Arizona Gold With Outing Pictures Link!

[mn90403]

Let me start of by saying I heard about and saw some pictures of hugh silver and gold found in Arizona.  If I find a link or the discoverer wants to post up his pictures I'll let you know.  This find is not about that.  This find is about a couple of good weather days in Arizona near Wickenburg if you follow on the map.  I went there because of Bill Southern's outing that was very well attended.  He'll have some pictures on his forum which I'll try to link here. 

https://nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/topic/34683-outing-pictures/

Minelab America was there giving away something to everyone who attended and they also had a raffle which benefited AMRA to the tune of $2700!  This was near the second day and where the nuggets were found.

 

 

This first picture is a panorama of the area where I went the first morning.  It is near a GPAA claim was a nice specimen was found last month.

 

As you can see the desert is not really dead.  It has many living plants and animals.  The fallen cactus is a saguaro.  You normally only see it standing with its green skin but inside it is an engineering masterpiece.  It is made of many rods that give it strength.

 

The next set of pictures is of the cactus that makes cowboys strong and forget about pain.  These are the jumping cactus that get you over and over again.

I finally dug a hole but it was hot ground.

 

If you enlarge these pictures you will see in the picture some wild burros.  There were about 10 with a couple of black ones.

 

 

The next day we stopped by an old mine on the way to a different claim.

 

 

Chet got us near and then we went off a less travelled road and we had to turn around.  This is him coming out.

 

I didn't take my phone detecting this time because it lost power trying to find a signal.  This was the claim where Chet found a nice 2 g nugget and I found the .25 g nugget.

These were my pictures on the way out at the end of the day and before my 6 hour drive back to Santa Monica.

 

 

I took a couple of bad picture of the nugget this morning with the phone.  It makes me want to get a better one ... nugget and phone that is!

 

 

 

 

 

[Nevada Brian]

Great story and pictures.  I love seeing cactus in the desert.  In Northern Nevada, cactus is rare and a nice sight to see, although its typically less than a foot tall. 

If there is a road, Chet will get you there.   We have not encountered a road yet, that we had to turn around.

See ya in the gold fields.

Brian.

[Jim McCulloch]

Mitchell, thanks for sharing such nice pictures. It looks like you found the "pointy finger" nugget. Also, for the uninitiated, the short, stumpy, whitish cactus is known as the Jumping Cholla (choy yah), so-named because some people believe that it jumps at you when you walk by, embedding spine tufts into you. Actually, this is a misconception, the cholla actually flings the spine tufts at you, sometimes firing several in rapid succession. It is an endangered species, due to the fact that it fires more spine tufts than it replaces, and, also due to the fact that it is the favorite food of the Mojave Desert Greater Sidehill Gouger, whose numbers have skyrocketed due to the moratorium on hunting them. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 😊

[mn90403]

I didn't know if I was going to find any gold but I knew I could bring back some pictures.  haha

[GB_Amateur]

Thanks for the link and the pics, Mitchel.  Glad to see you didn't have to deal with Pepe' Le Pew.

22 hours ago, mn90403 said:

I took a couple of bad picture of the nugget this morning with the phone.  It makes me want to get a better one ... nugget and phone that is!

While you're at it, get a better dime, too.

Regarding the video, I have a couple questions (for anyone here):  1) What detector was Mike Slater using?  Sounded to me like an IB/VLF but looked kinda like a Minelab PI.  2) Why the firearm in the Wickenburg area?   I've (nugget) hunted three GPAA claims there and plan to go back.  Don't remember seeing / hearing of animals that would require that kind of response.  Maybe I should reconsider?

 

[Rob Allison]

Hey Mitchell,

   I'm sure you are well aware that general area they are hunting produced some good nuggets back in the day.  I seen some ounce plus nuggets come from that area, if not in that area.  

GB_Amateur - I think Mike is using one of those Notka FORS Gold's, I believe that is the name.  I added a picture of one below.  I think the gun is for general protection.  I think most prospectors agree, it's better to have a firearm and never use it, let alone get in some situation with a crazy person or some type of animal and not have one! 

Hope this helps,

ROb

[mn90403]

Rob,

Actually I didn't know much about the area.  As far as I remember, that is the first nugget I've ever found at LSD or SD or Stanton for that matter.  It was my first time to drive up that far.  You guys have not shared your secrets with me.  haha

My best find until that nugget was a pocket watch case (without the watch) that was found more north and east of Jackass Flats than this area.  

Mitchel

[Rivers rat]

Nice pics thanks for sharing!lots of gear involved!

 

 

RR

[beatup]

Good post and great photos,

[alaskaseeker]

Nice photos and good story, went to an outing years ago, always great folks there...