nuggetmusterer
Tenderfoot
- Mar 6, 2017
- 6
- 1
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I'm brand new to this whole thing, but determined and excited to find some flakes! I bought a basic panning kit, and spent the weekend roaming around the hills, panning and exploring. I'm hoping to get critiqued on where I'm looking . . . I did a little research on Land Matters to make sure I wasn't panning on someone else's claim. There are few active gold claims up the canyon of where I was sampling.
First, I found an old creek bed with a dry waterfall. I dug about 2 feet down and collected a 5 gallon bucket full of hopeful pay dirt from there. I took the bucket down to the small stream, panned the bucket, but didn't have any luck. Was this a good spot to sample? Am I wasting my time? Should I have dug down deeper, shallower, sampled every 6 inches? There was no cavity at the base of the dry waterfall...
Then, I came across this exposed conglomerate of an old riverbed (I'm assuming that's what it is). I didn't sample anything, but am wondering if this would be a good spot to gather hopeful pay dirt? If so, how should I determine which height on the wall to dig at? It didn't erode equally up the wall, so I'm assuming that different layers are more likely to contain gold.
After a few hours, I decided to take a break and hike up the canyon to look at active claims and see how the professionals do it. It is my understanding that I am allowed on their claim as long as I don't take anything. Is it still bad etiquette to snoop around? I'm genuinely just intrigued by the history and workings of the mine. The claimant had his post staked out, and there was a piece of PVC pipe with papers inside. I opened up the pipe to see what the paperwork looked like, but it was soaked with rain and not legible. Then, I went over to the mine. I started by going a couple feet inside, but my curiosity got the best of me and I kept going (I know this is really dangerous. Please only lecture me if you've never made a bad decision for curiosity sake). The mine was really deep and followed a beautiful quartz vein for 50 yards or so. At one point, there was spray paint that said "GOLD!" with an arrow pointing to the quartz vein. You could visibly see hundreds of small gold flakes embedded into the vein. It was amazing to see (see below for a picture!). My questions for this one are 1) Should I mail the claimant and let him know his papers are ruined from the rain? 2) Am I going to get chewed out, beat up, or shot for being on someone else's claim? 3) Am I allowed to pan down stream of his claim? If so, are the boundaries accurate on the Land Matters website?
Looking for any and all advice! I pretty much expect some lecturing for going into the active mine, but looking to learn from it. Thank you in advance for any information or advice! I've loved reading through all the existing post and have learned a lot from this site.
First, I found an old creek bed with a dry waterfall. I dug about 2 feet down and collected a 5 gallon bucket full of hopeful pay dirt from there. I took the bucket down to the small stream, panned the bucket, but didn't have any luck. Was this a good spot to sample? Am I wasting my time? Should I have dug down deeper, shallower, sampled every 6 inches? There was no cavity at the base of the dry waterfall...
Then, I came across this exposed conglomerate of an old riverbed (I'm assuming that's what it is). I didn't sample anything, but am wondering if this would be a good spot to gather hopeful pay dirt? If so, how should I determine which height on the wall to dig at? It didn't erode equally up the wall, so I'm assuming that different layers are more likely to contain gold.
After a few hours, I decided to take a break and hike up the canyon to look at active claims and see how the professionals do it. It is my understanding that I am allowed on their claim as long as I don't take anything. Is it still bad etiquette to snoop around? I'm genuinely just intrigued by the history and workings of the mine. The claimant had his post staked out, and there was a piece of PVC pipe with papers inside. I opened up the pipe to see what the paperwork looked like, but it was soaked with rain and not legible. Then, I went over to the mine. I started by going a couple feet inside, but my curiosity got the best of me and I kept going (I know this is really dangerous. Please only lecture me if you've never made a bad decision for curiosity sake). The mine was really deep and followed a beautiful quartz vein for 50 yards or so. At one point, there was spray paint that said "GOLD!" with an arrow pointing to the quartz vein. You could visibly see hundreds of small gold flakes embedded into the vein. It was amazing to see (see below for a picture!). My questions for this one are 1) Should I mail the claimant and let him know his papers are ruined from the rain? 2) Am I going to get chewed out, beat up, or shot for being on someone else's claim? 3) Am I allowed to pan down stream of his claim? If so, are the boundaries accurate on the Land Matters website?
Looking for any and all advice! I pretty much expect some lecturing for going into the active mine, but looking to learn from it. Thank you in advance for any information or advice! I've loved reading through all the existing post and have learned a lot from this site.
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