REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Klondikes Lost Mine....

[Klondikeike]

REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Klondike's Lost Mine....

Klondike here...

I've had a request to start a new topic and maybe post a story once a month or so from some of my past mining experiences....

So here is the first one...it's actually a continuation of the drift mine I started on another post...The name of that mine was:... The Golden Slide Mine, near Downieville, Ca

We had driven in under the Yuba River and were about 400 feet deep into the mountain...when we realized there was an old tunnel above us....we pumped a million gallons of water every 12 hours to keep the river water out of the mine...

Once we had drifted in about 400 feet through solid rock...we raised up into the old 1850 main haulage tunnel that had been hand dug.... there were NO drill marks... Later found out this tunnel was dug from 1850 to 1855...(Until after the Civil War was over, there wasn't much Black Powder on the west coast..so most tunnels prior to 1865 were usually single or double jacked...(A double Jack was where one person held the steel and the second person hit the steel with a sledge hammer...a single jack was just one person doing both jobs...)...for the entire length of the tunnel, there were NO drill marks left in the bedrock...meaning no black powder... the old boys had taken about 3 feet of solid bedrock and about 4 feet of river gravel....a typical and classic 7' X 7' tunnel... At one point we came upon a place where the main tunnel stopped and a tunnel went both right and left... in the floor was a major crack and above the crack in the ceiling, was a bright ..pure... snow white quartz boulder shaped like a cigar and about 20 feet long...Holding the large quartz boulder was a 8 in diameter Cedar Stall ( a Stall is a single pillar used to hold the ceiling or "back" in place...) This stall was hand shaped to fit into the crack in the floor..and hand shaped to match the curve of the large boulder... I broke my knife blade trying to scratch the cedar bark... this stall had turned into stone over the 120 plus years inside that mine.... further on to the left....we found the bedrock coming up and angling up at about a 45 degree angle... This is the original inside rim of the channel before the land slide...This must have been a rich spot here as the bedrock was as clean as a newly washed diner plate for maybe 50 feet and about 15 feet high...and above us and near the top of the tunnel cut ..was a very, very, very large bedrock boulder..maybe the size of a full sized quad cab Dodge pickup...it was huge.. and was riding about 4 inches above the bedrock... with maybe 300 to 400 very small cedar stalls...I mean small..... no more than 1/2 inch thick... some even smaller...and 3 to 4 inches long cedar Stalls holding or suspending this large boulder above the bedrock..and somehow they had cleaned all the dirt out from underneath it and held in place ...... It was one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen of the massive effort to mine gold in a very dangerous place...and the engineering ability to trust such small pieces of sticks to hold such a heavy rock.... we took some samples from various places with the cracks in the bedrock... and then the power went out... we almost lost a few crew members as we were laying down track rail in our main tunnel.... we never reopened the tunnel after that...and the samples were very good indeed... but not worth the risk of such a dangerous mine...

Before the power went out.. we were able to reach the "face" of the left tunnel....the Face is the end of the tunnel.. and there we found several small holes...we called them "Coyote" holes... These were dug by the Chinese miners...after the white miners moved on.... When the mine was operated with Chinese slave labor... they were paid $.25 a day... and were charged 20 cents for room and board..and 4 cents for tool "rental"... Often these Chinese were sent into these small holes, and if there was a cave in.. no attempt to rescue them was done.. just another Chinese miner started another hole... It was pretty bad working conditions....Near the wash plant outside the tunnel...we found a stack of six very old., but in perfect condition, white, with blue pattern of China rice bowls.... plus several coins with square holes in them...

Until next time...

Klondike....

 

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[Klondikeike]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

Hey GG......Klondike here...

Thanks...and yes you'll enjoy the trip...

Since your last posting to this topic... I have updated what I previously posted.. new info and new Lat and Lon numbers... and you can compare this to GE and zoom in and see what I'm speaking of...

Good luck and thanks for your nice comments...

Klondike..

 

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[gollum]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

Klondike,

I have almost the exact same pictures. LOL Most of the reason I went out that way was chasing down an old Spanish Mine in the area around Dove Springs that Chuck Kenworthy had been looking for before he passed.

