Sec 27 - Dogtown area up by Brigeport-Bodie Hills CA

[G-bone]

Hello all,

Take a family vacation up to Mammoth Lakes here soon and will be exploring lots of areas.
Going to go visit Bodie again - I love that place.

I was also thinking of bringing some gear and checking out the BLM Free-use site off of 395 on Virginia creek.
Apparently the entire SEC.27 is set as a free-use site.
I will of course be calling BLM and verifying all the details.
But wanted to check here to see if anyone has been there recently (last few years) and could maybe give some info/updates on the place.

Not sure of water flow, but I'll bring my BGT 30" sniper.
Lots of old tailing piles around there etc. to detect so bring my Gold Bug pro too and see what I can find..

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

G

 

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[Goldwasher]

double check on mylandmatters. there are a lot of claims on dogtown creek. I will be there around the ninth. i will do some research and let you know what I come up with shortly. Do you have a link to the info about the section is it from the mono county blm office

 

[rodoconnor]

It's been many years for me. The area has been hit kinda hard. Move enough material in some tailing piles and you could get lucky.Snipe the BR cracks. Like GW says, their are a bunch of claims up there.G/L G-Bone

 

[63bkpkr]

The last time I was up there was just after dirt had been invented so likely I will not be able to shed any light on current events. From the ranger station you could look across the flat area and up to some good sized hills with little outhouses on them. The outhouses were actually used for storing explosives, think dynamite. We made it up to the little storehouses, looked inside and saw an all steel wheelbarrow leaning against a wall. I moved it away from the wall to find three or four cases of dynamite with all this clear gooey gel all over them. I put the wheelbarrow gently back in place and LEFT the building! The badgers out that way have Attitudes so stay clear of them!! Have fun!.......................63bkpkr

 

[Goldwasher]

It looks like it would be sec. 27 of 4N of 25E. It is unclaimed BLM land a good bit of creek. The Private land in that 1/4 is a private house and small resort. The creek has sluice-able water year round.It is newer glacial gravels on top of old gravels that carry the gold. There is hardrock influence as well depending on the bedrock. Check out Lundy Canyon. The Gold in between the pass and Lundy was high purity. There was placer mining of old gravels at Mono City where the big curve is going up/down the grade. I've driven past Dogtown probably 150 hundred times and never panned. I used to live in June Lake and Lone Pine. My Kids go see their mom for the summer. I'm going to get them around the eight. I'm, gonna camp at Buckeye hot springs. I'll hit the creek and let you know what I come up with. When I lived in June lake I knew a guy that had one of the claims on Dogtown up the canyon. He got pretty good gold. He would not take me. There was no land matters at the time...and claim markers everywhere. The word was "don't even try Dogtown". Its cool to see open land on that part of Virginia CreeK! Good trout too!!

 

[G-bone]

Good info - Thanks GW!
I did go to My Land Matters and looked up the maps and land Status.
No issues that I could see.

I hope there is enough water running to drop my box.
Also I want to just look around at the old Dog town dwellings and stuff too.
Cool old relics of the past.

I think I'll call the BLM office tomorrow in Mammoth and ask about the area as well.
I did find a page on the BLM web site that said the Bodie Hills were under a re-vegetation program.
So not sure if that means portions of the Bodie Hills are closed or if that even effects the SEC 27 of 4N of 25E area.
Another question to ask when I call.

 

[rodoconnor]

Yeah,I forgot to mention don't forget your fishing pole. Also, read about the Lost Cement Mine. I think Twain was one of the guys that had found it. Stay cool.

 

[G-bone]

DOGTOWN UPDATE :

Well, last week in the Eastern Sierra's turned out to be awesome.
I was able to get out on Wednesday to prospect, since everyone needed some down time.
Left the Detector behind and decided on sluicing for the time I had.
Got up to the area by 11:00 and thru my pack on and scouted it all out.

This pack is great! Hold my 30" sniper and digging tools and my Canvas buckets....everything.
And really feels great on long treks. at about 35lbs.


Huge tailing piles all around from back in the day. incredible (sorry no pics..I'm hiking)
Bushwhacked a bit and found a nice area to work.



I worked until 3:30, poured the cons into a zip lock and packed it all up.
I didn't get skunked...


Some very interesting pieces once I got it all cleaned up.
Silver? Mercury?


It was very cool digging here. So much history. I know they were there with me too.
As I was digging, with the stream babbling next to me,
I could swear I heard voices of the old timers.... "Keep digging Greenhorn... ha ha ha!"

 

[ClaimStake]

nice pieces of some mercury covered gold.

and yes the old timers were whispering keep digging.

 

[G-bone]

I'm sure that's not all they were saying
The spirits were messing with me all day, moving my tools on me, blowing my hat off.
Making memories !!

 

[Goldwasher]

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