Some Gold with OwenT

[OwenT]

I figured it’s about time I start one of these to share some of my prospecting finds/adventures.

First of all I would like to express my appreciation to all the good and knowledge members here that got me started on the journey and have kept the fever alive, especially while I was still trying to find my very first gold all by myself.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of mineral collecting and gold prospecting has been taking sort of a backseat but yesterday I got out again for a proper day of sluicing. I went back to a spot I found that was kind of “hot” on the river in W Washington. I found it last week while poking around different spots after my plan A didn’t work out. It’s been a while since I’ve used my Bazooka but I broke it out for this spot and it did really well. This is actually one of my biggest cleanups ever, if not the biggest. I can’t remember. .93 grams including a 1/4” flake weighing .08 g. It’s quite thin but I was really surprised to see such a big flash in my sample pan! Unfortunately that was the only one that big.

We’ll see if I do much more gold mining this summer in Washington but I hope to find some spots in Utah when (if?) I go back to school. Time to get some desert gold!

 

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[Blak bart]

nice...congrats and thanks for sharing !!

 

[HMiller]

Very nice!

 

[Rookster]

That’s what I’m talkin about

 

[Gold4Mike]

Nice flake! And gold!

 

[OwenT]

Latest in my prospecting journey: I went out for just a few hours because there was this one spot next to a small gold district (West Tintic) that I wanted to check out. Well I didnt find what I was looking for but I did have a good time using my gold bug 2 for the first time in the field. And I dug my first target! It was a small piece of trash sitting right in a nice bedrock catch. I wish I had it still but I lost it on the way down somewhere. No gold but now I really want get out with the detector and actually put it over some gold this time. Lately I have just been ever more focused on collecting other minerals it’s hard to decide what to do.

 

[Mackaydon]

That gold will buy a few textbooks--or is everything online today?
Don.....

 

[OwenT]

That gold will buy a few textbooks--or is everything online today?
Don.....

I don't bother much with textbooks. A lot of them I can get as ebooks, but for the most part as long as your professor doesn't absolutely require you to own a copy of the book, you don't need it. That goes for my engineering classes anyway. If you need to know something it can be found online for free and math based stuff is usually pretty universal. If you need a book for the homework problems, there are usually workarounds. I'll never buy a brand new textbook. It seems like every year they publish a new edition with nothing changed but the cover and some numbers in the problems and then charge $200 for it. And there are students that buy them, for every class. I don't know how they do it. Some professors try to not require a textbook or at least the newest edition try to to save us money but some don't seem to care (especially the ones that make you buy the book THEY WROTE!)

Anyway, when the day come that I find enough gold to put me in the black enough for even one textbook, I'll be happy. Actually, my little job at the moment has been mining selenite crystals from a friends claim and then selling them to a local retail shop. Some crystals are practically worth their weight in gold to some people it seems.

 

[OwenT]

Hopefully everyone has read Lanny in AB’s wonderful poetry over on his thread in the gold detecting section. I’ve admired it for a few years now but earlier this year a rockhounding friend of mine wrote a nice little poem and inspired me to do the same. Someone had jokingly commented on his post that he should write a poem about going out and never finding anything. Well I thought that wasn’t too bad an idea.

So this is an idea I’ve had for a while but I finally have gotten it written down. At first intended to write about prospecting in general whether it be for gold or crystals since I enjoy all of it, but it turns out it’s a lot easier to just write about gold mining.

It’s as good as it’s going to get for now but keep in mind this is my first real attempt at poetry. It doesn’t have a really uniform rhyming pattern but I am happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you think.

Prospector

Often I think ‘bout those who first came
In hopes of working land yet untamed
The earth was good, the grass was green
Cowboys, farmers, and loggers were keen
Still, rumors of riches and wealth untold
Brought others to seek their fortune, in gold

And treasure was found, yes, indeed
Just a hint at first, then they followed the lead
Big discoveries and bigger expectations
Gave need for more hands to perform excavation
Some companies employed miners galore
Ten, fifty, a hundred or more
Their work was oft dangerous, though the small wage they were paid
Although some could be sly and sneak some high-grade
The hire, he craved not glimmer of gold
Except for which to pay the debts by him owed

The prospector though, roamed alone
Calling the untracked mountains his home
Combing the streams and hills unsettled
In pursuit of gems and precious metal
“Tomorrow, I strike it rich”, he’d say
Just to be skunked another day
And though at times he’d have felt like crying
He’d find just enough to keep on trying

