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Got out yesterday to a new spot on a new creek, at this point in time i can only say that it's south of saginaw and north of the Ohio border. took with me a shovel, 2 buckets, a #2 mesh classifier, a stainless steel spagetti strainer, a little folding chair, my back-pack, and my F-75 w/ a 15in.DD & a 5in. DD. Got to a particular wide drawn-out curve I had cords for, and quickly scanned the inside, bench side startin in the water at ankle depth in towards dry bank, 12ft at the widest and about 30ft. in lenth, using the 15in. coil to determine where this creek-bed section had the highest mineralized soils. Figured on a most likely place to start diggin, and dug me a hole, got the hole about 2ft, in diamiter and bout a ft. deep. Then commenced to fillin a bucket bout 2/3rds. full. Used the other bucket to classify it down to just dirt and sand, and then sat down to pan it all out. (I'm really glad I bought me a 17in. Black Pro-pan w/8 riffles instead of usin that green 4 rifle garret pan that came w/ my GPAA membership). And after gettin through everything in the bucket I finally foud me some genuine Michigan GOLD. It ain't alot, and it's mostly, very tiny, microscopic, yellow metal slivers. But there was 3 peices I could put my finger on and move them around the pan, not pickers, just flakes. I got there later in the day than I had planned on, and by then it was goin on 6PM, so I got this color separated from the black sands the best I could,( now I know I need, at least, a 30-50 mesh classifier), sniffer bottled it up, switched the coils on my MD to the 5in. to scan my pile of gravel tailings, (nothing there), so I stashed my buckets, shovel, and chair in the woods bout 30yds. away up the hill, marked that spot on my GPS with a waypoint. Closed the back-pack, grabed my MD and headed back to the car. Was on my way by 8PM and was home by 10. My cheap digital camera wont let me get a decent close-up pic of this vile and the yellow I got ain't much at all, but after I've gotten more put in there, and git the rest of that magnatite out of there, ya'll will see a pic. But here's a pic of my little creek I call "Cozy"...RH

Sorry we have not been around.  Jules has finished her treatments and her last scan is clear.  Doc says she is good to go.  We will be leaving Wv in the next few weeks and headed to our claims in Idaho.  We would like to thank everyone for their prayers without them not sure we could have gotten though this.  Everyone have a safe summer and get lots of gold!!!

Okay, so I've been seeing a few more articles around about dredging bans and outlawing, etc., I know that in California it has something to do with harming fish, is this from the fact that the dredges use gas powered motors? I know that the Sand N Gold hand pump/sniper is legal there, so I'm a little confused as to why the ban, unless it's the gas and oil in the motors...anyone shed some light on this for me?

Working the Creek at French gulch this week end and pulled this out a pile of rust untill I cleaned it up a little     A Bench Mark ???

Any one for digging Jul 6, 7 and 8 ?  Have detector and pan.  Have access to GPAA claims.  L. Roy Carden    rcarden4@verizon.net

I WAS JUST WANTING TO FIND OUT IF THE YELLOW STUFF IS BEING FOUND ? AND IF ANY QUANTITIES ..WANTING TO GO UP THERE SOON,,,,,

I'd like to see if  I  can find out who the person in the wheelchair is on the cover of the GPAA club mining guide. My son is in a wheelchair also,but all of the wheel chairs we've had in the late ten years don't hold up.The one in the picture looks heavy duty.If at all possible I'd like to talk to him about the chair.Thanks,Chuck P.S. my number is 661-763-9323

I've been busy gathering up pictures to download to a digital frame to hang up at my store.

One of the photos I scanned and downloaded was of me, diving with my Garrett XL 200 Sea Hunter. I know, the XL 500 was a much better model. The XL 200 was only made like one year, but when I bought it in the mid-80's I didn't know it. All I knew was that I heard Mel Fisher, yes THAT Mel Fisher, said that the Garrett Sea Hunter was the best metal detector he had ever used. The photo was from the late 80's.

This story deals with the early 90's. I was scuba diving off the Florida Keys. It was a Dive Vacation that I found through 'Skin Diver' Magazine. I took along my Garrett Sea Hunter since I was going to be searching for sunken treasure. After some orientation the first day, we actually dove around 2 that afternoon. In an hour of diving, all I found was junk.

