Old Miner Don

27 minutes ago, Doc Bach said:

So lately these days now that I am starting to age quicker and slow down a little faster I have been backtracking and frequenting some of my old haunts. Some dating back to the mid 1960's when I first became an antique bottle digger and soon afterward discovered metal detecting.That is at least the sites that haven't been destroyed by vineyards, poor logging practices and all of the other numerous types of changes and development.After all I have far better equipment to use now and way more knowledge but unfortunately far less strength and stamina.So anyway I will cut to the chase here is some of what I found recentely at a site that I discovered in 1975 and pretty much walked away from around 1982.Using the deus 1 in a modified goldfield program with the small elliptical coil to navigate the star thistles i hit the tin cup at around eighteen inches in a rich ash layer laden with artifacts.A few days later I returned with my sifter and other related tools and proceeded to do an excavation.

Some very beautifull calico buttons as well as Chinese coins and opium bottles.

The calico buttons first appeared in the 1840's and were made until just after 1900.

This multisided style of opium vile with the Chinese characters embossed on the base is quite rare.Unfortunately they are prone to self destructing when they come out of the ground just from even the most subtle change in air temperatures.This one badly fractured.Below are a few more pieces of big iron and the tin cup that were detected at the site.

My homemade sifter and and other essentials..

I found the plans for the sifter in treasure found magazine or other publication back in the mid seventies.

Impressive set of tools. Those buttons ARE beautiful!

When I lived in Portland Oregon I had a small house built in the early 50's. It was in the NE part of town and most homes were the same vintage in my neighborhood.

We had water meters that were well past the sidewalk on the home owners side of it. I was told by more than one person that the city never installs water meters on home owners property.

So basically the home owners property starts just past the water meter. But many people don't realize that and mistakenly think they're property starts at the curb. But it doesn't.

In most older neighborhoods there's a strip of grass between the curb and the sidewalk and people maintain this as if it's their own. Which is nice of them and probably something the city wants them to do.

But the actual property line starts behind the water meter, which has 2 or 3 feet of grass between it and the sidewalk and then the grass strip between that and the curb.  And a lot of confusion can come up if you just jump out there and start detecting.

While in Portland I belonged to Monte's (R.I.P.) detector club and we discussed this many times and the best way to go about it. A hardhat and safety vest never hurt anything lol.

I don't recall Monte saying anything about asking permission but he wasn't stupid about it either. He nicely educated more than one homeowner about metal detecting in the grass strips and he would show them where their property line was. But he was never arrogant or rude and if the homeowner just really pitched a fit he would just move on. He always carried a loaner detector and many times he offered to let the homeowner use it and he would give them a quickie lesson. Monte loved that.

Another thing is Monte was a expert at pinpointing a target and using a screw driver type probe to find it and he would pop it out of the ground after widening out a little slit above the coin. Of course he had a lesche digger but hardly ever would he cut a plug in someone's lawn that I know of.

He never carried a shovel but had his cane and his detector all the time.

Are you sure someone didn't sneak into the house while you were gone and take your jewelry?  You told no one about the hidden stuff before you left?

5 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Thank you Steve for allowing me to post my drivel LOL. Writing has to come from somewhere deep inside oneself just like music of which I also do. Today, whatever drove me to write & post the journal vanished. Perhaps it was the argument with Steve & knowing what he really thought of me & my writings. Or perhaps it was something else. All I know is it may take some time for me to get back into it & finish the season of 2002. The journal is very personal to me. Some is fiction & some is true. All of it is based on true events. Some of the characters are real with names changed. Others are fictional as you readers know. I hope I can get back to posting here in time. Until then, God bless and so many thanks to everyone who followed my writings. Cheers, GM.

Say what?!?!?  You had an argument with the Steve that owns this website?  I can't imagine what the problem would be, unless he thinks...

Well I will just let it go for now because I don't really know what the argument was about. I just hope you can get to feeling better soon and I suppose Steve didn't tell you to quit telling the story of what happened or else you would have told us readers "good bye".

Like I have told you before I can keep a secret. PM me anytime you want to and you better because I want to know what ended up happening in 2002 and especially about Jacob. Remember you promised a picture of him.

God bless you too man.

50 minutes ago, ☠ Cipher said:

The answer I’ve seen given to those in the US and the West is to write info@sphinx-md.ru

Thank you! We'll see.

