October 2017 Presidents Corner

Transcription

1 October 2017 Presidents Corner El Presidente Mike ***RENEWAL FORM NOTES: THE FORM HAS BEEN REVISED and THE MAILING ADDRESS HAS CHANGED The revised form has been uploaded to the Goldhounds web site as well as at the end of the newsletter starting this month. There is a change as to where to send the membership Application/Disclaimer renewal forms. Ed, Kucoo, and I have moved to Fallon, Nevada to be closer to family. However, I will remain at my post as the Secretary/Membership and Sunshine person for the club. So I will be at the meetings as often as possible, and handling things on the phone and over the internet as I have been. The return address on the Application and renewal forms will be: Goldhounds P.O.Box 1753 Fallon, Nevada I had to get a new cell phone and new number. You can reach me now at my new number Cyndy s Meeting Notes Our September meeting started the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Then Mike complemented everyone for another great job on working the Gold Panning Championships. He then asked Steve Johnson to the front of the room to accept the Miner of the Month award. Steve had been everywhere to help with whatever needed to done at the championships and well deserved the honor! The other Miner of the Month went to Robert Jordan. Robert did a lot of running around and collecting all the things necessary to hold the event. Robert, then commended everyone that helped at the event, and especially the timers. THANK YOU! If you missed it this year, please come out and help next year. Sunday will really be a busy weekend and we will need all the help we can get next year. We will need at least people for timing next year. That way all the timers will get a chance to get a break. We have sheets made up for the timers for next year, so you can sign up for a block of time, and then somebody else can have a break, while you are timing. So next year come on up, sign in for a block of time, compete, and enjoy the event. If you weren t there this year, get ready for next year! Thank You.

2 Mike asked everybody that volunteered at the event stand, and receive applause and Thanks for the work they did at the event. Mike then asked all the visitors to stand and introduce themselves, and say where they were from. The first was from South Carolina, and the next was Roseville. So the nugget went to the person from South Carolina. Mike said he was a timer at the championships, and that it was really hard work! He really appreciates the timers even more now. And if you get a chance next year, come out and help with the timers. He Thanked Anne Jordan, Heather Willis and Cyndy Burchard for making it all move along so smoothly. Then he said, that if you worked at the event you need to watch out on Sunday, the last day. As the awards are being given out, everything starts coming down and loaded up. If you are sitting in a chair that we use at the event, you may be asked to vacate it, so it can be loaded into a trailer or truck for next year. While the raffle is going on, tents, tubs, and everything else is being put into a trailer or truck to be stowed away for next year. That s how fast it moves during take down. He said, it s terrific, and that the membership is the army of one. You are amazing, and the US Army has nothing on you guys you do a great job. Next year we have our State and National Panning Championships. He then wanted to hear thoughts on the new medals we gave out this year. We gave first place a plaque with the medal on it, and you can get it engraved, if you take it to the Auburn Trophies and More in Fiddler Green Plaza in Auburn. If this is something you like, we will do something like it next year. We are trying to make it nicer or different each year. We had Anne Jordan, Robert and myself, down there picking them out. All of us had a different idea, and we sort of put them together. Next year we will try to do that again. Mike said if you have some equipment you are interested in selling, bring it to the meeting and we ll put it put out there for others to see and know about, and sell it. Mike then started talking about hot rocks. He said everyone has a problem with hot rocks during metal detecting. If you get a signal, and it s a faint signal, reground your machine. If it s a hot rock it will disappear, or it will get fainter and sometimes it will get erratic. If you ground balance beside it, and it s an actual nugget, what s going to happen? You ground balance the machine so it s working better, deeper, and when you go across the nugget it sounds a lot cleaner, a lot nicer, because you ground balanced it. You can ground balance to a hot rock that you find to be a little hotter than others around, and you have balanced the others out. You will lose a little bit of depth, but now you will be able to hear the gold better without all that noise from ALL those hot rocks. You also need to work slowly over the rocks. If you slow down, you give the machine time to penetrate that rock, and eliminate the unnecessary digging. The less trash, the less junk, the less hot rocks, the more time you have to find the gold. So learn the hot rocks. They have always been a pain in the neck, and they always will be a pain in the neck. Hot spots in the ground, you go across the ground and you get what sounds like a deep target, as soon as you start digging, where did it go? I can t find it, it s gone! You ve disturbed the spot in the ground, you have spread all that mineralized ground around and now there s nothing for the machine to see. It will drive you crazy, because you know there s a target there, you just heard it! It s important to pinpoint your target too. Otherwise you end up digging a deep hole, until eventually it falls into the hole for you to find it. In the Nevada desert the ground is very consistent doesn t change. 