Mike

 

[TerryC]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

Gollum,
I am feeling FOOLISH right now as I don't remember seeing the bridge! Also, because my memory tells me the trailhead started at Heaton Flat. Topo4 just showed me the trailhead starts at East Fork Station... foolish. I'll have to get back up there to refresh my nuerons! I am eagerly awaiting your pics you will be taking of the East Fork. TTC

 

[gollum]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

I usually head up to North Fork. I have a secret little spot up there that is an old miner's pool. Icy cold drinkable clear water. Hike a ways in. Drop a chaise lounge. Lay back and enjoy.

The pool in the last pic is about four feet deep by ten feet in diameter.

Mike

 

[kuger]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

great stories Klon. I am glad you are sharing them as your kind are a dieing breed.I come from a long line of miners and have known some of the greatest in these parts,unfortuanatly was too young to absorb all of there stories.Dave Wiseman on here was best friends with two of them and like you has been there done that,and is a joy to be around
I have to tell you here(mid motherlode country)I have encountered this "black",coated gold you speak of,and probably tossed out several ounces a s well before it occurred to me what it was.I check every "black rock",in the front two-three riffles now!

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

Good afternoon Klondike: I am taking the liberty to repost some of your posts to the Lost Dutchman mine group, among others, amd in turn will repost some of mine that might interest you and your followers.

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

Klondike y buddies:

Good evening: for some reason old Hernandez came into my mind this evening. I don' t remember exactly just when it was that Lupe, the maid, came to the patio where I was relaxing with my favorite vice, coffee, and watching the humming birds play in the fountain. We had a little game where we would openly flirt with each other, yes my tiger knew and allowed it since she knew that I would not stray - unfortunately, sniff, so did Lupe - so wrinkling her cute nose, and working her dimples very effectively, she informed me that Old senor Hernandez wished to see me. "Diga le que se pasa " "Tell him to come" in I replied in my spanglish.

She shortly returned with my friend Hernandez, and after seating him I asked her to bring two coffees and some sweet rolls, she turned around and headed for the kitchen with a toss of her head, making sure that ole Hernandez gave an appreciative eye to her.

Hernandez and I started with small talk, he had never forgotten that when I had first met him, he was heavily into a form of religion that was vulgarly called "the Hallelujahs" because they yelled this often in their meetings. While we were talking on that first visit, he showed me a small pink, child's windup Victrola / record player. Unfortunately he had lost the needle and asked me if I could find one for him, since he loved to listen to the religious records.

I must have grinned at him, because I told him "Hernandez, you have all of the original phonograph needles that you could wish for, for pointing to a giant Hecho cactus in his front yard. He just looked puzzled, so I got up, went to the cactus, and removed two of the large needles, about 1 " long..

I trimmed them to size to fit the needle holder, and told him to play away. His mouth opened when he heard the sound very clearly, and I then 'had' to listen while he ran two records. One was about David scrounging Goliath, each time he would get very emotional and smack one hand against the other when David his thing and cry "ZAs". After this there was nothing that he couldn't do for me..

Shortly Lupe wriggled back with our coffee and rolls, then left. After giving her an appreciative, lingering look, he commenced to get serious.

"Don Jose, Do you remember my telling you of my father and the Apaches"? "Of course" I replied, "you mean in the 1860's when the Apaches holed up at pueblo XXXX during the winter? "Yes" he replied "but what I didn't tell you was that the US brought troops to Guaymas, and then up to the pueblo to take the Apaches back to the US - by invitation of the Mexican gov't. They surrounded the pueblo, and the next morning took all of them back to the US, they never returned"

But, that night, some young war chiefs came to the small store that my father had, and gave him two sealed tubes of Carrizo, bamboo. They told him to guard these until they returned, or they would kill every one of his family up to cousins. But if he guarded them well, they would make him extremely rich.. Knowing them, he knew that they meant it, so he agreed. They left, and the next morning the US troops took them back to Guaymas, and to Arizona.

