Depths of Terror

By Roy Paul Shields

Paul, thought he was going on a gold dredging expedition and a rafting adventure on the Klamath River but found himself in the middle of a conspiracy by a certain political faction to take control of America. Marine training and camaraderie thwarted their plans.
Depths of Terror is not to be taken as finger pointing but simply what hopefully will never happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roy Paul Shields
• Release date: Aug 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301924226

Roy Paul Shields

My name is Roy Paul Shields. I have worn many hats in my life’s journey. I have done everything I set out to do in life; from gold mining to driving race cars and everything in between. I make no pretense at being a writer; I am a dreamer and a story teller with a big imagination.About the AuthorRoy served in the Marine Corps reserve, then joined the Marines.While a military and businessman, owing his own businesses he has been a true Renaissance man, maintaining a strong creative side. He was a professional dancer, owning and operating his own studio In addition to writing literature, he also plays the trumpet and writes music, often in his own recording studio. Roy weaves his own experiences and knowledge in his stories.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Paul, thought he was going on a gold dredging expedition and a rafting adventure on the Klamath River but found himself in the middle of a conspiracy with about one hundred and eighty illegal foreigners and ten US Army advisers to contend with. Although the enemy were well armed with automatic weapons along with surface to air missiles and armor piercing weapons. Marine training and camaraderie thwarted their plans

January-18-2012

An alarm clock should never be allowed to go off at 4:00 AM! My mining partner Gary would be here in an hour as we wanted to get an early start on the road. We were headed for Yreka California to get our dredging permit and make sure the paper work for our mining claim on the Klamath River was in order before heading down river. Gary and I both had dredging experience from a few years back. The price of gold and just the adventure and excitement of hopefully finding a big streak of gold on the bottom of the Klamath River had us raring to go.

We had researched the area that we claimed the year before. We had panned on the river bank in quite a few different areas; Panning for gold is the most back breaking thing a human wants to attempt. Panning is OK for testing, and we did find color, but testing is all the panning that I ever want to do. We would both rather be on the river bottom with our eight inch dredge sucking up sand and gravel known as overburden and moving rocks called cobblers that were to big to go through the dredges nozzle.

About an hour and a half on the river bottom and we would be ready for a breather and check the sluice box for traces of gold. Gary and I would take turns moving cobblers or working the dredges nozzle, and an hour and a half on the river bottom would make a break up on the dredge very welcome. Many years before, hydraulic mining was a very popular and profitable way to find gold. Large diameter pipe would normally be laid in the river far upstream from the hydraulic operation. The pipe would gradually be sized down to a smaller diameter which greatly increased the water pressure until it arrived at the hydraulic site. The water would exit with tremendous pressure through a large metal nozzle sometimes held by a couple of men or very large nozzles were mounted on a heavily constructed frame and one man could direct the water flow. Tremendous amounts of sand, gravel and rocks would be washed from the side of a mountain into large sluice boxes which captured a large portion of the gold.

On a scale of one to ten, the weight of gold would be a ten in comparison to the sand, gravel and stones which would be about a three. Thus as the material traveled through the sluice boxes the gold would settle to the bottom of the box as the sand, gravel and rocks would be dumped into the river. The recovery method was crude, but because of the huge amount of material flowing through the sluice box a lot of gold was recovered. But, a major part of the fine gold and smaller nuggets were not caught in the sluice boxes and were spilled into the river. Depending on how fast the current was, the spilled material would find its way to the river bottom. Gold being so much heavier would wind up on the river bottom much sooner than sand and gravel.

Our claim was about a quarter of a mile downstream from the hydraulic operation. It happened to be a section of river that was deeper and the current faster than was normal for the river. If our research and calculations were right, there should be gold and a lot of it on our claim. The year before without actually diving we found the water to be deep and a very fast current! Occupational hazard! Instead of a normal sixty pound weight belt we hoped one hundred and twenty pound weight belts would get us to the river bottom without being carried downstream. We had carefully gone over our equipment list many times and felt that we were ready to tackle whatever the river could throw at us.

