Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Newsletter

Transcription

1 Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Newsletter A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 Presidents Corner April 2017 Hello fellow prospectors, Spring has arrived, I think. The Bonell meeting was very productive with about twenty members in attendance. We were able to approve the annual operating budget, name our new claim, Lady Bug Gulch, and sadly accept the resignation of Kenny Hall, our long time Treasurer. Kenny has honorably served as Treasurer for the Coarsegold Gold Prospectors for many years. I wish to personally thank Kenny for his service to the club. Kenny nominated Gayle Proffitt-Crampton to be his successor. Gayle graciously accepted and by unanimous vote of the members present, she was elected the club s new Treasurer. Gayle will work with Kenny to transition the bank account for official business as the new Treasurer. The new claim, Lady Bug Gulch, was marked with posts and the Notice of Intent. Dave Hill was able to acquire the necessary information to identify the specific area to be claimed and will file the necessary paperwork with Mariposa County. The new claim area is the small drainage that runs behind where we camp and to the west toward telephone hill. Dave was also appointed as a new Director to assist with claims. Thank you Dave, I look forward to working with you and Gayle as we move forward through Winter definitely left its mark on Bonell and the surrounding area. New bedrock was exposed by the flowing water and completely changed the creek. It is going to be an exciting spring and summer as we prospect the area. Meeting location change; The April meeting has been changed to Bonell, Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 10:00 am. If you can get the Newsletter by , please do and save club funds. claimjumper01@gmail.com, Attn Newsletter. Kelly at Thank You, Your President, Frank Benard P a g e 1

2 Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Newsletter A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 Presidents Corner May 2017 Hello fellow prospectors, Hard to believe it s already May! The weather was beautiful for our April outing at Bonell. We had a great meeting and raffle with about 15 members present. Our new long sleeve shirts have arrived, thanks to Mike and Leslie who did a great job with the purchase of the shirts. The long sleeves are available for a donation of $15. On Friday, May 5, 2017 we set up a booth at the Coarsegold Rodeo Grounds. There were approximately 1000 children ranging from pre-school to 5 th graders who attended the event. We had 8 tubs/panning stations set up for the kids to try their panning skills. We had lines behind every station of kids waiting their turn to pan for gold. Special thanks to Gayle, Claude and Greg for their service to the club and community. Below is a young man learning to pan with Gayle s guidance. We were given permission by this young man s father to use his photo for promotional purposes. Our next meeting is scheduled for Bonell, Saturday May 27, 2017 at 10:00 A.M. If you can get the Newsletter by , please do and save club funds. claimjumper01@gmail.com, Attn Newsletter. Kelly at Thank You, Your President, Frank Benard P a g e 2

3 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors 2017 Board Members President: Frank Benard Parliamentarian & Editor: Kelly Hall 559/ Vice President: Claude Wilson Treasurer, Membership & Web Master: Kenny Hall Secretary: Leslie Eidsness Assistant Claims: Ed Bailey Claims: Greg Voisard Claims & Ways & Means: Mike Eidsness Board of Director: Carol DeSilva P a g e 3

