GhostMiner

After more of the journal is posted you will find out he has more to worry about than bears.

A movie would be great. I know i'd watch it!

APRIL 28 1936 Last night was peaceful with no critters in camp. After a good breakfast of meal and hot water cornbread I worked at washing the fault gravel. With a large grizzly and hopper over the head of the tom and good powerful water down the creek I was able to easily get all my work done and weighed well before dark. The gravels washed today were from a deeper area in the fault and proved out quite well. The weigh showed a little more than 7 grams with much of the gold course. Between my sampling efforts and my start at mining I am nearly to the one half ounce. I have it well hidden and will go back to the dig tomorrow. Tonight it will be hoover stew, corn bread, and whiskey. TO BE CONTINUED ................

APRIL 27 1936 I had a bear visit last night. I heard it moving around camp and I was able to dispatch it back into the woods using a whistle and a holler or two. I'd rather deal with a bear than a lion. I'd rather deal with a claim jumper in the middle of the night than a lion. I awoke to a better day than yesterday as the sun was coming up bright and clear. My mood was good and the gold was waiting for my shovel. The springs on my truck are not up to standard and I must be careful to avoid overloading buckets on the bed. Times are hard and I have no money to replace a broken spring. I feel that better times will come as the gold is found. The day was spent back in the good gravels which seem rich and easier to dig and not requiring much pick work. I will learn more after washing them tomorrow. I worked very hard with only a few breaks and hauled out a total of 95 buckets which was even better than yesterday. If they prove as rich as I think and they are plentiful I will see my ship come to port. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

APRIL 26 1936 Glory days may be nearing. I spent the day shoveling onto the grizzly. The water flowed fast down the tom and I made good time for a tired prospector. I haven't finished all the panning but have got most of it done. The weigh was heavy with over 5 grams and change so far. I think I am on to something now. If I can stay on those gravels my pay day will be a good one this week. There is no clue as to the depth and breadth of this paying material but I will do my best to follow it. I am on guard for claim jumpers as well. My rifle is always by my side. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Yes. We have over 500 acres of claims. Jed's dig site in on one of our northern ones up the mountain. I'll put more pictures up as we get into the journal. My company explores old placer mines in the Sierra Nevada Mts and then leases them out after proving the gold.

Jed didn't get it all. There's millions left. More on that later as well.

It's a true fault. I have all the geology reports. It runs north / south and the high side is anywhere from 60 ft to 100 ft above the bottom. When I read in the Dept of Interior report what this guy found I was amazed. I didn't know anything about Jed or his work until I stumbled on the report while doing research. Then I was able to get the journal from descendants of a mine president who worked near there in the 1960's. His family had it and gave it to me. As I put more entries out I will show pictures of his dig site as well as myself and a partner & our wives testing the ground. I'll just say for now that there are some good pockets still hiding there. Here is a picture of some gold we got at Jed's dig site while doing bucket samples with a recirculating sluice. The gold weighs out to 7 grams. For now I won't say how many buckets we ran because I don't want to ruin the journal story. There are areas of sizeable tonnage. I'll be posting lots of info on that later on.

APRIL 25 1936 The weather today was not fit for a dog. I may have been the only thing moving on the mountain. Cold and periods of heavy rain. I had a good dig which helped keep me warm. There was actually an area of loose gravel above country and I was able to take 90 buckets out. I am thinking this will be good pay. This area along the fault is like a treasure hunt. There may be some trapped gold waiting to be freed by my shovel. As my day is ending the rain is also diminishing. I've got my tent stove providing much needed comfort. I am just too tired to cook supper so dried beef and crackers will do me fine. I will end my day with a good cup of Irish. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

At this point I thought it would be good to show a picture of the creek where Jed camped and set up the tom. I am also showing the top of the fault line looking out to the west and a side view from the bottom.

