Gold Lights / Flashes to Guide the Way to Riches???

[gollum]

Okay,

This subject has been brought up several times in other sections, but never a Thread devoted entirely to it, so I think some of our Miner/Prospector friends here might not have been able to chime in.

In the diaries of his travels in New Spain, Father Juan (Johan) Nentvig SJ (Jesuit) wrote about the silver and gold mines all over Pimeria Alta (Northern Mexico and Southwestern US). He wrote that during the rainy season, there were many flashes to show that there was still much gold and silver to be had.

I had heard about these stories for a long time, but didn't put much stock in them, until I met an old timer who makes the rounds to Stanton (Rich Hill), Rye Patch, etc. He actually had pictures of the lights. He sets up his video camera about dusk and leaves it running till after dark. He collects it and reviews the video. If he finds something, he gets a frame from the video and prints it. I have to say that I was impressed.

The theory is that gasses develop from the different minerals associated with the different types of ore (like arsenic in gold ore). During periods of high humidity/rain, as the sun goes down, the temps radically change. The pressure differential is so great that the gasses vent to the atmosphere and phosphoresce. Different minerals/ores give off different colored lights. That is the theory anyway.

Anybody have anything else to share? Pics maybe?

Thanks-Mike

 

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[INDEAD]

All that said, crazy stuff still happens that we have no reasonable explanation for and I'm glad it does or life would be boring if everything could be explained eh?[/QUOTE]

Like Todd Hoffman( He's a miner?)

 

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[DizzyDigger]

My hypothesis?

Mineralized areas are typically loaded with iron and other heavy metals,
including gold, copper, etc.

It would not be unreasonable at all for an electric charge to develop
between metals, and then that charge is maintained in the ore in the
same manner as a battery stores energy. When certain atmospheric
conditions exist, it discharges. Those discharges could take many forms;
an electric arc, or even a glowing effect as the stored electrical energy
is released.

Plausible, perhaps?

 

[davin]

what kind of camera is need to capture the lights ? trying to learn more about this.
thanks.

 

[gollum]

what kind of camera is need to capture the lights ? trying to learn more about this.
thanks.

I don't think that if the phenomenon can be seen with your eyes, that any specialized camera gear would be necessary. The guy at Rich Hill just used to set up an old VHS Camera on a tripod, and video the two hours right before dusk and after. When he reviewed the video, if he found a flash, he made a still from the video and printed it for his album. Has tons of light flash pics.

Mike

 

[captain1965]

It can be seen with your eyes. I have witnessed these.

 

[Dr. Syn]

Hmm, while hanging out on a post out in the field, a couple of notions. Lightning tends to be attracted to conductive metals. That's why there are lightning rods on the barn and farm house. Conductive metal used to attract lightning away from other things. Sure it can strike other places, but simple science, it's seeking a ground. I know our junk pile out back, old farm equipment, building material like metal roofing, and all those tin cans that survived the burn pile, gets nailed all the time. Loads of conductive material.

And why do we see "lights" as times in high humidity periods, more moisture more chance of electrical charges being produced and traveling in/on said moisture. So why couldn't it be looking for a place to ground? And why not someplace a lot more conductive then another? Gold is pretty good at conduction.
So are a lot of metals, vs plain old dirt/sand. So if you have a place of high mineral content would the chances be better of seeing "lights" over such places?

Heck I hang out on a wooden post in the middle of a corn field. Couple of nails to hold the post and me together. Never been hit by lightning, but the dump not even a 100 yards away is always getting lit up. Down in the valley, where the well sits on the spring, I've seen it glow like it was lit up like a fluorescent lamp, on warm foggy nights. No storms, no lightning, yet there it is glowing away. Lots of minerals in the water.

Second bit about minerals/plants. If you look at the ground, and know it's make up, you'll find common plants that will grow much differently in the same soil.
Why? Some need what's there, some don't and/or what is there is detrimental to them. Around the well on the farm I've got some apple trees.
5 or 6 of them are what I would call normal trees, maybe 20 feet high. They sit about 50 feet down from the well, right along the spring's run.

Then there's old grand dad, this apple tree grew up right where the spring came up out of the ground. It's an easy 50 feet high and 70 feet wide, the trunk is at least 4 feet across if not more. I have photos of it from the 1930's, and it was a monster then too, so it has to be at least a 100 years old.

The ground around it is always moist, it gets more then it's share of the high mineral content. The trees further down, only see the same as it flows past them on one side. Least my way of thinking minerals can make a difference in plants not only species, but in development. Oh almost forgot the Maple tree. It sits a couple hundred yards below the spring. Low spot formed there. Nice place for water/minerals to accumulate. This guy is well over a 70 feet high and wide, the trunk is over 6 feet wide. The ones around it, maybe two to three feet across, and shorter. They don't sit near that spot.

Can't explain it, but have seen it. Honestly, I think we as a group of folks are not quite as smart as we think we are. The ancients did things we still are trying to figure out. Yeah those heathens who didn't have cell phones, laptops, and such, yet still understood more of our world then we ever will.

Heck we don't even understand all there is to animals. And animals can teach us a lot. Crows squawking down in the valley, listen carefully and you can pick out that something in moving down there, and follow the crows as they crow and you'll soon see what it is they are talking about. Be it a deer, a bear, a dog, or even a human. We don't listen and see like our ancestors did. We've become too out of tune with nature. It's always talking, you just have to listen.

