GhostMiner

Thanks Hardtimehermit. Feelin pretty good now. As far as bucket size, they don't say. I found one small homemade bucket up there but it wouldn't have been strong enough to hold gravels or big enough either. I'm thinking probably 5 gallon. They weren't carrying them very far as they loaded them on the back of Jed's Ford truck which you could get within 50 to 100 ft of where they dug. I assume they filled them up but once again they don't say. When I did some testing up there I had to carry buckets about 100 yards to a recirculating sluice. I started out with full buckets in the morning but by afternoon they were 2/3 buckets LOL. There are hot spots all along the 2000 ft of faultline. That's what he was doing, finding hot spots. However, the glory holes are another animal altogether.

Thank you.

You are most welcome & thank you!

Thanks much!

JULY 16 1936 None of us got hardly any rest last night. The hooligans were hiding in the woods near our camp and making trouble. It started around midnight while Jacob was on watch. We were woke up by gunfire and hollering from the tree line and they were all around us. I don’t know how many there were but they would fire off some rounds and holler that we needed to sign up for protection or it would get worse for us. We couldn’t see them but only heard them. After an hour of this it got quiet and after some time went by we figured they must have left. The watch was kept on a two man shift for the rest of the night. In the morning we weighed up 2 ounces of gold in the pan and talked about our situation over breakfast. John once again said we needed to go to their office and confront the leaders. I told him that is risky and may be what they want. If we go and leave only two men to guard camp they could rob them or worse and when we get to their camp we don’t know what we will be facing. They may have spies staked out and watching us for all we know. We went back up to the dig site and resumed work although we were all still worried. Our shovels hit country rock everywhere across the trench. I panned some of the gravels and saw good color but nothing like the glory hole. We ended our day early with 130 buckets. The trench was mined out. At supper we decided to put John and Will down near the road where most people park and walk up the mountain along the creek. They would keep a lookout and if there was trouble fire off three gunshots. Jacob and me would guard the camp. So just before dark we all took positions and waited to see what happened. TO BE CONTINUED .................

They removed the lense of the eye & replaced it with a plastic one which has helped but still have a blind or smoky area that is still there. Will see the doctor next week. May be something to do with blood vessels behind the eye. Feeling fine.

Thank you! feeling better.

Yes, I don't want the bounty hunters on my trail LOL.

Thank you. Feeling much better today.

All done & back home wearing an eye patch until tomorrow. Removed my rye lense & put in a plastic one. Should be back to normal in a couple of days. A little sore & tired tonight. Cheers.

JULY 15 1936 Last night there were a few suspicious sounds all around our camp but none of us while on watch saw anything. John said that he wants to go to the office listed for the address of the mine co operative and have it out with them. It’s just outside of town near one of their claims. I talked him out of it for now and told him we needed to concentrate on getting more gold in our pockets. We got 4 ounces of gold in the pan this morning. We continued to drive the trench east into the fault line and hit heavy rock, some of it crushed. At that point we backed away from the fault line and worked at getting deeper. We started to immediately encounter very heavy ground with large rock around the 9 foot level and were seeing signs of country rock. Due to the extreme heat of the day combined with the heavy work we were limited to just 160 buckets of gravels. We may only have another day at that site before it is mined out. I won’t know until tomorrow. There has been no further activity by any of the hooligans who roam this mountain. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Hey everyone - I've got a blind spot in my right eye so i'm going in for eye surgery tomorrow morning. The Doc says no problem, they can fix it. I'll be posting another entry sometime tomorrow. It's got a long way to go. Thanks for reading!!

Thanks Lanny!

JULY 14 1936 We weighed up the gold from yesterday after breakfast and got a nice surprise with 2 ounces in the pan. That was more than expected with such a low bucket count. The gravels here seem to be rich. We worked hard all day with no intruders to slow us and ended with 248 buckets. There is very little large rock to move and the river channel is evident. We are down a good 7 feet in depth and widening the trench to the same and driving the dig east into the fault. At camp tonight we are all four of us on alert for any sounds or movement. The bobcat screeching has gone away. We used to hear them almost every night. I don’t know if that is a warning that there are trespassers in the area or that they just have moved on to better territory. The crew turned in early and I took first watch with my whiskey to warm me against the cold night air. TO BE CONTINUED .................

The mountain has a dark history. Numerous gunfights involving mineres, loggers, ranchers, and trouble makers.

