Thermal City 2 day Gold Dig Labor Day Weekend

[Goodyguy]

Anyone else going to the Thermal City 2 day Gold Dig on Labor Day Weekend?
http://thermalcitygoldmine.com/default.php

I'll be there Sept 1st & 2nd and will be bringing along some of my home made equipment to use.
Was hoping to see some of the NC T-net posters there.

GG~

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[Astrobouncer]

I might head up that way. Would be great to meet you in person. Not gonna join their dig though.

[Goodyguy]

Astrobouncer,

Not sure if I will join the dig yet, but I will definitely be running a highbanker with a fluid bed gold trap attached.
I'll also bring my version of the gold cube and some other stuff.

Hope to meet you there. Bring your video camera and we'll make a movie
GG~

[GrayCloud]

One day Buddy, One day.

[Goodyguy]

One day Buddy, One day.

It's only a 15 hour drive from you.
Or you could fly in to Marion NC and I'll pick you up at the airport.

GG~

[GrayCloud]

Dang work. Time will tell.

[OKIE]

I may just show up there myself, I ready to get back there.... but with me nothing ever goes as planed so I will make up my mind the day before...LOL... I live in Greenville NC, and am always looking for someone and places to go. GC its about time to take some time off work so come on!!!
God Bless
OKIE

[GrayCloud]

Wish I could Okie. GoodyGuy will will just have to take photos and tell me how much fun I missed out on Again.

[Goodyguy]

Wont be long now...................

Since there wont be any screened loads available that weekend guess I'll be bringing my trommel, especially since I hate to manually classify and my motorized vibrating classifier is annoyingly loud.


Would be good to meet you there Okie

[Oakview2]

GG, for us west coasters, can you explain what the group dig is. I saw the price for two days, but couldn't find out exactly what happens. Hope you folks find plenty of gold and take some pictures for us oogle at

Anyone else going to the Thermal City 2 day Gold Dig on Labor Day Weekend?
Gem Mining In North Carolina - Gold Mining In North Carolina

I'll be there Sept 1st & 2nd and will be bringing along some of my home made equipment to use.
Was hoping to see some of the NC T-net posters there.

GG~

[Goodyguy]

GG, for us west coasters, can you explain what the group dig is. I saw the price for two days, but couldn't find out exactly what happens. Hope you folks find plenty of gold and take some pictures for us oogle at

The group dig is where everyone works as a team running paydirt through various types of equipment provided by the mine and then splits up the gold at the end of the two days.

A Front end loaded Trommel is one of the pieces of equipment that will be used to extract the Gold from the placer gravel. This Trommel is very efficient with little loss. All concentrates will be hand panned. You will receive clean Gold in a bottle and black sands separately. All Gold recovered will be split among the participants according to GPAA methods.
The material processed during the dig will come from the placer deposits at Thermal City.
Equipment used during the dig will be Trommels, High Bankers, and possible other equipment.
There are two (2) shifts per day.

Gold Dig Date: 9/1 - 9/02

Entry Fee is $150.00 per person
Saturday
8:30AM Gold Dig Orientation
9:00AM Gold Dig Begins
12:30PM Gold Dig Shift Change
4:30PM Day 1/Gold Dig Stops
SUNDAY
8:30AM Gold Dig Continues
12:30PM Gold Dig Shift Change
4:00PM Gold Dig Ends
5:00PM Gold Dig Split Begins

I am electing NOT to participate in the group dig so I will just buy frontloader loads of paydirt (approx 1 cubic yard per load) from the placer mine to run through my trommel @ $50 per load. Maximum loads permitted is 2 loads per day.

GG~

[trinityau]

Hello Goodyguy, I was flipping through the forums and saw your post. I went to the link for the mine and a few of the pictures sure bring back memories. My wife is from Bostic, NC. I was stationed at Ft Bragg/Camp MacCall on and off for my last ten years. When I first got out we stayed in NC for a while before taking the kids out to Trinity and Shasta Counties in Northern California where I was born and raised. I spent a lot of time on the Second Broad River dredging and sniping. Back then nothing was posted, you just talked to the owner and got permission. This would have been late seventies and early eighties. I was just curious if Doug McCormick still owns that land the Thermal City Mine is on, if he is still alive. If he is please tell him I said hello, I think he will remember that stupid kid laying in the water all the time that use to show him gold. He use to let me go sniping in the river. I dont know what kind of gold they get out of the deeper gravels where you would get your material but when I first sniped that area it sure was fun. I remember cleaning out the hole right at Polly Spouts at the lower end of the tunnel. I found rings, coins, and about two thirds of an ounce of gold. One of my favorite bedrock sections was the inside turn at the upper end of the property just below the highway bridge. I found many earring pieces and several coarse but somewhat round 6, 8 and 10 pennyweight nuggets right there. I was lucky to have been one of the first to do alot of sniping in that area. Further down river I use to snipe in an area that was owned by Lloyd Nanney I think. That area was near where Stony Creek come into the Second Broad. That big bottom sure had some nice gold in it. If you go out the road on the big bottom to where the you cross the river again, putting the river on your East side, there was an old civil war era mansion along side the river maybe a 500 yards downstream. I found many pieces of silver, forks, knives, spoons. I also found lots of old coins right there. The mansion overlooked what some people would call a shoals. It was shallow well rounded bedrock.