 

[Adventure_Time]

Incase anyone was wondering lightning, or any electrical discharge, starts in the ground or rather the pathway for the negatively charged electrons in the clouds to travel along with the water vapor in the air acting as a conductor... once you have sufficient saturation the earth sized electrical circuit is completed and you get lightning =)

I would bet money these lights occur over a fault and/or near surface(ish) water table and a piezoelectric effect is created by the rapid cooling of the land that spent all day roasting in the sun causing a constriction on crystal pockets / mediums which builds up a charge. Other than the brief rain period, the desert is one big electron dust bowl just waiting for a grounding point.

My only other guess... ALIENS!!! xD

 

[Mad Machinist]

I don't know about lights in the desert, but I have seen enough of unexplainable stuff out here that I do not doubt it. I have and will continue to use a camera at different times of the day an different seasons. Light can show a lot depending on the angle of reflection.

 

[boogeyman]

Hey Hoser,

Maybe if you read a bit more instead of being a smarta$$, you might learn something.

Through documented records, we know for a fact that AT LEAST the Spanish from the early 1500s watched for lights and flashes during the rainy seasons to prospect for gold/silver/quicksilver.

Maybe if you asked an old time prospector, they could tell you a thing or two.

Like I said, until I saw the pictures, I was a skeptic as well.

Best-Mike

He might do a little googling on these lights up in San Luis valley Colorado. People to this day go out in the hills to look for the lights. Heard this from a ranger and an old timer. Supposed to be common knowledge in the area.

 

[gollum]

He might do a little googling on these lights up in San Luis valley Colorado. People to this day go out in the hills to look for the lights. Heard this from a ranger and an old timer. Supposed to be common knowledge in the area.

The San Luis Lights and the Marfa Texas Lights are two sets of very interesting phenomenon. Very likely ground induced ball lightning, but who knows?

Mike

 

[boogeyman]

The San Luis Lights and the Marfa Texas Lights are two sets of very interesting phenomenon. Very likely ground induced ball lightning, but who knows?

Mike

The Marfa lights are real interesting, but the ones I'm talking about are described as blue lights coming up from the ground kinda like the flame on your stove. The ranger told us a couple families have owned land in the mountains for three or four generations. He said they were Spanish and had learned this technique many generations ago. And he made a side joke that they weren't aliens. This being the time of thesecond UFO flap by the Great Sand Dunes. Dang, missed all the cattle mutilations, UFOs, lights from gold caches & deposits. Only good thing was, found some interesting people!!

 

[Carl995]

The San Luis Lights and the Marfa Texas Lights are two sets of very interesting phenomenon. Very likely ground induced ball lightning, but who knows?

Mike

I mentioned in another post that my dad studied about "Foxfire" as he has seen it a lot in the Supers.
A glow in the distance on the ground. There's an old movie about it.

 

[boogeyman]

I mentioned in another post that my dad studied about "Foxfire" as he has seen it a lot in the Supers.
A glow in the distance on the ground. There's an old movie about it.

Could you add more to this? What your dad passed on to you is worth more than books to me! If you can remember the movie, it'd be interesting to see too! Thanks!

 

[Carl995]

Could you add more to this? What your dad passed on to you is worth more than books to me! If you can remember the movie, it'd be interesting to see too! Thanks!

I don't remember much more than that, my wife & him talked about it more than I did.

 

[CApicker]

Great post! You really ralied up some of of what I think are TN's best and wisest prospectors... I have learned a lot from Hoser in my time on TN and will always read a post by him; that said this thread reminds me that I will likely go to my grave only ever learning about half or less of what there is to know about prospecting Gold.
Just to think the Spanish ran around in this area for around 300 yers prior to the US establishment and got a LOT of Gold out of here with some techniques that would make some folks laugh!
Keep Learning, keep laughing, keep colaborating, and we will all be better for it!
Oh and an occasional "Puff-Puff" aint such a bad idea either...
Much Love and Heavy Pans to all!!!

 

[boogeyman]

I think you said it! Sometimes the knowledge is worth way more than the finds. Carrol you've got a humongous treasure! Thank you for sharing it!

 

[Rawhide]

All we have is his old post. We are loosing so many old hands this year.

Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk

 

[HarryLime]

Great thread. Thanks for starting it, Mike. It's been a real education for me. Very well thought out theories.

My great grandmother witnessed balls of light pop up out of the ground on the family farm in West Texas during the 1920s. The lights appeared all the time one summer, she said. I'll include a link to a video interview where she talks about the lights.

Rebecca Taggart also saw such lights and wrote about them in Phantom of the Caballos.

I think a while back Roger Snow made a post about people who'd witnessed strange lights around Victorio Peak. The list included Judge Moreland (a friend of my grandmother's), Harvey Snow, military personel, and many others. I've read a lot about the Marfa Lights and frankly, some of those stories verge on the supernatural. Call me a kook, but others have talked about treasure spirits on here. I'm not saying that's the explanation, but I admit the lights are pretty spooky.

 

[TallTx]

Found numerous references to lights or flashes in Grangers "A Motif Index".
One story attributed to Siebold 1948 and/or Dobie claims "The Mexicans say such a place should be marked with a cross or other holy symbol". Could explain why so many sites are marked like this.

 

[bedrock bubba]

Back in 1982, one of the worst storms ever hit the spook Santa Cruz Mountains where I lived. Giant redwoods were blowing down, I looked out my window of my cabin and there was a burning ball of flame less than a few feet outside! The next day, after the storm passed, a giant Doug Fir tree over 200' high had uprooted!

As a dowser, I know that gold cache spots often leave an aura, even after the gold is gone, and my rods pick up that signal. I'm sure Reed Lukens can attest to that, as he is an experienced gold dowser.

It is normal to have spooky, supernatural experiences in the SC mountains. Virtually everyone there can tell you stories that will raise the hair on the back of your head! Some, I cannot even talk about.