JULY 13 1936 There were two more ounces of gold in the pan. This is enough to get us excited about the new trench and gives us the energy and hope to keep working hard. This morning John was at the tom as usual while the three of us worked the dig site. About mid morning we heard three gunshots in a row. This was a pre set signal we had worked out in case of danger. The three of us dropped our picks and shovels, grabbed our rifles, and headed down to camp in the truck. When we got down there we saw John standing with rifle pointed at five armed men. One of them was the guy John punched. I told Will and Jacob to spread way out right and left of John and I went down to where John was standing. John hollered that they were here to cause trouble. I hollered at them and said they were trespassing on our claim. The leader said they were there to get us into the co operative and he had papers for us to sign. There would be no more discussion. I told him what to do with his papers and I leveled my rifle at him. John already had his leveled. Jacob and Will did the same. The leader said to sign up or face the consequences. I told him what I said to the guy who was sent out on our claim yesterday. We would shoot to kill and this was his last warning to git. I also told them we had them in a cross fire as Will and Jacob had them flanked. He started talking threats and I fired a round that splintered the stock of his rifle. John fired a round into another guy's arm. I told Will and Jacob to shoot to kill if they retaliated. John hollered for them to raise their rifles and fight like men or leave now and that we were ready to fight. All five of them took off running down the mountain. I told Jacob and Will to high tail it up to the dig site and make sure nobody was up there. If there was then fire off three rounds. John and me stayed at camp a spell and kept an eye peeled. After an hour passed I went back up to dig gravels. We only dug until supper time and got 115 buckets down to the tom. I was too worried about the co operative thugs coming back. At supper John was all fired up on whiskey and hollering about how they took off running instead of fighting like men. He said he welcomed a shoot out with them and they were cowards and would most likely turn tail again. He said we should have just killed them all. I had a talk with everyone. I told them that as far as John and me were concerned we would not hesitate to shoot to kill now. I said it would be up to them to decide if they were in or out. If they were out they needed to leave for their own safety. I don’t know if these gangsters will leave us alone or come back with more men. Will and Jacob said they’d stick. John took first watch. What I am writing here is how it happened today for anyone who finds this journal in the event that I am killed. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Thanks for reading!

Gold can cause problems.

Indeed!!

Yep.

JULY 12 1936 There was some hope for us at the weigh and we got 1 and one half ounce. This was better than I expected. The day was not quite as hot as the previous days and we actually got a few unexpected sprinkles of rain. It felt good as we dug away but it didn’t last for long. We were now cutting in a new trench as we looked for bedrock. The rock was still small and we moved it quite easily. I took a few pans throughout the day and was seeing some promise. We were getting down about 5 feet and made ramps at either end of the dig to walk the buckets out. It all seemed like familiar work to us and we hoped for good results. We called it a day about an hour before dark and hauled the last load of 198 buckets down to John. We helped him finish up the wash. John said we should stay on high alert as we now had to worry about the co operative gangsters. I told him that all we can do is take our turns on watch at night and have our guns at the ready. They might just be all bluster and trying out scare tactics on us to get us to sign up. I opened a bottle of whiskey and took first watch just after dark. Everything was quiet. TO BE CONTINUED .......................

Up to & including July 12 1936 they have mined 811 ounces.

It's adding up.

JULY 11 1936 This morning Jacob, Will and me went up to the new dig site while John guarded camp. We set about opening a new trench at the base of the fault line. Will hauled the first 20 buckets of pay gravels down to John and came back up to resume the digging. We were about four feet down and the digging was fairly fast. What we lacked in quality I hoped to partially make up for in quantity. When I went over to the tub to pan a small sample I noticed someone duck behind a tree just to the north a hundred feet or so. I walked over to Jacob and Will and told them to grab their rifles, there was someone sneaking around on the claim. We started walking in that direction and spotted a man looking at us from behind a tree. I hollered to stop right there and come out with his hands in the air. I told him we all had guns and would use them if needed. He was also armed with a rifle and I told him to drop it. He did and came forward with his hands up. He said the miners co operative had sent him up to our claim to talk with us. I said if that was true why was he sneaking around, He wouldn’t talk but said he was alone and meant no harm. We decided to take him down to camp and figure out what to do with him. When John saw him and was informed on the goings on he was madder than hell. I told him we had declined the co operative invitation to join up and told him we don’t like trespassers on our claim. John said he thought he was snooping around to see if we were getting any gold. I asked him about that but he just said he’s been sent up there to talk with us and if we didn’t join up we might have some problems. I asked him what that was supposed to mean. He just said we’d find out and there were a lot of bad people roaming the mountain. He said he was instructed to sign us up and we needed to pay a co operative fee every month. John said that’s blackmail. He said we should pay the fee and we would have no worries. We would also need to give up a percentage of our claim ownership to them. He said they had already signed up nearly half the miners in the county. I told him they weren’t signing us up and they were wasting their time. He said that the word was out that we had been getting a lot of gold and we needed their protection. He said he was just doing his job. I had enough of him and told him to get the hell off our claim and tell his boss not to send anyone from the co operative up here again making threats. He kind of smiled at me. He said we were making a big mistake. John hauled off and punched him in the face. The man staggered backwards and looked shocked. He said he’d regret that. I didn’t say a word as i was sick and tired of all the hooligans and their threats and robbery attempts. John stepped forward and hit him again. The man took a swing at John but it missed and John punched him in the face a third time. This time he went down. We kept his gun and told him to git. He got up and headed back down the mountain saying we’d all be sorry. When things cooled down we all went back to work. We ended up digging 205 buckets in total. I saw some color in the test pans but i’m not sure how good the pay will be. It’s the top layer and maybe we can hit some good gold as we go deeper. Time will tell. All I know is it’s getting more dangerous around here. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

The thugs who roam this area just won't leave Jed's crew alone. I will be posting another entry in a bit. Going to get bumpy again so buckle up.