Gold prospecting? [Archive]

Love Life

08-22-2011, 12:51 PM

Anybody here ever get into it? I live around a bunch of old gold mines and the sierra Nevada range. I have been thinking of doing some panning and metal detecting around the area. Anybody else do this? Seems like a very interesting and possibly rewarding hobby. I go on long range hikes throughout the area and figure why not? Kill two birds with one stone.

So my questions are does anybody else do this and if so do you ave any pointers?

MtGun44

08-22-2011, 01:20 PM

I have panned up a few bits in Alaska. I'd think that there must be a few flakes here
and there still left, but I doubt you'll find much. People have been sifting those streams for
150 yrs, probably haven't got it all, but surely most of it. I'd worry about any mines being
really dangerous to go into. A friend did desert prospecting for a few years, never really
heard that he found much, but we were mostly out of touch after he moved away to do
that at retirement.

I had some fun in Alaska, but oh man that water is really, really cold.

Bill

Love Life

08-22-2011, 01:39 PM

I definately plan on staying out of the old mines. The front of the mines are crumbly and I fear getting trapped in one. I was thinking more along the lines of a metal detector and panning som of these high mountain streams. It wouldn't be much more weight to hike around. Also it would be another great excuse to go camping!

mold maker

08-22-2011, 02:23 PM

I spent about 17 years of my life with a pan in hand. Every week end, and vacation found me in the streams of Western NC, Western SC, and Northern Ga.
Gold fever is lots worse than casting pox.
I never struck it rich, but the communion with Nature and fun I had was worth it all. I did find small amounts of gold and seldom got skunked. The gold I sold, paid for all my equipment and I saved enough to make jewelry for the girls in my life. I still have over 6 Toz of dust and small nuggets.
BTW.... Gold hit $1879.70/oz briefly today. It will top $1900. this week on the way to $2000.
At those prices, you better carry a gun with your pan. If folks think you have found gold, their apt to help you carry it back to town, without you.

Cord

08-22-2011, 02:35 PM

I’ve done some panning and prospecting, years ago, in 11 western states.
There is fresh “flood gold” washed down out of the Sierra Nevada every spring.
It does not often occur in the high concentrations the 49ers found, in ancient deposits,
but you can still find good flake and occasional nuggets.

At current prices, I suspect it will become a popular hobby once again.
Do your geological and claims research first, and be careful.
Knowing the laws, the land and who held claims on it saved me a lot of trouble.

Love Life

08-22-2011, 02:41 PM

Good call on carrying the pistol when out and about. I was planning on it for 4 legged creatures and didn't even consider the 2 legged type. I can't believe gold is so high. If I find even a little bit I could pay off equipment. I'm not sure where to start though. I see metal detectors priced pretty well, but will they do the job? Is a dedicated gold finding detector the best way to go? The panning stuff is pretty cheap and I'm not to worried about it.

I have been reading through the California and Nevada mining district books. Talk about a lot to read. Oh well. Maybe I'll find a little gold here and there. Sure will be fun and all part of the adventure when I go out hiking and camping. Oh man if I had only been born 170 years earlier.

waksupi

08-22-2011, 03:32 PM

I do a bit of panning, but am not prepared to get down to bedrock, where the real color is. I found some flakes panning here on my property this spring. I figure if I move an acre or so of clay and gravel, I may be able to buy a cup of coffee.
Lots of restrictions on panning in streams, so use due diligence in being sure you are legal.

Cariboo

08-22-2011, 04:04 PM

I never used a metal detector, but I have paned a bit, used a small sluice, and been around dredges. Lost the onset of gold fever years ago when I founded $10.00 worth by the end of a hard 8 hour day, wages at that time were $10.00/ hour without working so hard.
We've had lots of rain this year might have to go for a walk again. Now should I go get some galena or look for something yellow?

shaune509

08-22-2011, 07:02 PM

Check to see if there is a local 'Gold Prospecters Asso. club' in your area you might find some one that will take you along or a club forua[sp] to see what the local seen is like.
shaune509

Love Life

08-23-2011, 12:24 AM

Thank you for all the advice so far. I will try and get some panning in in the near future.

