Mystery in Our Own Backyard

As my friend spoke of his discovery it was fascinating to listen to him. In a recent job that his company was doing they had paved a parking lot. While doing that his memory had been jogged.

A while back he had been working at removing a tree in the area of 44° 32' 0" North, 77° 47' 0" West.

While lifting the great tree and its roots from the ground, the soil around the tree was not like the rest of the soil in the area. Instead of the normal sand and clay that is in the region – it was huge mass of broken/crushed stone, sparkling and shining in the sunlight. This was a mass of “tailings” dumped at the exact spot – perhaps more than 100 years before. The tree was one of the biggest in the area and it had grown for a long time on that spot covering the tailings.

My friend was working right in the area where Gold had been discovered back as far as around 1820 – as well as iron, copper, lead, silver, gold and lithographic stone. Today from that same region Talc and Dolomite are still mined.

The original name is the Cordova Mine.

The history is spotty to say the least. Searching the Internet finds limited information of the 180 year history. Most you will hear is the rich story telling of the local people that can tell tale after tale.

My friend’s discovery led to another local telling him about the scam of the Cordova Mines in the last 25 years or so. It seems that a sharp and not so above board developer arrived in the area with mining engineers and the whole shooting match.

You will need to know that the Cordova Gold Mine had worked for years and had finally closed in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

This Developer arrived in the late 1900s, perhaps the 1980s to 1990s, to build the scam.

It seems that the locals remember the bus loads to people from the city coming to see for themselves what was being found and being done in the old mine area. It seems that Gold had been rediscovered and in the tailings and with the new methods the Developer and his engineers had concocted – it was a brand new strike it rich scheme – right under the local’s noses.

It was a like the large tree that my friend had removed… there buried for years was the evidence that no one remembered – or even cared about. Gold was in the ground – everywhere around them.

Do you believe that is DUMB?

The end of this story was that at least two men were jailed in their part of the scam. Yet a local account shared that many people were hired by this developer and his group to carry out the work they were doing. They were well paid from the Gold that was extracted from the tailings and the mine itself. THERE IS GOLD IN THE ROCKS – STILL!

My own imagination was immediately flamed with a new fire. What if there were new methods and new abilities that were better than those of the 1820s – what if there really is Gold that could come from that ground around 44° 32' 0" North, 77° 47' 0" West?

I mean the Cordova Mine was only in one spot… what about a spot say… a few miles to the west …or maybe to the east….? I just bet there is more Gold than anyone has every realized in the rocks of that area.

Searching the little I did for this short account I came across an account published in 1984 of the geological findings of that area… EVERYTHING POINTS to rocks that have Gold in them! No kidding!

Do you believe that is DUMB? You're right!

What am I getting at…?

Well – it is all about mystery in our own backyard. It is about stuff that we know nothing about. It is about the possibilities meeting our desires and the difficulties that we encounter when our own desires overtake common sense.

It is about scams… and people being hurt. It is about human tragedies that cripple families and hurt kids forever.

How in the dickens do you draw that conclusion Lincoln?

Remember the tree that my friend up rooted? It was the beginning of the real truth of the area that revealed to him far more than he knew before he pulled that huge tree out.

I met another friend that has lost everything. No it wasn’t because of Gold Mining problem/scam. It was because of lust and adultery.

He met a younger lady than the one that he was living with/married to. It seems that the “older model” that he was married to was not meeting his needs. He simply jumped ship and bedded the new lady.

Your first thoughts were likely the same as mine. The new model was young and vivacious – right?

Nope. She was old and haggard – well used actually. She had thin gray hair… a saggy body and not a lot of life. But she had demands and required high maintenance. My silly friend had jumped out of one comfortable bed to another not so comfortable bed – and seemed to think this was SMART!

This couple along with the new lady were OLDER… knocking on their mid sixties doors.

Do you agree that is DUMB?

Well I make another simple statement here…it is DUMB to do it when their kids of are younger as well! Kids hurt when parents lose their sense of common sense.

Back to the Cordova Mine scam…
The reason that the scammers went to jail was they had ripped life savings from the families that had worked so hard to gain them. People left that gig with NOTHING.

The stupid friend of mine that jumped from one bed to another – lost it all as well. He lost respect from his adult children. He lost contact with all of his grandkids. He is living like a reject with a rejected “tailings” of a woman.

It is so sad.

But it doesn’t stop with that silly old grandpa. Nope. Three families I know have just called it quits. They are young – mid 30s and early 40s. The kids are just entering puberty. The two dads have found something softer, happier and more fun. One mom found a new wonder man. None of them know yet just how much baggage the other new mate has brought along.

It is so very sad.

From dead mines to dead marriages and dead kids – the distance is not that great. But the scams are the same. Mystery in our own backyard…hmmmm? BALONEY!

~ Murray Lincoln ~