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


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  July 26   2002

 

   We got started with the exploration about half an hour after sunrise. We broke the pristine quiet when the excavator came to life. You could hear the sound from the big diesel motor echoing off the side of the mountain and traveling down the creek. 

   Jacob would dig a trench down and every time he got to the right depth he hit the old track. I would ride the bucket down to the bottom from time to time and take a sample of the gravels and make sure the direction of the track was not changing. The track was running about true north straight into the mountain.

   I panned the gravel samples while Jacob dug away. There was almost no gold in any of the samples so far. Just a very few fine flakes not worth mentioning.

   We took a lunch break around noon and got back at it. We were making progress and getting close to the base of the mountain. By dusk we had cut a long trench that ended close to the mountain. It was a little wider than the tracks. We stopped for the day and took a look at what we had accomplished. Jacob said the old track had been buried over the years by the tailings from up above. He figured they dated back to the time of the big operations of the 1860’s to the 1880’s. He said this lower area must have been worked by a smaller company and at some point got buried by all the slickens and tailings from the hydraulic outfits. He said it might have happened after the guys working down here had moved on or it may have taken place while they were trying to work. He said the big companies were ruthless and wouldn’t have thought anything about shooting tailings 300 feet down below to this area and burying the smaller companies workings. I’d heard about stuff like this happening in various areas and sometimes it ended in violent shootouts with rival companies. There was no law to speak of. Usually, the big companies employed their own thugs to deal with problems. They had plenty of money and that meant power.

   After we called it a day we sat by the campfire and had Jacobs favorite stew with cornbread. The temperature had cooled nicely by dark and actually there was a chill in the air by 10:00 PM. We’d go from 100 degrees in the afternoon to about 50 degrees by 2:00 AM. We have not seen rain in quite some time. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

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   July 27   2002     Part One       Quartz Veins and Ore Cars   

 

   We found the mine adit just before noon today. The tunnel opening is about eight feet in height and close to six feet in width. It was well timbered and covered by mine tailings from above as well as many years of slides coming down the mountain. Jacob shined the flashlight in to get a better look. Everything was timbered and still holding as far as what could be seen from the entrance. I was about to walk in when Jacob grabbed my shoulder and told me to slow down. He said we should not go charging in too far without inspecting the old working closely.

   There were several old oil lamps near the entrance. They were covered in dust. Jacob told me the workings were most likely from sometime in the 1800’s. He said if the workings dated post 1900 the lamps probably would have been carbide. The tunnel looked to go straight back into the mountain on a northerly heading. We shined our flashlights down the drift and slowly made our way deeper into the mountain.

   The tracks were still in pretty good shape but we didn’t see any mine cars. After about 300 feet the drift forked off with the original one heading north and the second turning right or east. The north tunnel appeared to be the main drift as it was higher and wider than the east one. We could feel some slight air movement coming towards us so there must be a vent shaft or opening somewhere higher on the mountain we figured. 

   I went back and got a bucket and a shovel and we took a sample from the 300 foot area. I carried it over to the tub and Jacob began panning the gravel. There were some nice colors in the pans but nothing really rich. We went back in and stayed on the northward main drift. Then I heard Jacob let out a soft whistle. He was shining his flashlight on the side wall. He quietly told me to have a look at where the beam of the flashlight was shining. “Holy Moses” was all I could say. I was looking at a big quartz vein. It had to be close to a foot wide. Jacob shined his flashlight up close and I had a good look. I asked him if that was visible gold I was seeing. He gave me a wink and a nod and told me to go get a pick. When I got back he instructed me to walk in about another 100 feet before we picked away at the quartz. He shined the light down the dark tunnel. There sat an old ore car on the tracks. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

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 July 27 2002   Part Two

 

   The old ore car was in need of repair so I spent the rest of the day working with Jacob to remove gold bearing quartz from the old mine bucket by bucket. We crushed it up as best we could by pulverizing. It was by far no professional job as we weren’t equipped for hard rock mining but at least we could get a rough estimate on values per ton. We panned the pulverized ore and came up with an estimate of just under one ounce to the ton. Jacob couldn’t believe it. This was rich ore - rich enough to make us a bundle.

