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As a teenager (over 60 years ago) 4 of us explored this mine which was only locked off in some dangers spots. I panning in the area when I got my car driving licence, this was start of self prospecting with out others. This YouTube goes for 45 minutes and worth every minute if you are interested in history in Victoria Aus. and describes advents and how they were solved. This is the area of my old post.... A-bushwalk-though-walhalla-gold-area-with-grandkids

Jerry Burnett was one of my mentors in gold mining. He began gold mining as a small boy. On YouTube look up the "First Class Miners" channel, and scroll to the video showing "Jerry's Historical Gold Prospecting" photos. You'll see Jerry at various ages, plus Dick Delahanty, and some Area 51 Gold. For me, the video is a trip down memory lane. HH Jim

Hello all. Jim would be humbled by the kind words and comforting sympathies for him and to his wife Linda on the forum. I traveled over the Klamath / Siskiyou mountains yesterday for the graveside service for Jim Foley. It’s about 100 miles from my house to Happy Camp, providing a quiet early morning drive through beautiful country, allowing me to remember Jim. It was comforting. Jim was laid to rest towards the top of a gentle slope overlooking the small local cemetery in Happy Camp, Ca. It was a small ceremony with folks from his church in Yreka, his family, including wife Linda, daughter Nicole and husband, son Jim Jr. and 4 fellow prospector/miners. The simple casket was made by a friend out of local pine with natural rope handles and a cross on top. Six of us unloaded the casket from the back of a pickup and carried it to the burial framework. Family and friends spoke fondly of Jim and his life. Some fine recollections were said about his mining/prospecting in Alaska as well here in northwest California. The minister then spoke of Jim and his commitment to his church and faith. It was really nice, informal. Dave McCraken and I were chatting quietly as we all gathered around the casket. I said to Dave, “ look at that pile of good red dirt from Jim’s grave, what do you think?” Dave says, “well, it’s hard to tell, you can’t see the grey layers where the gold would be with it all shoveled into a pile like that.” We were kinda smiling at each other when a young man sitting with Jim’s family (son in law) said, “what do you guys think, paydirt?” Like I said, it was real nice, Jim would have liked all of it. Mike

Many of you here on this forum know him or have hunted with him or have purchased handmade gold jewelry from him. My friend Steve Wandt passed away this past Monday evening. I don't know the full details of his death or arrangements. He was a good friend and fellow prospector as well as a highly skilled metallurgist/fine jewelry maker. He was also a patriot and an Army combat veteran from the Vietnam era. If I hear more details from his wife Dee I will pass them along. R.I.P. my friend!

This is a pretty good visit.

