Arkansas River at Elephant Rock

[RGINN]

Camped here last night but didn't bring the detector as kinda thought the ground would be frozen like it is here, but turned out that wasn't the case. No treasure tales I know of associated with Elephant Rock, but it's a landmark and surely would have attracted the attention of traveller's along the river through the past. However, I always have the old reliable gold pan. Dug dirt out of the bank, and the first spot was another exercise in separating black sand from dirt and rocks. But by golly, the second spot yielded 7 almost microscopic flakes of gold in the black sand, which is a first for me and that gold pan. I tried to get a pic of that, but it wouldn't come out to where it would convince anybody. Be aware, this is federal land and there are active claims in this area. I located one to the south and one to the north. If I jumped your claim, I apologize. But get your markers up. I did no harm, and be nice to me and I'll show you that spot where I found that placer gold.

 

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[tamrock]

That's my old haunt where your at there RG and I could walk to that place from my home over an old road that heads to the trailer park to the south. Many artifact around. If you hike up that gully to the west there's a natural spring up in there. Biggest piece of gold I found was the shape & size of a grain of rice. If you look to the other side of the river maybe a little way north of the old midland RR tunnels you will see rust stains on the banks. Go check that out. It was two rail cars that turned over with ore from Leadville. It's a very heavy rock full of galena. I also remember the couplings of those two spilled cars and at best dated them at being from the early 20th century type. I took samples of the ore to the assayer in Alma and they came out with 8otz. per ton Ag and something like .008otz Au. I named that location of the find 'Bonnie' for the name on the assay report. Someplace I should have that report. I also hauled by foot some of the samples close to the old RR grade so I could retrieve them from the old RR grade road and at last I checked they were still there in around 1992. I put those there in and around 1980 when they had the assay office in Alma and I would take interesting ore samples to them from around the Leadville area to see what they may be. At best I believe the ore I found there was heading to a smelter in Colo Springs or Pueblo for the zinc and lead refining around the time of WWI as a mine in the Leadville district I think called the Wolfeton or something like that was in operation to fill the demand for zinc & lead during the 1st world war. I know that era very well were your at. My dog learned to hop and skip over and around all the little cactus as him and I did our exploring. His name was 'Lucky' an Aussie and a long ago pal of mine who I sure do miss.

 

[RGINN]

I have heard that rust stains were an 'indicator' for prospectors. I saw a few farther up the canyon east of the river, and a few old mines. You brought up a good point and it might pay to do a little research about where various types of transportation wrecked and dumped ore that was never fully recovered. (those old timers were very thorough about scrapin up money off the ground though.) Were I so disposed, I should file a claim for little to nothin on this spot of the river, show it proved up, sell it to some rich investors from the east for about 5 times what I put out, then move on down the river to the next spot.

 

[tamrock]

From last I looked most that area was claimed by some (gold finders pay to be a member club) "don't want to name, names and they take members there. I'd walk up to guys back in the 80s running a dredge and they'd ask me if it was okay to prospect, like I was the guy who owned it all. I can't see why that place should be under any legal claim, due to the fact there is no way it would be allowed with the kind of equipment you'd need to make any kind of money out of it mining for mineral, But to the (gold club scam) they get a fee from each member brought out to collect just about the same amount of gold you mention. I stayed at the Super 8 in BV last summer and a group of (gold club hopefuls) and members of the organization had a group bused in and this old guy told me he already had a grand spent on this little members of the club trip and he said he can't believe how little gold he's got for that thousand bucks. Duh! ... I'd pan all day just were your at and no one ever ran me off, cuz no one hardly ever came around back in those days, but once when the penitentiary had a runner and they were out looking for him and spotted me with the binoculars from the RR road. You want to make money there, stake a claim, start a gold club, and convince suckers to join and collect their fees and they can dredge and pan all they want on your little claim. I should have done that long ago when there were no claims, because it wouldn't be worth working more then recreational mining. I guess I just don't have a scam artist kind of heart. That place should be open and free to anyone who wants to do a little panning and dredging for recreation and fun with the family IMO

 

[RGINN]

I know what group you're talking about and they have quite a few claims up and down the Arkansas. They have a claim somewhere north of where I was, and the only reason I know that is the claim holder on beyond them put a notice on his legal, proper claim marker informing the public that the gold club's claim was farther down the river. I'll respect a claim marker, but I haven't really seen one of that gold club's markers. They might be filing them in individual's names and not including the name of their prospecting club. They probably make more money out of their set up in a day than a recreational prospector would make in a year.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Great pics. I've been all over the west, and I'm almost 66 years old. It pains me to see how much country I still haven't seen...LOL. Gorgeous river and country.
Jim