El Dorado

Awesome carvings

That is some top notch material. I would love to make some jewelry with it. If you could ever lead me to a source, I would be indebted. Thanks for sharing.

Can you believe it was his first nugget........cool find for sure

WOWSA Chris, those are beauties

Tears of the sun, nice

Thanks Rob, that means a lot coming from a fireman!

Great story Paul

WOWSA that is a hunk of yellow sunshine

California Victorian Jewelry is amazing stuff.  Here is another picture and some more info about that impressive cane. click on the pics for full view

Thanks to my buddy at Rye Patch, I got to swing the ZED for a couple of hours last week and was impressed ----

 

It feels lighter to me than swinging the 2300---balance i suppose---- i used it with and without that crazy outrigger and either way was fine with me.

 

But im still not buying one....lol--

 

Trying to be a drywasher now---(but it wont quit raining )---and even with the rain--- the creeks are low and too slimy to walk for fear of breaking an ankle --

This year has been very trying for me---and a few others too....

 

Need to back up and punt!!!

come on up to Indy Hill.... dirt is nice and dry and there is plenty of gold to be had

Nice stuff Paul....if you ever want one of those beautiful Agates turned into a cab..let me know

great looking nugget...looks like a frog eating a pearl

I clean my gold in a salt/white vinegar solution in an ultrasonic cleaner.  Purties them up nice, but most N. Calif placer gold is merely dirty and seldom needs acid treatment. That gold in your first post sure does look like flame worked gold, possibly a casting.

HF treated quartz gold only looks great if all the quartz is dissolved, IMHO it makes the quartz look very bad.  I have one collector/buyer that used to pay me for microscope work to pick away quartz from HF treated specimans to reveal a natural quartz surface. Very time consuming, but leaves the quartz in its natural shape.

One of these days I am going to try duplicating some of the Gold Rush/Victorian era gold work, but I have lots of learning left before I can

What a great find. I am always amazed as to how the ancients worked gold like they did/////

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/37420

You could not have had a better instructor plus an amazing historical place to hunt. Congrats

I have been very happy with my Keene 151........it certainly gobbles up as much material as can be thrown into the hopper.  I would like to see Road Dog's mods

WTG, that machine is certainly working out well for many folks

Some great friends own a mining patent on the NF of the Middle Fork and have given me permission to helo my new dredge into there......hmmmmmm

maybe I'm lucky that the pounds of metal in my legs keeps my from getting a ZED.......

yellowtail tuna are shoing up in marinas and at piers in So Cal.  Lets hope we have a winter like  1986.  That was the biggest in my time in the Sierra.  Got to break tracks in 20 plus feet of powder on KT-22 at Squaw Valley.  97 was pretty big too because much of the snowpack in January was melted by the fierce warm El Nino rains. Flooded much of N. CA.  It will happen again

California gold, thank you for the great info something i will use.

 

for now I have been prospecting on club claims "Comstock Gold Prospectors" This last claim I went down into is in a very good area off forrest hill near the location of the old town of deadwood.  I also had a gold pan with me and did one small test sample that had a few specks in it and I know from club reports that there is gold on the claim. now the location of nuggets or if they exist on the claim at this point I am guessing yes based on the history of the area, but I don't know the spot enough to tell if or where any deposits could have originated. it was supposed to be one of the best areas in the old days and I don't think they had any hydraulic activity. tailing piles cover the hillside near the claim and the soil is a deep rich red.

 

I don't think there are any mining claims on top of the mountain all of that is active timber harvest, however I am guessing the top of the mountain would not be the best place to look anyway.

North Fork of the Middle Fork of American River has treated me well.

Fishermen leave tons a crap and fishing weights. Makes hunting these areas damn near impossible to detect.

yup that was part of a prospectors hard rock kit. used for crushing ore samples.  Very cool find for sure

Here is an excerpt from their website Dale.

 

Hidden in the isolated northwest corner of Nevada, lies Virgin Valley. Despite it's arid and desolate location, rockhounds and miners from all over the world travel here to search for the beautiful black opal for which this area is famous. These spectacular opals are prized by collectors, lapidary enthusiasts and jewelers worldwide. This area is famous for the rare and fabulous black opal, known to occur in only two places on Earth; the Virgin Valley, Nevada and New South Wales, Australia. These wonderful specimens flash and gleam with a rainbow of brilliant reds, blues, greens and purples in a jet black matrix.  Prime examples can be worth more per carat than even diamonds. Also found in the area is opal in a variety of colors and types from the famous black opal to the amber colored honey opal, the clear jelly or crystal opal, and the pure white matrix of the lechosos or milk opal, all of which can contain the stunning play of color which signifies the 'precious opal.' Most of the opal is in the form of replaced wood and limb casts. Sometimes retaining the characteristics of the ancient wood in incredible detail. It is  theorized that this area was once the location of a large lake surrounded by lush forests of sequoia, spruce, hemlock, birch, cedar, larch and chestnut.  This prehistoric forest was devastated by a series of volcanic eruptions which buried the forests, lakes and accumulated driftwood with layer upon layer of ash.  Over millions of years, the silica-rich water of the areas hot springs seeped through the layers of ash and slowly replaced the buried wood with hydrated silica molecules. Under the right conditions precious opal may form.

The amazing thing about the limbcasts are the original tree were Giant Sequoia.  Some of the finds I have that are only partially opalized are very cool becaust the bark still looks like original in shape and color