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

[GhostMiner]

 

   June 12   1936

   We didn't do any digging as far as buckets of pay go yesterday. We worked at widening out the top area and ramping the trench for preparation of working there again. I finally gave in to my crew and tomorrow we will resume the glory gravels. I took John up to the site along with Jacob and we chopped away at making everything accessible by foot for now. It was hard work but it will pay off by saving time once we get deeper. We also dropped a few more trees and bucked them up for any timbers we might need for bracing the side walls.

   After supper John and me had a long talk man to man. I explained to him we didn't need any more trouble that might cause us issues. I told him I appreciated his loyalty to his crew but how about we keep it calm if possible. We have a limited time to be here working before snow comes possibly as early as October. I am hoping to have us all set financially by then. John seemed to listen to what I said and we shook hands and opened up a bottle.

   All four of us sat by the fire that night looking at the night sky, rolling burley shag, and swapping stories and lies. We talked about woman and gold and all kinds of things. The whiskey went down and we opened another. Pretty soon we were all drunk as sailors who hadn't seen port for six months. Finally we sent Will up to stand watch. I told him to take Jacob with him. Hell, by then it was past midnight. John ane me finally put up the bottle and went to bed. 

  TO BE CONTINUED ....................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 13   1936

   We took Will up with Jacob and me to the dig site and worked the trench. It was a pleasure to get back into those gravels. We were also visited by two deputies who were investigating John's beating of the bounty hunter. Just what I didn't need or want to deal with. I backed John's story which we had worked out in case of the law dogs appearing at the mine. I told them that the bounty hunter had threatened John and lunged at him because John wouldn' take him as part of our crew. One deputy said that wasn't what he was told and why did John take his guns from him. I said the bounty hunter was reaching for his pistols and John was left with no choice but to defend himself and take the guns from him. The deputies looked at each other and went away to talk by themselves for several minutes. When they came back the deputy in charge said they had no proof either way as to what happened and couldn't make an arrest unless there was more evidence. They made John give them the bounty hunters guns though. Before they left John told them to tell the bounty hunter to stay away from our mining camp. They agreed. 

   With that out of the way we worked the rest of the day and brought down 280 buckets. Hopefully we will see good gold at the weigh tomorrow. We all talked around supper about trying to keep everything from developing into trouble that brought the law down on us. We need to protect ourselves and our goods but not go too far in doing so unless we have no choice. We all had a few drinks of whiskey and Will took first watch. 

  TO BE CONTINUED ....................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 14   1936

   The weigh gave us two ounces. The gravels in the trench are steady pay and the work is not too awfully bad. We will stay with this plan and drive the trench deeper until we find country or another kettle. The days are getting quite hot with temperatures in the 90 degree area at the peak. At night it drops quickly after sundown and we wear heavy clothes to stay warm. We are all doing good, honest work and our pay exceeds every expectation for sure. We are a team now and all watch out for each other. I continue to hope for another big strike but even if that fails we are making hay with our efforts. There are many desperate people roaming about that would steal from us if given the chance.

   Will worked at widening our dig area at a higher level today. Jacob and me worked nearly side by side with shovels clanking and sweat flying. The sounds of our work here echos down the fault line. I have begun to see some country rock at the 10 foot depth but then it disappears under deeper gravels. To me this is showing a possible sign of a deeper hole to be dug which is just north of the first kettle. We are descending the trench in that direction. If only we could dig faster we would find our answer.

   At the end of todays dig we took down a total of 245 buckets and it was hard earned pay. The trench has taken shape and getting quite large. If we do hit a deep kettle we will have to make a plan to get the buckets back up to ground level, especially if it becomes deeper than the first one. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 15   1936

   One more ounce of gold was produced from the dig yesterday. We have dropped off the raised country rock and I have  dug south picking it up again. We took 115 buckets of the country and ran out of pay. The area between the two lifted country slabs is about 8 to 10 feet in diameter. We are about halfway between our first and second holes and all trench work has now stopped. I am now thinking we have discovered another kettle in the channel at the base of the ancient waterfall. The depth of this pot hole is unknown. I panned some gravels at the surface with almost no color. This makes me think it is deep and gold is well below the surface. 