3 days, I picked out a mountain that was 8 miles away. I could see the peak of it. So, I started walking. And I walked, and I walked and I walked. I walked several miles, and moved over 5 feet and I walked back. All the way back, the ground is so quiet in the Nevada desert; you barely have to touch your machine the whole time you are there, because it s pretty neutral. So, I m going back and forth, back and forth, nothing for 3 days, not a sound on my medal detector for 3 days. I m walking along and all of a sudden, I m hearing western music on my head phones. I honest to God heard western music thru my medal detector. Maybe it was the heat, I don t know. But, anyway on the 3rd day, I m walking back and forth, it s late in the day, and I m ready to go, the people camp site drinking a cold one, taking it easy. I m walking along, and whooo, whooo, whooo! And startled the heck out of me cause for 3 days I hadn t heard anything! I d actually heard a target! So, I dug down, and there was a 3 penny weight nugget. I said, alright! I got a nugget! It was a chevron nugget. I walked 2 feet, another 2 penny weight nugget! Walked 2 feet, another one! Every 4-5 feet, there was a nugget. So I get on the radio, and said, hey I got a nugget, and I think I got another one. Next thing I saw was a huge cloud of dust coming from the camp site. They were all on their quads, and here they come! There were 6 quads coming at me! And they all

3 parked around me. Parked 8 feet away, trying to give me a little bit of space. You can t get too close to the quads with the machine, but I was still finding nuggets. And I could see guys 80 feet away from me finding nuggets also. So, it was a big patch I found. And you could still see the mine up on the hilltop, and it was a long ways away. Through the thousands of years of erosion the gold floats down the hill from the mine, and it settles. That sort of what I got from this patch. So, we got about 3.5 oz. of gold out of this patch. 3 years later they are still going out there and finding gold out of this patch. I went out there a few months later and it looked like a freeway going out there. All the brush and things like that were gone, there were track going back and forth, crisscrossing here, crisscrossing there. Quite a bit of gold was found there. But that s Nevada for you. It s super neutral, super quiet, not many hot rocks in the soil. Mine labs are great metal detectors but they are so super sensitive, it just wants to see everything. It doesn t want you to miss anything. It doesn t want you to miss those little tiny nuggets. You can find nuggets so small, that you better have your glasses with you, because you re not going to see it when you find it. They are amazing metal detectors. I still have my gold master 4, and I usually use it when hunting rock piles. Because the gold in the rocks are really fine amounts and the Mine Lab won t see it. I had one that had a ½ oz. gold nugget and the Mine Lab would not pick it up. A ½ oz. and the Mine lab wouldn t see it. If you take a looking glass and look at it, it looks like that gold was shot into that rock. And little tiny specs all over that rock, and physically when you hold it in your hand it looks like a solid nugget. But you look at it under a glass, it looks like it was shot into it. Now for all you, new people, this is highly technical stuff and I wanted you to know. A metal detector work off of a mass. If, I had a vial of ten nuggets, the only thing a metal detector picks up is the largest nugget in the vial. You take a gold chain, a lot of people ask, why doesn t my metal detector pick up a gold chain? Some of the links are really, really, tiny on some of the gold chains. And it s picking the clasp on the chain, because it s the biggest part on the chain. If you find a big nugget in a crack or crevasse, you better be cleaning out that crack or crevasse, because it might only be seeing the biggest one in there, and there could be 8-10 others in that same hole. That s just something you need to know. The metal detector sees the biggest thing in that crack or crevasse and there could be ½ oz. of smaller nuggets in there, I ve seen it. I had a gentleman, one time, he had a vial of 1 oz. gold, and he said, if that gold master will pick that gold, I have the cash in my hand, and I ll buy it. I said give me the cash and I ll write you a receipt. That metal detector wouldn t see that gold. He had an oz. of fine gold in that vial, and there wasn t anything for that detector to see. We melted a little of the gold together to make a little blob, put it back in that vial and the detector went off! No problem now, because there s something for the metal