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

[Old Miner Don]

Oh okay... well I was thinking that Bill Record was the guy you were mining with. Figured that's why you posted that link to his Nebraska mine video awhile back.

[GhostMiner]

3 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

Oh okay... well I was thinking that Bill Record was the guy you were mining with. Figured that's why you posted that link to his Nebraska mine video awhile back.

No. Bill Record had the Nebraska mine which was not on our mine. Nothing to do with Bill Anderson. 

[rvpopeye]

RIP Bill. 

 

[GhostMiner]

  August 20   2002

 

   We stayed up a while last night talking about the claims here and Bill. He had been mining for years on this property. Part of it illegally. Somehow he had survived financially and we figured he must have been getting enough gold to keep going. Jacob said there was a good possibility he may have hidden some of that gold on the mine. We knew he had been working the upper drift mine above our lower creek digsite for years. Bill’s metal detector had survived the fall at the Hidden Mine and Conor still had his own as well. Jacob suggested that Conor do a little detecting around the upper drift mine to see if he could find anything. He said that legally the gold belonged to us. I figured what the heck, it might be worth a try. Jacob and I would keep the digsite running down here near the creek.

   After breakfast Conor went up the mountain with his detector while Jacob and I washed gravel. The temperature had backed off a little and it was easier working. The days were getting shorter and the nights much cooler as well. We worked all day without any incidents and shut down at 5:00 PM. We had processed 220 yards of gravel. We pulled the sluice mats and took them over to camp. Tomorrow we will do the cleanup of concentrates from the 475 yards of processed material. We were hoping for a good pay day because we had left off on a hot spot.

   Conor came down to camp just after us. He said he had found a lot of junk but no gold yet. He wanted to give it a few days and Jacob agreed. He told Conor to explore the area as long as he wanted. It was  just the three of us now.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

   Bill hailed from the Seminole area of Florida. Here is a final tribute to him by of all people a musician & singer named John Anderson.   EVER SINCE THE DAYS OF OLD, MEN WOULD SEARCH FOR WEALTH UNTOLD. THEY'D DIG FOR SILVER AND FOR GOLD, AND LEAVE THE EMPTY HOLES.

 

 

[Mike Furness]

One positive out of the recent events before Bill's passing ... He got to see what is hopefully Conor's turn around from an angry kid to a good working adult! RIP Bill Anderson!

[GhostMiner]

   August 21   2002     Part One     Big Money Front Man Comes Calling

 

   This morning Conor watched as Jacob and I cleaned up the concentrates. We ended up with 12.2 ounces of gold which was just ok. The hot spot quickly faded but with close to a gram per yard it is still decent pay. I would be more than happy to mine these numbers into the end of the season but the values in and around these old tailings are all over the board. There is nothing consistent and that is just gold mining. 

   Conor had never seen that much gold at one time and was thrilled. He took the detector back up the mountain and Jacob and I worked the digsite as usual. The weather has cooled some and is in the mid 80’s now which is a big relief. I weighed myself last night and found I have lost over twenty pounds. I suspected something like that as I have run out of notches in my belt. I think the heat was the culprit. 

   We took a lunch break around 1:00 PM and Conor came down to eat his lunch with us as well. Before we could get back to work there was a guy walking along the creek and he came into our camp. He was in his forties I would say and introduced himself as Nick Allen. He was dressed up in blue slacks and a sport coat and was wearing fancy street shoes. I wanted to laugh out loud but held it in.  He said he was from Wyoming and had been in town on business when he heard some talk about our mining project and the death of Bill Anderson. He went on to say that he was an investor in mining projects and rattled off some names of mines from California to Nevada to Montana that he had previously invested in like that was supposed to mean something to us. He told us he had a good money source and was the front man that evaluated mines and potential deals for an investment group. The group was back east and he was their contact person. Then he just stopped talking and looked at me like I was supposed to say something back to him. Jacob beat me to it and told him nobody asked him to come to our property unannounced and we weren’t interested in any high falutin' investment group. In a more congenial way I thanked him for his interest but told him we weren’t in need of investors.

   Nick Allen shook his head and said we might be making a mistake. He said his investors could take a small project and turn it into a big time mining operation. Then Jacob interjected saying they would also tell us how to run our mine and take most of the gold. Allen said that if the project passed his evaluation they would bring in their own crew and equipment and we could sit back and drink beer all day and count the money. I told him thanks but no thanks. He left his card and said he’d be back again.

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[dig4gold]

MMMmmm.... maybe the "thugs" will return now. 😐

D4G

[GhostMiner]

31 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

MMMmmm.... maybe the "thugs" will return now. 😐

D4G

I never trust anyone wearing a slick outfit on a mine site. Just ain't right.

[Mike Furness]

Having a city slicker investor coming to the mine site reminds me of days gone by much earlier in this story! If they are smart they wont return. But then again money grabbers think they can out smart a 'dumb' miner or two. Didn't work so well for the old crew doubt it will work for this crew.