Sometimes.....there just isnt gold worth chasing

[Bronze]

You do your homework and make the big hike in hoping for some really good pay dirt......but guess what.....its a bust. At least its good exercise.

 

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[et1955]

The highs and lows of mining, I knew you would run out of good pay soon. That is the problem with the Skykomish, most of the gold you mined came from the 1995 flood, once those deposits are mined they are gone and until there is a massive flood again the Sky will not replenish the gold again. Normal flooding just doesn't do it. I was there just after the 1995 flood, 2 grams a day just panning was normal. Good luck trying to find another area like the sky.

 

[Clay Diggins]

So floods create gold?

I realize the flood "replenishment" theory is popular but a better perspective might be that gold sometimes is moved from one place to another. Where it ends up is a valid question for prospecting but a more profitable answer will be found in "where does it move from and why does it move?"

Placer gold deposits tend to be small and scattered. Water concentrated deposits even more so. Rarely is the source of the gold actually in the bed of the stream. The gold has to be moved from where it eroded out of the mother rock and moved to a place where it naturally concentrates. There has been a lot more gold mined "in place" in the original hard rock deposit than in the placers created by the erosion of those hard rock deposits. Following that moving eroded gold to it's settling place is difficult at best. Add in all the myths and theories you find on public forums and old books can be very frustrating. Just a little real knowledge about gold movement can give a placer miner a big advantage.

Understanding slope and flow dynamics will show you how gold moves. Not the most popular subject here but the answers it reveals will cause you to drop your current replenishment theories like a hot potato.

There has been much less science applied to placer deposit mechanics than hard rock deposits. There are resources but you just need to look a little harder. New knowledge is being revealed regularly but seldom is the subject strictly related to gold. Here's some research that's being carried out at Caltech.

Read and understand that short article and you will see that the theories about gold movement "replenishment" found on this and other forums doesn't really work in real life. It's not flooding that brings new gold into waterways it's slope failure (landslides). Gold being the last mineral to move makes this knowledge even more important to the gold prospector.

From the above article:

"In very steep streambeds with a 22-degree or higher slope, sediment motion begins not with grains skipping and bouncing along the bottom of the streambed, but rather with a complete bed failure in which all the sediment is abruptly sent hurtling downstream as a debris flow."
This is a 22[SUP]o[/SUP] slope:

There is a video on that linked page. You can read the paper the article is based on but you will need a subscription to Geology Magazine. The paper is titled Incipient sediment motion across the river to debris-flow transition and it's in the March 2014 publication. You might find it at a good library if the cost of a subscription is too much money.

Here's another paper demonstrating that the idea that faster water flows create greater sediment movement isn't necessarily true. Turbulence characteristics in unsteady and non-uniform flows and their impacts on the incipient motion of sediment transport-water resources-river mechanics That paper can be downloaded here.


Educate yourself and prosper!

Heavy Pans

 

[Bronze]

Great info Clay!

I know the floods dont do to much, it takes a massive movement to really shake things up. From all the research I have done, along with all of the testing up and down the river, I have a good idea of the source. The hard part is getting to it.

 

[Bronze]

The highs and lows of mining, I knew you would run out of good pay soon. That is the problem with the Skykomish, most of the gold you mined came from the 1995 flood, once those deposits are mined they are gone and until there is a massive flood again the Sky will not replenish the gold again. Normal flooding just doesn't do it. I was there just after the 1995 flood, 2 grams a day just panning was normal. Good luck trying to find another area like the sky.

I knew it would happen as well. Now begins the arduous process of finding a new location. Most of the spots we dig require a little bit of effort to get to. Now its going to turn into getting to the spots that no one was crazy enough to try and get to.

 

[et1955]

The source is the N fork of the Skyominish, been going there since 1969, my grandfather owned a claim up on silver creek. As for going further up river on the Sky, waste of time. I tested all the way up to the Cascade Mnt's, if you want large sheets of mica go to tunnel creek,it is awesome to see. Now as for the N.F, I here they will open it up in a few years but you should know that most of the area is claimed. All other areas are private property or N.F land and the officers up the don't like miners, had several run in's with them.

