Finding a little color in tertiary gravels...

[Hangtowndiggins]

From my yard!!.

So the wife and I bought a house outside of Placerville about 7 months ago. Lots of old time mining history and remains within a mile of us in all directions. Been noticing plenty of round rock and quartz sitting on the surface in the yard but haven't yet had the chance to poke around. Between all the hubby/daddy do's and all the projects that come with buying a "new" home and everything else going on in life just haven't had the time (have only got out to dig a handful of times since the move)..
Well it was finally time to build a fence around the yard that required digging multiple holes to set wood posts. Was having little to no fun until running into a hard pack layer of some awesome looking gravels that showed all signs pointing to gold! So, little did I know I have tertiary gravels just a few inches deep in my yard until now. I was quick to round up empty buckets to save the gravels for further investigation, ended up bringing 5 buckets worth back to the house.
A few days later (last weekend) the big storm blowing through put my fence building plans to a halt (totally fine by me). Was itchy to get some gravels from the fence post holes in the pan and see how it looked. Got all set up to pan away in the garage, even told the wife to pretend like I wasn't home (as in don't ask me to do anything, I'm busy! Lol) and before I could get the first pan wet it suddenly started pouring harder than I've seen in a long while, so I found myself amused by it for the 10 minutes it lasted.
After the flash flood downpour let up I took a quick walk to make sure all the water around the house was running off ok and noticed a spot in the yard that looked to be a one foot diameter hole pumping a good amount of water from the ground that wasn't there before. So I thought, well hell I'm about to pan anyway so grabbed the shovel to see what I could fish out of the hole. Dug down and started pulling up some sweet looking gravels!..
Worked the first pan down and to my surprise lots of black sands and had one little piece of color looking me straight in the eye, I screamed EUREKA!! Lol, well not really but I did have an instant golden grin at the first sight of that little piece of color
Went on to do 8 or so more pans from the hole, each pan showed at least one color, one pan showed 3 colors (did a little jig on that one).
So ended up not even touching the saved buckets of gravel from the post holes, my back was locking up a while after being hunched over the panning tub and was concerned about a wicked blister on the palm of my hand getting too soggy n funky so called it quits. Plus had enough color in the pan to know I need to set up the recirculating sluice and get down to business (just gotta find the time).
So all in all not bad for digging blind in a hole full of water and finding some new color that I had no idea was there waiting!
Went back to the hole yesterday to see what I could dig up, hole stopped flowing but still full of water so can't see exactly what's going on yet. I managed to pull up a couple more pans worth of gravel (both showed a couple more colors!) but now seems to be I'm bottoming out on bigger cobbles which has me thinking I was only scratching the surface of the gravel layer and good possibilities for the gold to get better the deeper I dig, we shall see...

Anyhow, just wanted to share the story while it's young and update with the finds as I go...
Now for the pics....

The start of the front yard surface operation lol (the hole that produced the bit of color)


Gravels from the hole..


Black sands from 8 or so pans worth..


The bigger washed gravels from classifying to 1/2"..

 

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[beekbuster]

why does a wiseman always spoil the fun?

 

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[dave wiseman]

beekbuster,it's just reality man.I hope the guy finds lots of yellow.

 

[Goldwasher]

Some people give encouragement...some people can't think of anything nice to say but, just have to say something Its to bad that some of the more experienced members seem to have a very negative outlook on the exact lifestyle they are very passionate and educated about. There tends to be a lot of assumption, that there is a lot of the common sense is held in reserve my the older experienced vets of the prospecting community. That the younger generation is so far behind the learning curve in all these manners that we shouldn't even bother. Our older brothers have thankfully been through it and want to save us the hassle.....Thanks guys!!!!!!!! NOT!!!!!!!
Its just plain negativity!!!
Funny thing the jaded filters and walls of old wives tales one must filter through.
It is true you can buy a property and not have the Mineral rights. it does happen. Another funny thing I live in an area that should be rife with this problem....there are old mines everywhere, patented lands have created a puzzle of property lines....and you know what of all the people I know that have land and gold on it they all coincidently have the mineral rights.....Strange.
Hangtown may have just broke ground on what will most likely be one of the largest open pit gold mines in the region of his back yard. But , that doesn't mean he hasn't researched the old channels on and near his property. He did know they were tertiary. So what if they could be 200 feet deep there were pay layers and factually in the area some of the richest were never worked at bedrock levels.
I think its nice that a guy who goes out and snipes, runs tons of gravel in the season and is half owner of a mining claim. Can also have color and mining history in his own yard. I call that lucky....most of our other digs require a lot more research, effort and sometimes a little luck.
I guess sometimes a fella chimes in and sounds negative and doesn't mean it....I guess its all in the tone!!!

