we had a machine gun. If they pushed us too far they would lose the fight. Eventually it got quiet and after waiting about half an hour with no reply from them we realized they had vanished into the night. I carefully went out to the rock outcropping they had been hiding behind and checked around. There was no sign of them. I went back into camp and we had a quick meeting. Jim said that maybe Jacob’s Thompson had scared them away for good. Jacob just shook his head and said not likely. He called them crazed gold thieves. He said they had the fever so bad there was no reasoning with them. He warned that people like that will do anything for gold and we were far from finished with them. Now we have a big problem out here with no easy solution. I kept wondering what I had gotten myself into. I do not like this situation one bit. I do know that our crew will stick together and fight if pushed. TO BE CONTINUED .................

June 28 2002 Part Two One of the thugs told us they were well covered by boulders and not to waste our ammo. I told them we were not shooting at them but just warning them to stay out of our camp and we would fight if need be. Then the guy said they’d been out here on our mine for weeks. They’d been watching us as well as messing with our equipment to show us they meant business. He went on to say that they knew we had found a good gold deposit and wanted to make a deal with us. They wanted to partner up and in turn things would be peaceful & productive. They would help us work and also help guard the mine against any other intruders. In return they wanted half the gold. When Jacob heard that he let out a long string of curse words and fired the Thompson in the direction of the thugs. He hollered over to them that was their half and it would be the only half they would get – lead! TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Good to see you back snakejim

June 28 2002 Part One Gold Fiends. That’s what I would call our visitors last night. After our supper we were sitting at camp enjoying some cold beer when three men came walking up the creek from the main road to the south. They were all armed with sidearms and cocky as you can be. They hollered over to us that they were entering our camp and for us not to do anything we might regret. Before I could respond Jacob had the Thompson pointed in their direction and he fired off a burst over their heads which sent them scrambling for cover. We were all still in camp and we pulled our guns and took cover as well. One of the men started to yell at us to stop shooting. He said they had a deal for us. Jacob hollered back “Here’s your deal” and fired the Thompson high but in their general direction. I told him to hold up on the shooting and I hollered over to the men and asked them why they were here. The answer was chilling. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

My name could easily be changed to High Drama LOL. Has a nice ring to it.

I must admit you are correct. History also says you are correct. At the time of writing I may have been overly dramatic but if someone were to try to take our gold we sure would fight for it if pressed.

June 27 2002 We were back to shoveling gravel at 7:00 AM. We were planning on an earlier start but were just too tired out to get up in time to do so. However, once the crew was in place we were a lean and mean gold producing machine. Jacob worked at cleaning the gold. Jim was tending the pump and working as watchman. Vern and I shoveled gravel into the tom. When Jacob finished with his cleanup he always came over and shoveled right along with us. He loved it and never complained. Around 1:00 PM we broke for lunch and Jacob was finishing the weigh. We had 14.4 ounces. We were all stunned and nobody was saying much.Then Jacob spoke up. He said we have us an official strike. We all looked silently at him as he spoke in a very solemn tone. He went on to explain that he believed we were now in a section of the big strike the old crew had discovered back in 1937 before they were murdered and he was run off. Jacob told us he figured there were hundreds or maybe thousands of ounces of gold in this new deposit. He said it’s here and we found it and it’s real. Then he brought out a bottle of Bushmills and we all drank a toast to the gold. He said it would bring us luck. If I thought the crew had gold fever before it was nothing compared to the way we were after seeing this latest cleanup. Jacob was singing away on some old Irish song I’d never heard and the rest of us were talking excitedly. Then Jacob got real serious with us and said we needed to watch our backs for sure now. He said gold strikes have a way of filtering back into town somehow and before you know it you have a war on your hands. He reminded us of the hooligans that had been roaming around the mine at night. We all agreed that the crew must use extreme caution at all times. By dusk we had processed another 41 yards of gravel. Are we really glory bound? TO BE CONTINUED .................