Triggerhappy

08-23-2011, 12:49 AM

I grew up in NV and lived 20 years in CA, plenty of the time spent in the Sierras. Did some panning, dredging, high banking, etc over the years, pretty heavily in the 90's.

Had a gun pulled on me a few times from people that presumed they had claim to a part of a stream. I'll bet it's worse now days.

Be armed, visibly.

Don't go alone.

Mind the claims, even if it's not an official claim. People get strange out there.

Mind the special restrictions on streams and rivers. Some places you can't disturb the stream bed.

Lear the geology and hydrology of your area.

Good luck and have fun.

TH

Cariboo

08-23-2011, 01:14 AM

an example of "People get strange out there." I took a couple of a friend's friends out and showed them where they could set up thier small dredge to find some color. Well we got $5-$10.00 worth that afternoon. Their eyes glazed over, one loaded his .444 Marlin the other his 20ga Rem pump and they started carring on that no one was going to get their gold! So I took my clue and said I was headed for the bar see you latter. I had a 15 mile hike to the bar enjoyed my beer and made it a point not to see them again.

Buckshot

08-23-2011, 01:49 AM

..............I used to do quite a bit of panning and sluiceing years ago. Even built a small dredge. I did most all my panning locally in Cajon Pass (where I-15 passes through) in the creek down below old US 66. There's a place call "Blue Cut" where the old highway makes a fairly sharp curve and there's a large deposit/cliff of bluish-green Serpentine I think it is.

Anyway the creek isn't any big deal but generally runs all year and drains a pretty decent amount of land. My boyhood buddy and I would drag our young brides up there and work like Trojans, moving what seemed like 10 cubic yards of material through our pans, and later on sluice boxes in an afternoon [smilie=w: On a few occasions it seemed like we'd see some color in most every pan, and even came up with some of what we called 'Clinkers'. These were tiny nuggets when placed into the specimen bottle would actually clinck when shook. If I worked that hard today I'd probably have a freaking stroke:(

As Waksupi mentioned, down around bedrock in most active streams is where the gold will eventually work it's way down to. However really wet winters may scour down to bedrock in plces and move deposits downstream. The area of Blue Cut is almost on the San Andreas fault. About 20 miles to the east, above the city of San Bernardino in the mountains is Holcomb Valley. In the 1880's there was a large gold strike there, and it almost became the county seat of San Bernardino County. Some of the silver mines in and around Calico Ghost Town still get worked when the silver price goes up, so I imagine those are being worked now[smilie=w: Then there is Lytle Creek Canyon which opens into the mouth of Cajon Pass, and it was hydraulicly mined for gold way back. I wouldn't be surprised if a few gold mines around Red Mountain and Randsburg (north of us on US 395) were being re-investigated now that gold is up around $2K/oz.

................Buckshot

Love Life

08-23-2011, 10:43 AM

I read recently that a company just invested 20 million dollars into the old Sutter mine that kicked off the gold rush. The article said that at today's prices there is about 1 billion worth of gold left that old miners didn't have the technology or capability to mine.

Cord

08-23-2011, 11:23 AM

bearcove

08-23-2011, 11:51 AM

Lot of work if you have a good claim. A friend has a decent claim by the Copper river in Alaska. He has a backhoe, truck and a fairly large sluice running. Over the last 25 years the equipment, and upkeep of it has taken all the gold he has found and every check he has made working as an operator. If gold stays at $2000 for 5 years he might be able to break even for the 30 years he has put into it.

I decided fishing in the stream was more fun and about as profitable as rooting around for gold in it.

Cariboo

08-23-2011, 01:16 PM

bearcove

08-23-2011, 01:53 PM

Yeah, but you never know when you will find the Bonanza.

Dreamers for sure.

Love Life

08-23-2011, 02:47 PM

Love Life, where are you located, roughly?
Seems like some of the guys may have specific tips
you can use if the tips are closer to your home area...

Panning is OK for sampling and exploring but it is
really tedious and makes for a very hard day's work.

Generally speaking, if a shovel full of material will produce
more than 15 "colors" that site may be worth working by other methods.
You would never want to work that by pan, though.
.