The three and a half months that were open to dredging worked out just fine for Gary and me. Gary’s wife and my lady love worked at the Veterans hospital, and because of so many needy veterans returning from action overseas they were required to work seven days a week until further notice. Gary and I would try to drive home every few weeks to maintain a semblance of home life. Danielle and I had never been apart for more than four and a half months in the seven years we had been together. We agreed if being apart was more than either of us was comfortable with she would drive over and spend time on the claim with me, or I would be home taking care of the house to lighten the load for her

Danielle and I had just finished breakfast when Gary pulled up out front. His truck and trailer was loaded with our eight inch dredge and the rest of the mining equipment that we thought necessary. Danielle and I walked towards Gary who came up gave her a little hug and said Common man, that gold isn’t going to wait forever. My truck and trailer was loaded with our camping gear and supplies. We were ready. Danielle hugged me and told me to be careful. We had agreed that I would call every night and let her know everything was OK. I opened my truck door and Shiloh my dog came running and jumped in. He sat on the seat looking at me like what are you waiting for? I leaned out the truck window and gave Danielle a long hug and a kiss and told her see you in a little bit. I backed out on the street and Gary pulled up behind me. I leaned out the window and hollered back to him rock and roll"!

The ride to Yreka was not that many miles from my home in Brookings Oregon, but loaded pickups and trailers through the Siskiyou mountains was a slow haul. Gary was a chatter bug on his cell and kept me entertained with his stories of when he was a trucker. He had been a coast to coast produce hauler and it seemed his driving adventures were endless. Shiloh let me know it was time to pull over and stop. Shiloh ran around sniffing until Gary yelled at him to quit sniffing and go if he had to go. Shiloh stopped, looked at Gary and squatted and pooped. I laughed, looked at Gary and said "looks like Shiloh is trying to tell you something. Gary just laughed.

Getting out of the mountain roads was a welcomed relief. A couple of hours later on highway #5 signs of next four exits Yreka appeared. We parked our trucks and trailers at a secured parking lot and walked about a block to a beautiful old stone court house. Just inside the court house was a glassed in show case; Gary and I stood looking at a very large gold nugget display; we finally looked at each other shaking our heads and smiling. I had not even imagined anything as beautiful as the gold that was in that show case. As we walked up the court recorder counter Gary looked at me and said I don’t know about you, but my mouths is watering after seeing that gold display.

A lady who was no doubt very old asked if she could help us. I showed her the paper work I had for our claim. She looked at both of us with a big wrinkled smile and said gold miners huh? She turned to a large book case, pulled a book out and laid it on the counter in front of us. She thumbed through several pages and said here we are! She said that area was first claimed in 1888; it was called the Muck a Muck. Muck a Muck translated in the Karuk Indian language means plentiful. She told us our claims should be good as that area was open because the taxes had lapsed and it went back to the state.

She was somewhat of a historian and knew that area well because she was raised in Happy Camp. Her father had been a miner and had worked that area back in the thirties. She had a wealth of information which made us all the more wanting to get to our claim. We asked if we could get our dredging permits here. She produced two forms of which we quickly filled out. She looked them over and said you can pay with cash, check or credit card, and with a big smile she said OR GOLD"!. We thanked her for everything and headed for the door.

After about ten minutes of looking at the gold on display we quickly headed for our rigs. We were ready. I opened my truck door and Shiloh looked at me like about time!! Gold was important but at the present time food was more important. I gave Shiloh a rub on his neck and told him be a good boy and I had a surprise for him. The café was small, but had a parking lot big enough for our rigs. Gary and I agreed that we would remember that café as it was home cooking good. There was a park next to the café and it was take a walk time for Shiloh. Once his walk was a success I took a cheeseburger less the onion and pickles out of the bag and gave Shiloh his treat of which he made short work of.

The three of us were ready to get on highway 93 which was better known as the river road. Our first stop was the big concrete bridge that crossed the Klamath River. A left turn and it was evident why 93 were called the river road as that wild Klamath River was always visible. We stopped a couple of times just to look as the mountains and river as they were a magnificent sight. The river road is well maintained black top, but with all of the curves the seventy mile drive from Yreka to Happy Camp was a careful but scenic drive.