June 26 2002 Morning seemed to come fast and we were up before the sunlight took control of the dark. A good breakfast and off to work we went. Jacob worked the concentrates and by lunchtime had the gold tally ready for us. We were more than surprised to see 6.8 ounces in the jar. This was the stuff that legends are made from. So rich was the ground we were working that if we had the trommel working we would be rolling in money. We talked to Jacob about the gravels we were in. All he said was the old crew had seen yards to the ounce and sometimes ounces to the yard. We were somewhere in between. He told us that if we hit a jackpot we could see hundreds of ounces very quickly. There was just no way to know and we needed to keep working a steady pace and not let the fever take control of our minds. Of course we all had gold fever and were doing our best to control it. We were ready to kill for gold. The fever had us by the throat and was squeezing every day we worked. We dreamt of gold and talked about it all day. There was no returning to normal life for us now. I began to understand how the old crew felt every day. By dusk we were all physically wiped out from the shoveling and the heat. I had sweat so much there was no moisture left in me. Jacob warned us to be careful in this dry heat because once the moisture was sucked out of your body you could drop over with no warning. He said he had seen strong men drop over and were unable to get to their feet. Somehow we didn’t care. All we could see and think about was gold. I saw gold in the gravel. I saw it in the rocks. I thought I saw it floating in the dust our shovels kicked up. Sometimes I feel like I am losing my mind out here. Today we worked as hard as men can work in extreme heat and processed 47 yards of gravel. We are a proud crew tonight. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Heading out on a concert tour until early next week. I'll leave you prospectors some good music to listen to until I get back. May your pans be full of course gold & pickers.

June 25 2002 Last night we had a black bear that kept circling our camp. He came near the perimeter a bunch of times but never all the way into the actual camp. Jacob dealt with him as usual by firing a few bursts from the Thompson which sent him packing. That gun will scare the heck out of anyone or anything. Other than the curious bear we had a quiet night which is always welcome out here. We all got to work early and were actually shoveling gravel into the tom at the crack of dawn. We wanted to get as much work done before the big heat reared its ugly head. It would usually be around 90 degrees by 11:00 AM and top out around 5:00 PM in the afternoon at around 100 to 110 degrees. It was beginning to take its toll on us. We are discussing stopping work around 5:00 PM but starting a little earlier to make up for the lost couple of hours. Today we managed to process 36 yards of pay gravel and the weigh brought us 3.8 ounces of gold. TO BE CONTINUED .................

Hopefully there will be good moderators to keep the site in good order.

June 24 2002 When morning came we were all eager to resume mining. Jim took his position as guard up at the pump location. He was getting more mobile now and able to do a little bit of patrolling up and down the water line trail as well. Our gravel pile was getting low so I jumped in the excavator and deepened the trench some while depositing the material near the tom. It was a big plus having pay gravel right at the head of the tom. No buckets to carry and we were only limited by how many shovels full of gravel we could feed into the hopper. By 2:00 PM the temperature sat around 100 degrees. This was a very dry and oven-like heat that sucked the moisture right out of your body. Vern, Jacob, and I all did our work without much talk. Only an occasional grunt or curse word when the shovels struck something large and unmoveable. When that happened it sent a shock wave right up the forearms and into the elbows and shoulders. We always estimated the yardage of pay sent through the tom. There was no way to give an exact figure but we believed we were always within a yard or so either way. Jacob was working right along with us and he kept a slow and steady pace for most of the time. Sometimes it was hard for me to think that he was 85 years old. He could still do a fair amount of work over the course of the day. We always kept a close eye on him and made sure he took frequent rest breaks. By the end of the day we had sent 32 yards of gravel through the tom and were completely wiped out. We headed for camp and some cold beer. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

