THERE"S GOLD IN THE GRANITE "GRANITE STATE THAT IS"

[triple d]

Ore Cart you are correct. Most of the good gold streams. In both maine and N.H have been picked over. And most of the bigger bedrock gold is gone. But there's a lot of gold eroded back into the streams. From the banks mountains and hills. Both Maine and N.H has mostly glacial gold. And mostly fine 100 mesh minus. I have prospected in Maine. There are a lot of good gold streams. But you will never here anything about them. Because there are so good.Also the Clough formation is like. The Carlin Trend. The gold has to be removed by a chemical process. They are still looking for deposits rich enought to mine.But most are on privite land. I have also found rocks thoughtout N.H. That i bring home and crush. That contain small amounts of gold. And other minerals. See my posts above. Lead mines in N.H. Also contain silver and usually small amounts of gold. Usually the mines are after the silver. Where the money is. Most of the mines in N.H. Were after other minerals not gold. That keep them open. Also I read an article. That said the Iriving Oil Company and logging. Has land in Northern Maine. Where there is a huge either silver or copper deposit. Worth millions. But are unable to get permits to mine there. Keep posting good to here from someone with like interest.

 

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[OreCart]

Ore Cart you are correct. Most of the good gold streams. In both maine and N.H have been picked over. And most of the bigger bedrock gold is gone. But there's a lot of gold eroded back into the streams. From the banks mountains and hills. Both Maine and N.H has mostly glacial gold. And mostly fine 100 mesh minus. I have prospected in Maine. There are a lot of good gold streams. But you will never here anything about them. Because there are so good.Also the Clough formation is like. The Carlin Trend. The gold has to be removed by a chemical process. They are still looking for deposits rich enought to mine.But most are on privite land. I have also found rocks thoughtout N.H. That i bring home and crush. That contain small amounts of gold. And other minerals. See my posts above. Lead mines in N.H. Also contain silver and usually small amounts of gold. Usually the mines are after the silver. Where the money is. Most of the mines in N.H. Were after other minerals not gold. That keep them open. Also I read an article. That said the Iriving Oil Company and logging. Has land in Northern Maine. Where there is a huge either silver or copper deposit. Worth millions. But are unable to get permits to mine there. Keep posting good to here from someone with like interest.

Yes Maine just passed laws to keep almost all mining out, based almost entirely upon Irving's desire to mine THEIR land.

We are known as the Vacation State and some people feel that is all that we should be...one State Park for the rest of New England. I disagree, because with THE highest taxes in the nation, it is a tough place to live, and make a living here. If a person pays taxes, and has their own land (and thus mineral rights), I feel they should be allowed to extract them.

It is actually an honor to pay taxes as all of society operates upon that system, but then all of society also benefits from the extraction of metals too.

On a microscale, my gravel pit allows my neighbor to have a new house with a driveway she can use year around, but on a macrolevel, metals even allow the most earth conscious person to drive their Prius and save on fossil fuel consumption. A lot of people forget that those hybrid cars use a lot of mined precious metals to operate.

Owning land and houses in both Maine and New Hampshire, I have a deep appreciation for both states, and hopefully can dig in the dirt and get a little glitter in my remaining years from both states.

 

[triple d]

Sounds like you have the fever. Which requires a lot of work for little reward. Big business will make sure no one else. Will have it easy. And hope they will give up easy. Hopefully theres some gold in the gravel pit. That somehow lands in your sluice. Hang in there buddy and all the best.

 

[OreCart]

Sounds like you have the fever. Which requires a lot of work for little reward. Big business will make sure no one else. Will have it easy. And hope they will give up easy. Hopefully theres some gold in the gravel pit. That somehow lands in your sluice. Hang in there buddy and all the best.

Yeah I might!

It is pretty easy I guess when you have a father-in-law that is into it as well. He is retired too, so he has plenty of time now, but he is more interested in coming here to Maine. We both own land in New Hampshire, but it is not really conducive to finding gold. We would both have to get permission from landowners to go after the places he has found it in the past.

He wants to hit the streams where I found gold this summer, panning for the placer gold, while I am more into the Lode Gold. It makes it easier here because I own the land, and so no landowner permission is required.

The biggest problem is, I live on a huge hill so there are very few streams on me; maybe four of them, and two are on the south side, so I doubt there would be gold there.

 

[triple d]

If its easy to get to those streams. I would check them also. It may be coming from a vein. Hills are good they erode faster. But it may keep you busy. Just checking what you have found so far. Testing these streams. Would be the fastest way to pin point areas thought.

 

[OreCart]

If its easy to get to those streams. I would check them also. It may be coming from a vein. Hills are good they erode faster. But it may keep you busy. Just checking what you have found so far. Testing these streams. Would be the fastest way to pin point areas thought.

