Interesting discovery today

[goldenIrishman]

Well we got hammered pretty hard by the monsoons here last night and this morning I went out to check the washes. I went to check the area I had just started testing to find that it had all been filled back in and the pile of rocks I had stacked up to get them out of the way had been washed downstream.

Being a inquisitive type I followed the wash down stream into an area that I had not been into before and low and behold what do I find? Someone at some time in the past had taken rocks and cement and dammed the wash! The dam wasn't all that high being all of maybe three feet tall but it has rock and sand backed up for about 40 feet! Talk about a great gold trap! There was a little water flowing over the dam so I got out my trowel and backpacker pan which I always take with me and started testing right next to the dam. First pan showed a little color as well as some of the largest Garnets I've found in the wash here to date.

Since I only had limited tools to work with today, I did what I could before I had to get back to the homestead and do the "Munchkin Wrangling" thing. Since tomorrow is Saturday and I know what to expect, I'll be hauling out some equipment that is better suited for the task at hand. I'm thinking that if I can get the built up sand and rocks classified and out of the way, water should fill it back in for a bit and give me plenty to run the recirc sluice without having to haul H2O from the house. It should also help to keep any more gold that washes down from "flat boarding" as it will have water there already that is level and deeper then the channel upstream thus allowing the gold to drop out of the flow.

As to the dam I can tell it's been there for a very long time by the condition of the cement holding the rocks in place. I'm thinking that it was setup for watering cattle some time in the past as it's range land and range cattle are all over it. Filled in as it is it's not doing the cattle any good so I can see no reason that anyone should complain about me clearing it out. If all that sand just happens to be processed at the same time......

 

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[goldenIrishman]

LOL What? DO you want someone to ruin their camera taking a picture of ME? I've been known to break mirrors from twenty paces and melt film in the camera!

Soon as I can get the roll of film I just finished shooting developed I'll post some pics of the new area. Someday I'm going to upgrade to a Sony A series DSLR so I don't have to go to WalMart to get them developed. The Sony will accept all of my Minolta lenses so I won't have to replace them as well. That will be a major savings for me.

 

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[goldenIrishman]

Well I finally got that crud cleared up so I'll be back out digging this weekend! I got out to the site while on a short hike with the munchkin and found that the rains we had gotten while I was sidelined did not fill in the holes I'd dug on the last trip and as a plus my shade tarp was still in place and only needed a bit of tightening up.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Wife just became allergic to Novocaine. 1 side of her face swelled up and her eye is swollen shut. She's had it before with no issues. Just goes to show you you never know.

 

[Jeff95531]

Wife just became allergic to Novocaine. 1 side of her face swelled up and her eye is swollen shut. She's had it before with no issues. Just goes to show you you never know.

Too true. My mom had used Lanacane for her cuts and scrapes for decades. Then one day it gave her third degree chemical burns. Ever since then she has been allergic to anything with cane on the end.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Too true. My mom had used Lanacane for her cuts and scrapes for decades. Then one day it gave her third degree chemical burns. Ever since then she has been allergic to anything with cane on the end.

Sugar?

 

[goldenIrishman]

I usually have the exact opposite reaction to the "Cains". While in Germany with the Army I had to have a couple of wisdom teeth pulled. They were so badly hooked on the teeth in front of them that they had to be shattered before removal. The Doc shot me up with some "Alphacaine" (Which I'd never heard of before) and check back with be a few minutes later. He asked if I was numb (No comment Jeff) and I said no. So he shot me up again and after a few rounds of this he decided that I HAD to be numb and decided to shatter the first one even after I'd said not to do it. He came down with his little hammer and chisel and I came up with a back handed fist across the bridge of his nose and knocked him out. The assistant said "You told him not to do it and he didn't listen" They brought in a different dentist that switched to Novocaine and finished the job with no further problems. Sooooo... The moral of this story is as follows... Dentists and Doctors need to learn to listen to their patients for their own safety, aaaannnddd this is the best way I know of to get to knock out a stupid Army officer and get away with it. They gave me a handful of 500Mg tabs of synthetic codeine for the pain and I was out for the next 48 hours.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Time for the BIG Hammer!!!!