APRIL 24 1936 I woke up several times last night thinking I heard someone near my camp. I slept with my rifle by my side. I am on edge and keeping alert for sure. I don't think the hooligans know where i'm camped as they came in from the top of the mountain to the north of my dig area. Hopefully they won't be back. If they do I will deal with them. I am wondering if I was followed from my visit to town. I don't think so. Today I processed the gravels dug yesterday. Country rock seems to be at varying levels on the fault. I got some good coarse gold out of the heavies, I think enough to keep me working hard. I can load 20 buckets of gravel in the truck at a time. This is a bit shy of a ton. I should be able to bring down 50 to 80 buckets a day. I am dumpimg the buckets into a large metal holding container near the creek. It's shallow and low to the ground for easy dumping and shoveling work. Then I will process gravels the next day. Alternating the work should help keep me from tiring too much. I am no stranger to hard work having done logging and farming as well as gold mining. The small amount of gold I have mind thus far is hidden away in a can far from camp. That way if I am robbed the thieves will not get it. My journal is not kept at camp either. I am giving thought to bringing out a good friend to work with me. I have not made a decision on this yet but he is a good man and would come to the claim if asked. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Thanks for reading the journal.

I agree. There is a long way to go and the journal gives an insight into the cut throat life back in the depression era. It's going to get intense. I will eventually post pictures of the area as well that will show what Jed's diggings look like today. It's pretty amazing.

Thank you. I feel it is a story worth telling.

APRIL 23 1936 Well today did not go as expected. As I drove up to the fault line claim there was a surprise waiting. I spied two men with shovels working at my test hole. Upon seeing my truck they looked at each other but stood their ground. My claims are well posted and marked so I thought the worst right from the start. I stopped short of them and got out but stayed close to the truck. I hollered to them asking what they were doing. There was no reply so I asked again but louder. One of the men was a pretty big guy aboud middle aged and the other looked younger. The big one said they were thinking of buying or staking a claim. I told him these claims were taken and were well marked. The big one said he didn't see any markers. That was a lie because he had to walk right past one right near my hole. I called him out on it and told him I didn't think he was telling the truth and to get off my claim. He looked at me with a sneer and said I needed to prove this was my claim. I reached in my truck and pulled the paperwork I always make sure I carry. He laughed and said I might have made those papers up myself and they didn't mean anything to him until he checked the claim at the courthouse. He said he was going to dig some samples whether I liked it or not. The other guy just stood there not saying anything. I told him once more to leave. Both of them just looked at me with blank expressions and shook their heads no. That was about enough for me. I reached in my truck and pulled out my rifle. I leveled it right at them and pulled it up about two feet over their heads and squeezed one off. They jumped and started looking nerveously at each other. I told them the next one would be lower. Luckily they weren't armed. I tried to ask them where they were from but they wouldn't talk so I just told them to git and don't ever come back here. I fired another round over their heads and they high stepped it up the mountain. It took me awhile to settle down but I eventually got to work digging. Spent the rest of the day digging and loading buckets into the truck and took them down to the creek, I'll wash the gravels tomorrow and see what I get. I am going to have to keep an eye peeled for claim jumpers now. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

APRIL 22 1936 Once again I worked the eastern drift and once again I found gold. I got deeper although it was mighty tough on both me and my tools of labor. The old channel has a lot of river rock to deal with but I got my buckets out with good material that was on the top of country. My results were a bit better than yesterday but the work to get it was twice as hard. I would need a dozer or dragline to continue further. I don't have the stake for that without finding a partner so I have decided to concentrate my work at the fault line on a full time venture. I am happy to have made a decission and will stick with it. I also had time to go into town for provisions, I met a nice gal at the general store who talked with me about prospecting. I was careful not to say anything of my venture or location but just talked mostly of camping and hunting. I am having a feast of hash and hot water corn bread tonight and washing it all down with some good whiskey. Tomorrow is the start of my mining season. TO BE CONTINUED .................

A side not here : We were able to find the drift mine on the side of the mountain based on what Jed wrote in the journal. There is still a rough trail out there that a 4 whl vehicle can use. At first we weren't exactly sure of the location because there had been lots of slides from above and the addit was buried. Luckily we're permitted for heavy equipment & have a bond in place so we took a mid size excavator out there and started digging into the side of the mountain. We hit it first try after about 30 minutes of digging. The 2 man saw was even still in there but it was broken. The timbers were all rotted out and large hanging rock everywhere. I told everyone to stay out but we scouped sampled with the excavator bucket allong the side wall near bedrock. We got anywhere from $15 -$60 per cubic yard out of the test which sampled bedrock to 20 ft above bedrock.. Not bad. We leased this mine out to a guy from Nevada who is now permitting for an operation. Anywhere into the sides of the mountain there have gold bearing gravels.

