Gold in my back yard creek!

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I started prospecting this past spring and summer and went out at least 15 times in a variety of places around the state of Washington and had a lot of fun (and got some gold). We also have a small creek in our back yard. It transports a lot of gravel off of the hill top that it starts on, us more or less in the alluvial fan area. I looked at it all summer thinking I should check to see if there's any gold in it, but not really expecting anything, so I never got around to trying. This past weekend the wife was busy doing stuff we've put off all summer and I was trying to decide if I should begin watching NFL again but decided it was a good day to try digging in my creek. This past weeks rain had brought the flow back up to where I could use my Grizzly Explorer so I picked a random easy spot to shovel right into the sluice. The fly poop didn't really surprise me, but I was happy to see it. The one bigger flake was what really got me excited. Hard to count buckets when you are directly shoveling, but this was from probably about one bucket of unclassified into the GGT sluice. When your gold mining is only 50 feet away from your kegerator, life is good! I think I will be digging gravel all winter.

 

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[oidium45]

Dude, gold in my back yard would be dangerous... I would soon find myself skipping work to dig and become obsessed :-P

 

[mike(swWash)]

....and renting a backhoe

 

[DizzyDigger]

Sweet! If that little creek holds gold, then it's possible the entire bench
around it holds gold as well.

I've got a whole lot of river beach in my backyard, and while it does hold
flour gold I've never really found enough to make working it worthwhile.
Not to mention it's under water right now as the Skagit has been close to
flood level twice in the past week.

Mike, if the creek flow drops down, you can still work all that using a Gold Cube
or some type of highbanker set-up. You could even go down and dig/classify
your material, and then bring the buckets into your garage (where it's dry and
warm) and run the material there using a tub for recirculating the Gold Cube water.

Fixed up your pic, and noticed that it's pretty chunky/coarse gold, especially for
the area where you live. You might find some nice gold around there!

 

[oidium45]

Sweet! If that little creek holds gold, then it's possible the entire bench
around it holds gold as well.

I've got a whole lot of river beach in my backyard, and while it does hold
flour gold I've never really found enough to make working it worthwhile.
Not to mention it's under water right now as the Skagit has been close to
flood level twice in the past week.

Mike, if the creek flow drops down, you can still work all that using a Gold Cube
or some type of highbanker set-up. You could even go down and dig/classify
your material, and then bring the buckets into your garage (where it's dry and
warm) and run the material there using a tub for recirculating the Gold Cube water.

Fixed up your pic, and noticed that it's pretty chunky/coarse gold, especially for
the area where you live. You might find some nice gold around there!

View attachment 1508610

Dude, no joke.. My backyard would look like this. Obsession is a thing :-P Back yard BBQ and drunk coworkers digging are also a thing :-P

 

[mike(swWash)]

Build some flood gold traps to clean out next summer when the rains and hopefully floods are done. In the mean time dig man, dig.

I also have a creek in my backyard, but alas, no gold is present

 

[et1955]

My wife and I started prospecting this past spring and summer and went out at least 15 times in a variety of places around the state of Washington and had a lot of fun (and got some gold). We also have a small creek in our back yard. It transports a lot of gravel off of the hill top that it starts on, us more or less in the alluvial fan area. I looked at it all summer thinking I should check to see if there's any gold in it, but not really expecting anything, so I never got around to trying. This past weekend the wife was busy doing stuff we've put off all summer and I was trying to decide if I should begin watching NFL again but decided it was a good day to try digging in my creek. This past weeks rain had brought the flow back up to where I could use my Grizzly Explorer so I picked a random easy spot to shovel right into the sluice. The fly poop didn't really surprise me, but I was happy to see it. The one bigger flake was what really got me excited. Hard to count buckets when you are directly shoveling, but this was from probably about one bucket of unclassified into the GGT sluice. When your gold mining is only 50 feet away from your kegerator, life is good! I think I will be digging gravel all winter. View attachment 1508598 View attachment 1508599 View attachment 1508600

Very awesome Mike, now the fun starts, where is it coming from ? If you need help on the history of gold in your area, I would be glad to help. ED

 

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

Looks like you have the Explorer set up nicely. Gold in your back yard, that's pretty awesome!