SOLD!!! How much?

Wish you could describe the floor better. 4th floor apartment would have a poured concrete floor I suppose. Like a high rise. Why is there dirt on top of that concrete and how deep is the dirt? Sounds like that's probably where the coins will be hidden is in the dirt. 

And the boards above the dirt will have nails holding them down won't they? Which means the detector will be sounding off on the nails. How big is the gap between the bottom of the boards and the top of the dirt?

When I read your question I was thinking that you need a crowbar AND a detector. You obviously will have to remove some wood flooring to recover anything buried in the dirt. After you locate it of course. It's just a bare wood floor correct? Check out the floor very carefully and you just might be able to find the wood that grandpa removed many years ago.

Good luck and please let us know what happens!

39 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   June 15   2002     Part Three

 

   When I got back to camp Vern was pretty upset that we didn’t find Jim. I told him it was dark, we had tried the radio as well as calling out, but there was just no way to know where he had gone. I figured it was probably the same goons that seemed to be against our mining activities. 

   Vern wanted to go charging out into the woods and find Jim. I asked him just where he would start and he replied somewhere up in the area Jim had last been. I said we didn’t know which direction he had gone. He may have taken off trying to pursue the thugs or he could now be lost. He also may have been taken captive. Jacob was up there in case he returned. We couldn’t leave camp unguarded and I was unwilling to risk Vern’s life. I thought about letting the law know about this but decided to wait until morning. Besides, I figured they wouldn’t want to risk deputies' lives on a wild goose chase into the mountains at night. So Vern and I sat at camp and kept in contact with Jacob via the radios. All I could think of was how Jim had wanted to leave the mine and go home because of the danger out here but I had talked him out of it. I felt responsible for the crew. I knew they were out here on their own choice but still felt horrible. I was beginning to think about what had happened to the crews in 1936 & 1937. It gave me the creeps.

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

So I'm wondering if this is where Jacob takes his exit?

Anything new happening with this?

1 hour ago, John-Edmonton said:

 

 

Getting down to the river, I spotted a family of geese, who spotted me at the same time. They observed me for a while, then decided it was safe to pass by. I unofficially hired them as my "CLAIM" guards, to keep others away.

I brought along my metal detector, as I sometimes do, to unwind a bit from all the digging.

Due to the heat and smoke, I choose to screen my concentrates before feeding them into my California mini. I then find a cooler spot in the shade to sit down on an empty bucket and process them in my highbanker.

The smoke was real bad from numerous surrounding fires, with advisories in the news to stay indoors or wear masks outdoors. A stark reminder of covid.

The smoke creates different sun sets, often times turning it to a red, bleeding sun.

Here's a couple of interesting finds. Metal detecting with my Garrett APEX, I dug this  token or coin with an elephant on one side, with some sort  of numeric table on the reverse. When screening buckets, I always stack my buckets two high, so as to not bend over as much, maintaining a straight back while screening the material. Because the gravel is closer to my eyes while screening, I get a closer look for interesting rocks for tumbling. I managed to eye-ball  this beautiful rock fossil  with some sort of plant imbedded it.

Here's the gold I got after 8 5 gallon buckets. 

 

Nice gold on that claim!

3 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

I'm curious if you intend to use the detector for underwater sniping. Fully submerged.

You may want to consider the SDC 2300 because it's submersible to I believe 10'.

Two Toes uses the SDC 2300 for all of his gold metal detecting now. For years he was a big fan of the TDI. He has one of the best gold detecting/gold mining channels on YouTube.

Sorry that I don't have a lot of advice. I'm still learning.

I forgot to mention that the reason I recommended Two Toes channel is because he does lots of gold metal detecting on exposed bedrock and in crevices which is exactly what you said that you would like to start doing with the gold medal detector.

He is very successful at it and I don't think anyone explains and teaches better than him.

In addition he has many well done videos on sluicing and gold panning as well as high banking etc.

23 minutes ago, N7XW said:

I've asked for detector recommendations on this forum in the past and appreciate all the previous input and advice.  This forum is a true benefit to the detecting and prospecting community.

