Cascade Steven

Bentley0609:  thanks for posting this link.  My computer did not like any of the previous links but this one worked great.  Much appreciated.

GM: welcome back to both you and Jed (and crew).  I really enjoy this diary and appreciate the opportunity to continue to "feed my addiction".🙂

4 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Thanks for all the info. Sounds like a good area. What is the elevation?

GM:  It is a good area with youthful (steep) heavily forested topography and elevations ranging from 1600 ft. to about 3280 ft.  It is graced by cold clear creeks and an occasional waterfall.  Some of the area still hosts old growth timber.

GM: I should have qualified my "yes" answer to your question about good gold strikes.  The Quartzville district is listed as being the second largest mining district, by production, in the Western Cascades of Oregon.  However, when compared to southwestern Oregon, Northeastern Oregon or the California Sierra Nevada districts, its production is relatively insignificant.  It certainly does not have the coarse gold that Jed found.🙂 

9 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

Were there some good gold strikes in that area?

GM:  Short answer is yes.  The Middle Santiam River is a tributary of the South Santiam River originating high in the Western Cascade Mountain Range of Oregon and flows generally west through the foot hills of the Cascades.  It has several names, including North Fork of the South Santiam River and also as Quartzville Creek, named after the 1860's mining camp called Quartzville.  According to some sources, gold was first discovered on the lower Santiam River as early as the 1840's and what is now known as the Middle Santiam River or Quartzville Creek was worked for placer gold in the early 1860's.  In 1863 the first lode gold mining claim was staked by Jeremiah Driggs and by the mid 1860's there was a mining camp of about 1000 people known as Quartzville.  Because of poor milling practices, and not low grade deposits, the camp was abandoned in the late 1860's.   In the 1890's the area was reactivated by William B. Lawler with financial backing from a British syndicate.  Depending upon which source one reads, there was between $100,000 and 1 million dollars in gold mined from the district at $20.67/oz.  The district is known for both crystalline gold (samples in the California State Mineralogical museum reference library) and also wire gold in the form of "birds nests" or "eagles nests" due to the occurrence of pockets of massive fine wire gold.  This is the district where I am conducting my mining history research.  There are many conflicting stories from this district and facts are sometimes difficult to discern.  Much of the placer gold in the Quartzville area is fine gold,   However, nuggets do occur and I have personally seen gold nuggets 4 to 5 times the size of a wooden match head.   There are also uncorroborated stories of much larger nuggets occurring in the area. 

Hope this helps.

21 minutes ago, GhostMiner said:

That sounds like an interesting area. The search is sometimes more fun than the find. Best of luck.

GM:  Thanks for your kind words.  Yes it is an interesting area and you are quite correct that sometimes the search is more fun than the find.  If you are ever in the area please let me know as you are always welcome in my camp. 🙂

GM: I too, like others, want to say "keep up the good work".  I am currently doing research on a mining district in the Western Cascades of Oregon and like maxxkatt I too have found letters and maps that are almost impossible to read correctly due to age of the paper, faded hand written pencil notes, and yes the very poor reproductions.  And, like you, I too am forced to do the best I can under the circumstances to interpret the information and check other sources, if they exist.  So I can in some small way appreciate your challenges and my hat's off to you for all of your diligent effort in sharing this fascinating story.  Please also add my name to your list for a copy of your book.  I look forward to your continued posts.  Best Wishes.

I for one am very glad that you did start this thread and chose to share it with this group.  Please continue to keep up the good work. 👍👍👍

GM:  Just a supportive note to tell you how VERY VERY thankful I am that you decided to "dust off" that old journal and share it with all of us in this prospecting community here at dp.   This is a very interesting glimpse into actual mining history in the 1930's through the eyes of an actual participant.  I am very glad for your success and wish you the best with your book.

GM:  thanks for sharing the picture of the bucket.  Based on antiques from my grandfathers farm it appears to be a recycled 5 gallon oil can, either motor oil or food grade oil.  However, it could be something else. 

Just curious: was the bar in that hotel the same bar where the fights occurred in the story?

rled2005:  I am glad that you asked about gold scales.  I too have been pondering this question and considering posing such a question.  About 2 years ago I purchased a gold scales on the recommendation of a blogger and have been disappointed with it.  The repeatability and sensitivity are not as I had hoped.  Steve H. brought up some good points so I decided to investigate reloading scales.  The Frankford Arsenal Scales appears to be the most sensitive of the intermediate price range scales.  Although there may be higher priced and more sensitive reloading scales, a quick Google search did not reveal them to me.  The Frankford web site listed the scale accuracy at 0.1 grains accuracy.  I am currently working in an area with fine gold so a more sensitive scale is an advantage to me.  This detail allows me to better calibrate my metal detectors and also aid in a gold related research project.  I was unaware of the Frankford scales so thank you for bringing it to my attention.  And I decided to "bite the bullet" and ordered one from Amazon.  Thanks again for this thread.

I agree.  This is a spellbinding tale and all true.  So much better than a movie. 👍👍👍

I'm with the crowd on this one - PLEASE don't stop posting.  I try to give as many likes as I can and I too really appreciate the fact that you are posting this diary and expending all of the effort to transcribe it.  It is truly a labor of love and we too (all of the readers represented by the 59.9k views on Steve's view counter) love it.  Best Wishes. 🙂

Unsupported gravels make me vary nervous.  I wish them well. 

GM: If I was a little closer to the area I would definitely be interested. 🙂

RV:  Is "all of the above" an option? 🤑

The suspense is "about to kill me".😂  What a wonderful story.

GM:  I would like to dig a little deeper into this story, into the back story so to speak.  Do you have any idea why Jed kept this diary?  Maybe you mentioned this and I just missed it.  Just curious.🙂

GM:  Just a bit of humor about the most number of views of your very interesting thread.

fm:  I'm trying to run serious competition with you but you appear to be winning. 😉

I am waiting in anxious anticipation.😀

Are you  able to provide a hardness, density and diameter of these items?

I just wanted to say thanks to all that have shared there knowledge here.  Those of us that are new to this arena appreciate the information.

Gerry:  That is a wonderful specimen in the above picture.  Congratulations to your customer.  I am interested in the quartz or host material.  There does not appear to be any iron staining.  Was this  sample cleaned of iron staining or is this essentially its character as found (minus the dirt)?  I am also curious about the quartz host rock (assuming that it is quartz) that hosts the gold.  In the picture it appears to be opaque white.  Is that a correct assumption.  And if so, does this quartz qualify for what is commonly called "bull quartz"?  Just curious. Thanks for sharing.