 

[Jeff95531]

Yep Goldwasher...it's the difference between internet and actual interpersonal relationships. I've had trouble myself when I threw out some good natured sarcasm and it was taken the wrong way. The internet is great but it is not without it faults. Just like rumors and "it must be true, I read it on the internet".

Dave gave his 2 cents just like I encourage input on my threads. I'll discard the stuff that doesn't fit and keep in mind the other possibilities presented.

Heavy pans to all!

 

[fowledup]

As long as you spread yard knomes around the diggins and refer to your new washplant as a "water feature" you'll be fine, no POO or NOI needed.

Congrats on the find, hope it pans out. I always wanted gold on my property but have worried that It would stop my other adventures. That's code for jealous as ell.

 

[dave wiseman]

Obviously,one can take my comments anyway they choose to.I wasn't writing the remarks to discourage the fellow,just a heads up on some possible roadblocks.Perhaps he'll write a followup report in a few weeks or months.

 

[Aufisher]

I could smell the gold oozing out of your yard. Those little thickies add up! Your yard gold puts mine to shame! Look forward to putting that Black sand on the bbq!

 

[beekbuster]

i know, especially if your property is residential, u most likely dont have water or mineral rights. even some property that is larger and rural is the same situation, worthless property if u ask me.... i didnt take wisemans comment negetively, he was stating a fact that can be easily overlooked. i was just poking fun, since that is what this whole thread has been, mainly

 

[Goldwasher]

Sorry guys not trying to be a jerk. Sometimes it just seems like a fella can't ask about panning by a river without hearing about how he might drown for even trying.

 

[jvan]

Nice man!

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Thanks fellas, all the light hearted comments and advise is appreciated
Well the yard is only one acre with a neighbor in close enough range so not sure will go as far as bringing in a backhoe, but if the gold gets that good and comes down to it will have to go with the clever excuse, I mean reason of diggin a pool (good one Kev!)... and if so, Mojo has the right idea, go big or go home.. I can see it now.. "oh that's just the olympic size pool project that crazy neighbor never finished, he sure spent a lot of time washing all those rocks though" Either way, will keeping having fun with it as I don't see crime in getting some color (hopefully chunks) from the yard.

For a bit of info about the area, I'm in a valley at 2500', no exposed bedrock that I know of for at least a mile in all directions, so no clue on how deep it could be hiding. The base of the nearest bluff that was hydraulicked is about a mile out and pretty flat in between so I doubt tailings made it's way to my place. Plenty for signs of digs just a cobble throw away but none in the yard so thinking chances are good that the ground is untouched.
Anyhow, I guess all the answers await under my feet, just finding the time is gonna be the hard part. Will be sure to keep y'all posted with the finds as they come and hopefully before long.

Good and safe digs to all until then!..

 

[2cmorau]

no backhoe required, file mineral rights, start with a small electric dredge, sluury into half wine barrels plant rose's mamma will like that, woohoo call me

 

[huntsman53]

I hope we aren't going to come visit you some day and find the house gone and a big hole in the ground, LOL!!! You could dig up the whole place, just make sure to backfill your holes.

Some 15 to 20 years ago, a family purchased some land in the Franklin, North Carolina area. After having a house seat bulldozed out and while the house was being built, they called in a Water Well Drilling company as they were too far away to get City utilities. The drillers tried all they could to hit water but no matter where on the property they drilled or how many holes they drilled, they could not punch through rock. The Water Well Drilling Company and owner of the property, agreed to have a Geologist come out and access the situation. The Geologist brought some sounding equipment and was able to set the probes and sensors in some of the drilled holes on the property. After doing many soundings and inspections of the holes and material, his assessment was that the entire property sat on a large Corundum matrix rock. Now, what do you do in a case like this? I am pretty sure that they found another source for their' water as they did not want to level the home which was already partially built to dig up the large Corundum matrix rock to see if it held Gem quality Rubies and Sapphires and/or even try to remove the rock which would have taken many tens of thousands of dollars or more in costs to excavate the property to get to it and then try to remove it.