 

[Obsessive]

That is awesome! Excellent find. My back yard has a concrete pad surrounded by a few rusty nails.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Very awesome Mike, now the fun starts, where is it coming from ? If you need help on the history of gold in your area, I would be glad to help. ED

It's not a very long stream. It starts up on the hilltop area of Mount Vernon and then runs down to the Nookachamps and into the Skagit. I would say it's only 2 to 3 miles long. It pushes a buttload of gravel through during high water though. I need to find a way to start trapping that gravel! I'm guessing it's glacial till? Fraser River gold?

 

[Gold4Mike]

Sweet! If that little creek holds gold, then it's possible the entire bench
around it holds gold as well.

I've got a whole lot of river beach in my backyard, and while it does hold
flour gold I've never really found enough to make working it worthwhile.
Not to mention it's under water right now as the Skagit has been close to
flood level twice in the past week.

Mike, if the creek flow drops down, you can still work all that using a Gold Cube
or some type of highbanker set-up. You could even go down and dig/classify
your material, and then bring the buckets into your garage (where it's dry and
warm) and run the material there using a tub for recirculating the Gold Cube water.

Fixed up your pic, and noticed that it's pretty chunky/coarse gold, especially for
the area where you live. You might find some nice gold around there!

View attachment 1508610

Yeah, I'm already thinking of how to build a recirculating sluice of some sort to be able to run gravel next summer! I think I will enjoy the winter flow for now.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Having gold out in the yard is nice, but... Can you bring in a dredge?

 

[Capt Nemo]

Best tank for recirculation is a water trough for farming. They're built tough enough for the heavy critters to bang them around. I run a 27 gal trough from Freeland Industries, and it makes a good tank for recirculation and panning. I got mine through Fleet Farm for $60.

 

[Gold4Mike]

I may have to see what ET has for an electric highbanker too. I think my extension cord will reach.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Dude, gold in my back yard would be dangerous... I would soon find myself skipping work to dig and become obsessed :-P

I am now very distracted at work and tried to convince my wife to cancel dinner plans so that I could go dig tonight! That didn't work so I will get to it later I guess.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Oh! On those Poly Tuf tanks from Freeland, I use a 1 1/4"x 1/2" PVC tee to make saddles for the lip on my tank. Just cut and bend the plastic with a heat gun.

Model 5 showing the saddles I use for the support cradle. There's 2 on each side and one at the rear.

 

[UncleMatt]

How much overburden would you estimate you have over bedrock there?

 

[Arachnofreak]

Wow man! Congratulations! You ever seen the movie Holes? Pretty sure my backyard would look like that if I found gold in it. Sure would save a lot of miles on the truck and a ton of cash in gas though.

Very happy for you man! Hope it turns out to be a real big find!

 

[Gold4Mike]

How much overburden would you estimate you have over bedrock there?

Not really sure. I would think bedrock would be down a ways. We are pretty flat here after the creek comes down off the hillside. If the historical floodplain of the creek is at the same level as the current creek, even in my yard or the surrounding benches would be 3-4 feet of digging through the matted roots of the surrounding cedar trees to reach gravel. My house is about 50 feet away and is surrounded by clay soil. The loamy soil was all scraped off to build the neighborhood. Would the clay layer mean that gravel would be down below it? I guess I will have to try and dig some holes through the root mass to find out.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wow man! Congratulations! You ever seen the movie Holes? Pretty sure my backyard would look like that if I found gold in it. Sure would save a lot of miles on the truck and a ton of cash in gas though.

Very happy for you man! Hope it turns out to be a real big find!

Yes it will be very handy if I can dig enough gravel here. I'm excited that I can pretty much dig all winter and just go inside when I get cold. I'm hoping also there will be some flood replenishment! I will also be talking to the next door neighbors and seeing if we can work out a deal to use my sluice and their gravel.