   Jacob was trying to figure out why the mine had been abandoned. He thought that the big companies on top of the mountain had simply buried the lower workings under tailings and the smaller company was forced to leave. He said the big operations boss probably didn’t know how good the ore was and seeing they were making big gold up on the higher mines it was simpler to just keep dumping tailings down below and keep their big hydraulic mines producing. Once the lower mine was buried under many feet of tailings and abandoned it was soon forgotten. This was just amazing to me but it seemed to be all about speed of production and easier gold.  I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the old timers who had put in so much hard work just to be run off the mountain. Now Jacob and I had a lot of contemplating to do as to our next step. 

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

 

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  July 27   2002   Part Three

 

   Jacob and I spent the evening discussing the unexpected developments on the lower mine. It seems there are many twists and turns on this property. Jacob liked the idea of taking a shot at hard rock mining. It would allow us to work longer into the Fall and perhaps Winter. We could work the tunnels in any weather and stock pile the ore for Spring processing. The old mine car and tracks could be restored and made usable again with a little work on our part. However, we would most likely need a crew to follow the quartz vein if we wanted to mine enough raw ore to make it a worthwhile venture. We have no hard rock mining experience and lack some of the needed equipment. We will need a stamping or crushing process and drilling equipment for starters. It concerns me to take on a crew of new people out here. I worry about potential problems. Many things could go wrong.

   It was well after midnight and we were at camp and still talking things over when we both heard a holler from inside the tunnel. It sounded like a distant voice way down the drift somewhere. We got up and walked over in the direction of the adit which was not too far from our camp near the creek. I walked into the opening just ahead of Jacob. I thought I saw the light from a lantern down near the area where the tunnels branched off. I shined my flashlight in that direction but saw nothing moving and the light had vanished.

   Jacob hadn’t seen it and when I told him about it he said it could be trespassers. We both stood very quietly and listened for a few minutes. Sure enough, there were two or three voices down there somewhere. They must have taken the right tunnel leading east and were out of our view. Jacob had the Thompson and I had my sidearm. We slowly advanced into the dark keeping our flashlights off.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

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43 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

  July 27   2002   Part Three

 

   Jacob and I spent the evening discussing the unexpected developments on the lower mine. It seems there are many twists and turns on this property. Jacob liked the idea of taking a shot at hard rock mining. It would allow us to work longer into the Fall and perhaps Winter. We could work the tunnels in any weather and stock pile the ore for Spring processing. The old mine car and tracks could be restored and made usable again with a little work on our part. However, we would most likely need a crew to follow the quartz vein if we wanted to mine enough raw ore to make it a worthwhile venture. We have no hard rock mining experience and lack some of the needed equipment. We will need a stamping or crushing process and drilling equipment for starters. It concerns me to take on a crew of new people out here. I worry about potential problems. Many things could go wrong.

   It was well after midnight and we were at camp and still talking things over when we both heard a holler from inside the tunnel. It sounded like a distant voice way down the drift somewhere. We got up and walked over in the direction of the adit which was not too far from our camp near the creek. I walked into the opening just ahead of Jacob. I thought I saw the light from a lantern down near the area where the tunnels branched off. I shined my flashlight in that direction but saw nothing moving and the light had vanished.

   Jacob hadn’t seen it and when I told him about it he said it could be trespassers. We both stood very quietly and listened for a few minutes. Sure enough, there were two or three voices down there somewhere. They must have taken the right tunnel leading east and were out of our view. Jacob had the Thompson and I had my sidearm. We slowly advanced into the dark keeping our flashlights off.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

Gosh darn this mining story just keeps getting better lol !

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   July 27   2002     Part Four

 

   As we got further in we turned our flashlights back on but muted the light with our hands. We could still hear voices in the distance but couldn’t make out any words. It sounded like mumbling to me.When we got to the east tunnel we heard the voices more clearly. In a whisper Jacob said they must be back in there somewhere. 

   I couldn’t figure out why someone was messing around on the mine this late at night. We shined our flashlights down the east tunnel and I hollered out asking who they were. The voices stopped. That tunnel didn’t go all that far and we moved slowly towards where the talking had come from. Eventually we saw the ending wall. There was no one there. This was impossible as there was no way out except to come back towards us. Jacob shook his head and told me we needed to get out of there. So we headed back out of the mine. 

   We stood at the adit for about ten minutes just listening. There were some faint sounds of what sounded like small rocks falling but no voices. We stayed there for an hour and never heard anything more. It was a mystery.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

 

   

 

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