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

[Joe L]

GhostMiner, you’re my supplier and I for sure need a fix…..just a couple pages to hold me over….

[GhostMiner]

  September 11   2002      Bound For Glory

 

   Jacob was already up before dawn and eventually the entire crew was at the morning breakfast meeting and having coffee. We all took a minute in silence to remember those who had died in the Twin Towers attack last year. We had breakfast and Jacob and Clay went up to the dig site while Conor and I started the cleanup process. We were done just after 1:00 PM and I radioed Jacob and Clay. They came down to camp and I showed them a jar of gold. It was from this morning's weigh. It was good.  The jar contained 56.8 ounces of coarse gold with some fine mixed in as well. I figured somewhere around 11 grams to the yard. 

   Even old Jcob got excited. He stated that the further down he went the better it got. And it also was widening out to the west. Conor was nearly out of control and Clay was almost as bad. Jacob spoke softly and told everyone to calm down. He said it was bad luck to get too excited. He also told everyone to keep their mouths shut if they went to town. News of a strike could send all kinds of hooligans and prospectors out here looking for gold. We had dealt with enough of that kind of thing.

   After lunch we all got back to work. Conor and I washed another 40 yards of material by dusk and we called it a day. When Jacob came down the mountain with Clay just before dark he went straight to the sluice and grabbed a small scoop of the concentrates with his pan. We all followed him over to a water tub and shined flashlights down on the pan as he worked the black sand away from the gold. The pan was heavy with coarse gold. I think Jacob just wanted us to know we were still on the streak. 

   We went back over to camp and I heated up some canned hash and fried up some Spam. Jacob uncorked a bottle and we all filled our cups. We did a toast to the mine and all the miners who had worked here before us. Then Jacob did a very somber toast to his brother Jed and the crew of 1936 and 1937. I saw a tear run down his face. Then he turned to us and flatly stated “Boys, we are bound for glory.”

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   For anyone keeping score that makes 85.8 ounces of gold out of that cut so far. Will it hold up or get better? Stay tuned. The fun is just about to begin.

[Phillips_R]

Congratulations Ghostminer. 

You have reached the 250 page mark in your story.  Has been a great read so far.  

[GhostMiner]

   On September 11 2002 gold was $317/ounce. 

[GhostMiner]

5 minutes ago, Phillips_R said:

Congratulations Ghostminer. 

You have reached the 250 page mark in your story.  Has been a great read so far.  

Thank you. Also approaching the 500,000 view mark. More to come.

[GhostMiner]

   So now I'm thinking back and remembering that season so long ago. Seems like yesterday but they're  all gone now.

 

 

[Old Miner Don]

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   So now I'm thinking back and remembering that season so long ago. Seems like yesterday but they're  all gone now.

 

 

I hear you bro. It's enough to bring tears to a grown man's eyes.

[GhostMiner]

   September 12   2002    Part One      Searching For The Bottom

 

This morning it was raining off and on and the temperature was in the low 50’s. It seems like the big heat has gone for now and been replaced with miserable mining weather. Jacob and Big Clay are working at the dig site while Conor and I process gravels from our stockpile. The new tom is working out for us and is simple to use. I don’t think it’s quite as effective as the trommel but it doesn’t break down either - unless someone clobbers it with a skid steer bucket.

   I drove up to the dig site after lunch and had a look at the trench. Jacob had turned the northerly cut into a widened out cut and had once again reset his digging position to get deeper. He was down a good 30 feet or so and trying to find bedrock. All of us wanted to see what the material was like at the bottom.

   Jacob saw me watching and waved me over to his machine so he could talk to me. He said he had test panned more samples from the 30 foot level and they looked to be quite rich. He was convinced that the bottom would contain a big strike. He said he was widening out the cut and the gold was still heavy in the gravels as he dug in a westerly direction. The cut was now 40 feet long by 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep with still no sign of bedrock. There was a wall of granite that sealed the back of the dig to the north as well as the east. He had dug through a big shale layer around the 20 ft depth and then right back into gravels loaded with iron and gold. It was a real reddish material and full of coarse black sand.

   Jacob was a little concerned because he figured if he didn’t hit bedrock soon he would have to increase his footprint even more and that meant opening up a lot of worthless ground. He said the good thing was that the pay layer was thick. Nearly 25 feet thick so far and still going deeper. I told him to give it hell and radio me if he hit bedrock. He gave me a thumbs up and got back to digging.

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

[GhostMiner]

1 minute ago, GhostMiner said:

   September 12   2002    Part One      Searching For The Bottom

 

This morning it was raining off and on and the temperature was in the low 50’s. It seems like the big heat has gone for now and been replaced with miserable mining weather. Jacob and Big Clay are working at the dig site while Conor and I process gravels from our stockpile. The new tom is working out for us and is simple to use. I don’t think it’s quite as effective as the trommel but it doesn’t break down either - unless someone clobbers it with a skid steer bucket.

   I drove up to the dig site after lunch and had a look at the trench. Jacob had turned the northerly cut into a widened out cut and had once again reset his digging position to get deeper. He was down a good 30 feet or so and trying to find bedrock. All of us wanted to see what the material was like at the bottom.

   Jacob saw me watching and waved me over to his machine so he could talk to me. He said he had test panned more samples from the 30 foot level and they looked to be quite rich. He was convinced that the bottom would contain a big strike. He said he was widening out the cut and the gold was still heavy in the gravels as he dug in a westerly direction. The cut was now 40 feet long by 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep with still no sign of bedrock. There was a wall of granite that sealed the back of the dig to the north as well as the east. He had dug through a big shale layer around the 20 ft depth and then right back into gravels loaded with iron and gold. It was a real reddish material and full of coarse black sand.

   Jacob was a little concerned because he figured if he didn’t hit bedrock soon he would have to increase his footprint even more and that meant opening up a lot of worthless ground. He said the good thing was that the pay layer was thick. Nearly 25 feet thick so far and still going deeper. I told him to give it hell and radio me if he hit bedrock. He gave me a thumbs up and got back to digging.

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

   Cold and wet but we could smell the gold in the air.