Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches???

[gollum]

Okay,

This subject has been brought up several times in other sections, but never a Thread devoted entirely to it, so I think some of our Miner/Prospector friends here might not have been able to chime in.

In the diaries of his travels in New Spain, Father Juan (Johan) Nentvig SJ (Jesuit) wrote about the silver and gold mines all over Pimeria Alta (Northern Mexico and Southwestern US). He wrote that during the rainy season, there were many flashes to show that there was still much gold and silver to be had.

I had heard about these stories for a long time, but didn't put much stock in them, until I met an old timer who makes the rounds to Stanton (Rich Hill), Rye Patch, etc. He actually had pictures of the lights. He sets up his video camera about dusk and leaves it running till after dark. He collects it and reviews the video. If he finds something, he gets a frame from the video and prints it. I have to say that I was impressed.

The theory is that gasses develop from the different minerals associated with the different types of ore (like arsenic in gold ore). During periods of high humidity/rain, as the sun goes down, the temps radically change. The pressure differential is so great that the gasses vent to the atmosphere and phosphoresce. Different minerals/ores give off different colored lights. That is the theory anyway.

Anybody have anything else to share? Pics maybe?

Thanks-Mike

 

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[Goldminer]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Mike
While searching for the Lost Yuma near Winkleman, we were camped above the Gila right after a big storm had passed thru. While at home using an early edition of Google Earth, we had noticed a fault running across the area that we were interested in. Just after dark had completely set in, I noticed two balls of light about 100 to 150 feet apart. They were directly above the fault line, and did not last long. The next day we examined the area and found gossans very close to the two locations of the lights.

 

[maui]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

interesting subject and would like to hear more. sorry that i do not have any info. to add to the subject. thanks much for the post. ron

 

[Hoser John]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

PUFF-PUFF-PASS-SMOKE DREAMS NOT BASED IN REALITY-John

 

[gollum]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

PUFF-PUFF-PASS-SMOKE DREAMS NOT BASED IN REALITY-John

Hey Hoser,

Maybe if you read a bit more instead of being a smarta$$, you might learn something.

Through documented records, we know for a fact that AT LEAST the Spanish from the early 1500s watched for lights and flashes during the rainy seasons to prospect for gold/silver/quicksilver.

Maybe if you asked an old time prospector, they could tell you a thing or two.

Like I said, until I saw the pictures, I was a skeptic as well.

Best-Mike

 

[gollum]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Don't get me wrong though,

They also knew what to look for as far as mineralization, silver weed, desert trumpeter plants, etc. The light flashes were just one of the things they looked for.

Best-Mike

 

[Oroblanco]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Hoser John wrote

PUFF-PUFF-PASS-SMOKE DREAMS NOT BASED IN REALITY-John

I think there is some misunderstanding here, we are seeking the LORE and the beliefs of the old-timers, the thread was not saying that Gollum or anyone else here either believes this or is using it as a method to find buried treasures. That said, there is a scientific basis to this, just as the ancient belief of a "halo" around a gold or silver vein existing in the rock around it, is factual; microscopic amounts of the gold/silver do detach from the vein and become dispersed in the adjoining country rock, in the form of a 'halo' which can be detected by geochemical tests today. The odd phenomenon known as "earth lights" is believed to originate in quartz veins under pressure of overlying rock, generating large electrical charges which then discharge in the form of "ghost lights" - and it is a very small step for the color of these lights to be an indicator of the presence of metallic minerals hosted in the quartz rock. Metals do color fire, and an electrical discharge is a form of "fire" - toss some copper wire into your campfire some evening for pretty green flames to see what we are talking about. Simple geology and chemistry amigo, which has linkage to this ancient belief we are discussing. The ancient Jesuits even had a prayer to handle the "spirits" they believed were "guarding" the buried treasure and was manifesting as "ghost fire" or ghost lights. It is not unusual for a rare but still purely natural occurrance like the "ghost lights" we are discussing here or ball lightning etc to have been once thought of as "supernatural".

Try to keep an open mind amigo, fairly often old "superstitions" can be found to have a scientific basis in reality.
Good luck and good hunting, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

 

[gollum]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Roy,

I admit that I am not as skeptical as I was before I saw pictures of lights.

Hoser may have decades of experience in panning/dredging/highbanking etc. Just shows that nobody knows everything. I just didn't care too much for the smarta$$itude.

There are a lot of experienced people I know that have never heard of the relationship between the Desert Trumpeter Plant and Gold Veins. Or Silver Weed and silver veins.

Best-Mike

 

[AUDuke]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

I believe that there is more that we don"t know than what we do know. Keep an open mind.

 

[Goldminer]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Mike and Roy,
Attached is a BAD copy of the front of a monthly newsletter that was put out by the late Hoss Blackman. Hoss worked for the original distributor of Minelab in the very early days. He was one of the best electronic prospectors that I have ever known. The Trumpet Plant was his idea, and he believed that the plant grew mostly in auciferous soil. For the smarta$$es, that is soil that has mineralization conducive to gold. I was honored to be a co-editor of that publication.

