Working a dry wash

Posted by NorthWestAU on April 22, 2011 at 6:57pm

Hello All,

 I will be doing some work this summer in a dry wash the claim runs six miles up a drywash with a small creek, most if not all of the gold has been found outside of the creek up on the hill sides. so my question is what do you look for if you are going to work a drywash? I would like to have a starting point.

NorthWestAU

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  • Flour (Indy Jones) Mike March 13, 2012 at 8:12pm

    If the ground is clear look for old divots. where those were dug and they have filled in with erosion. Your looking for a shape of divots that looks like an unfinished pyramid on the sides of the hills. This is where they looked for lodes in the 1800s. If they go up a ways and then stop the colors they were getting were probably from ancient river placers. When it was clear they wouldnt find a lode vein they would move on, but those half finished pyramid shapes  can dial you straight into the layers those placers are at. If they found colors enough to dig that many holes the placers wont be very deep.

  • Michael Gordon May 28, 2011 at 11:47am
    Are you talking about Lion Gulch?  I've done well in that Creeks sediment bars however the dredgers can do so much better.  It's kind of a unique Creek in that most of the gold is found between faults bed rock and the bed rock itself. look for the rusty colored compacted gravel, there you'll find the best gold. I've gotten leaf and wire gold on that Creek. The Creek has been worked extensively in the past however the occasional pocket of gold that the old-timers missed have been found. As far as finding gold on the hillsides, look for any deviations in the slope.  By that I mean spots on the slope that have flattened out somewhat.  Those are areas of ancient benches.  You'll also see in some spots depressions in the hillside indicating small feeder streams.  These ancient streams have long ago filled in with sediment and are barely visible.  It's tough to dry wash in that small valley.  When you find a likely spot you'll first need to remove 2  or 3 feet of organics and overburden before you reach the underlying gravels.  My best gold recovery has come from diligently working and cleaning out the cracks and crevices of the exposed bedrock on the side of the ravines. Good luck and let us know how you do.
    • NorthWestAU > Michael Gordon June 8, 2011 at 12:45pm

      Hi Michael,

        I just noticed this post. I have not gone up into Lions Gultch yet plan to do it soon. I have been working near Williams creek on #7 and #8 finding small flake and wire gold nothing big. I have been working about 6' from the creek digging down about 4' to date. I will be up in Liberty this weekend working the same spot. I did hit a rusty looking layer and a black layer and found gold around both. I find it hard to move up to LG if I am still finding the yellow stuff in my current spot.

      NWAU

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