Gold Mine Discovered! (the Hard Way!)

[BMc]

 

While prospecting in the Jackson Mountains of Northern Nevada, I drove up onto a dirt jeep trail which covered an old abandoned mine beneath the trail that I was unaware had been severely eroded and undermined by water from a creek that flowed just beneath the surface of the ground.

As I was driving over the top of the mine, the roof collapsed and the rear wheels of my pickup truck fell through, slamming down hard onto the axle. Fortunately, I was towing a backup vehicle and after winching my truck/camper out to a secure spot, I carefully looked down about 10’ into the gaping hole, where I could see an old rickety wooden ladder leaning against a wall.

I proceeded to detect the area and dug the usual mining trash but didn’t find any gold. Farther downstream, I found several old expended .50 Cal brass casings and a partial belt of live ammo. Apparently the mountain range had been used for military exercises at one time.

Although, It was a good looking area to prospect which I had planned to go back to, unfortunately, it became a wilderness designated area. ☹️

The Jackson Mountains are located in Humboldt County, 56 miles west of Winnemucca, Nevada. Access can be reached from Winnemucca by taking the Jungo Road west for 35 miles to Bottle Creek Road. There are 2 Wilderness Protected areas in the Jackson Mts. North and South Wilderness, divided by Trout Creek Road.

 

[Valens Legacy]

Those appear to be live rounds, please be careful with them. I have found a few of those before and while taking them apart one of them actually went off. Nobody was hurt and that was when grandfather showed me a safer way to do the job.

Glad you didn't damage your truck and was able to continue your hunt.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[YubaJ]

Try detecting Bottle Creek sometime. I heard from an old-time Newmont miner that a good sized nugget was found there years ago--without a detector. Also there was an article in one of the 80's treasure magazines about Depression era dry washing on the east side of the Jacksons. Sounded like all fine gold. You have got the fever!

[mn90403]

I've been to the edge of a Wilderness Area where you turn in at Jungo Dry Lake.  I've been out on that lake looking for meteorites 3 or 4 times and not found any but lots of others have.  I've seen their videos.

[beatup]

heck of a way to start off a prospecting trip

[GotAU?]

Stopes under roads, ugh. Lots of those in parts of Death Valley. Scary stuff!

Could you tell if the shoring in there was hand hewn, often of cedar logs?

[BMc]

What shoring?? Lol! There was not so much as a toothpick of shoring that I could see down into the hole beneath my truck's dangling wheels. It reminded me of a "coyote hole" type of adit. At one time, it might have been a stope, (position of ladder beside the collapsed hole), but there was nothing to indicate that from the top while driving slowly along, and it was certainly no "Glory Hole" 

[BMc]

19 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Those appear to be live rounds, please be careful with them. I have found a few of those before and while taking them apart one of them actually went off. Nobody was hurt and that was when grandfather showed me a safer way to do the job.

Glad you didn't damage your truck and was able to continue your hunt.

Good luck on your next hunt.

Why did you want to take them apart? Kid stuff I'm guessing. I'm not criticizing, I played with a lot of dangerous stuff when I was younger. Thanks for the good advice!

 

[GotAU?]

5 hours ago, BMc said:

What shoring?? Lol! There was not so much as a toothpick of shoring that I could see down into the hole beneath my truck's dangling wheels. It reminded me of a "coyote hole" type of adit. At one time, it might have been a stope, (position of ladder beside the collapsed hole), but there was nothing to indicate that from the top while driving slowly along, and it was certainly no "Glory Hole" 

This story is a great lesson! Lots of holes out there- the worse are daylighted winzes with no signs of tailings or a dump nearby. Quite a few people have fallen in those not knowing there’s a mine opening.  Two guys in a Samurai went down one one year and one of them survived until he made a signal fire for help with one of the tires and got carbon monoxide poisoning.

Glad you got the truck out safely! - beautiful country by the way, must’ve been a memorable trip!

[BMc]

19 minutes ago, GotAU? said:

This story is a great lesson! Lots of holes out there- the worse are daylighted winzes with no signs of tailings or a dump nearby (a tunnel dug upwards from underground that has been exposed at the surface). People fall in not knowing there’s a mine opening.  Two guys in a Samurai went down one one year and one of them survived until he made a signal fire for help with one of the tires and got carbon monoxide poisoning.

Glad you got the truck out safely! - beautiful country by the way, must’ve been a memorable trip!

Don't know if you understood that there was no opening or hole in the road. Not even a depression! The water flowed from uphill, (sagebrush area), and eroded the ground structure beneath the surface of the road, giving no indication of its weakness.

Glad you located the gold for me though. Lol! How much did you recover? Mr GotGold, with all due respect, I have hunted this general area (Northern NV), for (going on 30), years and know several very accomplished nugget hunters who have done the same. I have photos and GPS coordinates of large multi-oz nuggets that were found, as often as not in places where you would not suspect, nor anyone at the time might have predicted, until they actually tried it. Based on your pictorial gold pointer, I suspect you haven't hunted for gold anywhere near that general area, (which can apply to both Humboldt and Pershing counties)

The upshot is, In that area, Gold can be anywhere! ( A lot of gold found way out in the sagebrush flats)

Let me know when you are going to be up that way again (Rye Patch, Eugene Mts), maybe we can get together and swing a coil!