I am in Northern California and right on the Nevada border. I am an hour and a half from Reno in Mono county. I am pretty centrally located to go hit some of the known gold bearing spots around the area. I am really excited about this.

rbertalotto

08-23-2011, 03:34 PM

A friend did desert prospecting for a few years, never really
heard that he found much, but we were mostly out of touch after he moved away to do
that at retirement.

Your friend has a new hobby now................

http://tradingmastermind.com/ForexTradingLifestyle/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Lady-Moura-Yacht-For-a-Prince.jpg

quilbilly

08-23-2011, 03:51 PM

In your area of the Sierras the geology isn't quite right for much panning but if you go over the passes to the West side of the Sierras you can pan in most any of the creeks in the gold belt between 1000 and 4000 feet elevation and find color. The Tuolumne and Stanislaus basins there is was a lot of color for your pan.
You might even try Desert Creek closer to home for you which is out of a different mountain range but I don't know its geology.
There is a method for dry panning I have never tried but know about so you could go farther east into Nevada. I can think of several locations where you might try that and might even get enough to file your own claim.
To get your feet wet (so to speak) in gold panning, I would head for one of the state parks on the major rivers to your west or try under bridges in the national forests in the above mentioned basins where you know you won't be treading on someone else's mining claim.
Gold panning is a great outing for the whole family. I highly recommend it whether you strike color or not.

Love Life

08-23-2011, 05:07 PM

Thank you quilbilly. I looked at giving desert creek a try. I need to do some research first though so I know what geology to look for so I'm not just bumbling around. I have seriously considered heading east into Nevada. There have been quite a few nugget finds that were only a few inches into the earth.

I was thinking I may try at the Yuba river as well.

BruceB

08-23-2011, 05:16 PM

There are active gold panners over here in the Winnemucca area of Nevada ("The Silver State", go figure). I believe we are the third-largest gold-producing political ENTITY in the world, meaning that we produce more gold from our STATE than do many COUNTRIES.

I know several productive places within five miles of where I sit, and folks I know have been doing fairly-well at it for years. Not getting rich, mind you, but well-enough to keep them interested as a profitable hobby/sideline. Most use small gas water pumps and portable sluices to increase efficiency.

Panning is really an exploration method, as mentioned, not a very viable production technique.

Digger

08-23-2011, 11:21 PM

Hey there Love Life ... been doin the prospecting thing for years off and on ... most enjoyable if you keep it in perspective and these days , keep your pistol on your hip and look over you shoulder now and then ...as some of the members here have hinted at.
Best if you have a friend with .... makes it more fun , plus extra set of eyes as times have changed from when people have laughed at me when they went by while I was panning .....now they look quietly at you ...

Look at the history around you .... here in Nevada on the east side of the Sierra's there is a lot of it for research .
As some have said in the past , go look where it has already been found ... from Bodie south of us ,, all the way to Virginia city on north as Bruce has said about the Wennimucca area , so much history is here .
Sometimes I have more fun with the metal detector looking for what ever pops up as far as relics as panning on occasion ..
Been dredging in some spots over in Calif. in the past as well , it's an excellent hobby to get into as it opens up so much of this country to explore ... there is always some place else to go look at ..
Back in the early days between the logging and prospecting this part of the country was pretty well covered over or time or two ...

And you can find gold in the local rivers and streams with some persistence along with dry works .....
I have a spot or two that I go to on occasion to enjoy myself and come back with a little color in the pan here locally .. but study your history , it will tell you where ....
With the end of summer coming on the low water will be an advantage .... going into the fall as you can get to areas you could not before ... enjoy yourself ...
pic from another thread here ...35158

digger

Simonpie

08-24-2011, 04:21 PM

I was camping on an old abandoned gold mine site near Sumpter Oregon years ago. Some friends were washing a few pans for fun. One came up with a pan full of heavy flakes and a couple of BB sized chunks. More color than all the pans I'd ever seen combined. Eyes glaze over and someone goes running to the shed for a portable sluice. 8 hours of shoveling gravel later they had less gold than that one pan.

troy_mclure

08-25-2011, 07:31 PM

i used to occasionally in washington. lots of good areas on the back 40 of ft. lewis. i think the guys that make the real money are the ones selling the gold hunting equipment.

quilbilly

08-25-2011, 11:57 PM

a pan and a small shovel always has a home in the back of my truck. You never know

Love Life

08-29-2011, 02:59 PM

http://www.iboats.com/Bounty-Hunter-HardRock-Pro-Gold-Prospecting-Kit/dm/view_id.797726

Will this be a good kit to buy to start out? I'm not sure if all te stuff included in the kit is neccessary, but I don't want to be missing an essential piece of equipment.