"Years went by, and the two tubes stayed up on the top of the wall under the grass roof. One day my brother and I were playing Conquistadors, and since we needed swords, we took the two bamboo tubes. They were quite satisfactory swords, however, after banging one against the other, the clay plug fell out.... Naturally we looked inside and saw a form of paper, so we told our father. He had forgotten all about them, since it had been years since the Apache had left, so he opened both and pulled the papers out. They were maps to two fabulous gold Placers on the rio Aros / Yaqui...

I asked him if he had ever followed the maps. he said "yes, a few years ago I went with with my son, who is the mayordomo on the rancho "Bachoco" behind Obregon. ©@

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

part two


He said a bit hesitantly, "the Apache were well aware that they were very exposed in the pueblo, so went looking for a more secure and remote place. They found one at the bottom of a very deep canyon where the Aros river made a large, long curve to the north.

Inside of the curve was about 100 hectares of land above the high water mark, more than enough land to plant and live. The up stream entry was guarded by deep pools and rocks, the same for the lower end. Since both sides were almost sheer 800 ft cliffs, it was well protected. The southen entrance down the cliff was by way of an animal trail, very steep and over broken cliffs. It was almost a perfect place, except for the fact that a squad of soldiers could keep them bottled up.

While inspecting this place, a few of the Apache that had worked with gold miners, commenced to prospect along the river and shortly hit fantastic amounts of placer gold. It was on the outside of the bend of the river, a most unusual place.

They then continued looking and eventually found a Mesa that looked interesting. Since it was a basalt flow It was layered in 3 sections. They cut a tree, then notched the trunk to make a ladder which enabled them to reach the next level. From there they simply followed breaks up to the top. Once on top it seemed perfect, but no water. So they commenced digging in different places. They never found any water, but at about 1/2 meter down, wherever they dug, they found coarse gold, an old bench placer".

This is was what the Apache had drawn on the two maps.

Since Hernandez' bother had died, he decided to have his son go with him to check the maps out. However his son didn't want to go off for a few days into uninhabited land, since as a mayor domo all he had to do was lie in a hammock, give orders, and drink beer. However, after insisting that he wanted to see if it was true before he died, his son finally agreed.

They made up a small pack train of burros and set off. After a week of scouting around, they finally hit the first sign on the Apache map and found the animal trail down to the river. It was in June, just before the rains set in, so the river was low and clear. They set up camp on the north side where the land was, and started prospecting. Since the maps had shown that the best gold was on the outside of the bend, they finally went there, and it was !

In Mexico they cut a cow horn lengthwise to form a long shallow cup for prospecting / panning. The layered structure of the horn makes it excellent for fine gold. However in this case it was not fine, but coarse gold. in fact he swore upon his bible, which he lived and breathed by, that he had gotten up to 50 grams of gold at a time. Converted this is in about a heaping handful of sand / gravel. an impossible amount.

They had panned for a few days, when the rains started early, so they had to leave quickly. The animal trail up the cliff was very slippery and dangerous, and just as they were reaching the top, in a particularly bad spot, his son slipped in the mud, and almost fell, and they lost their gold and supplies when his pack fell back down into the canyon. They had nothing to eat for the next few days while returning to civilization.

Old Hernandez sorta looked off into the distance at the birds, then apparently a bit indecisive, said that his son would never go back to the canon. He remained quiet, in deep thought. Sensing that it would be a good diplomatic move (GOLD) I gestured to the lurking Lupita to bring more coffee. The sight of Lupita and the hot coffee, brought him out of his reverie, and he turned to me and said, "this is why I am here Don Jose, will you go back with me that canyon"©@

tomorrow more

 

[diggemall]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Fire Opal & Gold Nuggets

tag

 

[Klondikeike]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES......Hydraulic Pits

Klondike Here....

This is more informational than a story...

The first time I ever saw a Hydraulic pit was in Indian Valley, off Hyway 49 in the Northern Sierra's above Nevada City, CA....

Got chased by a bear.. scared a bear and found no gold...lol

I just wanted to point out that when you work these old pits....especially in Sierra County.... you'll find most Hard rock mines are between 2500 feet and 3500 feet... there are exceptions.. but very few....

