Kevin in Colorado...and elsewhere

[KevinInColorado]

If there are no bigger rocks, it can be tricky. I've brought several 5 gal buckets and by filling them with water and placing in the stream, made a dam pretty well. Others have tried plywood or tarp, either with stakes.

 

[Duckwalk]

Just got back from a small local creek and I was having trouble setting up the bazooka sniper. There seemed to be plenty of flow in the middle of the stream but there wasn't really any large rocks to build a dam out of and no drops to tip the sniper off of. I ended up cutting cubes of clay off the bank and trying to stack them as a wall, like ice blocks on an igloo. It sort of worked, kind of. I had flow but just not enough to clear even the medium-small rocks off the top plate. It did however mimic a miller table in that the blond sand was washed off pretty quickly and the black sand slowly crawled down leaving a few colors to suck up. For you bazooka owners out there whats the secret to getting that proper water flow??

The secret is just practice . If you need some more flow, sounds like your dam worked well enough but you should try to add a wing dam at the front of the zooka to create a "flare" in the water.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Got out today to Arapahoe Bar with two friends who were visiting from China. It was their first time prospecting but they made a special trip from Chicago just to do it with me and they did great!


We also toured the Phoenix Mine near Idaho Springs:

And got to meet the legendary Al Mosch, owner of the Phoenix and several other active gold mines in the area:


What a beautiful day too! Sadly no pic of our gold yet as it went with my visitors but we did quite well panning and running my Bazooka Sniper a bit.

 

[shofs]

Second, as I was packing up I ran one sample pan of an interesting bench deposit and got over 40 colors in one pan! I just about fell over. I marked the spot with a green plastic straw stuck in the dirt so if you see my mark you know where to dig!!
View attachment 1304318

Look what I found! Gold picks next.

 

[shofs]

I left the straw standing and didn't want to be greedy, so I left all the immediate dirt around the straw itself and dug a little beneath where it was placed. Kevin that whole bench deposit is carrying color I did some test pans up it and each had color. Theres still a TON of dirt to dig on "straw bench" there. My cleanout just about made me cry that spot is ridiculous thank you

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yup you found it, well done!!

My wife and I are both amazed that you found my marker at all but especially before a storm washed it away. I've been digging that immediate area for 1.5 years and never seen evidence of other prospectors...You are a true prospector indeed!

PS you popped your +30 mesh cherry in a big way [emoji106]🏻

 

[shofs]

Yup you found it, well done!!

My wife and I are both amazed that you found my marker at all but especially before a storm washed it away. I've been digging that immediate area for 1.5 years and never seen evidence of other prospectors...You are a true prospector indeed!

PS you popped your +30 mesh cherry in a big way [emoji106]🏻

I am unworthy of such kind words from Kevin the master lol!!
I'm pretty new to prospecting (which I now love) but I am pretty good at maps, research, history and especially finding treasure. In this case your straw was the treasure. I originally joined treasurenet for a different reason and for a different forum a few years ago. But nothing beats being in the great outdoors! So here I stay.

Here's a thread of mine from Oct. 2013
And one from June 2013

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

If there are no bigger rocks, it can be tricky. I've brought several 5 gal buckets and by filling them with water and placing in the stream, made a dam pretty well. Others have tried plywood or tarp, either with stakes.

Water? or perhaps rx?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Water? or perhaps rx?

Either works fine as the depth of water in the bucket is much more than the water in the creek typically...it's much easier to fill with water of course

 

[KevinInColorado]

Got out today to meet shofs at my secret honey hole that he earned the right to dig by finding himself [emoji106]🏻[emoji3]


...this is the hole where my green straw was before we showed up!
Somehow the straw got caught in the grizzly


The gold was great but no weight because all my bench top gear is packed up for the move.


Good times with a fellow tnet-izen

 

[Jeff95531]

Always time to count em after the dealing is done. But I do nominate this for best condensed short story so far.

 

[shofs]

I had a great time out with Kevin today! Learned a lot a great stuff! It was actually my first time out with another prospector, ever, being a noobie and all. So I was great to see how a master operates out in the field. I did a good amount of sampling on top of "straw bench" and a similar run off further down stream. Kevin dug under the bench mostly which had proven to show some really nice gold! It seems to be a few inches of good paydirt on top of the bar followed by a layer of clay then underneath the clay a solid foot or two of the great stuff, which is what I was digging my first time there. The entire place itself is truly amazing though. The pic below is what I got from my sampling (and thanks to Kevin I am now saving my cons which I'm sure has some more I missed in panning). Not as much as my first time there but still super happy with the results and the experience as a whole! Just a great day out. Thanks Kevin!

 

[Sideways Sherry]

URGENT!
Sorry for interrupting the thread… However, the daughter of one of our fellow mother lode prospectors has been missing for a few days now and if any of you can share this poster it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shofs]

Got out to "straw creek" for a good 1.5 hours today. I felt I've done enough test pans around the area so I did some actual digging today. I was running material from the same bench deposit the straw was placed on in the earlier posts. I found a sharp steak knife about 2 feet underground laying on the clay layer, good thing I wasn't poking around the hole with my hands! Also its certainly not an old knife so it really goes to show how much this small creek washes its soil around. Had a great clean out today I'm curious to see what Kevin got from digging in this spot!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Murder knife

 

[shofs]

Murder knife

I mean its a pretty well hidden spot so you have to deal with the occasional murder knife.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I mean its a pretty well hidden spot so you have to deal with the occasional murder knife.

...and I didn't even tell you about the machete I found there a year ago!

Really.

 

[KevinInColorado]

...and I didn't even tell you about the machete I found there a year ago!

Really.

Oh and I agree about how much the big storms turn over that creekbed. I find glass and lead and old rusty iron junk down on the clay all the time when digging that creek.

PS with this success it's time for you to start your own prospector's journal to record your adventures

 

[shofs]

with this success it's time for you to start your own prospector's journal to record your adventures

Alrighty! Here we go!

 

[KevinInColorado]

The confusing source of gold in south metro Denver:
The gold in metro Denver is in almost every waterway big enough to have a name. In the early days of the gold rush this was confusing and frustrating for the first American prospectors. They found gold way out southeast in Elbert County, due south of what's now Denver in Douglas County and right in downtown Denver. Of course that's why Denver is where it is! [ 679 more words. ]

http://findinggoldincolorado.com/2016/05/15/so-where-did-all-this-gold-come-from-anyway