Historic floods

[et1955]

Just had some historic floods on some rivers in the upper western Washington state , great time to mine . New gold has been deposited. A thing to consider on flooding is Hight and duration, if a flood comes in high and recedes fast it will not deposit gold and may strip gold that was there, I have seen that happen on the Skykomish several times. Look at it this way, you are running your sluice at a constant flow, perfect for seperating gold from your material but if you dump a 5 gal. bucket of water into your sluice suddenly it will wash all your gold out. The floods I monitored here did something I haven't seen since 1995, they went up fast but they receded very slowly and that is the key, fast high floods will move gold but the slow receding flood will redeposit the gold.

 

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[PickAxeCA]

Historic floods in British Columbia, Canada as well. Homes and entire properties including land and trees have been swallowed up by rivers such as the Coquihalla River outside of Hope, BC, Canada - totally gone. In places the main river channel has gotten deeper, so that suggests that parts of the old river bottom have been dredged up, and hopefully redeposited in new places on gravel bars down river. Will be interesting to see which spots are better, and which ones are worse with increased overburden to dig through to the pay gravels.

 

[OwenT]

Ed, I will be back in Washington for my Christmas break. This is good news. Maybe I will get to go do a little mining. Let me know if you get out and find how the floods treated us this time. I remember the last big flood in 2015? didn't leave much behind but it will be interesting to visit some old and new spots to check it out.

 

[et1955]

2015 was minor flood compared to the 2005 flood, if gold was deposited it is dependent on what happened on the North fork and the main fork of the Skykomish river. The North fork has the gold but the main fork of the Sky has none, depending on the type of floods the North fork will deposit gold but if the Main Fork of the Skykomish is flooding it will wash the gold out, I am going to focus all my efforts on my claims this next year so my challenge to you is where does all the gold on the Sky go when it floods, I have an idea, what is yours.

 

[DizzyDigger]

If I understand correctly, you're talking about gold getting blown into
the Main fork from the North fork during floods?

If so, here's where I'd look..

 

[et1955]

Your close but your making the same mistake the Sluce Goose made, look how the south fork runs into the river, that changes everything in the area, that is the main flow and changer on the river. Your first right and left one are private property, your second to the left is where the Goose mined, bad choice. Also your map is very incorrect and the first thing a placer miner learns is to mine the inside of a river bend and the areas you marked are basically strait, I have been there so I do know the area, look left.

 

[Goldwasher]

when it comes to "flood gold"...inside bend outside bend etc. doesnt matter. the gold is where the gold is... at super high water those bends have way less influence.

Same thing goes for dpth of the layer. often times theres more gold up top because the gold moves until the current lessens and it is last to settle out.

 

[et1955]

when it comes to "flood gold"...inside bend outside bend etc. doesnt matter. the gold is where the gold is... at super high water those bends have way less influence.

Same thing goes for dpth of the layer. often times theres more gold up top because the gold moves until the current lessens and it is last to settle out.

So true but it depends on the river you are mining and the size of gold, what you said works for the Sultan river here in Washington state because of the geology and the gold is course but on the Skykomish the gold is fine and at super high floods the gold tends to concentrate on the inside bends for the most part, these are the most productive areas, also the ground is hard pan so yes after the right type of flood you will find gold behind every rock on the inside bend, its awesome for all you need is spoon to gather it, you will see garnets and black sand behind every rock witch also has gold in it. Since the N.F. of the Skykomish is the gold source and it runs into the South Fork of the Skykomish which is a larger tributary things change depending which river floods, the N.F. brings the gold down but the S.F. which has no gold when flooding will bring down so much sand and cover gold deposits or flush out the gold , one area I found and it was very rich and when I came back next year to mine it, it was covered with at least 8 ft of sand, maybe some day the right flood will clean it out. One other thing G.W. what you call rivers in California we call creeks up here. We have a lot more water up here.

when it comes to "flood gold"...inside bend outside bend etc. doesnt matter. the gold is where the gold is... at super high water those bends have way less influence.

Same thing goes for dpth of the layer. often times theres more gold up top because the gold moves until the current lessens and it is last to settle out.

 

[gold tramp]

Here in he desert all we have is flood gold in the washes I find the traps are still in the same inside bends, or boulders with straight drop on the down stream side, unless we move the Boulder this holds true as long as the stream is able to move much material, most times we only get enough water to move the sand, when we can get a gully washer that will gouge out and move boulders we can get new gold in the known traps.
Gt......

 

[Goldwasher]

So true but it depends on the river you are mining and the size of gold, what you said works for the Sultan river here in Washington state because of the geology and the gold is course but on the Skykomish the gold is fine and at super high floods the gold tends to concentrate on the inside bends for the most part, these are the most productive areas, also the ground is hard pan so yes after the right type of flood you will find gold behind every rock on the inside bend, its awesome for all you need is spoon to gather it, you will see garnets and black sand behind every rock witch also has gold in it. Since the N.F. of the Skykomish is the gold source and it runs into the South Fork of the Skykomish which is a larger tributary things change depending which river floods, the N.F. brings the gold down but the S.F. which has no gold when flooding will bring down so much sand and cover gold deposits or flush out the gold , one area I found and it was very rich and when I came back next year to mine it, it was covered with at least 8 ft of sand, maybe some day the right flood will clean it out. One other thing G.W. what you call rivers in California we call creeks up here. We have a lot more water up here.

well, the most important aspect of what you mentioned is....SOURCE. The first thing to try and find out is any known source. gold doing what gold does in regards to topography ..countours pressure varience only matters if the gold is there and enough of it to concentrate because of it. All of that depends on the source.(s) Most of the good gold is at or above high water line. I prefer smaller tributaries because the gold tends to be larger. Flood gold is pretty easy to suss out. I'm not after flood gold. I've lived in Alaska. Oregon, Montana and yes, the Motherlode. I know what a river is and i definetely know how to read waterways and find deposits in any gold bearing gully..wash stream or river.

 

[et1955]

Went up today to check on the flooding deposition of gold on the Sky, sadly the gravel bars were striped of any gold. Just rocks, the area has changed so much. I did get gold but it is only because I know the 1995 flood deposts and the place I mined is the last of it. Sadly good bye to this place, great memories.