Not unlike today.. the old timers tried to find the best payable material...and when they found these old channels .. they quickly learned the yield was too low for hand work.. and again, not unlike us of today...turned to state of the art mining techniques and equipment.... The Hydraulic Monitor....

Why do you dredge.. because you can move more material easier..... just like he hydraulic monitor...

One thing you won't find in these really large channels below the 2500 elevation is large nuggets as a general rule..... Since the hard rock mines... are above the 2500 elevation.. the nuggets are still further up stream from where the old miners left off hydraulic mining.......

The only channels I have found large nuggets in were near the 3500 foot level.. or even above that elevation...

That doesn't mean you won't find nuggets at the lower elevations.. it just isn't normal...


Klondike...

 

[Klondikeike]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES......Hydraulic pits

Klondike here....

Many years ago, about 1968 or so... I had a prospecting pick up, I had just bought.. it was a 1948 Ford-o'ley... that is a 1948 ford pick up.. with a 1965 283 Chevy V8 under the hood and a good old slip and slide power glide Auto-Transmission...thus it was my FORD-O-LEY.. it was heavy enough to go just about anywhere as a 2 wheel drive... and it never let me down......ANYWHERE...

But this story isn't about about my truck... but it is about my lost fortune...a lost mine as it were....

I was traveling on the real.. actual old stage coach road between Lucerne Valley, CA and Barstow, CA....kind of out in the middle of no- where and decided to take a route around a small mountain or hill as it were, rater than the actual real road....as there are several hills out there in the desert on this old road...and had never been on the back side of any of them... I had been out there many times dry washing for gold and had done real well, very fine gold...... selling my gold now and then to Knots Berry Farm in Orange County, CA... the kind of gold I was getting was just right for there gold panning concession, which still goes on today...

I was on a prospecting trip with my dry washer trying to find another spot to work with my dry washer, which was home made bellows type.... very simple and most likely very crude by today's standards....as were many products back then... the over the counter gold prospecting equipment was just kind of getting started... if you wanted something to use, you usually had to build it your self.. whether it be a dredge or a dry washer... and recovery equipment was a gold pan...period...all this fancy stuff like Blue bowls and wheels and so forth, where just thoughts in men's minds back then....

As I said, I ventured off the regular road and took a over grown rabbit trail around this small hill.... As I was going around on the back side of this hill, I saw a large quartz strewn field running up the hill... I stopped and walk around and up the hill...and found the source of the quartz.. a ledge of quartz, about 3 feet wide or so... and laid in the middle was this most beautiful shiny gun grey cubed crystalline stuff... about 10 inches to a foot wide running with the quartz and down the middle of it... I found a piece laying near by and brought it home after staying out there for all weekend...working various dry washes for gold.. and found a couple nice places that were worthy of a possible claim and nice place to work for a few extra bucks...of course nothing like today's prices...

I took my sample to the local college and spoke with a professor of geology.. and he felt real sure it was Galina... a compound used in making steel harder and tempered, beside the heat and cold water process we all most like know about for tempering steel...and probably today Galena has many other uses as well...

We'll the long and short of it... I wasn't able to get back out to the area for a few years...as I received orders had to visit South East Asia a few times, along with about 5 million other US military men and women... to places called Viet Nam...Laos...Cambosia.. and such...

Well now it is around 1973 or maybe 74 now.. and I'm back out the my "hill".... and I couldn't find it.. I searched and searched.. I now know how mines and land marks can get lost....

It was maybe on my 10th or maybe 15th trip, I finally stumbled onto my "hill" with the shiny grey stuff in the middle of a quartz vein. I brought home a few more samples... and spent a long time that day looking for a USGS section marker... Oh how Google Earth would have come in real handy back then... I finally found a half section marker.. then a couple of hours later, what I was looking for , a corner marker... For those who don't know what these are... when an area was surveyed officially by the USGS, ... sometimes even back in the 1800's.. a metal steak was driven into the ground and a bras cap was permanently placed on top the steak, with either a ____ or a + and above the and below the line was the section, range and township info for each side of the line.... this is the mid line marker for the two section on each side of that line represented by the brass cap... A half section marker as we often referred to them as... in the case of the +... which represented the actual corner of all four sections meeting...along with the range and township info for all 4 sections, is stamped into the brass cap...I now went to the USGS topo map of that area as was able to figure out which 1/2 section. which 1/4 section and so on within the section, range and township in question, I needed to file a lode claim on that particular piece of desert......

