An Important - Cautionary - Story with a Very Sad Ending

[Old Bookaroo]

This is an important story for anyone out in the wild - the desert or anywhere else.

Prospector Michael Graham died - a $300 beacon could have saved him | afr.com

This time is was down in the Australian bush. It just as easily could have been the Southern California mojave, Colorado or Great Basin desert, the Superstitions - or anywhere else where the roads stop and the wilderness begins.

Be careful out there!

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

 

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[Rebel - KGC]

It IS a tragic story "down under"... CRIKEY!

 

[Lucky Eddie]

My backyard here in West Oz.

We just call them Darwin Candidates - those who don't carry a PLB.
Its compulsory on boats - I have had them for boats for the last 20 odd years, & there's a hefty fine if you haven't got one on board when stopped and inspected by the water police etc.
Not mandating them for remote area prospectors is just plain stoopid & govt abrogating their responsibility.
But its also stoopid for prospectors not to accept a little personal responsibility and make sure they have one on them! A new metal detectors around $10grand and hey will have one of those but not a $350 odd PLB that can save their lives?
There was a time in the old days before this technology wed all chip in and go search but these days theres n excuse- not only won't I go look for these idiots any more - I also object to spending good taxpayers $$ searching for them by state emergency service volunteers and airborne Police + the police horse squad etc
If I had my way the authorities wouldn't respond to anyone missing in our outback who didn't have and deploy a PLB first.
I now advocate a "too bad, so sad, suck it up and die, princess"......approach because there's no need for this bullshenhyzer when the prevention is so cheap!.
Its probably better they die a premature death rather than survie to spread their defective genes to another generation of idiots.
Even if I didn't ave a PLB - I'd take my 406Mhtz EPIRB outta the boat - because it transmits my GPS co-ords to the national rescue center in Canberra!.
I also take 2 sat phones a normal smart phone and a GPS as well as paper scale maps of the area and a compass.
The ones getting lost should stay at the retirement village playing lawn bowls and leave the prospecting and metal detecting to those with alt least half a clue.
No sympathy from em for these idiots - the guy was an accident looking for somewhere to happen.
What sort of idiot leaves a source of water and shetr where the station owner checks his bores and tanks at least once if not twice a week?
Answer?
One who has no business being out in that country in the first place.
What sort of idiot leaves his magnifying glass hanging on a tree branch and doesn't use it to light a fre and attract help (preferably from the bore windmill & and tank where he has shelter and water)?
What sort of an idiot leaves camp without his hand held GPS to find his way back to camp?
I could go on but there will be another truck fulla idiots born tomorrow and in 40 or 50 years time, we will still be reading the same sort of stories again and again.
At the end of the day most people are pretty stupid.

 

[Terry Soloman]

You can't fix stupid. Anyone that has been involved in Treasure Hunting of any kind for longer than a year has witnessed, or seen the aftermath of stupidity. It doesn't always lead to death or injury. Most times it just leads to a financial loss - like guys buying a GPZ 7000 when they live in Georgia, Texas, or Ohio, and really believing they are going to find enough gold nuggets to pay for it.

I feel bad for the poor guy and his family, but maybe he just decided to commit suicide.

 

[smokeythecat]

I remember that story the year it happened. And people get lost all the time. A few years ago I was in Las Vegas. I went to Valley of Fire State Park. Never got more than 400 yards from my car. Flat desert. No tall brush where I was. By not going far and having the car in sight, little possibility of getting lost problems, except I ALMOST stepped on a sidewinder. Listening to the radio, a lady had gone hiking west of Vegas, was the third day, they couldn't find her. I don't think it worked out very well. Now the sections of park I visited was flat as a pancake. There were other areas of the park you could disappear in. I didn't go there and like to detect in places like, oh, people's back yards. For real. I can't do the long walk thing anymore, so these days I'm never more than 3-400 yards from my car, but there sure is a lot of
good digging here on the east coast within 400 yards from your car! (typos due to cat helping me type)

 

[Old Bookaroo]

TS: Wasn't America's first serious gold rush in Georgia? And a US Mint down there?

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

 

[jgleaves]

I go out to the old mines( not inside) on the dumps.

Have one for my boat but it is older model and I am going to replace it.

Is there one that is good for both on land and in saltwater ?

On a budget but that does not matter when you need to use it.

Any recommendations on brands to purchase ? I am in the US, California.

