Wyoming trip last week...

[Jim in Idaho]

Left for western Wyoming last Wednesday. First thing I did over there was get the Dodge and camper stuck trying to go around a waterhole in the road. Really peed at myself, but stayed cool and had a sandwich. Took a nap, and when I woke up the wind had dried things enough I could drive out. Major relief!
Nice day Thursday, so checked out one of my planned spots. First couple of shovels produced 2 dozen garnets, so I figured a good place to look for diamonds. I had the jig along, but just decided to use the screens and sarucca. I had to pack water from the creek to the bench. 15 gallons lasts about 4 hours. After 5 hours I was beat. friday morning I was hurting so bad, I just sort of wandered around checking various spots. Saturday I felt really good again, so went back and did another 5 hours. Ended up with 117 carats of pyrope garnet and chrome diopside. 4 biggest garnets averaged .7 carats. Biggest CD was .455ct.
Heidi had better luck than I did, obviously. Good trip..nice weather, not too hot. Uintas are still snow-covered...made for some great scenery. Lots of antelope around.

 

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[BigWaveDave]

Outstanding! Good that you got unstuck too...

 

[meMiner]

I am surprised you could go to sleep knowing you were stuck. Sounds like you played it right. Not like there were trees around to anchor a winch. Lovely stones.

If there is the possibility of diamond, have you ever tried looking at night with an ultraviolet light? I have heard about guys using them where I prospect and they keep doing it, so I am thinking they might be onto something (and keeping quiet). Otherwise, they would probably have given up a long time ago and stayed back at camp with a beer.

 

[digger460]

Awesome hunt. They are beauties. Congrats

 

[DiamondDan]

Nice haul! My folks live in Green River. Sure is a lot of open space. Usually go and find fossils with the old man when I'm down there. Think I might do a bit of detecting next time I go to visit.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I am surprised you could go to sleep knowing you were stuck. Sounds like you played it right. Not like there were trees around to anchor a winch. Lovely stones.

If there is the possibility of diamond, have you ever tried looking at night with an ultraviolet light? I have heard about guys using them where I prospect and they keep doing it, so I am thinking they might be onto something (and keeping quiet). Otherwise, they would probably have given up a long time ago and stayed back at camp with a beer.

Well, your natural reaction is to do something, anything. But after being in this situation about 500 times, I've learned to kick back and think before doing anything. I wasn't really stuck...at least not buried. The only thing touching the ground were the wheels....just super slick clay plugging the tread. The wind was blowing and that country is very arid, so I was hopeful it would dry enough in a few hours. One moron drove right by, and never stopped.
I have used a black light over there.....no luck. Will again, too. Not all diamonds fluoresce......about 40% max. There is an enormous amount of flourescing material in the country. That makes finding small diamonds difficult. I have a fairly powerful light. Dual output, long and shortwave, and 18watts each. NiCad batteries that give me about 3 hours of run time when using both bulbs.
Jim

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Nice haul! My folks live in Green River. Sure is a lot of open space. Usually go and find fossils with the old man when I'm down there. Think I might do a bit of detecting next time I go to visit.

Thanks, Dan. Green River is a nice town...wish I had a place there. There's a story that a Green River woman found 4 diamonds not far from where I was working. This was like 30 years ago. The largest was several carats. The story claimed she still lived there and had sent the big stone to Germany and had it cut by some well-known cutter. I sure would like to find out who she is, and have a chance to visit with her.
I've done some detecting over there, but not found much. Sometimes an old cartridge or two. Mostly I've been prospecting for diamonds. I've never found a diamond, but the indicator minerals are there in fairly large numbers.....just need to turn over the right rock...LOL
We should go detecting sometime.
Jim

 

[IAMZIM]

Nice! Had some friends that lived in Evanston, one guy told me he would look for anthills and see if there were any garnets in it, as he said they like to "armor" their hills with them. I always thought he was joking till he took me out there and showed me! Once he found that, he would know the area had them and he would sluice for them.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

You can find garnets in almost every anthill, in some areas.. I've logged the surface of nearly 2,000 anthills in the last 6 years. I never dig one up...bad karma. An old indian saying was you should always leave something in exchange, when removing gems from an anthill. Some anthills are 50 years old. Badger digs are also good to check.
Jim

 

[IAMZIM]

Ahhh! I'm sure that is absolutely true! Very similar to how Indians would bury a piece of meat after a kill...to give something back in appreciation! That's pretty cool! Yeah , he never dug up any ant hills, just would start looking for a place like a dry stream bed , something in the area. To me, it wouldn't make sense to dig right where an anthill is anyway, because a lot of the material around the anthill comes from the surrounding area, carried there by the ants, so not really from them digging it up from underneath....at least that's what I am thinking....

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Yes. When I first started finding gems in anthills, the very first question was "do they bring them up from below, or scavenge them from the surrounding area?" I did some 'net research and found a young woman's Masters Thesis based on that very question. She put rings of colored glass beads out at various distances from the anthills, and then checked them every day to see how long it took the ants to collect the beads and bring them to the anthill. The stuff at 10 yards started showing up on the hills the next day! She found that the ants carried stuff from as far as 150 yards. Those harvester ants are a great resource for prospectors, and should never be disturbed, or their hills dug into. It isn't necessary to find out what gems are in the area. Just check the surface, carefully. I'm still waiting to find a diamond to do a test....I have a suspicion the ants may not be able to carry diamonds as large as other gems due to diamond's characteristic of shedding water. Maybe that interferes with the ant's holding power. That would explain why few diamonds are found on anthills, though some very small ones are, occasionally.
Jim

 

[OwenT]

Ants and termites collect gold too! They will bring it from up to several meters underground. There's gold in them anthills

 

[Eu_citzen]

Nice haul, Jim! Do you ever find stuff around 4 cts or more? Or mostly this smaller stuff?

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Nice haul, Jim! Do you ever find stuff around 4 cts or more? Or mostly this smaller stuff?

I wish....LOL. So far, it's been nothing but the small stuff. I did find one piece of chrome diopside that was 3.8 carats, but the quality was poor....not worth faceting. I have found fragments that obviously came from larger garnets, but haven't seen any large ones intact. I have faceted a couple of the bigger ones, and they are really gorgeous....I'd love to find one of several carats to work. But, I'm determined, so I keep at it when I have the time.
Jim

 

[spudnick]

Well,,that looks like way to much fun,, Your Shepard dog probably enjoyed the temporary rest at the mud hole. Tire chains are a good back up plan in the back country if the weather turns on you,. and you need to get out. Staying off the gas peddle was good thinking Jim. You have been there and done that before, for sure . Haha ............ Great to see the pictures, hope you post more on the next trip. ..... Ken