Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Newsletter

Transcription

1 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Newsletter A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 President s Corner April 2018 Hello fellow prospectors, This year is moving along at a very steady pace. Spring is quickly ending and summer is just around the corner. It s time, now that the weather has settled, to hit the creeks in search of gold. Friday April will be a work day. We will meet at the Greeley Hill Market at 9:00 a.m. Saturday April 28 will be our monthly meeting at the Bonell Gulch camping area. Our May outing will also be at Bonell Gulch and surrounding claims. It is with great sadness to report the passing of long-time member Ed Bailey. Ed was a founding member of the Coarsegold Gold Prospectors and will be missed by all. We are in the process of updating the Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws and a new Conflict of Interest Policy all of which are necessary to obtain our 501(c)(3) status. If you would like to view the proposed changes they will be posted to our website after the April meeting. If you would like a paper copy please request it at a meeting or by phone and we will all documents to those who receive . The scholarship committee reviewed 30 applications for our inaugural annual scholarship for graduating seniors from Minarets and Yosemite High Schools. Out of many talented applicants we chose one recipient from each school. We will reveal the identity of these promising young scholars in a future issue. The Mariposa Gem and Mineral Show was a success in spite of the weather: we signed up 5 new memberships. Welcome to our new members and thanks to Greg, Gayle, Mike, Claude, Jim Bauer, Jim Bauer Jr. and Tom who helped with the booth. Our next event is May 4, 2018 at the Coarsegold Rodeo Grounds. There will be about 2500 students from mountain area schools that will stop by our booth and learn to pan for gold. We need volunteers to assist with the panning stations and setup. Thank You, Your President, Frank Benard P a g e 1

2 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors 2018 Board Members President: Frank Benard Claims & Editor: David Hill Vice President & Parliamentarian: Claude Wilson Treasurer & Membership: Gayle Proffitt-Crampton Secretary: Leslie Eidsness Claims & Ways & Means: MikeEidsness al.net Board of Director: Carol DeSilva Board of Director: Ann Borella P a g e 2

3 Items from Treasurer and Membership Director, Gayle Proffitt-Crampton 1) Janine Clark at the Mariposa History Museum in Mariposa is always looking for volunteers to show their bus loads of children how to pan for real gold that they can keep. Call Janine at to get dates and times you can volunteer. Or her at MariposaMuseum.com 2) Campfire Permits can be obtained by going to PREVENTWILDFIRECA.ORG/PERMITS. Answer a few questions and print out your permit. Please contact the local Forestry Office to make sure it is still ok to have a campfire. 3) If you have excess prospecting equipment, please bring to our outings. We have Members who have nothing and need items like pans, classifiers, snuffer bottles and vials, the basics. Those 10 snuffer bottles in your garage are going to waste, bring them. 4) Members who do not have , if there is inclement weather before scheduled meetings/outings, please call the club s phone number to find out if they have been cancelled or rescheduled. 5) Information for those who are beginners, and those who need to "get back to the basics": Three informative books: Gold Prospectors Handbook by Jack Black (at the library, and can be purchased as well), Gold Prospecting in the 21st Century by Dave McCracken and Fistfulls of Gold by Chris Ralph An informative magazine: ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal (my favorite). Lots of education in this magazine (ICMJ.com) Suggested List of Things to Bring to Outings Waterproof footwear, chair, shovel, prospecting equipment, water, food, toilet paper (no restroom facilities P a g e 3

4 at Bonell, there is one at Bull Creek Campground, about a 10 minute drive), sunscreen, first aid kit,etc. Highway 49 Closure Highway 49 is closed from Bear Valley, Ca. to Coulterville, Ca. Possibly opening in July An alternate route, for those who used that route to our claim: Cathey's Valley (south of Mariposa approx 12 minutes) on Highway 140, across from the Chevron station is Hornitos Road. Take Hornitos Road through the Historic Gold town of Hornitos to Merced Falls Rd, (turn right ) follow it to J132 turn right (small detour as you get on J132 around a wash out), and follow J132 to Coulterville, Greeley Hill and our claim. Some maps may not show Hornitos Road, but I guarantee you it is there and is a good road. Our member, Shirley (thank you!) took this route, it was 62 miles and took around1 1/2 hours to get to the Bonell claim. Your time could be different. The time doesn't appear to be too much different than going our old way from Bear Valley via 49 to Coulterville and on to Bonell. I was told that Bear Valley Road out of Bear Valley Ca. also goes to Hornitos and connects up with the Merced Falls Road and onto J132 and to the Bonell claim. Please Donate to the Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Scholarship Fund Coarsegold Gold Prospectors is an accredited non-profit organization. We enjoy giving back to our great mountain communities and the families that reside here. One of our new programs recently adopted is our scholarship fund. Each year we will be selecting students from our two local High Schools to receive our scholarship. Our goal is to help make it easier for these students to pay for their tuition, books and other costs associated with their desire to better themselves through an accredited institution. We will work in coordination with the counselors at the High School level to help us in making our decisions as well as monitoring and dispersing funds to these students. This assures that they are maintaining the attendance and other factors required to receive the disbursements during their enrollment. We ask that you help us in helping our local students further their education, through Junior College, Universities or accredited Trade Schools. We have no set donation amount. We only ask that you donate what you are able to. Everything helps..!!! P a g e 4