I said that this was a ghost story, so I guess I should get to it. That second day we dove, I was we, as there were myself and five other divers. I was the "old man" of the bunch. (I'm always the oldest. LOL) I was at about 40-45 feet underwater searching with my Sea Hunter again. My attention was firmly planted on the sea floor beneath me. About 20 minutes into the dive, I was between 2 rock outcroppings. My Fellow divers were out of my line of sight.

I large shadow passed over me. It was long and I looked up, but didn't see anything. At 45 feet there is still some light filtering through from the sun over head. At first, I figured it was one of the other divers. But as I popped up over the rocks, they were scattered over the area. I passed it off and continued my treasure hunting. When we surfaced and regrouped at the dive boat, I asked if anyone else had seen the shadow. Of course, we joked about a Mermaid to a shark to a cloud blotting out the sun. (The cloud actually made the most sense, except it was long and narrow. And there were very few clouds in the sky.)

I never did discover what the shadow was. Neither did I find any sunken treasure. I did have a great time diving, a little drinking and kicking back with a great group of people. Not to mention, anytime I could trade my shirt and tie for swim trunks and polo, priceless.

Good Hunting, Brian (Charlotte49er @ Gold Rush Guys)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2012%2F06%2F01%2Fstate%2Fn153044D52.DTL

Just read this, sad day for California prospectors, warning for the rest of us....

I thought that with 3 days off I would end up with plenty of prospecting time but the unplanned and planed always comes up !  Friday evening My oldest Son's Graduation from Shasta College,  Saturday I replaced dry rotted planking on the deck while Jane ran her Mom to the emegency room, She suddenly couldnt focus or track with Her eyes so fearing strokes off we went, They kept Her overnight and it seems she was just dehydrated  THANK GOD !  Sunday  Canceled a Graduation dinner and party and the day was spent getting Mom out of the Hospital and back home MONDAY A SMALL WINDOW OF OPIRTUNITY !!! up and out of the house by 7:30 and headed to French Gulch I had 7 and a halve hours before  a Graduation / Memorial day gathering  I made back in time WET, DIRTY, TIRED, But Happy and relaxed ! So heres a few photos !

I just want to thank all the people that have served our counrty in the past, present, and future who knows where we would be with out you!

Just to get things rolling I have had deep fried Rattler   Not Bad !but heres my favorite way to prepare Rattler.

Saute 3 large onions, two bell peppers and six cloves of garlic in butter. set a pan of diced tomatoes to simmer add chopped cellary 3 tablspoons of good hot sauce and 2 tsp of salt.  Clean the snake and cut into 4 inch lengths spread these out on a ceader plank gett your charcoal grill going at about 325 and put the plank up high if needed wet the plank to keep it from burninig cover the snake with the onion,pepprs and garlic.    Baste regularly for about an hour and halve with the tomatoe mixture.             WHEN FULLY DONE THROW AWAY THE SNAKE AND EAT THE PLANK !!!!

                                                                             Laughing Here !!

I saw a post on here on what you use to get to the claims, while there were some cool vehicles posted, I must say if I can find one of these and fix it up for a camper as well...in the words of Doc Brown, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."

This arrived yesterday and is it a beauty!  Heckler Fabrication does a great job.  I had it set up for fine gold with expanded metal over MM over v matting.  I plan on also trying gold hogs mats as well.  Any words of wisdom out there, this is my first highbanker.

I tell you what, I have a degree in social psychology and I still don't understand women, no sir, not one bit. My wife is from England, hates it here in Texas, too hot, too dry, too crowded, no seasons. So I told her that as soon as we can we'll move to someplace that's better for her health and find a place with 4 seasons and gets a fair amount of snow. (I tried to sell her on Alaska, but she says the seasons have to be longer than a few days.) We'd pretty much made up our minds to go with her allergists recommendation and move to Northern California, this being after she'd had us take a mini family vacation to the Smoky mountains in Tennessee and scout out that area, she loved it, but then changed her mind for Northern Cali., now after talking to my daughter who lives in northern Alabama, she's now wanting to re-look at Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.... go figure, guess we'll have to wait a few days like the weather here in Texas, give it a bit and it will change.

I get the same questions about 100-times a week.. "So how do I get started in gold prospecting? What kind of tools do I need? Are there particular rocks or plants I should be looking for that will point me to gold? How do you sluice? How do you pan? Yadda, yadda, yadda..."