April 21 1936 Got the truck out to the eastern drift mine and worked the old adit gravels. I went back in about 100 feet and dug down into the old river gravels along the bottom of the west wall. I took out ten buckets and hauled them to the creek to process. Once again I was not seeing the glory gold I had hoped for. The values were a little less than what I got at the fault line. Some fines mixed with a bit of nice coarse. Tomorrow I will go back out there for another try and perhaps get down to country rock which I think is still another five feet deeper. The weather warmed a bit today and the days are getting longer. I haven't seen a soul around this area since I came here. I will be heading to town sometime soon for a few provisions. I am finding the prospecting life to be most fullfilling but lonely at times. It will be nice to get into town. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

APRIL 18, 19, 20 1936 Snow is all melted off and the creeks are running hard. I spent all three days out on the old wagon road that leads to the eastern drift mine. The road is now passable for my truck. There's a lot of exposed country rock and old iron pipe out near the drift which tells me this was worked bt hydraulic method mostly but for some reason someone drifted into the virgin gravels. The hill is a good 90 feet or more in height and the facings were hydraulicked to country. The old hand dug water flume runs up the mountain but is overgrown with brush. My guess is that the old boys had water delivery issues. Anyway, I will get my truck out there to haul samples to the tom. I noticed a lot of bear tracks out along the way out there. My goal is to find the best ground for my efforts. I'm getting anxious to start mining gold but I know that this early work will pay in the end. Turning in now after a supper of dried beef and crackers and a small cup of Irish whiskey. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

Another note from me here : I tried to figure a rough calculation on what Jed got on his first test of the fault line. Gold was about $35/ounce in 1936. I like to figure my estimates in American dollars per cubic yard. He was figuring his values based in per ton. So doing the calculations I estimate somewhere arounf $25 per cubic yard based in today's gold values give or take a few dollars a yard either way. So when he said working wages I figure if he worked hard all day he might have got 2 - 4 yards a day so maybe $50 - $100 a day in gold in today's values. Also, it's hard to figure dollar values exactly as the price of goods has inflated at different rates. I also found it kind of humorous when he said glory days weren't there yet. We all know that feeling for sure when prospecting. However, not to give too much away, but he had no idea what was about to happen to him. I also found out he was working innitially under the direction of a very prominent geologist so that must explain why he chose to file claims in this location. I have tested this area as well & will give my values at a later date. Let's just say for now that there are some very good areas.

Here is a map of Jed's area.

I will post a map of Jed's area tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying the journal. It's about to get pretty interesting.

APRIL 17 1936 Got a good nights rest. I was able to drive the truck up to the dig site with my buckets. I worked on getting in further and as deep and close to country rock as I could. Then I filled about a quarter ton of good gravels in some buckets and drove down to the creek. I set up the tom and grizzly and set a good angle on the tom. Worked the rest of the day processing and finished up the panning from the heavies that were pulled. When weighed out it was about 20 cents to the ton. Not glory days but working wages at least. My thinking is there is better pay in there to be found. Tomorrow I will begin doing the road work out to the eastern drift mine I sampled. There is an old wagon road out there I can use once it's fixed up some. Then I plan to get a good test on that mine. Fixing a good supper of hoover stew with coffee spiced with Irish whiskey and turning in. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

APRIL 16 1936 Got woke up last night by loud screaching sounds which lasted an hour or so. Might have been lion or bobcat. There was more than one and they came close to camp. I spent the day working on the road up to the fault line. All hand saw and pick and shovel. Was too tired to take more samples. Tomorrow I should be able to get my truck up to the dig site. I will load some gravels to take down to the creek. I have a tom sluice that will sit in the creek where the flow is right. The creek is running good from all the melt off up higher on the mountain. My claims are anywhere from 3500 feet to 4000 feet in altitude. I have a hard wood grizzly screen to set over the head of the tom. I'll shovel onto that to screen out anything over two inches. The tom is 20 feet in length and 18 inches wide. I've got it lined with carpet matting and riffles. Got a nice supper of dried beef and beens. Turning in now. TO BE CONTINUED ........................

There'a a lot to the journal with all kinds of twists & turns. I'll try to post some of it every day.