Are theses dredge tailings or something?

OwenT

OwenT

Hero Member
Feb 11, 2015
583
897
Moses Lake WA & Provo UT
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
First thing I thought when I saw this on the Columbia River was dredge tailing, but it's actually more of a snaking pattern than the stacked arcs a dredge would make. This area on the river did produce gold. Untitled.png



Note to anyone beginning to read this thread: It was determined that the picture shows the remnants of some sort of gold mining operation. The thread then turns a little off track and there is a debate for several pages. Finally we discuss land status and I try to find out who owns this property.
 

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OwenT said:
Here we go. You all had me worried I was taking gold from private property for a second. When I went though I remember checking and it looked ok. Our county assessor's site shows some things that Land Matters doesn't. Disclaimer . It shows that the land S of SR 243 is owned my the BOR and the BLM, but the parcels don't extend to the water line. Either this is a mapping error, or like a lot of the time, the state DNR owns the land near the river.
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The Master Title Plat at the BLM disagrees with the County Assessor. The Title Plat shows no Federal management or ownership on the land there. It's nothing new that County and Feds don't agree but I've got to wonder - those are clearly patented lands. The area the trees are on is an early patent #178 and to the east of the tree line is Patent #95872. So either the owner is growing trees or someone is paying rent. If the land were managed by the BOR or BLM nobody would be growing trees.

I seriously doubt the Washington DNR owns any land except possibly the land where their main office is. They claim the right to manage most of the State lands but the Colombia river is a water of the United States for it's entire length from the ocean to the Canadian boundary. The patents in your area of interest reserved the rights to ditches and canals for miners. DNR might be able to manage the ducks and fish but the bed of the Colombia River is not Washington State owned or managed.

These differences are pretty common. You should see the messes that have been made in California! The counties there often drop whole sections of land right off the maps or move survey lines over so they can get a little more tax money. Unless you are dealing with a property tax issue I wouldn't look to a County Assessor to define land ownership anywhere in the west.

Check out the MTP for that township. It's easy to download from the Washington Land Status Map. The MTP will show all the land status there from the point of view of the Federal Government. If you have any doubt about the actual boundaries you can download the original patents at the General Land Office. The Patent & Survey Plat is the final word on the location of land parcels - not even a county assessor can legally move those lines.

Sadly I will not be able to help you with the county assessor. They got suckered into using the short lived Silverlight software from Microsoft which was dropped in 2012. Modern browsers, including the new Windows Edge won't run Silverlight. I've got several older browsers that would run Silverlight but I won't install any version of Silverlight onto any of my computers for reasons that have nothing to do with this thread.

Sorting these land status issues can be difficult but there is an answer available. Sadly I don't think you will like the answer in this case but I encourage you to pursue it anyway. You may have found a good paying deposit. With gold being $35.50 an ounce in 1941 the miners there mined for three years. At more than $1,200 an ounce today you might find a profitable arrangement with the owners. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

The silverlight site works in explorer if anyone is interested. It shows that the orchard nearby is a separate parcel owned by Brown & Company LLC. I guess I won't be trusting that site anymore though, thanks for that tip.

For the MTP I'm pretty clueless when we start getting into this stuff. I followed your Land Matters link and downloaded the pdf for the Twp. Now I see a whole lot of numbers and and letters, I don't know what they mean and where do I get the information for a specific patent?

On the plat it leaves out the whole bed of the Columbia and a good amount on either side. Since it's a US waterway, what are the rules regarding mining that part or would it even be possible?

Thanks for all the help so far. I'll keep looking into this and I'll probably have a lot more questions.

Goldwasher, I see the piece you're talking about. I'll see if I can find out what it is. If that was the old wash plant that would be so cool. It's kind of hilarious about your keyboard, that would be really annoying though.
 

Goldwasher said:
You piles start in section 8. The distance from your oile area to the bridge is around 4.75 miles.
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??? More like 3 1/2 miles to the piles and 4.75 miles to chinaman bar. chinaman bar is on BLM land. It looks to me that the piles are on Grant County PUD land.
 

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OwenT said:
For the MTP I'm pretty clueless when we start getting into this stuff. I followed your Land Matters link and downloaded the pdf for the Twp. Now I see a whole lot of numbers and and letters, I don't know what they mean and where do I get the information for a specific patent?

