an old timer prospector I met 15 years ago...

[golden sluice]

I was heading up past barton flats to start working an area I dug the day before, when I came across an old timer on the trail. This guy had been camping up there for some time with his son. They had dug themselves a nice trough through an ancient gravel bank 50 feet from the waters edge. They dug it down and followed the sloping bed rock finding good gold along the way. He saw that I was sluicing and said I should follow him over to where they were. I went along. He and his son started talking about locating gold and what I should look for as indicators. Now, I showed him what I had found already that summer. He was impressed... then they showed me theirs! My jaw dropped. It wasnt in a vial. I thought the old timer had a wallet in his front pocket! It wasn't a wallet. It was an ingot! That was their flower gold! Then they showed me the nuggets. My god! They had 2 half oz.ers and 8 heavy plinckers for that month. I knew then that I was doing something wrong. They said, nope. I just need to read the river better and stay a long while and find my groove.

I just want to know if any of you guys have run across any prospectors, stories or situations where the gold was unreal?+=

 

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[Oregon Viking]

This thread is cool!
That Who song..My generation..
Hope I die before I get old....
not miners ehh?
I listen, learn from all the ...uh..older then me gents

 

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[golden sluice]

Thanks , hope you've got a story to share of your own sometime.

 

[Goodyguy]

I thought I was an old timer until I met Victor at Gem World during a recent prospecting trip to Quartzite Arizona. He is a genuine sourdough who knows the area inside out and is an expert geologist as well as a professor of physics. My estimate as to his age would be somewhere in his mid to late 70's and even though he works part time at Gem World he still actively works claims in the nearby mountains, as well as doing some consulting work.

We hit it off pretty good and it didn't take long for me to realize that I still had a lot to learn about sulfide and telluride prospecting. I invited him out to lunch (and dinner) to pick his brain some more as I noticed his boss at Gem World was casting the look in our direction that I had taken enough of Victors on duty time.

Those mealtime conversations were priceless........
My only regret is that I didn't stick around in Quartzite long enough to get the full benefit of Victors mentoring. I think back on it now and realize what an opportunity I had that I didn't take full advantage of.

GG~

 

[golden sluice]

Have any of you guys ever found mercury gold locked into a crevice under water? I tried to free it knowing gold resides inside amalgamated but It was locked to tight into bedrock under a big boulder and 5 ft of water.

 

[golden sluice]

Has anyone ever run across 49er mercury in yuba river bedrock?