Well guys, Robi and I were upstream from our dam checking it out and taking samples last Sunday when I found some nice Quartz veins in some of the boulders that had worked their way down the wash and piled themselves up forming a nice drop off. There was one "point" of white Quartz sticking out and I decided to check it out. Since I didn't have my eye glasses I chipped off a chunk with my rock hammer and held it out at arms length and saw some little flecks of gold in it. In the pack it went of course and when we got back to the house I got out my 30X loop and checked it out closer. Not only were there flecks in the Quartz but I also found some larger ones wedged in between it and the Rhyolite base that the boulder was formed out of. (Rhyolite is in essence a form of red granite)

Needless to say, I'll be hauling up the 4 and 12 lb sledge hammer and some heavy chisels to bust some of those veins up/out of the Rhiolite and running it through the crusher! Yeah... I'm a placer miner and always have been, but if there's gold in those rocks you can bet your sweet bippy that I"ll do some hard rock work in a short heartbeat!!! Oh... And we also found some course stuff at the base of the drop off as well. The only thing I wish for is a way to get some real equipment into this site so I could really do some serious digging/sluicing. Having to haul everything in and out on my back is such a pain!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Before you crush that gold bearing quartz do a little online research into the specimen value of it as it comes out of the ground, worth more that way most times!

 

[goldenIrishman]

I know Kev. The gold I'm seeing is so small that it wouldn't make for a good specimen piece (so far) Now if I happen to find something that has some real appeal in that way I'll keep it whole. If it wasn't for the glint of the tiny flakes and a strong magnifier I never would have even noticed the gold along side the veins.

That of course doesn't mean that there's not some really nice specimen material out there in my back yard. I'm not only a crazy SOB but a hardheaded one as well. The hunt is far from over my friends!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Cool!!!

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

so mister gold...have you found my avatar yet?

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hummmm Didn't know I was supposed to be looking for it.... But I do remember hearing that some guys used to look for old adobe houses so they could pan them. I'd like to think that people now days are more respectful of the history surrounding those old adobe structures and leave them be for future generations to see, enjoy and learn from.

EDIT:
BTW I'm NOT MR. Gold. That would be my buddy that first showed me the ropes. Every year he dresses up as a 49er and gives lessons on the history of the gold rush to 4th graders to include hands on panning lessons. I'm just an information junkie that is into putting the information I gather to good use and to share it with others wanting to learn.

 

[Jeff95531]

GI, WTG on your best gold find to date!
500mg synthetic codeine? Like Mr Floyd says, you were more than numb...Comfortably numb I'd say

 

[goldenIrishman]

Not numb... Dead to the world! My Plt Sgt started getting worried after the first 20 hours and I was still asleep.

BTW... Fishing must be good. I haven't seen ya on lately...

 

[Jeff95531]

My "included" internet connection went down in flames a week ago...was really happy to see the UPS girl pull up to the office yesterday...back on line an hour later.
The fish went off the bite...no one knows what's up. Don't matter...I'll be plunking for salmon and steelhead in the river and digging test holes between bites!

 

[Doitlaynstyle]

I'm really enjoying this thread, I'm patiently waiting for pics and I thought I would share another pic of our most recent find and the one before that. The smaller picker is the one before. In the meantime I am enjoying hearing about this Battle with the sand dam. Have you thought to dig a retention pond below your dig site and recirculate this rain water? Also how far away is the wash from your home? And is the sand dam down stream from there?



What looks silver in the pan is gold covered in Mercury.... Difficult to remove without poisoning yourself but not impossible..

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nice retort. I have a friend here in Denver who makes and sells those...for those who don't have their own welder, etc. definitely the way to go!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hey Doit,
The dam is in a narrow section of the wash with exposed bedrock on both sides. Someone stacked rocks across the gap and cemented them into place. You can see where the structure was higher at one time but it looks like time and some rather large boulders have knocked about half the height off the dam. From the look of the cement I'd guesstimate that it's been there since around the 1920s. The wash is an easy walk form the house but the terrain is too rough to get a truck in there. Pictures are in the works but as stated before I'm old school on my camera gear.

If we could actually get some more rain here at the house (storms all around us but no rain at the house) I think my "repair" on the dam should have it holding water again. Should be enough to be able to run my recirc sluice on battery power. Suck the water up by the dam and have it drain from the tailings pile back to the dam. etc. I just wish I could get something like a bobcat down there to really move some materials.

KEVIN: How much does your friend charge for the retorts he makes? I've been looking at one that run about $180.00 but if I can save some bucks.....

 

[KevinInColorado]

I think he charges about $100 ish. PM me your email address if interested and I will pass it on to him

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

KEVIN: How much does your friend charge for the retorts he makes? I've been looking at one that run about $180.00 but if I can save some bucks.....

$180? Are you looking for some temperature controlled recovery or that simple 2 pipe stand shown in the 4 part video (I can't get to utube right now)?