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

[Oakview2]

Thanks for the photos of legal underwater gold recovery and its golden results. Reminds us what we are fight for down here in CA. The scenery shots are spectacular, and perhaps you should foregoe the book, and just make postcard shot in the off season. Good health and good hunting.

PS,, my legs have almost recovered from our trek straight up the mountain behind the old cabin site

 

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[EagleDown]

Eagle
I got a question. I'm debating on a new detector. Thinking about the GMT or go to the GB 2. I've been told that the GB 2 is a must have to find the small stuff. Either that, keep saving money and keep digging and saving my finds till I cash it in for the amazing 5000. But by the time I save it up. It might be the Gpx5500 or higher. Since I think they call it based on price. Or maybe save for the ATX. Though I will say, it felt heavy at the GPAA show this last weekend.

Uh oh, I hope you haven't been waiting long for an answer. I just stopped in to make a post and found I have a couple of posts I wasn't informed of.

Anyway, I can't really answer about the metal detectors you've asked about, since I have no experience with them. I CAN say that my Whites MXT has picked up "nuggets" as small as 0.17grams (with the 4X6 coil). Said nugget was about 2 inches deep in the bedrock. So, all in all, I'd say that the MXT would also be a good choice. Plus, the price is not all that terrible. If I remember correctly, I paid less than $800 for mine. (At a dealership). And, I have utmost confidence in its abilities. Keep in mind, most metal detectors will find gold for you, the main problem with them is the operator. (lol) You just have to learn to understand what it's telling you.

Eagle

 

[Lanny in AB]

All of the above??

No, I've been getting out prospecting and meeting people at every opportunity. Still looking for that glory hole. But, now I'm about out of gas and money until the first of next month. So, I'll probably be doing a little more posting in the interum. Besides, not many posting in this thread lately and especially no questions, so I've been looking at your thread and the beautiful photos you've put up Brother.

Thanks for asking!!

Eagle

PS, Thanks also for posting pictures here, now I don't have to travel so far to get a look at some eye candy. (lol)

That gas to go prospecting is always an issue. But, it gives you something to look forward to at the beginning of the month.

I'm glad you're enriching the lives of as many as you can while you can by taking them with you on gold hunting adventures. I admire your dedication and generosity.

Thanks for the kind words about the pictures. Where I chase the gold it's so pretty it's hard not to capture it in pictures.

All the best my friend,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[chupacabra]

I am hoping for a few days off this week i'll check back with you eagle and let you know if i can make a trip up with a bucket of KFC , i'm very curious about an upper bench that needs some looking into there at briceburg

BTW I invested in another mercury/lead recovery unit that myself and oakview will be on in just a few short months, water allowing.

Thats oakview in his clown face panning out some heavys LOL

 

[EagleDown]

I am hoping for a few days off this week i'll check back with you eagle and let you know if i can make a trip up with a bucket of KFC , i'm very curious about an upper bench that needs some looking into there at briceburg

BTW I invested in another mercury/lead recovery unit that myself and oakview will be on in just a few short months, water allowing.

Thats oakview in his clown face panning out some heavys LOL

View attachment 934296

Ho Brother,

If you come up SR41 out of Fresno, maybe you can stop by here. About a week ago, I was down at Briceburg checking out that "upper bench" and made a discovery that's almost unbelievable. But, I'd rather not put it out on the www. (lol)

 

[Oakview2]

What a photographer, you captured the real me and the essence of Tahoe dredging

 

[EagleDown]

What a photographer, you captured the real me and the essence of Tahoe dredging

(lolololo) Truth in advertising!!

 

[EagleDown]

That gas to go prospecting is always an issue. But, it gives you something to look forward to at the beginning of the month.

I'm glad you're enriching the lives of as many as you can while you can by taking them with you on gold hunting adventures. I admire your dedication and generosity.

Thanks for the kind words about the pictures. Where I chase the gold it's so pretty it's hard not to capture it in pictures.

All the best my friend,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

Brother, you have some of the most beautiful country in the world!! And without doubt, the most beautiful in North America. (And the gold is pretty too). (lol)

Thank you very much for the view!!

 

[EagleDown]

I thought all of my readers would like to know, "The Book" is coming along nicely. Though it's taking longer than I imagined that it would. I don't think I'd make much of a living as an author. (One book every 2 years)? (lol)

Anyway, (depending on interruptions), I'll try to post the first chapter tomorrow, for your review.

Thanks for being my valued readers!!

Love and Respect,

Eagle

 

[angelus2k5]

hey Eagle just out of curiosity, and i hate to interrupt your posting of the first chapter of your book as i've been waiting eagerly for it but, in all your adventures of swinging coils have you ever come across any caches? or mayhaps you have a story of an interesting cache find? anxiously awaiting your reply.

