Santa Cruz Ca hunt tomorrow

[Alex Burke]

Hi guys kind of new to the forum and I realize this is short notice but... I have researched a couple of places around the Santa Cruz area and plan on going to check them out tomorrow and visiting family in the area afterwards. I am going to leave Concord around 10am and start hunting around S.C. about noon. I plan on hunting a few hours till 5 or 6 then going to my uncle's house in San Jose and maybe checking out a couple of other spots on friday. If anyone is interested in joining me send me a msg or post here and I'll send you the links to the spots I want to check out. Thanks Alex (Meteor Miner).

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Hi guys kind of new to the forum and I realize this is short notice but... I have researched a couple of places around the Santa Cruz area and plan on going to check them out tomorrow and visiting family in the area afterwards. I am going to leave Concord around 10am and start hunting around S.C. about noon. I plan on hunting a few hours till 5 or 6 then going to my uncle's house in San Jose and maybe checking out a couple of other spots on friday. If anyone is interested in joining me send me a msg or post here and I'll send you the links to the spots I want to check out. Thanks Alex (Meteor Miner).

If you want to PM me on which sites you have in mind, I can shed light on whether they've been hunted already. S. Cruz area is within my stomping ground limits (I'm 45 min. from there). The wet-sand at the beach there right now is totally lame, since we've had a tame/calm winter, with no surf or swells to erode.

If you want to swing further south and hunt, you're welcome to look me up. Pop me a PM.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Also: If you want to leave Concord sooner (as in ....... right now), and head straight to San Juan Bautista, CA, there's a tour group of mission docents that I belong to, that's going to be led on a private tour by a local archaeologist. You're welcome to join us. That starts about 9:30am-ish ........

 

[Alex Burke]

Hi, Tom yeah I would have taken you up on your offer. I thought I had the notifications set so if someone replied it would go to my phone, but I guess I didn't. Ironically I lost the phone on the way down highway 1 at the beach by the Ritz Carlton lol. I've learned a lot reading your threads here and on different forums and it would've/would be an honor to meet you Sir. I had planned on going to hunt where C.H. Hewitt reportedly set up huge pumps and sluices 2 miles south of Felton. I don't think he did well but maybe some cool stuff is still there? I did grab a bucket of black sand from the river outlet felt silly doing it but found the story fascinating and figured while I was in the area.... I'll report back, run it through the gold cube next time I set it up lol. I spent longer than I expected visiting family and never got to the San Lorenzo site. I did get a better phone out of it though for the same price so it wasn't all bad afterall. Here's the info that made me curious:
Report of the State Mineralogist - Google Books

5th paragraph <Gold from the Sea

Show data for sample 10214093

wasn't going to look at this site but it's nearby Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) - Google Maps

 

[jeanierides]

Hi guys kind of new to the forum and I realize this is short notice but... I have researched a couple of places around the Santa Cruz area and plan on going to check them out tomorrow and visiting family in the area afterwards. I am going to leave Concord around 10am and start hunting around S.C. about noon. I plan on hunting a few hours till 5 or 6 then going to my uncle's house in San Jose and maybe checking out a couple of other spots on friday. If anyone is interested in joining me send me a msg or post here and I'll send you the links to the spots I want to check out. Thanks Alex (Meteor Miner).

Hello just wanted to know if you had any hunts in Santa Cruz planned upcoming. I am still new to metal detecting and looking for a person or group to join and hunt with none of my friends metal detect thanks.

 

[Alex Burke]

Hi Jeanierides, I will let you know next time I'm heading that way. My grandma lives in soquel so I try to visit her once a month or so. Maybe someone more local will see your post in the meantime. Good luck, Alex.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hi, Tom yeah I would have taken you up on your offer. I thought I had the notifications set so if someone replied it would go to my phone, but I guess I didn't. Ironically I lost the phone on the way down highway 1 at the beach by the Ritz Carlton lol. I've learned a lot reading your threads here and on different forums and it would've/would be an honor to meet you Sir. I had planned on going to hunt where C.H. Hewitt reportedly set up huge pumps and sluices 2 miles south of Felton. I don't think he did well but maybe some cool stuff is still there? I did grab a bucket of black sand from the river outlet felt silly doing it but found the story fascinating and figured while I was in the area.... I'll report back, run it through the gold cube next time I set it up lol. I spent longer than I expected visiting family and never got to the San Lorenzo site. I did get a better phone out of it though for the same price so it wasn't all bad afterall. Here's the info that made me curious:
Report of the State Mineralogist - Google Books

5th paragraph <Gold from the Sea

Show data for sample 10214093

wasn't going to look at this site but it's nearby Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) - Google Maps

Meteor-minor, if gold-in-it's-natural state is your goal, then the S. Cruz mountains are not very-well suited for that. Sure some has "historically" been found. But by in large, the topography/geology of the type mountains (elevations, etc...) do not bode well for natural formation of gold. The "ingredients" for mother nature to form gold (where quartz and granite meet, at a certain elevation, blah blah blah), just are not present on the coastal ranges. You have to go east of Sacramento to the sierra foothills if you're after gold in its natural form.

