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

[GhostMiner]

   Well, thanks to the readers here, the Journal has made another milestone. We now have hit 400,000 views. I just want to say THANK YOU!!

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 28   2002

 

   This morning Jacob and I talked over last night's weird occurrences. He chalked them up to old time ghostly miners. He believed that some never leave. We got down to business discussing our mining plans. Neither one of us wants to bring in a crew made up of unknown workers. It would be risky to say the least. We decided to consider reopening the old drift mine at some point in the future. For now we will continue searching for pay gravel in the base of the mountain and also in the floodplain. Our last resort will be to run gravels from the old tailings dump. Before we go home for the season we will bury the old adit to the drift mine and keep it our secret.

   Around 10:00 AM we got back to exploring for gold bearing gravels. We poked holes east and west of the adit with poor results. The gold was sparse and not worth working. I was getting frustrated. Jacob was stoic as usual. I could never tell what he was thinking unless I asked him. Even then he was sometimes vague with his answers. I need to see gold and soon.

 

   

[GhostMiner]

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   July 28   2002

 

   This morning Jacob and I talked over last night's weird occurrences. He chalked them up to old time ghostly miners. He believed that some never leave. We got down to business discussing our mining plans. Neither one of us wants to bring in a crew made up of unknown workers. It would be risky to say the least. We decided to consider reopening the old drift mine at some point in the future. For now we will continue searching for pay gravel in the base of the mountain and also in the floodplain. Our last resort will be to run gravels from the old tailings dump. Before we go home for the season we will bury the old adit to the drift mine and keep it our secret.

   Around 10:00 AM we got back to exploring for gold bearing gravels. We poked holes east and west of the adit with poor results. The gold was sparse and not worth working. I was getting frustrated. Jacob was stoic as usual. I could never tell what he was thinking unless I asked him. Even then he was sometimes vague with his answers. I need to see gold and soon.

   It's a real shame how a gold streak can fade out on you just when you think you hit something special. Gold mining can be a cruel game. 

   

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 29   2002     

 

   We worked the morning searching for gold. By noon the temperature was close to 100 degrees and we weren’t having much luck. Jacob couldn’t understand how one lone test had produced significant results but then there was nothing. No gold to be found. Could this area have been reworked many years ago? We were starting to think just that.

   In the afternoon and more or less out of pure frustration we started to dig at the tailings dump. We started to do test pans at the base and also about ten feet up. There was fine gold and it was a welcome sight. Nothing really to write home about but it was gold. Jacob figured we should fire up the trommel and just start running the hell out of it. He said we might get lucky and hit a hot spot.

   Around 2:00 PM we were running gravel once again. It was a sight to behold seeing the big trommel churning away. We ran until 7:00 PM  and processed 120 yards of the old tailings. When we shut down we looked in the sluice box and it was promising. We could see lots of fines in the rifles and even a few pickers couldn’t hide from us. Maybe we would make a mine out of this lower area after all.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

  July 30   2002     Part One     An Old Log Cabin Is Found

 

   I was running the excavator this morning while Jacob fed the trommel with the skid steer when I hit something not expected with my bucket. I had been digging away at the west base of the tailings dump when I pulled up part of an old log. I didn’t think too much of this at first but then I began digging up more and more logs. I called for Jacob to come take a look. When he saw what was going on he said to shut down the operation. Then I carefully started pulling gravel away from whatever was in there. It soon became clear it was a structure of some sort.

   After about half an hour of cautious digging we could make out what appeared to be an old log cabin. Jacob said it must be a miner’s cabin from way back in the 1800’s. He figured it to be the living quarters of the small crew who was working the drift mine. It was fairly large and had been well constructed. The roof had collapsed inside what was left of the structure. Jacob shook his head and was telling me that the big companies up above must have sent a thunder load of mine tailings down the mountain and buried it. It may have been one of the reasons the claim down here had been abandoned. The miners may have been run off and their cabin destroyed.

   I bristled to think of that possibility but Jacob told me that from what he had heard the big companies back then were ruthless and would think nothing of doing horrible things to people who got in their way. There was little or no law and they had all the power including their own law or mine guards and some even had judges for court trials that would be held right on the mine site. He said that if you got on the bad side of them you could be tied to a pole and whipped or even hung or shot. All over gold. The way Jacob talked about them they were as evil as you could imagine. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   July 30   2002     Part Two

 

   We ended up processing gravel for the rest of the day and ended with 90 yards. Then we decided to run for another day before pulling the mats for a cleanup. I think it is going to be ok because we see lots of fines in the black sands. 

   After supper Jacob and I were sitting by the campfire talking over the project when we heard a lot of sound coming from the drift tunnel. I looked at Jacob and he was already grabbing his Thompson and a flashlight. I got my flashlight and the two of us cautiously approached the entrance. It was nearly dark and we both shined our flashlight beams down the corridor. I could see the black flies in there but nothing else. The sounds were something like the clanging of shovels and picks off of hard rock. They were fainter now but we still could hear them.

   We decided to go back in and split up at the Y. Jacob went into the eastern drift while I kept going straight north into the bottom of the mountain. We had our radios with us as well. When I got way back in the clanging started getting louder. I radioed Jacob and asked him to come over to where I was standing. When he got there the pace of the clanging got faster. Jacob let out a number of curse words and said someone was back in there working the quartz vein. We walked deeper in and Jacob hollered out to whoever was in there. The clanging stopped abruptly. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

 

[GhostMiner]

   July 30   2002     Part Three

 

   We kept hollering for whoever was back in the tunnel to come out. There was no reply. We slowly walked further in and kept our flashlights pointing as we walked. Eventually, we came to the back wall where the old timers had stopped working. There was no evidence of any disturbance and the quartz vein had no sign of being worked since our sample was taken. Then I pointed my light over to the west side of the drift. There was an old pick axe and lantern sitting in the dust. When Jacob saw it he let out a soft whistle. Neither one of us had seen that  when we had worked here. We couldn’t have missed it. Someone must have been back here but how could they have gotten out? Whoever was here would have had to go right past us and that was impossible. Could there be another secret shaft or drift somewhere? 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[Mike Furness]

Nothin to do with the story ... Just wanted to wish everyone on this thread a Happy Thanksgiving!

[GhostMiner]

4 minutes ago, Mike Furness said:

Nothin to do with the story ... Just wanted to wish everyone on this thread a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers here & everyone else on this great website.

[GhostMiner]

   July 30   2002     Part Four

 

   Jacob went back to camp and brought some lanterns and a shovel. We got the area pretty well illuminated and started probing the side wall and floor of the old tunnel. There was an area at the east wall that looked to be shored up with light timber and boards. We shined the lights on it and saw what looked like some groove marks on the surface of the gravel. There also looked to be a few faint boot prints. Once we had better lighting we also could see that the quartz vein had some fresh gravel laying below it.

   Jacob pulled at the end of the boarded up area and to our surprise it swung open. There was a pull handle on the other side of it as well. It looked like someone was coming into the tunnel from another adit somewhere higher up on the mountain. When they left they simply pulled the wooden wall closed by using the handle. Jacob shined his flashlight up the secret shaft. It went deep into the mountain on a very slight incline.

   The newly discovered tunnel was not quite high enough to stand upright in and it was about five feet in width. The floor was void of tracks and very dank and creepy. When we inspected the floor it appeared to have boot marks and signs of recent activity. I looked at Jacob and said it seems like we aren’t the only ones that know about this rich quartz vein. He nodded in agreement and suggested we follow the secret tunnel into the mountain to see where it came out. I was all for it so we headed into unknown territory. We had no idea what we might find. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............