Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[EagleDown]

Che'hahn Tah-Moe Lanny!!!

Another great post by my favorite author. I sincerely hope that there will be another great, informative one waiting for me when I return from the Merced river.

I don't know if you've ever had this experience. While panning my concentrates, or even materials taken from a crevasse, I've noticed fine gold will quite ofter "float" on top of the water in the pan. I learned that the easiest way to alleviate the problem was to carry a small vial of liquid dish detergent in my pocket. This gold floats due to surface tension of the water and I found that just a drop or two of the detergent will break the surface tension and allow the gold to drop to the bottom of the pan. I'm not sure, but I think you'll find it will work fairly well with the clay also. At least, it's worth a try.

Hokay my Brother, you'll know when I return home.

Eagle

 

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[Hefty1]

Hi Lanny
Great post again
You are right, that stuff is nasty stuff to clean, but worth the effort. Sometimes
If i came across it while crakin, i would collect it in a bucket and take it back to camp to process it at a later time. Maybe while dinner is cookin or durin cocktail, happy hour, or two.
Anyways it was worth cleanin.

Hefty

 

[Lanny in AB]

Eagle--yes, the dish-soap is very handy, and a little goes a long, long way! I found out the hard way what too much in that soft river water can do--so many suds you can't see the panning water.

For those of you that haven't tried it--great tip from Eagle.

Looking forward to your return Eagle, and thanks for your kind words.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny
Great post again
You are right, that stuff is nasty stuff to clean, but worth the effort. Sometimes
If i came across it while crakin, i would collect it in a bucket and take it back to camp to process it at a later time. Maybe while dinner is cookin or durin cocktail, happy hour, or two.
Anyways it was worth cleanin.

Hefty

You're right on the money Hefty--sometimes it pays, and sometimes--forget about it!!

All the best Hefty, and thanks so much for droppin' in again,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Ten Stream Mystery Cabin

I was checking my prospecting notes from 1997 and I came across an interesting little story I’d almost forgotten about.

In 1997, my prospecting buddy and I traveled to a goldfield that took us some sixteen hours to reach. (Most of the route was on paved roads, but the last six hours were on graveled, active logging roads. The roads were not topped with crushed gravel, but with what’s classified as pit-run gravel. That type of gravel is simply unsorted, hostile rock that comes straight out of the gravel pit—the type of primitive gravel that Mother Nature caches under the belly of huge glaciers—ready made well-traveled gravel that cares not a bit about any future driver’s comfort.)

To reach the aforementioned goldfield, we traveled in a four-wheel drive diesel-powered truck, as the heavy load we towed consisted of a large flat-deck trailer with a small backhoe, a small wash-plant, a quad for daytrips, and all of our camping gear, grub, and miscellaneous mining equipment (picks, shovels, pans, detectors, chainsaws, axes. sledgehammers) and our trusty, white wall-tent with its steel frame and cozy wood-burning stove.

We lugged all of that equipment and made the trip to this remote location after receiving an invitation to do some testing on promising placer ground sited well off the beaten track.

We’d been into the territory the previous summer and had found some nice, coarse nuggets with metal detectors, and we’d caught a nice catch of flake gold and pickers with sluice and pan. Moreover, we’d made many human connections, earned the trust of the local miners and claim owners, and had been invited back (as mentioned earlier) to bring in bigger equipment.

However, to bring in equipment is one thing, to find ground that produces well enough to justify running the dirt is another story. So, we set off on a series of prospecting day-trips to try and find some promising ground.

On one particular day, we planned a trip to an area where we’d seen signs of previous testing done in the 1800’s. There were shallow test pits liberally scattered across an ancient, heavily glaciated area, the uneven ground’s telling story punctuated by numerous little streams and small lakes.

The land was uneven, yet somewhat flatter than the surrounding terrain, being located in a an area where the valley widened, yet still maintaining enough of a slope that the water explored and meandered as it navigated its way around the eskers, glacial till, and moraines.

We’d discovered the previous year that the old-timers prospected areas such as this because the numerous small streams had been steadily concentrating in their beds any gold the glaciers had dumped in the surrounding ground during their last retreat. Of course, the prime unknown factor for any prospector was which glacial runs had been carrying gold, and which ones were barren. So, the process of finding the gold distilled down to energetic detective work, carried out over the years with pick and shovel, thus the numerous test pits ranged across the valley floor.

