Texas Gold Question

[coazon de oro]

There is a place where an oil drilling rig went through solid gold. After drilling 3000 feet, for some reason the bit needed inspecting. When they were coming out of the hole, a friend of mine who was working the floor along with another man, stopped the driller to examine some glitter that had caught his eye.

The drill pipes have a groove on the outside all the way around about 3/8 of an inch wide. With a screw driver, he pried out a solid gold nugget that had been sheared, and lodged into the groove. It was squared because it had been forced into the groove.

The driller asked what it was, but my friend told him it was nothing, just a rock, and told the other man working the floor not to tell anyone. A couple of pipe joints later he found another one. Now the other man wanted one, but my friend told him finders keepers, keep your eyes open if you want some. Only two were found, which were shown to me. They are both kind of squared, and only one has one side which is black,and rough.

It is my belief that the drill went either through a solid vein of gold somewhere between the 3000 feet, or that it went through some gold bars buried just underneath the cellar, which is eight feet deep.

This place in the route that Spanish gold bars would have taken going from San Antonio to Corpus Christi.

My question is, will a two box or other metal detector discriminate the well casing and indicate gold at maybe 14 feet? Thanks.

Homar

 

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[Lakemonster]

I would have to guess it was a cache.... we just dont have naturally occurring gold deposits here that bear large nuggets.... especially in that neck of the woods.....at least near the surface.

hell, ETEX bedrock is a thousand foot down or so.... if we got big gold in Texas....then its waaaaay down there. Theres some small stuff in the hill country near the surface.... but thats about it.

wish I had input on the 2 box question.

 

[woof!]

My question is, will a two box or other metal detector discriminate the well casing and indicate gold at maybe 14 feet? Thanks.

Homar

Nope, sorry. Sounds like a discrimination job that requires some dangerous shovel work.

--Dave J.

 

[goldentruth]

My Oppinion: I would get some kind of back hoe out there, it would be easy to go 8 Ft deep with power eqpt. just to see if you can locate a treasure chest. You might want to get a good "Pulse Machine"/detector. Get a friend who has a Minelab GPX 4500 or a GPX 5000, That one has been tested to find a can 2 feet deep as you hold it in the air 2 feet higher than the surface! Total 4 Feet on just a can. Hope this helps.

 

[Lakemonster]

I was thinking about this again this AM.

Did this turn out to be a dry hole? Gonna have trouble getting it with a pump jack or well head in place.

 

[TexasDigger1]

Did you get it tested to make sure it is gold? Why would someone bury it soooooo deep? Good luck. HH

 

[goldentruth]

My Oppinion: I would get some kind of back hoe out there, it would be easy to go 8 Ft deep with power eqpt. just to see if you can locate a treasure chest. You might want to get a good "Pulse Machine"/detector. Get a friend who has a Minelab GPX 4500 or a GPX 5000, That one has been tested to find a can 2 feet deep as you hold it in the air 2 feet higher than the surface! Total 4 Feet on just a can. Hope this helps.

Like I said, Possibly around the hole you can check what is a reasonable depth with a "Pulse" MD and dig some and check to see if ya get a signal before you go gang-buster-crazy over that hole. Good luck with that, hope ya find gold bar/bullion or gold coins etc. (Sounds like fun).

 

[coazon de oro]

Woof,
You may be right, but I'm hoping there may be an easy way of knowing first without digging.

Goldentruth,
I've never owned a metal detector. Hard to believe ain't it. Thanks for the input, I sure wish a backhoe would be allowed if the treasure can be verified to be near the surface.

TexasDigger,
It's gold alright, just not sure if it came from a vein, gold bars, or from some other hole they had dug. I'm confident the gold came out of this particular hole.
Why would a cache be so deep? I have no real idea as to why, but 12 to 14 feet seems to be a common and comfortable depth for large caches. Look at Oak Island, and the caches buried during war in other countries. You really have to earn those.

Lakemonster,
This turned out to be a good gas well. If there turns out to be some way of knowing whether it's a cache close to the surface, then I could approach the land owner, and together we would have to get permission from the company that owns the well.
The cellars are dug to 8 feet, so if it's a cache, I would imagine it's between the 8 and 14 feet area. I don't see a problem digging around the casing, I'm sure the gas company would allow it as long as it's done by hand and supervised.

Thanks for the input, Homar

 

[maipenrai]

Right! Look at Oak Island! That hole is just filled with treasure, and they are putting more into it every day.

