My Father and the LDM

[djui5]

It works quite well at Cripple Creek, CO.

I just sold some Gold from that mine recently. It's ugly but wow is it rich

[djui5]

RockyFrisco also wrote

The mining there was deep hardrock mining, so panning is useless. Any gold found on the surface was lost by somebody.

Well, I don't know that panning is ever totally useless
Roy

Panning might be around those mountains, but I will tell you that I found a very nice rock "in the area of" the Idorado Mine recently. I'll try to get a picture of it and post it.

BTW that Deadwood Gold has to be coming from somewhere

[oroblanco]

HOLA amigos,

Djui5 wrote

RockyFrisco wrote:
It works quite well at Cripple Creek, CO.


I just sold some Gold from that mine recently. It's ugly but wow is it rich

Tell me more....! Some of the ores from Cripple Creek mines were spectacularly rich - at the Cresson mine, at the 1200 foot level they hit a vug of calaverite ore that was over 4000 oz/au/ton and had armed guards watch the miners while they worked.

Djui5 also wrote

Panning might be around those mountains, but I will tell you that I found a very nice rock "in the area of" the Idorado Mine recently. I'll try to get a picture of it and post it.

BTW that Deadwood Gold has to be coming from somewhere

There is supposed to be some very good colluvial placer around Mineral Hill, considering how rich the lodes are, I would sure not leave the gold pan out of the kit. I hope to get a peek at a pic of that "very nice rock"!

Yes that Deadwood gold is indeed coming from "somewhere" - there are nearly 100 lode mines just around Deadwood, (including the famous Homestake) some were as rich as LDM ore, and the ancient Cambrian 'cement' placer ores were hardly scratched. One "cement" mine had ore which was 80% gold, discovered by (of course) another Dutchman which I won't name in public. He shipped out 3 RR cars full of that ore and left a very rich man. Don't let this get around, of course I can trust that no one else is reading our words. There are far worse places for a gold-diggin, treasure-hunting prospector to be stuck than here where Beth and I am at the moment.

BTW for our readers who may be following our discussion and are not familiar with that term, a "colluvial" placer deposit is one formed at the base of a cliff or steep mountainside, these can be extremely rich and just to make it tough, most often in pockets. Similar in some respect to saprolitic deposits (decomposed rock in situ, often leaving a very rich placer) and one of the best placers for modern prospectors to hunt. The tendency to be in pockets makes them un-attractive to large mining companies. Great for individual prospectors or the 'mom-n-pop' type operators though.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Roy

[RockyFrisco]

oroblaco wrote: "Some of the ores from Cripple Creek mines were spectacularly rich - at the Cresson mine, at the 1200 foot level they hit a vug of calaverite ore that was over 4000 oz/au/ton and had armed guards watch the miners while they worked."

That might be where my specimen came from.

Here's a picture of the shoe buckle from Hannibal:
http://www.rockyfrisco.com/shoebuckle.jpg

[oroblanco]

Wow Rocky that is pretty darn COOL! Is it made of bronze, do you think? Any idea how old it might be? I have never seen one like it! A very cool find! <2 thumbs up>

Roy

[RockyFrisco]

It's either bronze or copper, I think. They have removed all of the homes from the area except the Clemmons and Thatcher houses, where the museum is now located. The river is right down the hill from those. It's a wonderful visit for a major admirer of Mark Twain like me.

I onve visited the very tiny cabin where Twain stayed in the gold country of California. I had a twinge of suspicion that something was hidden behind the top of the fireplace in the cabin, but I didn't disturb anything, out of respect for history. I later read that somebody else had not been so careful and had found a small bag of gold coins in that exact location. The story was in a California newspaper, so I tend to credit it. I had a similar experience when I found a "hollow" spot on the wall of Robber's Cave in Oklahoma. I had been tapping on the wall and this one spot sounded hollow. I later read that somebody had dug into the wall and found a pistol and some coins there. That's supposed to be a James gang hideout. I always wonder how people get away with desecrating a historic site like that. That's a State Park, so I reckon it shouldn't be legal.

[oroblanco]

Gosh Rocky, you have hit on one of those 'sticky' questions, for what is allowed in the parks, monuments etc? Do you recall the fellow who made all the newspapers with his reported find of a small box in a cave in Death Valley, which had some old money, a pistol and some papers that seemed to be from the 49-ers time? I understand they prosecuted him for that, on the grounds that he did not have a Treasure Trove permit - which I take to mean, that if he had gotten the necessary permit, he may have been able to legally keep it? There is not even a state-wide standard for most states' parks either; in CA for instance, in Red Rock Canyon park, it is illegal to even turn over a rock; in Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park also in CA, gold panning is allowed in designated areas. It is very complicated and every park can apparently have a different set of rules. City and town parks are even more complicated - every city has different rules. It is one of my 'gripes' but when they are creating these many parks, for the 'pursuit of happiness' - it doesn't apply to metal detectorists; we are not allowed our own pursuit of happiness in a lot of these parks, which we helped pay for. Oh well.

