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

Thanks Eagle,
We are watching the flames go down Moore Creek (to the north fork of the Merced) and up Pilot Ridge right now. What a waste.
 

I will say a prayer for all our friends on that side of the hill. Gods speed
 

Relichunter1 said:
I will be below the bridge between the first beach and the bridge..floating around sniping. lol.... this Solar Sluice fun !! I am basically mucking up gravel by hand and running it thru sluice box. California legal at the moment.:occasion14: but who knows any more with this state. And if they ever ***** about a solar sluice box, FOLKS we have major problems in our country. I mean who has been promoting alternate energy, green no emmision cars , trucks whatever? Our government. So here is a piece of equipment that's Green as can be....hahaha...I will have fun with it as long as I can. See all of you who show up...I will be the guy in the water having fun.. :)
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In a state that's so environmental. That sluice is just great. You're not dredging the bottom so way to go. At least till they say "any" disturbance that's not natural is illegal. God I hope not.
 

wagbert said:
Howdy Eagle Down!
You Sir are very special. You have the gift for telling some remarkable stories. I found your first posts from 2010 a couple of days ago, and I am only on page six now. I am reading the Eagle Down posts slowly to savor them. Your manner of writing is just as enjoyable as Twain, or Gray, or any of the old published authors I have read from my youth. I'm a little younger than you, but I'm up in years too. I've never been West. I have enjoyed MD'ing off and on, but now my knees won't co-operate. I can get down easy enough, but getting back up puts on a humorous show for everyone in the park. lol
You have had some great adventures. As you are telling the "good stuff" I can read in some suffering that you endured along the way too. It is a wonderful trait the Good Lord has given us, that we usually only remember the "good stuff". I got that saying from a buddy of mine who was stationed at Point Barrow, Alaska, during his Army service. He had a pet Lynx that he loved and talked about, but when I asked about "Springtime in Alaska where it's 40 below", he didn't have much to say about that except that he only remembered "the good stuff". lol
I really appreciate you sharing your "Tales from Yesteryear".
Many Thanks & God Bless!
Wagbert
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I've got an idea. Lets have the buddy pick up system. Help ya up when you're down. Lol. Of course Eagle does that for us with his extravagant tales. But I know it's getting harder to get up from a panning session or even after digging a hole for a pull tab. It sure is nice to have that help up. Definitely speeds up prospecting time.
 

Oh these fires!!! Sorry, finally caught up again. Been away for a bit. Here's a question. Would the heat from the fires get hot enough to melt the small gold/dust into nuggets? We've been having our share of fires out here. As a matter of fact. There was another fire near Yarnell again. Now the city of Prescott is looking to disban the fire jumpers. Especially since they say they can't give the death benefits to those volunteers who died protecting property. What a shame. I guess they shouldn't pay those in the military who volunteer to serve and protect our every day rights.
This is of course in no way meant to disrespect all those in the military. Just makes me mad when those who are protecting us are dishonored. Then the families are left to fight for what they need. Sad is the governments words of promise.

Eagle it'll be cooling down in a bit. Its been REAL HOT the past two weeks. It was so cool today on my drive back home I had to take a back road and do some detecting. Found the usual stuff. Lead, casings, barbs from wire and a Canadian coin (penny). Those Canucks actually travel in the mountains north of me. Next hunt is in an abandoned cinnabar camp that got tore down in the 70s. Adot did a bridge rebuild and moved a bunch of rock I wanted to detect over. Now they shuffled the rock that maybe some color got left. Crossing my fingers. Hoping come October my schedule will open up enough so I could do a road trip.
Hope all is well. Keep cool
 

GarretDiggingAz said:
Oh these fires!!! Sorry, finally caught up again. Been away for a bit. Here's a question. Would the heat from the fires get hot enough to melt the small gold/dust into nuggets? We've been having our share of fires out here. As a matter of fact. There was another fire near Yarnell again. Now the city of Prescott is looking to disban the fire jumpers. Especially since they say they can't give the death benefits to those volunteers who died protecting property. What a shame. I guess they shouldn't pay those in the military who volunteer to serve and protect our every day rights.
This is of course in no way meant to disrespect all those in the military. Just makes me mad when those who are protecting us are dishonored. Then the families are left to fight for what they need. Sad is the governments words of promise.
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I believe this lady does an excellent job of explaining the "Budget Cuts"!!
 

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GarretDiggingAz said:
Sorry, finally caught up again. Been away for a bit. Here's a question. Would the heat from the fires get hot enough to melt the small gold/dust into nuggets?

Eagle it'll be cooling down in a bit. Its been REAL HOT the past two weeks. It was so cool today on my drive back home I had to take a back road and do some detecting. Found the usual stuff. Lead, casings, barbs from wire and a Canadian coin (penny). Those Canucks actually travel in the mountains north of me. Next hunt is in an abandoned cinnabar camp that got tore down in the 70s. Adot did a bridge rebuild and moved a bunch of rock I wanted to detect over. Now they shuffled the rock that maybe some color got left. Crossing my fingers. Hoping come October my schedule will open up enough so I could do a road trip.
Hope all is well. Keep cool
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As mentioned in an earlier post, plants/trees suck up nutrients from the ground. Some of those nutrients could contain microscopic gold. This micro gold can melt down and combine into small beads while the plants/trees burn. One prospecting method the "Old Timers" used was to pan thier campfire ashes and the ground under the ashes, looking for indications of gold bearing ground and veins.

