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

[Old Miner Don]

37 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   So I finally am back on the website. For some reason starting yesterday I lost the site & got http error 500. I tried everything I knew to get back on with no luck. So just now I called my son in law & asked him to try pulling up the forum which he did right away. Then he sent me a link from his phone & it allowed me to get back on. I also googled a link from my computer & got back on which it wouldn't allow before. Wierd. It was like I was frozen out for some reason. More journal tomorrow. Cheers.

Same happened to me. Kept getting 505 error. Just now tried again.

[GhostMiner]

  July 7   2002

 

   We ended up turning the three thugs over to the law. Jacob wanted to handle things his own way but I was able to convince him to do the right thing. We took today off and got some much needed rest. Some good food for supper and a cup of whisky together by the fire before turning in. It is quite a relief having those guys behind bars. Now we can turn our attention back to full time mining. We are thinking that as long as we keep things quiet out here we can end the season on a high note with plenty of gold in our jars. We will see how it goes. I have kept all of this from my wife who would have been sick about all the trouble. Also, we have not heard a peep from Jim or Vern. Jacob said they are no longer welcome out here and I think I agree. They deserted us when we needed them most. 

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

[dig4gold]

I think you are being a bit hard on Jim & Vern. They made the decision that they didn't want to risk being killed any more & moved on with their lives. They had already dodged potential death many times in the cause of protecting what you had. The gold isn't every thing.

D4G

[GhostMiner]

   July 8   2002     

 

   Jacob and I had breakfast this morning and talked about getting back to work. Around 8:00 AM I got water flowing down to the trommel. Jacob loved to run the excavator and began digging up a nice pay pile while I fed the beast with the skid steer. We figured to run a nice steady pace around 20 yards an hour. It was a little slow but we didn't want any breakdowns and figured to just ease back into a routine. Then after a few days we would bump up production.

   By 2:00 PM we had washed close to 120 yards and the temperature was 115 degrees. We pushed through until 5:00 PM without a single break. We decided to shut down for the day. We had fed 185 yards into the hopper. Jacob and I talked it over and we were now going to do cleanups every other day. So we shut everything down and walked down to camp. I pulled off my sweat soaked shirt and boots. Then I jumped straight into a nice little hole in the creek where the water pooled up to waste high. Jacob was hosing himself down with a pump and some hose we had placed in the creek. Man, that water was cool compared to the air temperature and felt good.

   Eventually I climbed out of the creek and pulled a cool beer from a six pack, I handed one to Jacob as well. I drained mine in about a minute and grabbed another. We cooked up hot dogs and beans. I never tasted better food. We were finally mining again and I was working with a legend. Jacob brought out the whisky and we had a couple of shots and I chased mine with more beer. My partner rolled a smoke as the sun was setting on the mine. What a life we had out here in the Sierra Nevada. I now considered myself an outlaw. We were free from the rules of society and pretty much did as we pleased. I am beginning to understand what it must have been like back in the old days with Jed’s and then Jacob’s crew. I watched the sun set and the stars come out of the black sky. How could I ever explain the feeling of complete freedom out here? Would anyone understand?

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

 

 

 

[GhostMiner]

   More diggin' commin'

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 9   2002     Part One

 

   We started work around 8:00 AM. Once again Jacob was running the excavator. Suddenly I noticed that he stopped digging and was climbing down off the machine. He approached the cut he was working and was staring down at something. I walked over to see what he was looking at. I could make out what appeared to be metal. I asked Jacob what he thought it was and he just shrugged. He said he couldn’t tell but it was definitely metal. Maybe an old piece of scrap?

   Jacob climbed back on the excavator and started to carefully dig around the object. It was in the hill about ten feet or so below the surface. After about another twenty minutes of careful excavation it became clear what the object was. Jacob let out a slew of swear words and climbed off the machine to get a closer look. Then he looked directly at me with an amazed look. He said it was his old truck.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

 

   

[GhostMiner]

July 9   2002     Part Two

 

   I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Jacob cut a gentle slope into the facing of the wide trench. We hooked a chain up and slowly pulled it out and onto the surface. I had the water bypass open on the trommel and we took a few minutes to look it over. It was rusted and dented. The windows were broken and the interior was half filled with gravel. Jacob figured that the thugs that had murdered his crew had buried the truck so it wouldn’t be found. They had worked the claims for a few years and eventually hightailed it out of the area. Jacob said he didn’t know who they were but had heard rumors that they were wanted for a number of felonies. We pulled it out of the way and got back to work. Jacob said we could look it over more closely after we shut down for the day.

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

[GhostMiner]

   July 9   2002     Part Three

 

   We knocked off work a bit early. We had washed 130 yards of pay gravel and pulled the matts from the sluice run. We had concentrates from 315 yards of gravels in the tubs. We could see some nice looking gold poking out of the black sand. We will spend tomorrow doing the cleanup together.

   We got cleaned up and had a quick supper. Jacob wanted to look over his old truck before it got dark. So did I. Then he told me something. He said whoever buried that truck probably didn’t know he had some gold hidden in the dashboard. It seems he had stashed ten ounces of gold in two containers. They were tucked up behind the dash in a little compartment he had made. Jacob told me to feel up under the dash on the passenger side. I shoveled out some of the gravel from the cab and got down on my back with a flashlight. There was a black metal box bolted up there. He said yep, that’s it. I got some wrenches and after spraying the nuts and bolts with penetrating oil they came loose and I dropped the box down to the floor.

   There was a rusty latch on the box which I broke loose by prying on it. When it opened there were two smaller boxes inside. They were wooden but had been wrapped in leather. Jacob was shaking his head and gave out a chuckle. He said he remembered wrapping the boxes with leather so they wouldn’t rattle. He told me to go ahead and open the boxes. There was the gold still sitting in them. I weighed it up and there was indeed ten ounces. Jacob was holding them and remembered he had kept a poke of gold in the truck for emergencies. Unfortunately he had never got the chance to get that gold. He handed me one of the wooden boxes and said it was mine because we were partners. That’s the way he was.

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

 

      

[GhostMiner]

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 10   2002

 

   We spent most of the day doing the cleanup and gold weigh. The results were disappointing compared to what we were expecting. We saw more fine gold than coarse in the final pan and the total was 10.7 ounces. Jacob thinks that the rich pay streak has vanished as quickly as it appeared. He told me to be thankful for the streak while it lasted and if we continue at a steady pace of washing gravel we may very well find another one. He reminded me that gold is a fickle friend. I am indeed learning that lesson. 

   Tonight is peaceful and Jacob’s old truck is sitting just outside our camp. It is a monument to the old crew who worked so hard here and gave their lives for gold. Jacob and I had a drink of Irish whisky together and he reminisced about the old days. I always enjoy hearing about those times. Every now and then he gets in one of those moods to talk about them. I know that someday I will be doing the same to a younger generation of miners.

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