Once again I want to thank everybody who has helped me out.

Digger

08-29-2011, 09:17 PM

Looks a bit expensive but it's been quite a while since I have bought anything ..... still getting used to prices lately.
One advantage , you will have all the basics for your panning needs with that kit...
I am used to seeing the gold pans in the hard ware stores when ever I needed a new one , guess they are disappearing also .
On the occasion I would go to the big Reno gun show , I also would stop by Reno prospectors supply on Claremont st in Reno .... kind of rounded out the weekend.
Went online just a bit ago and found out the owner had passed away last year but the wife and son are still there... they had all you would need and then some. 775-329-7553 , low key neighborhood but good people , it's been about three years since I have last been there.
(Plus he had a FFL lic.)
Also here are some links you might find interesting , lots and lots of info to help out ....
http://nevadanuggethunters.myfreeforum.org/index.php
http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/

As I was driving by the museum in Carson city saturday , they had the coin show going on and they had a gold panning booth set up for the people who were there , looked like they were having fun !

Almost forgot ...... A huge thank you for your past and future service to our country .....

digger

PatMarlin

08-30-2011, 11:28 PM

I've been in it off and on professionally all of my life. Extensively in California, and as far as Cambodia and Viet Nam. Dredging mostly, but I've spent a lot of time detecting.

A guy that knows what he's doing and what to look for can do well with a detector. Concentrate on high benches with tertiary channel over bedrock, and high up fractured bedrock. The Chinese worked much of these areas as frequently the white man would not let them work down in the streams. What the white man didn't realize was much of the time the Chinaman out produced him,

A detector can put you onto rich materials in short order to run over a small sluice then pan. Stay away from overburden. Follow the bedrock.

PatMarlin

08-30-2011, 11:54 PM

One more tip aside from being strapped at all times is to take your dog with you. You need an alarm system for critters specially cats in California.

My favorite gold pan is Garret- green w/nugget trap riffles.

Favorite detector is the Fisher Gold Bug Mod 1, 2, but the killer now is the Gold Bug Pro- or the Teknetics G2 which is the exact same machine, made by Fisher. They are picking up gold in areas already worked, and missed by other detectors.

Clinebo

08-31-2011, 12:55 AM

I'm with Pat. I like the Garret green pan with the riffles,and own a Gold Bug detector.
If you get the Outdoor Channel, watch the Gold Fever shows with Tom Masse. You don't need to spend a lot of money on all that extra stuff till you figure out where you are going and what you are doing. Metal detectoring is a whole different ballgame than panning or sluicing. Buy some books and read up on your area and like someone said see if there is a GPAA chapter in your area to visit. My neighbor spent 3 yrs fighting with the FS to get his claim up and running with heavy equipment. Just sold the whole works to a guy from europe. Claim,equipment, whole shootin' match! He's grinnin' all the way to the bank. Was getting some good gold though.:D

Shooter6br

08-31-2011, 12:59 AM

In my county of Bucks Pa. There are stories of hidden loot from the 1776 era from a group of bandits. Not found. Also a surgeon who was Captain Kids own buried treasure near a famaous hill Bowmens Hill in Washington's Crossing. Small silver mines dot the county long played out. The only loot i could get is the lottery LOL:kidding: By the way the expression" Dont pull my chain" was from coal mining. Seems the miners had a "commode" seat on a mining car. The men would put a piece of chain under the wheel so you did not go for a ride when sitting on the "commode" Therefore if a fellow miner " pulled your chain" you went on a very scarry " ride" Believe it or not......

PatMarlin

08-31-2011, 01:18 AM

I used to know them Masse Brothers, and the Keene Brothers. I've been out of that loop for about 14-15 years.

