Clay boulder!

[2020hindsite]

I figured I would share because to date this was the strangest thing I've ever found.
I was dredging and everything was normal and I started to uncover what looked like a bedrock shelf. I keep dredging and the shelf kept going and going long wise. After a few feet I realized it was totally made of hard as rock blue clay with a brown cray crust.
I uncovered the entire thing and found it to be about 4 feet across by 3 feet wide by 2 feet thick.
It was literally a clay boulder...I thought it was very strange and cleaned it as best as I could and tried to get under it as best as possible. I tried to flip it using shovels but it was probably 500 lbs at least. I hooked a strap to it to winch it out but it was so slippery and pieces kept breaking off.
As it said I spend a long while cleaning under it as far as I could and on top of it and to be honest I didn't do very good gold wise.
Anyways no real point just the strangest thing I've ever seen in my area.
Does anyone know how such a thing comes to exist?
Thanks

 

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[dredgeman]

On the Yuba river below Malakoff diggings (hydraulic area) there are clay boulder 4 ft across just sitting on the bank.

Many different sizes that came down the river when the old timers worked it.

 

[Hoser John]

Hook up a blaster nozzle and they melt like ice on a hot day and sometimes you get a righteous GOLDEN SURPRISE as gold sticks to'm like glue-John PS-without a blaster nozzle ya ain't dredging,jus' a piddln' and a diddln'. Double the volume and recovery as clay,cemented gravels dissolve,cracks,crevices are blasted clean and your dredge shines...upgrade asap!!

 

[jog]

I have about a 12" clay layer under the overburden on one of my claims, allmost impossible to just dredge through it. After installing a blaster kit like Hoser says it just melts away in front of your nozzle. Also blasts away all that broken & rotten bedrock like it's nothing. If you don't have a blaster kit & you still want to get it out of the river use a set of tire chains to rap around it.