 

[Terry Soloman]

TS: Wasn't America's first serious gold rush in Georgia? And a US Mint down there?

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

Have you seen a bunch of nuggets coming out of Georgia in the last 50-years?

 

[G.I.B.]

Risk -vs- Reward... sometimes bad decisions are made.

It's a sad loss for the family.

I have a PLB and I'm not afraid to use it. I fully expect a helo to show up within 20 minutes of my activation, if I ever need it.

 

[Mackaydon]

The lesson to be learned is also good advice.
Thanks for the article.
Don.....

 

[Real of Tayopa]

A full bottle of Kalua always attracts , so it is reccomended that you always carry one.

Actually this is not an occaision for mirth, but the entire thing was so senseless. a simple course of navagation without instruments is indespensible, Even 'Mac' can instruct on how to establish compass direction.s or tentative location useing no instruments or mechanical aids. Sides there is no electronic device that is fool proof, batteries fail, get dropped, etc.

 

[Mackaydon]

Don Jose,
Apparently, this fellow used DR and it didn't work. He may have also used the Southern Cross--and that didn't work. On my boat we had EPIRBS-- and this man could certainly have carried either a GPS or PLB system; but he didn't and, unfortunately, paid the consequence. Skiers have the same technology available; and those who use it are usually saved; the other pay a higher price. A good lesson there for all of us who venture out--and beyond.
Don......

 

[Real of Tayopa]

Mac. I always insist in each of my party carrying one, and generally a rwo way radio ever since we spent three days in the Yaqui, Bacatetes of Mexico looking for a lost member , and he was 'very lost. However I always conduct a simple navifgation course also.

Man that was a hot period, with no water for miles except for a earthern stock dam, which saved us valuabole time. Even boiled three tiimes it still tasted and smelled like XXXXXX The cattle just stood there shoveling it in and letting it exit out the other end,

For skiers it seems like an excellent idea.

 

[Real of Tayopa]

mac. this is a photograph of when we were two days without water and on our third when we ran across this small river. That is my partner hamming it up.

It all started with our hike down the west coast of mexico, on our trip to Quintann Roo Yucatan looking for Mayan ruins before there were any roads, from Colima on. Since the rivers were aprox, two days apart we figured our forestry canteens --- 2 quart apiece ---would last easily, but surprise, the next river was dry, we now had to make a decision, go back two days, or continue on for another two days to the next water -- hopefully -- meanwhile no water As it turned out we were fortunate, it was running, but we learned a valuable leson, always err on the positive side, never on the unknown,

That is my partner haming it up,

 

[Oroblanco]

Have you seen a bunch of nuggets coming out of Georgia in the last 50-years?

Well, what about this?
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/finds-georgia/57883-found-first-gold-nugget-today.html#post594510

Ohio
Prospectors go for gold on Ohio riverbanks - News - Ohio

Texas
Panning for Texas Gold

Of course in Texas, you would have better chances if you hunted silver, but don't think there is nothing to be found either. Actually Terry you seem to have a very negative view of most treasure hunting, hope your luck will improve and raise your optimism a bit.

Great warning Old Bookaroo, something that most of us should pay heed to.

Merry Christmas to all,
Oroblanco

 

[South Sea mariner]

There seems many stories out there. Of treasure hunting gone wrong?

This happened in 1954

SANTA SUSANA (California). _ — A man killed here while hunting buried treasure is believed to have been on the verge of finding it when he died. He is Ronald Fuller and he perished from dynamite fumes at the bottom of a 55ft. shaft he had dug
in his search for three chests of gold.

Fuller had been told the chests were buried more than. 75 years ago by Tiburcio Vasquez a Mexican bandit. He was fanatical about his search and had given all his spare time to it for eight years. Hillsides around Santa Susana are honeycombed
with holes he dug. Vasquez, hanged in 1875, is believed to have taken the gold in an ambush of a stagecoach. There is a legend that whoever finds the treasure shall not keep it.

But Fuller's daughter and son-in-law are continuing the search.

Questions why would bandit or would a bandit have time to dig 55ft in the first place? Yet blind obsession searching for this alleged treasure cost him his life. Ronald fuller most likely never met the bandit in person and was working on assumption that this alleged gold was there or even existed in the first place? While its easy to admire some treasure hunters for determination of spirit, there are others that win the Charles Darwin award for reckless behavior resulting in them exiting the gene pool.

Yet there are many others...

Mal