APRIL 12 1936 : Today I filed all the paperwork at the county court house for the mining claims I now hold near Lost Ravine. Then I drove my Ford truck out to my claims. There was a good spot near Jake's Creek up to the north about 1500 feet from the main road that follows Morgan Creek where I set up my camp. It took the entire day to pitch the tent and set up my kitchen. The tent is a 15 foot cabin with a stove jack. I have a first rate box stove set up inside to be used for heat and some cooking. I also set up a second stove about 200 feet from camp for the main cooking jobs during good weather.
Today was a great day for getting camp set as the day was sunny and not too cold. Tomorrow my plan is to investigate one of the claim sites where the old diggings took place and get a bearing on my situation as far as where I might sample the gravels and old tailings. I am losing daylight and getting cold so I will get into my sleeping bag on the cot and wait for morning.
APRIL 13 1936
Last night got very cold. My water containers had some ice in them when I made morning coffee. I hiked out to the easternmost section of the property armed with my Smith and Wesson Magnum, a shovel, and a bucket and I found an abandoned drift going into the mountain. It was timbered for support and looked to be solid. Inside the opening was an old two man tuttle tooth two man saw. The tunnel had seen some good work i'm guessing back in the late 1800's. All the mines here as far as I know were placers so they probly dug this when water was scarce as I saw abandoned iron pipe in the area. It was nearly high enough for me to stand upright and went back about 200 feet where some of the timbers had started to rot and were collapsing. There were signs of some exposed country rock in the drift. I used my shovel to dig some sample gravels and took them back to camp where I later panned them in the creek. There were fines and a few nice coarse pieces from the two buckets I processed and the drift looked to hold some promise. Tomorrow I am going to hike out on a fault line in the northern area of the claims to take more sample gravels. I've got beans on the stove and a cup of good Irish whiskey before I turn in tonight.
APRIL 14 1936
Today I traversed a major fault about 1500 ft to the north east of camp. Part of the fault was exposed by old diggings while the northern portion on my claim was buried in heavy gravels. Unable to get a good hole going in the heavy material I focused my pick and shovel work near the base of the exposed area which was about 60 feet below the top of the rim. I took several buckets out of the area and panned them at the creek near camp. The pan showed fines mixed with coarse and weighed heavy. So far the claims are showing good signs of gold and I am thinking of a way to do more digging at each of these spots. I will do more exploration out there at the fault tomorrow. It is closer to the creek so I'm thinking it may be a good location for serious digging. It is beginning to snow tonight as I write this and I am stoking the stove and turning in.
APRIL 15 1936
I woke to a cold and snowy scene this morning. About three or four inches of snow. I broomed the roof of my tent and fixed a breakfast of hot water cornbread and coffee. The snow had stopped before I woke so I set out on the hike back to the fault line and also saw some bear tracks that looked fresh. Up at the base of the faultline I spied the critter. He looked to be needing nourishment and no doubt had not been too long out of hibernation. I gave a good holler and he bolted up into the woods higher up the mountain.
I worked the gravels swinging the pic and scooping out gravels by the shovel full at the base of the fault. There seemed to be broken country rock at the base. I went straight in and tried to get some depth which was hard work. After several hours of this I had myself a good hole going into the fault. About mid afternoon I was in deep enough to take some good sample buckets down to the creek. I saw lots of fines and very good heavies that weighed out rich. I went back out with a handsaw and started cutting back brush & small pine in order to fashion a crude roadway for my truck. At the last of light I went back down to camp & heated up beans on the stove and poured a good cupful of Irish whiskey. I began to formulate my mining plan as darkness took the camp.
APRIL 16 1936
Got woke up last night to loud screeching sounds which lasted an hour or so. Might have been lion or bobcat. There were more than one and they came close to camp. I spent the day working on the road up to the faultline. All hand saw & pick and shovel. Was too tired to take more samples. Tomorrow I should be able to get my truck up to the dig site. I will load some gravels to take down to the creek. I have a tom sluice that will sit in the creek where the flow is right. The creek is running good from all the melt off up higher in the mountain. My claims are anywhere from 3500 ft to 4000 ft in altitude. I have a hard wood grizzly screen to set over the head of the tom. I'll shovel onto that to screen out anything over two inches. The tom is 20 feet in length and 18 inches wide. Got a nice supper of dried beef and beans. Turning in now.
APRIL 17 1936
Got a good night's rest. I was able to drive the truck up to the dig site with my buckets. I worked on getting in further and as deep and close to country rock as I could. Then I filled about a quarter ton of good gravels in some buckets and drove down to the creek. I set up the tom and grizzly and set a good angle on the tom. Worked the rest of the day processing and finished up the panning from the heavies that were pulled. When weighed out it was about 20 cents to the ton. Not glory days but working wages at least. My thinking is there is better pay in there to be found. Tomorrow I will begin doing the road work needed to get my truck out to the eastern drift mine I sampled. There is an old wagon road out there I can use once it's fixed up some. Then I plan to get a good test of that mine. Fixing a good supper of hoover stew and coffee spiced with Irish whiskey and turning in.
APRIL 18, 19, 20 1936
Snow is all melted off and the creeks are running hard. I spent all three days out on the old wagon road that leads to the eastern drift mine. The road is now passable for my truck. There's a lot of exposed country rock and old iron pipe out near the drift which tells me this was worked by hydraulic method mostly but for some reason someone drifted into the virgin gravels. The hill is a good 90 ft or more in height and the facings were hydraulicked to country. The old hand dug water flume runs up the mountain but is overgrown with brush. My guess is that the old boys had water delivery issues. Anyway, I will get my truck out there to haul samples to the tom. I noticed a lot of bear tracks along the way. My goal is to find the best ground for my efforts. I'm getting anxious to start mining gold but I know that this early work will pay in the end. Turning in now after a supper of dried beef and crackers and a small cup of Irish whiskey.
APRIL 21 1936
Got the truck out to the eastern drift mine and worked the old adit gravels. I went in about 100 feet and dug down into the old river gravels along the bottom of the west wall. I took out 10 buckets and hauled them to the creek to process. Once again I was not seeing the glory gold I had hoped for. The values were a little less than what I got at the fault line. Some fines mixed with a bit of nice coarse. Tomorrow I will go back out there for another try and perhaps get down to country rock which I think is still another five feet deeper. The weather is warming and the days are getting longer. I haven't seen a soul around this area since I came here. I will be heading to town sometime soon for a few provisions. I am finding the prospecting life to be most fulfilling but lonely at times. It will be nice to get into town.