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

[GhostMiner]

This was waiting for me the first time I entered Jed's dig site area.

[Carolina]

45 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

This was waiting for me the first time I entered Jed's dig site area.

Bear ?

[GhostMiner]

Just now, Carolina said:

Bear ?

Yes.

[Hunterjunk]

While i have been slack in the giving of likes i have to say i have enjoyed this thread  more than anything i have ever read on any forum !  So it's some sort of Super Dooper Like from me . Thanks for all the words and pics .

[GhostMiner]

   AUGUST 15   1936

   After our breakfast Jack weighed up the last of the gold from his drift mine. He said he waited over 50 years to see this gold. Those buckets were the best of the bunch as we scraped it all off country. There were 31 and one half ounces. Jack did his gold dance and kissed the pan. He said it made him remember the old days and his friends who worked with him all those years ago. Then he brought out a bottle of whiskey and we all had a drink to him and his old friends wherever they might be. 

   I told the crew we were nearly at our goal of 1000 ounces. We had a total of 985 up to now. None of us could hardly believe it and Jack’s eyes got big as saucers. That was the first time he heard how good we had been doing. I told him about the kettles we had worked. Jack said he was happy for us and would keep his mouth shut. I told him I trusted him. He was getting gold for himself as well. We were all a happy crew. Besides their pay John and me gave Ben and Sarge some gold as well. 

   We all sat around the morning camp fire as it burnt down and drank whiskey together. The night before Jack had told us about a huge kettle on top of the fault line about half a mile south of our diggings. He said he wanted the crew to go up there with him to see it and he would tell us about what went on there back when he mined the area. He told us to bring a few buckets and a shovel. So we followed him out of camp leaving Sarge and Ben on guard duty.

   We walked due west for nearly half a mile and came to the southern end of the faultline which was lower in height than the northern area we had mined. It was about 50 feet high at the southernmost point and we climbed up to the top of the ridge. I gave Jack a hand getting up there and it wasn’t too steep for him. Then we walked the top north and climbed in elevation. After close to 800 feet or so Jack stopped and said there she is and pointed to a big kettle. The fault line had split there with a ridge to the east and a ridge to the west. It was close to 100 feet long and 60 feet wide and about 25 feet deep. The walls were fairly steep but the southern wall could be walked in and out with a little  effort. 

   Jack said the company he had worked for over 50 years ago had hydraulic mined this area and gotten plenty of gold. He said the old crews were drunk half the time and did a poor job up here. The company made them work at night when water was available by setting up locomotive headlights. It was extremely dangerous work. The company had cracked down on them after this area was worked and the drinking stopped. He said he saw two guys nearly get killed there when they got washed into the pit by the old monitors. Then the water flumes dried up and the company moved north leaving what he thought was lots of gold deep in the pit. He said he knew this because he had come back here at the end of the season and sampled the gravels and found signs of good gold remaining. Jack said we should go down in the old pit and dig down five feet or so to get deeper than any upper material that had washed down and take some buckets back to the creek to pan. So Jack stayed up on the top while we all went down in and dug for an hour and then took some good samples from both ends. By now it was close to noon and the temperature in the bottom of the pit must have already been over 100 degrees. By the time we got back to camp we were all soaked in sweat. We panned out the buckets and had ourselves a nice surprise. There was some real nice coarse gold in the pans. 

   I told Jack that it looked like we could work that pit a long time but would have to figure out a way to get the gold to the creek. We decided to call it a day and rest up. After supper we all sat around the fire and talked about the pit. Jack was pouring cups of whiskey for us and we were chasing them down with the beer. We were all getting drunk and Jack was talking up a storm about how he thought we should mine the old pit.

  TO BE CONTINUED ...................

[GhostMiner]

2 hours ago, Hunterjunk said:

While i have been slack in the giving of likes i have to say i have enjoyed this thread  more than anything i have ever read on any forum !  So it's some sort of Super Dooper Like from me . Thanks for all the words and pics .

Awesome & thank you!

[GhostMiner]

Much more to come & thanks to all the readers of the journal. You guys rock!

[maxxkatt]

Just when you think the story is getting routine, it gets more exciting. I just cannot imagine working on a crew like that. Now I see why the gold fever struck so many people. In Dahlonega, GA the gold and silver strikes out west caused most of the Dahlonega, gold miners to leave Dahlonega and head west. The mayor or some other Dahlonega official told the miners to stay in Dahlonega because "There is gold in them thar hills" which later became a famous saying.

 

[GhostMiner]

13 hours ago, maxxkatt said:

Just when you think the story is getting routine, it gets more exciting. I just cannot imagine working on a crew like that. Now I see why the gold fever struck so many people. In Dahlonega, GA the gold and silver strikes out west caused most of the Dahlonega, gold miners to leave Dahlonega and head west. The mayor or some other Dahlonega official told the miners to stay in Dahlonega because "There is gold in them thar hills" which later became a famous saying.

 

Yes, gold fever is real.

[GhostMiner]

   This is one of the areas Jed's crew dug and is south of the first diggings. The slides caused by winter rain & snow have covered over their old diggings. It is actually on the side of the fault line well above the base. I don't think they spent much time here but rather were taking samples in an attempt to find mineable ground.