On the plat it leaves out the whole bed of the Columbia and a good amount on either side. Since it's a US waterway, what are the rules regarding mining that part or would it even be possible?

Thanks for all the help so far. I'll keep looking into this and I'll probably have a lot more questions.
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You can learn to read the Master Title Plats and get a lot more information, including a land status video series, by going to the Land Matters Tutorials section.

You can look up, download and order certified copies of land patents at the General Land Office (GLO) website. Be prepared with the Township Range and sections when you visit.

Be sure to look through the Historical Indexes and any Survey Notes for the area you are interested in while you are still on the GLO website. If the land is federally managed you will want to check out the Control Document Index (CDI) too.

As soon as they have the time and the server space Land Matters will be offering direct Patent and Survey Plat downloads from a map. In the meantime you'll have to spend a little time getting acquainted with the GLO website.

The Army Corps of Engineers are in charge of the mechanics of the waters of the U.S. and the Coast Guard are the police there. There is a ditch and canal right reserved from the patents there so there is a right to move the water but the bed of the river is a whole nother thing. River beds get pretty complex - study accretion, erosion and avulsion if you want your head to spin. Best to figure out the land status and boundaries before you jump in to ACOE stuff. :laughing7:

Questions? Ask away and I'll answer when I can. Land Status research is one of the many skills prospectors need to be good at to be successful. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

Chinaman Bar actually extends from the Priest Rapids Dam to Vernita on the north bank of the Columbia. This area was mined extensively for many years, according to my old Wa. mining books what you founds is evidence of their mining. Owen, best area to mine was on the Columbia from Vantage to the Canadian Border but sadly it is all under water now.
 

Ed, could you share the name of that book? Yea, Lake Roosevelt covered many big placers, only ones left are right below dams like this one is. That place near Vulcan rd is one of those places that is covered but it still may have gold high on the bank.
 

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You know me I love those high bench's, that is where I'd test also the Colockum wildlife area, it is just up river from Vulcan on the other side, fine gold found there. The book is called "Washington State Gold Mines by Roy F. Mayo" it has a lot of historical maps of mining claims from 1897. Awesome book if you have it get it
 

Chelsea,

The property below the area outlined in yellow belongs to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The county parcel map lines should extend to the river in this area.

Sheryl

Sheryl Dotson, Property Services Supervisor

Grant County PUD

Natural Resources Dept., Lands & Recreation

P.O. Box 878, Ephrata, WA 98823
 

chlsbrns said:
??? More like 3 1/2 miles to the piles and 4.75 miles to chinaman bar. chinaman bar is on BLM land. It looks to me that the piles are on Grant County PUD land.
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I'm talking about the other bridge in the other direction....thanks for arguing though it's really helpful.
 

chlsbrns said:
??? More like 3 1/2 miles to the piles and 4.75 miles to chinaman bar. chinaman bar is on BLM land. It looks to me that the piles are on Grant County PUD land.
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The distance from the piles to THIS bridge that is in the area that has also been described as or part of Chinamens Bar ....not the piles to the dam. The area that had the concrete plant and gravel screening plant. bridge distance.jpg
 

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OwenT said:
For the MTP I'm pretty clueless when we start getting into this stuff. I followed your Land Matters link and downloaded the pdf for the Twp. Now I see a whole lot of numbers and and letters, I don't know what they mean and where do I get the information for a specific patent?
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I know how to read a map!! or so I thought until I actually tried to figure out a MTP... :dontknow: There are cheat sheets, Land Matters has one... Once you have the cheat sheet, and spend a short bit of
time its not bad... I don't even remember where I looked up the patented stuff, and the homestead stuff and all that, but it came back to the BLM.. Some really neat old documents..
 

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In this post: I informed you that the mineral rights to chinaman bar were owned by Maughan Ranch: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...-dredge-tailings-something-5.html#post4945901

Well as usual I was correct the mineral rights to chinaman bar WERE owned by Maughan! Conclusive proof that chinaman bar is located where I said it was located! Look at the sales history! TerraScan TaxSifter - Grant County Washington

TerraScan TaxSifter - Grant County Washington

BLM Land on the North side of the river! Imagine that! The screenshot must be wrong?

No Maughan where the piles are at! TerraScan TaxSifter - Grant County Washington

Still batting 1,000! You guys spread so much misinformation!
 

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