Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

Anyone ever tried prospecting a seasonal natural drainage in CA's motherlode?

Roscue2

Roscue2

Active member
We have some property right on the edge of the Mother Lode in California's Sierra Nevada's foothills. The property has a seasonal drainage running through a part of it. The drainage is natural and starts at a higher elevation a few properties away from ours.

The way I understand gold prospecting (and please correct me if I am wrong) gold settles near a creek/stream/rivers bedrock?

Here in lies my concern, you could say. This drainage does not have any visible bedrock, but instead flows over the dirt, basically. Is it possible there could be gold in this dirt? And I know:), the answer is to give it a try. So, I guess what I am asking is what is your opinion on the possibility of gold in this drainage? I do intend on giving it a shot, and if this drainage doesn't work out, there are other places to use the gold prospecting equipment (Garrett's gold panning kit).

PS: For what it is worth, the previous owner did quite a bit of excavating to build dirt bike mounds on the property, which ended up destroying much of the drainage, but there is still a 200 ft section that exists in its natural form. Would it be worth taking a sample of a few of the mounds to see what it has to offer?

Thank you every one for your comments. I appreciate it.
 
Well, anything is possible. You have given next to no information to go on. You are in gold country, that is good. No bedrock, not so good. I am assuming no sign or evidence of historic mining?

Short of you posting a map about all anyone can do is speculate. You really need to get a gold panning kit (the Garrett Gold Panning Kit is great) and learn how to pan for gold and give it a go. How to Pan for Gold

Steve Herschbach
 
steve herschbach said:
Well, anything is possible. You have given next to no information to go on. You are in gold country, that is good. No bedrock, not so good. I am assuming no sign or evidence of historic mining?

Short of you posting a map about all anyone can do is speculate. You really need to get a gold panning kit (the Garrett Gold Panning Kit is great) and learn how to pan for gold and give it a go. How to Pan for Gold

Steve Herschbach
Click to expand...

There is no evidence of historic mining that I can see on the property, or any of the other properties near me; however, I don't go on their properties so I could be missing something.

As for a map, I will try and find a map of the area the property is in to post it.

I do intend on getting the Garrett Gold Panning Kit and giving it a shot, and thank you for the recommendation.

Thank you for the link Steve. HH
 
Roscue, an excellent question. A family member of mine has property smack in middle of the Mother Lode. Lots of lode mines, hydraulicking took place till outlawed, large placer operations. However none of this activity is within 2 miles of their place. Pretty much hills, ravines with seasonal water but no bedrock. Very similar to what you describe. I am going to sample the seasonal creek runoff area cause who knows? Somebody tell me if i'm wrong on this - prospectors swarmed over this area by the thousands, however is the notion that they concentrated on creeks/rivers and not so much "high ground" so to speak correct? Unless they were able to locate veins leading to hard rock mining? Len
 
Lemmcgold, that is what I am thinking: test it, and if nothing else, I have a gold panning kit to use in the mother lode.:)

Heres hoping for both of us.:beers:
 
Look, the old timers tried pretty much every little drainage in the mother lode country. Some had gold but not enough to interst the old timers. Thats possible. On the other hand, it could also be barren. You just have to test it to see. I'd try the undisturbed section before I bothered with the mounds. If it had held loads of gold, the old timers would have worked it and you'd see signs of their work like piles of rocks.
 
steve herschbach said:
Well, anything is possible. You have given next to no information to go on. You are in gold country, that is good. No bedrock, not so good. I am assuming no sign or evidence of historic mining?

Short of you posting a map about all anyone can do is speculate. You really need to get a gold panning kit (the Garrett Gold Panning Kit is great) and learn how to pan for gold and give it a go. How to Pan for Gold

Steve Herschbach
Click to expand...

Thank you for the link Steve! Was busy today, and just now had the time to fully read it. Very informative, and made the panning technique much easier to understand.
 
Yep - I'd agree with Reno Chris - the old timers were very thorough. The fact that it's your back yard makes it a good place to learn how to pan, dry wash, high bank (if you have a water supply). I wouldn't expect nuggets to start showing up tho. Maybe some flour - possibly - if your close enough to the placers. Sounds like your a newbie so good luck with the hunt.
 