If you are to read my adventures on Maine Gold that is what I did. It seems odd that I would find lode gold on my first prospecting outing, but I had really did my homework.

I knew from 1800 records where gold was found nearby, then when the town blasted a new road through ledge rock, where veins of quartz were. That lead me to believe, if gold was found at the bottom, and quartz was found at the top, I had a beginning and end point. Knowing the glaciers always run south-west here, I knew I had to stay on the North and Northeast side of the mountain, and thus started chasing the gold up the stream.

In those three years, I talked with geologists, studied maps, had LIDAR maps done so I had a map of the mountain in two foot contours, studied surficial flows, and panned up the streams

On the day I found the lode gold, I had intended to actually go to another spot, however only someone with cancer can describe the fatigue that comes with it. Everyday tasks can knock the stuffing out of you, so I just went to a known outcropping of rock. When I really started to look, I started to see it had potential.

It was only afterwards that I realized, this was exactly where I should have been looking.

 

[triple d]

Sorry I have read most of your Maine Blog. I guess i missed that part. About testing the streams.Looks like you put a lot of work and research. In your search. Most of the streams I have prospected have similar. Rocks to the ones you have found. But more crumbly. And I have crushed them and have found gold in them. Im working on crushing a gallon to see how much gold. Alot of work by hand. Then I can see how much would be in a ton or yard. They have a lot of pyrite in them. Mica and quartz. Hopefully you can get a good sample. And have it tested. Then you will know what you have. Is your house in N.H near the western gold belt. Would like to possi

 

[OreCart]

Sorry I have read most of your Maine Blog. I guess i missed that part. About testing the streams.Looks like you put a lot of work and research. In your search. Most of the streams I have prospected have similar. Rocks to the ones you have found. But more crumbly. And I have crushed them and have found gold in them. Im working on crushing a gallon to see how much gold. Alot of work by hand. Then I can see how much would be in a ton or yard. They have a lot of pyrite in them. Mica and quartz. Hopefully you can get a good sample. And have it tested. Then you will know what you have. Is your house in N.H near the western gold belt.

Hey no big deal on missing things; I write long posts I know, so things are easy to miss, so no need to apologize.

I fully understand the problem of hand crushing test rock too. I devised a breaker for my pneumatic chisel, and am hopes that work will quicker for test samples. For the bigger amounts of ore, we shall see. I build a lot of my own equipment on this farm, and know the aggregate industry well, so I think I could fabricate my own equipment to extract any gold. But that is a long way off, and I am pretty sick still.

I am not sure on the gold belt, as I am not familiar with where the Western Gold Belt is in New Hampshire. We have a house in Lisbon, NH, but have a lot of family in the Landaff, Bath, Benton towns too.

 

[triple d]

If your in those towns buddy. Your right in the heart of it lisbon. I believe is where most of the mines are. The other towns are good also. You may be sitting on the area. The large mining company would like to check out. The area near pettyboro brook. I believe they call the green belt. And has several mines in the area. And i think some are still operating. More so other mineral not gold. Been a while since a read about it. So trying to relie on memory. Your going to have to change your middle name to gold. Some time your in N.H. Maybe we can met up. I have a large hand crusher. Its still a pain. and not real fast.

 

[OreCart]

If your in those towns buddy. Your right in the heart of it lisbon. I believe is where most of the mines are. The other towns are good also. You may be sitting on the area. The large mining company would like to check out. The area near pettyboro brook. I believe they call the green belt. And has several mines in the area. And i think some are still operating. More so other mineral not gold. Been a while since a read about it. So trying to relie on memory. Your going to have to change your middle name to gold. Some time your in N.H. Maybe we can met up. I have a large hand crusher. Its still a pain. and not real fast.

I have never heard of Pettyboro Brook, but my wife said she thought it was down by Bath, NH. That is where her family is from, and I heard there is a lot of gold there. But my understanding was it was in the Wild Ammonoosuc River, but honestly, what do I know. Our house unfortunately, is located just adjacent to the Ammonoosuc River, but it is flooded right there by the dam. It does have a stream running through it before it dumps into the river, but I doubt it would have anything in it.

You are right about the mines though. Where my wife grew up, and where my in-laws live to this day, is about 100 feet from where an old Garnet Mine was located. I think Littleton had a big gold mine, but I could be wrong on that. The mines that I know of are located along Pearl Lake, or along Mill Stream.

I have to do something about crushing rock myself. Everything I have done so far has not really worked, and I have been getting more and more samples that do need to be crushed. I am thinking probably a rock crusher for my tractor as that would give me some pretty good horsepower and torque, without having to reinvent the wheel. I just got to get serious about it.