detector to see. There is a mass there for it to see. And that is metal detecting 101. So have to get ready for our guest speaker. I was told to cut it down today to give time to our guest speaker Ray Mills. He has written several books on gold mining, he s very popular in the Northern California area around Weaverville. There has been 90.5 oz. found in one day when we were hunting up there! Rich, rich, rich country, up there and this gentleman has found a lot of gold up there. Ray Mills said they have found lots of gold up in that area and with the machine that was brought in for sale. He said it will pick up fines. He said it is a very good machine. He held up a device up and asked if anyone knew what it was. He said everybody has pocket rockets now. Anyone have one of these and still use them? You can have them. Just found this one in my box getting ready to come down here. If you want it, you can have it. I m sure it works, it s brand new. Ray goes on to say, In my second book the best machine is going to be the Mine lab gold monster. Gold Bug 2 is still a good machine. This is the last of the hard copies of my books that I am doing. I m putting it on Ebook, and all of my books that I do from now on will be out on Ebook, so that I can sell them internationally. The rocks on the table are hematite. Not hot rocks. It s magnetic, you ll see it purple in the water, lavender, blue, black, red, but it s just hematite. A completely different signal, than a hot rock. You will be able to tell exactly what it is. Again, I m Ray Mills, I was born and raised up in Trinity County. My Uncles were pocket hunters all their lives. I got into it before I got into the military and again when I got out of the military. I d like to take a minute

4 here. I don t know if everybody knows, a lot of you people may not be familiar with him, but Jerry Keene, one of the big men in prospecting throughout the world, past here recently. I d like to speak about him here just a minute. He did a lot of things in prospecting, and in California. He founded Keene Engineering here in California. I d like to mention my website, there are a lot of different pieces of information to be found on it. I want to talk a little bit about indicators tonight. Not just for metal detecting, but any kind of prospecting. Because, it applies to any kind of prospecting. If you re in a canyon, with 4 foot walls on both sides, you got inside turns. Everybody tells you to hit that first inside turn. That may be true in some instances, or if you have a gut instinct, or if someone has told you something, but I m going to look at that series of rocks first. How many flat rocks are in this, this one and this one, there s a lot of them on this last one, but not on the first or second one. I m going to look at green stuff and soda rock. And heavier rock. This is where a lot of people need to learn about heavier rock. You need to learn what rocks are heavier. How many heavy rocks are showing up on that first inside turn, opposed to that third inside turn? No matter what the bedrock is doing on the surface, you kind of read into what is doing under the water. But you've got to look at these indicators. If you go down and look at that third turn, the one with the flat rock, along with the soda stone and green stone, you might have a lot more hematite. And heavy sands in that third turn. So where everyone is telling you to go with the first inside turn, even if it goes along in front of you for ten miles, that may not be where all the gold has broken out. You look at all the indicators. The same thing with detectors. When I go detecting, I don t go to places up where I m at and hunt places that have been hunted before. I ve got about a 400 square miles up there. I ve got a lot of private land, BLM, Bureau of Reclamation, Forest Service, I go hunting hillsides. Because a lot of that area has gold coming thru it. I look for indicators. And a lot of times I do what I just said I don t do. Go back to the areas the old timers dug. What did they dig out, are you in a big area that looks somewhat like a pit, but you have clay lines running thru it? More than likely gold came out of those clay lines. What we do up there, and you can do the same thing down here, unless you re in an old river channel, but if you are away from the river channel, you can follow these clay seams. They run up and down, you can put a compass on them. I ve done the same thing up in Shasta County, Trinity, Siskyou County. And I can find a place where you I can find good gold. I can shoot an azimuth, I can shoot a back azimuth, and I can walk ten miles on either side, and at some point, I will find nuggets again. Generally, I m not a school trained geologist, but they re on the North East slopes, I don t know why that happens, but it happens. So you can get out there where it s been worked, and you can see what s out there, and what s around there, what they left, what the surface was, what they cleaned off, and what was there. Is there a serpentine line crossing thru there? Three or four contacts, only one contact, any quartz seams running thru there? Look at it and see. Then go out to the periphery areas and see what s out there. Are you looking at the clay seam area 300 yards from where they worked, are