Jim_Alaska

but then again, once it is empty you don't need a weight belt.

Good idea, and once the tank is empty it can serve as a weight belt. 

7 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

Let's not hear any more of this getting old crap. Remember, you are only as old as what you're feeling. (think about it)

Oh Oh, now I know I am in trouble.

I refuse to watch these shows; they cast miners and mining in a bad light and give fuel to the anti-mining nuts.

Good, I was wondering why there were so many posts from you with no content or text.

19 minutes ago, Lanny said:

Jim, you're a man that's helped so many gold prospectors, and I include myself heartily (very grateful for your help and advice over the years), and I'm so glad you're such a good man.

All the best,

Lanny

You  are too kind Lanny. When I was in Alaska and first found mining forums, you were already there. I well remember reading about you finding gold just about everywhere you went. I have learned a lot from your posts and stories over those years. 

Rats!!! If Steve's generation is fading from the screen, mine must be gone. He was just a kid when I lived in  Alaska.

23 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Looked like a nice swimming hole to me, just look at all those boots and hand bags along the beach.

 

Those boots and hand bags probably keep many people from beach hunting there. I don't mind carrying a lunch, but don't really like the idea of being a lunch.

15 hours ago, Swegin said:

Video works fine.  Gators don't scare me now snakes well that's different.  LOL

Those aren't Gators, they are salt water crocodiles.

I don't know what kind of shotgun shells are available where you are. But many years ago, here in the US, lead shotgun pellets were banned and we had to only use steel pellets. Then of course, you could no longer buy new shells with lead pellets. This was all done to to protect wildfowl from ingesting them and die of lead poisoning.

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Great story Gerry, thanks for taking the time to write it up. Yup, April in Nevada is a total crap shoot day to day. Weather forecasts are near useless, especially out in the desert, where the mountains make their own weather. I’ve had sunny blue forecasts that ended up rain or snow so often it’s ridiculous. Like half the time. The wind is the worst, as it makes nice cool days into cutting cold. Last time out the gusts were almost knocking me over, and it makes even hearing a detector with headphones a real challenge. Last year mid-April we had a solid week of blizzard like snow conditions, so April in particular I really recommend people be prepared for anything, with temps down in the teens at night not uncommon. Be sure the antifreeze in your car is up to snuff if coming from Florida! And if it pours rain out in the desert, be prepared to just park and wait until the roads dry, or face some of the worst driving conditions you’ll ever encounter. That desert gumbo is not to be taken lightly.

Or you may get nice sunny days in the 80s and a light breeze, cool mornings…. as nice as it can get out there! 

Or, you could just live vicariously as I do over here in Northern California. I admit, it's not as much fun and no gold.

I love stories like this, especially without the discomfort. 

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

A noise caused one of my partners to take cover. Just to the right was a bobcat.

 

Bobcats are normally very secretive and shy, avoiding people. To get to see one should be a treasured experience, not many are  so fortunate. Aside from stories people tell, they are not a threat to people. I trapped Lynx for many years in Alaska, they are twice the size of any Bobcat, and also very shy.

Being in the cat family, they, like most cats, make a lot of noise when breeding. I think that is what Jed was hearing when he talked about "the midnight screechers".

52 minutes ago, Reg Wilson said:

I smell big trouble brewing.

Speaking of big trouble brewing; I have been wondering about the title of this adventure and what it could forecast. I am especially thinking in terms of what we have read so far, and contrasting it with an ending more in line with the title of the journal.

Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine

340 buckets makes me wonder if he actually had that many buckets, or if they took what they had down to John at the Tom and dumped them on the ground. They certainly couldn't take 340 buckets of material all in one load.

16 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

Gold keeps quite well under the ground LOL.

Yes it does, don't even have to worry about refrigeration. Bur human packrats are a whole other story.

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Interesting. I think they hauled whatever fit in the bucket to the longtom but I think John only washed off the bigger rocks from the buckets into the sluice head and didn't send them through. Of course that is speculation on my part but it seems logical. As far as where they worked at the creek we have an approximate location and have dug the area with pick and shovel and got decent gold. As there is nearly no gold elsewhere along the creek I think this may be the spot. Here is a picture of what we have found there. It's around 4 grams to the cubic yard of gravel. The creek has changed course a bit since 1936.

 

I understand that they brushed off the rocks too large to go in the bucket. He doesn't say anything about washing off large rocks in the sluice. But, anything of a size to fit in the bucket, and even smaller, like the size of a baseball, is going to result in lost gold.

Classification is king in this game, no classification = poor recovery.

If what you got out of the creek is any indication, they lost a lot of gold that size and especially smaller.

It would have been great to work with them; but right now I would be content to be able to re-work their tailing piles and the creek, below where they had the Tom.

In 1936 sluicing equipment and methods were very crude and many operations lost a lot of gold. I especially think back to where Jed told about what they filled the buckets with. He said in one place that if it fit in the bucket, it went through the sluice.