4 Senate OKs Suction Dredge Mining Restrictions to Protect Fish Tracy Loew, Statesman Journal Published April 10, 2017 The Oregon Senate passed a bill Monday that would put permanent restrictions on motorized suction dredge mining to protect sensitive salmon and lamprey habitat. The bill s backers called it a win for clean water, healthy fish and recreation, and noted it came out of a long, collaborative process championed by the late Sen. Alan Bates, who represented Southern Oregon for 15 years. This bill s passage proves that given time and hard work, Oregonians are able to come together to develop solutions to our complicated conservation issues, said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands. Opponents, however, said it is nothing less than a direct attack on rural Oregon and a century-old way of life, and argued that suction dredge mining can actually be beneficial to fish habitat. The state has not provided a single piece of evidence (of mining s harm) except that outdoor groups wanted the water for themselves, Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby, said during a debate on the Senate floor. California placed a moratorium on suction dredge mining in As a result, large numbers of suction dredge miners moved to the rivers of Southern Oregon. That prompted the Oregon Legislature to pass Senate Bill 838 in It imposed a moratorium, from Jan. 2 this year through Jan. 2, 2021, on motorized mining for precious metals in streams and upland of rivers and tributaries with essential indigenous salmon habitat. Hobbyists using suction dredge mining vacuum up riverbeds through a hose, using a motorized floating dredge, looking for gold. Last year, 156 hobby miners received permits, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. Opponents say dredge mining can increase turbidity, stir up mercury deposits, trap and kill aquatic insects, fish 4 eggs and juvenile fish, and create noise that bothers other river users. Senate Bill 3, passed Monday, would repeal the moratorium, except in areas up to the ordinary high water line in any river containing essential indigenous salmonid habitat. In other areas, suction dredge operators would need a permit from DEQ. Permit rules would include limited hours of operation. Suction dredge miners from throughout Oregon testified during public hearings that the proposal would destroy livelihoods, ruin a cultural heritage and cost businesses that support mining such as restaurants, gas stations and hotels millions of dollars. The average hobby miner spends about $10,000 per year on equipment, living and operating expenses, and recovers between $8,400 and $21,000 in gold per year, according to Tom Kitchar, president of the Waldo Mining District. Over the years, I have purchased a couple thousand dollars of small pieces of mining equipment and placer mining claims," Monmouth resident John Esch told lawmakers. Now that I am retired U.S. Army, I thought of mining to help supplement my military retirement pay, but with the current DEQ and state permit restrictions, virtually no areas to mine, and the fear of losing everything, I cannot pursue my interests if Senate Bill 3 shall pass. But Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, who carried the bill, said it is a good compromise. It is vitally important to protect endangered and threatened fish species in our rivers and streams, but we also recognize that there is strong mining heritage in our state as well, Dembrow said in a statement. The bill now goes to the House for consideration. Antiquities Act Abuses Have Put Vital Resources Off Limits to American West That means virtually every revenue-producing, recreational and other activity is regulated, restricted, prohibited or under attack in courts and other venues. No timber cutting in national forests, fostering massive wildfires. No vehicles, wheelchairs, energy or mineral exploration in wilderness and many other areas. Even grazing and watershed management are under assault throughout the West.

5 Paul Driessen Town hall Land, energy and mineral lockdown: Too many oil, gas, coal, rare earth and other vital resources are still off limits President Trump has directed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review recent land withdrawals under the 1906 Antiquities Act, to determine whether some should be reversed or reduced in size. The review is long overdue. The act was intended to protect areas of historic, prehistoric or scientific value, with areas designated as monuments to be the smallest size compatible with the proper care and management of objects or sites to be protected. The first designation, the 1,347-acre Devils Tower National Monument (NM) respected that intent, as have most designations since then. However, some were enormous withdrawals; several were made with poor public outreach or inadequate consultation with people who would be most directly and severely affected; 26 of the 27 monuments to be reviewed are over 100,000 acres in size; and the final one involves deficient consultation. Arguably the two greatest Antiquities Act abuses affected Utah. The 1,880,461-acre Grand Staircase Escalante NM was designated by President Clinton in large part to make billion-dollar coal deposits off limits. Even Utah Governor Michael Levitt did not learn of it until it was a done deal (Chapter Twelve). President Obama designated the 1,351,849-acre Bear Ears monument three weeks before leaving office, many Utahans say to make still more energy resources off limits to exploration and development. Grand Staircase alone is equal to Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It and Great Bears together are larger than Connecticut. They are far larger than any of the national parks in Utah. And they are in addition to Utah s five other national monuments, five national parks, four national recreation and conservation areas, thousands of miles of national trails, six national forests, 31 national wilderness areas, and millions of acres in other restrictive land use categories. Some of these areas truly are unique, beautiful, and spectacular. I ve visited and hiked in many of them in Utah, other western states and Alaska. Our national parks in particular should be protected. But we have gone overboard, and far too many areas have been put in lockdown specifically to block energy and mineral development. Forest Service officials and Sierra Club officers have said so right to my face. Eastern and Midwestern residents cannot imagine the extent or impact of Federal Government ownership, management and control of lands in the eleven westernmost states and Alaska. While federal agencies own just 0.3% of Connecticut and Iowa, and 0.6% of New York, they own, manage and control 63% of all land in Utah; 61% in Alaska and Idaho; 80% in Nevada; 29% to 53% in the other western states. That means virtually every revenue-producing, recreational and other activity is regulated, restricted, prohibited or under attack in courts and other venues. No timber cutting in national forests, fostering massive wildfires. No vehicles, wheelchairs, energy or mineral exploration in wilderness and many other areas. Even grazing and watershed management are under assault throughout the West. All of these restrictive designations should be reviewed by Congress and Executive Branch agencies. As of 1994, when consulting geologist Courtland Lee and I prepared a detailed analysis, over 410 million acres were effectively off limits to mineral exploration and development. That s 66% of the nation s public lands an area equal to Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming combined. The situation is far worse today posing a critical public policy problem. Because of processes unleashed by plate tectonics and other geologic forces, these mountain, desert and other lands contain some of the most highly mineralized rock formations in North America. They almost certainly contain numerous world-class deposits of oil, gas, gold, silver, platinum, molybdenum and rare-earth metals essential for modern civilization. They wait for us to find them, using modern prospecting technologies that can be carried in airplanes and backpacks, leaving barely a trace but letting us know what is there, so that we can make informed land management decisions. Environmentalists claim that even a single mine or oil well in these areas would destroy their wilderness character and ecological value. That is absurd, considering that many of these areas are the size of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont or even West Virginia. Moreover, unlike wind turbine and solar panel installations across thousands or tens of thousands of acres in perpetuity, modern mines and drill pads are comparatively small and are restored 5