There was also gold found south of Carmel in the Los Burros district. But again, never commercially viable. Placer form (that had to be processed out of rock) and wasn't worthwhile. I mean, at least, not insofar as the sierras where, still to-this-day, people ply the hills there for nuggets (dredging, detecting, etc...).

Not saying there would *never* be a nugget of size that a detector would find it in the S. Cruz mountains, but ....... you're time is much-better-served simply driving 3 hrs. east and hunting there, if that were your goal.

On this side of CA, everyone's a coin, relic, or jewelry hunter. Those few from around here who've tried their hand at nuggets, head to the sierras, not waste their time here.

 

[Alex Burke]

Yeah I was looking to hunt the spot for the relic value, the black sand I just figured it would be cool to see if the story was right. I am planning a trip to gold country soon though. Now people won't consider me a gold miner lol.

 

[Alex Burke]

Ok I couldn't take it anymore lol, I know this thread is old and pointless but I drive by "Gold Gulch" every time I visit family in Scotts Valley and I think about this thread and this story. I decided to try and find the vein they failed to locate that they believe produced the nugget; mostly because I just don't believe the story but also because it's good practice for me hunting gold and trying to comprehend geology of gold etc - and also I'm poor and you never know lol.

Anyways here is a link to a site relating the original story http://m.goldenstatenewspapers.com/...488-8718-11e4-b06d-ef35914590a4.html?mode=jqm

So I started at Boulder Mountain on the east side and drove up Lakeview Rd (or drive) this road runs next to Gold Gulch up the mountain. About a mile up maybe further the road cut reveals a large vein of iron stained quartz about 5 ft wide striking almost directly east to west too not sure on correct terminology through the mountain.

I couldn't really park or get to the vein to grab a sample as it is now a residential neighborhood but I marked the direction of the strike as best I could with my phone compass and backtracked to highway 9 to check the other side of the mountain for the other side of the strike.

Sure enough on the other side of the mountain another modern road cut reveals what I believe is possibly the same vein striking at the same angle. Of course at this point I grabbed my bucket and shovel and grabbed one 5 gallon bucket of dirt and some rocks from and next to the vein. Several people slowed down probably thinking the worst seeing a guy with a shovel on the side of the road but I wasn't deterred and got my samples home safely.

I ran the bucket of dirt through my GoldCube and sadly there wasn't a flake to be found although I guess if I put the rocks in acid or crushed them I might find a spec I did find lots of indicator minerals like lots of galena/pyrite Quartz and even cinnabar.

I realized I have a long way to go as far as identifying things in the field vs having the Internet handy at home. I was sort of trying to find Monzonite but when I thought I found an outcrop I wasn't sure it wasn't just granite. I can't identify the different stages of granite and quartz and their replacements as well as I thought so I learned a lot about what I don't know in this exercise

Here are some pics of the more mineralized rocks I picked out of the bucket:







GE screenshot of area


At the end of Gold Gulch creek they beat me to it?


Final disclaimer, please don't go here expecting to find gold! This was an exercise and me looking into a historical account. If you go here you may get in trouble, hit by a car or who knows trying to check this area out so I hesitated for a second to post this for these reasons. I was checking out essentially a myth and there are way better places than this to prospect, even in the Santa Cruz area you would find more gold on the beaches near Aptos in the black sands if you can't travel far. If you need a location to prospect please feel free to pm me and I'll be glad to try to help you find one. Alex

 

[Tom_in_CA]

That's an interesting fun Derek Whaley article to read. But I still say that there's not enough gold anywhere in the S. Cruz mountains to be worthwhile. As your attempt now shows: Just rocks that don't assay out

 

[Airus21]

Hey all! I live in Santa Cruz, and have taken up panning in recent weeks. I Use a Gold Hog flow pan with a Garett Super Sluse regular pan. I've been hitting up a few bedrock spots along Zyantee creek (espically in the Quail Hollow area) and have manage to find some color! I've been slowly traveling upstream, trying to get closer to the source, and continue to find color as far as a few miles up. Here's what I have so far. It represents about 3 weeks of 1-2 hours of work on my weekends. Not much... but the exercise, practice, and time in nature make up for it. Also, proof positive that... There's gold in them there Santa Cruz hills!!! Let me know if anyone would like to join me in a hunt! It's mostly been a solo hobby, but i'd love to meet others who are into this! =)

 

[BeeOwner]

If only I was closer... good luck!