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My Introduction to a Lifetime of Gold Fever!
Let me tell you a little about myself and past mining experiences/finds; and how I came to be addicted to this hobby..all its rewards and avenues of adventure.
My first real mining experience began in Northern California in 1976; dregding on the Smith River.
The plywood mill we all worked at had just closed down. Two old friends of mine bought a gold placer claim; (1/4 mile of river) with an old 4" Keene Dredge. I think they paid $750.00 for everything.
I went to work in the local "Western Auto Hardware Store" On the first day we setup the dredge; Rich came up with gold flakes; about the size of a pencil eraser; and thin as tin-foil after running the dredge for just a few hours.
My friend Richard was jumping up and down on the river bank yelling; "their is gold on our claim; Their is gold on our claim"...
They spent the summer camped at the claim, I would spend the weekends. As the operation began to progress, gold was being found, their decision was to turn the gold into natural gold nugget jewelry to sell to the tourist shops in the area. Ray the other partner would take the finds/nuggets to San Francisco (SF)where a lady jeweler would create the jewelry and take payment in gold nuggets.
While he was gone I would stay at the claim with Rich helping with the dredging operation; the usual routine was to dredge about 4 hours each morning, stop for breakfast, about 10am and pan the con's from the previous days cleanup. In the after noon we would take care of camp business, getting firewood, cleanup, grocerys ect.
EVERY evening we would go to town, to the local small town hangout. (ahh the beauty of youth)
Nothing really exciting ever came off this claim, biggest nuggets were about 1/4 inch in size, but the flow was steady enough to support their operation with a little help from unemployment and my job.
Of course we always told anyone (even friends) who asked if we were finding any gold that we found very little, and showed a small vial of flour gold, this seemed to satisfy the courious that we were fools and were left to our own. I myself never really knew the full extent of what was being found untill the end of the season.Claim Camp
BUSINESS PICKS UP!!
As the summer progressed we ment some of the old timer's and local miners. One of the miners we ment had a claim which had been active since 1909 we all had gone to High School with his 3 daughters.
His health did not allow him to stay in the area during dredging season, he would spend his summers in Arizona; at least that was his story.
As you well know enough work had to be done each summer to satisfy the USFS. Rich & Ray made a deal with the claim owner to split 50-50%. A bit high for todays standards, but a good "my word is my bond deal" for the times.
We moved camp and began the new mining operation. The claim had a small log cabin, a bunkhouse and a small shop on the property. Also had an old gravity feed dredge setup in the creek, the old timer had built in the 1940's.
Right away gold was being found and Ray was making more and more trips too SF.
NOTORIOUS GOLD COUNTRY..
The claim was in a deep narrow canyon on a small creek, the whole hillside on both sides was pock marked with posthole sized holes someone had dug. The oldest daughter told us they had been made by her father who was looking for a:
"SIXTEEN POUND NAIL KEG FULL OF GOLD"
The story is two chinamen had discovered gold on this creek in the 1860's filled a 16 pound oak nail keg full of some of their discovery and had began a trip to town (50-60 miles) with their keg of gold; they were attacked by indians. One of the men died on the creek the other was injured badly and buried the gold along the creek. He made it to town but died from his injuries, before being able to return to retrieve the gold..
( I have an old history book of this area; I aquired years later, which tells this story).
I do not know if the gold was ever found; a good miner would never admit to such a find anyway. We never took the time to look for this gold. Dredging was good.
Ray was in SF; Rich and I had just moved the dredge below a small waterfall, the day before. Rich was doing the dredging I was throwing the big rocks off the single sluice, in bordom and taking in the view, it was getting late in the day.. the sun was starting to drop behind the ridge.
THE DREDGE RAN OUT OF GAS Rich came up on the other side of the sluice and began to help me through the big rocks off.
He then looks down and says; "and then once in a while you find one like this" what he was holding was a full one ounce solid gold nugget; about the size of a large marble.The Canyon
I WAS JUMPING UP AND DOWN
in the creek now, and it wasn't even my gold. We found smaller gold in the sluice as well, Rich let me keep the big nugget in my pocket for the day before we hunted up the oldest daughter to show her our latest find. She took it with a grain of salt; and said; "Oh yea dad has some even bigger than that, from this creek..
Rich ended up with that particular nugget at the end of the season (the biggest find) and had it made into a talisman.
The dredging season ended, my friends pooled their money once again and bought a 36 foot commercial crab fishing boat. They asked me to come along as the cook, ( I get seasick) I declined and went to Washington State to attend college.
Did not make it back the next summer to join them in their dredging operation, but continued to sell their gold nugget jewelry for years after that (hence the name thenatural).
That lead to further contacts and adventures of a life time. I continued to prospect in Washington State, and eventually bought equipment of my own to mine with; a 3" dredge/highbanker combination and a old 4" keene triple.
Never really found any big gold in Washington State while dredging. My biggets find came from a walk in the woods in the same area I had mined for years while looking for wood. But this is another looooooong story and would make this already to long a page impossible to load. maybe another time. Hope you enjoyed my story.
Bill (thenatural)
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Last modified: Saturday, 15-Jan-2005 13:19:42 EST |
