OLD-TIMERS: ANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES, REGRETS ?

[Fullpan]

As I look back on my mining days, I sometimes think about the places where I should have spent more time. For instance, a 2 hour
hike up a feeder creek near Downieville, ca. where I spotted two nuggets just laying on bedrock and each sample pan contained good color. Never went back, never checked for claim status - what was I thinking ! Then there was my "beer money" crack. I knew I could
scrape nearly a gram out of a 5 foot long one inch wide crack with an hours worth of effort - never got to the bottom.

So, if you guys have similar stories, how about sharing them? Your stories will make another winter go a little faster, for me at least.

 

[Jeff95531]

Hey Fullpan
Yeah, I got a few. Like as a kid, spending the summers in an old goldmining town and having only an interest in metal detecting and found 99% trash with one I bought.
The 16 years I spent in AK, being all over the state and only fishing as a hobby. And last but not least, the realization that most places I would like to prospect are now outta reach for this 56 year old body that is much too young to feel like it does. Nowadays, my memories outnumber my abilities.
But hey, I still find a little gold, getting better at it all the time, love finding and being in new areas and am still able to prospect up to my abilities.

 

[goldenIrishman]

My biggest regret was taking so long a time away from prospecting. Seven years + without a pan in my hand was such a waste of good time. I'm making up for it now and have started the research into filing a claim out here. Two good possibilities so far and I'm sure I'll find a few more. Going out this Thanksgiving weekend to do some samples at both sites. Easy road access to both areas, (well for out here it's easy) so I hope to bring back about 50 gallons worth from each site classified to 1/2 inch.

 

[63bkpkr]

Time out sweet time.......

There are several locations that pester my mind still. One, way up the main river, is a side canyon I've not been up yet. Just getting up river is a trick as well as a long hike, rugged but beautiful bear country and I'd bet more than one large cat. The mouth of the canyon is choked with tall, large trees and brush and that is all I've seen of it, just that gnarly stub of a barrier wall that comes right down to the dry riverbed. The never changing question is "what is up there"?

Another is a length of say 30' by 8' of ancient riverbed I'd 'noticed' on bench on the side of a mountain and did nothing about it then and have not been able to locate now that brush and trees have grown for 20+ years. Frustrating! It is possible that an avalanche has taken it as it is in, once again, bad country.

An opening down to a gold bearing stream once existed where the creek had cut a notch through the bedrock. The last time I saw the spot the top of the bedrock was 10' or so above the creek. My suspicion is that the opening to one side of the notch is an eddy pool in high water and I would love to detect and dig into the overburden. Tried twice this year to locate it and failed both times. Way up the mountain from the spot is a hardrock mine with roughly an 8' diameter bore hole that goes in a 100' and stops. Narrow gauge tracks with an ore cart still in there. In places the hill/mountain above it looks like a wood pecker attacked it as the miners tested 'many' quartz outcroppings but seemingly found nothing.

The history of the Gold Country is still out there to be found from old sluice boxes, gigantic boulder tongs, hand powered drilling machines, cabins, camp sites, 10 stamp mills, trails to ?, long lengths of 1" diameter steel cables, a Buick engine with a capstan winch on the end of the three speed transmission, 3/4" to 1" rods hammered into holes in the rock used as pulling points to remove boulders from the river, channels cut through solid rock for diverting the river, the super large steel head box to what must have been a super sized sluice box, a one-lung engine laying on the side of a hill and above the engine a substantial amount of an old bucket line for removing ore from some mining operation (it has the largest spark plug in its head that I've ever seen, and no I never found the operation site), deep mine tunnels that go off into the side of a mountain, rock piles that looked like they formed/could have been used as small living quarters and a bunch of other stuff!

But other than this, there's not that much I want to go check out again..........63bkpkr

 

[KevinInColorado]

Definitely a list of missed opportunities. Lived in Lodi for a summer and never went into the motherlode country just east of there. Floated a cobbly river in northern michigan and didn't know to bring a pan. Drove all over southern Utah before I knew there really was gold there for the taking. I should add that all of this was pre-internet...it is SO much easier to learn and research now!

