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

[GhostMiner]

Not In The Journal  :  At this point I was having thoughts of closing down the mine for the year and heading home. The makeshift crew was loose and dangerous. I had no idea what was coming next & it was probably a good thing I didn't. Whisky, gold, & guns aren't a good mix. Barrooms, broken hearts, & bad decisions were coming. 

[GhostMiner]

   August 11   2002     Part One     

 

   The morning came without further incident and Jacob and I were up bright and early with the sunrise. I couldn’t say the same for Bill and Conor who were still sleeping it off at 9:00 AM. We let them sleep and got busy with our own mining operation where we had started down near the creek. 

   It seemed like an eternity since we had mined any gold and we were both chomping at the bit to get some gravels dug. We continued where we had left off and by noon we’d processed 50 yards. The sluice on the trommel was showing some promise. We took a quick lunch break at camp. Bill was sitting in a chair and Conor had just gotten up. They both looked pretty sick and hung over. They had some coffee and a little food. Bill said they were going to town to buy a couple of metal detectors. Then they planned to start scanning the grounds around the Hidden Mine for buried gold. I asked them if they knew how to operate a metal detector and they said no but would get some directions from wherever they were buying them from. 

   Jacob agreed that it might be a good idea and if anything would give them a new skill. As for Jacob and I, we were just happy to dig holes and test pan gravels. The thought of a casket with 1000 ounces of gold buried somewhere on the claims seemed incredulous to me but I figured it would keep them out of my hair while I mined. 

   Jacob told Conor to make sure they bought some good equipment and get some instruction on operating them as well. With that we left them to nurse their hangovers and got back to work. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

--  checking --

[GhostMiner]

6 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

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Sorry about that. I was attempting to add a picture & link but am unable to do so. 

[GhostMiner]

   August 11   2002     Part Two     Another Confrontation

 

   Jacob and I worked the rest of the day without any issues. The trommel was running smooth as silk and we were seeing some gold in the sluice box. It was mostly very fine and it was hard to tell how much but at least we were seeing gold again. I always sleep better after seeing it. We ended up with 150 yards of washed gravel.

   When we walked into camp Bill and Conor were playing with their new detectors. Bill said they had been given instructions by the guy who ran the shop where they bought them and they even used them before bringing them back to camp. He seemed confident that he and Conor would find the supposed  1000 ounces of hidden gold.

   It had been a hot day and after supper we sat around camp drinking a few beers and talking about gold. Conor and Bill had gotten hold of some moonshine in town and they opened up a jar and started drinking it. I tasted it and it was powerful stuff. Jacob had a sip or two as well. After a while Conor started getting a little drunk again. Then he opened up a can of worms. He was saying that this mining property really was Jed’s and seeing how he had been murdered it should have gone to him. He just went on and on about it. 

   After listening to this for about 15 minutes I heard enough. I told him that it was a tragedy that Jed died and the mine did go to Jacob until the crooks killed the crew and took it over in 1937. I tried to explain to him that I had legal rights to all of the mining claims that made up the vast property. However, he didn’t want to hear it and told me he should be getting a big cut of the gold we had worked for this year. I laughed in his face and told him that wouldn’t happen. He knew that he and Jacob were splitting up Jacob’s gold and they had their own agreement that didn’t concern me.

   After a spell Conor staggered back to his camper in a fit of drunken anger. Jacob got up to follow him in. I told Jacob that he needed to rein Conor in or I would do it for him. He didn’t say anything and Bill went to bed as well. I stayed up for a spell and had a drink of the moonshine to settle down. I looked up at the big sky and finished my beer. It was nice to have some quiet time alone. I was thinking that Conor had the worst case of gold fever I had seen and he could become unhinged - especially when he drank. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   Moonshine, mineshafts, & old cabins. I have some shine to drink tonight as well. Cheers from GhostMiner.

 

[GhostMiner]

   August 12   2002

 

   The crew was up at dawn with the exception of Conor who didn’t come out of his camper until just after 8:00 AM. He didn’t have much of anything to say to me and he and Bill went up to the Hidden Mine with their new detectors. In the meantime, Jacob and I started up the trommel and got to mining gold.

   The place we were digging did have fine gold but it was all tailings from the upper mining area that had been shot down the mountain over 100 years ago. Occasionally we would pull up an old homemade bucket or some other bits of scraps from the old timers. We didn’t see anything of Bill and Conor all morning. At lunch Jacob said we would run the gravel where we were digging for the remainder of the day and do a cleanup and then do a gold weigh tomorrow to see if the ground was worth the trouble. He had been doing test pans with poor results and wasn’t confident we were going to make much gold there. We ran the trommel until dusk and processed a whopping 275 yards which gave us a two day run of 425 yards. I knew we had gold but how much gold? Tomorrow I will tell the story.

   Conor and Bill had already had their supper by the time Jacob and I got back to camp. I asked Bill if they had any luck and he shook his head no. Conor was silent. I asked Bill how long they were going to metal detect the area and he wasn’t sure. He said they wanted to comb a large area from the mine heading outward to see if they could find anything. I wished him good luck.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

A nice video showing some old ore cars. Note that the works were hand dug.

 

 

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

A nice video showing some old ore cars. Note that the works were hand dug.

 

 

   Remember Bill Anderson's story of The Graveyard Train where the miners had hooked a number of ore cars together & one of the crew rode them on the rails down the mountain to the creek. However, the train of cars had failed to negotiate a sharp curve and plummeted into a ravine killing the miner. Bill called it The Graveyard Train.

[GhostMiner]

On the subject of the underground mines - here is a video of the old 1855 Nebraska Mine in the northern Sierra Nevada. I don't know if Bill is still working this mine but a number of years ago I got a lot of guidance from him. I know there is a lot of gold still in this mine.