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

[GhostMiner]

9 minutes ago, Mike Furness said:

Hate to say it but Slim had a conscious or unconscious death wish and it was fulfilled!

   Not someone I would want in my camp. Loose cannon!

[GhostMiner]

   June 30   2002     Part One 

 

   I didn’t sleep all that well last night. I couldn’t get the gold weigh out of my mind. I was also extremely nervous about trespassers and robbers coming out here. If we were being spied on word about a strike could spread like wildfire. If we could just get the trommel back up and running we could bank a motherlode and get the heck out of here. There are months left in the mining season though and I doubt anyone will want to leave early because the fever has consumed the entire crew including Jacob. I have it as well but I also want to get back home safe and sound with all my gold. What if the thugs are planning on letting us work in peace for a long while and then rob us? What if someone gets killed out here on this cursed mine? This just keeps going round and round in my head. I suppose I need to get this stuff out of my head and plan on working until the snow flies. That’s what Jacob would expect from us.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   June 30   2002     Part Two

 

   We got to work early and had a good start to the day. On our lunch break I went to town and got some good news. We’d have our trommel up and running in another day. That put everyone in a good mood. It had been about three weeks or so since we had been able to use it. 

   In the afternoon we settled into a nice, relaxed pace. Just knowing that big trommel would be washing gravel soon allowed us all to take a sigh of relief. By 5:00 PM we had managed to wash 30 yards of gravel and we decided to pull the matts and do our cleanup instead of waiting for tomorrow. I figured we’d all be pretty busy getting the trommel up and running. Once again, the gold weigh was extremely rich with 19.7 ounces in the jar. I could only imagine what kind of numbers we could get with the washplant in operation. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

[Mike Furness]

On 8/8/2023 at 10:27 AM, GhostMiner said:

Not someone I would want in my camp. Loose cannon!

i agree 100%

[GhostMiner]

   July 1   2002

 

   We were up early and the crew had breakfast together as the sun rose. The air was fairly cool this early but heated rapidly by late morning. We got the new sprocket on the trommel and also had a backup sprocket ready just in case. The big pump was in place and connected to the larger hose as well. We had the sluice all set and by 10:30 AM we were ready to mine. Jacob did the honor of firing up the beast and Jim got the big pump sending our water down the mountain. Vern was in the excavator and sent the first bucket of pay through the grizzly/hopper.

   I kept a close eye on the trommel to make sure there were no issues. I told Vern to just work it easy for a few hours and if it went well we’d kick up the pace some. So Vern was sending about 20 yards an hour through the feeder. We decided to work right through lunch. Vern picked up the feed pace some and everything ran smooth as silk. I brought out some sandwiches which got wolfed down while the trommel did its thing. 

   Jim stayed up at the pump on watch and walked the waterline back and forth at times to guard against hooligans. We shut everything down at 5:00 PM and pulled the mats. We had run 160 yards of pay gravel. Jacob would do the cleanup tomorrow. However, we did put some concentrates in a pan and washed them at the tub just to see what the gold looked like. We had a look at the results. The pan was brimming with coarse gold. Things are looking up for us now. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

   

[GhostMiner]

  July 2   2002     Part One

 

   Once again the crew was up before dawn. We were all in a hurry to get that big trommel turning and making gold. Jacob will be very busy today dealing with all the concentrates he has to clean up from yesterday's run. We are still taking turns on night watch duty as well as keeping a watch on the pump and water line during the day. It’s impossible to watch the entire length of line at once but we are doing the best we can while still mining for gold.

   We all had breakfast together and were feeding the hopper with pay gravel by 7:00 AM. The forecast was for very hot weather as usual. The early mornings were comfortable but by 10:00 AM the sun was getting strong and the temperature rose quickly. Each day was usually between 95 to 110 degrees and the sun was brutal. We had Jacob’s cleanup station set up in a shady spot and he never complained about the heat. I don’t even think he felt it.

   There was a short break for lunch and we were back at it. Everything was running smoothly and I had the trommel set to run 30 yards of gravel each hour. This was a very comfortable speed for the beast as it was capable of 45 - 50 yards or more per hour if pushed. I just wanted a steady pace with no problems.