Man, what a ride! I got my first metal detector when I was 14 years old, a White’s Coinmaster 4, in 1972 . I was already an avid gold prospector by that time, so I went on my first nugget hunt with a metal detector in 1973 at Moore Creek, Alaska. Moore Creek was to figure very large in my life decades later, but that first nugget hunt was a bust. I panned about 1/4 ounce of chunky gold out of the little gully pictured, but the Coinmaster 4, even with the 4” Gold Probe, simply was not up to the task. I decided there were better ways to find gold and became a serious gold dredger, with my metal detecting reserved for coins, jewelry, and relics. It was not until 1989 that I found my first gold nugget with a metal detector. First try detecting gold with a metal detector 1973 I co-founded a business in 1976 selling gold dredges and metal detectors. I’m retired now but that business is still going strong 47 years later as a premier powersports dealer with three locations. Creating that business with my partner, helping support hundreds of employee families for all those years and eventually converting it to an employee owned company, will stand as one of the greatest achievements in my life. It also was my way to be deeply involved in metal detecting as a profession by being a multi line dealer. That lead to working with most of the major manufacturers first testing, and later being involved on the front end of the development of a number of well known detectors. These include the Garrett Infinium, White's TDI, Fisher F75, Garrett ATX, Nokta FORS Gold, Makro Racer, Makro Gold Racer, Makro Gold Kruzer, plus Minelab SDC 2300, GPZ 7000, Gold Monster 1000, Equinox, Vanquish, GPX 6000, Manticore, White’s/Garrett Goldmaster 24K, and finally Garrett Axiom. Like I said, it’s been a heck of a ride! Eleven years ago I left my home in Alaska to reside in Reno, NV. In some ways I view the few years that followed as “peak detecting” for me. I was deeply involved in GPZ 7000 testing and so had the benefit of being the first to use it on many Nevada and California gold locations. I was in my prime physically, lean, tough, and able to swing a GPZ 7000 from sunrise to sunset without pause. I did just that and spent weeks at a time camped out on various gold patches, and added a couple pounds of some pretty spectacular gold to my safe deposit box. In my prime In the last few years I fell into a fortuitous relationship with Garrett Metal Detectors. I kind of wanted to wrap up my career working with the companies by helping a U.S. manufacturer, and Garrett is about the last left that’s serious about staying in the business. It was a wise decision, as they are really great down home people to associate with and I’ve had a ball working with them. The years are catching up with me though. Severe arthritis in both hips brought me to a near stop a few years ago. Having both hips replaced a year and a half ago has given me a second lease on life, and lead to a lot of reflection and appreciation for the gifts I’ve been given in life. Not least being a wonderful wife and a couple daughters, both here with me in the Reno area. My wife still works full time as a teacher, probably will until they carry her out feet first. As such I’ve settled more into supporting her however I can as house husband and help mate. She deserves everything I can give her at this point for putting up with me and my nonsense. A real gem for sure. Metal detecting is just not what it used to be for me. I admit I’ve been spoiled, and got to live through the very best years that detecting has to offer. I’ve found many pounds of gold with a metal detector, including two 6.5 ounce gold nuggets. I lost count of the 1-3 ounce nuggets I found. Piles of gold and platinum rings. My best coins are from Roman times and into the 1700s. My best relic is a 3500 year old Bronze Age axe head in good condition. I’ve metal detected in many states and countries around the world, and have met and worked with many movers and shakers in the metal detector industry over the years. Yes, quite a ride indeed, and one that I was wise enough to document with stories and photos over the years at Steve’s Mining Journal. My memory for the past is not the greatest, so I wrote those stories as much for me as anything, and I’m very glad now I did. Check them out if you are interested, there is a books worth of stories there. I don’t believe at grasping at things, and long ago decided I wanted to age gracefully, accepting the changes that life brings. I’m of an age and of a mindset where I am grateful for every day I have now, and very satisfied to have lived life well and to the fullest. I’ve seen and done amazing things, and even my darkest moments I see now had silver linings. It was not all easy, and frankly I’m lucky to be here. There were times in the depths of alcoholism when I thought of just ending it all. Yet now, many alcohol free years after rehab I am grateful for my time in darkness, as it’s given me perspectives and humility I never would have had otherwise. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m some kind of super duper person when I tell my life stories. No, I’m just a regular Joe that was pretty clueless about a lot of things, and if I succeeded at all, it was as much despite myself as anything else. Somehow it all worked out, and I’m as content and as happy as I think it’s possible to be. When it comes to gold prospecting and metal detecting though, I am pretty much wrapping it up and putting a bow on it. My focus now is more on my wife and family, my garden and my four lovable wiener dogs, and quite a bit of time spent playing RPG games on my computer, a guilty joy I avoided for years. I’m certainly not done metal detecting and gold prospecting, but compared to the all consuming thing it was ten years ago, now I’d say I’m a casual detectorist just looking to get out now and then. I won’t say no when things come my way, but it’s no longer something I’m actively pursuing. That’s it really. I just wanted to reflect a little, and also explain why I’ll be less visible in the metal detecting world than in the past. I’ll be here, keeping things running, posting now and then. But by and large where the forum goes is dependent far more now on you all than on me. As long as people are interested and keep posting I’ll invest my time and a little money in keeping it going. I want to put up my personal finds gallery, my own little online museum, so will get around to that sooner or later. Other than that, thanks for your interest and posts on the forum as it’s the people posting that will keep it alive. Best wishes to you all. Steve Herschbach Perhaps the nicest gold nugget/specimen I ever found, 1.83 ounces in 2014 with a Nokta FORS Gold…

Some Interesting Finds From Last Fall And The Long Wet Winter. Pictured Above And Below Is A Very Delicate And Translucent Obsidian Curved Knife Blade. Below Is Another Blade Much More Stout And Serrated Notice How Some Of The Artifacts Take On An Almost Chameleon Effect. Below After A Wash. Next A Very Large Blade. Below Are Bird Point (So Called) And A Very Small Micro Blade (Scalpel) The Next One Is One Of My Favorite Forms.I've Found A Handful Through The Years. The Final Piece Is A Real Crier A Damaged Bird Adornment Or Charm Carved From Slate. Thanks For Looking.

Bonanzas gold finds in Victoria from the 1850s. The following is from ProspectingAustraliaForum ...........Link........

