The Quest for Maine Gold

[IMAUDIGGER]

How are things going?

When I was in high school there was an old 90 year old blacksmith that volunteered his time teaching the kids his trade.
Wish I had been more mature back then.

He would make charcoal from mesquite brush. He'd dig a hole in the sand and fill it with chunks of brush, then bury it with damp sand. I remember I had Ag. Class first period and we'd always start the forge up early in the morning and stand around it to keep warm. He was always in a bad mood in the morning and now I know why. We were wasting the charcoal he took so much time making!!

 

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[alaskaseeker]

Pyrites are faceted but why don't you have some samples assayed......

 

[Eagleone1025]

Crush it and send it to your father-in-law. also send him samples of your crushed gravel as well. This would definitely be the way to go. Then you can plan for the next stage of your operation. Always remember that prospecting means to be in search of something. You will need several samples from different places along the out crop so that you can determine where the pay dirt is best. My other suggestion would be to visit the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Dan Hurd Prospecting for more information. He is also very helpful. Good luck and Gods Speed.

 

[Jimoutside]

Wow. I just took a couple hours and read this entire thread. I couldn't stop.

I grew up in Clinton, Maine, and the things you relate in this thread brought back so many memories. My mom grew up in North Belgrade. Her mother was from China, Maine, and her father was from Belgrade on Route 11. My dad's mother's family was from Houlton--she was a Barton, one of the big families up there in potato land.

My dad grew up in Oregon, but they moved to Maine to be near my mom's parents before I was born. Later, I went to college in South Carolina. After moving back and forth several times, my wife and I ended up staying down here, for the last 15 years.

My mom's father's family was one of the old Maine families going back to colonial days. In fact ancestors on all four quarters of my family came in through colonial Massachusetts and Maine, including some on the Mayflower. I grew up in the gravel/logging/dairy town of Clinton. As a young adult, I worked for a while on the largest dairy farm in the state. My dad was a machinist and later a newspaper man. Both my parents worked for the Waterville Morning Sentinel newspaper, and then my dad worked for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta until he took early retirement. My parents moved to western Kentucky in 2010. I have relatives in Vassalboro, Albion, and Waterville even now.

My dad and I logged firewood and pulp with his 1948 John Deere B, and sometimes used whichever dozer he had at the time to help. He had an International TD-6, then later a Cat D-6, then a D-4. Newest of which I think was 1959. I learned to drive the old tractors with hand clutches and so on at a young age. My cousin now has a dairy farm and sawmill in Albion.

I'm glad to hear about your centuries-old farm that has been in the family so long. Also hope you do well with treatment for your cancer. Also glad you're a Christian, and believe strongly.

I'll be gladly listening for more updates of your account here. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Jim

 

[placertogo]

Wow. I just took a couple hours and read this entire thread. I couldn't stop.

I grew up in Clinton, Maine, and the things you relate in this thread brought back so many memories. My mom grew up in North Belgrade. Her mother was from China, Maine, and her father was from Belgrade on Route 11. My dad's mother's family was from Houlton--she was a Barton, one of the big families up there in potato land.

My dad grew up in Oregon, but they moved to Maine to be near my mom's parents before I was born. Later, I went to college in South Carolina. After moving back and forth several times, my wife and I ended up staying down here, for the last 15 years.

My mom's father's family was one of the old Maine families going back to colonial days. In fact ancestors on all four quarters of my family came in through colonial Massachusetts and Maine, including some on the Mayflower. I grew up in the gravel/logging/dairy town of Clinton. As a young adult, I worked for a while on the largest dairy farm in the state. My dad was a machinist and later a newspaper man. Both my parents worked for the Waterville Morning Sentinel newspaper, and then my dad worked for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta until he took early retirement. My parents moved to western Kentucky in 2010. I have relatives in Vassalboro, Albion, and Waterville even now.

My dad and I logged firewood and pulp with his 1948 John Deere B, and sometimes used whichever dozer he had at the time to help. He had an International TD-6, then later a Cat D-6, then a D-4. Newest of which I think was 1959. I learned to drive the old tractors with hand clutches and so on at a young age. My cousin now has a dairy farm and sawmill in Albion.

I'm glad to hear about your centuries-old farm that has been in the family so long. Also hope you do well with treatment for your cancer. Also glad you're a Christian, and believe strongly.

I'll be gladly listening for more updates of your account here. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Jim

Did you have to start those old dozers with a pony engine?

 

[Jimoutside]

Placertogo: yes, the D-4 and D-6 had pony motors. A challenge, to say the least. The TD-6 had a hybrid engine--started on gasoline, with spark plugs, magneto, etc., then when it was warm, you switched it to diesel by throwing a big switch. The International diesels of those days had a full set of gasoline and diesel accessories on the engine. They didn't have much power in gasoline mode--they were intended to be operated as diesels. Gasoline was only for starting. the Cats, on the other hand, used a separate attached 2-cylinder gas pony motor to turn the diesel over.

 

[OreCart]

Wow. I just took a couple hours and read this entire thread. I couldn't stop.

Hey thanks Jim for reading all that.

I am hopes to get back prospecting today. It was a busy summer with gravel work and mowing, but it was still productive. I got quite a bit of ore samples tested, and reaffirmed quite a few things, and found some surprises on a few more.

Mowing was nice, I do not make a lot of money doing it, but the towns need it done, and you know how that works, you must take the good with the bad. In aby case I got to see the geology of the county by looking at the outcrops of rock as I went by. Since that is (3) passes at 3 miles per hour, that is a lot of looking at over 200 miles of roadside ditches. One particular seam of quartz got my attention; not only was it fairly substantial, it also stuck out of the ground and stove the ever living crap out of my mower! Flail mowers and quartz seams do not go well together, even at 3 miles per hour.

I have been doing some logging, but the mud is hampering me now. Holy crap have we got some serious rain! It is three feet of ruts from stump to landing!

I got the day suddenly freed up today, so I might head back out in the woods for some prospecting again. Time wise, I can only do it in the winter, and I had to wait until now for hunting season to be over.

Sadly I got more bad news last Wednesday on my cancer; it is spreading to my lymph nodes and they found some new tumors. It is not a death sentence, but this will be my third battle with cancer, and third winter dealing with cancer. That kind of makes prospecting a little more tough because your body takes three times more energy in fighting cancer, then it normally would, so this is why the fatigue is so bad. And that is at rest, working, or even snowshoeing to far flung outcrops just drains a person, but it is important to still get out there, if only to be outside. My way of giving cancer the big middle finger, it just takes me a lot longer to do simple things.