 

[et1955]

Places like that on the Sky are no more, as you said, it was an easy place to get to and mine. No other place like that in western Wa. and I have been to all gold Bering river's in western Wa.and mined them. I have cataloged in my 30 plus years of mining all the results in my map book. For me not worth it but maybe for you it will be, exploring a new place is a special thing in itself, whether you find gold or not. I would like to help you out more but because of your friend I Can't he broke his promise to me when I shared info with him.

 

[Bronze]

exploring a new place is a special thing in itself, whether you find gold or not. I would like to help you out more but because of your friend I Can't he broke his promise to me when I shared info with him.

The first part, cant agree with you more. Although it does help when your pan gets heavy. The second part, I dont have a clue what that is about.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Now as for the N.F, I here they will open it up in a few years but you should know that most of the area is claimed. All other areas are private property or N.F land and the officers up the don't like miners, had several run in's with them.

What's closed on the North Fork? There's only something like 9 small claims up there, most were made in the last few years. It seems if you want to prospect up there other than a little private land and a few small claims there is nothing to stop you.

Heavy Pans

 

[et1955]

What's closed on the North Fork? There's only something like 9 small claims up there, most were made in the last few years. It seems if you want to prospect up there other than a little private land and a few small claims there is nothing to stop you.

Heavy Pans

It is the access road, washed out several years ago, finally they are going to fix it, you can get in there if you go the back way over Jack Pass, a long drive but very beautiful and sometimes hazardous.

 

[Bronze]

Do you know when they plan on rebuilding that road? Ive tested the area from the south washout all the way to the north wash and came up empty other than a few specs.

Jacks pass is a fun drive, I've done it a couple of times but you better keep you head on a swivel running that road. Especially coming down the back side into the North Fork and even more so if its raining. Ed, do you know if the are going to replace the Index Galena bridge? I've driven up and down that road a couple of times trying to find a way to the other side of the river but the bridge that you can see on google earth doesnt seem to be there any more. OR, I drove right passed it and didnt see it. You used to be able to get to the other side and hike up Silver Creek there. That entire area where the north fork turns south is claimed but there are a few spots that appear to be open.

I know the WPMA and Prospectors plus both have claims in there and I've done the PP claim but not the WPMA. I want to get to the other side of that river but just cant find a way to it right now.

I've been thinking of trying to test the Monte Cristo area, I know there are only a couple of claims in that area but that is a little bit of a drive.

 

[et1955]

I new the guy who owned the claim where silver creek comes into the N.F., panning only but did find some nice 1/4 inch flakes. As for the bridge I don't know. Monte Cristo is great place, I here the FS is opening up the area again, great old mining town, I found gold in the south fork of the sauk on the mountain loop highway and 1/4' flakes of silver. Gold also in the south fork of the stillogaumish " rich history there ". Lots of black sand and garnets also check the moss.

 

[Bronze]

I new the guy who owned the claim where silver creek comes into the N.F.,

Thats the spot I am interested in.

 

[OwenT]

Bronze, from snohomishcountywa.gov: "Construction is estimated to begin on the final segment of Index Galena Road in the spring of 2018...Currently, Milepost 6.4 to 6.9 is the only area left to repair and remains closed to traffic." I would expect especially with Monte Cristo opening that they would try to get access back to silver creek, then maybe you could hike between the two areas.

 

[425jesse]

Stilly is a great river for a some gold. Some comes from
up in the hills, some comes in from Boulder and French creek, some comes in from deer creek (and a lot of birdshot. Moss tells the story pretty well up there. A few weeks ago I was up running my sniper and had a fella who owns the property opposite where I was digging offer me his sluice box, because mine was so small!! Very nice guy.

 

[HMiller]

Stilly is a great river for a some gold. Some comes from
up in the hills, some comes in from Boulder and French creek, some comes in from deer creek (and a lot of birdshot. Moss tells the story pretty well up there.

Shhhhh!