I'm gonna start back up detecting on Saturdays when time frees up. Can't dredge anymore. We own a house on Indian Creek in Happy Camp and can't even dredge it... :roll:

taminsong

08-31-2011, 07:10 AM

Pat,

I'm just curious, can your detector detect some piece of metal buried in the ground maybe ten feet or more?

PatMarlin

08-31-2011, 09:05 AM

Not with these type of detectors.

What could possibly pick it up is dowsing rods, depending on the target, and how good the dowser is.

PatMarlin

08-31-2011, 09:30 AM

If anyone is thinking about getting into prospecting, you need to find someone that can show you the ropes that knows what he's doing. More important than the equipment is knowing what to look for and the history of the area, conditions, and a plan of how you are going to work. I've seen a lot of folks, all geared up and had no idea where to go or what to do.

Another example is the boys on that gold show. The ones that headed for AK with none of them knowing what they were doing. I've been there and done that with partners that had far more expertise. If they would have hired someone who had a clue, they would have realized their season length and equipment (and ability to run said equipment) was no match for 70 feet of overburden.

It was painful to watch that show... :mrgreen:

Digger

08-31-2011, 08:28 PM

Don't mean to hyjack this one .... California chalked up another one last year making dredging illegal , there go the greenie's again .
Yes the Fisher gold bugs are great detector's to use , very fast response and light .
I have one of the original Gold bugs and boy does it have a lot of time on it , now days it has some thing wrong with the wiring or some other , wish I could get it fixed as it was great to use.
Inherited a Minelab Sovereign from the father in law , older high quality machine but still works , just a completely different way to use or technique .
All this talk on prospecting makes me want to get out again ... been so busy with life , home repair , work schedule ( now days ,,, shouldn't complain about that one. ).
So much fun gettin out and seeing the country side and chasing history too , and kind of miss using the "Blue Bowl" now and then....

By the way Pat , have a 2 1/2 inch Keene dredge from back in the early 80 's my dad and I picked up , on the rare occasion I use it as a high banker with modified riffle set up for fine flood gold .... still the original Briggs and Stratton with Keen pump , can't believe it still works these days.

Digger

PatMarlin

09-01-2011, 05:27 AM

That 2 1/2" Keene was my first dredge at 15. My buddy and I found coarse quartz incrusted jagged gold in very small creek in Shingle Springs, Ca with gold pans. The steel kind you burn in a fire.. :mrgreen:

We used that gold to buy the dredge and pulled several ounces with it. No air.

Truth be told California killed off dredging years ago when they started limiting the length of seasons and nozzle sizes. There's just not enough time, using the limited equipment size to make it pay well. The other issue is now days, much has been dredged and has made it harder to find virgin paystreaks. If you started back in the 70's like I did, you had a chance to do well. It's a loser now, no matter.

IMHO the greatest opportunity is with the right detector for the conditions, and a small sluice. A guy can work virgin ground if he knows what to look for, and work bedrock with crevices that have sealed up over the ages. If you find a good area where it would pay to run a highbanker, then I would add that to it. I've used the detector exclusively to locate such areas.

I engineered and designed gold mining equipment for a living. A younger Patmarlin.. :mrgreen:

Here's a Highbanker I designed with a Schmidt Gold trap built in the sluice. 2 guys could shovel into it without a hiccup. It worked like a hydromatic shot jig. It would recover frog hair fine gold. I pulled an ounce a day (when gold was about $380) here working virgin channel high up on a bench, on the N' Fork of the American River. No modern dredgers ever been there. This is how to do well mining these days. Found with a detector- the old gold bug.

http://www.patmarlins.com/powersmidt1.jpg

PatMarlin

09-01-2011, 05:41 AM

Here' s my last dredge adventure- 2 Dahlke mfg. dredges I built at his shop in Washington back in 2008. 7" -galvinized steel suction hose. Dove tail rifflles. Talk about light weight Farrari dredges.

We dropped them 350' down into a river canyon. I'll never do another dredge project again.

http://www.patmarlins.com/8marvin.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/9marvin.jpg

Digger

09-01-2011, 09:11 AM

Yes it was that was a heck of a lot of work there Pat , had a lot of fun after using the 4 inch w/air telling my friends where the big fish hung out .....[smilie=1:

You did some beautiful work creating those machines as they were the top of the line (probably still are) and once in place , really move some material.
The gentlemen that you mention are getting to be legends in the prospecting world , that is quite some back ground to be proud of Pat .

