mount a sluice in a culvert for the winter??

[beekbuster]

it may be a crazy or a genius idea. build a gold catch and fasten it inside a culvert of your favorite gold bearing stream. i think it will work, especially with a smooth culvert. im sure this has been thought of? any similar goofy gold catching ideas out there?

 

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[GoldpannerDave]

it may be a crazy or a genius idea. build a gold catch and fasten it inside a culvert of your favorite gold bearing stream. i think it will work, especially with a smooth culvert. im sure this has been thought of? any similar goofy gold catching ideas out there?

I'm told 30-35 years ago there was a guy who put a sluice in a creek somewhere in the Talladega National Forest for the winter and go back and get it beginning of spring (or maybe he put it there the beginning of spring and went back and got it when winter started). Anyway, that is in Alabama. I don't think too many folks knew about Alabama gold 35 year ago.

My understanding was he did OK for not much work.

 

[Goldwasher]

If you happen to know a creek that has gold and you dig it out...and find out that the same amount of gold replenished that spot...in just one season. You have the only creek like that in the world

 

[GoldpannerDave]

If you happen to know a creek that has gold and you dig it out...and find out that the same amount of gold replenished that spot...in just one season. You have the only creek like that in the world

As far as I know, he did not dig; just left the sluice there in the creek and caught some gold every year. I don't know that he got the same amount every year or that he used the same exact place every year, just that he did get some gold every year.

I thought you guys in Kalifornia had the places that replenished every year! Certainly not here in Colorado. While Alabama gets more rain than we do, I doubt there is a lot of replenishing going on there either. But I have not panned in Alabama in over 30 years and even then never got a lot of color, so several dozen colors would have been quite welcome; maybe that's all he got. That would have been quite OK for me back then. I never saw a really great spot to work until I went to the Trinity River area.

But if you know a replenishing creek there, you'd better get a Bazooka in it now before the courts declare dredging again legal in Kalifornia and others clean it out this year!!

 

[B Street Blacksmith]

Things like this have been done for millenia. Look at the legend of the Golden Fleece, and the history behind it.

Leaving "gold traps" in the river for extended periods of time, to fine placer gold, is by no means a new idea.

Check this article out

Interesting read.

 

[rodoconnor]

I, like a lot of dredgers, have found sluices chiseled into bedrock by our predecessors. And yes, they usually are very rewarding. I've found some in the desert in culverts and B.R. locations. I don't know how much gold the guys got but it didn't take much effort.

 

[KevinInColorado]

As far as I know, he did not dig; just left the sluice there in the creek and caught some gold every year. I don't know that he got the same amount every year or that he used the same exact place every year, just that he did get some gold every year.

I thought you guys in Kalifornia had the places that replenished every year! Certainly not here in Colorado. While Alabama gets more rain than we do, I doubt there is a lot of replenishing going on there either. But I have not panned in Alabama in over 30 years and even then never got a lot of color, so several dozen colors would have been quite welcome; maybe that's all he got. That would have been quite OK for me back then. I never saw a really great spot to work until I went to the Trinity River area.

But if you know a replenishing creek there, you'd better get a Bazooka in it now before the courts declare dredging again legal in Kalifornia and others clean it out this year!!

Good news Dave, there are definitely waterways that replenish in Colorado. The S Platte gets new feeder creek gold annually and gold migrates downstream thru Denver for sure. Just one example :-)

 

[Goldwasher]

I, like a lot of dredgers, have found sluices chiseled into bedrock by our predecessors. And yes, they usually are very rewarding. I've found some in the desert in culverts and B.R. locations. I don't know how much gold the guys got but it didn't take much effort.

And they didn't replenish seasonally. Maybe at first due to the rich nature of local gravels but, not nowadays. Passive prospecting is an enticing idea. Yet, it goes against all logic. If you could get a piece of equipment to stay put for years maybe you would luck out. The notion that you could place a trap nowadays and come back after the high water season and recover paying gold from it makes no sense. You would have to know of a substantial deposit up stream, have beyond farmers almanac knowledge of the upcoming weather, and hope that the flood doesn't remove said contraption. Throw that noodle against the wall and it just doesn't stick. Show me proof of this idea working three times in a row and I might be interested. This doesn't count for the guys who have dredged out out ground sluice riffles...they had decades of replenishment and concentration. No, offense meant just have never seen even second hand proof let alone first hand. I live in gold
country my driveway crosses a seasonal creek. the creek holds color...the front of the culvert catches some....the culvert does not. Which means it is working perfectly. If I put a sluice at the end of it would it catch some flood gold? Maybe. I'll stick to the tried and true. I know flooding and deposits and prospecting to well to let a lambs wool catch gold for me all wet season.Again if this was such a wonderful idea it would be more than lore. (not discounting Jason and the Argonauts) Just not relevant. We're discussing the evolution of sluicing and that is old out dated and surpassed technology why take a step back?

