Prospectors Research Tools

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,958
14,509
The Great Southwest
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Prospector's Research Tools

I haven't been around much this summer and with the desert prospecting season just starting it's a good time to show off what I did this long hot summer. I have been working with a few friends on a new non-profit organization to give you a single place for all your land research.

The result is MyLandMatters.Org. This is the gateway to your land information repository. Maps, books, tutorials, community resources and quality, easy-to-access information about the land around you.

No ads, No memberships, No log-in required. :thumbsup:

This past spring while sitting around with some friends we came to the conclusion that most of the important and useful things that we want to know about the land around us was difficult to locate and tough to understand. Despite the many sources of information there was no single place to find the information available.

We decided we could do something about that. We agreed to put our time and energy into creating a single place that anyone could find the answers to questions about the land.

It's a big project. It has taken a lot of work, learning and resources to get things started. But after six months of long days, and more than a few nights, the Land Matters repository is ready for you to use.

Land Matters is all about the land. You can find Land Status Maps, Active Mining Claims Maps (with live direct links into the current LR2000 claims database), A great collection of mining books, Land Laws, Geology books and maps, Forest Travel Plans and a whole lot more.

Land Matters is for land users. Our collections are guided by community input. That's you. Let us know what kind of material you would like to find in our Library or a particular map you would like to see. Help us build Land Matters to best serve the community.

We've already got a lot of things that prospectors have been asking for - the claims maps alone were almost universally requested. Land Matters isn't just for prospectors and miners. But you can help prioritize our efforts and drive the content of Land Matters. Prospectors now have a unique opportunity to help guide and build an information resource designed by prospectors and for prospectors.

We are just getting started filling the Library but there will be hundreds of books, maps and items added in the next few weeks. We've even got a Newsletter so you can get regular updates about new additions to the Land Matters repository.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Here are a few good places to start:

Tutorials - the current focus is on understanding Land Status.
Maps - We all like maps and we've got some you will love.
Library - search for something.

Heavy Pans
Barry & Leigh
 

Upvote 12
Geology and More

More Land Matters Map Updates:

Several people requested Tennessee Geology so that was near the top of our list. This was a tough map to make, ALL of the government data was broken. We reassembled, fixed and cleaned up the data over the last three days. Enjoy Tennessee!

Skip pointed out that a Maine Geology map was a good idea too so that's up now.

The geocommunicator internet feed went down again this weekend. I went ahead and hosted the Grazing Allotment Map on our servers rather than hope and wish they would bring the map back.

These government map services are very unreliable, particularly on weekends. Part of our goal at Land Matters is to host this public information from our own servers. Our own servers are much faster and don't disappear at odd times - or permanently like the geocommunicator claims maps in 2011 or the removal of the 100's of National Atlas maps at the end of September.

Let us know what you think of the new maps or let us know what you would like to see in the Library or Maps.

Much more coming very soon. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

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Sorry for the delay in posting this but being out in the field and without a web connection... well you know.

I agree 100% with Barrys' reasoning for wanting to keep the site as ad free as possible. Granted ads could help pay the bills, but when your browser has to gather up ad code from several different servers it slows things down a lot. I for one don't like having ads pop up or web sites that take forever to load because they're getting code from several different places.

Having a site like this and combining the information here with other sites like the USGS maps page is a great way to research new areas. As many of you know, I've been slowly downloading all the info for Mohave County, AZ from the AZGS site. While much of the info is rather dated, there is still enough good stuff there to make looking for areas to explore much easier to find. With the direct access to the LM2000 info from Barrys' site, I can keep off of areas that are currently claimed. In time I plan on grabbing all the info for all of the counties in Arizona, but that's going to require me to get a new computer with enough hard drive space to store all that info. I've still got about a third of Mohave County left to get and I'm already up to over 16 Gigs worth of data! Can you imagine how much room will be needed for the entire state? If the AZGS people had used something other than PDFs to store the info it would have saved a lot of time and space!!!!! Getting them to change everything over to a better system isn't going to happen though.....
 

Good stuff Irishman! I would love to prospect in Arizona eventually. -Luke
 

Good stuff Irishman! I would love to prospect in Arizona eventually. -Luke

Well when ya get out this way let me know and I'll get you hooked up! I think you'll like the gold out here. Buttery yellow and as a rule it's VERY crystalline looking. A lot of folks think California for gold not knowing how much of it we have here in Arizona.
 

Well when ya get out this way let me know and I'll get you hooked up! I think you'll like the gold out here. Buttery yellow and as a rule it's VERY crystalline looking. A lot of folks think California for gold not knowing how much of it we have here in Arizona.

There's no gold in Arizona ;-) !
 

More East Coast Geology!

Virginia and Maryland Geology Maps are up and available now.

I've seen some beautiful gold out of Virgina. Big stuff too!

More coming soon. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

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Books for Georgia Prospectors and an Idaho Geology Map

I hope everyone had a gold filled weekend? :happysmiley:

Georgia was the first of the Gold States that helped turn the United States into the wealthy nation it is today.

Until the Georgia gold deposits were discovered and a mint established there the United States had very little money. Money being gold and silver at the time we were mostly relying on the availability of Spanish pieces of eight to facilitate trade. Georgia changed all that.

These are some great newly added research resources for those rich Georgia gold deposits. Just go to the Land Matters Library and copy and paste any of these into the search box:

Geology and Mineral Resources of the Paleozoic Area in Northwest Georgia

Geology of the Crystalline Rocks of Georgia

Gold Deposits of Georgia, Bulletin 4A

Second Report on the Gold Deposits of Georgia

Mineral Resources of Georgia

Geology of the Greater Atlanta Region


Or just search for Georgia and see what else is available. :thumbsup:

The Idaho Geology map is up and running as of this evening. By request. Don't be afraid to Contact Land Matters and let them know what you would like to see. It really is all about what you, the land user, needs.

More coming soon!

Heavy Pans
 

Good looking map source just missing the largest state in the union! Haha will sure help plan my next vacation to somewhere warmer with with gold this winter! Good work on the site it looks like it took a lot.
 

Good looking map source just missing the largest state in the union! Haha will sure help plan my next vacation to somewhere warmer with with gold this winter! Good work on the site it looks like it took a lot.

We will get to Alaska and Canada soon. Eventually the whole World! :thumbsup:

Enjoy the warm gold.

Heavy Pans
 

Nevada Claims Map

As requested the Nevada claims map is now available. Careful - this is a big one. It opens with just the placer claims shown to save on bandwidth. If you've got a slow internet connection you might consider zooming in before you turn on the 182,000 plus lode claims. :laughing7:

The BLM LR2000 data dump was updated yesterday November 2, 2014. As always please remember this is only a snapshot of the BLM case file status at one point in time. You can check current claim status for any claim on the map but you won't see new ones until the next update. This map doesn't show the actual location of a claim - only the assigned 1/4 section in the BLM claims case files. This is a research tool only - the rest of your required due diligence is up to each individual prospector. All that being said it's still pretty cool getting this stuff for free.

While you are there check out the Nevada Geology, Land Management map (included on the claims map) and the Wilderness map.

This was a tough map to build - California is going to be much harder. Only about 1/3 of California is surveyed. Makes it tough to put those claims in sections when there is no survey.

Find a good spot and go play in the dirt. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

"pretty cool getting this stuff for free" ...no there's an understatement!
 

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