6 back to natural conditions when the operations have concluded. Equally important, wind and solar generate minuscule amounts of electricity, unreliably, at unpredictable times and require far more land and workers per unit of output than coal or natural gas. In fact, Coal generated an incredible 7,745 megawatt-hours of electricity per worker; natural gas 3,812 MWH per worker; wind a measly 836 MWH for every employee; and solar an abysmal 98 MWH per worker. That s part of the reason why oil, gas and coal still provide 80% of America s and the world s energy. America s national security situation was affected when we depended on often unfriendly foreign sources for oil before hydraulic fracturing unleashed record production from state and private lands. Now we are dependent on different, still often unfriendly foreign suppliers for rare earth metals and other raw materials that are essential for smart phones and smart bombs, stealth fighters, digital cameras, computer hard drives, wind turbine magnets, photovoltaic solar panels, hybrid and electric car batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, catalytic converters, and countless other modern and future technologies. China produces 97% of the world s rare-earth oxides, largely controls world markets, and increasingly uses rare earths in-house, to manufacture products for sale overseas. That means most jobs stay in China, even though the rare earths are mined, processed and turned into finished products under environmental and worker health and safety standards that would get operations shut down instantly in the USA. However, China s estimated reserves are only one-third of known global reserves, and much less than that of potential economically producible rare earth resources many of which could be in the United States. In fact, one of the largest known rare earth deposits is near California s Mojave Desert. It had been in production, but legal actions, excessive regulations and low foreign prices forced a long suspension of operations, and Molycorp filed for bankruptcy in 2015, citing a heavy debt load and other problems. That deposit underscores the enormous potential for finding billion-dollar deposits of numerous vital minerals right here in the USA if we are permitted to look for them. President Trump s decisions to review Antiquities Act land closures ease restrictions on onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling, and end stalemates over the Dakota and Keystone Pipelines are excellent steps in implementing his vision for American job creation and economic revitalization. The President and Congress could also explore ways to get more oil flowing to the Trans Alaska Pipeline, which needs certain minimal amounts in the pipe for the oil to move during frigid weather. Recent discoveries along the North Slope have helped, and perhaps Prudhoe Bay s declining oil production can be spurred some more by fracking. Ultimately, though, more Alaskan areas must be opened for drilling, and that will require White House, federal agency and congressional action. Congress should also take a leadership role, by launching discussions about how much western state land really needs to remain under federal control, and how many of our best energy and mineral prospects really need to be kept off limits. Those land use policies severely affect job creation and economic opportunities for states, communities, families and our nation as a whole, for little environmental benefit. Modern industrialized civilizations cannot long exist without the vital resources that come out of holes in the ground. Even wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars and internet services require a plethora of metals and other minerals plus fossil fuel energy to extract those resources and convert them into usable products. It s time to have a civil conversation about all of this. Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power Black Death. He has degrees in geology, ecology and environmental law. Murphy's Bar Follow the Regs, or follow the Gold? With spring coming most of us undocumented dredgers are busy touching up the camouflage on our equipment. By most, I mean Bob Flanagan and I. I have found a well camouflaged dredge acts in harmony with nature. I've also found you can recover more gold when you're dredge hasn't been confiscated. 6

