We went out to get into our rigs. Jeb went to this big old Dodge power wagon. Looked like a holdover from the army. I looked at it and asked Jeb if I needed a high clearance rig like that, mine is 4 wheel but not a beast like that. Jeb said, ' No sonny, your rig will make it. There's a good road to the mine now."
We started out of town and turned up a street that looked like it was going to the gravel pit, by the signs on the side of the road. Met a huge truck coming down the roads toward us. A fork in the road we took led us up a long grade, then a wide switchback up to the top of the glacial moraine. We came to a fork in the road and took the fork that a sign said was the pit road. Jeb said to leave my rig here and come to the pit with him. I climbed up into the beast, and. we went thru a gate and took a road along side the fence instead of the road heading down into the pit.
Jeb said, " this is the pit. The trucks come up here to load up then go out the bottom road. This all started because I needed a settling pond. This property was owned by a rancher who said it was more a pain to recover his cattle from the timber than it was worth so I made a deal with him and got it. I talked to The guy who owned the Blast pit. He mined the basalt lava pit up the road from town. I needed to rent a dozer to make the pond. We made a deal. He said for good fee cut and he would provide the dozer and some equipment to start mining the gravel. Worked out good for both of us. Then we hit a huge black sand layer. Had tons of it on our hands. Darcie suggested we put some in 100 pound bags, and she went on the net to find out the best way to market them. One worker at the pit tested the sand and found there was a bit of gold in it so he let it slip out. Soon we were selling bags to people who were too lazy to go out and find a place to pan. I finally added a giant trammel to wash the gravel. Recovers quit a bit of gold now and then depending where they are digging at the time. Well lets head on up to the cabin. I will make one other stop to show you something."
We went back to my rig and on up the road to another fence that had a solar powered gate, went thru and up the road another quarter mile or so where Jeb stopped again. There was a road here heading down to the creek. Down below us was a big dragline pulling massive boulders from the creek. Jeb said, 'this is where I spent the first two years up here. Came up with an old dude I met in Wallace, Idaho. He told me about the place and how good the gold was, so we came up the next spring. There was an old abandoned gold mine way up in the canyon, but the road up there was so overgrown there was no way we could get past the top of the mound where the pit is. We had to pack in the rest of the way. Had a couple of wheelbarrows and made a number of trips to get here and set up camp. The old timer had been up here about 5 years earlier with another guy who mined with him and told him all about the mine and so forth. He crushed a hand and they had to leave before they had got no more than 7 ounces of gold. Old guy wouldn't go back again, so I took and chance and came up with him a few years later. We found a lot of gold just up from the water in an old gravel bar. I got one nugget weighed 8 ounces, shaped like a babies fist. and another fan shaped one of 3 ounces, We cleared about twenty grand, not counting my big nuggets The gold was good all right but I damn near killed myself getting it. All this happened around six ago. The next spring when we came, we were more prepared to get the rigs closer to camp. Had a chainsaw and cut a road almost down to the creek. We brought materials for a long tom, and corrugated metal for making a sluice. We worked like crazy and got the long tom set up. The old timer and I took turns shoveling and working the long tom foe rocks and removing tailing build up. The gravel bar petered out but I found a high bar bench groove about ten feet above where we were working. We use some of the metal to flume the gravel down to the long tom. Had a devil of a time getting a wheelbarrow up there though. We got a few big nuggets but none as big as the ones from the year before. The gold was good but was getting harder and harder to get to because of all the huge boulders. We never once found bedrock. .We wanted to see the mine, so we cut a trail along the side of the creek up higher on the bank. Mine was about a mile on up the creek. We had claimed the creek almost up to the mine boundary. When we got up to the top, I was flabbergasted at the sight. As we stepped out of the timber, there was this huge bowl carved out by an ancient glacier. Here was an old glacier lake bottom with just a small portion of the lake left. Big meadow with a few blue spruce in it. and the remains of a couple of old buildings. One of the most beautiful spots on earth I thought at the time. The mine was on up the canyon farther. The old door to the mine had almost rotted apart. We took our lamps and went in. It opened up to a huge room . They had mined it out and all the side veins as well. I had a good flash light with me and shined it around as well. On the sidewall i caught sight of a sparkle. I picked off a chunk. This was some of the same material like the rock I gave you. .
That winter I went to the BLM and found the mine had been patented and had no tax payment made in years. I bought the patent for ten grand. Six hundred and forty acres. Found there was an easement for a road through forest service land.
The old timer said he couldn't take another trip up there again, so I was looking for a new partner. Trouble is, I wasn't going back to prospect, I was going back to get up to the mine with a road..
I came back next spring and hired a couple of guys to help me clear out the old road to the mine. We were cutting down deadfall and clearing it out when a couple of forest service guys came up and wanted to know what we were up to. I explained I bought the old mine patent. One of them said that was impossible because the forest service owned it by default and was going to cut the timber on it that year., We went around and around about it and they threatened to call the sheriff . I told them to go ahead, because I had proof I had bought and paid for the patent. One of them finally called their office, and got set straight. I had bought the patent just in the nick of time.
We all went back to town to get it all straightened out. What a waste of time I thought. We went to the BLM office and finally made a deal. They could have certain species of trees from the patent if the put a good road in to the place. A few days later the bull dozers came and pushed a good wide road in. Put culverts in places where the old road had been completely washed out. Two weeks later I was ready to start clearing out the old buildings from the meadow. That was where I wanted to build my self. The timber cruisers were working at getting the trees marked. They wouldn't start cutting until late fall and winter.
I put the two guys I hired to work cleaning up and digging the holes for the foundations. I had the concrete poured. and then got a crew to build my cabin. I was ready to star putting stuff into the place getting ready to start looking for more gold the following spring. Really needed to because I had almost spent my last dime setting this up. Next spring I had to get more gold or else..'he said.
We got back in the rigs and went on up the road. When we came out of the timber, I gasped. Cabin my aunt fanny, here was a big house..
To be continued.
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