5 Please go to our website, Coarsegoldprospectors.com, and donate what you can. You will receive a receipt thereafter. See "Scholarship Donation" tab on the left side of the Home page. Or send a check or money order to P.O. Box 152, Coarsegold, Ca , make a notation on your check that it is for the Scholarship Fund. The recipient schools are: Yosemite High School and Minarets High School $ to a student at each of these schools. The students will be awarded their Scholarships in May of 2018 at their Awards Night. Please help us with your donation so we may all help these students. Thank you from the Coarsegold Gold Prospectors. Flash Flood Sweeps Through our Claims The storm that caused the washouts on Highways 49 and 132 in March also affected our Mariposa County claims. Water levels on the creeks peaked at up to seven feet above normal, based on debris lines left behind on the banks. In some places the flood scoured bank material down to bedrock, and some new gravel bars formed. Two of our claim posts were swept downstream but luckily were recovered and now stand on higher ground. It is possible that Mother Nature has replenished gold in some of your old hot spots! California Senate Bill 1222 Aims to Help Prospectors California s ban on dredging put into law by SB637 in 2015 unfortunately contained vague language that appeared to make all mechanized mining activities like high banking, dry washing and dry vacuuming also illegal. A new bill, SB1222 is under consideration now that would clarify the language so that only dredging will remain illegal. If you want to help preserve our prospecting rights, please call and/or write your state senator and urge them to support SB1222. You can find your senate and assembly representatives at click under Find Your Legislator. P a g e 5

6 The Mysterious Wave, by Tom Chambers In 1985 I was living in Grass Valley, northern California. That year I became a partner on some claims in Nevada County. My partner's name was Tom also, so I became T.C. The waterway is named Steephollow Creek. We called it The Canyon. Steephollow is a remote little creek which runs East to West across the ancient gold bearing Tertiary river beds of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I fell in love with the place the first time I was down there helping my partner fix up the camp in preparation for the dredging season. We raked and removed pine needles out of the camp area, off of the kitchen counters and the pathway to the outhouse. We had a fully stocked kitchen with counters and shelves underneath to store the plates, pots and pans. There was a small stainless steel sink with cold running water from the adjacent spring fed tributary Off of the cold water line we had a line that went over to a sort of refrigerator arrangement. The very cool water slowly drizzled over a burlap covered wooden crate, the water running down the burlap sides, not inside the crate. It acted like a swamp cooler. We could keep mayonnaise and cheese and such. The place was paradise to me. There was nice gold there to boot! June finally came around and with the opening of dredge season the weather was warming. The first day of a week-long vacation found me down at the camp with enough food and gasoline for the week. I was ready to turn my attention to the business of making my fortune. I had a 3 inch dredge already down there at the time and I had it in place and ready to go in a couple of hours. I had been eye-balling this little spot to dredge since the previous summer. Tom called this feature Mushroom Rock because it was a three foot high piece of bedrock sticking up from the surrounding rock. Shaped kind of like a mushroom it created a low pressure zone behind it which caused the formation of a gravel bar. I foresaw large quantities of gold harvested from that spot. The morning went well, time flies when you're having fun. My growling stomach told me it was time for a break and some food But I wanted to do a cleanup before lunch. So there I was, standing knee deep in mid-stream looking in my pan, not seeing mass quantities of gold. Equipment laying around, sluice box dismantled. Suddenly I heard a loud rush of a lot of water coming down the canyon. I looked up to see a three foot high chocolate brown wave of water splashing around a sharp curve in the river. Thoughts began racing through my mind. There are no dams or reservoirs up stream that could have busted. Could it be a log jam that broke up? If so, there's going to be a bunch of dredge killing debris on the leading edge. There's a catastrophe boiling down the creek bed my way really quickly. No more time to think. Adrenaline caused me to become a blur, throwing buckets, pry bars and gold pans onto higher ground on either side of the creek. My last action before the wave hit was to make sure I'm on the camp side of the river, grab the rope tied to the front of my dredge and kind of lift on the P a g e 6

