Silly Question about Irrigation ditches......

[Leeame]

OK, This may be a bizzare question, BUT...............
Has anyone ever tried to pan out the irrigation ditches? Our water comes from the Rogue River (good gold area) & I was wondering before I get my wadders on if anyone has tried this.


OK, this can be labled "Stupid question of the month"


tootles
Lisa in
So Oregon

 

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[Satori]

I don't think it's stupid. Back in the 60's someone suggested dredging off the coast of Africa for diamonds because they were thinking if the diamond gravel has been washing into the ocean for thousands of years....well guess what. A MAJOR diamond find. I might try using a waterproof MD looking for nuggets. Good luck!

Satori

 

[Leeame]

Satori

Looks like you have given me an excuse to buy my own Mother's Day present.

 

[kuger]

Thats not a stupid ? at all!It would be especially worth looking into if the ditch was any where in an ancient river bed.Gold has been found in the miles of ditches the old timers made to either divert water or provide water for there mining!

 

[Hoser John]

Good way to get shot--mucking up water for homes/animals/pastures is a huge MISTAKE!! They are PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!!!!John

 

[Cynangyl]

I am assuming it is her private property so she will probably be okay! Give it a try and let us know what you come up with! Good luck!

OK, This may be a bizzare question, BUT...............
Has anyone ever tried to pan out the irrigation ditches? Our water comes from the Rogue River (good gold area) & I was wondering before I get my wadders on if anyone has tried this.


OK, this can be labled "Stupid question of the month"


tootles
Lisa in
So Oregon

 

[Leeame]

True, they are owned by the irrigation company, but the ditches I am talking about boarder my property, so I can access them without a problem, but I should be careful. When the weather gets better, I think I will give it a shovel or two in the old pan on the porch.


Thanks everyone
Lisa

 

[boogeyman]

If the ditch provides irrigation water for your property, why not? It's not a stupid question at all! If there are culvert pipes, check them out, corrugated pipe = riffles = sluice = gold. If you're worried about mucking the water up, make a settling hole or use a wash tub to pan into. Let us know what ya find!

 

[eathan]

Not a stupid question, but very hard to predict your results. Ditches don't have the same seasonal flow as creeks and rivers, with flood stages and low water times. They're pretty consistant and haven't been eroding the area for eons. For the most part they were dug for the purpose they now serve.

That said, Southern Oregon has some areas where pocket deposits are still being found. Pockets form when the host rock erodes, but nothing carries the gold off. With no means to travel from it's source it forms pockets. An irrigation ditch that cut through one of those pockets might be a very good place to dip your pan. Of course it'd also be a little like winning the lottery...

 

[Urban Prospector]

I prospect in the drain pipes crisscrossing the underground of LA and get excited when I see sand filling the riffles of corrugated pipe. These are part of a flood control system and in certain areas can be quite lucrative. The area along the East side of Dodger Stadium can be considered rich and are 50 feet from the 5 freeway. All the rivers running through the city areas have been turned into concrete channels here complete with catch basins and riffling to slow or direct flow. To me it's just manmade bedrock and eddie areas. You would be amazed at the gold in there and no one competing for it. Be fore warned it is not a safe environment. Dress crappy and act crazy or the bums and gangsters will attack you. I use an old paint bucket and a spoon and pan the dirt out later. The San Gabrial river washes out from the mountains to the sea and has gold through most of it's course.This is a safer area and there are a few parks along the way. The beaches around Alamitos bay have good gold to but that's a different story. Point is it got there through the storm drains. It's flood gold and replenishes with each storm. People think your crazy till you show them a vial of gold flakes. Many times they want to use my second pan and try their hand. I ain't getting rich but it's entertaining.

 

[rmptr]

Lisa, since no one has said so, you will need to get to the BOTTOM of the ditch...

Don't bother messin' around with a shovel...

Use a gold sucker type thingy to get down through the muck to where the ditch gets harder on the bottom.

Go on a prospecting adventure with a number of 5gal plastic buckets, labeled from where you filled 'em.

Chances are you'll get SOME everywhere. What you want is MORE!

HH
rmptr

and check the immediate area downstream of where the ditch is cut off from the Rogue.
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