 

[triple d]

Pettyboro brook is in Lisbon. And has been a good gold stream. And any stream in Lisbon will have gold in it. The stream in Bath is petty brook. You don"t hear much about. The streams in Lisbon. Its all privite land. Pettyboro was a good gold stream. When people could get access.Looking back thought my records there where 5 mines in Lisbon. And 11 in Lyman. There was a smelting mill in pike. So many of these mines did produce.

 

[OreCart]

Pettyboro brook is in Lisbon. And has been a good gold stream. And any stream in Lisbon will have gold in it. The stream in Bath is petty brook. You don"t hear much about. The streams in Lisbon. Its all privite land. Pettyboro was a good gold stream. When people could get access.Looking back thought my records there where 5 mines in Lisbon. And 11 in Lyman. There was a smelting mill in pike. So many of these mines did produce.

Very interesting.

I looked and Pettyboro Brook is located on the opposite side of the hill then where our other house is in Lisbon, NH. On Google Maps, that stream by our Lisbon House, shows the stream, but it does not name it.

My wife's grandparents (still alive...thanks to marrying a woman much younger than me) has 30 acres in Lyman. They are on hilly terrain, so I am not sure if it has a stream on it or not? I have never walked it. 30 acres is not a lot of land, but I got access to some gold ground anyway. I will tell my father-in-law as he prospects, and will have a place to try.

The history of that area is interesting because I have a book on the history of Lisbon, and it does not mention the mines at all. But the mine we have here in Maine is not listed anywhere either. In fact I pretty sure I am the only person alive that knows it exists, or where it is.

Years ago the Maine Geological Survey had an Excel Spreadsheet located in the bowels of its website. They had shrunk it down, and it contained tons of information, many blocks of text unreadable because they had columns 2 sizes wide when to be readable they needed to be 30 . Well I know Excel, so I typed in the name of my town, and instantly this mine came up. In western USA terms it is not much, a mine shaft driven 115 deep, but when I called up the State Geologist he told me I was crazy, there is no mine here. And I told him I read it on his own website. That was when he laughed and said I knew more about his website then I did.

A person does have to be careful because often times a mine was a great way to get investors to sink money into a hole in the ground, and it never produced much but a Ponzi Scheme, but the opposite is true too. They contain valuable information if reported correctly.

I admit I got a little bit of Gold Fever now that I actually found gold (in Maine at least), but I cherish the hunt for it as much as the shiny.

 

[triple d]

Was checking out Pettyboro brook. Not where I thought it was but close. Used a better map. Its where your wife said it was. Bath and Landoff. Good area to check out. Private land if you can get access. Or on your own land. Might get some shiny. Many possibly in that whole area. There is a large lead and zinc mine on ore hill in sugar hill. And a large copper deposit on coppermine brook. Near by. Should be good if someone can checkout your family lands.Might be good you never know. Also check out My Land Matters.com. They have the best Maps and overlays. With give you a good idea of the geogly and Faults in these areas

 

[OreCart]

Well they say "gold is where it should be", and so that makes sense if Pettyboro Brook was where they found it. Here in Maine anyway, gravel is always found on the Northeast side of a hill, and that would be about right for that location. It would be on the Northeast side of the hill, but the stream itself is running southwest, but EVERYTHING is different on the other side of the Presidential Mountains; weather, geology, etc.

Katie doubted there was anything in the stream by our house in New Hampshire. She said it was mostly dug out to allow from run-off further up the hill. It is the same hill, just on the wrong side, and floods every year. We know because it floods that house every year making the thing impossible to sell. (Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

One mapping system I like is LIDAR, but I am not sure it has been done there yet. Even if it has, I do not have access to the USDA like I do here (I am a farm), so I can have the USDA map out the area on two foot contours and get a really good idea on where water is moving.

Ever heard anything coming from the Ammonoosuc River? I would think that would be an easy river to check between Lisbon and Littleton?. The water gets low really fast after spring run off, and is wide with a lot of gravel bars.

 

[triple d]

Yes the Ammonoosuc. Has gold. Not as good as the wild Ammonoosuc. But it runs off the Mountains.And moves a lot of material. They say the Mountains have been eroded to the point.There at levels in the ground. The veins of gold are at. The white mountains at one time. Where much bigger mountains. But have been worn away by glaciers. And mother nature. The best gold streams in N.H. Are on the western side of the mountains and hills.

 

[OreCart]

Yes the Ammonoosuc. Has gold. Not as good as the wild Ammonoosuc. But it runs off the Mountains.And moves a lot of material. They say the Mountains have been eroded to the point.There at levels in the ground. The veins of gold are at. The white mountains at one time. Where much bigger mountains. But have been worn away by glaciers. And mother nature. The best gold streams in N.H. Are on the western side of the mountains and hills.

