How Did The Old Timers Learn What Rocks Had Gold?

[klunker]

 

5 hours ago, jasong said:

Who knows how much is fable or fact I guess.

 The fable is a helluvalot more fun.

[tvanwho]

I read about old timers /Indians/ early settlers camping in spots in NW Illinois, SW Wisconsin and SE Iowa area from 1690-1900. Famous for galena. The ores were so shallow and in limestone crevices. They would spy a bit of shiny galena and dig it out with  a knife and make bullets and trade it .Next thing ya know, somebody dug a hole and made a mine. I went down in one of these old mines in Plattesville, WI I think it was , in a town park /museum. Easy getting down the super steep stairway but took me 1/2 hour to get back up 50 feet it was so damn steep. I was out of breath after each short flight of stairs.

I myself found what looked like greenish white rock going down the side of a hill on a relatives property. A rather steep angle , about 60 degrees and 2 feet thick layer. I sent a chunk in for an assay expecting copper maybe. Assay said no copper but .001 ounce/ton of gold and .002 of silver. Not rich enough to mine for free mill gold but at least I can say I struck a gold mine, of sorts. Even the galena diggings on this property had gold. I sent a galena crystal in for assay and it came back as 0.13 ounces a ton for gold.

I often wondered if the old tailings piles, after smelting , might have a pile of gold in ? I guess I could always go and get some samples to send for more assays and find out?