The Many Lost Treasures of Mariposa, CA (Photos Added)

Eagle:

I'll keep my eye out for you, my brother, when I walk the silent paths under the vast blue heavens of the great forests of the majestic mountains. I'll look for you whenever I dip a pan in the crystal streams of the rushing waters you loved so much, and I'll watch closely for you looking over my shoulder Eagle when Mother Nature gives up a nugget or two of her precious gold. . . .

All the best,

Lanny
Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

Very nice Lanny
 

Eagle was a long time dredger of the Merced and had claims on her back in the day. Too bad he couldn't have lived long enough to get back in the water. I am sure he is looking down and smiling on what we have banded together and accomplished against the evil green empire.
 

Eagle,
Rest in Peace.

A day late and a dollar short... I've subscribed to TNET to post on this thread. I stumbled upon this thread in my research of the Mountain King Mine. Quite frankly my eyes hurt from staring at the computer monitor for such long periods of time. This history and information is invaluable. Thank you Eagle. Please sign me up for a copy of Eagle's book. I am able and willing to join the search party for the dynamited mine on the North Fork, or any prospecting parties in the Mariposa area. I've been hiking in the North Fork area twice in the past month. In a classified advertisement style- Greenhorn prospector has own pan and metal detector (GB2), will swing, will dig, will work. Seeks gold and adventure.
 

I have been wanting to get up and work a certain creek about a mile from briceburg bridge ( thats a hint ), maybe we can get together a few of us and check it out, its on the south side in case anyone wants to do some diggin there before the water rises
 

The water is low enough now that we could drive out from Briceburg and cross the river without getting too wet. I can bring some digging tools and a detector, but I don't have a sluice box. Have you checked to make sure this area does not have an active mining claim? This weekend, or pretty much any weekend will work for me. If you have a date and time, I can meet in the parking area under the bridge.
 

Time Flys-

Eagle started this thread 4 1/2 years ago and Monday would have been his 78th trip around the sun.
If he taught me anything it would be: "Don't make the mistake of thinking today is a rehearsal for tomorrow."
What did he teach you?

God speed my friend.
 

He taught me where he thought alot of lost gold is hidden but I havnt brought myself to going and checking it out just yet.
 

Great to see his thread is still marching on.:thumbsup:

Did he finish the book he was working on?

I was looking forward to buying one.
 

I'm sorry that he is gone,he will be missed. I would like a copy of his book also.
 

he taught me the true meaning of kindness as he never asked for anything in return for what he would share with us. i really hope his book gets finished as even with a big project such as a book he still planned to have it made and sold with the proceeds being able to cover the cost of making it without any intention of making any real money from it. may we meet your kind soul in heaven so we can all enjoy your story telling once more.
 

Hey EagleDown,
I'm sorta new to Tnet and as such I'm a new comer to your The Many Lost Treasures of Mariposa, CA thread. I got tell you I really enjoy the stories.
SurgTech57
 

Lessons for the prospector. Being fairly new to prospecting, I would say that Eagle has taught me-- The history of Mariposa gold mining was/is as rich as the men who mined/mine the deposits. There is a common thread (no pun intended) among the men who spend their time, energy and efforts searching for gold. There is a certain allure and mystique to the places mentioned in Eagle's stories. These places are real and accessible to anyone willing to travel. He gives mention to the best places to look for gold and words like alluvial channels and house rock(still researching this one). Through this forum there has united a brotherhood among prospectors willing to share information pushing us all to new heights. The promise of gold and fortune to be attained by any willing. Gold as wealth and the experience of the environment. Life is rich.
 

Ive just spent the last few nights reading this thread. Wow, what a great read. Crazy how time flies, I was looking forward to writing Eagle and hearing more of his stories, until the last few pages of this thread when i found out he had passed on. And to think that I live a mere couple hours drive from the places he has mentioned. Briceburg is only a 2 hour drive from Stockton. He has inspired me to take a trip there, hopefully one day soon. It will be hard to do now, with work being the way it is, and I have a family to take care of (My son is almost 2 and my daughter 7). Maybe i can convince the wife to come with me, rent a motor home for a few days and make the trip. This thread has inspired me in a way, partly because of the stories Eagle shared, partly because the places he spoke about are practically right in my backyard. If anyone would like to set up a trip, i would be willing to try to work out a day in the near future to make the trip.
 

