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

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, Old Miner Don said:

I'm thinking those reapers know where the big gold is.

I was thinking the same thing but something else as well - they might be there to protect it.

[GhostMiner]

  May 4   2003

 

   We continue to make progress on our trail. We have not heard or seen anyone in the entire area including camp at last year's dig site. It’s completely quiet. I can’t explain it but I have a sort of ominous feeling about the trail and Dreamwind Canyon. It’s as if I can feel bad energy as we are working. We are all just going about our business without any distractions so everything is off to a good start. Paul is a real work horse and is doing more than his share of labor. We are making great progress and I am hopeful that we will have the new camp set up within a few days or maybe a week. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................

[GhostMiner]

May 5   2003     Part One     Wire Gold

 

   Paul and I hiked up ahead on the footpath to get an up close look at Dreamwind Canyon while Clay and Conor were busy clearing debris and making the trail. I noticed that as we got up near the entrance there wasn’t a sound to be heard. No birds, animals, nothing but a slight wind rustling through some pine and underbrush. 

   Paul wanted to show me his secret entrance from the west. As we got near an opening the rock walls rose quickly and the change in temperature surprised me. It was a beautiful early May day and the temperature must have been around the mid 70’s up to here but as we entered the canyon walls the temperature had climbed a good 15 degrees or so. Paul’s entrance was on the west side of what appeared to be a solid rock wall but actually was a narrow slot about eight feet wide and  50 feet in length. No one would ever know it was there and I was impressed by Paul’s scouting abilities.

   I mentioned the quick change in temperature to Paul and he just laughed saying that this was nothing compared to the Summer here. At least our camp would be just outside of the canyon walls and much cooler. Paul had camped inside those tall rock walls many times and it must have been rough. He told me that you can get used to the heat if you survive the first few days. I started feeling a little uneasy about this whole deal but made my mind up to stick with the exploration. I just hope the others will as well.

   Once in the canyon I looked up at the top of those cliffs. They were a good 250 to 300 ft or more in height and there was no climbing them. Paul said Dreamwind Canyon ran for miles to the north and the walls got even taller. We worked our way along a rocky path on the west side. Paul said this was the easy way to travel but also the riskiest. I asked him what he meant by that and he said it was used by mountain lion as well as occasional humans. He said that in his experience any men that were in this canyon could be desperate people either looking for gold and treasure and possibly on the run from the law. In other words, the canyon was sometimes used as a hideout by criminals. I hadn’t heard this from him before and was a little upset that he was just now telling me this. Paul said that over the years he had run into some pretty strange people out here. It’s just not a normal place for most people to want to go and most have a reason for wanting to be in such a remote place. 

   We continued moving north for about an hour and the hike became extremely difficult. Brush and rocks became tough to get past and there were numerous steep elevation changes that required nearly straight up climbs and severe drops of 50 feet or more. All inside of those steep canyon walls.

   After going a little further I told Paul I was exhausted and needed to get in better shape to deal with the heat and terrain. He convinced me to go just a little further before we turned east into the thickest brush I’d ever tried to walk through. We went another 100 yards and stopped at a rock outcropping. Paul walked over to it and placed his hand on a quartz vein that had poked out of the rock and then quickly disappeared again. He told me to take a good look at the quartz. There was visible wire gold running all through it. I just looked at it with awe. I looked over at Paul and he was smiling. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   NOT IN THE JOURNAL : Lumberjacks & Goldminers. Why did Jacob and his brother Jed dislike the lumberjacks back in their day? Both jobs demanded hard work in the outdoors. To hear Jacob talking it was always the lumberjacks that started the trouble but I have a hard time believing it. I think it may have been a mutual macho thing. Two groups trying to show each other how tough they were. And believe me, they were tough. I think some of the disputes might have got started from times when they got in each others way out in the mountains. Gold miners might have interfered with the tree cutting and the lumberjacks might have slowed down the gold mining. It only took a wrong look or muttered word to kick off a fight. And fight they did but almost always with their fists and not guns. I'm not saying that a knife didn't come out of its sheath occasionally or a chair might be broken over a head in a bar fight. I heard plenty from old Jacob about those days and experienced it first hand the night we went to the tavern. Even at his advanced age Jacob wanted to fight them. What will be will be and what was is long gone now. I say this - if you are a prospector or miner and you come across a crew of jacks as Jacob called them, tell them you admire their hard work for a days pay. Shake their hand and buy them a whisky and a beer. And vice versa. 

 

 

[Old Miner Don]

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   NOT IN THE JOURNAL : Lumberjacks & Goldminers. Why did Jacob and his brother Jed dislike the lumberjacks back in their day? Both jobs demanded hard work in the outdoors. To hear Jacob talking it was always the lumberjacks that started the trouble but I have a hard time believing it. I think it may have been a mutual macho thing. Two groups trying to show each other how tough they were. And believe me, they were tough. I think some of the disputes might have got started from times when they got in each others way out in the mountains. Gold miners might have interfered with the tree cutting and the lumberjacks might have slowed down the gold mining. It only took a wrong look or muttered word to kick off a fight. And fight they did but almost always with their fists and not guns. I'm not saying that a knife didn't come out of its sheath occasionally or a chair might be broken over a head in a bar fight. I heard plenty from old Jacob about those days and experienced it first hand the night we went to the tavern. Even at his advanced age Jacob wanted to fight them. What will be will be and what was is long gone now. I say this - if you are a prospector or miner and you come across a crew of jacks as Jacob called them, tell them you admire their hard work for a days pay. Shake their hand and buy them a whisky and a beer. And vice versa. 

 

 

Ohh man did you feel that rumbling and shaking deep down inside California?

Is the BIG one hitting California or is that Jacob, Jed and the rest of that tough bunch of gold miners rolling over in their graves?