Good luck on your metal detecting venture!!
 

Eagle I think his question is: can a wood fire melt gold?

Pure gold melts around 1950F and supposedly wood fires only go to 1600F. Seems kind of odd as I've heard you can make nuggets with BBQ briquettes. Anyone done this? (Are my numbers correct?)
 

calisdad said:
Eagle I think his question is: can a wood fire melt gold?

Pure gold melts around 1950F and supposedly wood fires only go to 1600F. Seems kind of odd as I've heard you can make nuggets with BBQ briquettes. Anyone done this? (Are my numbers correct?)
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1,947.52F to be exact. But we won't quibble over .48 degrees F. (lol)

Have you ever watched your campfire? If so, you might notice that if a little breeze blows into it, there will be spots that will turn white due to the intense heat caused by the extra oxygen donated by the breeze. Basically the same as a forge, where air is directed through the burning coals/briquettes. They're hot enough to soften steel enough to bend it into horseshoes. And, the smaller the gold, the easier it is to smelt. (Think micro-sized particals here)

So, yes, wood can generate enough heat to melt gold, as can charcoal briquettes. That's one of the main problems with a wild fire, the heat generated sucks in the surrounding cooler air, furnishing extra oxygen to the fire, causing it to burn even hotter.

I once designed a forge by using an old (round) bar-b-que. I piped in air from a "squirrel cage" fan. I fed the air in through the opening in the bottom of the BBQ where the ashes would normally be extracted. I never tried to melt steel, but I did get a steel strap hot enough to bend under its' own weight.
 

The last few days I have been seeing what I thought was a giant thunderstorm cloud forming toward the Jamestown area, when looking from Merced. I'm starting to think that cloud is actually the smoke from the rim fire. If it is, then that fire is a raging beast. The forest service called it a monster fire. It looks more like hell on wheels to me. Wow.
 

Shannon from AMRA posted this morning it is 106,000 acres and growing. God speed to all those in the path of this monster. The people of a this area are in a living HELL because of the failed policies of the Forrest Service and the greenies
 

CharlesP, it's a new word for me but they're calling the pyrocumulus clouds.

Oakview2, the USFS is still in denial. Their current focus is 'fire management' as opposed to Cal-Fire's 'fire suppression'. Kind of late IMO.

This morning there is a very confusing directive closing part of the Stanislaus NF. Check a map if you're going in the forest. It includes portions of the north fork of the Merced.
 

EagleDown said:
1,947.52F to be exact. But we won't quibble over .48 degrees F. (lol)

Have you ever watched your campfire? If so, you might notice that if a little breeze blows into it, there will be spots that will turn white due to the intense heat caused by the extra oxygen donated by the breeze. Basically the same as a forge, where air is directed through the burning coals/briquettes. They're hot enough to soften steel enough to bend it into horseshoes. And, the smaller the gold, the easier it is to smelt. (Think micro-sized particals here)

So, yes, wood can generate enough heat to melt gold, as can charcoal briquettes. That's one of the main problems with a wild fire, the heat generated sucks in the surrounding cooler air, furnishing extra oxygen to the fire, causing it to burn even hotter.

I once designed a forge by using an old (round) bar-b-que. I piped in air from a "squirrel cage" fan. I fed the air in through the opening in the bottom of the BBQ where the ashes would normally be extracted. I never tried to melt steel, but I did get a steel strap hot enough to bend under its' own weight.
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hey now we can add blacksmith to Eagles resume lol.
 

CharlesP said:
The last few days I have been seeing what I thought was a giant thunderstorm cloud forming toward the Jamestown area, when looking from Merced. I'm starting to think that cloud is actually the smoke from the rim fire. If it is, then that fire is a raging beast. The forest service called it a monster fire. It looks more like hell on wheels to me. Wow.
Click to expand...

I thought they were clouds too!. That's one nasty fire. I'm suppose to have access an old school house and Scout Camp site on private property up that way. Apparently that's going to be on hold awhile.
 

went behind the bastrop fire here in texas, looking for mushrooms, as they like to grow in old burned area's, and they like cedar, that fire got so hot it melted old junk cars, glass bottles tin cans, and shattered rocks
 

calisdad said:
CharlesP, it's a new word for me but they're calling the pyrocumulus clouds.

Oakview2, the USFS is still in denial. Their current focus is 'fire management' as opposed to Cal-Fire's 'fire suppression'. Kind of late IMO.

This morning there is a very confusing directive closing part of the Stanislaus NF. Check a map if you're going in the forest. It includes portions of the north fork of the Merced.
Click to expand...

Calisdad you have it. I remember being on a fire in the same area back in the 80's we set a backfire to save the town of Tuolumne City. The same cloud formed from the backfire and we even had lightning coming out from it. Amazing what a fire can do.
 

BIGSCOTT said:
went behind the bastrop fire here in texas, looking for mushrooms, as they like to grow in old burned area's, and they like cedar, that fire got so hot it melted old junk cars, glass bottles tin cans, and shattered rocks
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Halito My Brother!! Welcome!!

Not much I can add to that, other than (as a general figure), glass has a melting temp. of 2,192 degrees (F), though some "special" glasses can be much higher.
 

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DONNER TREASURE Part UNEARTHED BY A PROSPECTOR May 17, 1891

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