you seeing some other indicators in the same worked area out there? That s an area you may want to slowdown, and get out your metal detector. And you re probably going to pick up on something. I have done this over and over. I have trained all the guys up there, a child and one woman. And it works. I ve done it in Oregon, done it in Nevada, I ve done it in Arizona. I ve done it in Southern California. This area where you are working is a little different, because this is overlaying by ancient channel, more than any other places I ve talked about. There s a lot of ancient channel in here, and that sort of disrupts the general knowledge of looking for certain things. And it makes it really tough. Up in Shasta County I have ancient channels, but it s pretty well insulated islands. But, again, you would still be looking for indicators. Indicators up there in Cottonwood Creek, we have a lot of green stone. We have Sacramento River that carries its own particular type of hematite, different in color. So when you are working in different areas with everything overlaying in the same area, you can kind of separate it. You can look at the gold also and say, well that s coming out of Cottonwood material, and you can see a sandstone finish on it, opposed to the hematite gold that s out of the Sacramento River that s very, very, smooth, and has a reddish tint to it. So, there are patterns to it, and a lot of it comes from indicators. And they will tell you where to get it and where you need to go. Flat rocks, are a big indicator to me. I call them specific gravity rocks. It took more water when they were under water to make them flat, than round a round rock, okay? The area I hunted today, I went over to American Hill with Mike, and I hit some areas that I had hit 25 years ago. And the same thing applied. I went in and looked, and the first thing I look at is to see a hillside with an ancient channel. It s got round rock coming

5 down. But I m going to stop to find my indicators right off the bat. If it s the very first time I come in there, I m going to walk up and down the road, before I even turn my detector on. Do I see flat rocks? Yeah, there s some, but there s a much more accumulation up there for some reason. So. That s one good thing right there. I m going to go up there and see if there s more flat rocks and see if there are more indicators. Is there hematite or other indicators showing up there? Are there heavy rocks that show up, up there? Is there clay that shows up there? Heavier clay, not light weight silt clay. The old clay, that comes off of ancient channels. If I can get all those formed up there, that the area I m going to hunt. I m going to hunt that first. Of all the gold that can be found everywhere else, I would have more luck in the spot I can find the most indicators in one spot. And I do this everywhere I go. In Nevada, here in California, Shasta County, all over. So, indicators are a very big part of my detecting. Again, my partner George here will tell ya, we just go out walking sometimes. We do that quite a bit. Just to look for indicators, get compass readings on them, get lines on them, so you know where they re coming from. Out of Oroville, here, they have almost the type of pocket gold we have in Redding, and they run in lines. They all run from the North West to the South East. And the same thing happens down here too. Now I m talking about pocket gold, in the respect that they are in line, and run across the surface, sometimes associated with quartz, hematite and a lot of different things. And they will contact at the surface, generally as nuggets. I m not talking about, if you are in a hydraulic pit, and there s a big bedrock seam imbedded in the rock. I m not talking about 10 pieces that probably come from 100 different places. I m talking about pockets that form on the surface. Because a lot of times they re in the creek, and form on the surface. A lot of times, 9 out of 10 times you ll have one piece that is all beat up, and you go up a little bit and you hit quartz, and you find a little change in color. Generally pocket gold is smooth on one side, and course on the other, from attrition. It got stuck in that pocket, and whatever the source was that it had pocketed up in, which could have been anything. Serpentine, clay, iron, whatever the out crops you have. That s what I am calling a pocket, okay? A lot of people will say no. But I am saying you got a nice pocket of gold. You have these nice lines that run from the North West to the South West, all throughout Northern California and to Nevada. You will also have veins, which a lot of people confuse with pockets that can run almost any direction. But generally vein gold has a consistency to be more course all the way around both sides, and associated with quartz or whatever the ore source is in that particular area. Where pocket gold will run pretty much in a straight line, they do not deviate, are on the North Eastern facing slopes, and it s generally bigger gold. And it s really not that smooth, even on the smooth side. It still has a fair amount of roughness to it. These lines will run consistent all thru this area. I don t know too many people in this area that will look at it this way and run it down. I have found it