Old Hydraulic mines

[TrinityBigfoot]

A member here on the for suggested a few places to metal detect for gold (greatly appreciated). I went out last week and had a blast. Unfortunately I didn't find gold. I did find 22 shells, bullets, foil, old cans and a large light bulb filament. I feel that the area is great for gold. What I'm curious about. On old Hydraulic mines, where is the most productive areas to hunt? Below the hill where the were washing? Above the washing area? The huge tailing rocks? The whole area?

The second thing. The area where I was had a ridge that clearly looked like it was being washed and the washing had abruptly been stopped. Around the hill including above were many small man made creek channels. Some of them appeared to come from the main hillside. What were these channels for? What would be the most productive areas to search? I dug a few junk targets in these channels and the ground was very soft dirt. I didn't dig deep enough to find a bottom of the man made creek. Unfortunately most of these channels had so many cans and junk I found a target every swing. Would these channels have had the mud and gold from the hillside being washed? Would they have had a wood base or bottom?

Thanks for the help.

 

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[bug]

Look for areas of shallow, preferably hard, bedrock or clay that can trap gold. Target that bedrock! This is the place 9 out of 10 detectors will find gold.
Avoid piles of overburden, walls of gravel reaching mighty heights, gulleys buried in fathoms of sand and mud, trashy areas, shooting ranges, and the like.
The channels may have been to convey water to the workings, or drains, or sluiceways where the boxes were laid in the pit.

 

[Oakview2]

Could your wood base, be the bottom of a sluice where they boomed water down the hillside. Some very great finds in this area are cracks in the bedrock, where they ran tons of material and water and sometime the black sand calcifies the crack shut. Have a buddy who took six pounds of pieces out of what he thought was solid bedrock. Jackhammer liberated it and paid for a new truck back in the day.

 

[bug]

Heard a similar story up in Iowa Hill ! Nutz!

 

[jog]

Could your wood base, be the bottom of a sluice where they boomed water down the hillside. Some very great finds in this area are cracks in the bedrock, where they ran tons of material and water and sometime the black sand calcifies the crack shut. Have a buddy who took six pounds of pieces out of what he thought was solid bedrock. Jackhammer liberated it and paid for a new truck back in the day.

I have friend who has found the same thing as you discribed, he pulled this from a seem in an old hydraulic mine.

 

[TrinityBigfoot]

Wow. That looks awesome what a find. I think I will certainly head back for more prospecting.

 

[Oakview2]

NICE

I have friend who has found the same thing as you discribed, he pulled this from a seem in an old hydraulic mine.

 

[Buckshotnc]

Trinitybigfoot: At my place here in Western North Carolina, Treasure Valley site of old Lookadoo Gold mine I have what you described areas above on the ridge where the water was sent to the miners, yes it was probably thru a wooden flume and when they found a vein they turned the water down and worked that vein and the flume would go on to the next gold vein and same thing again. The water was either caught farther upstream and ran around the ridge or some of our local history books say they brought a pump from england that would pump the water up to 16 miles to the miners. They would also build cisterns to hold the water and reduce the diameter or pipes to create hydraulic mining. All of the areas you mentioned are possibilities, I have dug into the tailing piles which are always below the flumes and have found some fine gold in the tailings. Most likely if you see an area where it might appear they had a sluice setup between two hills there might be a place to look. They were mostly after the big stuff and may have overlooked some, so as they say "Gold is where you find it". Good Luck.