7 When you're trying to recover gold, you follow the gold. If the gold runs into the bank, you run into the bank. If you're underwater and hit a quartz vein loaded with gold you follow that vein out of the water and you become a hard rock miner. If the vein dives you get explosives and keep on digging. Eventually you've got a nice hole in the ground we used to call a mine. When the mine peters out, you dig somewhere else. When they discovered shooting a giant jet of water at a bank of gravel could recover more gold, they built hydraulic monitors. When it became feasible to run bucket line dredges they built bucket line dredges. We dredge because that's what you need to recover gold which happens to be under 20' of water. If the State would be so kind as to remove their water from my claim I'd be happy to comply with their dredging ban. I suspect the enviros may get wrapped around the axle about that. With the huge floods we've had its going to be a great year for gold. At least for Flanagan and I. We're the last two remaining undocumented dredgers in the county. If you're wondering the US Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to recognize us as an endangered species. So the past week I spent my time rebuilding the carb on the Honda, I put new seals on the pump and even bought some new hose. I'm ready when the snow melts. I think I may have mentioned I'm somewhat flexible when it comes to following all these rules they've published. In fact I'm a virtual Gumby in my flexibility. Although the rules may be stupid - I'm not. I'm not going to put up a sign which says "Hey, I'm dredging down here." Nor am I going to stand on the river banks shouting about my rights. No sir, I think I'll just dredge. Bob Flanagan, the downstream claim owner of the Biscuit, tends to be a little more nervous about not following rules. Which isn't a healthy attitude when you're an undocumented dredger. Last summer Bob and I got into the same argument we've had a number of times before over following rules. My claim is upstream from the Biscuit, consequently I have a certain interest in the gold found on Bob's claim since its undisputed that gold had to have crossed my claim to reach his claim. That's another unresolved argument we have. At the end of the dredging day we both end up at the same bar, which we named after the local bar - Murphy's. It does confuse people when you throw the dredge in the back of the truck and tell them you're heading to Murphy's Bar. I always end the day first and I'll be sitting in my chair panning out when Bob invariably comes limping up the creek. He's not lame or anything, he just has a tendancy to drop boulders on his feet. A rookie mistake. "Three foot rule." I said as he grabbed the chair I keep reserved for him. Since we're the only two people in the canyon, and I have two chairs, it makes Bob feel good to think I have a reserved chair. "Strip clubs." He replies. "Your mind isn't on mining." I said. "We're not going to argue about regulations again?" He replied as he dropped his 5 gallon bucket of concentrates next to his chair and walked to the creek to get some water for panning out. "I just want to know where you stand on the three foot rule. You know, the one which say you can't dredge any closer than three feet from the bank." "Is there a reason for asking?" He asked noticing a good chunk of the bar was missing. "If you were doing a quarter ounce an hour following a streak would you follow it into the bar or not?" I asked. "I guess that explains the missing section of the bar." He replied. "Don't worry about that, the winter will put it back." "I think they have that rule because they say small creatures live near the bank and you could suck them up." I noticed Bob eyeing my pan which had about a penny weight sitting at the top. "Every pan has been like this." I told him. "You see nobody bothers to tell the gold where it ought to go, and it tends to not follow the regulations requiring it to stay in the gut of the river. It tends to go where its pushed and it seems a whole lot of it got pushed into this bar." "You're cutting into the bank." He replied. "Fish and Game says that could destabilize the bank." 7