Sad! I am still missing the Old Eagle, and I know a lot of you guys do too. I am glad to see his thread still alive.
Bless his soul! Good Luck to all you fellows who have followed his adventures. Go for the GOLD!
Phil
 

EagleDown said:
~~~\/~~~

A flip of a coin spells success

It was early summer of 1979. As mentioned earlier, there was so little run-off that we could get in the river as early as we wanted. (Actually, with the suit warmer I developed, I could dredge all winter.) Our only problem that year was finding an area where the river was flowing fast enough to take the silt away. And when you’ve dredged a fairly deep hole, sometimes you would still have a hard time seeing what you were doing. There were a lot of purple finger nails around the river those days.

Unfortunately that happens when you can’t see well enough to notice that rock sliding towards your suction nozzle. Your fingers over the end of the nozzle are just a minor and temporary inconvenience for the rocks. (lol)

I was sitting in my camp chair one afternoon, enjoying an ice-cold Pepsi, when
two trucks pulled into the campground of McCabe Flats. The drivers got out of the trucks and walked over to where I was seated.

They introduced themselves as Ron and Pat. Ron, the younger one was a fire fighter from the L.A. area, just starting a 2 week vacation. Pat was about 55, or perhaps 60 and had recently retired from the same fire department. Frankly, I liked both of them right off the bat.

They explained that they were dredging partners and asked if I had any idea where they could put their dredge in. “Well, I just might have the spot for you”. I said. “If you want to take a short walk with me, I’ll point out some areas for you”. They were ready and only took the time, (at my suggestion) to lock their trucks up. As we walked down the road, I explained that we had been getting more and more people on the river, and things were disappearing quite often.

A short distance down the road, I walked over to the side of the road and pointed down at an old willow tree on the bank, right at the edge of the water.
“See that tree right there”? I asked. “Well, I’ve always thought that if I dredged directly out from the tree, right in the middle of the river, there should be a lot of gold right there”. I told them that I had dredged about 30 feet upriver from that spot and there was only about 3 foot of overburden. The bed-rock tapered down from each bank to the center of the river where it formed a rounded trough that kept the gold concentrated. Unfortunately, the gold was scattered along this trough, but indicated that if there was a sudden drop in the bed-rock, the gold should accumulate at the base of the drop off.

They asked if they found any worthwhile gold, how much percentage would I want. I told them I didn’t want anything, but if they did find an accumulation of gold, I would appreciate it if they would let me know. I figured that at least, I would know if my theory was right. So, we had our accord, (I got that from “Pirates of the Caribbean”) (lol)

A week and a half later, I don’t know what they were saying about me, but I was feeling pretty guilty about putting them in that spot. Granted, they only had a 4 inch dredge, but, they had one hell of a hole in the middle of the river, and had not hit bed-rock yet. It seems that somewhere between where I had dredged and where they were dredging, the bed rock took a radical dive. They were down in about 8 ft. of over-burden and still no sign of bed-rock. But, I’ll give them credit, they sure weren’t quitters and they stuck it out to the last day of Ron’s vacation.

The afternoon before Ron had to leave and head home, they both came over to my camper. Ron asked if I would do him a favor. Hey, by this time, if he had asked, I would have gone home with him and been his personal yard keeper, (for free.) Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. (lol)

He told me that he had to leave in the morning, but Pat was going to stay for awhile. He said he’d rather Pat didn’t have to dredge alone and asked if I would mind dredging with him. As I said, I would have done just about anything he asked, just to get rid of my feelings of guilt, so naturally, I said it would be a pleasure.

The following morning Ron left early and by 8:30 am, Pat and I were suited up and on the bank near the dredge. Pat went out, looked in the gas tank and said that there was about a half tank of gas left. He asked if I thought we should move to somewhere else, or finish up that tank of gas first. I looked down at the ground while I collected my thoughts and saw the glint of a coin that some one had dropped in the grass. I picked up the quarter, looked at it and said; “Let’s toss this coin. Heads we stay here or tails, we go ahead and move”. Pat agreed and I immediately gave the coin a spin into the air. The quarter landed on a patch of sand and we both bent over to look. Oops, it was heads. So, it looked like we were going to dredge here a little longer. I wasn’t really all that excited at the prospect as the hole was now about 9 foot deep, while the top was probably 15 to 18 foot in diameter.

Pat said that since he was familiar with the hole, he would go in first, since there wasn’t enough room in the bottom for 2 people. I agreed and unzipped the top of my wetsuit. He started up the engine and I went over and sat down on a large boulder to roll a cigarette. I lit the cigarette and took a couple of puffs off of it when Pat came back out of the hole and stood by the dredge. He motioned to me to come out to the dredge. As I waded out in the (less than,) waist deep water, he shut the dredge off. Those little Briggs and Stratton engines were so loud that you couldn’t talk to one another near them.

When I got near Pat, he held his hand out with something clutched in it and said “here”. I held out my hand and he dropped 3 nuggets in it. All three later turned out to be a little over a half oz. each. Believe me, I was properly impressed. (lol)
We spent a minute or so laughing and just savoring the moment, then he said; “That’s nothing, put your weight belt and mask on and go down and take a look”.

I had to wade back to the bank to get my weight belt, then back out to the dredge to put my full face-mask on. When I was ready, Pat fired the engine back up. I pushed myself off of the edge of the hole, so that I would sink closer to the center. Though the sides were terraced, too much movement could cause the materials to slide into the hole. (We’re not talking hard pack here, all of the over burden was as loose as the day it was deposited there.)

As I neared the bottom, I could see that Pat had finally hit bed-rock. I saw an area of bed-rock about 12 or 16 inches across and also saw the blackness of a crevasse right in the middle of it. When I reached the bottom, I knelt and looked into the crevasse and yelled so loud that I loosened the seal on my mask and had to pull it away from my chin to blow the water back out. (lol)

There in that small crevasse was a sight almost as beautiful as my first newborn child. the crevasse was only about 2 inches wide and about 12 inches long, and an inch from the top, from one end to the other, all I could see was gold. In all my years of dredging, up until that time, I had never seen so much gold accumulated in a river, in one spot. The things dreams are made of!! (lol)

There’s a little more to this story, but I have some work to do so I’ll finish it up a little later.
Click to expand...

I loved this story. :occasion14:
 

Hey everyone...was just checkin in to see what was going on here on Eagles forum. Those picture posted recently of him detecting and with his dog flash brought back some memories....sure wish Eagle could of made it though a few more years...you are missed my friend.

So I've been putting in as much effort as time allows me too on formatting what Eagle had laid out for his book. Its been a lot of work but I'm pretty close to finishing it up. If I remember correctly with all the pictures and everything its about 240 pages or so. Its still going to be about a month, maybe more to get a digital copy ready. Thats the first step, is to get something in a digital format for everyone who's been waiting on it. From that point I plan on getting it printed up and published some how some way, full color and done right, or to the best of my abilities...

Just so everyone knows...I have not added nor changed anything that Eagle had prepared for his book. I basically have just been trying to organize the stories and size the pictures to the pages, things like that, text size and formatting paragraphs...trying to make it look right. I'm getting ready to go into the spell check stage and I am conflicted on whether or not I should even correct any of his spelling...I almost want to leave it just like he typed it. But then again some things are obviously miss spelled and I know he would fix it himself if he noticed it. I don't know. Just wanted you guys to know that I'm doing my best to keep it exactly as he wrote it.

The book will be called "The Many Lost Treasures of Mariposa Ca" By Walking Eagle

One last thing, I'm going to need a cover for the book...if any of you have any photo's or idea's for the cover that you think captures the essence of his stories please send me a private message.

Thanks for everyones help and support!
 

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DONNER TREASURE Part UNEARTHED BY A PROSPECTOR May 17, 1891

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