Went Saturday to the upper end of Holcome Creek near Buchanan, Ga.to private land. The owner(Joe) told me to close the gate. as I bounced across the terrace rows toward the creek I saw that he had moved his calves back to the pasture. The road by the creek was slick as glass due to an overnight rain. The truck slipped and spun till I got within 30 yards of the creek. I leaned over to remove my shoes and put on my boots. when I straightened up ther were 30 half grown Black Angus( not to be confused with black anus of which Georgia has an abundance) surrounding the truck. They were all staring at me with their ears out and numbered tags in each left ear.I wasn't concerned since cattle are naturally curious, it only took a couple of Shoos to run them away; except for number 275 and used-to-be bull who remember vagually how a bull should act!! He glared defiantly at me then sauntered away at his leasure.
I carried my dredge to the creek and 25 minutes and a couple of trips later I was dredging.
I worked and area where the bedrock crossed the creek making a series of benches with depressions below each one.
I ran about an hour and as far as the 15 foot hose would reach, cleaning out cracks and crevesses. Then I cleanup out and pulled the dredge up one bench and dammed up the creek behind it. I was able to run at a high idle since the intake nozzle was above the dredge!!
The water flow was not enought to keep up with my 3 inch dredge so I had to pause periodically and let the hole fill before I could dredge in it. During one pause I looked toward the truck and the cattle were reared up all over it!! Another trip to shoo them away again!!
Then another time thet were all lined up along the bank intently watching, chewing their cuds, and dropping piles for me to negotiate through later. I only ran about three hours due to the moving and small area I could reach. My clean up was better than longer runs on the same creek. A few of the pieces clinked when they were dropped in the bottle!!
Thereis a pay layer that lays above the bedrock . It is 24 inches of river gravel and sand with clay in it. Every sample pan from it has produced color! I have tried to get Joe to dig some of it with his backhoe and let me highbank it but he doesn't want to tear up his land!! I am giving him 25% of my gold and I hope that I can get enough to interest him in opening up the paylayer!!
Next trip I plan to get in the deeper water where my dredge is floating in the first picture. It is 3-4 feet to bedrock and probably has the best gold. I sure don't like the thoughts of going under water since it has a distinctive cow crap smell!! It won't be the first time that I have got out of the water gagging because of the smell ( and taste)!!
Oh, remember number 275, the ex-bull? As I left he stood defiantly in front of my truck. I got out and waved my shirt at him bullfighter style but he wouldn't play. I had to drive around him to get out!!
good take kilnmaint,nice color.pratice up on your bull fighter skills.is gpa going to keep the lease up,i heard they were going to give it up?i don't live to far from there and used to dredge around there regularly-haven't been back since gpa took over.got my first ounce by the school.
I don't know about the GPAA claim behind the school. The owner is too fussy for me!! As far as I am concerned GPAA need to develop another area.
Where I am dredging is way... up the creek almost in Buchanan!! The water flow is not nearly enough for my 3" so I have to improvise!! It sure is hard to get you Georiga folks to allow prospecting. A lot of No Tresspassing signs. Almost as bad as here in Alabama!! I just wish there were other places close by to try. It is 2 hours drive for me to get to Buchanan .
Had a septic repair man come and work on my tank one time and when he was all done he had crap from head to toe.His saying was SMELLS like MONEY!!!! Just think positive and keep doing what your doing,looks like it's working.
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