The valley terrain was covered with pine, fur, balsam, and aspen. Here and there gorgeous humming birds, multi-colored with iridescent hues, flitted and buzzed in and out of the boreal flora. Large yellow, black, and orange with black butterflies gracefully harvested their crops from among legions of mountain daisies, fireweed, and countless ranks of other vigorous wildflowers.

Jet-black ravens shadowed us and kept a vigilant watch as we worked our way into the previously mentioned area. Of a sudden, in a stand of thick timber, we found ourselves confronted by a massive ditch work—the remains of a titanic hydraulic operation from the 1930’s. After crossing the ditch and its accompanying bank, we found ourselves faced with about a foot of standing water in a large swampy area on the other side. We waded this obstacle (we always took rubber boots in addition to our hiking boots) and the ground began a gradual upward slope out of the inundated area. The flooded, swampy ground was fed by several streams originating upslope somewhere—my partner headed off toward a small lake near some ground he wanted to check out, and I decided to follow one of the larger streams to see where it lead.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a remote placer area. But, it had very obviously been prospected in the 1800’s and again in the 1930’s. Even so, there were no buildings anywhere in the area, nor were there any signs of human habitation whatsoever. Moreover, due to its continuing remote nature, we never saw another human in that particular area, or the associated areas during the entire time we were prospecting there over a period of several days.

But, I’m wandering away from my story, so I’ll head back to the stream I was following. I continued to work my way upstream, and to my surprise, the stream began to split, and then split again. At last I found myself in a geologically convoluted area where I was surrounded by little gravelly streams. There were ten of them in all! I stopped and panned them, but I only got infrequent flake gold—nothing coarse.

The interesting part about this area was that there was a large mounded hummock that split the paths of those little streams. In addition, it was timbered with trees and brush.

Now, being the curious sort that I am, and being somewhat intrigued by this island-like rise of ground, I decided I’d ford a couple of the brooklets and wrangle my way into the pine and willow to check out that rise to see if there was any interesting ground for panning.

Well, after climbing into the brush, my mouth dropped open in amazement—for hidden within—and completely invisible from the lower level of the streams—was a prospector’s cabin! Just to convince myself of its hidden location, I scampered back down to stream level, scurried around to various viewpoints, and I just could not see that cabin from any vantage point. It was impossible to see that cabin unless you stumbled right upon it. Moreover, it was guarded by streams on every side.
Whoever had chosen this site, had chosen it very carefully, for it showed a level of care for concealment that I have neither seen before nor since. Upon reflection, I’ve stumbled across other old cabins, and some of them were cleverly situated, but none with this almost medieval craft for secrecy.

The roof was collapsed, and the interior held the remains of an old wood-burning stove, rusted bedsprings, some shelves along the log walls, one small window, a caved in cache pit, a very solid door frame, and the logs of the walls contained an assortment of protruding square and round nails—most-likely indicative of habitation in the 1800’s and re-habitation in the 1930’s.

Outside, there was a large overgrown garbage pile with old lead-sealed tins (leaded on the sides, tops, and centers of the tops and bottoms), and broken old hand-blown glass, along with more modern glass. As well, there were the usual findings—old enamelware; tobacco, evaporated milk, ham, and fish cans; broken crockery; remnants of rusted pots and pans; as well as corroded kerosene and oil tins. Due to the size of the garbage pile, the mystery inhabitant(s) had spent considerable time at their hidden site.

I spent about six more hours prospecting the immediate area, but it was a confusing web of small streams, little lakes, beaver dams, and swampy ground. Wherever the phantom prospector’s diggings were, I couldn’t find them in the time I had available.

We abandoned the area and went on and set the equipment up in a promising area we’d previously located closer to our base-camp, and for our efforts, got some nice coarse placer gold with a ton of character. However, the aforementioned mystery cabin has always intrigued me, and perhaps I’ll return one day to do some further sleuthing to see if I can’t decode that fascinating northern enigma.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Lanny.....what a find! I could see that cabin in my mind as you were describing it, and for me, that abandoned cabin would have had me hooked on staying there for awhile, and to make some sort of sense to the lay of the land....if you took GPS coordinates, I wonder if it is possible to find out who owned that old claim....and I am sure it was claimed.....I am only wondering what happened to the guy who built that cabin, and what happened to him.....since there were no banks around, I am also wondering where he was hiding his gold adjacent to the cabin.....what a great adventure and story....this is the kind of stuff I like to read about, and I LQQK forward to reading more!....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny.....what a find! I could see that cabin in my mind as you were describing it, and for me, that abandoned cabin would have had me hooked on staying there for awhile, and to make some sort of sense to the lay of the land....if you took GPS coordinates, I wonder if it is possible to find out who owned that old claim....and I am sure it was claimed.....I am only wondering what happened to the guy who built that cabin, and what happened to him.....since there were no banks around, I am also wondering where he was hiding his gold adjacent to the cabin.....what a great adventure and story....this is the kind of stuff I like to read about, and I LQQK forward to reading more!....SushiDog

