EastTexasChris

Well that sucks! Or at least I hope it does. Maybe I'll go back and give California another shot. They prohibited dredging just before I retired and screwed my plans up. I hope they get sensible about highbankers also.

Really nice gold SJM and a good report of the season. I know that water is fast and cold, as I can attest to a few days with you summer before last. Was really hard on an ole Texas boy trying to 'long-arm' in thin wetsuit inside a pair of insulated chest waders! By the way, you haven't found my clean-out bucket from that one day it washed down the creek, have you? I'm sure it had at least an ounce in it!

Thanks for that opportunity last summer and I would have done even better if one of my days cleanout hadn't floated down the creek in my 5 gal bucket! Oh well, lesson learned, wwhen working by one's self, keep those knees tight around the cleanout bucket! Good to see the creek is still paying. That's a tough place to work, with the narrow canyon and water flow, but fun none the less.

Name says it all. Not much gold here though. Have to travel long way to find anything.

Why get a detector at all? With these, you can just see into the ground!

It worked fine on my Windows laptop. There were a couple of 'cursor movement' issues that I thought could be confusing. Maybe these are what we used to call 'features'. (1) On a horizontal cursor drag on the lower half of the map, the the map rotates the direction of the drag. On the upper half of the map, it rotates the opposite the drag direction. This was counter-intuitive to me as a user. (2) On a vertical cursor drag, you can actually 'flip the map' so that you are looking at the back or underneath. It all depends upon what you were trying to achieve. Looks pretty good! Take it for what its worth from an old software HMI developer.

Petrified Palmwood was adopted by the Texas House & Senate in 1969 to be the 'Official State Stone of Texas'.

TS, I was at Northlander #2 this past summer. I too found a locked gate at what I thought was the entrance, but walked up and it led only to a power substation or something. I went back down the road(away from Summit Lake) and took the first gravel road just past the creek. It backtracked a short ways and then doubled back to the creek. I think you can use this road to access the lower end of the claim. The road continued further, but was very wet and I did not go further. I thought this would lead up to the Ken & Brian claims. This road may have a gate further up, I don't know and if this was the road you were on, sorry for any confusion, you may have travelled farther than I did. I set up a little highbanker up at the first creek access, but was not very successful. Would love to hear how the K & B claims look, if you make it that far. Good luck!

I've seen several ways of opening geodes. (1) The best way to insure a smooth cut is to use a rock saw. If you have any lapidary friends, they may have one large enough depending on the size of the geode. It uses a vise to hold half of the stone and then cut it in two. They have a diamond blade and water system to keep the blade cool and dust contained. This might be the only way to cut into a solid geode. (2) A 'chain pipe cutter'. This looks like a pipe wrench or pair of pliers, except it has a chain with small cutting discs that you can adjust around the geode and then apply pressure. (3) The third thing I have seen looks like a hydraulic press with an inverted V cutting head at the top and the bottom. Place the geode between the blades and use the hydraulic jack to put pressure on it until it breaks. With the last two methods, be sure to cover the geode so no fragments fly off and be sure to use eye protection. As far as determining the hollow ones, you might try must by comparing the weights of similar sized stones. You might be able to even float them in water, if the inside is large enough.

That's not a 'good' sample pan. It's a 'great' sample pan!

I did get some nice comments from my friend and others who were highbanking. Working in pairs or three, they would run 40, 50, 60 or more buckets for the same time I worked. They would get more, but again there was 2 or 3 of them working too. My few half buckets of crevice material was pretty rich. Did spend lots of time breaking up pieces of bedrock to extend the reach.

I had several offers to purchase a full New 49er membership for $1,000. Now with even more restrictions on motorized highbanking, you might find one for even less. Many have been disappointed at not being able to dredge for many years and if they can't highbank, are ready to give it up. There were other members MDing on some of their claims, but never did see any results, just hearsay. Most activity was around the river and creeks flowing into it. Lots of people would raft/kayak across to the far side of the river. Seemed not to be worked so hard for so many years as the near side.

I'm surprised there wasn't beer available. Most of Arkansas is 'wet'. Must have just been that city. Texarkana, TX is my home town. In those days, the AR side was wet and TX side dry. There is a state hwy that runs through the middle of town. One side all the beer & liquor joints. The other had DQs, Sonics & such. Wknds had the TX teens running across the street to purchase and then run back. Or it was just a short drive down to Bossier City, LA, where you only had to be 18 to buy a beer and get in clubs. So its an individual municipality thing. The voters have to vote it wet or not. There's been lots of changes recently, even lots of TX cities in NETEX now have beer & wine sales. Chris

Here's some of the Klamath river gold! A pretty good haul this day. This was from crevicing. It kept getting better the deeper I got down in the crevices. This was in August 2015 and pretty hot. We would leave at daybreak and return to camp about 1 PM. Usually got up over 100 dgs, most days. Happy Camp is a really nice little place. Will definitely return soon and get a New 49ers membership if they ever change the rules back in CA. Seems they have tried to implement more restrictions now that prohibits even highbanking along the river.