Frank

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hope you checked and made sure that the mineral rights conveyed over with the purchase of the house!!!!!

New projects... Swimming pool (as stated already), BBQ pit large enough to do entire cows, sunken garden about 20 feet deep and didn't you say that the leech lines needed to be redone or expanded? Another idea here would be to plant a LOT of trees for "PRIVACY". I'd suggest something like Italian Cypress trees. They grow tall and very straight and you can plant them close together which would mean more holes. Dig the holes deep so the roots have some "foot room" and will grow fast.

 

[specksandflecks]

Well well well. What do you have here? Gold in the yard!?!?

We have this property on a bench, which has a well. We were having a problem with sediments so had the well guys come and blast out the well with high pressure, high volume air. That was quite the sight with rocks and water shooting up 30' into the air! I kept watching for gold nuggets to fall from the sky, but nothing. It actually went fairly quick once they convinced me to get out of the way and stop running around trying to catch the falling gravels in my pan.. /

We are only 1 drainage away from from a gold bearing one, evidently that can make a difference .

After watching the gravels accumulate for a bit, I asked the local well guys if they had ever seen any gold when cleaning out these wells. I got about halfway through the question when they said "oh yeah, we always bring our pans with us when we go to certain areas". Namely that 'other' drainage the next valley over. They said it was fairly common in that area actually. They even mentioned a few property owners who get gold regularly when cleaning out their particulate filters for their wells.

"Gee what a bummer, looks like the filter needs cleaned again, that's the 3rd time this week!..."

You will most certainly need a well to supply water for that new garden, riiight?

 

[beekbuster]

sooo that makes me wonder... to get around the dredge laws, just call it a well pump. yeah officer im just pumping water into this container, but cant keep the gravel out, its quite aggravating really.

 

[Aufisher]

Give me a call when you want to install that bomb shelter and underground subway!

 

[fowledup]

As long as he's 100yds away from a river, stream, or lake no worries. At this point it's no longer a suction dredge, it's a VACtron. Tell the world your training your kids to be heavy equipment operators and ask them to kindly step off the property.

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Give me a call when you want to install that bomb shelter and underground subway!

Thanks AU! Got plenty of brew and all 1200 bolts ready to thread when you are

 

[huntsman53]

Well well well. What do you have here? Gold in the yard!?!?

We have this property on a bench, which has a well. We were having a problem with sediments so had the well guys come and blast out the well with high pressure, high volume air. That was quite the sight with rocks and water shooting up 30' into the air! I kept watching for gold nuggets to fall from the sky, but nothing. It actually went fairly quick once they convinced me to get out of the way and stop running around trying to catch the falling gravels in my pan.. /

We are only 1 drainage away from from a gold bearing one, evidently that can make a difference .

After watching the gravels accumulate for a bit, I asked the local well guys if they had ever seen any gold when cleaning out these wells. I got about halfway through the question when they said "oh yeah, we always bring our pans with us when we go to certain areas". Namely that 'other' drainage the next valley over. They said it was fairly common in that area actually. They even mentioned a few property owners who get gold regularly when cleaning out their particulate filters for their wells.

"Gee what a bummer, looks like the filter needs cleaned again, that's the 3rd time this week!..."

You will most certainly need a well to supply water for that new garden, riiight?

This story reminded me of another true story from many years ago! An Out-of-State couple purchased a piece of property in North Carolina not too far from Franklin so that the husband could prospect for Gold and so they could build a home. Well about 5 years went by, the home was built and the man had dug many underground mines on the property but could not find any Gold. He put the camper up for sale in which he and the wife lived while building the house and not too long after, a gentleman came by to look at the Camper. While there, he asked the property owner where he got all of the rocks for his' driveway, to which the property owner stated "they are from the underground mines he dug looking for Gold". The guy that was there to look at the Camper, chuckled and asked, you do know that most of the those rocks in the driveway are Sapphires, right? I never heard anymore details on the story but it just goes to show that you can purchase a piece of property with no thought of anything being on it and then finding something or hoping for one thing and getting another!


Frank