 

[smokeythecat]

Was trying to outrun a thunderstorm on the Rio Grande and left maybe 5 pounds of agate and petrified wood laying in the "driveway". That was years ago. Zapata county, Texas.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Back in the early 1970's I was working an area of the Merced river near Briceburg. Being the first in the area to use explosives to crack the bigger boulders and work their hidden treasures the gold was really good.

We ran out of gold after going up the river about 3 months. It was there in quantity and then a few dozen feet upriver it was gone! There was still some gold but the big pay gravel disappeared.

I knew I should go back and look for the source but the slopes on either side were deadly. I was climbing some of the bigger rocks in Yosmite at the time but hard rock climbing is entirely different from climbing a nearly vertical loose rock canyon wall and I decided there were better ways to die. Nonetheless it always bugged me that I didn't find the source.

Fast forward to 2009. I had taken up metal detecting and ran into a gentleman in California that had detected some of the most beautiful big crystalline nuggets I've ever seen. They had an unusual, and vaguely familiar character, he eventually told me the general location of his discovery (above the river) and the light bulb went off! This guy had found the source of all that gold I had been digging from under those boulders on the Merced river! I named the spot and all he could do was nod.

My uneasiness at letting the mystery go unsolved for all these years was gone. I love seeing other people get good gold and the man who did eventually find the source deserved all the rewards he got. No more regrets, mystery solved.

 

[Fullpan]

That's the idea ! thanks for sharing, guys. Here's another one - I was conceited enough in those days to wear a two pennyweight nugget pendant necklace
everywhere all the time so I could brag about being a gold miner. One day I decided to hike from Camptonville down to Oregon creek just for reconnasiance. There
was and old de-commissioned road, leading to a washed out bridge over the creek. I walked part of that road, but took shortcuts also. About mid-night I woke up and immediately felt for the necklace - you guessed it. Its still laying out there.

 

[norcalsteve]

I passed up so many opportunities to get into gold prospecting in the 70's and early 80's. I am a 5th generation san franciscan. Grew up in marin. In the mid 70's a friend of mine moved to applegate. Went up there but never went to river to prospect. In 1979 i moved to Denver and a guy i was working with kept trying to get me to go with him but i met my exwife and she had other weekend plans for us. However, i do have 2 children and a grandaughter from that marriage so no regrets for that. Then in the mid 80's I was doing business with a store in grass valley and was going up there every few months. I told them about my family connection to grass valley. My great-great grandfather owned a supply store in grass valley in the mid 1800's and made a fortune selling supplies to the miners. He also ran a poker game in the back room and ended up losing it all in a poker game. They were into dredging and kept telling me that i should come up and get into prospecting. I never did. A few years ago my current wife kept telling me that i needed a hobby. I went to a gem show with my then 6 year old son and there was a booth from the local gold club there. they were giving panning lessons. We panned and i instantly new what my new hobby was. My son and i joined that club and then the eastbay gpaa club and we go as often as we can on outings. My wife got me a 36" bgt for my 56th birthday 2 weeks ago. I can not wait to get in into the water.
I regret not taking all the cues in the past that prospecting was what i should be doing. Being in California i missed out on dredging.

 

[Fullpan]

I passed up so many opportunities to get into gold prospecting in the 70's and early 80's. I am a 5th generation san franciscan. Grew up in marin. In the mid 70's a friend of mine moved to applegate. Went up there but never went to river to prospect. In 1979 i moved to Denver and a guy i was working with kept trying to get me to go with him but i met my exwife and she had other weekend plans for us. However, i do have 2 children and a grandaughter from that marriage so no regrets for that. Then in the mid 80's I was doing business with a store in grass valley and was going up there every few months. I told them about my family connection to grass valley. My great-great grandfather owned a supply store in grass valley in the mid 1800's and made a fortune selling supplies to the miners. He also ran a poker game in the back room and ended up losing it all in a poker game. They were into dredging and kept telling me that i should come up and get into prospecting. I never did. A few years ago my current wife kept telling me that i needed a hobby. I went to a gem show with my then 6 year old son and there was a booth from the local gold club there. they were giving panning lessons. We panned and i instantly new what my new hobby was. My son and i joined that club and then the eastbay gpaa club and we go as often as we can on outings. My wife got me a 36" bgt for my 56th birthday 2 weeks ago. I can not wait to get in into the water.
I regret not taking all the cues in the past that prospecting was what i should be doing. Being in California i missed out on dredging.

