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

[GhostMiner]

   MORE ON DREAMWIND CANYON  :  I've got a lot of information on this canyon and a few more experiences to relay. This particular one came about in the Fall of 2016. My brother in law & his wife along with my wife Lindy and I were doing a bit of exploring in the canyon. The weather was much cooler than the extreme Summer heat that sucks the water right out of your body. There had been some old rumors of an old mine entrance on the west side of the steep cliff. We had an old map from way back but there was no date on it. It did show a drift marked out in a location that seemed to match up with the stories. 

   We hiked out early in the morning wearing heavy back packs. We were heading north from the lower elevation and climbing in altitude. The going was tough and slow. The canyon floor was strewn with heavy rocks and boulders as well as thick Manzanita. All four of us were also sporting snake gators for safety as the rattlesnake here may be more abundant than the gold. We took a short break around noon and the girls stated they thought we ought to go back. I talked them into continuing for another hour. What happened next is something I can't explain. 

   About 45 minutes into the extended hike my brother in law hollered out and pointed to the left. There was the entrance that was marked on the old map. I couldn't believe it - the stories were true. The entrance was timbered but they were old and partially rotted. They looked to be hand hewn and were probably set back in the mid 1800's. I shined a flashlight inward and the tunnel looked to be solid. The adit was just tall enough for me to stand upright and was about five feet in width. Who wanted to venture inside?

   My brother in law and his wife said they wanted to take a look so they headed in as my wife and I watched. I asked them how the air was and they replied it was good so far. As they got in about 100 feet both their flashlights died. They came back out. It was strange for two flashlights with new batteries to die at once. More than strange. However, they were not ready to quit so my wife and I gave them our flashlights which also had new batteries. Well, about the same distance in both lights went dead and back out they came. Now they were visibly disturbed. This just wasn't right. Reluctantly, the four of us eased on out of  Dreamwind Canyon. The mine had seemed to want to keep its secrets. And it did, at least for that day.

[GhostMiner]

 

[Old Miner Don]

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   MORE ON DREAMWIND CANYON  :  I've got a lot of information on this canyon and a few more experiences to relay. This particular one came about in the Fall of 2016. My brother in law & his wife along with my wife Lindy and I were doing a bit of exploring in the canyon. The weather was much cooler than the extreme Summer heat that sucks the water right out of your body. There had been some old rumors of an old mine entrance on the west side of the steep cliff. We had an old map from way back but there was no date on it. It did show a drift marked out in a location that seemed to match up with the stories. 

   We hiked out early in the morning wearing heavy back packs. We were heading north from the lower elevation and climbing in altitude. The going was tough and slow. The canyon floor was strewn with heavy rocks and boulders as well as thick Manzanita. All four of us were also sporting snake gators for safety as the rattlesnake here may be more abundant than the gold. We took a short break around noon and the girls stated they thought we ought to go back. I talked them into continuing for another hour. What happened next is something I can't explain. 

   About 45 minutes into the extended hike my brother in law hollered out and pointed to the left. There was the entrance that was marked on the old map. I couldn't believe it - the stories were true. The entrance was timbered but they were old and partially rotted. They looked to be hand hewn and were probably set back in the mid 1800's. I shined a flashlight inward and the tunnel looked to be solid. The adit was just tall enough for me to stand upright and was about five feet in width. Who wanted to venture inside?

   My brother in law and his wife said they wanted to take a look so they headed in as my wife and I watched. I asked them how the air was and they replied it was good so far. As they got in about 100 feet both their flashlights died. They came back out. It was strange for two flashlights with new batteries to die at once. More than strange. However, they were not ready to quit so my wife and I gave them our flashlights which also had new batteries. Well, about the same distance in both lights went dead and back out they came. Now they were visibly disturbed. This just wasn't right. Reluctantly, the four of us eased on out of  Dreamwind Canyon. The mine had seemed to want to keep its secrets. And it did, at least for that day.

100' eh? I've got flashlights that will light up a 1/4 mile or more. You don't have to walk in too far.

[GhostMiner]

8 hours ago, Bedrocker said:

100' eh? I've got flashlights that will light up a 1/4 mile or more. You don't have to walk in too far.

Yes, ours weren't very good and we had safety concerns as well. More on Dreamwind Canyon in the future.

[GhostMiner]

   September 9   2002     Big Time Gold Again

 

   The morning finally came. I didn’t sleep all that well. I kept thinking about the gold weigh. What if we were wrong and were over estimating how much gold was in the concentrates from 100 yards of washed gravel? Today we found out.

   We finished  the cleanup just after noon. It was a good one. We had 29 ounces of gold. Nearly 9 grams to the yard. Jacob was right, we are onto something special. If this holds up we are going to end the year on a high note.

   Big Clay was dancing around camp at lunch time like he was a new millionaire or something. Everyone was in a good mood. We finished lunch and got back to mining and worked straight through until dusk. The tom had processed 60 yards of gravel and we could see the pickers practically jumping out of the sluice. Jacob said we would run another day and then do a cleanup. The morning couldn’t come fast enough for us.  