You know, I think it would make quite a project, but if someone would go to the trouble of learning all the different sets of rules and regulations for all the state, city and national parks as it concerns metal detecting and prospecting, and put it into a book form, that book would sell very well among treasure hunters.

Mark Twain is one of my personal favorite authors too - I especially loved his "Roughing it" and his hunt for the lost Cement mine. He lived the adventures he wrote about.
Roy

[RockyFrisco]

Have you seen the "Roughing it" movie, with Jewel Staite and James Garner? It's really superb. I found it on ebay while looking for Jewel's stuff. I became an enormous fan of hers from watching "Firefly," the best TV S-F I have ever seen. I recently read Twain's autobiography and it was really great.

They used the high-pressure water hoses around Volcano, CA, a quick and dirty method that left a lot behind. Most of that land is private property. As the economy tanks, I think there will be more activity there. I can't remember where the Twain cabin was, but I'm pretty sure I can find it. It's in a farming area, sort of tucked up between properties.

Boy, yes! That book would definitely sell!

Are there areas in Arizona where the hunting is unrestricted?

[oroblanco]

HOLA amigo Rocky and everyone,

Yes I LOVED "Roughing it" especially Twain's encounter with "Jack Slade"! They ran it on sat TV a month or so ago, wish I had recorded it. Twain was quite a wanderer - I only recently learned that he even visited our area here (Deadwood) in either 1877 or 78, as he was mentioned in the Deadwood newspaper.

RockyFrisco wrote

Are there areas in Arizona where the hunting is unrestricted?

Yes there are, one is quite a large area too - the main restrictions there being that you can't use heavy equipment large backhoes etc. It is south of the town of Quartzite and is named the La Posa site, long term camping is allowed with permits and covers over 11000 acres, here is the 'official' website

http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/recrea ... aposa.html

The 'kicker' is that this is a super area for finding gold nuggets with a detector, especially after heavy rains (allowing time for the ground to dry out) as new nuggets get washed down so even an area that is supposedly "hunted out" gets re-seeded with new supplies of gold every year. Another site is up on Lynx creek, here is the 'official' link for that site
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/prescott/recrea ... pect.shtml

this site has a few more restrictions but basically hand tools and metal detectors are allowed - and again, this creek gets fresh gold every year from floods, and the 'old timers' are estimated to have only gotten less than 25% of the gold in the creek.

For anyone reading our little discussion here, if you are interested in recreational gold panning and nugget shooting with metal detectors, I highly recommend joining the Gold Prospectors Association of America, they have a large number of mining claims all over the west (and some in the SE states) where you can go panning, detecting etc and keep all the gold you find, without having to ask someone for permission. They also have the Lost Dutchman Mining Association, which has little to do with the Lost Dutchman mine, but owns a number of patented mining properties in the western states where you can go - of course it costs more to join the LDMA than the GPAA, a years membership for the GPAA is around $75 and the LDMA is considerably more but is a "lifetime" membership not annual and allows you the use of all the GPAA claims as well as the LDMA claims. The other large club, the New 49ers, also has several properties but I don't know as much about them - I believe most of their properties are in northern California.

The one "good" thing concerning the many national parks and monuments, wildernesses etc where metal detecting and prospecting are severely restricted or prohibited, is that when they were drawing the boundaries for them, they were SUPPOSED to leave OUT all mineralized lands. They did not of course as can be shown in the CA Desert Protection Area (even the Bureau of Mines fought against it which led to the demise of the B of M) or even the Superstitions Wilderness, but in general most of the known mineralized lands have not YET been included in these parks, monuments etc.
Roy ~ Oroblanco

[roc2rol]

Hi Guys!

I recall watching a Tom Sawyer movie that I believe Mickie Roonie played the lead role. This movie was in black & white and must have been made in the early 1950’s. The grade school I attended would play it each summer at our recreation center. It was the classic story of Tom Sawyer with all the key characters Huckleberry, Becky ect….

It had the scene in it where Becky & Tom get lost in the cave. Well actually Tom is looking for the lost treasure. Of course, Injun Joe is in the cave and means to harm Tom & prevent them from finding the treasure. As I recall Injun Joe falls into the abyss and Tom & Becky emerge triumphant with the gold!!!!

The thing was that watching this in Phoenix Arizona as a kid
I always thought the cave scene was an allusion to the Lost Dutchman Mine.

I searched for this movie a few years ago and couldn’t find any reference
Just now I found this link and think this is the one I watched.
1http://www.fandango.com/theadventuresoftomsawyer_v1044/summary
If so its excellent!

Maybe my searching skills are getting better?
fingers crossed
Ed