I bought a case of Chris Ralph's book, "Fists Full of Gold," when it was published, and have used them ever since as text books on the ride out to the claims, in motel rooms at night, and sometimes out in the goldfields - especially when we explain basic geology and rock formations to the newbs. Over the last couple of years more than a few have gone home with guests, and I will have to buy another case pretty soon.

That got me to thinking about how much I personally learned from "Fists Full of Gold." I also thought that, if everyone who asks me these same questions every week knew about the book maybe they would stop calling me!

I wrote a short piece on the book for our AGA Facebook page, and I would like to share it with you as well. Looking forward to your comments. - Props to Mr. Ralph!

Gold Prospecting 101: Where do I start?
By Terry Soloman

So, you want to be a gold prospector but you aren’t sure how – or where, to get started? No problem. At Arizona Gold Adventures http://ArizonaGoldAdventures.com we start our students’ search for gold in the library!

The first book AGA recommends to all of our “Greenhorns,” is “Fists Full of Gold,” by Chris Ralph. In his book, Chris explains the basic tools for gold prospecting - from the shovel and gold pan, to High Banking, Suction Dredging, Sluicing, Dry Washing, Metal Detecting, and even small scale mining equipment.

Chris then introduces the reader to basic geology for the gold prospector including minerals; common rock types; plate tectonics; hard-rock and placer gold deposits; recognizing and understanding rock formations; and the geology of placer gold formations.

Chris also writes about techniques for finding and working placer gold deposits, researching and sampling promising areas, and how to stake a gold claim once you have made a discovery. In the appendices you’ll find a glossary of gold prospecting terms, and lots of useful info on the 1872 Mining Law; clubs and organizations; gold prospecting magazines and online forums; how to estimate the gold content of specimens; hazards of gold prospecting; and much more.

Fists Full of Gold – By Chris Ralph – Goldstone Publishing – ISBN: 978-0-9842692-0-4 – Soft Cover, 361 pages - $29.95

Anyone been to the new Mesa County CSC1-4 claims ? I need reports on these locations as they are new and taking a week to prospect there this summer. Any recomendations for good highbanker locations in CO ? 

Went to quartzville for 2 days a couple weeks ago.  Found color right off the bat but also found a lot of a silver material that was heavy too.  Can this be gold treated with mercury or is it something different??  Anyone out there with experience in this area with an idea of what we were finding...PLEASE add a comment. 

Well, since the Llano river seems to be the place most of us go to for gold here in Texas I got to thinking and have asked others, seems no one has bothered trying to see whats up the river further on....now, I realize I'm new to all this prospecting stuff, but, the small specks they're finding comes from up river right? So if I want to find bigger gold I should go further up the river right? Well at least this is my thinking, I found a mile of river that's NEVER had anyone on it to look for gold...o0....so in the morning the family and I are heading up to the northwest part of the Llano, if I don't find any color, then I'm thinking I've gone too far and need to look back down river....fingers crossed tomorrow evening I'll be posting pictures of something bigger than I found last Saturday.

As an avid reader ( and someone who has an extremely wide variety of interest ), I have noticed that one of the things that gets discussed in this forum, is the smelting and recovery of gold from magnetic black sands.   While I have very limited experience with gold, I noticed that I might be able to supply fellow members of the forum with data that might make their efforts in smelting gold a little easier.

As apart of investigating the hobby of iron smelting  and knowing the use and desirability by smelting hobbyist of magnetite as an ore for the smelting of iron, the understanding of fluxes and how they work might help not just those dealing with smelting iron but those that are trying to remove iron oxides while smelting gold or other metal.   As such I have some e-books from the mid to late 1800's and the earliest parts of the 1900's that as a part of the book talk about fluxes and how they work with iron oxide and as such I am going to try sharing them with this forum.  

There is a problem in the fact that the e-books that are in .pdf format and are quite large, the smallest of them is about 15 MB which is about 3 times what is allowable for blog uploads, and neither Tim G or I have any idea how well the forum will handle such large files, so he told me to try and he will let me know if there is a problem with them - at which point I will remove them.   

After promoting from GreatGrandmother Rose and a couple of others and with permission from Tim G, I am hopefully going to be able give to the forum the first of 4 e-books about iron smelting.

The manufacture of iron in all its various branches - 1851

File Size Warning ~70 MB