7 front so the engine might not submerge. Fortunately, the bedrock/creek bed widened upstream of my location diminishing the size and intensity of the wave. I was lucky, no injury or damage. The chocolate milky water continued to rise. After it seemed to stabilize and my gear on the far side of the creek was O.K., I walked back to camp not being able to figure out that flood. I stayed in the canyon a few more days crevicing and hiking around. The water never did recede or clear up. I couldn't dredge so I went back to my everyday life. Over the next year I would occasionally think of my little adventure at Steephollow Creek and speculate on the possible cause and wonder if I would ever learn what happened. After that year had passed, I was relating the event to a friend. He said he knew what it was all about. His wife had served on a jury in a lawsuit against PG & E. Apparently there is a flume, owned by P.G.&E, that carries water over Steephollow Creek up near its alpine source. The flume broke and the misdirected water churned down our canyon. Some elderly folks were mining on a claim way upstream between us and the broken flume. They got injured and were suing PG & E for their medical bills. I felt bad that they lost their litigation but HEY! The mystery was solved! I guess the moral of the story is be patient, the answers will come. Or, never expect to expect the unexpected. Do you have a gold story you d like to share? Send it to the editor at lacyhill@comcast.net Water Conditions On Some Of Our Claims on April 20, 2018 P a g e 7

8 Bonell Gulch has enough flow to run a large sluice. Note flood scouring of bedrock on left side. Ladybug Gulch has enough flow to run a small sluice. Note debris line from flash flood at least three feet above current water level. Here is 12.7 grams of gold from Bull Creek. (Gold-quartz specimen is 3.4 g) Send in pictures of your gold to the editor at lacyhill@comcast.net (you can remain anonymous). Also, we are interested in determining the size of the largest nuggets found on our claims (so far). P a g e 8

9 February 2018 Outing at Big Sandy Creek Thank you Garret Wimer for hosting us on your beautiful property! P a g e 9

10 P a g e 10

11 CGP Upcoming Outings for 2018 Meetings start at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning, changes will be ed to you April 27 April 28 & 29 May 26 & 27 June 23 & 24 July 28 & 29 August 25 & 26 September 29 & 30 October 27 & 28 November 10 December 8 January 26, 2019 Feb. 16 &17, 2019 Feb. 23 & 24, 2019 March-Dec Maintenance work day, Smitty s Claim (near Bonell Gulch claims) Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Texas Flat (Willow Creek), coin shoot Big Creek (& Willow Creek) Texas Flat (Willow Creek) Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Desert run to Goler Heights near Randsburg, CA Fresno Flats Museum, Thanksgiving potluck, bring favorite side dish Fresno Flats Museum, Christmas potluck, bring favorite side dish Fresno Flats Museum Board Meeting, no raffle or outing Desert run to Goler Heights near Randsburg, CA Big Sandy Creek, Prather CA (trailers not recommended) To be determined at January 2019 Board meeting 2018 Non-Outing Events May 4 August 18 & 19 September 15 November 3 65 th Annual Coarsegold Rodeo (we are educating here) Delta Gold Diggers 4 th Annual Gold & Outdoor Festival, Mother Lode Fairgrounds, 220 Southgate Dr., Sonora, CA (we are educating and vendors here) Oakhurst Heritage Days, Fresno Flats Historic Park, Oakhurst, CA (we are educating here) Pomegranate Festival, Madera Fairgrounds (we are educating and vendors here) P a g e 11

12 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors P. O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA Corp #C A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 Please print MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION/RENEWAL Last Name First Address City State Zip Phone Emergency # address Significant other's name Significant other prospect? Do you have a printer? Membership Dues $35.00 Individual/Family in the same household Disclaimer: Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Members purchase the right to use the Association's mining facilities and services as is, and each Member further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Coarsegold Gold Prospectors 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, Member's family or Member's guests on Coarsegold Gold Prospectors facilities. Annual dues are from January to December. Members are 18 and above. This Membership allows for two adults residing at the same location and children under 18. Each Member also agrees to carry personal accident insurance. I have read and understand the above section. Signature Date P a g e 12

13 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors P. O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA Corp #C A Non-Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 P a g e 13