Golden Grams of Goodness: Nugget Hunting Tales

[Jim_Alaska]

Upside Down Gold Deposition

When working bedrock consider that the way the bedrock is right now may have absolutely nothing to do with the way it was oriented in the past.

In the dim past, a sheet of bedrock underlying a stream's current may have been oriented flat with cracks and crevices actively trapping gold. But many years later, the entire formation may have been up-faulted 90 degrees, or tilted at a shallower angle.

So, when checking bedrock, (whether it's part of a modern stream system, or it's now far away from an existing stream bed) and finding signs of stream action from the past (little rounded stones, sand, black sand, ironstone, and clay filling cracks and crevices), don't assume that the only gold present will found in the current bedrock cracks and crevices.

Gold may also be found (I stress "may", because it's uncommon, yet does happen) trapped in between sheets of flat bedrock. Most people check bedrock cracks that run perpendicular down into the bedrock, but it also pays to think about what may have happened untold years in the past. Those sheets that are now flat in the stream may once have been perpendicular to a stream's flow eons ago, making them excellent gold traps.

I've found gold this way before, ruling it out being a coincidence. (The Earth is exceptionally old, and factoring in earthquakes, up faulting and down faulting, tectonic plate action, meteor impacts, glaciation, etc., I've come to realize that almost anything is possible when it comes to gold deposition by Mother Nature.)

The strangest cache of hers I ever found was in an area where the entire stream deposit had been turned completely upside down! That's right--the heavies, including the nuggets, were on the top of the stream deposit layers--the ironstone was next, located below the nuggets, then the black sand below the ironstone, and the blond sands (sometimes two to three feet of it) under everything else!!). Yup--the nuggets were on the top, with the lighter heavies underneath.

The whole thing had somehow been flipped completely over, and this was a substantial deposit, about thirty feet in depth. All those layers flipped over long ago. Just imagine the titanic forces of that event.

It's true that one of life’s greatest puzzles it trying to figure out what Mother Nature did ages ago.

All the best,

Lanny

That was exceptionally helpful information Lanny. That's a first for me, never heard of it before.

[Lanny]

Thanks Jim, it was a first for me as well.

All the best,

Lanny

[Joe S (AK)]

Now THAT would have been one mighty unusual "Pancake Flip" to see!

Similar to Jim's experience with "Gold on the Outside Bend" years ago. The simple fact is that you'll find Gold where it deposited itself - where you expect by looking at things in modern times or way back right after they discovered light and gravity.

[Lanny]

Good points Joe, thanks for posting them.

I've experienced enough of the power of Nature to know that anything currently upright can be flipped right upside down if Nature's willing or sees the need.

Finally got out this last week with my son for some one-on-one time in the goldfields and got a couple of small pieces with the Goldmonster, he got one with the Bug Pro, and we dug a hole to bedrock in another area and got some flake gold, lots of hard work, but priceless memories.

All the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

Gold Monster Nuggets

My son and I got out for five days in the mountains (April, 2022) to chase some gold, and we had fun. We got to detect for some nuggets where the current placer miners had cleared a spot in a large boulder field.

The Old-Timers had worked the area by hand many years ago, and evidence of their workings were everywhere among the pines and fir, spots where they'd moved the big boulders around to get the gold trapped behind and underneath them.

The pay layer was a huge outwash left when a large glacial dam burst, creating a massive debris field of boulders that carried placer gold with it in a surface deposit about six feet deep. The gold is flattened from the boulders acting like a huge ball mill, but it's gold that runs about 91% fine, so it's worth recovering.

My son and I recovered three sub-gram nuggets. He got one with the Gold Bug Pro, and I found two with the Goldmonster.

The interesting thing about the Goldmonster is that at first the nuggets did not read in the gold range, the LED display swung mostly to the left, but as I dug and got closer the display started to flip more to the right, until I got right close to the targets, and then the display pinned to the right.

What I learned? When in a good location in gold country with the Goldmonster, I'll dig every target to visually ID it as I couldn't believe how much the reading on the nuggets went from ferrous to non-ferrous by the time I’d dug until I was right next to them. And in the area we were working, there just weren't that many targets. Moreover, any trash targets were quickly taken care of with my wand magnet, and anything non-ferrous? Well, there were only a few targets (a couple of 22 caliber casings, some 22 caliber leads, as well as a piece of birdshot and some lead sealing from an old tin can) in the ground.

All the best,

Lanny

[Jim_Alaska]

Another good story Lanny, and great advice on the Goldmonster readings. I'm sure that advice will be of help to some who have not experienced it yet.
Thanks for taking the time to post this.

[Lanny]

Thanks for your reply Jim, and as I'm always learning while out chasing the gold, I'll keep posting my observations.

All the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

Bear Troubles

People ask me about bears, if I’ve seen them while out prospecting, if I’ve had encounters with them, if they’ve ever bothered me, etc.

Yes, seen lots of bears, yes, had encounters, yes been bothered.