Now I had what I needed to go file a claim on to my Galina load mine... I was so excited.... and all kinds of dreams where racing through my head.. maybe even selling my find and this claim to a large mining company and living off the royalties....

On Monday I drove to San Bernardino, CA, to the BLM office there..and inquired about filing a claim.. I asked the very nice person behind the desk if this area was width drawn or was it open to claiming...and if so, I wanted to file a claim...

And she said I think that area is open .. as is most of that area...unless there is already a claim on it.. and so we worked together to research the range, township and section I wanted to know about...Oh BTW, how thing have changed.. try to get his kind of help now from the BLM.. good luck...

And then my heart sunk to my feet.. all my dreams were dashed in a second as I herd her say...."Oh I'm so sorry, the rail road owns that section of land... it was granted to then back in the days of building the original Tans-Continental Rail Road... a square mile section for each mile of track laid....and you' have to make a deal with them....

My Galina was on land I had no access to as talking with the Rail Road Company back then was like talking to a wall...

But this story isn't so much about my inability to file a claim as it it is about how things can get lost .. as it is with so many "lost treasure and lost gold mines"....I had such a hard time trying to find that vein of quartz after a few years of absence form the area...... I can only imagine if someone buries something in the ground how hard it would be to find it again.. even a decade or later... as was the case in the 1700's and 1800's...which may offer some glimmer of hope to many stories of lost loot, treasure, caves and mines....you may read about...

Good luck to all.. in your quest for anything lost you may be looking for... don't give up.. whatever you seek is still there... the treasure may be gone... may have already been found, but won't know for sure until you find the "lost" cave or whatever you seek as part of the "lost" treasure story.....Yup.. the treasures my be gone, then again maybe not...but the landmark probably isn't.. you just have to find it again...

Klondike....

 

[scott565]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Klondike's Lost Mine....

Klondike:
Thanks for the link to your other posts on the San Gabriel- very informative.
It just so happens I am going to SoCal for a week of prospecting and SG was already on my short list of places to go.
-Scott

 

[Klondikeike]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Klondike's Lost Mine....

No problem Scott.... and you're welcome..

Hope you enjoy and have a great trip... despite being in an urban area, there are very pretty spots up that canyon... and if you put in the HARD work, it can also be profitable too...

Klondike...

 

[Astrobouncer]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...Klondike's Lost Mine....

Thanks for the posts, great story there about the galena mine. I bet the railroad still owns that land huh?

 

[Albertaclipper]

Re: REAL GOLD MINING STORIES...FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...How to use IR photos....

Thanks..GC...

Here is a link to the USGS site where you can down load IR for FREE.... yes for FREE....This is a different IR program in which I used in AK.. and has a different color scheme... it isn't the easiest site to use, like most Government site seem to be poorly built and not user friendly..but it is a good site for some quick reference info... But the best is to get the actual 3ft x 3ft photo in front of you where you can really see all the detail you need ....

http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/NewEarthExplorer/

Thanks again for your kind comments....


Klondike....

Hi Klondike,

Just want to thank you for the above link. My favorite Uncle passed away last fall at young age and very unexpected, but anyways before he passed on, he was always telling me over the years to watch for those ancient riverbeds, the old river cuts etc, and I kinda nodded my head as I was thinking how the heck am I to figure that.....But after reading your posts above, and looking at your IR map example combined with my Uncle's wisdom, it more or less smacked me in the face.. The IR worked perfectly for my prospecting grounds.

I live in west central Alberta (Canada), an hour from the foothills and 2hrs from the Rockies which run 600 miles clear to the pacific ocean. Geology education on my side of the divide contends that there is "no gold bearing rock, no bed rock, lack of volcanic action etc" that basically happened in Alberta in ancient times. I live by the Red Deer River, North Saskatchewan River, they produce only flour gold in the black sand, but vast amounts of it.