to work that way. By putting everything I have found that was a penny weight plus on the computer, until I got the location where I was getting pieces that were penny weight plus in the same area. And then I started looking at patterns. Right now, I ve got 264 lines that run the Wynn River up to the side of the dam, varying distances in between each one that I have found gold from a pound and a half on down to.3 pounds on down to nothing along these same lines. And like I said, I can run every one of these lines in each direction, North, South, West, East, and possibly find more places where there s gold. I have done this over and over. I ll tell the guys, this is about where they re at, and if know they a little geology, look at where they re at, if you find some look at it, and where you re at. If you find one nugget, look at what it s in. Don t start running around. Look at it, sharpen your pencil. When you get the indicators and that one piece of gold, sit down and sharpen your pencil. Start looking around. Everybody gets in a hurry, and then they start wondering around. And say oh that looks like a better spot. Well, it might be, but that doesn t mean you find better gold there. Slow down, look at it and see what s happening. When I go hunting and I m looking for indicators, and I m hunting what I call a raw hillside that nobody s been on it, just old trees and grass, I m going to walk around on it, kick some grass to what kind of color I ve got. Do I have white clay, is it oligocene clay or a regular clay. Oligocene clay is the kind of clay you have down here. We do have some up there too in places where the older channels would run. See what you ve got there. See what the rocks look like. Most of the stuff we ve got up there is alluvial. Also what you have down here is vertical channel. There s a difference there. However, alluvial here too! And you ve got to learn the differences by looking up on the hillsides, up along the hill, on the creek bottom, it could be anywhere. The pockets that I search for could show up anywhere. There is no particular place that they are going to show up

6 in other than, the South Eastern facing slopes. I don t know why that is. The only thing I can say to anybody about that is, if you look at the geology books you ll see a lot of space that it way up high 152,000, 300,000 feet up you will see draws in the patterns of geology. In the Trinity Alps every other draw will pay. There s river channel across every bit of it for 50 miles. But only every other draw will carry gold. I don t know why, it is just pattern that it all got laid down in there. And you ll see indicators in there, and this gully is primarily round rocks, and the next one is primarily flat rocks. And it was made in patterns. Look at your indicators, and include them in with your patterns. The same thing will hold true if you re working in a river sluicing, if you re panning, if you re sniping (going up a river with a mask and a snorkel). I have a place out of Grey Eagle that I hit, out on the Feather, years ago I know that did 16 ½ oz. that afternoon. It was a washout that I found in Canyon Creek, and some friends and I went up there to see what we could get out of there after the 97 flood. It s a big flood we had. Canyon Creek after the big flood we had, had 8 feet of gravel laying on the bedrock. Took the whole thing and washed it out, both sides. It just came down that fast. Pushed boulders were a ton and a half, out onto the banks. All big round boulders were laying on the flat, there was nothing in the creek. The creek was clean. We thought there s going to be a lot on this bedrock, there wasn t a piece there anywhere. We slowed down, and evaluated, and I played around there a little bit more, got in between the round rocks on the bedrock, and what had happened, was, that water came down so fast it moved everything to the sides. All the gold was 20 feet off to both sides. You couldn t find a piece of gold in the creek. There was nothing in the bottom of the creek. Seven, eight years later, I m sniping in the Feather, way down the canyon, and I was just walking up, and I thought that looks just like that spot in Canyon Creek. And it was. I couldn t do anything because I didn t have a detector; I was sniping with a mask and snorkel. I came back a year later, and hit it with the detector and gold was everywhere. I did the same thing with Siskyou County. There are patterns in geology and in physics. You put one big rock and about the same size rock (heavy rock) you will get just about the same in high water. I looked at a couple places yesterday, where some members here were working, and I was looking and there were a lot of places there where they were getting good gold, but I was wondering why aren t they working these in particular areas. There are 3 places in that area that I see. There s about a ton quartz boulder s. Quartz is heavier than everything else in that creek. To me, if that quartz boulder is pushed over and on the side, and in material that you can t even break with a pick, that s hard material, it s been there for a while. Chances are nobody has ever touched it or moved it. You ve got old growth trees that were about 5 foot across, and the out around that are fallen younger trees, like