I hope you don't mind Steve. How interesting to read Monte's history in detecting. I started in 1980 with a A.H. Pro Electronics VLF/TR detector. Quickly moved onto a 5000D series 2 Whites detector. I expect my getting old I have forgot much. Those days of pockets full of coins, me with a flashlight to continue into the nights. I knew a guy who discriminated out nickels just to beat having to dig pull tabs. Recovered coins with a screwdriver, small trowel for the deeper ones. I remember in the 60's and 70's the parks were full of people all weekend long. By the 80's people didn't go to the parks like those older days. When I started you still had to to wait for the weekdays or nights to go out detecting, Kids were a pain in the neck. Iron bottle caps were as bad as pull tabs if not worse. Time has rusted those away leaving little pockets of rusted iron. If you wanted to dig Indianhead's you had to dig those bottle caps. That Whites detector it seemed signals were dig or don't dig where today you have to do more investigating. Depending on how much time you want to spend digging. That detector didn't have audio ID, But when you went over silver, you knew it was silver. Items I dug back then you don't see any more, not very often. When was the last time you dug a "Church Key" Brass pot pipes? Many womens hem weights, Boy scout neckerchiefs? a lot of pocket knives, sure dug a lot more gold and silver rings. I had to learn the detector without anyone helping me. I really never learned it and all it actually was capable of. There was no internet, got some help with the treasure magazines, Eastern and Western. We didn't have pin pointers, Those old blue box White's were a ton of weight, 14 AA batteries lasting maybe 10-12 hours. The closest dealer to me was White's of Minneapolis, 50 miles away. I knew only one other local person in my area who detected. He used a Bounty Hunter which at the time was a quality detector. Reading Monte's history, enough to write many books, Glad I can search thru them. Detecting has been a very big part of my life. Well enough of my rambling on of the "Good ol days"

Hope you enjoy these two YouTube Video

This YouTube shows the work done, the effort put in by the gold diggers and the change to the environment that occurred during the 1850 - 1890 ......LINK.... for video below.

I am interested in the history of White's Electronics. So, just for fun I have decided to start researching their history. This is just a personal interest project for me. I have found just a few newspaper articles, some patent numbers and have or have reference to a few of their brochure packets. I am interested in all of their history, from the inception, through the geiger counter phase, why they started making metal detectors, when various models were introduced, etc. to the end of the business. Does any one know of any written history on the company or does anyone have any references or links to references that they are willing to share? PM's are welcome. Thanks in advance for any help.

I learned something from this story. I never imagined. How one woman helped start the California gold rush (fox40.com)

Just Read on another forum that Monte Berry passed away so thought I would share very knowledgeable and respected metal detectorist

Gold was discovered before January 24, 1848 in California but it was James Marshall who started the Gold Rush! The Discovery of Gold in California

Passing of a giant, one of the best the industry ever saw…. “With pride and gratitude we announce that, after 57 years, Western & Eastern Treasures magazine ceased publication with the December, 2022 issue. Over the last few years, I have happily observed the detecting industry begin to reach a much larger audience. This is primarily due to the popularity of online short and long form videos. Their creators can share finds and experiences almost instantaneously. As encouraging as that is, it was time to come to terms with the fact that the medium in which we delivered our content (magazines both print and digital) belongs to a shrinking market. It has been an honor to assume the role of Managing Editor of Western & Eastern Treasures. My grandfather, Houston (Dick) Burdette, was the original publisher. My mother Rosemary Anderson and father, Steve Anderson, deserve more praise than I can articulate here. Without both, Western & Eastern Treasures would not have become the respected and popular publication we all know today. To our dozens of advertisers, hundreds of contributors and, most of all, our thousands upon thousands of readers I say - Thank You.” Sincerely, Logan Anderson Managing Editor Western & Eastern Treasures

I was just informed that "Western & Eastern Treasures" magazine has ceased operations, primarily due to competition from YouTube channels. My last article therein was my Field Test of the White's Goldmaster 24K, which appeared in the October 2018 issue. Bummer.