The miners who had discovered gold in that area camped there for a couple of years. One week end they celebrated and gave thanks for all of the gold they had found. One of the miners gave a toast and said This has been a happy camp. The name Happy Camp stuck!! It was called Happy Camp from that day on.

The Klamath River has been yielding gold ever since those first miners hit it rich. Happy Camp California is not only still producing gold but is surrounded by magnificent forested mountains with camping and hiking trails unlimited not to mention great steelhead and salmon fishing.

As small as Happy Camp was it had a nice well stocked market. We half-filled a shopping cart and headed for the only gas station. We topped off our trucks and filled ten five gallon gas cans with fuel for our dredge and other equipment. Happy Camp was about four blocks long, and that may be stretching it a bit. On the edge of town was the Old Frontier Café. This would be our last meal cooked by someone else for a couple of weeks. The place had quite a few locals in it. They looked at us like we were flat landers! Flat landers are anyone who does not live in the mountains.

Everyone looking us over didn’t bother us at all. The food was great and seemingly home cooking. Just as we were finishing I ordered a Cheese burger to go with nothing on it except the bun. I held the burger behind me when I opened my truck door; Shiloh sat there looking at me and started to softly growl; He knew that I would bring him a treat and was letting me know he knew what I had and quit playing games! I walked back to Gary’s truck, held my hands palm up and said: What do you say partner?? Gary revved his engine up and said: Let’s do it!

We drove across the Klamath on an old iron bridge that was in well-kept condition. We then headed up river in a northerly direction on a two lane very narrow winding black top toad. We arrived at our camp site a couple hours before darkness set in. Our camp site was about fifteen feet above the river in a wooded area with plenty of flat ground for our tents and our rigs. Once our camp was ready for some mountain living we still had a little sunlight. Gary looked at me and we both laughed as we both had the same idea. There was short dirt road down to the river that must have been an old boat landing. With a little TLC it was perfect for backing the trailer down and launching our dredge. We stood on the edge of the river and looked our six hundred feet of claim over. I told Gary: This is it, the moment of truth.

Darkness was setting in which made a small campfire much welcomed along with a strong pot of coffee. We wanted to get an early start in the morning as the road we would use to put our dredge in to the river needed some repairing. Wildlife was in abundance as was evident with a variety of animal droppings. Shiloh had not quit sniffing since we had arrived. Bear, deer and elk were evident and an occasional mountain lion was not uncommon. I was sure that Shiloh was very adept at keeping our camp site safe from unwanted surprises. He was already curled up in front of the entrance to our tent. We had put in a long day and I think both Gary and I were sound asleep before our heads found our pillows. Shiloh’s barking woke me up and just as well as we had slept longer than was our intention. Gary and I were both laughing as we looked at our dredge still on the trailer and hurried through breakfast. The road to the river needed repairing, but was not as bad as we first thought. By noon the road was ready for launching. Gary’s truck driving skills were evident as he backed the dredge down to the river. The dredge floated off of the trailer and Gary took the truck back to the camp.

Our game plan was to dredge our way across the river in search of that streak. It didn’t take long to get the dredge ready to go to work. We aired up our Zodiac, mounted the motor and took a slow cruise across the river checking for depth and the flow of the current. We had built six very heavy anchors out of five gallon buckets filled with concrete with rebar protruding out to help grab and hold onto the river bottom. I put my wet suit on and positioned two anchors up river from the dredge. Gary threw me the ropes from the dredge of which he had running and was manning. He had one of the two air compressors running which was more air than I needed. I went under and fastened the anchor ropes from the dredge.

I came up and climbed aboard the dredge; Gary asked what I thought and I laughed and told him I was hungry! I told him I had found a great place to start. We had put a long hard day in and the sun had gone behind the mountains. There were mountains to the east and west of our camp, so it would be dark before long. We talked our game plan over a much welcomed dinner and a just right camp fire. Shiloh was off exploring but the smell of dinner brought him running back to camp.

Our tent was large enough that we had plenty of room to make it comfortable. I wound up the alarm clock and set it for an early wake up call. We wanted an early start as tomorrow we would begin what this was all about. Gold!!