my lifetime. They had grown and were laying down in the area where the old timers had worked it. I don t think it had been worked completely and throughout. But what I m getting to is, the place where that big tree is may had been there probably 500 years before they ever worked any part of that draw, probably had a lot of values under it, and that would be the one I want to be going to. That big gigantic heavy quartz boulder, which is heavier than anything else in that creek, that s where I would be moving that out of the way first to see what s down in there. Not to say there is anything wrong with what they guys are doing down there, everyone s getting gold and is happy. But, that comes back to indicators; these are things you want to look for. Those big quartz boulders are heavy! They make a big difference. I think Mike can attest this, that we have worked where there was great big rocks. You didn t even hunt the channel, gold all over in there. Lots of other boulders, but lots of quartz boulders. You got the right ones, had that orange-ish color on them, and limonite on them, and not moss, what s that other stuff, growing on them. That creek had a lot of gold in it, but the other thing was that it had a lot of chrome in it also. Some people got in and had a lot of chrome, and others got into places where they had a whole of a lot of gold. As far as I know that place still isn t claimed. People know what has come out of there. I would think people would have it all claimed. Mike said it s mostly private property. Ray said not on the part I used to work. I take that back, that might be now. But there are areas out there like that! You just gotta get out there and look. I look for flat rocks that are out there in accumulation, whether they are big or small. Anywhere on a hillside, on a draw, on the drainage, old channel, where ever you are looking for gold, break it down. And when I go out prospecting, I look for something that will put us on something right now and later on. And usually we find something. I haven t been too wrong over the years. Usually I do pretty good. So, that s what I m saying. Get familiar with the area, it can lead you to something. But the flat rocks are what I look for as opposed to round rocks. In Shasta County, again, I m not school trained. I ve read all the books, and the ancient channels, yes, the bigger the boulder, you re going to get bigger gold. Shasta County, even though it s

7 alluvial, some 60 or 70 per cent of the rocks are of fist size, and that s it. And I ve found oz. pieces in them. There are no big rocks. They re not there. And there are not heavy rocks to associate with sometimes. So, don t look for what you want to see either. Look for what you don t see there sometimes. Mike asked, How come the gold up there is so much heavier? Ray said, he doesn t know. Because sometimes it s not that much more than it is down here. It s I think, somewhere in there. And I can t answer that. I don t know why that is. But you know where Canyon Creek is in Trinity County? Canyon Creek is heavier gold and I don t know why. But you ll see that all over in a variety of places. Every place adds its own character to the gold. In Shasta County, people show me their gold and I can tell them what County they got it from. They all have different colors. The texture is different. One size is different than the others as far the gold in mass. There are several creeks up there that you can get into that they have 10, colors of gold, that who knows just where they came from. Try and trace that out! Grizzly Creek in Trinity Alps, way up high on top I hunted that for about 6 years. I took 7 and ½ pounds of gold out of there. Hardly any of it was identical. We could not tell where it came from. But you also have a confluence of 5 ancient channels that come together there. They all come together there, and they all dropped different gold. That area there, because it has so many channels in it, you also have a lot of heavy materials in there. And there is hardly any place up there that you don t find chunks of hematite like this. Some of them are as big as a head, and weigh pounds, or more. You re going to find flat rocks almost everywhere. Hardly any round rocks in the old ancient channels up there. Once again when there was water up there, it took a lot more to wear the round rocks down. A round rock will roll on down and keep right on moving. So flat rocks are my biggest indicator, and around this country here, I used to look for the clay, look for your Oligocene clay, in the ancient channel, and look in it. And when you have found your gold, you want to sharpen your pencil, and start looking at it. Slow down a little bit. It s not the same everywhere. Every draw you go into is going to be a little different. In most areas, even like that little area we were in, let s say within 50 miles isn t going to have the same indicators. Things will slowly start changing, just from geological changes in the area. We were talking about hot rocks, what they sound like and might look like, not on this machine, but most have a meter, and in Norther Nevada, there s a lot of basalt, and they will swing up to about 85-95, almost all the time on my meter for basalt. In Shasta County, all our hot rocks are