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

[GhostMiner]

 August 13   2002     Part Two

 

   We had a jam up in the hopper that feeds the trommel. I climbed up inside with a shovel and a rock bar and spent over an hour getting it unjammed. When we got everything going we had a visit from a Sheriff’s deputy. He said there had been some people camping down the creek who were robbed by two men last night. I told him about our run in with the two guys we chased off and said it might be the same guys. He wanted a description but I couldn’t give him one because I never got that good a look at them. He warned us to be careful and headed out. After he was gone Jacob lit up a smoke and said he should have cut them down with the Thompson when he had the chance. I just said we’d take care of business if they came back around. With that we got back to mining.

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

[GhostMiner]

   August 13   2002     Part Three     A Change In Gravel

 

   By afternoon we had cut a sizable trench into the tailings. Without warning the gravels changed from a brown and gray loosely compacted material to a more solid bluish material. I was running the excavator and hollered out for Jacob to take a look.

   The cut was a good fifteen feet wide and twenty feet in depth and had formed a sort of open air tunnel through the tailings and into the base of the mountain. Jacob chopped out some material with his shovel that had been disturbed by the excavator bucket and removed a pan full of blue gravel. I kept digging while he panned them until he came over with the pan and waved for me to come take a look. In the pan was a handful of heavy black sand and fourteen very coarse pieces of gold I would call pickers as well as a lode of fine gold to boot. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Jacob said we had hit a virgin spot and it was rich. He explained to me that this is why you keep working ground. It looked like it had paid off for us this time.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

 

  

   

 

   

   

    

   

[GhostMiner]

 August 13   2002     Part Four

 

   We continued washing gravel for the rest of the day and knocked off two hours early to deal with moving tailings. We had processed 120 yards of material. Jacob took numerous test pans throughout the day and the gold was looking good. The cut was holding up to his scrutiny. 

   Back at camp Conor and Bill were talking about their day. They seemed to be getting the feel for the detectors and had turned up lots of old trash that most likely came from previous mining activities. However, they had not found one spec of gold.

   Bill wanted to spend at least two weeks checking the area for buried gold and Conor had pretty much lost his mind to gold fever. All logic and reasoning had left him. I suggested that maybe they should start mining the gold vein at the lower drift mine. This, after all, contained proven gold values and was worthy of working. However, when I brought this up, they looked at me like I was crazy. How dare I suggest something like this. After all, the two of them were now on a bonafide treasure hunt and were convinced they would become millionaires any day now. I just shook my head and was thinking that in a month or so I would boot them off the property.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[Mike Furness]

GhostMiner ... If I was the crew boss they would be gone now. Are they still getting a share of the gold while they continue on their treasure hunt?

[Bedrocker]

8 hours ago, Mike Furness said:

GhostMiner ... If I was the crew boss they would be gone now. Are they still getting a share of the gold while they continue on their treasure hunt?

If I was in charge I wouldn't kick them out just yet. As long as they don't go completely off the rails then they may be some pretty good entertainment. AND they just might find a bunch of gold if they walk around long enough out there. Did Ghost Miner ever say what detectors Bill and Conor bought? I hope they strike it rich out there.

[GhostMiner]

21 hours ago, Mike Furness said:

GhostMiner ... If I was the crew boss they would be gone now. Are they still getting a share of the gold while they continue on their treasure hunt?

Bill only gets gold if he works the quartz vein & must give a % to me Jacob & myself. Conor only gets what Jacob wants to give him. That is between them. If they find gold with the detectors they must give it to Jacob and myself. Then Jacob and I will give them their cut.

[GhostMiner]

13 hours ago, Bedrocker said:

If I was in charge I wouldn't kick them out just yet. As long as they don't go completely off the rails then they may be some pretty good entertainment. AND they just might find a bunch of gold if they walk around long enough out there. Did Ghost Miner ever say what detectors Bill and Conor bought? I hope they strike it rich out there.

They bought Garrett detectors as far as I can recall. I also know there was another brand they had as well but can't recall the name. I remember Bill telling us that his detector should find that large amount of gold even if it was buried deep and the military also used those detectors. As I have stated previously, I had no interest in using detectors. This was their gig. I'm a digger & like to use excavators and run large amounts of gravel. That's mining. However, Jacob and I were rooting for them and letting them give it a try. I remember Conor going on and on about the buried coffin. Did they ever find anything? Read on.

[GhostMiner]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

They bought Garrett detectors as far as I can recall. I also know there was another brand they had as well but can't recall the name. I remember Bill telling us that his detector should find that large amount of gold even if it was buried deep and the military also used those detectors. As I have stated previously, I had no interest in using detectors. This was their gig. I'm a digger & like to use excavators and run large amounts of gravel. That's mining. However, Jacob and I were rooting for them and letting them give it a try. I remember Conor going on and on about the buried coffin. Did they ever find anything? Read on.

Let me ask you guys a question. Were Garrett detectors one of the best you could buy back in 2002? Bill seemed to think so.

[Reg Wilson]

The only detectors available in those days were most likely bulky Garret dual winding VLF machines. Pretty primitive and not very efficient, despite the claims of the manufacturer.

There were a team of treasure hunters using one of these machines in an attempt to locate a cache of Spanish gold supposedly buried at the shore of a bay near the town of Queenscliff in Victoria (Australia) back in the mid to late sixties. They were excavating with an old cable operated drag line and detecting the bottom of the hole. I got to have a play with their detector and was disappointed with its performance over a steel tool box. I then put it over a nearby railway line and found it would only react at about two feet from the rail. Pretty useless really.

PS They never found Bonito's treasure.