 

[EagleDown]

The next post will be the first chapter of my book. You won't be familiar with it, because I haven't told it before. (lol) I've spent the last 2 hours editing, rearranging and proof reading it. I think I got all of the typos and misspellings, but if you notice any, please let me know, so that I can correct it.

 

[EagleDown]

Chapter 1
My first dredging experience
As I recall, it was early summer of 1960. I had a friend/neighbor in Bishop, CA that I’d visit with often, in the evenings after work.
One of those evenings, I happened to mention that I had read about people dredging for gold, and some of them doing pretty good at it. He told me; “Heck, if you want to try it out, I have a three inch dredge in the garage that you’re welcome to use”.
It didn’t take me more than a few seconds to decide that yes, I’d like to see if it was all that it was cracked up to be. (lol)
He then led me out to his garage and showed me a “thing of beauty”, (at least to my novice eyes). It consisted of a Briggs&Stratton engine with a water pump and diaphragm compressor mounted on a big truck inner-tube. The suction part was a 3 inch tube, with a 45 degree angle on one end and a small sluice box snapped onto the other.
He then explained how to connect everything up and the basic operation of the gold dredge. (He wasn’t much more than a novice himself, since he’d only taken it out once, then stored it in his garage for a couple of years). But to me, he was the local expert on dredging for gold. (lol)
He had me back my pickup into his driveway, and then helped me load it into the bed. This was on a Thursday, so I had already determined I could leave over the weekend and see what I could do with it.
Later that night, since I had never panned more than a few specks of gold in the vicinity of Bishop, I spent a while looking over a California road map, looking for a place to try my luck. I had read about gold mining in the area of Tuolumne, and when my eyes strayed across the ‘town’ of Tuolumne, I noticed a bridge crossing a river right at the town. Aha! That should be easy to access. And, as a bonus, I’d be within walking distance of hamburgers and Pepsis. (lol)
Skipping ahead a bit
I arrived at the area about 10am Saturday morning and after inquiring at a rock shop near the bridge, I was directed to a dirt road at the other end of the bridge, that would take me up river about a quarter of a mile.
Page 1
So, I got back in my truck and drove across the bridge, then made a right turn onto the dirt road. I only drove a couple hundred yards when I spotted a nice flat area that looked perfect for parking and camping. And, was out of sight of the highway, which was good, as I would have to get undressed to put my wet suit on. I could have put the tent up and changed inside, but wasn’t sure if I would be staying overnight. Besides, the sun felt good on my back-side. (lol)
I got the dredge floating at the edge of the river, then suited up. I filled the tank and started the engine. (Man, over a couple of years, I learned to hate those old style foot valves), It took me a couple of tries to get the water pump primed and the suction to going. But, after a little cussing, I finally got it primed. Then, I put my mask, regulator and weight belt on and stepped off into about two foot of water.
Being a novice at this, I decided to keep fairly close to the rivers edge, which was nothing but sand. Hey, don’t laugh too hard, remember, I was totally new at this game. (lol)
I sucked up the sand to a depth of about four inches, and then hit a layer of grass. I ripped out the grass to a circle of about three feet as I was sucking up the resulting sand and small tufts of grass. So, imagine my surprise when I found another layer of grass, about four or five inches under the first layer. I wasn’t quite as exuberant about going through that layer, so I only ripped out about a 12 inch circle this time. I dredged down a couple or three inches and hit another layer of grass. By this time, I was totally mystified about what was going on. (Actually, I didn’t figure it out until I made a trip down to Bagby the following July. But, that’s a later story). (lol)
Flood gold
About this time, the dredge engine ran out of gas, which allowed me to preserve my sanity. (lol) I carefully removed the bottom of the sluice with the concentrates and washed the cons into my gold pan. Since the gold trap in a three inch underwater dredge is only about 8 inches long and less than that wide, there wasn’t a large amount of materials to pan down, so, it wasn’t much over five minutes when I found myself staring at about a cup full of black sand, with so much gold in it that I couldn’t pan the black sand out, without losing some of the gold. So, in utter disgust, I dumped it all back into the river.
In explanation; I could see mercury mixed in with the gold, and though the largest flakes might have been a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, I could see that a lot of the gold was coated and partially coated with the mercury. In those days, with gold at $35 an ounce if mercury was used to extract the gold, you could only sell it to the government. (For $32 an ounce) That was the law! So, since I didn’t know beans about separating the mercury from the gold, I felt it was better to just return it to nature than to hold on to it.
And, a half hour later, I was loaded up and ready to return home for the next phase of my adventures.
Page 2​

 

[EagleDown]

hey Eagle just out of curiosity, and i hate to interrupt your posting of the first chapter of your book as i've been waiting eagerly for it but, in all your adventures of swinging coils have you ever come across any caches? or mayhaps you have a story of an interesting cache find? anxiously awaiting your reply.