NOPE-miners of old were indeed quite bold and looked in every gulley,ditch and drainage BUT they had to find at LEAST AN OZ PER TON to eat bacon and beans as prices were insanely low in daze a old. So what they considered JUNK we are more than happy to mine the "crumbs from their plate a plenty" This rule a thumb is ESPECIALLY important when hardrocking(look for hand steeled portals) as have found many 100's a righteous chunks they threw away as waste??? hahaha not now-John
 
Well, Thank you for the information Reno Chris, au79, and Hoser John. I do not expect to find the mother lode in my backyard by any means, but it would be great to find even a speck of gold in my back yard.:biggrin: And the practice will help me for whenever I do head out to other known producing areas nearby that are public.
 
Hi Roscue,
I see you have over 1300 posts, do you have a metal detector or a magnet? I would certainly try the detector. Use it look for black sand as
well as gold. If no detector, then try a magnet to look for black sand. Black sand is no guarantee of gold, but if there is gold and black sand
they are usually found together. If you have black sand, pan that and if there is some gold, there may be more.
If you are new you might get some help asking some of the guyes here to help you if they are close by. Bet there would be a few willing to
take a look around. I am in the Los Angeles area, too far for me, give it a whirl.
Rich
 
panama rich said:
Hi Roscue,
I see you have over 1300 posts, do you have a metal detector or a magnet? I would certainly try the detector. Use it look for black sand as
well as gold. If no detector, then try a magnet to look for black sand. Black sand is no guarantee of gold, but if there is gold and black sand
they are usually found together. If you have black sand, pan that and if there is some gold, there may be more.
If you are new you might get some help asking some of the guyes here to help you if they are close by. Bet there would be a few willing to
take a look around. I am in the Los Angeles area, too far for me, give it a whirl.
Rich
Click to expand...

Hello Rich,
yes, I have been mding for more than 4 yrs and have an Garrett AT Pro. I also have a magnet lying around somewhere that I could use.

I was also considering seeing if anyone on the forum lived nearby and was in the area that would be willing to help me learn on some of the public streams nearby that can be panned.

thank you for the suggestions
 
If you live in the southern Mother-load there are three clubs you might want to check out.

1. Mariposa 49's - Meets the second Friday at 6:30 PM at the Miners Inn in Mariposa. This is a GPAA affiliated club, no dues. http://www.mariposa49ers.com/About_Us.html

2. Central Valley prospectors - Fresno based, also a GPAA club. http://www.cvprospectors.org/

3. Coarseggold gold prospectors. Kelly is the President and is very helpful. moderate dues. http://www.coarsegoldprospectors.com/

There are folks in each of these clubs that would be pleased to help you, including me.

If you want more info PM me.
 
:usmc:

Something you may consider is setting up a grid and prospecting it. I don't know if you have any machinery available but even if you had an old tractor with a post hole auger, you could possibly get some kind of depth and some material from below to pan out. Something to consider as well is gold can lay on hard pan or some clay. There may not be any bed rock visible but that is not to say there are no hard layers below the dirt that could have captured gold from a Mother Nature event. In one place, I recall using a D-7 Cat with 3 rippers to get through a layer of hard pan the dozer blade had a very difficult time getting through. You may want to look around and find an old small portable core drilling outfit. Then you may find it easier to just get an old wore out back or track hoe that is reliable enough to dig some prospect holes. If nothing else, you can fill the holes back in and undo the bike course to make the property look more natural again.
 
Thank you for the advice salmon. I do plan on digging down a few feet in the drainage to see what is below. Unfortunately, the only heavy equipment for digging that I have available to me are shovels and a post hole digger.:lol:
 
I Live on the outskirts of Placerville "Old Hangtown" and have a seasonal run off creek that I have been sluicing. I have been finding some Color. Depending on where in the motherload u are there is gold in these hills. My house just happens to be where several mines were and off of the origanal Eaton train route. Not only is it fun to find gold but we also find many old artifacts.
 
We are on the western edge of the Mother Lode. Funny this thread should come back up, was thinking of giving it a try this weekend.:lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top