Great questions Sushi--that's why if I ever get the chance, I'd really like to visit the site again--if I can still find it--no personal GPS with me back in those days. If only I'd known then what I know now about caches, locating diggings, etc., I'm sure it would have been a very different experience. But, that's usually the way life is--you get the experience (of the discovery) without enough experience (mining and prospecting knowledge) to know what to do with the experience (of a unique find) you've been given!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Yeah.....the age old questions: "should-da"; "could-da"; "would-da" (smile)....To be fair to you, I think you did the right thing at the time.....I mean.....you drove 16 hours just to get there, and you also had some heavy machinery with you as well....I believe if I had a backhoe, especially at that location, my time would have been spent on that, and not on the abandoned cabin.....I think this one is a toss-up on what you could have done differently, but I think devoting time on the backhoe was the best choice....SushiDog

 

[goldseeker4000]

someone was talking about sandstone and limestone. Limestone is highly associated with gold. If you are detecting an area that has gold and there is limestone in the matrix never pass it up. limestone produces nuggets because it is too soft to grind down the gold, so you end up with nuggets. The no.1 spot I am focusing on this summer is at the top of a mountain and the country rock is limestone and there is granite dikes cutting up thru the limestone. look on the down hill side of these dykes for nuggets. Soon as the snow melts I will be spending two weeks camped on the summit of such a mountian. I know there are nuggets up there as large as 9 oz. Snow can't melt soon enough. To test if the country rock is limestone go get some muratic acid and put it in an eyedroper bottle(glass) and test the rock by putting a couple drops on the rock. If it starts fizzing up or bubbling then it is limestone or dolomite. Always search these areas. If you are interested about this let me know and I will fill you in on the rest of the clues to find nuggets in this situation. There are more clues to lead a determined person to the gold in this type of situation.

 

[SushiDog]

Hi Goldseeker.....yeah! I find it very interesting indeed! I was watching a program on the History Channel where I saw such a test done on limestone with the acid, and some other rock found adjacent to it that did not react....if my memory serves me correctly, and this was done at a quarry, the rock that did not react to the acid was already decomposed by nature....in other words, the rock that did not react to the acid at one time was limestone....that is, IF my memory serves me correctly.....I sure would like to know more from you, and I am deeply grateful for you sharing your wisdom.....and above all else, please let us know how your bivouac on top of that mountain turns out....I don't doubt you for a nano second of what you might be able to find up there, and it sounds like you have invested a few hundred hours into research.....so count me in....I really would like to learn more!....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yeah.....the age old questions: "should-da"; "could-da"; "would-da" (smile)....To be fair to you, I think you did the right thing at the time.....I mean.....you drove 16 hours just to get there, and you also had some heavy machinery with you as well....I believe if I had a backhoe, especially at that location, my time would have been spent on that, and not on the abandoned cabin.....I think this one is a toss-up on what you could have done differently, but I think devoting time on the backhoe was the best choice....SushiDog

You're on the money Sushi--the little backhoe and the washplant caught the gold real well. The spot we were working had the gold deposited in a narrow paystreak--the problem was that the farther we worked back into the hill, the more unstable it became (lots of rounded glacial till above it [about 60 feet] that kept rolling toward the machinery) and so we had to stop working the area. However, the gold was very coarse, lumpy and rounded--it was beautiful stuff!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Goldseeker--extremely interesting post. I'm with Sushi--I hope you're rewarded with some great finds after all of your hard work. Keep us posted.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Lanny....yeah....it all makes sense to me.....I mean, you could always get to that location without heavy machinery at a later time, but when you had it, you had to keep it busy for as long as you could....besides....who knew when there would be a next time to that location?....I was thinking about what you wrote....I know you and your partner went up together, but I can assure you that if I was a member of your team at that time, and I was not needed elsewhere, I would have been drawn to that old cabin like a moth is drawn to a light bulb.....I guess everyone has their own comfort zone, and niche, and that's a good thing....after all, everyone works as a team, and so goes the spoils.....that was a very hard core trip Lanny! I mean, 16 long hard and bumpy hours just to get to your location is phenomenal, let alone, tiring.....and when you did arrive, you still had to make camp, etc....Wow!.....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Sushi,

Some day I'll post some info. about those first few days in camp--very interesting time I'll tell you--quite the adjustment period and some pretty intriguing stuff went on to boot (with the wildlife and the locals)!