So, here I am again.  I'd like to focus on rivers and creeks.  In addition to panning and sluice boxing, I want to scan the exposed bedrock cracks and crevices for small nuggets.  I think a VLF is the way to go instead of a PI machine for this purpose.  My only criteria is that it must be waterproof - not just "splash" or "rain" proof.  From what I see, the only choices are the AT Gold and the Gold Kruzer.  Are there others?  What would you recommend?

Thank you.

 

I'm curious if you intend to use the detector for underwater sniping. Fully submerged.

You may want to consider the SDC 2300 because it's submersible to I believe 10'.

Two Toes uses the SDC 2300 for all of his gold metal detecting now. For years he was a big fan of the TDI. He has one of the best gold detecting/gold mining channels on YouTube.

Sorry that I don't have a lot of advice. I'm still learning.

4 hours ago, glacialgold said:

Have you contacted your dealer or Nokta about issue, assuming the machine is still under warranty?

Any idea how many hours on the detector?

3 hours ago, Gold Seeker said:

Yours is blue, all the ones I saw on Geo Sluice Mining are green, are they the same, which model is yours?

Did you notice that you have a choice between green and blue? I'm looking at the website now.

8 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

 June 8   2000     Part One

 

   I got to work early. The sun hadn't quite come up yet and the crew was just waking. I decided to start pushing tailings that had gotten ahead of us yesterday. So I pushed them and carried them away as well. Within an hour breakfast was on and everyone was at Jacob’s camper including me. Then we got to work. Or at least we tried.

   While Jacob started his gold cleanup duties Vern hiked up the mountain to get the pump running. I fired up the trommel and Jim started digging pay with the excavator. I dumped in the first load of pay with the steer and heard a loud clang and the trommel stopped as I saw the chain go flying through the air. I heard Jim let out a few choice words and I signaled Vern to shut down the pump. We were broke down before we had even started. Jacob had heard the ruckus and came walking over from his cleanup station. He said some words I didn’t quite understand but knew were not good. Then he rolled a smoke and just shook his head in disgust. Then he walked back over to continue processing yesterday's concentrates.

   Vern, Jim, and I looked over the situation. The chain was not repairable and we needed a new one. When it broke it had also done damage to the sprocket teeth. What a way to start the day.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...................

GhostMiner

Posted 8 hours ago

48 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   June 6   2002

 

   The crew was up before dawn and we had coffee together. Everyone was in a hurry to fire up the trommel and see what kind of yardage the plant could handle. At sunrise the temperature was nearly 60 degrees and we expected a sweltering day. Jacob said this may be the beginning of the big heat he had talked about. He said it could last until well into September. I know one thing, I am happy to not be digging with a pick and shovel now. Those old crews must have been as tough as they come.

   We had all taken night watch shifts and everything was quiet. Vern fired up the big pump and the pristine morning air and silence was suddenly broken with the smell of diesel fuel and throbbing gas and diesel engines. 

   Jim ran the excavator while Jacob tended to the trommel and I got in the skid steer. Jim dug up piles of virgin gravel while I loaded the trommel with pay gravel from the bucket of the steer and pushed tailings. Within one hour we had processed roughly  20 cubic yards of gravel and we were hardly running the trommel at half speed. We had it up on a pad with a ramp for the steer to come up to its hopper and feed it. It was a beast. After a few minor adjustments to the water flow we cranked it up to about 80% and let it work. By 2:00 PM we had run 150 yards through it and shut it down. We wanted to see how the recovery was so we cleaned out the mats and all four of us participated in the cleanup. Jacob had the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen. In the holding pan there were 17 ounces of gold. We broke out the whisky and beer and had a toast to the old crew. If only they could have been here.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

That put a grin on my face too!

On 5/8/2023 at 10:44 PM, John-Edmonton said:

60% chance of rain.....I got 100% of rain, hail, strong winds, lightning and thunder. I came prepared, brought a raincoat. I was out in the rain for a little over 3 hours. My boots were full of water from the raincoat runoff. Too funny! Half the trip was spent mossing and washing roots and half the trip was digging gravel. I did get some of that vitamin "G" too. Drop riffles sluices work great for mossing and washing roots. The roots just flow over the drop riffles and don't get caught like they used to on my inverted mesh.

 

 

 

 

Wow nice gold! That's worth getting wet for lol.

Just now, Bedrocker said:

I agree man. Time to hire some gunslingers.

You gotta do something. Those 3 guys ain't going away lol.