   I had John come up to have a look as well. We will start digging out gravels and John will process everything as we go and eventually see where the bottom lies. The top gravels are fairly easy digging and we got down a couple feet today and removed 140 buckets for a total of 255 buckets. We will process them seperately. 

   At supper we talked about this new area and are all eager to find out what this kettle may hold. It could be the glory hole we are all dreaming of. For sure it is larger than the first one. Things have been quiet around here lately. It's been good to be able to concentrate on work for a change. 

  TO BE CONTINUED ...................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 16   1936

   We got one ounce from the 115 buckets off of country rock and another one half from the 140 buckets of supposed kettle gravels. Seeing as this one half ounce is at the top layer and weakest part of a pay channel this holds great hope to us. Could this be another big strike? Will, Jacob, and me worked hard digging the top of the kettle today. We found the digging not too bad and there is enough room for two of us to dig at once. We alternate the work with the third person carrying the buckets out to the truck. We are able to walk the buckets out at this depth. When we come up out of the kettle we are in the bottom of the trench. Then we walk our ramp out to the surface. We kept John busy today as we removed 220 buckets. I don't know what is harder work, digging or carrying two full buckets to the surface. John has become quite proficient at washing gravels and at panning as well. He is now a first rate miner for sure. We all earned a good supper tonight and made a good dinner of hash and hot water corn bread. John said he was seeing good color in the heavies so tomorrow's weigh is holding some promise. My whiskey is a comfort to me and eases the tiredness of my body and helps me sleep. Jacob and Will are not big users of spirits but will toast with John and me most evenings. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 17   1936

   Another ounce in our till from yesterdays haul. We are all working our system now like a well oiled machine. The days are long and hot and it seems I never can have too much water. The kettle is now dug several feet below country level and we move the gravels at a steady pace with little talk between us except for the occasional grunt or curse word. The crew is able to work long days with good light. The creeks has slowed quite a bit but we have not needed the pump yet. At the level we are working the rock is small and being the size of a baseball mixed with smaller stone and gravel. We have not needed the bars yet. I have become accustomed to the work although I look forward to a long rest at the end of our season. We all pushed hard towards days end and delivered 260 buckets to the tom. Will will need to help John finish up the weigh tomorrow morning as we kept him under heavy lode. There have been no new prospectors hiking up the creek. Perhaps the word is out that there is a good crew working the best ground and desperados roaming the mountain and coming out this way is not safe.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 18   1936     

   We are all happy miners. We took three ounces from what I now am fairly certain is another kettle. I don't think we have even scratched the surface. This one appears to be much larger than the first but we still have no knowledge of it's depth. Only God knows what may lie at the bottom. Jacob and Will are developing the fever and now rival John in this regard. I am doing my best to keep everyone focused on the job at hand and telling them we don't know how much gold we will get and keep your expectations realistic. I fear it is falling on deaf ears as the talk in camp is of buying all kinds of things with the gold. All I can do is keep them all working towards our goal of getting it all before the season ends while staying safe.

   If anything, this gold is acting as fuel for the crew. I tell everyone to work at a steady pace and don't burn out. The days now are over 90 degrees every day but at night it drops sharply at sunset and gets cold. The air is very dry and we all drink lots of water all through the day. We haven't seen rain for two weeks. Gravels are still fairly easy and the buckets are flying out of the dig. We took 290 out today and are exhausted. We should all sleep good tonight. I am drinking whiskey with John and dreaming of home.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 19   1936

   I was on my watch shift late last night and sitting with a cup of hot coffee spiced with whiskey to keep me warm in the night air while the crew slept when I heard rustling down by the creek. I couldn't make anything out and cautiously walked in the direction of the noise. It got quiet. I tried to see through the gray darkness and whatever it was moved again. Then I saw it - a lion on the prowel. I had never seen one in the wild before. I hollered and made a rukus but it just stared at me. I'm figuring it could see me better than I could see it. It started to pace and move towards me in a deliberate manner. My hand wasn't as steady as I wanted but I raised the rifle and leveled it just over it's head and squeezed one off. That seemed to do the trick and it was off down the side of the creek. I stood there listening but didn't hear anything more. The crew was out of their tents wondering if we were under attack by hooligans.

