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

[GhostMiner]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

They bought Garrett detectors as far as I can recall. I also know there was another brand they had as well but can't recall the name. I remember Bill telling us that his detector should find that large amount of gold even if it was buried deep and the military also used those detectors. As I have stated previously, I had no interest in using detectors. This was their gig. I'm a digger & like to use excavators and run large amounts of gravel. That's mining. However, Jacob and I were rooting for them and letting them give it a try. I remember Conor going on and on about the buried coffin. Did they ever find anything? Read on.

Let me ask you guys a question. Were Garrett detectors one of the best you could buy back in 2002? Bill seemed to think so.

[Reg Wilson]

The only detectors available in those days were most likely bulky Garret dual winding VLF machines. Pretty primitive and not very efficient, despite the claims of the manufacturer.

There were a team of treasure hunters using one of these machines in an attempt to locate a cache of Spanish gold supposedly buried at the shore of a bay near the town of Queenscliff in Victoria (Australia) back in the mid to late sixties. They were excavating with an old cable operated drag line and detecting the bottom of the hole. I got to have a play with their detector and was disappointed with its performance over a steel tool box. I then put it over a nearby railway line and found it would only react at about two feet from the rail. Pretty useless really.

PS They never found Bonito's treasure.

[Old Miner Don]

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Let me ask you guys a question. Were Garrett detectors one of the best you could buy back in 1962? Bill seemed to think so.

1962?  I was under the impression that you were talking about 2002 when you, Jacob, Bill and Conor were mining together.

I have no clue about 1962 but in 2002 there were some decent detectors.

[GhostMiner]

Just now, Bedrocker said:

1962?  I was under the impression that you were talking about 2002 when you, Jacob, Bill and Conor were mining together.

I have no clue about 1962 but in 2002 there were some decent detectors.

Yes, 2002. I don't recall what the models were.

[GhostMiner]

25 minutes ago, Reg Wilson said:

The only detectors available in those days were most likely bulky Garret dual winding VLF machines. Pretty primitive and not very efficient, despite the claims of the manufacturer.

There were a team of treasure hunters using one of these machines in an attempt to locate a cache of Spanish gold supposedly buried at the shore of a bay near the town of Queenscliff in Victoria (Australia) back in the mid to late sixties. They were excavating with an old cable operated drag line and detecting the bottom of the hole. I got to have a play with their detector and was disappointed with its performance over a steel tool box. I then put it over a nearby railway line and found it would only react at about two feet from the rail. Pretty useless really.

Sorry Reg, I meant 2002. I just corrected the year.

[Reg Wilson]

The only detector worth considering in 2002 would have been Minelab pulse induction. Fitted with the largest coil then readily available (18 inch) you may have been able to get a signal from a large target at a meter or more depending on soil conditions. Any other machine would basically be a waste of time.

[GhostMiner]

   Let's remember the note/poem the crew found in The Hidden Mine. This was driving Bill and Conor to throw all logic out the window. As I previously stated, this was where I took my moniker from. Was it some kind of sick joke or something more sinister? 

 

   I dig a hole

   cover up my tracks

   far as I know

   I ain’t comin’ back

 

   A mystery

   they may never solve

   hidden gold

   from the motherlode

 

   Ghost Miner is 

   the name he’s called

   a thousand ounces

   in a casket culled

 

   The old Ghost Miner

   starin’ down a forty five

   out in the Sierra Nevada

   he didn’t survive

 

   The graveyard train

   rollin’ down the track

   will never bring

   that miner back

 

   The gold is gone

   sad and blue

   gone for good

   without no clue

 

[GhostMiner]

   August 14   2002     Pour Out The Jack

 

   This morning the entire crew was up and eating breakfast together. Bill and Conor were talking non stop about the coffin of gold as usual. I brought up something to them. What if this supposed coffin of gold existed as the note stated? And what if there was a corpse in the coffin? Would Bill and Conor notify the authorities? After all, this may very well be an unsolved murder  mystery from back in that time period. Whose gold was it? Who was the killer? I told them they should go to town and do some research to see if there were any unsolved murder cases in this area. I don’t know if there were good records kept or maybe it was never reported. That is, if the note was real. And if it was real, the killer had a morbid sense of humor. I think I gave them something to think on.

   The sun was quickly rising and we all got to work. Conor and Bill at The Hidden Mine and Jacob and I at our dig site. We worked steady until 5:00 PM and called it a day after having washed 240 yards of pay gravel. That gave us a two day run of 360 yards. We will do the cleanup and gold weigh tomorrow. Conor said he wanted to hang around camp and watch. He had never seen a gold weigh and was pretty anxious to see what kind of gold and how much of it we were getting.

   After supper we were all in good moods and broke out some cold beer. Then Conor brought out a bottle of Jack and we were drinking double shots with beer chasers. It didn’t take Conor long to get hammered and start talking about his ex wife. It seems she had divorced him and he was having a hard time getting over it. Jacob, who had only drank a small amount, went over to Conor and told him to buck up and be a man and to stop all the sniveling. I couldn’t have said it better if I tried. I told him to buck up or shut up. He just gave me a dirty look and kept drinking. I was actually hoping he would start something. We eventually all turned in around midnight.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

[GhostMiner]

Pour Out The Jack.

 

 

[GhostMiner]

   This is a picture of a picture of a portrait of Jacob. He was somewhere in his mid 70's at the time of the painting.