Do you really think a gas company would let someone dig around their well?

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Woof,
You may be right, but I'm hoping there may be an easy way of knowing first without digging.

Goldentruth,
I've never owned a metal detector. Hard to believe ain't it. Thanks for the input, I sure wish a backhoe would be allowed if the treasure can be verified to be near the surface.

TexasDigger,
It's gold alright, just not sure if it came from a vein, gold bars, or from some other hole they had dug. I'm confident the gold came out of this particular hole.
Why would a cache be so deep? I have no real idea as to why, but 12 to 14 feet seems to be a common and comfortable depth for large caches. Look at Oak Island, and the caches buried during war in other countries. You really have to earn those.

Lakemonster,
This turned out to be a good gas well. If there turns out to be some way of knowing whether it's a cache close to the surface, then I could approach the land owner, and together we would have to get permission from the company that owns the well.
The cellars are dug to 8 feet, so if it's a cache, I would imagine it's between the 8 and 14 feet area. I don't see a problem digging around the casing, I'm sure the gas company would allow it as long as it's done by hand and supervised.

Thanks for the input, Homar

I don't want to bust your bubble or rain on your parade but;

I been around oil rigs around when I was 18 and just recently hauling oil base mud for a company for several months. Most company men and high chief oil men are pretty much A$^%!@les.

My guess would be that even if you DID approach the land owner and you BOTH went to the oil/gas company, chances are the oil/gas company will say no way being you will be "DIGGING" around a well, around the casing, and footing. Especially if it could be a live well!

Also, the mobile drill rig, (that has the operator sitting outside of the turret gear for the drill rig, (using a cork screw drill bit, generally about 2ft in diameter) while drilling and drills down several feet, pulls up bit and rotates the derrek to the side of the hole and throws the dirt off the bit and goes back to drilling again), and crew that drills the casing hole down to about 60ft?, (PRIOR to the rig being placed on the well pad), then the crew gets a backhoe and digs down around the casing down to about 10ft in a circle around the casing and puts the galvenized pipe around the pit to prevent cave-in for the pit/cellar, once the casing is set the concrete is poured in. If it is down that far the mobile drill rig would have found evidence of gold as he is drilling the first stages of the well. The gold would have to be super deep for those guys not to find or see any of it. I seen those guys prep a well for drill rigs, there are crew hands right by the well when it is first drilled and with tape measures measuring the distance for the pit around the casing hole! Also as the dirt is piling up from the mobile drill rig and crewhand on a backhoe takes the road base and piles it off to the side of the well pad.

Generally when they prep a ground for a well pad they usually dump out about 5-15ft of road base on top of the top soil for the whole pad site so the pad could be built up that much on top of the top soil ground, depending on terrain feature.

Even if the oil/gas company asks for any proof of your claim, (which they might), chances are SOMEONE HIGHER UP will probably find a way to take it from you. Most wells has some gate guards on the premisses to make sure no one is allowed on ranch and well that is not supposed to be on there.

I wonder how no one found it before, generally they use sizmagraph ground penitration radar to find the oil spots. Someone probably may have seen it on the sizemagraph and figured "HOLY COW" look at the size that!!!! We need to drill right here!!!

 

[coazon de oro]

HarleyMan,

Not to worry, I can use all the rain I can get.

I had come to the conclusion that its a deep gold vein before I read your post. I was looking into the requirements of drilling, and found that the gold could not have come from a cache.

This is just one sheep less I have to count before I fall asleep.

Homar

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

I was going to quite a few pad and drill rig sites from Cotulla, (east, west, north, and south), Big Wells, Cristal City, Los Angeles, Encinal, all the way over into Cuero and beyond. Too many to list. I saw one old ranch home built out of stone and some sort of concrete, but you could tell by the way it was built it was very old around the turn of the century, built almost like a mission. The roof was all gone and of course there were 2 mobile home trailers right next to it.

I saw many promising places to metal detect, especially out by Faith Ranch by Carrizo Springs less than 2 miles from the border. There was a big outcrop of boulders, (mainly part of a granite mountain in 1 piece), (VERY UNUSUAL), for the terrain all around for several miles is ALL flat around it. The boulder/granite outcrop was maybe about 200ft wide, and about 40-60ft tall, it looked like it was probably about 600-700ft around like it was part of a mountain at one time, but it stood out all by it's lonesome self on the flat terrain.