For the most part however, when a bear sees me, they usually head for the timber, bust it over the mountain, dash from the trail, etc. The bears seem to enjoy being left alone, for the most part. But, every once in a while, one breaks from the ranks to start trouble.

My mining partner (now retired due to his age) and I were way up north prospecting an ancient channel. The side of it was exposed along the edge of a trail. We were minding our own business setting up our detectors, when up a neighboring trail from the river came a huge black bear. Now, most black bears aren’t huge, and maybe that should have been a tip-off that this bad boy would have attitude.

We were close to the green Dodge diesel my friend drove, and he reached into the truck bed and pulled out a long-handled shovel. He rapped the shovel sharply against a boulder. (The crisp sound of metal against rock usually sends bears running.) The big bear kept advancing, coming straight up the trail toward us. I honked the horn, and it echoed loudly up the three branch canyons. The bear, way too close to us now, paid no attention.

My partner quickly opened the truck door, reached behind the seat and pulled out his Winchester lever-action 30-30. He spanked a round into the dirt right in front of that bear. The echoing boom racketed up the three canyons, and that bear instantly sat in the middle of the trail, totally confused as to where that shot had come from. After puzzling it over a bit, he shot up and high-tailed it over a fallen log. Over the next couple of days while we worked in that spot, we never saw him again.

In a different area, more than a thousand miles to the south, I was at our mining camp standing beside a truck camper one day, when working his way through the brush, a black bear came straight at me. I waved my arms and shouted (this often sends them packing), but head down, he muscled straight on. Footing his way along a ridge of old hand-workings that led to our campsite, he was quickly getting too close. At that moment, some dim instinct in my brain kicked in and I grabbed a cobble and hucked it right at him. That got his attention, but he kept coming. After whipping another cobble toward him, he gave up, dropped from the ridge into a gulch, and that was that. (On a side note, the large-scale placer miners on that lease had a similar run-in with a cougar, and they also chucked rocks at him, and the cougar left as well.)

Several years later, my partner and I were running placer material through a trommel. All at once, over a bedrock rise, two rolling-fat and sassy grizzlies sauntered toward us. Looking at the trommel, and cocking their heads from side to side, they kept on coming.

I had the Honda 400 right there, so I fired it up and gunned the engine, thinking they’d scat. No such luck—it only made them more curious, so curious they stood up quick. If you think a Griz is big on all fours, wait until they stand up! I shut that Honda down pronto. The two Grizzlies dropped back to the ground, sniffed the air a bit, gave my partner and I one last look, then off they shuffled over that bedrock rise.

My partner, an old outfitter and hunting guide, pegged them as two young grizzlies that had just been booted out by their mother (around three-years-old). So, the day they visited, they were off exploring the world, a brand-new place of discovery and wonder.

On a different summer day at the gold camp, I was contemplating life in the shade of a lone pine that overlooked a river-side cliff. All at once, I heard a loud roaring sound, the kind that makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up. Next came the screaming of a woman and the terrified yelping of a dog.

I knew our friends were dredging down in a gorge below that cliff, so I jumped on the Honda, fired it up and raced back to the main camp to grab a rifle. That roaring sound could only be a bear. The screaming woman left no doubt there was serious trouble.

My partner hopped behind me on the Honda, and we tore down the trail to the gorge overlook. Hopping off, we saw our friend walking back down the trail to the gorge bottom. We hollered at him, and he stopped.

We ran down the trial with the rifle and followed him back to where his wife and the dog stood shaking beside the dredge. Then we got the story.

A black bear had been stalking them that day and had finally crossed the river. (There was only one exit from the gorge, and it was back up the trail.) The bear went straight for the dog, who was between the woman and the bear, and the bear and the dog went at it (the roaring and yelping I heard). The woman screamed to frighten the bear off, but it wasn’t working. Her husband popped up from dredging, grabbed a large flat rock, held it over his head (to make himself as large as possible) and charged toward the bear. The bear bugged out and hoofed it up the trail. As the bear shot over the lip of the canyon, the man turned around, heading back toward his wife. It was at that exact moment we came roaring down the trail on the Honda. What we didn’t know was, after the husband turned to head back down the trail, his wife saw the bear return, ripping down the trail after her husband, but our noisy arrival made the bear turn around and fly out of there.

They were both grateful we showed up when we did that day. (She even cooked us a Huckleberry pie and made us a fantastic supper too!)

All the best,

Lanny

[Jim_Alaska]

Those were some great memories you posted Lanny. Looking back on that kind of stuff makes you wonder how you lived this long and why you didn't have encounters of the more serious kind.

I've had my share while living in Alaska, most ended up like yours, with the exception of your last story. I like the ones that end with the bear skedaddling, the other kind...not so much.

Thanks for posting those Lanny.

[Lanny]

Thanks Jim, and I've had other encounters with bears as well, but I've only chosen a selection of ones to share, been around them for far too long.

It's always great to hear from you Jim, and thanks for hosting such a fine forum.

All the best,

Lanny