If that is the case, I wonder if gravel pit just outside of Lisbon on Route 302 has anything. Not that it would be allowed, but that would be the perfect spot to Hydro Mine; 200 feet of gravel, several hundred feet from the river, plenty of flat areas for containment ponds. Whether there would be plenty of gold would be another matter, but the poor landowner is selling gravel at $2 a cubic yard when it might have gold in it worth $1200 an ounce.

Katie was right in that Pettyboro Brook was in Bath, but I got my own towns mixed up. I was thinking of Benton where the Wild Ammonoosuc River is. I was surprised to hear that Bath and Lisbon held the larger reservoirs of gold.

But all this makes sense, at the start of all this I mentioned gold being in NH and you mentioned Maine, and I was thinking, 'NH has wayyyyy more Gold than Maine does", but if my father-in-law lives in the gold bearing spot of New Hampshire, that would be why.

Very interesting stuff.

 

[triple d]

A gravel pit being near a river. Chances are at one time the gravel pit was part of the river. Look for layers of large round washed stones. In the banks. Old river channels.I don"t know if you follow Gold Rush on T.V. They move a lot of gravel to get a O.Z of gold. Thats the way placier mining Is. I studied that area some. And I think there"s a better chance of getting rich On silver or copper. And of course Vermont is going though a minny gold rush. Where some areas had major flooding. 100 Year floods. People have been finding decent amounts of gold. The wild am got stired up pretty good from the same storm.

 

[OreCart]

A gravel pit being near a river. Chances are at one time the gravel pit was part of the river. Look for layers of large round washed stones. In the banks. Old river channels.I don"t know if you follow Gold Rush on T.V. They move a lot of gravel to get a O.Z of gold. Thats the way placier mining Is. I studied that area some. And I think there"s a better chance of getting rich On silver or copper. And of course Vermont is going though a minny gold rush. Where some areas had major flooding. 100 Year floods. People have been finding decent amounts of gold. The wild am got stired up pretty good from the same storm.

I am sure it was part of the river, as it is right beside the river. It is easily seen as you go from Littleton to Lisbon on 302; a huge gravel pit.

Yesterday Katie and I were talking about this thread and how it morphed. I was confused when read your initial posts because I was thinking, 'Yeah, New Hampshire...that is the gold state of the East', but I did not realize that my perception was off because my in-laws all live in a gold-concentrated area. And yes, I remember what storm you are talking about! That pretty near wiped Wells River off the face of the map.

You said my middle name is "gold", but that is actually my father-in-law. His sister lives in California and took care of an elderly man there who owned thousands of acres. He was a major league player back when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, but was blind and needed a caretaker. My wife's family visited that aunt/sister, and the man told my father-in-law to go take his gold pans, and hunt for gold all he wanted. So he did, and brought back a vial of gold and some rocks with gold in them.

Now with gold-fever, he got some pans of his own, and started panning around New Hampshire. He also does the research and all that, and gets right into gold.

Then his son-in-law...me...finds gold, and now his interest is struck up again. He wants to pan some streams and gravel pits here, mostly because access is easier. Myself, I do not have a lot in common with him, so its nice to actually have something to do with him. We are both retired, so to spend some time with him will be nice. However, not just me, his daughter (Katie, my wife) she has an interest in it as well, and wants to take the kids along. We do a lot of family outings because I want my daughters (4) to appreciate what we have, and to get out into nature.

In all, I got ten sites I want to sample, but they are both placer and lode gold sites.

My father-in-law, he is interested more in the placer gold, and I am more interested in hard rock mining. I have dug gravel all my life , that is the only reason why, so a bigger challenge for me would be nice.

 

[OreCart]

The picture above; that is one stream I want to sample.

I highly doubt there is gold in it though, mostly because it is on the southwest side of the hill here, and would have been scoured by the glaciers. Gravel in Maine is always found on the Northeast side of a hill. I also know that acreage, and there is very little depth to bedrock. When I plow that field, my plow just chatters because the moldboard is riding on bedrock.

But...maybe? I just put the picture up because it shows us as a family, out in the woodlot.

 

[triple d]

What part of Maine are you located. Yes that would be great to prospect. And also have the family help out. Nothing better. I know of gold streams in Maine that run West, south and east. Maine is mostly placier gold.But there may be other factors. Faults, Volcano"s etc. Hopefully you can find some gold. Right off to keep the kids interested. In streams places to look. Inside bends follow the larger rocks. Behind large boulders. Low pressure areas. Snipeing on the stream banks in the bedrock cracks running across the stream. And just above clay layers. Thats where I found my best maine gold. Above clay. And you may have to dig down 3 feet or More. To clay or false bedrock. Or bedrock. And always reserch can save a lot of time. In the field.