** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

[GhostMiner]

Gold from the crew's old diggings at the journal's eastern drift area.

[GhostMiner]

   Our camp just east of the crew's old camp. This was Sept 2012 and we were unaware of what had happened on some of the claims. At this time it was just my son in law and me and we were exploring one of our claims. We broke camp in early October after sampling as many areas as we had time for. Right after we left the temps went from 70's & 80's to below freezing and there was a foot of snow.

[GhostMiner]

   June 25   1937     

 

   This morning we were all up bright and early despite our late night. I made coffee for the crew and spiced it up with some good whisky. We had some biscuits and bacon and got ourselves over to the creek to help John finish up the wash. By the time we were ready for the weigh it was nearly 11:00 AM and we could hardly wait for the results. Well, I can say the pan was worth waiting for. We had small nuggets and pickers along with plenty of coarse gold and a little fine for good measure. All told there were 26 ounces. We all sat around camp and placed the pan where we could all look at it. I told the crew that we had a lot more of that gravel to work and I didn’t know how big the kettle might be. We were on track for a big season once again.

   Hudson and I went up to the dig site and Will stood guard. The heat was starting to come back and by early afternoon the temperature was pushing 100 degrees. We took a short break but it was too hot to eat. We filled buckets and hauled them down to John until nearly dark. We ended our day with 75. Every test pan was rich and there was no sign of an end to the kettle. The bottom gravels were brimming with pickers.

   When Hudson and I got back down to camp we were bushed. I grabbed two cool Lucky’s out of the creek and we sat near the camp fire and downed them. I went back over and got us two more and we sat with the crew and talked about our strike. I rolled a smoke and filled my cup with whisky. It had been a good day. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ....................

[blackjack]

Wow, I'm only 20 pages in but will read the rest for sure, for me doing the research is part of the thrill of finding gold. I can only imagine the excitement of finding a journal like this, I can relate to this story by GhostMiner, but certainly can't tell one as fascinating as this one is. I got hooked on research in the late 1970's when trying to find the location of a place called Top Camp on the Ashburton River in Western Australia, it was a place known for large nuggets but was only worked for a short time for various reasons, I decided it's where I wanted to go. While it was a known field the records at the mines department didn't give an exact location, the best clue I could find was a creek 25 miles S/W of Prismiod hill which was on the maps. Long story short my dad and I loaded my FB Holden, towed a trailer loaded with two trail bikes and did the 2 day drive up there. we had a choice of three possible creeks and chose the middle one. We chose right, the thrill of being the first prospectors to be there for nearly 100 years was better than the gold we found. I've been hooked on the research side of what we do ever since. For those that are interested the creek is called Fords creek, a tributary of the Ashburton river east of Ashburton downs station.  Recently I have found out that Bailey, of Bailey and Ford the discoverers of Coolgardie worked the diggings. I'd love to hear from any one who has been in there as well.    

[geof_junk]

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

We had small nuggets and pickers along with plenty of coarse gold and a little fine for good measure. All told there were 26 ounces.

That's a good day. My best day was also 26+ ounces but I did not have to share it with any crew. I had to spend some of it on the wife.?

[GhostMiner]

47 minutes ago, geof_junk said:

That's a good day. My best day was also 26+ ounces but I did not have to share it with any crew. I had to spend some of it on the wife.?

I would say it was quite a wonderful day!!

[GhostMiner]

4 hours ago, blackjack said:

Wow, I'm only 20 pages in but will read the rest for sure, for me doing the research is part of the thrill of finding gold. I can only imagine the excitement of finding a journal like this, I can relate to this story by GhostMiner, but certainly can't tell one as fascinating as this one is. I got hooked on research in the late 1970's when trying to find the location of a place called Top Camp on the Ashburton River in Western Australia, it was a place known for large nuggets but was only worked for a short time for various reasons, I decided it's where I wanted to go. While it was a known field the records at the mines department didn't give an exact location, the best clue I could find was a creek 25 miles S/W of Prismiod hill which was on the maps. Long story short my dad and I loaded my FB Holden, towed a trailer loaded with two trail bikes and did the 2 day drive up there. we had a choice of three possible creeks and chose the middle one. We chose right, the thrill of being the first prospectors to be there for nearly 100 years was better than the gold we found. I've been hooked on the research side of what we do ever since. For those that are interested the creek is called Fords creek, a tributary of the Ashburton river east of Ashburton downs station.  Recently I have found out that Bailey, of Bailey and Ford the discoverers of Coolgardie worked the diggings. I'd love to hear from any one who has been in there as well.    

Thanks so much for reading the journal. You have a story to tell as well. 

[blackjack]

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

Thanks so much for reading the journal. You have a story to tell as well. 

Thanks, like many on this forum, I suspect, it's the history as well as the gold that makes what we do so interesting. I have alluded to this on another topic on this forum but I will mention it again. My cousin had a professional dry blowing operation at Reedy between Meekatharra and Cue, we used to metal detect his lease. As a young guy metal detecting got a bit tiresome at times but I loved exploring. On one such occasion I was out exploring driving cross country, keep in mind this is flat treeless desert country, when I came across a track. I followed it for miles, in places it was indistinct then it would become obvious again, clearly it was an old track. It ended at an old camp with some of the bush poles that was their shelter still standing. The camps fire place was still there and I found their rubbish place a well, a pile of old colored bottles and rusty cans as well as a single leather boot. The point of this story is the track I followed, it had me puzzled, as well as two ruts to match my vehicle there was a third larger one down the middle, I just didn't work out the obvious. On returning to camp I explained the track to my dad and he smiled and gave me the explanation. My question is how many of you in a dry desert situation have also come across a three rut track.

[GhostMiner]

   Here is a picture taken near the northern fault line which is still partially buried. It is one of the places the actual crew worked  back in 1936, 1937. There is a large wooden platform and you can see it is covered in pine needles. I'm not sure what this was used for as there is no water up there and the creek is nearly a mile away and 300 ft lower in elevation. This area is a bit higher and farther up the mountain and remote. The old road the crew used is nearly gone but we were able to take a skid steer up there and tried to make it more accessible for a jeep or 4 wheeler. It had been washed out in several areas and there were also lots of small trees to clear. Another curious thing happened while we were there. The sound of several gunshots rang out not too far away but we never saw the person or oersons who fired them off. It made me think of the crew in the journal but totally freaked out one of my mining partners and he actually ducked for cover. Hopefully the pictures I am posting help bring the journal to life as you can see some of the actual area it is based on.