It took us over 3 yrs to get access to our eastern claims. They were gated and the road in was used by the county, Forest Service, & one home owner who accessed his property through the gate. We finally put in our plans of operation & have had access & our own lock ever since. Make a plan - even if it's just to sample & prospect, & you should be able to drive in. I know you shouldn't need to go that route but it's either that or cut the lock. As a matter of fact, the first wk we were accessing the claims through the gate with our own lock the neighbor who lives east of our claims called the Forest Service. They told him we were ok to be there. We have made friends with him now. However, back then he called the county after the Forest Service. We went to the gate one morning to find 4 county truck waiting for us. I laughed & told the crew that it looks like they have us outnumbered. They wanted to know how we got access & permission. I explained to them that when we applied for our plan of operation it was out for public comment for months & no one responded or cared. Then once we got access a heck broke loose. There was nothing they could do & we are all friends now. Just goes to show how there is such a lack of communication sometimes.

I've actually thought of investing in a mining project in Wyoming or Montana. It would need to be either permitted or permit ready. Something with a crew & equipment in place as well.

According to the Honky Tonk Stardust Psychedelic Cowboy his grandfather kind of knew the old crew from 1936 - 1937. He said his grandfather worked part time at the Paxton Hotel back then as a bartender & sometimes a cook. The mining crew was run by a couple of Irish brothers named Stevens. Sometimes the entire crew came in and sometimes just one or two of them. Supposedly they always carried guns and knives and were a rough bunch. Jed was supposed to be meaner than a snake when provoked and loved to fight. Heavy drinkers and hell raisers according to him. They were involved in a bunch of fights in Paxton. Lots of times it was with loggers who hated the miners and vice versa. His grandfather told him about one fight where one of the Stevens brothers (he wasn't sure which one) threw a logger right through a plate glass window and out into the parking lot of the hotel. They were a wild bunch. This is just a little bit of what the cowboy told me & I will be posting more here soon. Interesting stuff.

I have a special guest who may be adding to the story soon. From Paxton California - The Honky Tonk Stardust Psychedelic Cowboy. He knows a lot about the history of our mining area as well as some untold stories about the old crew circa 1936 - 1937.

June 23 2002 It’s Sunday and we decided to take the day off and get some much needed rest. The cleanup brought another 3.7 ounces of gold. We still need to guard our pump and water line every day. It’s too bad things are like this out here. Jacob wants to catch the hooligans and beat them up. I bet he could still do it too. Vern sat up at the watch station as darkness came and Jacob, Jim, and I sat by a small campfire. Jacob brought out a bottle of Bushmills and we drank shots and cold beers while we swapped stories. Jacob began telling us about the night he had been run off the mine in the big shootout of July 3, 1937. He said he could hear bullets whizzing over his head and some were striking some big logs that surrounded his dugout where the watchpost was located. The gunfire sounded like a war zone and after an hour he was running out of ammo. Jacob had been surrounded on all four sides by armed thugs and there were a bunch more that had surrounded camp. He said he fought like hell and knows that he wounded at least one or two of the gang but he claims there were at least thirty of them on the claim. The gunfire had suddenly come to a stop down at camp. He tried to holler down there but could hear no reply. Then he said the thugs hollered out that the crew were all dead and he would be next. There wasn’t much of anything he could do at that point and he had the last magazine loaded in the Thompson. The goons didn’t know that the crew had dug an escape tunnel from the watchpost to a safe area to the south. He said he sprayed a burst from the Thompson into the woods where some of the goons were located, grabbed his flashlight, and started crawling through the tunnel to safety. By the time the gang realized he wasn’t there he was long gone. He walked in the woods along the main road back towards town making sure to keep out of sight. He figured the gang would probably drive up and down the road looking for him and he was right. Jacob said they had several trucks with some men in the back holding rifles and driving up and down the road. He quietly watched them from the woods just off the highway. Jacob said that if he had had any ammo he would have shot it out with them right there but he only had a few short bursts left in the Thompson. He felt sick to his stomach knowing what they had done to the crew. He said that he lay awake many nights wishing he had fired on them and took out a few of them before they killed him. It was something he lived with every day since that horrible night. TO BE CONTINUED ..................