Seems Love Life opened up some history here ......

Digger

09-08-2011, 09:52 PM

Had to take my mind off things around here lately ...... visited another site to see what is the latest that people find out there .
The location he talks about is the creek that follows highway 395 south of Bridgeport near the Bodie turn off I believe .... you can still see some of the old tailing piles from the highway .
If you go on up the road to Conway summit , you have gone to far but the country all around is most spectacular .
I think there are some dry diggings on the east side of the summit also by going over to the lake side then east along the dirt roads ...... been playing around that area once in the past ... had a hard time keeping my nose to the ground , the mountains are so pretty in the area .
Chase down some history around there , it will explain a little ....
Link http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,422005.0.html

PatMarlin

09-08-2011, 10:32 PM

Sounds like fun. My mining buddy just sent up my old Gold Bug. I had sold it to him years ago, and we've passed it back and forth for since 94... :mrgreen:

Leadforbrains

09-09-2011, 04:35 PM

I am a relatively new to prospecting. I have gold pans, a mini sluice box and a portable electric Hibanker. I have found some flakes, fines and some pickers. Not enough to call it a success financially, but all the fun I am having is priceless.

Clinebo

09-09-2011, 05:11 PM

Nice work Pat. The "Gold Fever" has hit my neck of the woods. This area has a rich mining history and there are lots of 'townies" in the hills lookin for that yellow gold. Don't have a clue what they are doing.....but they are looking. Now that the kids are back in school and the vacationers are about done I'll get more busy in the streams. If I don't come back with any color,I might at least have a grouse or 2 for supper. :)

PatMarlin

09-09-2011, 06:37 PM

If I was getting into detecting again, I would buy my wife one of the new (the newest version) Gold Bug Pro or it's called the "Teknetics G2" -same make by fisher just packaged for another market.

Guys are detecting benches, crevices and creek moss, roots etc. If they get a signal they shovel it up and run it over their sluice. Once you learn the machine and get into a gold bearing area, guy could do pretty well, even with small and fine gold.

Along with all the manual features, these new detectors have mineralization reading levels and a dual tone oscillator, that the breakpoint can be set and split the discrimination to let all the steel ferrous junk hit with a low tone signal, yet all the nonferrous and gold hit with a high tone right amongst each other in the same area. You could ground out hot rocks the same way. Much easier and more powerful features than the old gold bugs. Guys are finding coins, gold, and other finds in areas already worked with other type detectors.

Why waste time digging out a crevice that's been cleaned before? If there's no signal, move on!

You can detect grounds for rings, coins, even on the beach with the new GB. Very cool. It can work side by side with my old gold bug also I believe. I want one... :mrgreen:

nanuk

09-09-2011, 08:23 PM

I live near some gold bearing rivers, and go fishing in an area where gold was mined and the rivers are supposed to hold gold.

I also know of a pond that is spring fed that I'd like to check out.
the spring appears to be a hole around 2 feet in diameter, and over 600 feet deep, the deepest the sonar sensor could go. I was thinking of pulling up some sand from near the spring and pan it.

I am facinated by gold panning/sluicing

PatMarlin

09-09-2011, 10:49 PM

Don't waste your time with sand. Sand hardly ever holds any gold that you can see, or it's so fine you need to run a tons of it. Find hard packed OLD dirt/rock/clay in crevices on bedrock, packed. You can tell old material- dark in color tightly packed like it hasn't been picked through, or boiled through.

Unless the sand is packed, black and held by moss or old roots, and plants.

Love Life

09-09-2011, 11:57 PM

I can't wait for my first outing with a pan. I have a few spots picked out and will hit them next weekend. I have read as much as possible, but reading and doing are two different things. If there is anybody experienced within 100 miles of me (wellington, Nv) I would love to learn from you. I have a good strong back and a tireless work ethic. I can meet you at your spot if anybody is interested.