Say Hi to "Pucky" for me, Steve - he still sends me mining news items through email.

 

[SpaceJunk]

As a kid in the 60's my uncles were all into prospecting and rock hounding and I got the rock hounding bug from them but not the gold prospecting thing. I remember metal detectors were becoming popular back then and I sent away for all the catalogs and dreamed of having one. I did not get into prospecting and metal detecting until just recently and my regret is that I wasn't prospecting all those years when gold was a bit more plentiful and easier to find.

 

[Fullpan]

As a kid in the 60's my uncles were all into prospecting and rock hounding and I got the rock hounding bug from them but not the gold prospecting thing. I remember metal detectors were becoming popular back then and I sent away for all the catalogs and dreamed of having one. I did not get into prospecting and metal detecting until just recently and my regret is that I wasn't prospecting all those years when gold was a bit more plentiful and easier to find.

Welcome to the forum SJ.

 

[SpaceJunk]

Welcome to the forum SJ.

Thanks Fullpan, I too am a Bay Area local.

 

[Hoser John]

2 paystreaks I was forced to leave as cdfg sittn' there on shore. 30+ feet but will return to empty them as soon as I find a helper with ungodly fortitude and deep water experience. Poundage uncovered and forced to leave so absolutely NO conjecture just reality that bites....John

 

[Goodyguy]

I shoulda bought and hoarded gold back when I could have bought all I wanted for $35 an ounce.

GG~

 

[Mackaydon]

In the late 40s, I lived near Eastchester HS in NY (Westchester Co.). Behind the school was a woods. We'd play on and around a large boulder that held red crystals. We'd sometime bring a screwdriver, hammer and Mason jar to the boulder and chip out the crystals. I think they were garnets (reddish-purple in color). More recently, Google Earth still show woods in that area--but now I'm on the West Coast--very frustrating for me--but maybe another TNetter is closer and may wish to take a look.
Don........

 

[ALewis]

Shoulda started 15 years ago. Used to raft the American & Yuba rivers in high school & college. Would stop and talk to a lot of Prospectors, dredgers, etc. If only could have have started when dredging was allowed in Ca......

 

[rocme44]

I am 69 years old and have been prospecting off and on for 35 years.
My son is 47 and has been prospecting, mostly off, for about as long.
We have many good memories of good spots and a long list of Good
places Yet to go. He now has BAD gold fever.

High water buried the best crack ever with feet of rocks and boulders
that will not be moved in my life time. Never got to the bottom of it
but got 18 nuggets out in only a few minutes.
We are now working (during the summer) the second best place I've
ever found.
BUT, I have no regrets. Some of the best moments of my life have
been prospecting with my son. The memories are better than the gold.

My son is jimmeyc on this network.

 

[Fullpan]

2 paystreaks I was forced to leave as cdfg sittn' there on shore. 30+ feet but will return to empty them as soon as I find a helper with ungodly fortitude and deep water experience. Poundage uncovered and forced to leave so absolutely NO conjecture just reality that bites....John

Concept idea for reality show "OUTLAW DREDGERS" - dead of night, a dedicated team of miners put in at secret location a ten inch Volkswagen powered
commercial dredge. Next morning a second team of look-outs, demonstrators, "monkey-wrenchers" position themselves to block access to authorities. The
authorities get information about outlaw dredgers in three days. They form a task force (3-days elapse) On sixth day, the task force descends on location with swat team back-up. Meanwhile 24-hour gold recovery takes place, using powerful lights at night to continuously recover the gold, all being documented by the tv crews. When the cops finally get past the improvised roadblocks, demonstrators, etc. they find the location abandoned. Yes, I know, just fantasy

 

[63bkpkr]

ALewis - I've rafted the north fork of the american several times from Eucher Bar down to the two Colfax bridges. What fork have you rafted?
63bkpkr