That is pretty course stuff and basically unclassified. Today we know that classification is extremely important.  Also, of great importance was the development of the Hungarian riffle, as well as under-current sluice boxes. Many of those old Long Toms used nothing more than small sticks laid at right angles to the sluice, not very efficient. There is every possibility that they lost a lot of gold due to these factors.

On 2/19/2022 at 12:38 PM, Reno Chris said:

With a bad auto accident in spring and all the fires later, 2021 was not a banner year for me to get out and search for nuggets. So I started a bit early this year with a invite from a friend to the low country in the far western edges of the Sierra Nevada. It was a great trip with excellent weather in the mid-70s. I got some good gold but my tent was attacked and stomped on by cows! I think these were attack cows, specially bred by the military for stealth counter-terrorism. 😉
Or something like that.....🤣

 

Chris, were you on the California side or the Nevada side of the Cascades? It sorta looks like the California side.

18 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

With a bad auto accident in spring and all the fires later, 2021 was not a banner year for me to get out and search for nuggets. So I started a bit early this year with a invite from a friend to the low country in the far western edges of the Sierra Nevada. It was a great trip with excellent weather in the mid-70s. I got some good gold but my tent was attacked and stomped on by cows! I think these were attack cows, specially bred by the military for stealth counter-terrorism. 😉
Or something like that.....🤣

The tent is repairable though I needed to buy a new section of tent pole and give the tent a through washing. The photo below shows the gold, 7.4 grams, just a bit shy of a quarter ounce. The largest piece, at 3.5 grams was a partial sunbaker - partly covered but some of it was showing. It was good to get out and find some gold, I enjoyed it so much I did up a Youtube video if you are interested its at: https://youtu.be/hNeHNJVG7LQ

A cow attack! Not too bad though. If it were in Alaska, it would be bears and the tent in shreds.

OK, so it sounds difficult to impossible for the general prospector to identify, unless trained to do so. Thank you, now I don't feel so stupid.

Back to topic.

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but wanted to ask a question of those that know. It may sound ignorant, but how can anyone tell what an actual fault is? How does anyone differentiate a gulch, gully, or even up-thrust of country rock from a fault?

I have examined the pics that GM supplied, but to me they just look like a lot of places I have seen.

3 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Jed mentioned early on making a crude road for his Ford truck. He also said he could only haul 20 buckets at a time due to poor springs on his truck. He has stated several times about loading buckets in the truck to take down to the tom. I would assume as they take buckets down to the creek they take empties back up to the dig site with the truck. So they have over 40 buckets at least.

Thanks GM, now that you said this, I do remember about the truck. I guess this is what I get for getting caught up in the story and letting things like this slip.,

I had thought of that, but he never mentions anything larger than buckets. If he was remote there may not have been any way to get a truck there, or he may not have had a truck; no Ute's in those days. I suppose it will remain a mystery, but the story is good without knowing.

Just wondering. He keeps talking about how many buckets they processed. Is it possible he actually had that many actual buckets? After all, back in those days buckets were metal, not plastic, that would have been a huge undertaking to get them all to a remote site. Not to even mention the huge cost of that many buckets.

1 hour ago, jasong said:

It must exist somewhere, I'm curious where exactly the federal government has granted states the right to manage federal minerals within their borders? Is this in FLPMA somewhere? For instance, where Arizona determines if rights of location do or don't exist on federal minerals and lands. Where do states have the authority or jurisdiction to make that decision?

Article 4 of the US Constitution gives Congress sole authority over federal lands, Supreme Court has determined this power is "without limitation". Federal law can override state law if conflicts exist. Congress has given BLM (among other agencies) rights to manage federal minerals, lands, and other resources. These agencies I guess technically could delegate some of this management to states too. Something like this must have happened and is codified by either Congress or a federal agency somewhere otherwise how do the states have the right to grant or determine legitimacy of rights on federal lands and minerals where federal law has been complied with? Where is this written?

I honestly don't know and it's not a loaded question, I'm just actually curious, haven't thought about it until now. Sec 3 of 1872 says you must comply with "State...regulations not in confict with said laws of US governing their possessory title".  However, it doesn't grant the states the right to issue or deny federal title to federal minerals, since it's not state property. Actually, a state determining rights of location even if you've complied with Federal laws could in a way be read as to being in conflict with said laws of US governing possessory title.

To be clear: I know the state can require you do this or that with a mining claim like require certain posts, or other specific requirements. What I'm wondering about is their authority to delegate wether rights over the federal minerals have or have not been acquired if these state requirements haven't been complied with.

This is exactly the issue that has closed mining in California. The state has claimed it has power to regulate or close Federal Public land, so they banned all mining in California, within 300 feet of any waterway. No mechanical equipment can be used at all for recovery of minerals.