Hello From So Cal

[GotAU?]

Andreas,

Thanks for the James Klein’s reference.  I appreciate it!  Big Bear is an interesting area, I actually worked on the forest for six years back in the 90’s, part of which I was doing mine surveys.  We visited and documented the conditions at every recorded mine and prospect between Fawnskin and Yucca Valley, including the desert slopes of the forest.  Do you get out there very often? We’ll have to PM about it sometime.  Thanks again for your help I really do appreciate it!

-Anthony

[Gold Catcher]

I sometimes go there when the desert gets too hot. The whole area around the campground is claimed up and loaded with trash, but check out some of the expired claims around van Dusen canyon road. The gold is shallow there, usually only small pickers though. 

[GotAU?]

On 2/17/2020 at 5:12 PM, Gold Catcher said:

Hi Anthony,

If you read Jim Straight's book you practically already know all bout metal detecting. He was a legend and one of his kind, I had the luck to meet him some years back before he sadly passed away. Check out the James Klein's book " Where to find gold in Southern California". It is a short but pretty comprehensive summary. I personally like the Randsburg area and the greater Big Bear area the best in the South, while the Pinto Mountains are mostly lode but have some placers as well. Don't trust discrimination, it is really only meant to help in areas that are so trashy that otherwise no detecting would be possible. My SDC and GPZ don't have any discrimination features, neither would I trust them. 

Good luck!

Andreas

 

Andreas, just another thought - It’s good that Jim Straight wrote those books, otherwise his knowledge of such things would have been lost forever. As I grow older, there are more and more people around me who have experienced so much in their lifetimes and know ao much about places in the desert and so many things that I have even yet to have discovered, but they are fading away as each of them passes. Some of my old Ham radio friends that used to live in Ransburg pretty much all their lives are gone now, and with them their stories of their lives.  I also have a friend who can describe every turn and feature of practically every mine in the Mojave desert, and can name them correctly if shown a photo of the entrance or given a description of the interior and general location.  Their name has been in every sign in logbook I have ever seen in the mines I’ve visited as well. Such local knowledge is invaluable and should be preserved, I only wish all of those people were also writers like Jim was.