I think I've mentioned a couple of "caches" that were found, not by me, but ones that I have personal knowledge of them being found. You have to remember, almost all of my experience is with gold dredging. So, I guess you could say that I've found a couple of caches that were hidden there, by the river. (lol)

Right after I got my MXT, I found a small cache in a friends back yard. I got a very strong reading and started digging. About 6 inches below the surface, I found 12 wheaties neatly stacked in the hole. It doesn't qualify as a coin spill, so I guess I'd have to go with a childs cache. (lol)

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

I sent you an email with some fixes that could be done. Great beginning Eagle. Twenty more to go for first book. You've probably got about 20 books of mining history in ya. Keep it up.

 

[EagleDown]

I sent you an email with some fixes that could be done. Great beginning Eagle. Twenty more to go for first book. You've probably got about 20 books of mining history in ya. Keep it up.

Well, I have several more that are done, but I still have to edit them. Typos and Spelling.

Thanks for your suggestions!! Some of them are worth doing, but some others, well, let's just say that I have my own peculiar style of writing that has been pretty well accepted and I wouldn't want to change that. Remember, I won't be offering my manuscript to publishers to see if they would buy it. I'd rather have a local printer do the work, then hope I can sell enough of them to recoup my expenses. Actually, I think I have enough stories for at least 2 books. (lol)

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

I know you have a particular way of writing. That way I didn't want to step on your toes. It shows character the way you are doing it. Which I enjoy reading. I didn't want to change your type of writing by the changes, and didn't want to offend ya Eagle. I respect ya too much. I know by writing and publishing privately, there's an amount of uniqueness to it. I've bought books from authors who published their books, and enjoy how they aren't changed by the publishers robot like thinking. I know I'll be in line to buy your book.

Keep it up

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Hey Eagle,

I was told today that gold has a kHz response of 48. That's why the GXT is tuned to that. So anything higher is a waste. According to this other salesperson. So according to him, if I got the GB2, it'd be a waste. Plus, the GXT tracks the iron.
Then he was telling me about the TDI SL.
I think it's funny about White's guys. They sure push there product, and everybody else's product doesn't compare.
I'm sure there products are good, but I just don't know if I believe the frequency thing. Have you heard of this. It seems that the fine gold might be found with the higher kHz like the 72 of the GB2.
Or is it better to go to the PI

 

[auferret]

Count me in for a copy of the book when it is done.

 

[EagleDown]

I know you have a particular way of writing. That way I didn't want to step on your toes. It shows character the way you are doing it. Which I enjoy reading. I didn't want to change your type of writing by the changes, and didn't want to offend ya Eagle. I respect ya too much. I know by writing and publishing privately, there's an amount of uniqueness to it. I've bought books from authors who published their books, and enjoy how they aren't changed by the publishers robot like thinking. I know I'll be in line to buy your book.

Keep it up

Not to worry Brother!! I wasn't offended. As a matter of fact, I appreciate your offer of help. After all, you did bring up some very noteworthy points.

Incidentally, I said that I have a "PECULIAR" way of writing, not a "particular" way. (lol)

Women worry about the future until they get married,
Men never worry about the future, until they get married.

 

[EagleDown]

Hey Eagle,

I was told today that gold has a kHz response of 48. That's why the GXT is tuned to that. So anything higher is a waste. According to this other salesperson. So according to him, if I got the GB2, it'd be a waste. Plus, the GXT tracks the iron.
Then he was telling me about the TDI SL.
I think it's funny about White's guys. They sure push there product, and everybody else's product doesn't compare.
I'm sure there products are good, but I just don't know if I believe the frequency thing. Have you heard of this. It seems that the fine gold might be found with the higher kHz like the 72 of the GB2.
Or is it better to go to the PI

They are all salesmen. I think if you go to Garrett, or any other manufacturer, you'll get pretty much the same old sales pitch. All of them are the best out there. (lol)

As far as the frequencies? I have no idea. Frankly, I like my MXT and I'm really sold on the TDI. But, I wasn't very happy with either one when I first started using them. Then as I aquired experience in them, I realised that the problem wasn't with the machines, it was the person operating them. ME!! I like the TDI because I can get it to ignore 'hot-rocks' and still register nuggets. And, it doesn't require constant ground balancing as does the MXT. The GB is all done automatically. The MXT, on the other hand, changes it's GB whenever you cross over from wet to dry soil or bedrock.

But, the MXT is almost half of the cost of the TDI. (And cost always has to be taken into account).