8 "Unlike the winter floods? But it's not a bank, it's a bar which is temporary by nature. I decided to readjust this bank a bit. I say I'm still three foot from the bank, but I may reevaluate that again tomorrow." Bob's first pan looked a little meager for a guy who just spent 8 hours dredging and had a broken toe and a blackened fingernail to show for it. I couldn't help but ask, "You just dredging for recreation these days?" There's no such thing as a recreational miner, we're all professionals." "Even Glory Gulch Gary?" I asked. "The guy who comes from Kansas every year and parks his RV for the summer on the Feather River?" "That's the guy. I've never seen him so much as leave the shadow of his RV to go look for gold." I told him. "According to Pickhead Pete he's still a professional." "I don't think he can get his walker down to the river." "Pickhead Pete says it's the worst thing we can do to even mention recreational." Bob said as I pulled another picker out of the pan and washed the black sand into the tub for sorting next winter. "Who's Pickhead Pete." I asked. "He's on the forums. He's a hard rock miner. He did a post which said there's no such thing as a recreational miner." "How do you know he's a hard rock miner?" I asked. "He said he was in the post." "So do you think the guys from Barrick Gold are spending their days on the internet forums?" I asked him. "What difference does it make?" He asked as he washed another lousy pan into the tub. "My pans and your pans is the difference it makes. You either follow the gold or you're just in it for fun. Mining means moving dirt, it's not about following some stupid rule about staying in the gut of the river. That's not mining, it's recreation. "Yeah, Ruck a Chucky Chuck had a good post on mining rights and how they are more important than regulations." "He's out of jail?" "Yeah. His thirty days were up." "Did he get his dredge back?" "Not yet, but he did a post about how they're violating his rights by keeping it." "How's the State feel about violating his rights?" "So far they could care a less. But I think Ruck a Chucky will win, he really knows mining law." "Hence the 30 days in jail." "Bad judge according to the post." "Well," I said, "I may not know the mining law as well as Ruck a Chucky Chuck, but I do know I'm sitting on a bar loaded with gold and I aim to rearrange this bar a bit so you may want to move your tent tomorrow before you head to your claim." "Fine," Bob replied eyeing a few specs of gold in his pan, "Just try not to damage any riparian vegetation as you're rearranging the bank would you? We don't want the Fish and Game cops asking what happened to all the poison oak." WMA Tee Shirts, Hats and CGP Logo Decals Tee Shirts w/logo Front and Back: Color: Tan Sizes: M L XL XXL XXXL Quantity Color: Grey Sizes: M L XL XXL XXXL Quantity Color: Orange Sizes: M L XL XXL XXXL Quantity $15.00 each Hats w/logo: Colors: Tan Grey Size: One Size Fits Most Quantity $8.00 each Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Color Logo Decals $3.50 each or Two for $6.00 Quantity Total $ Total Order $ Call Kenny Hall at 559/ for orders and mailing cost. Page 8

