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I'm going to head up towards Auburn Rec Area tomorrow (Sunday) if anyone's interesting in a quick outing. I'm doing some looking now as to where's best in the park so no further details available at this time. Rock on! -mox

How bad is the mineralization in the California Gold Country region? I cannot seem to find much information on it, but lots on the Arizona desert region. Should I interpret this as mostly VLF territory or just a lack of postings about it? I've been considering the ATX for the PI capabilities but if that area can be handled by a good VLF (GB2/V3i/ATGold) that may be preferable. Priorities for me: 1) Waterproof (I used to scuba so it may see submerged use) 2) Small-ish nugget detecting in California (primary reason for getting a detector in the first place.) 3) Surf detecting (again, see #1 just for peace of mind =) #1 is the killer - really the only other option there is a 3030 (VLF). Things like the ATGold aren't recommended for the surf and the GB2 isn't waterproof. (I used to scuba and am looking at mask+snorkel as well.) It really sounds like it's right up the ATX alley but I'm open to other suggestions. I wish Minelab would hurry up with the SDC2300 - not much info on it out there right now! I don't really want to run 2-3 separate detectors but ... /shrug. Might have to, but I'd strongly prefer to just learn one machine really really well (for now.)

This is some recent information about the ancient tertiary stream channels of California. It updates ideas about where the gold in the channels came from and theorizes about upper extensions of the channels all the way into Nevada. "Speculative upstream continuations of various branches of the Tertiary Yuba and American Rivers enter Nevada near the Fort Sage Mountains, Hallelujah Junction, Reno(?), Little Valley, and Hope Valley (via Echo Pass). One branch of the Little Valley channel can be speculatively traced to the vicinity of Yerington." There are also a few very good maps included that alone make the article worthwhile. Garside, Larry J., Henry, Christopher D., Faulds, James E., and Hinz, Nicholas H., 2005, The Upper Reaches of the Sierra Nevada Auriferous Gold Channels, California and Nevada, in Rhoden, H.N., Steininger, R.C., and Vikre, P. G., eds., Geological Society of Nevada Symposium 2005: Window to the World, Reno, Nevada, May 2005, p. 209-236 Download as a pdf at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/science/profiles/garside_paper.pdf

I have handled a lot of gold through the years, but this has to be one of the finest high grade specimens to date! It weighs 24.65 Grams, and was found with a metal detector in California. Brilliant gold with lots of Octahedron crystals. I can only imagine what the crystals might look like under the quartz. Enjoy the eye-candy! Best of luck on your next prospecting adventure.... Gus-

Last Saturday I decided to get out and enjoy the unusual, for January, weather here in N. Calif. I met my partner Reno Jim and headed for a spot we've hunted for years. We didn't expect to find anything, maybe a crumb that had been overlooked in all the trash. It was just a good day to get some exersize after the holidays. While Jim worked the banks digging trash, I started up a dry creek bed rechecking exposed bedrock I'd already hunted before. I came to a spot where a 10 ft section of new bedrock has been exposed. It looked like a gully washer had come through and blown off the overburden. It was just above a spot I had done well at in years past. I wasn't expecting anything as I had seen fresh dig holes further down stream. Within a foot of hitting the new bedrock I got a good signal which I knew for sure was a bullet. I scraped a bit of dirt off and the signal was gone. Checking the dirt, there it was, right on top, a nice little 1.5 dwter. Wow, that was easy. I wonder how that got missed. I moved another foot up stream, and bang, another signal. Again, I was sure it was trash, it was so big and loud. This one I checked with the pulse delay to see if it went away like a nail, but it was still there, so again, thinking it's a bullet, I scraped off the dirt and got the signal in the cup. It couldn't be a nugget, that first one was a fluke, the only one in all that bedrock. But, sure enough, out rolled an ugly 3 dwter encased in red quartz! At this point I thought I'd better call Jim over to hunt the rest of the spot. He'd been on a long dry spell. He hunted that spot the rest of the day but could only come up with one tiny little .1 dwt grain. I left him to clean it out and moved further upstream. Around the corner was more bedrock that I had hunted at least a dozen times over the years. A couple of nails later came a loud booming nail signal right in a little pocket of rock. And again, scraping the dirt out with the pick, again, I look down and see a huge flat nugget just laying there. I couldn't believe it! How could I have missed it before? Because it was SO big and loud, I just passed it up KNOWING it was trash. Geezz, you think I would know better by now. Glad I wasn't hearing nearly the iron trash of years past because I was using my TDI in low conductivity which knocks out the larger iron. We were both using the TDI SL with the 9x5 Jimmy loop. So, by the end of the day, we each had found one more small piece for a total of just over 1/2 oz. The big ugly slug weighs 5.7 dwt. Good start to the new year! Digger Bob

Gold Districts of California by William B. Clark 1970 California Division of Mines and Geology, Bulletin 193 This is a relatively up-to-date and comprehensive guide to the gold deposits of California. Although a vast number of publications have been written on gold and gold mining in California, there was no single report or treatise on all of the known gold-bearing districts in the state. This bulletin addresses that issue. In this report the principal features of each gold-bearing district are described. The longer district descriptions contain sections on the location and extent, history, geology and character of the ore deposits, a list of mines, and a bibliography. Production figures are given whenever possible. https://www.detectorprospector.com/files/file/137-gold-districts-of-california/ More free books can be found in the Metal Detecting & Prospecting Library

You have to love the internet. This book was a rare gem only to be found in libraries or used book stores. Now you can download this classic for free. Anyone with an interest in California gold should download this invaluable reference and study it. The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California, 1911, by Waldemar Lindgren USGS Professional Paper 73 Download the pdf file here You can find this and many more useful free books on this website at the Metal Detecting & Prospecting Library