Gold in Idaho-the good old days-things changed

[salmonriverhotrock]

Larry, seriously, you and your dear wife need to put a book together before you get too far along not to. All the pictures are so precious and the stories you could tell about them. Of course, you could give your side of how all this Gold stuff has been done and how you do it.

Thanks so much good friend for sharing. This first detector you used, what make was it? Sure looks like a dinosaur compared to what we sport today. I need someday to figure out how to size and Post some pictures here of the area and some from the south Fork to show you what it looks like now.

Been a long day in the snowplow sanding the road along the big and little Salmon rivers. Going to be around 3 degrees tonight I hear. You keep showing me all these pictures, I'm going to be down the river bank below me panning in 39 degree water. Take care, Robert

 

[Lawrence S. Lagal]

[attachment 182374 scan0001.jpg][attachment 182375 scan0002.jpg][attachment 182376 scan0004.jpg]Dear Robert here is a picture of John Mocks Dredge on the Salmon River , at Lucile Idaho back in 60,s early 70,s and more nuggets got at 60feet of water. Deeper than people normaly went back then cause gold was abundent.

 

[Lawrence S. Lagal]

[attachment 182429 scan0014.jpg][attachment 182430 scan0013.jpg]Dear Robert you must be real busy wiyh the snow plow. Here is a picture going past Golden on the way to spend a month a ghost town up there you have herd of , we moved all the board walks , and the second picture is all we found in a month even 15 -1dollar gold pieces , it totaled to worth 7,000 dollars , not bad back then aye, try to rember the ghost town and you will be impressed, Larry Lagal

 

[Lawrence S. Lagal]

[attachment 182431 scan0001.jpg]Robert on the Salmon River , My friend ,Here is a verry old picture back in the early 60,s when i won 1st place in a spanish sighn reading contest , i got a check for 25hundred dollars back then a lot of money .

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Hello Larry

Great pictures and bit of history. I spoke today with a dear old Woman at Whitebird and when I asked if she knew John Mock, she just lit up like a light bulb and with a big smile said "heck yes I knew him and he always stopped in here at the cafe." She also said he did dredge up by Lucile and they always stopped to look at it. What do you think of that? She also mentioned she never knew why he left the area. I'm unsure yet what happened to the dredge but I'm told about 2004, just a short distance below where I'm at, an old dredge was cut up and hauled away. I have not been able to determine if that was his dredge. if I ever run across old Tucker, I'll ask him as he did some mining work on the river here in those days.

I asked if she knew your father and she was not familiar with the name but said in those days, It was highly possible.

Thanks for sharing Larry, Robert

 

[Lawrence S. Lagal]

Hey Salmon River Robert I talked to a man who said he could download a map, off the computer and douse it for us, and tell us where to look for gold, and we would know where to look, so we didnt have to work so hard , what do you think of that ? He also said all the glod of any importance to be found is in Alaska , and Alaska produces most of the gold in the world , guess he aint never seen Australian gold found with a Dector , wellhe also said there aint no big nuggets left in U.S.A. he must know what he is talking about cause I dont , but im a nobody

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Howdy Larry

Well, you can give him a try but I suspect you know more about where to find gold and in what form than dowsing a map is going to produce.

We have a local veteran miner here that dowses and I don't see him digging any new holes. He is interesting to watch though when he does dowse. Have even had him stand here at the place dowsing a spot clear across the river claiming there is gold up on the mountain side. I just don't see him or anyone else knocking the doors down to get over there. Could be that much of the area along the river has been withdrawn from mining. I did see last summer a suction dredge set up below that spot but the guy did not stay long.

I do know of three locations along the river that flash flooded last summer. One was during daylight and the other two at night. I actually watched the water, mud, and rock come down from the one. All three went over bedrock into the river. The problem with two of them are access and none of them appear to have washed any ancient placer down. When I get warmer weather and time, I'd like to finish the replacement of a bad ignition coil and get my boat engine running to get over to one location. I have a hunch though, all I will find is bird shot. The thing is, as long as I consitently find bird shot, I'll know I'm tuning correctly and I'll find the gold if it is there. So far though, no gold but am amazed at how small the pieces of lead and copper are that I find. It's just like the bedrock I detected last weekend. I know that location has been worked over and over with detectors and yet I retrieved pieces of undisturbed lead. I know they were undisturbed because I had to pry the rock apart to get to them. For some reason, everyone else missed them and with some high end machines. The thing that is frustrating is I know I can find gold if it is there. I even carry a 1 and 2 grain gold test pieces to make sure there is no doubt about what I'm hearing.

Oh. I also recently bought a book by your father called "Modern Electronic Prospecting." Is a short read but enjoyed the in color pictures. Some appear to be around my area of Idaho either on the Snake or Salmon, maybe even the lower Clearwater. Even though he is not as young as he once was, he sure looks like the drive to look for gold is still in him in these pictures.

Have a Happy New Year Larry, Robert on the Big Salmon

 

[Lawrence S. Lagal]

Here are some pic,s of Roy Lagal just before he retired , the pic,s are from Quartsite Arizona[attachment 184129 scan0004.jpg][attachment 184130 scan0007.jpg][attachment 184132 scan0008.jpg][attachment 184133 scan0005.jpg][attachment 184134 scan0006.jpg][attachment 184135 scan0009.jpg]

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Great pictures as always Larry. Has been a few years I was last in Quartzite but just passing through or getting fuel at the Pilot. I do recall all the little places all set up with their goods. Just about anything you could think of was For Sale. I bet that was quite the country to look for Gold back then. I'm sure it has been so worked over now that you have to go deeper with a P.I. machine.

I spoke this week with another Old Timer who knew John Mock. John eventually sold his dredge to another fellow and I think in the deal, also ended up with this guys house in the Twin Falls area. It burnt and he came back here and had a sort of shop that had a kitchen and he lived in it which may be one of the pictures you have here. I was told it also burnt. The dredge eventually was taken down river by the river Ice and was damaged. I believe it may have been the one I told you about that was cut up and hauled away some place down below us here. Norman Hoag or Hoge also worked for John Mock diving and such. He and another fellow had years later run a dredge here but it did not pay enough to make ends meet. The suction hose I told you about that I can see laying under water may in fact be an 8" or bigger. I was told the suction hose John used in them days was not a 6" but about an 8" or possibly a 10". The Old timer told me it may have been John who abandoned it or the next owner as those big suction hoses would get plugged with some pretty big rocks and they were a bear to try and clean out and sometimes could not. Have thought a couple times of building myself a hook to see if I can pull it up but by the size and length of it, I think it would get the best of me.

Also, down river at Black hawk near the Slate Creek Ranger Station on the big river, two brothers from New Meadows Idaho have recently staked a Claim or Notice of Intent to placer mine. If they can afford fuel and such and get down to bed rock, they may find something. There is going to be a lot of material to remove though. I'm sure they will have to go through all the hoops to try and get approval but next dredge season, the recreational dredgers will not be able to dredge that location anymore. On this whole river in my area, I'm told there is only one active placer mine and the government has tried hard and for years to run him out.

Well, thanks again for sharing the pictures Larry. Have a great week end, looks like a storm is coming to us, Robert