I awoke to Shiloh barking at the front of our tent. I thought now what as I unzipped the tent. Shiloh stood there wagging his tail and I had to laugh, the pink of a new day was just barely visible. Gary sat up and asked what was going on?? I told him it was time to hit it and git it. A good breakfast and a pot of strong coffee under our belts and the three of us headed for our dredge. Once we were satisfied all systems were running and working Shiloh stayed on board and Gary and I shook hands and dove to the river bottom to do what we were there to do. Dredge the river bottom in search of gold.

We were going to dredge our way across the river in search of what we hoped would get us in to a gold bearing area. Working under water running the nozzle and moving larger rocks in a fast current is about as tough on our bodies as we could handle. We would work two hours and come up for a break. We had to laugh every time we got back on the dredge as Shiloh was watching the water and gravel flow through the sluice box. Gary laughed and said don’t tell me he is watching for gold

We did about eight hours of diving and were both ready to call it a day. We ran water through the sluice box to wash most of the gravel out and sure enough, we had a little bit of color. After eight hours of very hard work we estimated there might be ten dollars’ worth of gold in the box. Gary said: Not bad, it looks like we are making about fifty cents an hour a piece?? We figured it would take about three weeks to dredge our way across the river to the area we hoped would get us in to what we came here for. Gold! We didn’t need to be rocked to sleep; there was no doubt, it was going to take a few days to get used to working under water.

Dang, it seemed like we had just fallen asleep and Shiloh was at the tent front barking; Gary and I both groaned a little bit when we got up, and it took a few minutes to work the kinks out of our bodies. There was no doubt it would take our bodies a few days to get used to working underwater. Shiloh the rascal was in better shape than Gary and I; He kept running back and forth to the water like he was telling us to get to work.

The weather was great and by the end of the first week our bodies had gotten used to dredging the river bottom in fast moving water. We hadn’t expected to hit pay dirt until we had dredged our way to the area we had come here for in the first place. By the end of the third week we had dredged our way to the edge of the area we came here for. Three weeks of back breaking work and we had actually found over an ounce of gold. Not bad as we were getting our bodies used to the very fast water we would be working in and making sure the equipment was ready.

As we headed across the river back to our camp our ladies were standing on the river bank waving to us. Now that was one great surprise. Shiloh was just as excited as Gary and I. I told Shiloh it looked like he was going to get a cheese burger tonight. After some much deserved hugs both of our ladies said in harmony: Ok, let’s see the gold. We showed them what we had found so far and Lori Gary’s wife said, Is that all? I suggested that we head for town and explain the whole deal to them over dinner.

The restaurant was small but the food was great, especially because someone else cooked it. We explained to our ladies the reason for dredging our way across the river, which of course made no sense to them. I got Shiloh who we left to guard our camp his cheeseburger and we headed back down river. Other than keeping the camp fire going Shiloh did a good job of guarding our camp, and made short work of his cheeseburger. It didn’t take long and a good dinner, darkness and a warm campfire had us all ready to call it a night.

Good old Shiloh let us sleep in and the ladies seemed to enjoy making a camp out breakfast for us. The ladies wanted to take a ride to see what the mountains had in store. There were several small interesting communities within a one day ride which would be a welcomed break. There was a lot of history throughout the mountains from the gold mining and logging days, not to mention several neat little antique stores along the way. It seemed like there was something along the way that interested one or all of us. It was a great day but a long day and time to head back for camp.

We came back through Happy Camp and the lone restaurant was just closing; I knocked on the door and an unhappy employee opened the door; I asked if she would possibly fix a cheeseburger to go? She closed the door without saying a word and headed for the kitchen. A few minutes later she opened the door and handed me a bag. I gave her a twenty and told her to keep the change. She said really with a smile and I smiled back and told her really. Gary said "I hope Shiloh appreciates a twenty dollar cheeseburger! Sure enough, Shiloh was sitting in front of the tent, and yes he did appreciate his twenty dollar cheeseburger.