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

   September 10   2002     Part One     Staggering Prospects

 

   Clay fired up the old Mack and he and Jacob rode up to the digsite as the sun was coming up. It was fun to watch them in the truck. Jacob was in his element and the two of them were becoming good friends. I got the pump going and Conor and I started processing pay gravel. I was looking at the sluice and the concentrates were showing some nice gold. We were on a real pay streak that could turn our season into a big time strike. We will have to wait to see if the ground holds up over time.

   Around noon Jacob rode back down the mountain with Clay as Old Bulldog delivered us another lode. We decided to stop for lunch. Over some sandwiches Jacob was talking with us about the pay he was digging. He said he had stopped twice to take some pan samples and he had one with him. It was absolutely brimming with heavy gold. I had to ask him if this was just from one of his pans he sampled and he said yes. Jacob went on to say that this was starting to remind him of the big 1936 gold strike which was just northwest of where he was digging. He said our current dig site was just a little east of the faultline but he had a suspicion that he had started to uncover a big pot hole or kettle at the top of the fault where gold may have been trapped before it traveled along the ancient river another 100 feet and tumbled over the old waterfall in that area. He said the strike of 1936 had occurred at the bottom of the old falls. The gold had piled up in a pothole and was buried over time. He said he was butting up against a rim of bedrock that was dropping straight down. That, according to him, was the first signs of discovering a kettle or natural gold trap. Jacob told us that depending on the size and depth of the kettle there could be the potential for big gold. I asked him what he meant by big. He looked each crew member in the eye one by one and softly said maybe 1000 ounces or even more.   

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

 

[GhostMiner]

  September 10   2002     Part Two

 

   After lunch I helped Conor get the pump going and told him I was going up to the dig site to have a look at the area Jacob was working. I jumped in my truck and headed up the mountain. When I got over to the area where Jacob was digging I got a good look at what he was talking about. I was amazed. He had started into a section of mountain with a long trench and then was widening out the dig and descending his work down and forming a kind of rectangular  shaped hole that was a good twenty feet in width and just as deep. He had backed out of the trench and reset his operation to form a deeper but less steep ramp which had increased his footprint. That allowed him to go deeper than the twenty feet his excavator arm was limited to.

   Jacob saw me and gave me a grin and climbed down off the machine. We were looking into a big hole where the entire north or back wall as well as the east wall  was bedrock. I went down the ramp and got into the bottom of the hole with a pan and personally took out a good sample. Then Jacob and I walked over to a water tub and he watched me pan it out. I could hardly believe my eyes. There in front of me was a pan half full of black sand and the other half heavy gold. Pickers and coarse gold like I had never seen. Clay was in the truck waiting to be loaded and came over to have a look. He let out a soft whistle. I looked at Jacob and told him I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing. My hands were shaking. 

   Jacob just chuckled and told us it just kept getting richer as he got deeper into the cut. I asked him how deep he thought it could go before bottoming in bedrock. Jacob flatly stated he was not sure but if it held up for another several days it was going to get pretty interesting. He said the rich ground might also extend to the west as well because it showed no sign of being contained to the twenty feet of lateral area. He said it was something like the 1936 strike but actually might be much larger. How rich the bottom might be was anyone’s guess. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

 

[GhostMiner]

Hey Big Clay - you may soon be able to buy yourself an entire fleet of trucks.

 

 

[GhostMiner]

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

  September 10   2002     Part Two

 

   After lunch I helped Conor get the pump going and told him I was going up to the dig site to have a look at the area Jacob was working. I jumped in my truck and headed up the mountain. When I got over to the area where Jacob was digging I got a good look at what he was talking about. I was amazed. He had started into a section of mountain with a long trench and then was widening out the dig and descending his work down and forming a kind of rectangular  shaped hole that was a good twenty feet in width and just as deep. He had backed out of the trench and reset his operation to form a deeper but less steep ramp which had increased his footprint. That allowed him to go deeper than the twenty feet his excavator arm was limited to.

   Jacob saw me and gave me a grin and climbed down off the machine. We were looking into a big hole where the entire north or back wall as well as the east wall  was bedrock. I went down the ramp and got into the bottom of the hole with a pan and personally took out a good sample. Then Jacob and I walked over to a water tub and he watched me pan it out. I could hardly believe my eyes. There in front of me was a pan half full of black sand and the other half heavy gold. Pickers and coarse gold like I had never seen. Clay was in the truck waiting to be loaded and came over to have a look. He let out a soft whistle. I looked at Jacob and told him I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing. My hands were shaking. 

   Jacob just chuckled and told us it just kept getting richer as he got deeper into the cut. I asked him how deep he thought it could go before bottoming in bedrock. Jacob flatly stated he was not sure but if it held up for another several days it was going to get pretty interesting. He said the rich ground might also extend to the west as well because it showed no sign of being contained to the twenty feet of lateral area. He said it was something like the 1936 strike but actually might be much larger. How rich the bottom might be was anyone’s guess. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

 

   A glory hole. Without an excavator we would have never found it. And on top of a faultline. A bit unusual. Kind of like walking down into a secret gold vault. I still get the chills. I found another in a remote area 2000 ft to the south on top of that fault line back in 2020. Completely mined out by the old hydraulic crews. They left me very little. But those old boys missed the one we found in 2002. 

[rvpopeye]

I'd really like to see your band's  sound system GM . LOL  😜