My point is, to the west of me in the foothills, in the smaller creeks that are tributaries to the North Saskatchewan River, I know trail riders who have found gold nuggets from the size of your finger nail to the size of a couple ounces that "Based on geology reports and govt. data for this side of BC, there is no gold to be found."

Being new on this forum and from reading posts from individuals like yourself and the other contributers, it definately pays to go with your heart and take whatever the experts say with a grain of salt. From using the IR program tonight and at work in the next month or two, I cannot wait for the melt off this summer to head west with my boys and camper and do some prospecting.

Cheers!

Dale

 

[rawdog]

Klondike here....

For those of you who live in the LA County area of Southern California.. or who can visit the Azusa, CA area.. you may want to visit the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.... I used to go there often... sometimes one weekend after another.....

My knowledge and experience is maybe 35 to 40 years old....and with the government wanting to shut down prospecting all over California.. I would not trust everything I say that you can do today and the rules and laws may have changed a bit in the last 40 years or so....

That being said, this canyon does have some very nice gold in it..... IF YOU ARE WILLING TO WORK FOR IT AND PUT IN THE HARD WORK EFFORT... IT WON'T BE EASY...the gold runs in the .830 to .850 range...if I remember correctly....

There are two areas of interest up in the canyon.... the main river course..which in flood times may run 20 feet deep with water...above the current sand bars... and the high hanging benches... these are what excite me the most about the East Fork....

In the main river course.. you'll mostly find float gold as bedrock is rather deep .. but I sometimes have wished I could get down to bedrock....people used to dredge it a lot and it gets replenished with float gold every year of a hard flood... sometimes the water is 20 feet over the current sand bars...and running hard and fast... it really roars during heavy storms and flash floods...

If you are going after the high hanging benches.. a 1/4 screen is too small... I at times for a change would go there... and not to far from the end or last parking lot... there is a small, 75 foot long rather steep trail up along side an old, but medium sized, twisted cotton wood tree...that leads up to a hanging bench...at the top of the trail, on the right..there is a small tunnel where the old timers drove on top of bed rock....You can also see where they somehow washed the exposed bedrock clean....

During the Great Depression, the east Fork was were the unemployed of the local area worked for themselves and small organized mines for a few dollars...It was a very popular place during that time....

Back in the day..I'd put a pump in the river and run a lay flat hose several hundred feet through a culvert under the road and up the steep trail to the hanging channel...and would shovel into a basic medium sized sluice box.... Over time, I found many nice pieces...

One weekend.. I ran so much water across the sluice, the water over flowed my little pond I had made to capture the water...and it made it's way down the trail to the ditch along side the road...and for several hundred feet down the road... but I found some nice gold....several 1/4 once nuggets...mostly flat and worn...running between .830 and .850 in purity, if I remember correctly..

Sometimes I would screen a few buckets and carry them to the river for a sluicing... and go back for more buckets....and some times, I would carry buckets of water up the trail to the gravel and wash the gravel through my sluice up there on the bench...I ALWAYS found gold working the high benches...ALWAYS!!

It doesn't matter which way you decide to work these high benches... if you do at all.. it is NOT for the faint of heart and you will most certainly get a sturdy and hard work out... you should be in okay and decent shape...but it will be rewarding.. if you put the effort into it and don't give up after a couple of buckets...like what most folks do......

No body said prospecting would be easy...LOL

As you are driving up the canyon...with the river on your right, just before you cross over the river on the bridge...on the left side is a small, but deep V shaped cut filled with hanging channel material... and there is a small turn out there as well... Some one I knew took a few buckets from there and sluiced them at the river and also found some really nice sized nuggets.....

But in the river itself... mostly just float gold and a 1/4 in screening will do great.....but up on the benches.. a 1/2 or so would be much better... When the gold is dirty .. the dirt of the canyon makes it nearly impossible to see ..even on a screen... so use a screen big enough to let nice sized 1/4 ounce nugget through...the 1/2 to 1 ounce nuggets will show up easily on the screen...

