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

[GhostMiner]

  July 18   2002     Part Two

 

   The first pans showed some fine gold so we figured we might be on the right track here. Jacob told me to take some gravel from about 15 feet higher in the tailings pile. We scooped some of the gravel out of the excavator bucket with our pans and went over to the tub. This time there were fines but also some coarse gold as well. It wasn’t as good as up on the mountain but there was definitely gold in the tailings. 

   Now Jacob directed me to dig halfway between the tailings pile and the creek. This was smack in the middle of the floodplain. Our permits would only allow digging 50 feet or more away from the creek. Where I was digging was about 75 feet from the creek bank. 

   Our first test was taken about 5 feet in depth and there was fine gold. We went deeper and at 10 feet we took another pan. The results were the same. At 15 feet the sample showed more quantities of fine gold and some coarse gold as well. At 18 feet we hit some bedrock and scraped the bottom for a good sample. There was even more fine gold and a little more coarse combined with a couple of pickers in the pan. Jacob gave me one of his grins and a wink. We had ourselves a new dig site to work with no water concerns. 

   TO BE CONTINUED  .................

[GhostMiner]

   July 19   2002

 

   We did our gold weigh at 3:00 PM and got 24.9 ounces from the last two days labor. Not bad but the ground is beginning to fade a bit. We checked our water supply and it has not replenished. There is barely enough for us to run another half day at best. We have decided to button up our project at this site for the season. We are going to call it an early day and tomorrow we will be moving the entire operation including our camp down to the lower site. Jacob is confident we can get some good gold out of that area and with no water issues to boot. The mining will be fairly easy and lower cost as well. Tonight we are getting some good grub in us and a good night's sleep as well. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for the two of us.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   July 20   2002

 

   We spent the entire day moving the trommel and the rest of the mine setup as well as our camp. It is nearly dark and we are both pretty tired. We have the trommel set to Jacob’s specs and tomorrow we will test run some gravel to see how it does and make any adjustments needed to the sluice.

   One thing that occurred to me is the fact that our pump is now set just 75 to 200 feet from our operation depending on where we are digging. We no longer have to worry about hooligans messing with our water supply because we can see everything from where we are working. Jacob is heating up canned stew and cornbread for supper. Neither one of us had time to eat much of anything as we were so busy so we are both hungry. I’m going to have a couple of shots and beers with Jacob after we eat and turn in. We are excited to see what these lower gravels will give us. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   July 21   2002

 

   We did a few quick adjustments to the trommel this morning and started digging right in the middle of the floodplain. All we needed to do was dig out a settling area for the fine sluice tailings to settle out before the water returns to the creek. We are feeding the trommel with the excavator because we are digging close enough to it. This allows the other person to remove coarse tailings from the end of the sluice with the skid steer. The reject rocks from the feeder/hopper grizzly bars are dropping off into a pit we dug out. We intend to just move the trommel as we move the dig area a little at a time from week to week. The trommel sits on an off road trailer and is mobile. I think we can operate like this for the remainder of the mining season.

   After several stops and starts and getting everything functioning to our liking we broke for a quick lunch. We had run about 10 yards of material and Jacob checked the sluice box. There were plenty of fines in there and no gold in the tailings so we knew the sluice was set up correctly. Jacob and I talked things over as we ate some sandwiches and he figured this was going to be a smooth operation.

   We ran easy as apple pie and ice cream until 6:00 PM and shut everything down. The box was brimming with fine gold and we also were seeing some coarse in there as well. We had processed 135 yards for the day which wasn’t bad for a start. We’ll run a full day tomorrow and pull the mats for a cleanup. I’ve got a good feeling about this spot. Hopefully we can go on cruise control and finish the season like pros.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

[GhostMiner]

Time to run gravels.

 

[mineit]

Its always nice to fire up we got froze out about 45 days ago wish our season was longer thanks for the nice stories

thanks doug

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 22   2002     Part One     A Significant Discovery

 

   We got an early start today. We were determined to run a record amount of gravel. The heat out here is relentless. Working in the middle of the floodplain is putting us in the full force of the sun. There is rarely a cloud in the sky. The humidity is very low but the temperatures top out in late afternoon anywhere from 95 to 115 degrees. There is no amount of water that I can drink in a day that will quench my thirst. I have begun to mix Gatorade and water 50/50 in an effort to keep my electrolytes at a proper level. I think it is helping. Jacob seems immune to the ovenlike heat. He never mentions it and drinks water from time to time. Most of the work day he has no expression on his face and I never know what he is thinking. His face is weathered and grizzled.

   This afternoon while Jacob was running the excavator we seemed to hit  bedrock. However, on closer examination we had encountered large slabs of stone which were somewhat flat but with rounded corners. These slabs were about 12 to 18 inches in width and about 2 to 3 feet in length and 4 to 8 inches thick. They were fairly smooth and somewhat blue/gray in color. They seemed to stump Jacob as he said he had never seen these on the mountain at the higher altitudes where the old crews had worked.

   We scraped them as clean as we could with the excavator. They were encountered at a depth of about 18 to 22 feet. I climbed into the bucket on the excavator with a pan and then Jacob carefully lowered me down to the bottom. I scraped off some of the gravel that was lying on them and he brought me back to the surface. I gave Jacob the pan and let him do the honors. The material was chock full of coarse gold. I hollered Eureka loud enough for the next town to hear.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   On the topic of the blue/gray stone - We never did know what they were so we simply called them bluestone. I have a few smaller ones that I brought home and they are covered under an ivy cropping. I will find them and take a picture and post it. Maybe someone will know what they are. All I can tell you is that every time we found them we found good deposits of gold. The future entries in the journal will tell you how much. Just sitting there for Lord knows how long just 20 feet below the surface. I will have more to say about this at some point. 

[dig4gold]

Are they slabs of schist? Possibly glacially transported from far away & not of local rock (erratics) along with the gold, & dumped when the ice retreated. 

D4G

[GhostMiner]

   Here is a photo of a small slab of what we called Bluestone. More of a blue/gray. Thoughts?