PatMarlin

09-10-2011, 12:44 AM

Here's what you want to find in every gold pan...

http://www.patmarlins.com/goldpan1.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/goldpan2,jpg

PatMarlin

09-10-2011, 12:53 AM

I pulled that out of a crevice at our property in Indian Creek, ca . Every crevice is holding like this I looked. Shallow overburden and bedrock everywhere. Look for bedrock like this with sharp edged crevices.

Unfortunately, they have stopped dredging and I should have got in there while I had the chance. Nice deep pools run year around.

http://www.patmarlins.com/creek1.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/creek2.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/creek3.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/creek4.jpg

http://www.patmarlins.com/creek5.jpg

Love Life

09-10-2011, 01:11 AM

That is what the place I plan on starting at looks like. I have hiked many (to many) miles up and down where I am going and it looks as if it has been left untouched. I don't have a metal detector so should I just leave the crevasses alone? I'm thinking that it couldn't hurt to check one or two out, but will focus mainly on panning. Lord I hope I don't find anything, because if I do you will see a lot less of me on the forum on the weekends.

PatMarlin

09-10-2011, 01:23 AM

Nooooo! -crevices are what you want to focus on. Crevices hold the gold. Don't waste your time with sand, rock and gravel (also called overburden). See pics 3-4-5? That's what's called bed rock. It's the end of the line. The rock at the bottom of the stream. Gold is the heaviest metal in that stream and it settles in the cracks in bedrock.

You will look for bedrock cracks running up out of the water like in those pics. Every crevice that runs 90 dgr angles to the stream flow holds gold there (at my place). Make you up some diggin' tools and carefully clean them puppies out. Put the materials in a 5 gallon bucket, then sluice and pan it.

See the pile of rock in pic 2 and pic 5? This is overburden. Stay away from it., You don't have the time or equipment to deal with it.

Look for rough cracked bedrock crevices. Smooth bedrock with crevices running with the stream seldom hold gold, but sometimes a nugget gets stuck in there.

Digger

09-10-2011, 07:36 PM

What ya guys think ? ..... maybe I should have posted this link in the Lead and alloys section with the title ..... A twist on scrounging ?
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,422659.0.html

waksupi

09-11-2011, 02:00 AM

If anyone ever wants to do some treasure hunting of a different kind, I can point you in a general direction.
Back in the late 1800's, a white settler was going to travel south onto the reservation, and two Indians agreed to travel with him as guides. They left from this settlement where I am, and followed the old Indian trail towards the Big Draw country.
The white man was carrying over 10,000 dollars in silver coins in his pack saddles. When the Indians reached the Big Draw, there was no white man, no pack stock, and no silver.
No one ever found the body, or the silver.
However, I was bow hunting for elk on the old trail back in 1996, and found a silver dollar, dated 1886. This was in an area that is not traveled by any modern day travelers, and no one back then that did not know the area very well, as there is a hidden spring for a water supply, that is few and far between in that area.
At that time, I did not know about the story of the traveler being waylaid, but I very strongly suspect that the silver is buried very close to that location where I found that coin.
So, if someone wants to vacation in NW Montana sometime, with a good metal detector, I will show you the area, for a 50% cut of the find. I imagine the $10,000 of that time, is worth around $410,000 at the time.

PatMarlin

09-11-2011, 10:17 AM

I'm in Ric. I'm serious. Lets go get it.

Digger

09-11-2011, 08:04 PM

Okay , now I went and done it ...... Pat's going to take off with Waksupi and production on the Rock dock and every thing else will go down hill and everyone will blame it on me ! .... thanks guy's .........:kidding::bigsmyl2:

Hey there Love life ,(maybe we should blame it on him) if nobody gets back to you about the panning , drop me a pm ....

digger

Love Life

09-11-2011, 08:14 PM

I will standfast in claiming my innocence here.

I sent you a PM Digger.

PatMarlin

09-12-2011, 11:09 AM

I was just telling Ric I don't know why I've always been attracted to this kind of stuff. More for the adventure I think. In 97' I left a business, my wife, and spent thousands to look for gold in Cambodia and Viet Nam for months hiking through mountains and jungles with kids wearing fatigs and zories strapped with AK-47's.

I needed my head examined. Still do ...:mrgreen: