Other things to look for
One thing I realized many years ago is;
“If a person spends more than one day in one spot, he will leave “tell tale” signs of his presence”.
Here’s a small example:
I was in an exploring mood one morning, so I decided to go up a “run-off” gulch that I had been curious about. Actually, it would take a vivid imagination to call it a gulch, as it was more like you might see when rains cut a notch in the side of a mountain as the “run-off” finds its’ way to a lower elevation. The next time I’m on the river, I’ll try to remember to take a picture, to show what I’m trying to describe.
Anyway, I don’t know what might have caught my attention about this “gulch”, but I just had to check it out. (One of those little things you see, but don’t pay any attention to).
It was a fairly steep climb, but I was young, dumb and had more energy than I knew what to do with, so it was just another adventure for me.
I had gone up the “gulch” for about a ¼ mile when I stopped to take a breather. (And a smoke). (lol)
As I stood there, looking around, I noticed a few heavily rusted cans on the opposite side of the “gulch”. Then, I looked down into the “gulch” and saw many more rusted cans mixed in with the leaves and pine needles. This was a sure indication to me that someone (or perhaps more than one person) had spent a lot of time there.
I looked further up the side of the mountain and could see a flat area of about 30X40 feet. While looking at the surrounding terrain, it was obvious to me that this was not a natural flat area, but
HAD TO BE manmade.
So, to put this into perspective; we have a “gulch”, with numerous rusty cans in one area and a manmade flat area. There was no obvious source of water, and I was approx. a quarter mile up the side of a mountain.
My conclusion here is; that there was a mine near-by and there was probably a cabin and/or a small mill on the flat area. I would imagine that there ‘was’ a source of water as I can’t convince myself that someone would go to all of that work leveling an area for a cabin when they would knew they would have to carry water up a steep grade, just for cooking.
So, where did they get their water?
Perhaps, while checking the “gulch” for gold, or following gold up the “gulch” from the river, they might have traced it to a “seepage” coming from a quartz vein. They could have tunneled in on the quartz and still have had a source of water.
As I stood looking at my discovery, I thought about going down into the “gulch” and up the other side to check it out closer but realized I was getting really hungry and I knew it would take a while to go down into the “gulch” and to climb up the other (steeper) side, so I decided to go back to my camp and check it out another time.
As I’ve said before, my main pleasure has always been the discovery, rather than acquiring. So, you can guess the rest; I never have made it back up that “gulch”. (lol)
So, as I previously stated, when you’re out and about, watch for the little things that just don’t belong there.
Rusty cans and broken bottles, flattened areas on the side of a mountain or hill that can’t possibly be natural because of the surrounding areas. Perhaps an old tree with un-natural scars on the trunk. (Some of these scars can still be visible a couple hundred years later). Also, it wasn’t unusual for a lonely miner to kill boredom by etching his name and/or the date on a tree or boulder. I guess it gives a person a sense of immortality to have their name carved on a boulder. (lol)
Anyway, I’m way overdue on this post, so I hope you’ve learned a little here. I’ll be back as soon as I can with more of what to look for.
Eagle