I know just by looking at it being the old days of travelers, that would have been travel marker and a camping/resting spot being one could climb on top, (especially outlaws and bandits), and look out about for a few miles away in all directions and it had a small outcrop of trees around the base of it, perfect for a resting spot!

How I saw so many other places worth hitting with a metal detector, but no detector and driving an 18 wheeler tanker and too many people around and gate guards to go through and 8ft fences to climb!!!

 

[coazon de oro]

HarleyMan,

My father used to tell me of this rock outcrop in the middle of flat land on Faith Ranch. He used to grade the rig locations. He told me that the rock had a lot of names etched on it. At the very top there is a hole, and he could see something shining at the bottom of the hole, but there was no way to reach it.

I used to walk 90 miles of pipeline from old mines road all the way to Encinal. In the Maltsberger Ranch, not the one in La Salle, but the one in Webb, I found an old camp that had an old broken cast iron kettle. This was about all the metal there and the kettle was as big as they come. There were some flat rocks there that formed a circle. Only the base was left of a one foot thick wall. There was no mortar, they were just laid on top of each other. Two rows of stones were buried edgewise leading to the circle. This is in the middle of thick brush. Always wanted to try a metal detector there.

I also tended and walked a pipeline from close to Quemado all the way to Carrizo Springs, going thru the land of the bandit that wore the tiger skin chaps. Found some real old abandoned homesteads there, one just had the horno, or wood burning oven left.

Homar

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

WOW! I know that when I was going to Trinidad 128 out there on Faith Ranch and passed by the rock and looking at it as your are driving down the ranch road it would almost look as if there was an entrance like a cave opening on the south side. But it was too far from the road to see and know for sure!

I would do ALMOST ANYTHING to be able to get out to those areas and metal detect, especially around that rock!!! Yes, some of the area is full of mesquite growing everywhere and think too it is almost impossible to venture through it! I am also knowledgable and experienced in rappeling, I would certainly find a way to get down that hole on top of the rock and see what that shiny object it! It could be stash thrown down there to prevent it being found or taken!

If by chance you do get any permission to metal detect anywhere down in that area and need a partner to go along I will be willing. I have a GTI 2500 with the Eagle Eye 2 box!

I am no longer working in the oil field there. Too much driving long hours and the pay didn't add up and plus never knowing when I was going to get a day off unless I had made arrangements to plan days off, but then again having to rush home to North Austin do what I haev to do and get back to work never left much time to do anything else, much less go gold prospecting!

I am going back to self employed so I can make time for whenever I need!

 

[coazon de oro]

HarleyMan,

That sounds like the ideal setup you have, I'll keep it in mind.

I don't know if that hole was large enough to get into or not. My thoughts were to shine a mirror into it, and look in with binoculars.

Homar

 

[goldentruth]

Woof,
You may be right, but I'm hoping there may be an easy way of knowing first without digging.

Goldentruth,
I've never owned a metal detector. Hard to believe ain't it. Thanks for the input, I sure wish a backhoe would be allowed if the treasure can be verified to be near the surface.

TexasDigger,
It's gold alright, just not sure if it came from a vein, gold bars, or from some other hole they had dug. I'm confident the gold came out of this particular hole.
Why would a cache be so deep? I have no real idea as to why, but 12 to 14 feet seems to be a common and comfortable depth for large caches. Look at Oak Island, and the caches buried during war in other countries. You really have to earn those.

Lakemonster,
This turned out to be a good gas well. If there turns out to be some way of knowing whether it's a cache close to the surface, then I could approach the land owner, and together we would have to get permission from the company that owns the well.
The cellars are dug to 8 feet, so if it's a cache, I would imagine it's between the 8 and 14 feet area. I don't see a problem digging around the casing, I'm sure the gas company would allow it as long as it's done by hand and supervised.

Thanks for the input, Homar

It looks like oppritunity knocking, good luck to you on your trails & good luck to Harleyman2 also. I praise the tails of adventure and respect all that has been observed and the roads traveled, Best of luck.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

HarleyMan,

That sounds like the ideal setup you have, I'll keep it in mind.

I don't know if that hole was large enough to get into or not. My thoughts were to shine a mirror into it, and look in with binoculars.

Homar

Big enough or not, If I can't get in it, I certainly would improvise to make something work to get down there and pick it up that is for sure!

 

[maipenrai]

Probably packed full of beer cans!