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

[Bedrocker]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 10   2002

 

   I got up at 5:30 AM this morning and Jacob had already nearly completed the final gold cleanup. I watched him finish pan the last of it with the aid of two lanterns. He weighed it up and there was three quarters of an ounce. When the crew was all gathered for breakfast about half an hour later Jacon showed it to them. It was a nice way to start the day and made us all anxious to dig gravel. 

   We got an early start. It was a great day for working. The sun was out and the morning temperature was in the 40’s. Despite the cool air I was sweating within an hour. We had over six yards processed by lunch and we gave it hell right up to dusk. When we shut down the pump I told the crew we had processed over fifteen yards of pay gravel. Jacob shook each of our hands and gave us one of his high compliments. He told us we were some of the best workers he’d had the pleasure to crew up with. We were all mighty proud miners. Jacob told us to get some grub in us and relax and he’d get the cleanup going early tomorrow morning. I told him I’d be up early to help him. It was a good day. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

Hmm... something about Jacob doing cleanups while the crew is still sleeping.

[GhostMiner]

10 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Hmm... something about Jacob doing cleanups while the crew is still sleeping.

No, we trusted him LOL.

[GhostMiner]

   May 8   1950

 

   We have completed the rehab of the mainshaft and drift. We are opening a new tunnel extending northward along bedrock near the fault. A drifting drill is employed where the rock is heavy and solid. We are calling this Drift #2. I expect to make some good advances into the gravels in this area. I also expect the bedrock to drop away at some point according to the geology reports. If this happens we will need to excavate a shaft down to find true bedrock and an expected jackpot.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ...........

[GhostMiner]

   i AM ENJOYING POSTING THE 1950 PROJECT LOG ALONG WITH MY 2002 PROJECT JOURNAL. Lots of memories here. 

[GhostMiner]

   About the 1950's projects on the claims  :  From what I have read in the trunk of information I received on the work done in the 1950's these crews were not after a gram or two per cubic yard. This would be very rich numbers for any tipe of larger scale mining through a washplant running over 10 - 20 yds/hr or more but the scale of this operation was small and slow. They were not hard rock mining rich quartz deposits but were working placer gravel deposits. The depth of the rich deposit was such that they decided to continue the tunnel work done previously rather than run a drag line to excavate although there was an attempt at that later on by another crew and we will get to that later on in the 1950's work. This crew was after the big strike of ounces per yard that the 1936 crew had hit. Over 1000 ounces of gold taken off an area of raised bedrock about 20' X 30' in diameter. They wanted the deeper deposit rumored to be in the thousands of ounces that was expected to be lying at either side of the raised bedrock deposit. Now we will begin to find out what happens here.

[Mike Furness]

12 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   i AM ENJOYING POSTING THE 1950 PROJECT LOG ALONG WITH MY 2002 PROJECT JOURNAL. Lots of memories here. 

Good for you. I think I can speak for most that we are enjoying your journals as well!

[GhostMiner]

13 minutes ago, Mike Furness said:

Good for you. I think I can speak for most that we are enjoying your journals as well!

Many thanks Mike.

[GhostMiner]

   May 9   1950

   The drift is now well underway to the northerly direction. We are keeping a uniform tunnel being 6 ft in width and 6 ft in height. To date Drift 2 is well timbered and stable. We have made 5 ft of headway. There has been nearly 11 tonnes of material removed with nearly a quarter of it being heavy stone 6 to 10 inches in size. Gravels were washed and some light gold was extracted although it failed to pay for the work done to remove it. We are working the bedrock up to 6 ft above of gravel and rock in search of the heavy coarse gold we believe is in this channel. The old workings were completely mucked and washed providing nearly one ounce of gold. That was the remnants of the big strike of 1936. The Stevens brothers crew did not miss much and left us little.    

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

Just now, GhostMiner said:

   May 9   1950

   The drift is now well underway to the northerly direction. We are keeping a uniform tunnel being 6 ft in width and 6 ft in height. To date Drift 2 is well timbered and stable. We have made 5 ft of headway. There has been nearly 11 tonnes of material removed with nearly a quarter of it being heavy stone 6 to 10 inches in size. Gravels were washed and some light gold was extracted although it failed to pay for the work done to remove it. We are working the bedrock up to 6 ft above of gravel and rock in search of the heavy coarse gold we believe is in this channel. The old workings were completely mucked and washed providing nearly one ounce of gold. That was the remnants of the big strike of 1936. The Stevens brothers crew did not miss much and left us little.    

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

   So there we finally have it in the 1950 log. The Stevens brothers were mentioned in this tunnel project of 1936. This area was alluded to by Jacob in 2002 but I was never told this story. I highly doubt he would have forgot such an undertaking as he seemed to recall most everything else. These old logs from the 1950's have given me confidence that much gold still remains trapped beneath the ground on the western side of the northern faultline. The reasons that give me this confidance will unfold here as the logs continue.