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

[GhostMiner]

9 minutes ago, JamesB said:

GhostMiner, I appreciate you sharing the contents of this journal. I love hearing about old mining ventures.

It's a long & hard ride. Enjoy the read.

[geof_junk]

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

Then I handed him a beer and we all had a good laugh and Bill said the fever can do that to people sometimes. We all had a few more beers and hit the sack.

A few ???

[rvpopeye]

Hey guys he can't go back and change the story now , this is the real part remember ?   

Or CAN he ?   hmmmmm GM , you're not one of those alien fellas come here to mine our planet arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ya ? 🧐

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, geof_junk said:

A few ???

I'll let you in on something - during the hot days of Summer the cold beers tasted mighty good after supper. I averaged 6 - 8 of them every night. 

[GhostMiner]

  August 10   2002     Part One     A Discovery Is Made

 

   I was up before daylight but Jacob and Conor had already made breakfast for the crew. Bacon and eggs with pancakes as well as a cup or two of Jacob’s Irish Coffee. We trudged up the mountain as the sun was coming up. Everyone was in a good mood and my worries had been laid to rest for now. We were back to being a gold mining crew of determined partners. We all went back to moving gravel and rock. For some reason Bill decided to take a walk around to the northeastern area of the slide and then further north of where the slide ended. I went over to the area with him to see what he was doing. Bill told me he’d never looked in this area for another entrance or air shaft to the mine. He said that he was told there was another entrance way up to the north farther from here but he never could find it. 

   The two of us started poking around with our shovels. We were about 200 feet from the front of the slide where the main entry was located. Our elevation was a good 80 feet or so above that location. I started moving some flat rocks away. They looked out of place and were on a fairly flat part of ground. As I pushed them away I could see some heavy timbers partially covered by gravel and smaller rocks. I hollered over to Bill and he came over to have a look. He started getting real excited when he saw the timbers. He told me he didn’t know how I did it but I had found another opening into the mine.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

August 10   2002     Part Two     We Enter The Hidden Mine

 

   Jacob and Conor made their way over to our discovery. Jacob told everyone to stand back a ways from the timbers. He said we needed to inspect the opening and make sure there was nothing ready to collapse. Bill and I carefully started to remove the old lumber that covered the entry. The shaft seemed stable and was about 5 feet by 5 feet in diameter. An old wooden ladder made from cut timber disappeared into the dark down below. We shined our flashlights down. There was a wood plank a few feet below the surface and fastened against the wood side wall supports. On it was painted a crude skull and crossbones with the words dead men tell no tales. Bill laughed and said the old miners must have put it there to scare off unwanted intruders.

   I volunteered to be the first to go in. Bill shined his light on the ladder and I carefully tested each step as I went down. At about the 10 foot below surface level there was a wooden floor with a hole cut for the ladder to continue down. Everything was still solid and Bill came down and shined his light through the opening as I continued down. Each level of 10 feet in depth had a floor. We did this for 80 feet until we made it all the way to the bottom. Then the shaft opened up quite a bit with tunnels running south back towards the buried opening we had been working on and also to the north and east. Everything that needed support looked to have it at this junction. I radioed to Jacob at the top and told him that Bill and I had made it all the way down and were going to check the three tunnels. I could feel fresh air coming from somewhere so we figured there must be at least one or more air shafts or pipes that were still functioning.

   The first tunnel we took was to the south. We didn’t get far. The entire drift had collapsed. There were cracked and broken timbers and heavy rocks lying in with the gravels. We didn’t see any sign of a quartz vein but it may have been buried under tons of material. It would have taken our little four man crew a full year to make entry from our initial sight.

   We carefully eased on out of that tunnel and headed into the one that went east. We shined the flashlight down the drift and it looked to make a slow turn south and sloped upwards on a gentle angle. There were big support timbers on the sides and ceiling which was high enough for us to stand upright. There was also a lot of overhanging rock. We carefully made our way in. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

[GhostMiner]

   August 10   2002     Part Three

 

   As we rounded a curve the tunnel began to flatten out and continued to curve slightly south. It was obvious there had been a lot of work here in the heavy ground. It was void of any artifacts though. Once we were in a ways we shined our flashlights along the walls. We didn’t see much of anything but as we slowly kept walking in there it was. A large quartz vein that poked out of the south wall. It had been chopped by pick and shovel work and there was a long streak of it running along the wall. Bill poked me and said quietly “There she is!” 

   The drift continued on for another 50 feet and then started to descend quickly to the southeast. The quartz vein had disappeared. After another 100 feet or so the drift popped out of the side of the mountain about 150 feet above the lower creek. We could look down on it from there. The opening was hidden by lots of Manzanita bushes and small pine trees. A hiker could walk right past it and never see it. That’s where the air was coming from. I radiod Jacob and let him know what was going on. Then we went back to the intersection and started to explore the tunnel that headed north.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

   HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE GhostMiner. 

 

 

[GhostMiner]

   August 10   2002     Part Four

 

   This northerly tunnel seemed to head in a fairly straight direction and climbed a gentle slope. There were signs it had been worked and after about 100 feet it gradually began to incline a bit steeper and slowly turned to the east but only slightly. After another 50 feet we came to a wall of rubble. There had been no sign of a vein. 

   I turned to Bill and said his specimen of quartz may not have come from this mine after all and perhaps he had been chasing a myth all this time. Bill shook his head no. He said he was going back to the junction for his pick and shovel he had brought in. As I waited on him I shined my flashlight around the walls and ceiling. There was no quartz to be seen. There were timbers in some of the areas that required shoring. It was a creepy place and I didn’t much enjoy being in there by myself. 

   Eventually Bill made it back with his digging tools. He also had a five gallon metal bucket. Bill said that he didn’t think the mine ended here. He advised me to take a look at the rocks and rubble that ended the drift. He said this had likely been pulled down to close the rest of the tunnel. He figured that whoever was working it had to leave and didn’t want anyone finding the rest of the mine. So we started to work by pulling away the loose gravel and rock and after clearing about a foot of the loose wall I spotted part of an old wooden door. It looked to be about five feet across and six feet or so in height. It completely sealed another entry.

   We hurriedly moved the lower part of the false wall away to fully expose the old mine door. It was hinged to a heavily timbered opening. I pulled it open and shined my flashlight in. I hollered for Bill to take a look at what I was seeing. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[Old Miner Don]

Oh man Ghostminer. You really got the cliffhanger thing down pat lol.

Do you have photos to share with the readers?