   Around 4:00 PM Jacob came over to me and told me the results from yesterday’s run of 160 yards. I was surprised because it was not as good as we were expecting. We had made 38.7 ounces of gold which was far below the rate per yard we had been doing with the tom but it was still a large amount for the yardage processed. Jacob said we had either started to lose the big pay streak or we were losing fine gold out the end of the sluice. He said if we were losing gold it was a whole bunch of it. We would have to check our fine tailings. 

   I didn’t say anything to the crew right away as we were planning on shutting down around 5:00 PM. Jacob and I took two pans and scooped up some of the fine tailings from the back end of the sluice and took them over to the tub to pan.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

   July 2   2002     Part Two

 

   I was shocked when I saw the amount of gold in the pans. They were loaded with fine gold. Jacob just shook his head and stated flatly that the sluice was set up wrong. He said we needed to have a meeting at supper. I agreed.

   We finally shut down just after 5:00 PM and pulled the mats. We had run 270 yards of pay gravel. Everyone got cleaned up for supper and we sat down to a good meal of hot dogs, baked beans, and some store bought corn bread which Jacob loved so much. We cracked open some beers and I reluctantly conveyed the problem with capturing fine gold. Everyone was upset. Jacob said we were probably losing over 60 - 70 % of our gold. When we had set up the sluice Vern was the guy who was in charge. He and Jacob had gotten into a bit of an argument over the angle of the run. Vern swore up and down that a sluice needed to be set at 15%. Jacob had disagreed. He said because of the amount of fine silt and very heavy black sand we were dealing with, the sluice should be somewhere between 6 to 8 %. Vern had scoffed at this and Jacob had got angry. Now we were about to start down the same path.

   Jacob got out his bottle and had a shot of whisky. Vern had himself a shot of whisky as well and the two of them began to butt heads. Vern was a young whipper snapper and figured he knew what was what about the sluice and trommel. Jacob once again stated his thoughts on the angle. He said Vern’s setup was costing us ⅔ of our day's work. Vern disagreed and said every miner knows you set a sluice at 15%. Now this was the wrong way to say it and Jacob became infuriated. For a minute I thought he was going to grab Vern by the throat and squeeze the life out of him. Jim and I looked at each other with horror. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

This is bringing back some bad memories of that night. 

[Old Miner Don]

21 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   July 2   2002     Part Two

 

   I was shocked when I saw the amount of gold in the pans. They were loaded with fine gold. Jacob just shook his head and stated flatly that the sluice was set up wrong. He said we needed to have a meeting at supper. I agreed.

   We finally shut down just after 5:00 PM and pulled the mats. We had run 270 yards of pay gravel. Everyone got cleaned up for supper and we sat down to a good meal of hot dogs, baked beans, and some store bought corn bread which Jacob loved so much. We cracked open some beers and I reluctantly conveyed the problem with capturing fine gold. Everyone was upset. Jacob said we were probably losing over 60 - 70 % of our gold. When we had set up the sluice Vern was the guy who was in charge. He and Jacob had gotten into a bit of an argument over the angle of the run. Vern swore up and down that a sluice needed to be set at 15%. Jacob had disagreed. He said because of the amount of fine silt and very heavy black sand we were dealing with, the sluice should be somewhere between 6 to 8 %. Vern had scoffed at this and Jacob had got angry. Now we were about to start down the same path.

   Jacob got out his bottle and had a shot of whisky. Vern had himself a shot of whisky as well and the two of them began to butt heads. Vern was a young whipper snapper and figured he knew what was what about the sluice and trommel. Jacob once again stated his thoughts on the angle. He said Vern’s setup was costing us ⅔ of our day's work. Vern disagreed and said every miner knows you set a sluice at 15%. Now this was the wrong way to say it and Jacob became infuriated. For a minute I thought he was going to grab Vern by the throat and squeeze the life out of him. Jim and I looked at each other with horror. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

So...Vern was an idiot.

[Old Miner Don]

22 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

This is bringing back some bad memories of that night. 

Relax...crack open a beer 🍺