I'm wondering what they're connection is with the mountain. Are they hippie tree huggers or simply some crazed local madmen? Strange how much they want to stop the mining. I would think that they would be a little more respectful of the mining crews ability to STOP them.

Plot twist: They aren't actually real. They are the ghosts of three dead hooligans from the 1930's. That's why the bullets they were firing didn't hurt anyone or make a thudding noise.

1 minute ago, Tahoegold said:

No he didn't. But, what I mean is, time to hire a pro.

I agree man. Time to hire some gunslingers.

52 minutes ago, Tahoegold said:

Maybe it's time to hire Sarge... 🪖

They got Sarge killed in Mexico. And he for sure didn't deserve that.

12 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   I'm afraid to think what Jacob would have done that night if he had been sitting up there with that old Thompson machine gun he lugged around.

I think for sure that the sound of the Thompson firing would have woken up you guys in camp. Only question is would Jacob have fired warning shots or simply eliminated the threat.

I realize you're position of course. In the 1930's it was a completely different world. In Jed's days probably nobody would have gone looking for three guys that never returned home. In 2002 it's a good chance those three guys had family members that would have filed a missing persons report. And if people knew what the three guys were up to and where, then you and your mining crew could really have a problem on your hands. 

So you would have to be digging a deep hole in the middle of the night and make it look really good too lol. You would probably be okay as long as nobody brought the search dogs up. Wink 😜

On 4/7/2023 at 8:31 PM, Doc Bach said:

Here are a few examples.A popular pastime back in the day but still being made today.                             

Those are really cool! What kind of coin is the bug coin? If somebody made that out of a nickel they are flat out a 1st class engraver.

40 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

   June 2   2002     Part Three

 

   I sat in a good hiding spot up near where the pump was placed. There was a clear view of the little trail we used heading southeast down the mountain towards the dig site. It was around 11:00 PM when I heard some voices kind of muttering. They sounded like they were coming from higher up the mountain. Sure enough, three men slowly came into view. They were carrying flashlights and looking around the area. One of them was laughing and I heard him say something like wait until they come up here tomorrow and see what happened to their pump and water line. That was all I needed to hear. I was hidden behind a big pine tree just 30 feet or so from the pump they were looking at. I jumped out of my hiding place and confronted them.

   They jumped back with surprise and it was obvious that they weren’t expecting to encounter a night watchman out here in the remote area of the mountain. I hollered out and demanded to know what they were up to. Without one word the cowards turned tail and ran up the mountain.  

   I had a walkie talkie with me and immediately radioed camp to let them know what had just happened.  Vern said he was going to hide just outside of camp and watch it just in case they came down that way. Then I found myself a new spot to sit and wait to see if they were stupid enough to come back.

   TO BE CONTINUED ..............

You didn't learn much from Jed and Sarge lol.

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

   June 1   2002

 

   When we got up to the dig site Vern hiked up the mountain to start the pump. When he got it fired up we noticed the water flow was weak so Vern & I followed the water line back up the mountain. It looked to have been cut in several places. We wondered if we had been sabotaged. We didn’t have the parts to make the splices so Jim went into town and got what was needed plus a few extras just in case. By the time we were done it was nearly noon. Jacob shook his head and told us this was a bad sign. He reminded us that bad things can happen when gold is involved.

   We shook it off and got to work. Everything went pretty smooth for the rest of the day and we put a big cut into that mountain. By 7:00 PM we had processed 40 yards of gravel and cleaned out the tom. We decided that Jacob would begin doing the cleanups every day while the three other members of the crew would do the mining. Seeing as we were now processing more gravel the cleanups would likely to take longer. So we figured that when Jacob finished the cleanup he would head up to advise us on the mining operation. He was more than happy to do it. We told him that if this became too much for him or he got bored we could switch off from time to time. Jacob laughed and said he never got bored when working for gold. I couldn’t help but agree.

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Saboteurs in '02? I would have loved to have been with you guys and riding shotgun.

3 hours ago, John Oliver said:

Thank you. I didn't want to get in trouble for talking about coin roll hunting on a detecting forum, but in the cold winter months I look through nickel and cent rolls from the bank. A little more than a month ago I found a $5 gold 1911 half eagle coin in a roll of machine wrapped nickels from Loomis. I was over the moon. 

Wow! Beautiful coin man.