   The daylight brought the weigh and we forgot about the lion as we were looking at 5 ounces in the pan. We were all hootin and hollering, even me. Back up at the dig we worked our tails off and I sweated out all the whiskey from the night before. We had a defined pot hole showing up now with signs of a really pretty smooth wall of rock on the eastern side where the waterfall had worn it smooth. I'm no geologist but i'd swear it was marble or something like it. I didn't say much to Will or Jacob but I had a real honest feeling that this was something real special and we were glory bound. Our days labor brought down 260 buckets to John. 

  TO BE CONTINUED ..............

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 20   1936

   This morning's pan showed yet another two ounces of gold for our efforts. We are all happy miners. I sent Jacob into town for some supplies and Will and me worked the kettle. We are gaining about a foot or so a day in depth and can still lift out buckets easily. We took a break for lunch around noon and Jacob had just got back to camp. He told us hell had broke loose in town. The bank had just been robbed and there was a shootout on the main street. Three robbers had shot it out with a deputy and several armed citizens. As far as he knew the gang had got away with quite a bit of bank money and two of the town folks had been wounded. He didn't know how bad. They made the get a way in a truck presumed to be stolen. We all looked at each other and nodded our heads. It had to be the same crew who's deserted camp we had found. The guy we let go must have left the area,

   Will said he'd bet his gold they were still hiding out up on the mountain somewhere. There's a million places to disappear out here. I agreed. I just said for everyone to keep an eye peeled and be on alert. They know we're still here and probably figure we have gold. John said they might be waiting until we have more gold accumulated from the mining season and then make their move on us. I didn't like the sound of that at all.

   After lunch we went back to work with the pick swinging and the shovels scooping. We're getting near waste deep in the hole with country on every side. I've never seen anything like it. Not even the first glory hole was this well defined. If there was a gold bearing river running over this pot hole there has to be a lot of gold stacked in it. We all keep speculating as to the depth of the deposit. I told the boys that if we start seeing big numbers of ounces at the weighs we might be getting to the bottom. Right now we are all happy to get what we get evry day with the hope of a motherlode strike. Today our bucket count was 235. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .............

[GhostMiner]

 

   JUNE 21   1936

   Two ounces in the pan from the dig. The gold is constant and for that we are all thankful. The material we are digging has not changed. Nice looking pay gravels with some small rounded river rock. I could dig here the rest of my days and die a happy miner. What have I done to deserve such good fortune? 

This morning a group of law dogs numbering eight stopped by to ask us if we had seen the gang. We told them no and they headed up the mountain following the creek. We told them there were thousands of places to hide out up there. They seemed hell bent on finding them. Those rag tags are clever. If they sense the town is left short handed on law they may go back and pull another robbery.

   At the kettle we continue to gain nearly a foot a day in depth. We all take our turns at digging and hauling buckets to the truck except for John who has found himself a home at the tom. He is ready to challenge me as fastest panner now and may win. He has developed skills that any mining crew would want on their team. We ended up with 250 buckets today which was not too bad. I thought we might break our record but we were slowed by a boulder we had to pry. It took the three of us working together to move it. That boulder may be a sign of something good to come as far as gold is concerned. I am hopeful that country is still quite a ways down. I want to work this kettle for the rest of the season and retire. I also need to get to town and buy more shirts and pants. The ones I brought are nearly all worn out from the heavy work. I am proud of our crew. We are now all of us family. 

 TO BE CONTINUED ...................