A waste of time?

[Cat Jockey]

I plan on spending a year living out of a vehicle, driving from place to place all over the West, Southwest prospecting and looking for other things. To kick it off, I wanted to take a detector to as many Ghost Towns as I can, focusing on the most remote and inaccessible first. This won't be a weekend thing, it will be an everyday thing, so I should be able to cover some ground. My biggest concern is whether or not there will be anything left. Not just gold/silver, but maybe collectible relics that can be converted to gas money and food. I checked out Treasure Hunters Manual #7 from DPL, and I got to tell you, it was a little bit dejecting.

What is dejecting about it is the copyright date and the realization that KVM was my grandparents age. There, at this point, cannot exist a GT that has not been detected - and by an expert, not a rookie such as myself. Maybe, but I don't think so. Probably more than once too. I guess I'm looking for opinions of WWYD (What Would You Do)? My desire is to make enough gas and food money to support the vagabond life of a Land Sailor, but I am irresponsible enough to burn through my meager savings to feed me, my dog and a vehicle for a year and start all over, again, in a year with a real job, etc.

Are Ghost Towns a waste of time at this point? Should I maybe be more conservative and focus on the ones that are near areas where you could run a sluice or small suction dredge in case nothing pans out?

[onfire]

Maybe a waste of time to think you'll make a living for a year detecting. The experience meeting people is priceless there are a lot of people who will help you with the history (don't believe all the towns are detected out remember that disk on the end of your stick is max 12 in around it only covers a small area I've hunted places were 100's of other people have and still come up with things. Unless your equipped with the latest minelab or other big buck detectors and have many years of research it's only a hobby not a job, anyway give it a wrill keep some gas money in a buried stash so you can get back home (just kidding)

[jmoller99]

In looking for old Ghost towns, keep in mind that when the steam railroads went in, they put up a water tank every 10 to 15 miles, and some sort of town usually was established around it. Get some old train maps and start looking for towns in that are no longer on the current maps and see if you can find out more about the ones that are missing (you might not find much information, but any sort of population or use of the site will give you an idea which might be more interesting).

This type of ghost town is often neglected by Detectorists, because people don't think about them. The nice thing is they are all over the west, along the old railroad lines, and usually not that hard to find.

[Chug And Red]

When you get out this way PM me and I will take you to the gold or silver park to see what you can scrape up after I'm done with them!!!! Just remember no park is hunted out But I'm giving it my best!!!! HH Chug

[BuffaloBob]

Luck happens. But don't plan on it. First I would detect bus stops, playgrounds etc for dropped change. At least get you some gas or lunch money. Then check out the older sites. Good luck to you! Hope it works out.
BB

[Tuberale]

Like anything else, how you do will depend on what you already know. There's more gold in the West now than has already been taken out, and if you've got the prospecting skills you'll probably do fine.

Now for the bad news: if you haven't done some of what you plan on doing already, you're in for some rough times I think.

That said, I wish you well. Chug and Red will show you a good time in Vancouver.

But if you really want some good gold, be sure to hit the extreme southwestern corner of Oregon along the coast: good gold and platinum in black sand deposits there. If you already own a dredge that you can run in salt water through, that site alone may pay for your trip. In the 1930's during the Depression this area was worked extensively for gold in an area that the miner's cursed soundly because the platinum (then worth $20/ounce) would clog their riffles, allowing the fine gold to flow out the back. Southern Oregon also had the only hard-rock platinum mine in the United States. Be sure to take a strong magnet with you to this area, to separate out the ilmenite, magnetite and monzanite from the black sand concentrates. It's hard work. But the way metal prices are going, even those minerals may start to have some economic consequences for someone salting a gold-panning display at county fairs or local markets.

There is a way to make a living at this: explore the possibilities!