The next morning we enjoyed an early camp fire breakfast. Our gals wanted to get an early start for home as the road back to Brookings was a somewhat treacherous ride. They told us if we couldn’t make it back to see them in a couple of weeks they would be back. They were barely out of sight and the three of us ran to the Zodiac and headed across the river to our dredge. We had finally dredged our way into deeper much faster water. Gary and I made it to the bottom but it was evident we needed more weights on our weight belts. It was tricky getting back on the dredge as the current almost carried us past the dredge. A hundred and twenty pounds of weight belts made it difficult to walk on the dredge, but once in the water it was much easier to get to the river bottom and stay there.

Our first chore was to clean the overburden to bed rock. The overburden was about four feet deep. We finally hit bedrock and being in about a four foot deep hole in the overburden we were able to take one sixty pound weight belt off as the fast current was above us now. Overburden is the sand, gravel and rocks that cover the bed rock which is the river bottom. We were both exhausted as in our excitement to get to bedrock we had not stopped for a break. We put our extra weight belt on and fortunately made it back up on the dredge a lot safer than the first time. I told Gary the worst was over so let’s head back for camp and get a fresh start tomorrow. He laughed and said I was ready three hours a go!

We had a light snack for dinner as we were both to tired to eat. I didn’t even remember lying down and Shiloh’s barking woke me up. I opened the tent flap thinking he was barking at a bear or something and I was greeted by the pink of a new day. Impossible!! I felt like I hadn’t even slept yet. I put a pot of coffee on and Gary came crawling out of the tent on his hands and knees shaking his head mumbling: No way! I laughed and asked him if he was having fun yet? We joked about what if we fell asleep on the river bottom. As if that could happen!

By the time we got to the dredge we were both raring to get in the water. Gary took the nozzle first and I moved larger rocks well behind us out of his way. I had just started back towards him when he raised his arm and was shaking his fist. The suction nozzle had cleaned out a small crevice in the bed rock and Gary was waving me towards it. I looked down to where he was pointing and neither of us could hide our excitement. There was a little streak of gold about three inches long. I kept thinking: Thank you God thank you God. That was the only gold we saw that day, but after cleaning the concentrates out of the sluice box it proved to be just over three quarter of an ounce. We sat in the tent for quite a while touching and looking at that beautiful gold. I am sure we were both smiling as we fell asleep.

We were in the water early the next day. There seemed to be a lot of larger boulders on the bed rock and each one had to be moved with crow bars, which was very time consuming. We had rolled the largest of three out of the way and the bed rock was covered with what looked to be a orange clay. As we began to scrape and use the nozzle to remove the clay we both stopped like in shock; The clay was full of fine gold and bits of courser gold was on the bed rock which had little cracks and crevices. It took us the entire day to clean an area of bed rock about four feet wide and eight feet long. Almost every little crack or crevice had gold in it.

Neither of us wanted to stop, but it was late and would be dark before long. We made it back up on the dredge and we were both wobbly from exhaustion. Getting the weight belts off brought some relief. We both knew what was next; we pulled the ripples off of the sluice box and ran the water across the box very slowly. As the gravel washed away gold began to show. Gary and I were both on our hands and knees watching the gravel and sand wash away as more gold became evident. We couldn’t wait to get back to camp to clean the concentrates, which produced a tad short of three ounces. I was smiling so much my face hurt. Gary and I looked at each other smiling and nodding our heads as if to say: This is it!

We found gold for the next ten days, but nothing to quench our expectations. We spent more time moving boulders then we did dredging. We were both beat and came in early Friday. We hadn’t cleaned our concentrates for three days hoping a three day accumulation would produce enough gold to help renew our energy. The cleanup was a letdown; we had about a half ounce of gold for three long days of brutal work under water. The boulder pack was not as bad closer to the bank and we agreed to move the dredge closer to the bank and give it a try. It didn’t take long to move the dredge, but for whatever reason the current was extremely fast and the bed rock seemed to drop off in to a huge crevice area which meant a lot more over burden.

By the end of a very hard day we had barely hit bed rock. Gary’s SUV was parked by the tent and Lori Gary’s wife was waving to