Goldwasher
Gold Member
- May 26, 2009
- 6,077
- 13,225
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- Detector(s) used
- SDC2300, Gold Bug 2 Burlap, fish oil, .35 gallons of water per minute.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hangtown and I made the trip to Iowa Hill Monday. Cool spot never been there nice drive. I skipped going to Auburn first and we misjudged the caravan timing so we missed it and showed up when they were meeting in the parking area. The Prez. of the Gold Hounds GAVE a 3 dwt nugget to the fella who had traveled the farthest...he got a semi teasing BOO HISS
...he was from RUSSIA! They separated everyone by detector brand Steve H. was there I wanted to try and say hi and shake is hand but, I never ran into him. They pretty much opened up the whole claim to people so they could see what they could get. And told people where they could/should scrape and had some piles and water sources for guys to hi-bank if they wanted. They had just scraped new bedrock and gravel. I asked if we had our own gear where to set up. One of the guys took me over past where the fresh bedrock was and showed me a spot that had been showing color.Basically at the head of the old diggings on bedrock at the face of the old washed wall. I'm sure this is the area Gravelwasher got his piece the other day. We could have chose to work a pile they provided but, the chance to dig at the bottom of the pit in virgin ground in a more separated area was hard to pass up. We were right next to the area where a lady, it may have been "Dee" that Ray Mills wrote about in this months journal( it looked like her at least) was pulling pieces out of the cemented gravel on bedrock. Not sure how many but, she got a few. There was an old drift tunnel right by us and we were cleaning bedrock and getting into some very old cemented gravel too. I walked around to the other hi-bankers no one was really boasting about there finds, the people scraping and panning weren't showing to much either. There were a few noticeable detector finds heard a hoot every once in a while I don't think anyone found any lunkers. John scraped broke and dug and I fed the mean green machine. No chance to sample really so we just looked for a good area near found gold. We ended up with a good pile of cleaned gravel and a little bit of color...give me a week in that pit and it would be a different story
Kudos to the owner for letting a bunch of derelicts run amuck on his claim....
...he was from RUSSIA! They separated everyone by detector brand Steve H. was there I wanted to try and say hi and shake is hand but, I never ran into him. They pretty much opened up the whole claim to people so they could see what they could get. And told people where they could/should scrape and had some piles and water sources for guys to hi-bank if they wanted. They had just scraped new bedrock and gravel. I asked if we had our own gear where to set up. One of the guys took me over past where the fresh bedrock was and showed me a spot that had been showing color.Basically at the head of the old diggings on bedrock at the face of the old washed wall. I'm sure this is the area Gravelwasher got his piece the other day. We could have chose to work a pile they provided but, the chance to dig at the bottom of the pit in virgin ground in a more separated area was hard to pass up. We were right next to the area where a lady, it may have been "Dee" that Ray Mills wrote about in this months journal( it looked like her at least) was pulling pieces out of the cemented gravel on bedrock. Not sure how many but, she got a few. There was an old drift tunnel right by us and we were cleaning bedrock and getting into some very old cemented gravel too. I walked around to the other hi-bankers no one was really boasting about there finds, the people scraping and panning weren't showing to much either. There were a few noticeable detector finds heard a hoot every once in a while I don't think anyone found any lunkers. John scraped broke and dug and I fed the mean green machine. No chance to sample really so we just looked for a good area near found gold. We ended up with a good pile of cleaned gravel and a little bit of color...give me a week in that pit and it would be a different story Kudos to the owner for letting a bunch of derelicts run amuck on his claim....Amazon Forum Fav 👍
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The deposit is what? 13 million years old at least? If there is black sand and it oxidizes and turns to Ma' Nature brand cement does the sand lose color and weight? The cobble and cement that John was breaking into and giving me to run was purple, burgundy and peacockish...it seemed like we were starting to increase our quartz level. The cons had a significant amount of white sand hanging out with the black sands that were there and the fly poop. There was a lot of mica in the cemented matrix...huge teaser as when it is behind moving water it kind of loses its sparkly property and glows more like gold. Every so often I would reach into the hopper and grab a glowing piece. The cement was full of it. I saw the owner a few times , I was hoping he would come our way so I could ask a few questions. No real idea about the channels direction and its local characteristics. On our claim there is very little black sand and zero tertiary or inter-volcanic deposits. On Weber creek in Placerville and out in Grizzly Flat we got a ridiculous amount of black sand..and mercury. On the American too. and the Consumnes. Any time I have dug material with ancient gravel influence I get varied gold. Monday we got gold that had red on it and some that was so yellow it may almost be electrum. The interesting thing to me is when I look at that wall I don't see eons of deposits I see a few seasons at most....what do you think lotus?
