A Discombobulated Prospecting Tale

[tvanwho]

I dunno Jim,

I read some of Dave McCrackens stories about Bigfoots in California causing landslides at night. Of course the prospectors that told Dave the stories had no proof or video, just stories of rocks falling constantly in the night near their camps and despite being well armed they were  still scared to death.

  Heck, I had a 90 foot tall tree shake near me some years back like Paul Bunyan was trying to uproot a giant carrot. I watched it swing back and forth about 30-40 feet this way and that.No other trees moving at all ,just that one. I had just been taking Polaroid photos of some depressions in the woods. Something didn't like my flash apparently??? Even tho the tree in question was at least 100 feet away.

I was in process of hiking over to the tree as I was looking for treasure at the time and figgered  I was being called over to the shaking tree.

But the more I thought about it , I realized I was alone, no weapons, and nobody knew I was out there, so I just stood and watched at that point. Better to be safe than sorry...I've been there a couple times since , took the exact same photos, and nothing happened...and the spot is within 1000 feet of 2 busy highways.

 

-T

[Jim Hemmingway]

I don’t know either Tom… but when it comes to Bigfoot sightings and other preternatural occurrences, well I’m not from Missouri… but you’re still going to have to show me before I’ll believe it. While it may be pleasant around the campfire to hypothesize that Bigfoot is roaming the nearby bush, I’m inclined (in retrospect that is) to consider the culprit in Discombobulated Prospecting to either be a bear or more probably a cougar as noted earlier.

“I was in process of hiking over to the tree as I was looking for treasure at the time and figgered  I was being called over to the shaking tree”.

I take it that you are still dowsing for minerals, hence you feel that the guiding force that causes your map-dowsing pendulum to perform was also perhaps causing the tree to sway such that it called your attention to it. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that view, but neither can I dispute it because there is no factual basis to do so. But I will say that a swaying tree in our northern woods is a good indication of a large blackbear.

We both pursue this hobby alone and rather defenseless in remote areas. Should a confrontational situation suddenly occur, I doubt there would be sufficient time to retrieve my bearspray from my knapsack. Best probable solution might be to acquire a faithful dog or two. Dogs are pretty good with the metaphysical stuff, their extra-sensory perception allows them to see what we cannot see and that might serve us well. Handguns are illegal here, and a rifle is cumbersome extra gear that is too inconvenient to tote around the bush.

In closing Tom, maybe I could relate a brief story to you about finding some silver on our most recent trip to the North Country. I was searching a new area that I had earlier researched and the day previously had recovered several small pieces that encouraged me to persist there.

Late the next afternoon, an elongated signal, correctly identified by my MXT’s iron probability readout, proved to be a sizable iron bar that was removed from several inches below the surface. Rechecking the hole produced another signal that was slightly offset to one side and perhaps a foot deeper. It consistently read at 20% iron probability, and resulted in the silver sample depicted in the first and second photos below. It was quite a surprise to find large silver so close to the surface, and to realize that the encouraging audio signal and target ID had been produced by silver rather than the usual large iron at depth. In addition to a few smaller pieces, after two days of trenching that site the dendritic silver in the third photo surfaced as well. 

Both samples below were HCl acid treated to remove excessive carbonate rock and cleaned with a rotary tool silicon carbide bit, followed by a soapy wash and rinse. While not exactly a handsome specimen because it is embedded in a dark blue-grey carbonate matrix, the ten lb piece is a fine example of massively structured dendritic native silver that accounts for much of the rock’s total weight. That’s it for now, take care. 

Jim.