9 Backpack Dredging the Remote Canyons Hitting the Backcountry for Good Gold. Rugged canyons hold out the hope of good gold, and good time Some folks will tell you the 2" dredge is merely a toy. Something which isn't a serious tool for finding gold. It may be true the 2" can't move a lot of material, nor can it reach any kind of depth, buy you can sure get them into a whole lot of places where you couldn't get a bigger dredge and you can have one heck of a lot of fun working the rugged, remote canyons. Although most of the people who work the big rivers sneer at the person running around with a backpack dredge, the odds are pretty good at the end of the season you may end up with as much gold as they did by being patient and persistent and sampling, sampling, sampling. There's actually a lot of people who use dredgers 2.5" and smaller. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife permit database fully 20% of all dredgers who held permits in 2009 used this size dredge, nearly 1,000 of us. Using a backpack dredge allows you to prospect areas you'd never consider if you were having to pack in a couple hundred pounds of gear on your back. Prospecting is typically a series of steps which begins with research. Each step involves a greater commitment of time and resources. After an initial assessment of a creek using a pan it's time to bring in a backpack dredge and determine whether its worth filing a claim. I've run a lot of dredges, and have thousands of hours on a nozzle and enough time under water the fish know me by name, but my favorite dredge is still the backpack dredge. When I'm running a 5" it starts to feel like work, I'm just taking apart a hole and running gravel. After a few hours of that you can get a little bored and think about moving the dredge to somewhere else. With a 5" I'm just running material. Sure, the material has gold and at the end of the day I have a nice sluicebox, but I'm always thinking the pay should be a little richer. Although I enjoy working the backpack dredges I don't like to carry more weight than I need to. Like most of us I just want to get there, and get a dredge engine running. I have various sized dredges, kind of like a golf bag. You have different clubs for different purposes. You tend to pull out your favorite club, sometimes for a shot which doesn't really fit. It's the same with dredges. If you're going to be doing this you should have an assortment of tools including different sized dredges. One size doesn't fit all, and bigger isn't always better. I used to have two 5" dredges. I'd have one on the upper part of the claim, and another one on the lower part of the claim that way I could work one area, then move to another without having to move the dredge. When you're working alone in the canyons you find yourself coming up with innovative ways to work. The fives got to be too much work for me alone and it was either get a partner or get a smaller dredge. I got a 4" dredge. Nice dredge by the way. I can't move as much material as the 5" but just the ability to work consistently without fighting the dredge almost makes up for the volume loss. Some say a 4" is a little bitty dredge, I suppose it is, but when it's on your back it doesn't feel like a tiny dredge. Maybe when I was in my 20's a 6.5hp engine would have been easy, but in my 50's it's a lot of weight. It takes me 4 trips just to move the pontoons. Quick math: If you're hiking into a canyon 1/2 mile from your truck and it has an 800' drop then each trip is 1 mile and 1600' of elevation change. Four trips to move pontoons is 3200' of up and down and 4 miles. If I can pack a 2.5" in one shot then that's better. I, and most dredgers, consider the 2" dredge a step up from panning, but it has the ability to clean the bedrock which a shovel and pan doesn't have. The 2.5" is a whole lot better than a 2", it just seems like you can move an awful lot more. The 3" is too close in size Page 9 and weight to the 4" to make it worth your while, although it's typically the first size which you can run air with. Don't even think about moving overburden with a 2" dredge. Sure, it's possible, but you'll spend more time throwing cobbles out of the way than actually moving material. The trick with the small dredges is to work the shallow stuff, not the stuff the bigger dredges are better at. You're not competing against bigger dredges, you're just sampling. The backpack dredge is an underwater sampling tool. I'll use it work from the bank down as low as I can go, which is the reach of your arm. The most overburden I'll work is 18", then I'll move somewhere else. The true advantage of these backpack dredges is exactly what they're called. Your ability to put it all on your back and get into a canyon in one shot, maybe two, but you'll get in, and out in a day. Or you can get in and work your way up a creek for a few weeks sampling as you go. Portability is the key. Every part you have to carry is more you have to strap to your back or carry. With the 2" I like the old type which floats on an inner-tube. I like the same set up for the 2.5" and I prefer the old "crash box" to the flare jet. With the crash box you just need enough water for the foot valve, but with the flare jet you need enough water for the tube to drop down. Often, there's not enough water for that. A 2.5" Dahlke flare jet at work on a creek with enough water to run something bigger than a 2", but smaller than a 4" Steep sides, hard to get to and skinny water with little overburden. The spring floods act like a firehose and just flush everything out of the canyon, but you're not looking for pay layers, you're under water sniping and your goal is to find the cracks which the gold has hung up in. It's the kind of creek someone with a bigger dredge would bypass. Too hard, too steep and not enough width to even float one. This particular creek was buried by tailings in the 1800s. These tailings were over 40' deep in some places and although the old miners, and the Chinese, worked them they never saw the creek clean like I see it. They could dig to bedrock, but they didn't have it all available to them. My experience with these rocky slot canyons is they'll hold pickers and nuggets, but not too much fine gold. The fine gold gets washed away with the tailings. The payoff from a day on a small creek with a small dredge Even with a small dredge I still have a hard time finding enough water to run the pump. When you can find enough water you'll have a great afternoon picking the gold out of the cracks with a pair of tweezers. I often just use the nozzle like a vacuum cleaner to simply just clean the bedrock, then spend the time picking up the gold by hand. These rugged canyons are hot, tough to get into and pretty wild. They take a lot of work. I've worked a lot of them and find I often have to find my own way in. There are rarely trails where you want to go and they tend to run a stretch, then you encounter a steep cliff or waterfall which is almost impossible to work around and you'll have to go back up to get down. A backpack dredge can be a lot of work, and it's doubtful you'll ever do the one ounce days you hear about. The gold is spotty and hard to find, but for an adventure that results in some nice gold, you can't beat it. WMA No it wasn t your eyes, I used a smaller font to get this on one page.

10 Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Association P.O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA Membership Application/Renewal: Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Association P.O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA / coarsegoldprospectors.com Please Print Last Name First Name Phone # Address City State Zip Membership Dues: Individual/Family $35.00 Annually Renewal Address Disclaimer: Coarsegold Gold Prospector s members purchase the right to use the association s mining facilities and services as is, and each member further agrees to indemnity and hold harmless Coarsegold Gold Prospector s and its leasers from all claims, liabilities, losses and expenses incurred by reason of injury to any person or property, arising from use by that member, members family or member s guests on Coarsegold Gold Prospector s facilities. Annual dues are from January to December. Members are 18 and above. If a family member is 18, he/she will have to join as a member. Each member also agrees to carry personal accident insurance. I have read and understand the above section. Signature:

11 Coarsegold Rodeo Kids Heritage Day Page 11