GhostMiner

The funny thing is we would need to show proof they even took gold. What should we fo, get One camera was high up on a tree. A ladder was used to put it up there and they somehow saw it & took it. The other was near an entry point where someone would park but it was well hidden. They got that one also. My partner is seeing a green Dodge Dakota with a cap driving up & down the road when he was camped there. He said it went by a dozen times. That might be the claim jumper, not sure.

Perhaps.

As I stated in my posting of the journal, we are experiencing claim jumpers just like Jed did back in 1936. Nothing much changes over 86 yrs. The claim is well posted. We even posted a claim sign on a tree right where the claim jumper have a huge hole going and are high grading $500/yd gravels. We put up game cams. They stole them. They are coming in when no one is there. So today I contacted the Sherif's Dept. They said it is not their issue & to contact the Forest Service. The Forest Service says it's a civil issue except for the stolen cams. They told me to find out who they are and take them to court. I had thought mineral theft was a criminal offense. Am I supposed to walk up to them and ask them for their identification? I don't think that would work out too well.

Yes, we have mined "small" many times. You keep the disturbance under 1000 cubic yards. Those are laws and has nothing to do with who is working for the Forest Service. However, I do agree that constantly changing personal who are unaware of your previously approved activities is a pain in the ass. That's why I have personally stopped involving the Forest Service in small operations. I find that they are constantly making up their own rules and interpretting laws to their own bennefit. Here's an example : we had an approved Plan of Operation on a claim. Part of the plan included a 300 ft access road being built to get in there to the dig site. We asked the agent if the road would be consider disturbance and count towards the 1000 yards. No they said, we won't count that. We didn't get to that project for a yr & the agent had changed. The new one told us it did indeed count as the disturbance. I could go on & on.

Plans of Operation are usually not too difficult to obtain. I have done them succesfully. However, you are limited to 1000 cubic yards of disturbance. Go over that & you trigger SMARA which is the SURFACE MINING AND RECLAMATION ACT of 1975. That's when mining became difficult to do. To get an approved special use permit you will need to work with the Federal, State, & county government. The application fee is a little over $2000 which doesn't sound too bad but don't be fooled. This is only the beginning. You will likely need an experienced engineer to work up and submit a plan. You will need to pass a miriad of environmental impact studies. The process is lengthy and expensive. It could take anywhere from a year to 5 yrs or longer with expenses of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. There is no guarantee you will be approved. The state has a way of getting you close to an approval and then throwing more hurdles in front of you. The idea is to discourage you and break you financially. Anything to do with creeks or water supply licensing is getting harder as well. What is the best way to make a million dollars gold mining in California? Start with three million.

MAY 12 1936 I went up and dug gravels again while John worked the tom. I tried to work deeper into the fault but got stopped out by heavy boulders. Then I decided to move 10 feet to the north onto the buried area. This required heavy work on my part and I busted the handle on my pick and had to go down to camp and put on a new one. I took what few buckets I had down to John at the same time to give him some work. I eventually got a good excavation going and started moving rounded river rock towards the end of my day. This told me I might be getting into more good gravels but I only got 23 buckets for the day and am dog tired to boot. John washed them and I panned the heavies out before supper. Compared to the previous days weigh this was disappointing. We got 3 grams for all my labor. John looked kind of down but I told him we would probably get onto gold again soon. He had gotten a bad case of gold fever and wanted to see color in every bucket. I figure to keep working at the dig for awhile as I need to get back on pay. I felt better after beans and hot water corn bread and a cup of whiskey. I'm going up on watch and taking the bottle with me. TO BE CONTINUED .................

I'll post my thoughts on this subject tomorrow when I have some time. I have done multiple mining Plans of Operation in California on our company claims. For now I will say that the state of California is not mining friendly. More on all this tomorrow.

We got high graded again by the claim jumpers and they stole our cams to boot. Not much changes out there in 86 yrs.

Great!

I woild like to put a crew of hard working people togerher to work Jed's site once again. It is a true treasure hunt.

I also have reason to believe there is still big gold in that fault.

It has been done before. McKinley Creek in Alaska in early 1900's a crew took out something like 1700 ounces by diverting a waterfall. It might have been more than that. I have a Dept of Interior report and a journal that pretty much jive with each other. I have also done samples that have shown heavy deposits in rhat area,

They were hiding it and may have had a buyer for small amounts.

Many thanks & got your number recorded.

