Treasure Mountain, CO - Lost Frenchmens Gold

[solomon grundy]

I would like to dig up one of these boulders. There’s still a lot of gold left up on that mountain.100 and something oz in it they got it stashed down there in the Denver Museum if you wanna see it.

TMI on Summitville:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summitville_mine - superfund clean up history, they really screwed the environment mining that "After the company insolvency proceedings were completed in a British Columbia court, the US Government declared the site a superfund cleanup site and spent $155,000,000 of public funds cleaning up the site" which i dont understand how a company that found "A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered." went bankrupt [quick interrupt - Locals tell me go look for silver not gold]. just shows the difficulty. that leaching method is a nasty horrible thing... who knows what in 1790 they would have done. also a lot of folks dont know about https://maps.app.goo.gl/ENSq5Y2pEYkyrygd7 Crystal Hill Gold Mine which also had leaching but didnt fail like the canadians. you can drive right up and into it. nearby there is a citrine pit. i have found some weird stuff up there but like all real gold stories this is a modern mine, nothing 1790. side note, every trip i take i am the only person for miles and miles and miles...

coming from the midwest it is wild that here in CO we have rivers you cant naturally use, high acid and metals in them... i also have a creek nearby called Hot Creek and its warm year round and hear that folks can dip into it in winter... its a geologist dream here... Utes had holy sites for a lot of hot springs around here....

https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1995/ofr-95-0023/summit.htm has good info

i strongly believe so many folks prospecting here in the mid 19th century would have found most of this, hell summitville is almost 12k feet up so nowadays you really got to climb to find something unseen. met a guy that said he found gold around 14k or something and damn that is a tough climb.

 

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[sdcfia]

. . . . i dont understand how a company that found "A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered." went bankrupt [quick interrupt - Locals tell me go look for silver not gold]. just shows the difficulty. . . . .

Sounds like those Summitville miners were plagued with an unexpected containment snafu due to equipment failure. Oops. They may have made profits on the mine up until then, but when they apparently faced pollution remediation lawsuits it sounds like they skipped out. If you're itching for a prospecting project, I'd still be looking for gold. At a current $32/oz spot silver value, the best high grade silver miners in the world, mostly in Mexico, are barely paying their bills. Most successful silver mines (80-90% of the world's silver recovery) are large base metal mines with silver as a nice byproduct.

 

[solomon grundy]

Sounds like those Summitville miners were plagued with an unexpected containment snafu due to equipment failure. Oops. They may have made profits on the mine up until then, but when they apparently faced pollution remediation lawsuits it sounds like they skipped out. If you're itching for a prospecting project, I'd still be looking for gold. At a current $32/oz spot silver value, the best high grade silver miners in the world, mostly in Mexico, are barely paying their bills. Most successful silver mines (80-90% of the world's silver recovery) are large base metal mines with silver as a nice byproduct.

i agree 100% we want gold. but i think that is the point. as folks dont find gold they can find silver... between us a couple pounds of silver are all good in my pocketbook. not talking large mines tho.

story of https://lastchancemine.com/ nearby. "It leapt from a population of 600 in 1889 to more than 10,000 in December 1891." Creede CO is a worthy tourist visit imho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creede,_Colorado

Bonanza a little NE had President Grant visit it, its a ghost town now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonanza,_Colorado (the story of the pretty lady is fascinating).

love to find either. or copper leading to turquoise.

but really, a French soldier button from 1790 would be worth more than gold!

 

[sdcfia]

Yeah, that old French button could possibly spark years more snooping on your part. Looking for minerals can also be pretty exciting.

Out of curiosity at the time, but primarily the promise of really good wages, in 1974 I took a job at the Idarado Mine above Ouray. My very first shift, and the very first time I had been underground in a mine, our crew, including a management guy, all joined in on a high-grading frolic. Solid gold in snow white quartz. Everybody got some. That gets your heart pumping.

Below is a photo of a 16-ounce piece of picture rock taken out of the same vein structure where I was working. A guy named Clancy got it in the 1940s.

 

[solomon grundy]

Yeah, that old French button could possibly spark years more snooping on your part. Looking for minerals can also be pretty exciting.

mind blown on "Everybody got some" moment. '74 gold prices compared to today too.

i could never go down a mine, i have recruited a guy i know locally who can do 1k feet and all that for holes i find. repel and all that. recently we had a horror and i do not do mine tours: https://apnews.com/article/colorado-former-gold-mine-death-3ff210f97a9c046bd09499c3c6ef8272

 

[sdcfia]

mind blown on "Everybody got some" moment. '74 gold prices compared to today too.

i could never go down a mine, i have recruited a guy i know locally who can do 1k feet and all that for holes i find. repel and all that. recently we had a horror and i do not do mine tours: https://apnews.com/article/colorado-former-gold-mine-death-3ff210f97a9c046bd09499c3c6ef8272

I could repeat underground mining horror stories that the old-timers told us new guys, but . . . let's not go there. I will say that the stories were very effective and encouraged vigilance on the job.

 

[Crow]

I could repeat underground mining horror stories that the old-timers told us new guys, but . . . let's not go there. I will say that the stories were very effective and encouraged vigilance on the job.

Under ground Miners deserve every cent they are paid and perhaps mores so.

Crow

 

[solomon grundy]

Under ground Miners deserve every cent they are paid and perhaps mores so.

Crow

i am such a rock romantic, indiana born, that i always like ex coach of KY john calipari despite KY, and the coal miner that came to his game: but not gonna lie, sand got in my eyes following longer stories about this, he VIPd hiim, the whole state did