Will it happen again with the worlds fait currency in trouble U.S. gold standard timeline 1879: The gold standard is adopted by the U.S. 1879 to 1914: The so-called classical gold standard era. One ounce of gold represents $21. 1933: The U.S. bans gold ownership. Franklin D. Roosevelt uses the authority granted to the president by the Trading with the Enemy Act to require all U.S. citizens to sell their gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates to the Federal Reserve in exchange for $20.67 per ounce. This is knows as Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102. Jewelry and rare coins are excluded. The process of seizing all the gold allows the governments to print more dollars and stimulate the economy. 1934: The value of the dollar in gold is changed from $20.67 to $35 per ounce. 1950s: Black market for gold is on the rise. 1971: The price of gold is no longer fixed to the U.S. dollar. Richard Nixon puts a halt on the U.S. dollar’s convertibility into gold. This means that other countries can no longer redeem dollars for gold. 1973: Nixon scraps the gold standard. 1974: Roosevelt’s Executive Order to nationalize all privately-owned gold is repealed and Congress restores the U.S. citizens’ right to own gold. 1977: Trading With The Enemy Act is amended, removing the U.S. president’s authority to control gold transactions during a period of national emergency, aside from during a time of war. At the same time, International Emergency Economic Powers Act is introduced, which gives powers to the president to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency. 2020: Trading With The Enemy Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act are both still in force. "United States Gold Confiscation—1933 Labeled Executive Order 6102, President Franklin Roosevelt signed on a law on April 5, 1933 “forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States.” It basically meant that private owners were required to take their coins, bars or gold certificates to a bank, and exchange them for US dollars at the prevailing rate of $20.67 per ounce...... “Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917, as later amended by the Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000, up to ten years in prison, or both. Numerous individuals and companies were prosecuted.” $10,000 was a fortune in 1933!...Worse, the ban on private ownership of gold in America—the home of the free—lasted over four decades. Not until January 1, 1975 could US citizens own more than $100 in gold again". " Australia Gold Confiscation—1959 The Australian government similarly nationalized gold. The law, part of the Banking Act in 1959, allowed gold seizures of private citizens if the Governor determined it was “expedient so to do, for the protection of the currency or of the public credit of the Commonwealth.” In other words, they made it legal to seize gold from private citizens and exchange it for paper currency. The country’s Treasurer stated in a press release that followed, “All gold (other than wrought gold and coins to a limited extent) had to be delivered to the Reserve Bank of Australia within one month of its coming into a person's possession.” The law also said you weren’t allowed to sell gold, except to the Reserve Bank of Australia (their central bank). Nor could you export any gold (send it outside the country) without the bank’s permission. .....the law....destroyed the local private gold market overnight. Like the US ban, this rule wasn’t short lived either. Reports indicate it stayed on the books until 1976, a full 17 years, before being “suspended.”

Has any one detected one of these. A Ballarat Miner's Safety hook. Miners soon discovered that… A Ballarat Miner's Safety hook. Miners soon discovered that even with a windlass and rope, pulling up a bucket of 'Wash Dirt' could be dangerous, especially to people down below, if the lip of the bucket caught and the contents dumped back down. to remedy this, they fashioned a Safety hook, which saved many headaches whilst also easy for disengaging the bucket at the surface, 33 cm long

Photo 1: Eric in fine form with an early Aquasport PI detector ( early 1980’s I’m guessing) Photo 2: Eric in his mad scientist laboratory making something awesome Photo 3: Eric in Australia testing something (about 10 years ago) Photo 4: Eric down at West Bay beach in Dorset UK. I think he was using his modified Vallon VMH3CS Feel free to add more photos if you have them. I have one more to find in my archives which is Eric enjoying a pint of beer at an English pub. Tony

A 19 minute UTube.

It is with great sadness that I announce my good friend died Friday of an aggressive brain tumor. Eric was not only a genius, but he was a kind hearted soul. He will always be known for his many inventions in his life. God rest your soul Eric.

N° 2 and N° 4 Grandkids wanted to do a bushwalk with me so I took them to the start of the Australian Alps Walking Track as we only had my vehicle it had to be a there and back exercise from Walhalla to the Thomson River and back. The Australian Alps Walking Track is a long distance walking trail through the alpine areas of Victoria, New South Wales and ACT. It is 655 km long, starting at Walhalla (a historical gold field), Victoria and running through to Canberra. The track goes mainly though Australian national parks It ascends many peaks including Mount Kosciuszko, Mount Bogong, and Bimberi Peak. To walk the whole trail can take between 5 to 8 weeks. Now the boys insist on doing the next section to the STEEL BRIDGE as soon as time permits. The history of the track.

A proposed mine at Hecla, Wy (near Cheyenne), is currently in the permitting process, and independent economic studies estimate over 2000 jobs will be opened by it. The company is CK mining, and are proposing a site of about 900-acres to be quarried there. The company’s website has some interesting historical information and a geological report about the area: https://www.ckgoldmine.com/site-history https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_d9c22c808a6c7fec48fed1b6f801c02c/usgoldcorp/db/332/1560/pdf/Copper+King+Report.pdf[1].pdf

This place reminds me of a small-scale Ballarat. Do we have any Canadians on the forums? B.C. history brought to life in Gold Rush town of Barkerville - Victoria Times Colonist