MAY 11 1936 By now we have over $5000 in gold. John and I decided not to involve the law out here as we feel that might lead to worse trouble if information gets leaked in town. We both decided to handle any problems ourselves. I went up to the dig this morning and John held watch at camp while waiting for gravels. I dug a good part of the day while also hauling down buckets for John. The kettle is played out. I was able to get 52 buckets. These gravels were taken at or near the bottom and I was hopeful for a big day. I was right to be hopeful. The weigh was heavy once again. We got a haul of 72 ounces. We now have nearly $8000 in gold between us. For me this is nearly four years wages. I looked at John and told him we had a chance to get rich, we just need to find another pot hole in the old channel. John asked me if I thought I could find another one. I told him it was in the hands of God but I would try. I told John we had done what few miners had ever done, we had worked a glory hole. We just need to keep digging along the fault north where the old hydraulic boys stopped. The work will get much heavier now as we need to dig much more gravel to get to pay. We will soon be coming to summer months and creeks will slow. That is another thing we will face. I think we have another six or seven weeks before our water supply for washing gravels becomes an issue. After that we will need to rocker box the gravels which will be very slow compared to the tom in a fast creek or we need to get a pump. I'm going up to the dig on first watch with a bottle of my Irish tonight while John gets some rest. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

Thanks Lanny. Good luck to you as well.

Yes. I've lived up at Jed's dig site for over a month on a few occasions. Twice by myself with no cell service so you are really on your own. No grizzly in Cal but lots of black bear & lion up there. I was out there 3 other times with a crew and that was a lot of fun. Ten X ten tent and shower with a 2 gallon pump up sprayer that sits in the sun to get warm. Life can be so simple.

I am thinking of putting a team together to work the faultline again. My partners are mainly investors except one. I'd like to work it old school to avoid all the permitting and Forest Service supervision. I've done 5 Plans of Operation in various locations on the property and had a plan approved for the faultline way to the south of where Jed worked but the FS can be a pain at times. We dug the old drift with an excavator and used a Gold Claimer Pioneer 30 to run gravels. There is still good gold out there also but we decided to lease that out & go into the faultline. That's a treasure hunt.

All I can say for now is northern California.

Thanks Lanny. Got it down. I had a guy stop by one yr when we were down at one of the creeks. He told me they hit a good spot when dredging and got 80 ounces back in the 1980's. Now California doesn't allow it. Of course i've read the journal but posting it is making me want to put a team together and work it old school for a few months. I love living off grid.

(1) Some of the rock old Jed was moving. All in a days work I guess. (2) If only Jed had one of these LOL.

Lots of huge Cedar & Ponderosa Pine up there. Straight and tall. I's love to have a cabin up there - might never leave.

Here are the remnants of an old miners cabin we found while exploring up on the mountain.

MAY 10 1936 At breakfast I told John that I wanted to go up and dig again and see if the kettle would widen out some. I had put a dent in its gravels yesterday. So John caught a little sleep while I drove up there. I eagerly got to work shoveling gravel into buckets abd seeing if the rich pay would widen out. It seemed contained to this small area so I shoveled what was in there. After I took 10 buckets down to John to start his day I went back up and kept digging. I eventually took a break. I grabbed the rifle and took a seat on a log near the hole when I thought I heard something moving up in the woods on the mountain. I heard what sounded like a branch break and someone or something falling through the limbs of a tree. Then there was the sharp crack of a rifle shot. Rifle in hand I dove into the hole which was a good eight feet deep. I looked around but couldn't see anything. Then there was another shot and the bullet had struck one of my buckets that was near the hole. I was pinned down. John had to hear the shots and would come running. Camp was less than hald a mile away and sound travelled here. Eventually I heard John holler to me was I ok? I hollered back yes and told him what was going on. He had war experience. He told me to stay put and he'd try to scout the area. I waited for a good twenty minutes or so and John came back from the north hiking down the ravine. He said he couldn't find anyone but maybe we both better get back to camp. I didn't want to leave the buckets of pay so we both loaded them on the truck. There were 15 of them. Then we went back down to camp and got a surprise. Our camp had been robbed. They stole our gear and food but left the tom and grizzly alone. Our tents were ok as well. Lucky our gold was well hidden and not touched. We figured whoever these hooligans were they must have planned this out. Create a diversion at the dig site while the rest of them robbed our campand carried off what they could. John was madder than i'd ever seen him. He told me he would kill them if he found them, I calmed him down and said we still had our gold and more buckets to wash and we could go to town and get supplies to replace what they stole. So I took the truck to town while John washed gravels and kept a lookout on camp as best he could. I got back after a couple of hours and there was no further trouble. I helped John finish up the heavies and we weighed up the gold. What we saw in the pan made us almost forget about the robbers for a minute or two. We got 43 ounces out of the 25 buckets. I did some figuring and it was a better percentage per bucket than yesterday. John asked me if I thought this would keep going. I told him the kettle was nearly played out but maybe one more good day. We both stayed in camp that night and took turns on watch. I drank some Irish whiskey to ease my mind. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

LOL. I'm assuming Jed was of Irish descent.