All the best

 

[EagleDown]

Hey Lanny, you have any room up in AB for a talkative old man?? I had to come home early, partly due to disgust and partly due to a car window that wouldn't go up. (I'll explain about that in my thread.)

Loved your story about the "mystery cabin". Just the kind of place I'd like to poke around. Never know what you might find.

I just thought I'd pop in and show you a little of where I was. Streams and bed-rock. What we all like. Course it helps if there's gold in the streams.

This first one is the one you don't want to walk through during the summer. "The Black Widow Walk Way". I'm not exagerating when I say that there were dozens of them in these areas of bed-rock. You have to admit that they make pretty good "guard dogs".


The second one is one of the many gold bearing creeks near the top of "Burma Road".

The third one is a rock that my Miwok brothers honored me with by naming it "Eagle Tower". I've been waiting for about 40 years for it to land on hiway 140 into Yosemite.

I believe it's about 50 ft. from the base to the top.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Love the pictures Eagle--that bedrock makes me drool! Can't wait to see what you post about your latest adventures.

A great honor to you to have that rock named after you--nice compliment.

Anytime you want to come up and visit at the mine, just let me know--you're always welcome.

All the best Eagle,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Thank you my Brother!! But, I wasn't talking about a visit, I was talking about staying.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Managment,) is tightning their grip on the mining lands in this area so badly, I couldn't go anywhere without seeing gates on most of the mountain roads I use to explore and prospect. When I got to the river on Friday morning, there was a closed gate there. No vehicles allowed during winter months. I guess they want to reserve it for the rafting companies. Beside the fact that since it's technically Fed land, I guess they 'could' say, "no metal detecting". I guess I'm going to have to look for new "stomping grounds".

Eagle

 

[goldseeker4000]

Lanny you have some good info but one discrepency I noticed is you were talking about some guy being in Idaho on the Grasshopper creek around Bannack, well Grasshopper Creek and Bannack are in the Great State of Montana. If you have any time to come down to Montana this summer, I would like to take you to some places I go detecting. One place I went to a few times I never had luck but heard of nuggets coming out of there as large as 9 oz., well I got new info on the area and i didn't go high enough. Evidently I need to be on the very summit of the mountains there. I was told by a very reputable geologist that last year a man was told to go up there and he found over 300 nuggets. Another friend of mine has shown me the nuggets he has found there as well. Very impressive. This is my main spot for this year. I will be going up soon as snow melts and camping on the summit of this mountain range in the heart of this gold field. I will be spending a week up ontop with my gpx4000 and x-terra705. can't wait. here is my email if you are interested in going. Gold Gold Gold there is gold on that mountain and I will find it if it is the last thing I do. Lol

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi there goldseeker--if I mentioned that Grasshopper Creek was in Idaho--I must have been way, way out to lunch! My apologies--of course it's in Montana--I've visited it a few times myself--even chased some gold there--fascinating place--fascinating history.

If there's gold on that mountaintop, that 4000 of yours will sure find it if the ground is extreme.

Thanks so much for the email address and the kind invitation--very generous of you.

All the best,

Lanny

I sent you a PM a few days ago right here on TNET--see if you got it.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thank you my Brother!! But, I wasn't talking about a visit, I was talking about staying.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Managment,) is tightning their grip on the mining lands in this area so badly, I couldn't go anywhere without seeing gates on most of the mountain roads I use to explore and prospect. When I got to the river on Friday morning, there was a closed gate there. No vehicles allowed during winter months. I guess they want to reserve it for the rafting companies. Beside the fact that since it's technically Fed land, I guess they 'could' say, "no metal detecting". I guess I'm going to have to look for new "stomping grounds".

Eagle

Eagle--that is such a bummer that so many places are now closed. But, doesn't that land belong to the people? How is the BLM able to close it off to the public? Or is it only closed to vehicular traffic (I just read your post again.) It must be so frustrating for you, as you have so many great sites logged in your brain--sites you very obviously want to explore again.

How long are you planning on "staying" ?

All the best,

Lanny