Roughwater, the commercial operation was Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine. They have lots of bucket already filled at the store and the usual salted bags. Or you can go (like I did) about 1/2 mile back behind the store where you can did your own. It's just a little rise in a pasture that was a gravel bar long ago. They a shaker frame & screen there for you to use and you save $2 a bucket if you do it yourself. Lots of online reviews complain about not finding anything here and I did only find one in that bucket. There is another operation over Philipsburg and we went there also. You can't dig for yourself. We did find lots more at this location, but they were small. The rough is mostly less than 2 cts, by the time the good ones were cut would be even smaller. The Klamath was a nice destination. We stayed at a local RV park at Happy Camp. The New 49er headquarters is located here. My neighbor in the park invited me to go along to their claims as a guest. We stayed there for a month. There is no dredging there though because of the Calif. moratorium still. While my friend used his highbanker, I went crevicing along the higher ledges of bedrock. I set up a small recirulating sluice to run my screened material. Wouldn't run more than a bucket or two each day. The material was good, just hard to scratch out. No nuggets, but lots of small flat oval pieces the locals refer to as 'surfboards'. I had hoped to get 1/4 oz for my time, but ended with just over 1/8th oz for about 2 wks of fun. I did get a good buy on highbanker my last 2 days and my friend let me use his pump. Arkansas Diamond Mine at Murfreesboro Arkansas. A really nice RV park close to the mine(field) entrance. Remodeled just a few years ago. Not too far from me and we have been several times.(Haven't found any, but have seen one found. They the best times to go are after a large rain and just walk around and look on top of the rows of plowed material. Many, many acres to look over, with washing troughs set up at different locations. You can rent eqpt there or bring your own. Nothing motorized though! If you don't find anything, there are several stores in Murfreesboro that sell real Arkansas diamonds (Not like Herkimer diamonds, which are really quartz). Hope this helps on all accounts. Happy to help. Please ask if you need more info on any of the locations.

Roughwater, Stopping and hunting gems can be lots of fun!. Last summer, we stopped at several locations in Idaho and Montana after a gold sluicing trip to N. Calif. on the Klamath. Remember however, that most are tourist attractions. The odds of finding anything very valuable are very low. Mostly specimen pieces and smaller stones that would probably cost more than they are worth to have cut by someone. Unless you have the eqpt and can do it yourself, which I can. At one location in Montana I found an over 7 ct. sapphire. Pretty large for a Montana stone. I cut stones as a hobby myself, but decided this one might be nice enough for a professional. When it was finished it was 3 cts. It had a small flaw along the side and the color wasn't the most desirable. But I did dig this one up out of the ground myself, so its special to me. I hope the pictures show. I don't know if the forum rules allow for naming the commercial operation, but you can message me if you like. A lot of people complain they didn't find anything here, but this was the only one I found in the 5 gal bucket I dug out in the field myself. Have fun on your trip.

OK, got the book on order. Picked one for Montana last summer. Also plan on getting the next issue of Mileposts before I travel. If the ice cream is good at that place and there's a RV campground, my wife make it our summer home. At least some gold is nearby!

Demaree is located along Crescent Creek, very near the Crescent Creek Campground and adjacent to the public area. Shirley E is not directly on Quartz Creek, but looks to be a few hundred feet above it. The GPAA guide says to take the material down to the creek to process. Northlander #2 & Ken and Brian are close together along Colorado Creek about a half mile off the Seward Hwy across from the Summit Lake Lodge. Hope this helps identify the locations. I was able to see these also with the Land Matters website. Good to see all of the other claims near them. Good tool

I'm using these cold winter months to plan my trip to Alaska this summer. I plan to hit some of the GPAA claims on the Kenai peninsula. I am a GPAA member and have their latest guide, so I have that basic info and know I will need permits to dredge, highbank or power sluice. I would like for anyone with actual experience on any of these claims( Ken & Brian, Shirley E, Northlander #2, and Demaree) to provide some input as what to expect, such as physical access, land or water (big stream or little stream, deep or shallow) conditions or anything that would help me prepare. Pictures would be great if you care to post some. I place a high value on the personal experiences of others. Not trying to get rich, although that's not a bad thing; just looking for a little gold to say I was successful. I do plan to take my detector also, a White's MXT, but that's not my primary tool. Yes, I know it's not the best, but you know what they say about a blind squirrel. I will be looking into some camping areas also for my fifth-wheel trailer. Thanks in advance for your input.

Thanks for the driving advice. I don't drive very fast and my wife won't let me drive through the nights, so we'll pullover someplace at nights. We won't be in any hurry, but don't plan on a whole lot of sightseeing on the way up. Will probably just take notes & photos for the return or next trip. I did have another question. Is the diesel fuel the same quality as here in the states?

Thanks for the input so far. DUIs is not a problem! Guns have come up a couple of times. I know you can't take handguns through Canada, but I was planning on taking a hunting rifle and a personal defense shotgun(using slugs) on a sling. I know there is a form to fill out when crossing the border and a fee. My uncle says we can put them on one form and pay one price. Had thought about buying a large handgun and shipping to Tok and picking up there, but decided against it. Yukon Jack, How common is gun rental there? Thanks again everyone. May have other specific questions later, its a plan in progress.

First off, I love this forum and all the info here. Good work guys! I am planning a trip to Alaska for the summer. I will be pulling a fifth-wheel trailer. I will be following my wife's uncle, who makes the trip every 3 or 4 years for the fishing; but I am primarily focusing on the gold. I think our primary destination will be on the Kenai peninsula, but other places along the way are not out of the question such as Chicken. I'm into the gold thing about 3 years now and have been primarily to AZ, Colorado and the Klamath in N. Calif. I'm pretty proficient at panning & sluicing and did some highbanking on the Klamath. I have several sluices, Gold Grabber highbanker, and I plan to put together a small dredge or power sluice(no more than 4 in). I am a GPAA member, so am planning on hitting some of those claims, some public areas, and some fee area also. So my question is this: What would you tell someone who is coming for up for the first time, that they need to know or might not have thought about. Thank for any info to make this trip a success.