 

[gollum]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Thanks goldminer.

I wasn't sure how long the trumpeter plant association had been around, but silverweed is mentioned in Georgious Agricola's "De Re Metallica" as a way of finding silver veins (1566? I have a copy here somewhere).

I don't think Hoser had directed his a$$liness to the plant associations, just the lights.

Best-Mike

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Good morning Hoser: Can you explain to me "why not? Why couldn't it occur?

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[patches63]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

fifteen years on the pacic,bering sea.was facinated by squid swarms passing me at twenty knots at night lit up like streetlights.steven spielberg stuff.phospheresence.one night on cortez bank 100 miles due west of los angeles,santa ana winds raging offshore,the crashing waves were lit in a most spooky way.was trying to drift and sleep that night.(fish sunrise to sunset,eat,turn off boat,trusting,go to bunk.(bed).nope.maybe the spans did find gold/silver that way. if there is any scientific info re finding deposits by light,please post it here.am interested.would stay up,drink some lager,truck warmed up and loaded fer bear.trees/plants forests/jungles are proven to give off phospherecent light.why not decomposed veins in the desert?show us one single documented case of this.have lived in rich country whole life,only flashing lights were bumpkin kops tryin to stop my kids on their dirt bikes.they had no luck either.

 

[patches63]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

ok. one scenario.a large body of metal,charged with electricity,(lightening strike?) or some form of static electricity(atmospheric?)could conceivably seek its opposite(positive/negative).nature creates electrical tranfer,witness lightening strikes.high pressure(voltage)must flow to lessor low pressure area(ground,negative).like the dirt on the back of yer tailgate.but methinks it would take one hell of a deposit to do that.and a one in a trazillion event of nature.those spaniard miners were uncannily smart.crossed the oceon,marched the desert,plains,shipped many tons of gold back to spain.with not much more than their fortitude.yep they were ornery.

 

[Oroblanco]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

I don't know how this is being so mis-interpreted. For the skeptics, have you never heard of St Elmo's fire? Look it up, and it doesn't "go" in a huge bolt/flash like lightning, just a natural electrical discharge, which is almost certainly what we are talking about with these "ghost lights" or "fires" seen over gold/silver deposits. I don't think St Elmos fire has ever been photographed either, but it is a very real, and very natural phenomenon. I will even go so far as to say, that these "ghost lights" over buried treasures are manifestations of a type of St Elmos fire.
Oroblanco

 

[extractor]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Don't get me wrong though,

They also knew what to look for as far as mineralization, silver weed, desert trumpeter plants, etc. The light flashes were just one of the things they looked for.

Best-Mike

I'm a believer in it!! I have no reason to dought the old timers I go out prospecting with. Good thread. Thanks Mike. HH Extractor

 

[patches63]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

oro,last fall,forest fire (coffin fire)lewiston ca. a huge fireball was oserved crossing lowden ranch,lewiston,by pd/fire at scene,also 25 miles away by leo,s watching the fire from hayfork summit at same time.was never reported,heard on my scanner.was not a powerline event.wuzup?

 

[Hoser John]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

What a hoot. Plants being in the ground always tell whatzup below. I have been in the deserts and forests camping at least 200+ days a year for over 50 years-I owned a mining biz with many 10's a 1,000's a customers with millions of friends and relatives and belonged to multiple clubs for over 50+ years and NOT A SINGLE ONE EVER MENTION ANYTHING LIKE THIS. In this world of infathonable options anything is possible--even insipid things--but it don't make it a reality--just blind dumb luck to an unbelieveable incident Common knowledge dictates lightning rods and getting out of your car because of lightning but it don't make it a gold indicator. Anything can happen in this life-LL we can't dredge in running water-now THATS some crazy shat-John.

 

[Goldminer]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

I guess you and your" 10's a 1000's a customers" were in the wrong desert and forests.

 

[Hoser John]

Re: Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches!!!

Patches I believe the record searchlight reported that and dozens of eyewitnesses. I was not there but by the perponderance evidence-ie-many 1000's a reports in the past noted by many(see snopes/google I just did). Fireballs,lightning balls,aurora borrealis,swarms and all kinds a neat stuff happen (and completely documented)but running around looking for wierd lights to find gold---- . When a tree falls in the forest and noone is around to hear it--does that mean it didn't happen?? My Mother had a doctrine in the metaphysical Sciences and was a bloody certified teacher of the Church of the White Light based in Pasadena California so I DO KNOW --BELIEVE--AND SEEN--some pretty wierd strange unexplainable stuff THAT WAS/HAS/IS being repeated on a regular basis. But the last thing in the world a poor newbie needs to do is think this works and be seen running around a desert/forest near you looking for his lights that light the way to gold--nuthouse trip guaranteed-do not pass go-do not collect $200- thank god this is america and you can believe what ya want but-PUFF-PUFF-PASS-A SMOKE DREAM UNDUPLICATABLE, I'll put up $10,000 right here and now for a performance--IN GOLD!!!! please educate my ignorance----there now hows that for a open mindJohn