Grubstake1 Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Ok, I left off with the old timer, that found the outcrop in Hells Hollow, There was another guy, back in the 50's, that lived in a cabin up on the side of the hill, just down stream of the Bagby Bridge, He was Blind, but still had a partner that lived with him, and they mined gold, I don't know what ever happened to the partner, but the Sheriff finally had to come and put the guy in a nursing home in Merced, I'm sure he's dead now, Theremains of his cabin are still up on the side of the hill, just down stream and on the left side id the river, Lots of interesting diggins there, A gulch just this side of his cabin, I do not know the name of it, but they{the people mining} used to have a race, after a big rain, to som potholes up in that gulch, to get rather large gold nuggets out of the potholes. Back when the mill was working in Fremonts day, they had an almalgamator, and it had lots of Mercury in it, they had a flood one winter, it washed it all down stream, they lost everything, it was just before a clean-up and many, many pounds of mercury with gold washed down stream. You still find gold will mercury on it to this day, big gold. I had great times at Bagby, met some fine people, and had many friends. Bill had an old mining report from the 1800's on Bagby, it included a map of all the mine shafts, drifts and tunnels of the Fremonts Pine Tree Mine, there was an Addit that came out right in the parking lot of Bagby, We had plans to open it, and use it to grow Mushrooms in it, but we never got that far. Too much to do, Campground maintance, running the two D 8 cats we had to keep the road clear to the back camp in the winter and cutting up downed Bulllpine tree's to keep things running smooth. We built new picknic tables for the front camp, and moved the old ones to the back camp, Lots to do.More a little later. Grubstake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlight Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 hi i lived in hunters vallay at the time they filled the lake mona and roy eldirge owned the bagby area in very early times of the 60ths igrew up on that lake even thoe gold was not as high as it is now i new the guy you have spoken about very well his name was pepito the gluch is named peptios he did live at river bellow but they moved him up the hill above high water we would bring him grocerys and sometimes a playboy magazine to his little shack he had goats there and a donkey at his first shack he had a door stop bar of a bar of gold big bar he said if you could pic it up its yours the cacth was with one hand i am now 55 years of age but have many memerys of all the great gold and thing we found on that great now filled lake can still find loads of gold there its amazing thanks for the memerys your friend the golden one somewere still in mariposa chasing the dream!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel jungersen Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Hay Goldminer,.Theres just somthing wrong about giving a Ol' blind man a playboy ,.. so very wrong !!,... .....................LOLGrubstake1 ,. I really enjoyed camping at Bagby yrs ago , like to get back up there !! Keep the history& storys coming ,thay make for a nice little read thanks , Blindpig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubstake1 Posted September 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Yep, there will be more, I'm having a little medical problem right now, Vertigo, and I can't stay in front of the screen long. Grubstakle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlight Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 well the man that lived were grubstake is saying was old man pepetio the gluch was named after himhe did see just fine when we lived at hunters vallay was a hurmit at the lake did find gold there so how would he knew it was gold aswe get much older we do sometimes lose are sight he alsowas moved to rest home as we recall he did tell us were there is still lots of gold is at this lake as we find it there ervey winter during and after it rains good clay seams of gold and quartz he did point them out to us as ayoung buck at that time i still pass his place and still remember him as it was yesterday remember this being a hermit out there was very hard many memerios of those days i could really go on and on thanks grubstake for bring this up but at my time gold was 27 dollars a once and i was 9 years old when this lake was filling up what we found then was amazing gold and artifacks of the eary days of that valley were there is now water always and still finding gold on the lake golden one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlight Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 well the man that lived were grubstake is saying was old man pepetio the gluch was named after himhe did see just fine when we lived at hunters vallay was a hurmit at the lake did find gold there so how would he knew it was gold aswe get much older we do sometimes lose are sight he alsowas moved to rest home as we recall he did tell us were there is still lots of gold is at this lake as we find it there ervey winter during and after it rains good clay seams of gold and quartz he did point them out to us as ayoung buck at that time i still pass his place and still remember him as it was yesterday remember this being a hermit out there was very hard many memerios of those days i could really go on and on thanks grubstake for bring this up but at my time gold was 27 dollars a once and i was 9 years old when this lake was filling up what we found then was amazing gold and artifacks of the eary days of that valley were there is now water always and still finding gold on the lake golden one and i am still reading your mail it brings me way back grubstake when all the people were still there and my dad was still whith us teaching me the things i love still to do hnt for gold i will post the gold from that are this year when we put boat in water thanks again for wrighting about bagby paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubstake1 Posted September 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 More on Chapter 3, Bill ended up getting a 8 inch keene dredge, one of those self trailering triple sluice monsters, He had a big cabin cruiser, and moved it with the boat, when the water got high, Pat keene used to come into Bagby, to test new dredge designs, he brought the first 6 inch, plastic duel orfice jets to test, Big trailer to haul stuff, and a great big motor home, they stayed for 10 days, put the dredge in, ran around buying gold from people in camp, and getting drunk, Finally a few days before they were to leave, they put the 6 in the water, Pat was standing in the waterm with the metasl nozele in his hand, and a lightnig storm hit, I told him, If I was you, I'd get out of the waterm and drop that metal nozele. Anyway, those were fun days, Bill bough most of my gold, at a good price, gold was only around $300.00 then if I remember right. not much! But gas was cheap. Bill never hit a glory hole with his dredge, but ran it on week days mostly, and moved it around alot. I don't ever remember him getting a nugget with it much over a DWT. mostly fines. Now Indian Dan, he was doing well, dredging at the back camp with his family, Right down below his camp one year, he was down, and came up really fast holding his arm, and moning, everyone though, he had gotten hurt, Well it turned out, he had picked up a golf ball sized nugget on the bottom, and put it in his wet suit, boy was he laughing, the joke was on us. Now I'm getting to some funny parts of this story, So hang in there with me. I'll be back later tonight. Grubstake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Great stories Grubstake. I keep checking back waiting for you to post the next one. Best posts we have had in quite some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubstake1 Posted September 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Thanks Matt, I have more, but with this bout of vertigo, I'm going through, I have to take breaks, I get very dizzy, and I'm not even Blond! Ha! Ha! Grubstake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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