Finding the source

[NuggetN8]

I know this sounds a bit crazy but would it be possible to find the source of gold in a small creek?? There's a creek I've been going to and it has chunky gold in it and I've found nuggets on the upper end of it with a little quartz in them but I've only found gold with quartz attached to pieces near the beginning. Everything further down is just normal gold. There's actually 2 creeks that start it which are both spring fed and just seem to come out of the ground. One of the creeks I've only found a speck in and the other I've found some pickers above where they come together so I think I know where my nuggets could be coming from. And when I go too far up on the good one I can't find any gold. Am I chasing imaginary leprechauns or could I be onto something here? xD

 

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[NuggetN8]

Just thought of something else, near the beginning of the creek there's a short ditch that runs along the creek randomly and I'm not sure why its there.. It's probably about 10 feet long and not very deep.. Maybe somebody just decided to dig there? Or the miners back in the day were following a pay-streak? I guess you can't know for sure. Maybe I'll take a test pan out of there for the heck of it.. Although this creek is really spotty.

 

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[TheNewCatfish]

I'm always AMAZED at the extremes people go to in order to conceal their digs. One fella i happened on was wearing a "gilly" suit while operating his sluice (Lol). He was in a perfectly legal unclaimed location on BLM land, just didn't want anyone else to know he was getting gold. I asked him, "Don't you think everybody already knows there's gold in this creek" ? "You're only four miles away from a closed down commercial mine in Colorado". "Yep" he says, "and if anybody sees me, they'll be an army of people down here tommorrow"!.. Well i saw him and no army appeared the next day, or the next week for that matter. Seems most people arn't interested in prospecting.. too much work is my guess. If all that drama makes the work go easier for some, i suppose it's worth the effort. I'm not wearin no "gilly" suit though.

 

[KevinInColorado]

That's funny and makes me want to get a gilly suit to wear when I am digging creeks/rivers here in metro Denver! I bet folks would call the cops!

 

[Lanny in AB]

I'm always AMAZED at the extremes people go to in order to conceal their digs. One fella i happened on was wearing a "gilly" suit while operating his sluice (Lol). He was in a perfectly legal unclaimed location on BLM land, just didn't want anyone else to know he was getting gold. I asked him, "Don't you think everybody already knows there's gold in this creek" ? "You're only four miles away from a closed down commercial mine in Colorado". "Yep" he says, "and if anybody sees me, they'll be an army of people down here tommorrow"!.. Well i saw him and no army appeared the next day, or the next week for that matter. Seems most people arn't interested in prospecting.. too much work is my guess. If all that drama makes the work go easier for some, i suppose it's worth the effort. I'm not wearin no "gilly" suit though.

Too funny for sure, especially since this guy was so easy to see and find.

I've found spots where others have hidden their digs, and let me tell you, they were impossible to find unless you stumbled right on them, which I did, by total accident. And, even after I knew where they were, the next time I tried to find them it took me a long time. (However, now I'll mark any new finds like that, with the GPS, if I'm ever that lucky again.)

When those Oldtimers wanted to hide a spot, they really knew what they were doing--nothin' at all like the Ghillie-suit man.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[LP13]

Just a thought on the ditch.

I have often run into ditches here in the AZ desert, that seemingly went nowhere. But when investigated, it was to divert water to where it was needed for a sluice or other mining operation, or to a manmade pond for cattle.

Other thoughts that cross my mind regarding your ditch, would be things like old water operated equipment (think water wheel) pre-1900's. Perhaps a small sawmill or grinding grain or even to divert water to a pipe. I don't know where you live exactly, and if I did it still may not help me to figure it out. Other possibilities might be people looking for old treasure caches. Was this near a civil war site? So even though your interest is gold, there are several other possibilities for those ditches when you think about it. It could even have been a test ditch to try to determine the source of the gold that you find yourself trying to find.

That helped clear up the confusion on it ... right??

 

[NuggetN8]

Just a thought on the ditch.

I have often run into ditches here in the AZ desert, that seemingly went nowhere. But when investigated, it was to divert water to where it was needed for a sluice or other mining operation, or to a manmade pond for cattle.

Other thoughts that cross my mind regarding your ditch, would be things like old water operated equipment (think water wheel) pre-1900's. Perhaps a small sawmill or grinding grain or even to divert water to a pipe. I don't know where you live exactly, and if I did it still may not help me to figure it out. Other possibilities might be people looking for old treasure caches. Was this near a civil war site? So even though your interest is gold, there are several other possibilities for those ditches when you think about it. It could even have been a test ditch to try to determine the source of the gold that you find yourself trying to find.

That helped clear up the confusion on it ... right??

I'm in Northern California. There are a lot of things it could be. Way back in the 1800s there was a building around there and a well on the opposite side of the creek so that could be what it was. Could have been a pipe there and somebody dug it up.

 

[DesertNuggets]

I'm always AMAZED at the extremes people go to in order to conceal their digs. One fella i happened on was wearing a "gilly" suit while operating his sluice (Lol). He was in a perfectly legal unclaimed location on BLM land, just didn't want anyone else to know he was getting gold. I asked him, "Don't you think everybody already knows there's gold in this creek" ? "You're only four miles away from a closed down commercial mine in Colorado". "Yep" he says, "and if anybody sees me, they'll be an army of people down here tommorrow"!.. Well i saw him and no army appeared the next day, or the next week for that matter. Seems most people arn't interested in prospecting.. too much work is my guess. If all that drama makes the work go easier for some, i suppose it's worth the effort. I'm not wearin no "gilly" suit though.

Haha. Calling the Finding Bigfoot crew now.