If he made a strike that was any good
He’d keep it quiet as long as he could
Once the news got out and the miners all came
He’d pack up his kit and sell off the claim.
“There’s richer diggings up North”, he’d hear
So he’s grab the reigns and away way he’d steer
And if he never found it, that’s okay
He pined not for wealth anyway
But for freedom, adventure and fresh mountain air
And longing to know what’s just over there
And as long as there was something to discover
He would be out there, prospecting forever

Now the camps are all gone, the mines mostly closed
All that is left are some cabins, some holes
Fortunes were made and fortunes were lost
By road and by rail, the country’s now crossed
The mines brought the people, the cities, factories
But earth’s treasures are no longer found with such ease
And what if they didn’t get it all?
I head for the hills to answer the call
To seek out my shiny yellow muse
I follow their footsteps, just not in their shoes
In place of a mule, I ride on machines
Eating granola and McDonald’s, not bacon and beans
Where miners were once admired and famed
They now are harassed, reviled, and shamed
Now money doesn’t come from shimmering stones
It’s mined in tall building with computers and phones

But some things of yore are still the same
The mountains, trees, and stars remain
As witnesses to the days long gone
They bid me from the lowlands come
And though I seek and never encounter
I’ll always be a prospector

 

[DizzyDigger]

Well done!!

 

[Reed Lukens]

Very Good

 

[Lanny in AB]

I really enjoyed reading that Owen!

Nicely done, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[KevinInColorado]

I’m so impressed!

 

[Blak bart]

nice poetry....great job !!

 

[OwenT]

I’m now in California until the middle of June so hopefully I’ll have many golden adventures in the motherlode.

On my way to CA, I tried and struck out detecting at sawtooth knob, NV. Salty ground seemed to be making my detector go a little crazy not to mention the inexperienced operator. I also spent about an hour on my way out swinging it over a spot at the edge of some rye patch claims.

On Saturday I went to the Yuba river for the first time hoping to do some crevicing. I wasn’t able to find a lot of awesome looking cracks or traps, some had been gotten to already I could tell, but I didn’t come home empty handed. I got about 1/10th of a gram from a section of cracks about 10’ up from the water. The crack was more horizontal and parallel to the water flow but it hadn’t really been touched so I scratched it out for a while. Not what I was hoping for but at least I got some.

I was surprised at how low and warm the water is already. Apparently this is like the worst drought year ever. I almost took a swim but decided I would in a few weeks when it’s even warmer.

 

[OwenT]

 

[OwenT]

 

[Mountaineer2020]

Some nice big flakes! What's the giant silverish blob in the pan? Also one of the flakes looks silver is that silver? Pretty area.

 

[OwenT]

It’s gold, just the lighting makes it look more silver. The big one is lead.

 

[OwenT]

This weekend I made quite the tour. Saturday I hit Agua Fr?a Creek I was working bedrock in a very promising looking area but all my work of clearing off bedrock, cleaning out cracks, and taking bucket of dirt down to a disgusting pool of water to pan yielded almost nothing.

I spent Sunday with my grandparents in Fresno to rest up. Then, on Memorial Day I started working on Coarsegold creek. Again, a very nice looking stretch of creek. Several cracks turned up nothing but lead. Then I saw evidence that people had been digging in the gravels in the bank so I decided to follow suit. My first pan yielded a tiny, but somewhat chunky picker. Encouraged, I kept panning, but more panning in yet another questionable pool of water didn?t yield much more. I packed it up, ate lunch in the car and headed towards the Merced River.

After reaching Briceburg, I slowly drove downriver, scoping things out. One of the main reasons I decide to head up here at this point in the day, was because I felt like I could use a good swim. Based on how low and warm the Yuba river was a few weeks ago and the fact that it was 96 degrees, I decided odds were good that the Merced would be nice for swimming, even in May. I am happy to report that the water was marvelous, although it does make me worry what the situation will be come July and August. Good thing I will be safely out of the state by then!

There were lots of people swimming and picnicking along the river for the holiday, but as far as I could tell, I was the only one looking for gold. One person even asked if I was going digging for clams?? Anyway, one of my goals was to visit the site of Old Pete?s cabin on the other side of the river. I was able to wade across going in a little above my waist. While there is no sign of the cabin, probably since the ?97 flood I?m told, there were other signs of the residence which was cool to see. I?ve been re-reading the ?Lost Treasures? stories again and it really makes me wish I had more time to explore the area.

My total take for the weekend was a measly .04 grams according to my scale. All in all though it was fun and I?m glad I went.

The picture shows my gold combined with the .1 g I got from the Yuba two weeks ago.

The other picture is of a post that would have been right behind Pete?s cabin.