Going back to that road along the bottom towards the highway you are following train tracks and maybe four or five hundred yards shy of the highway on the tracks side there is virgin gravel all along the tracks. You have to get out and go down onto the tracks to see it. I use to take the gravel from low spots and sluice it up where Stony Creek came into the river. There was a train track there also. This was some of the prettiest bright yellow gold that I have ever found. Really pretty stuff just not much of it. I found pieces in that bank that went four pennyweight. I also found a piece of Beryl that was two inches around and almost six inches long. If you can get into Stony Creek there is a lot of massive garnet. I dredged quite a bit of Stony, mostly fines but alot.

If you co over to Highway 64 along Cane Creek that was another place I dredged and did very well. Old Mal, he use to own Mals Store in Bostic had that property. There is a dirt road that leads off of Cane Creek right at that property and heads over the mountain to Golden Valley. Once you start down the other side there are numerous little gullies and creeks that carry gold and Star Sapphires. The Sapphires are only about as round as a pencil and are a ruddy brown to red when you find them. Lots of Beryl over that way also. All along Highway 226 every creek or wash carries gold and this is nice gold. This would be the area at Muddy Creek to the North Fork of the First Broad. The First Broad heads in the South Mountains. I dredged and sniped this area very hard and did very well. Most of the land belonged to Tom Melton and his brother Frank Melton. There are also lots of ground sluice areas to detect in that country. There is detectable gold and I dont mean barely detectable. I did a lot of trading with Pete at the Pawn shop in Morganton, NC. If Pete is still around I am sure he would remember me and my gold. I bought several dredges from him. Brought one with us to the Klamath when we came out west.

I dont know what it is like back there nowadays as I am sure it has changed somewhat. The gold however is still there as I know I did not get it all. Thanks again for the trip down memory lane. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[Goodyguy]

Wow Ray,

I really enjoyed your trip down memory lane. Although I live in Indiana, North Carolina is still one of my favorite places to prospect for gems and gold.

As far as I know Lloyd Nanney owns the Thermal City gold mine. He is quite a guy and really knows his stuff.
He once told me a story about the fine gold that would periodically be found from panning the dirt out of the door mat located in front of the store. I told him he should probably get a bigger mat

Thanks for the info and hopefully I'll get some time during a future trip to check out the leads. And if I see Doug McCormick I'll be sure and tell him you said hi.

Go for the gold
GG~

[Bell]

I live off of 18 and Jacob Fork river. Never been to thermal city though. @trinityau your opd hunting grounds are my current grounds so shush!! lol. Yep, pete still runs smokefoot. Great guy. I get my gear from him.

[trinityau]

Hey GG, if ever you are in that area for an extended trip let me know and I may be able to get you on some land. My wife has relatives all over Golden Valley and the Second Broad area.

Hello Bell, all I can say is oop's, sorry about that. I never found much over on the Jacob's Fork. That Golden Valley area to me is tops.

Both of you are welcome to PM me for a phone number if you ever want to talk to me about any other areas back there. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[Goodyguy]

[Bell]

Ray your right. No gold on jacobs fork. It could never be that easy since I can see it from my house and have access to miles of it. How longs it been since you were in the area?

[trinityau]

Hey Bell, It has been about sixteen years since I have been back there. I may go back with my wife to see her family next year. Look on the maps for Hard Bargin Branch at the west end of Golden Valley. I dredged from where you turn off of 226 and north for about one quarter of a mile. I took alot of nice gold out of that stretch. There was one bedrock seam that run across just below the first big bend in the creek. It would also be right below the very first house that is on the left. I think the Crumps still live there. Ask them to show you where I worked and they will know. That seam gave me over seven ounces of gold with the largest piece being just a tad over a half ounce. The gold stopped dead right at that bend and you cannot find another piece upstream. I dont know who owns that property now but it could possibly be worth finding out. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[Goodyguy]

It's this weekend.....

Definitely going to use my trommel with the A-52 sluice set up with Clarkson riffles over black vortex mat with the fluid bed gold trap attached to the end.

I'm willing to split costs on front loader loads and split the gold if anyone wants to partner up and take turns shoveling paydirt into the hopper of the trommel and help with the clean up.

GG~

[Bell]

LGood luck to those going! Ill be sluicing not far away tomorrow, but wont actually make it to thermal vity.