There was a time when one could drive all the way up to the Bridge to no where... way up high..maybe 7 or 8 miles, maybe more up stream from the now last turn around and parking area...I think the upper road beyond that parking area washed out in the flood of maybe 1966 or 68....and the State decided not to rebuild the road... However.. if you feel real energetic...spend a couple of days... take a tent, back pack sluice and a bucket and digging tools and a pan.. and ALL the preparations for scorpions, rattle snakes, bears and mountain lions...and walk the road as far as you can... in and over the washed out areas... and at some point..a couple of miles, more or less...you'll get close to the some of the hanging channels... work the gravels near and on bedrock and you'll be surprised what you'll find....

Yes it will be a very hard working effort to accomplish this... but I assure you, it will be worth it...

From the current parking lot and end of the paved road...is a wilderness area.. no mechanical devices or engine or motor powered equipment allowed...you may want to check if there is a permit required to enter the wilderness area for overnight camping...didn't used to be.. but who knows now...

If someone goes there for a prospecting trip... please show us your finds....and if you put the real effort into it.. You will be very much surprised and pleased...

Here is a link to a rather good and informative web site about the east Fork of the San Gabriel River....

San Gabriel, East Fork gold prospecting in Southern California

Plus an extra treat... if you visit the area and are in for a bit of site seeing.. go to the LA County Arboretum just down the road to the east of Azusa...

This is the last plot of land that once belonged to "Lucky" Baldwin.. a man in which everything he touched turned to gold... He once won a gold mine while living in Virginia City, Nevada... during the time when Silver ruled.. once silver dropped.. he open his Southern CA gold mine from the poker game winnings... it is located near the present city of Big Bear, CA.. and took about $20,000,000 in gold from the mine....coupled with his gains he made in the silver mines of Virginia City, NV... made him an extremely wealthy man...

At one time he had 6,000,000 fruit and citrus trees in plant around the are of what is now known as the City of Azusa....and he built a lavish Victorian house, he called it, The Queen Ann's House for his young 16 year old bride, who never stayed in the house and divorced him to moved back to her parents in San Francisco....

The Queen Ann's House and moat are famous movie back drops... The opening of Fantasy Island was filmed there.. with the short guy announcing from the Bell Tower of the House..."Hey Boss... De plane... De plane..."

The moat has had it's share of boat wrecks too...including a great movie, The African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.. it was to his only Oscar award...

It is a great place to visit... with it's plants from all over the world...some pretty bizarre... and the Horse and Carriage Barn is beyond description.... The entire plantation...is a great representation of how the really affluent lived during the latter part of the 1800's and early 1900's... it is a treat to see...

Be sure to post any pic's someone may take if they visit the area...especially of the GOLD...!!

Good luck in your East San Gabriel River prospecting...

Klondike...

so true about the government wanting to shutdown prospecting all over ca..and look what happened to the EF..

 

[The Gilded Lens]

I know the "rush" effect... it always took me a few minutes to get used to being underground....all your senses are so much more alert... and then when you come out... the fresh air is the best part....

Sometimes, when drive though dead rock... we'd drive through a mineralized zones....and the rotten egg smell of the arcynical minerals....sometimes was really bad....

In Grass Valley, CA there are 3 very deep gold mines... the Empire, the North Star and the Idaho-Maryland... each one over a mile deep at a 45 degree decline with several miles of laterals on many levels.... The Empire today is State Park and Museum...a great example of hard rock mining in California....it continually operated from 1850 to 1956.... The Idaho-Maryland is being re-opened.....

A good friend of mine... now dead... worked on the Idaho-Maryland for about 20 years... While driving through dead rock, about 1 mile deep...they crossed a small 1 inch wide quartz vein.. within a contact zone of granite and dolomite... with a 1/4 inch wide wet talcum powder clay on the Dolomite side of the contact... They followed it for about 10 sets..(30 feet maybe 40 feet)... and it opened up a glory hole, about 20 ft by 40 ft...of many, many millions of dollars of crystal gold.... he said it looked like everything had been cut with a laser.... it was a true "glory hole"....he said their lamps made the light jump and reflect of all the gold....the walls seemed alive.... it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.... but the smell was terrible....!!


Klondike....