 

[GoldpannerDave]

And they didn't replenish seasonally. Maybe at first due to the rich nature of local gravels but, not nowadays. Passive prospecting is an enticing idea. Yet, it goes against all logic. If you could get a piece of equipment to stay put for years maybe you would luck out. The notion that you could place a trap nowadays and come back after the high water season and recover paying gold from it makes no sense. You would have to know of a substantial deposit up stream, have beyond farmers almanac knowledge of the upcoming weather, and hope that the flood doesn't remove said contraption. Throw that noodle against the wall and it just doesn't stick. Show me proof of this idea working three times in a row and I might be interested. This doesn't count for the guys who have dredged out out ground sluice riffles...they had decades of replenishment and concentration. No, offense meant just have never seen even second hand proof let alone first hand. I live in could country my driveway crosses a seasonal creek. the creek holds color...the front of the culvert catches some....the culvert does not. Which means it is working perfectly. If I put a sluice at the end of it would it catch some flood gold? Maybe. I'll stick to the tried and true. I know flooding and deposits and prospecting to well to let a lambs wool catch gold for me all wet season.Again if this was such a wonderful idea it would be more than lore. (not discounting Jason and the Argonauts) Just not relevant. We're discussing the evolution of sluicing and that is old out dated and surpassed technology why take a step back?

You are right about that lamb's wool--the lanolin in it is greasy. I think that is somewhat self defeating. In these days I would be worried someone else would find the sluice and steal any gold you had in it. As far as a culvert, those with corrugated steel pipe might trap some gold, but I would muck it out and run the material in a sluice and be sure check it out before and after big storms just to see what difference that might make.

So how long could you leave a well anchored sluice in a stream before it clogged up or lost your gold through a gradual migration process? To prevent clogging you would need the sluice in a mini-dam or some sort of similar drop at the discharge end. You are right that bad weather could wash the entire thing downstream. How to prevent gold migration out of the sluice? Maybe a bazooka, anchored well below water level

I never met the guy that put the sluice in the creek in the Talladega National Forest. I heard about it from a member of an early Alabama gold prospectors group. I'm sure I still have some of their guides to gold in Alabama somewhere. Gold like fish stories, can be exaggerated. Still I expect there was some truth behind it all.

 

[Goldwasher]

The other non starter is the fact that the sluice will only sluice with proper flow. As soon as the natural flow returns post flood there would be no more suspension of material in the riffles. The material will lock. Next flood they will either lose material from surge or the material will stay packed and gold will just pass through. There is a reason for pay layers and false bedrock. Same principals make in stream passive traps innefective. Unless they are permanent and there for a long time. There are numerous traps that I have cleaned out that I could go back to but, won't waste my time. Heck if i'm digging a trap and it is very loose material and sampling doesn't show really really good color I give up and move to better more packed material. If I knew a natural trap had great gold upstream...I wouldn't wait for the gold to come to the trap I would go for the gold. With prospecting and mining there's never really the easy way.

 

[russau]

I saw a gold trap that was hand dug into a narrow stream from edge to edge . a small bridge was built over it for a man to lay on it and use his 3 inch suction nozzle to clean out this "trap" when ever it rained . the pump and equipment were always there to use. P.S. he lived right there to keep a eye on it!

 

[kevin1]

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of anchoring lengths of "poop tube" in creeks to hopefully catch the glacial gold we have here, if the tube were on the floor of a culvert I have to think it might just work. Maybe I'll just work the gravels in those culverts and just let Nature fill them back up.

 

[Skiddum]

Personally I'd say if you wanna do this for fun take some of you carpet and lay it in a spot you know really well. make sure it's good and held down a 50 pound weight would do the trick. you could also tie a couple stones or bricks to the corners. leave it there for at the start of autumn. and the go back in the spring. the carpet will have caught some fine gold and some bigger pieces. just be careful when you pull it out. I do this allot. not my own stuff but I've found shirts and shoes and some other crap that wound up in the river and I usually find some gold and blacksand in them if I'm in the right rivers. but it's bette than leaving a piece of equipment there to be stolen. but if people think it's trash most the time the don't mess with it. they get grossed out. where as us prospectors we look through this stuff and clean up the rivers. At least I do. I can't figure out why so many people are down on prospecting. they just don't know what it really is I guess or what. but we do allot of good when where out and about looking for our treasure

 

[Goldwasher]

Flooding moves boulders that weigh hundreds of pounds up to tons....you tube flash flood. Then relate the effects on a piece of carpet held down with bricks and nails. Is that Trap going to stay put in the sort of flow that move the stream material NO it is not. You can not nail of a creek. You could drill and place hold downs and a removable trap. But, again that implies knowledge of gold that will actually move into it. Still as a prospector having a hard time understanding why someone would wait for gold they knew of to hopefully move into a placed trap and wait for a later date to check on it. If you know where gold is that would be enough to recover from a sluice....well you might as well just sluice it. Go place ten traps after a flood a number if not all of them will be gone. Hers a better scenario...the flood does rip up stream material say several tons....then places it on top of and all around your trap. You come back and can't even see it cause its buried under feet and tons of overburden boulders mud and all. In square footage alone its five times the size of your trap. Did someone tell the gold to make sure to run through the trap Nope it will be naturally dispersed. possibly concentrated and with common luck the heavy line runs right next to your trap...Dang it...and you didn't even find out until you mucked out several yards and unburied your locked up non effective passive gold trap. Theres a good chance you find color....cause you moved several yards... kinda sounds like one should just find deposits and work them when you can. Waiting for the gold to come to you could create a lot of waiting....Gold mining is not the sort of endeavour that favors waiting. Mother Nature loves to win staring contests!!!

 

[Hard Prospector]

Placing a large stretch of thick pile carpet into a smooth round culvert pipe (like that which runs under road ways) could be very interesting. You could probably secure the leading edge of the carpet under the up-stream side the pipe lip well enough to stay put for a month or two at a time and are not likely to have any over-burden pile up issues.