I LOVE the Empire! Was (and still is) my favorite place to go. I hike there a lot. I'm still upset that they haven't re-opened the Idaho Maryland.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Hola gentlemen: Klondike your mention of Grass valley and the Idaho-Maryland mine brings back many memories. I was raised partially in Grass Valley. I played in the creek which was also fed by the tailings drain off from the mine. it was milky white, and who knows the cyanide count, but it didn't kill me or any other of the kids..

We lived in the three story wooden house on your right next to the creek going from Grass Valley to Nevada city., you entered at the street level to the middle floor.

My father worked at the mine, but became the brake man on the narow guage RR between grass Valley and Nevada city. His brother , my uncle Homer, was the hoist foreman.

Lots of stories on mines, placers etc. if interested, but in Mexico.. Mostly above ground.
***************

I D J I T S one and all just think, this was added to the Genetics pool. no wonder ----- sniff

I wasn't so du --, Superman hadn't been born yet. but I did get my hand skewered playing the Bengal Lancers.

Of course my father beat me hands down. He was born in Rough & Ready Calif, the heart of the Mother lode country. Rough and Ready was famous for a brief period. They formally succeeded from the union and were setting up a defensive system, but it was called off when Sacramento, the capital, sent up a couple of barrels of beer.

In those days abandoned Log cabins, small prospectors camps, and small mining operations were everywhere. almost all had powder deposits left over which had also been abandoned. So, horrors, the kiddies had blackpowder and dynamite galore to play with. Today's do gooders would have had a heart attack watching those poor, innocent little B-------ds playing freely with guns and explosives heehheeh.

At that time between Nevada city and Grass Valley they had constructed a narrow gauge Rail road. With all of the mining equipment etc. available, it was only a matter of time before the innocent childish imaginations decided on constructing a cannon and blowing out the windows of the coach car, which was always at the end.

Pipe and fittings served well as the basic cannon and an old ore cart the platform. The big day came, the canon was loaded with a double hand full of black powder, then old worn out ball mill balls. Everything was set up for the big show.

The range was about 200 meters. They waited patiently for the train, which as usual was late. It finally came a huffing and puffing around the curve into view. My father, since he was huge, even by those days standards (6''6"), assumed command and held the burning ignition cord for lighting the fuse ready. The fireing officer yelled "now" so my father ignited the cannon.

It promply did a flip flop and recoiled about 12 ft back into the bushes while everyone shielded their eyes to see the windows break. NO way !! the area was covered with thick white smoke, nothing could be seen, not even each other. When it finally cleared enough to see , all they could see was the little engine happily puffing on it way, no windows were broken.

They tried again the next day with the same results, so fortunately gave up the idea as a bad one. Being kiddies they hadn't figured in the deflection needed to pre aim the canon at the front of the moving train, but had aimed directly at the coach, a clean miss.

Grass valley is built on the side of a hill, many of the streets are very steep, especially North Main st. Some how they managed to get a solid main driver wheels of one of the locomotives to the top of that street when they aligned with the bottom, then turned it loose.

Things went fairly well for most of the first block, then it commenced to go though the buildings themselves, it finally emerged again at the bottom of the hill after, passing through no one knows how many houses to promptly run into a parked automobile. For some strange reason no kiddies were to be seen?

Halloween was special, little brains had been planing for a year, One of the best was reserved for mean personnel,and their outhouse. They slid a 1/4 stick of 40% dynamite down into the fragrant depths, with a long fuse to the outside. They would wait patiently until mr meanie entered the out house to check the sears catalogue on feminine intiminate wear, they would then quickly jam the door shut and light the fuse. I leave the rest to your imagination.

I claim that modern kiddies are too protected for their normal development and imagination.

I had tons of blackmail materiel which came into use quite often.



Don Jose de La Mnacha


Don Jose de la Mancha hheeh

Oh it hurts... the laughter! Thank God he missed the train! I can see the locomotive wheels galavanting down Main Street ( North Main street? I'm wondering if it's the huge hill of West Main) careening through tourist shops. The Union would have a field day with that story! Excuse me, that was a very devilish thing of me to say.