registering 71-71, they don t vary from that. I have found some down here that go between those numbers. So every area is different. Every area has its own type of hot rocks, you can t really set the same rules to ALL areas, you got to play with them a little bit. Every area is completely different. But if you know what you re doing, and you know the indicators, that is the first things I go for. If I m going out into an area that I ve never been in before, or has never been worked by ANYBODY, and there are a lot of places out there that nothing has been written about, where I have found ounces and ounces of gold, and it wasn t supposed to be. They are there and they are still there. I m sure there are a lot in this area too that people just haven t gotten to. There has to be. You get on that valley floor and go to the places where you got shale, and you start getting limonene like we have in Redding, and if you find those faults search the out and follow them, that first feet up to 800 feet off of that valley floor, I know you ll get more gold than anywhere else. I didn t believe it, but I have proven it over, and over, and over. From Lassen all the way down to the other side of this mountain. Everybody wanted to go down the other side of 49. I wanted to go down this side of 49. I don t know why, but there would be a lot more gold to me on this side of 49. The question is what you re after, and what you want to go to. A lot of people get it into their minds, well this is what I like to look at. I like to see these rings, and trees. I say, okay, well I m going to go on over here and keep picking gold. So you show me what you got last time, and I ll show you what I got. Well, it s been good. I hope you all understand about indicators. It will help you with any prospecting! Whether you re panning, sluicing, find those flat rocks, find your heavy stone, there are a lot of different indicators you can look for. Once you start looking for them, you re going to find that there are even more, and how much they are going help. And the more you learn, the more you are going to find more gold than your competitors! Thank You We really appreciate Ray volunteering his time and sharing his experience and skills with us. Thank you to all our members who purchased Ray s book. We have given permanent space to Ray s business card in our newsletter.

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23 Announcements Vice-President Anne Jordan has been busy setting up guest speakers - She has an impressive list of speakers going. If you have someone in mind that would be interesting for the membership to hear from or a subject you would like to hear more about, please talk to Anne Jordan. It s Here!!! Bear River Outing Is October 19-23, Our Goldhounds Members Only Outing at Bear River is coming up Oct. 19, 2017 (2:00pm to enter gate) to Oct. 23, 2017 (10:00am to be out of the campground). Camping is on a first come first serve basis, until the campground is full. Make sure your Application/Disclaimers and dues are up to date so you can join us at this funfilled outing! If you have a question about them, feel free to contact me at , or me at: cyned0523@yahoo.com, no later than the Wednesday before the outing. This is the Group Campground area that we use at the Bear River. Instructions on how to get there are at the end of this message. Please direct any further questions to Robert Jordan or Cyndy Burchard. There will be a sign-in area when you come into the camping area. Please sign-in with the attendant as you drive-in and before setting up camp. Remember this outing is for Members Only. The club pays for the campgrounds so all you need to bring is your own camping and mining equipment, NO RUNNING WATER so bring water for drinking and cleaning, as well as your food. Further in this message will be details regarding the potlucks. If you can bring some dry wood for the group campfire, that would be helpful. I want to remind everyone, if you belong to another group that will be camping there before us, you must vacate your site and leave the campgrounds with that group. You can then get in line to re-enter the campground with us. We go into the campgrounds as a group. This is to satisfy our group insurance, and out of fairness to our other members. You can come in for a day outing or stay for every day and night, or anything in between. The campground is ours completely. It will not be used by others.

24 There will be a lock on the gate, with a combination that will be given to Cyndy Burchard one week before the outing to distribute to the members. This is a simple tumbler lock where you set each number and then open the lock. When you re-lock it, turn the tumblers of the combination. It s important for you to re-lock the gate after every entrance and exit! The lock is one of 5 locks on the gate. We ll have a potluck dinner on Saturday evening starting at 5:00pm, and you all know we start on time! Bring a dish to share for eight (8) people. Be prepared and have your food ready and on the table by no later than 4:45 PM. Sunday morning will be the 20th Annual Potluck Breakfast, starting at 8:00 am. You don t want to miss this. Be sure to bring juice, rolls, or other breakfast goodies to share with others. Regarding mining and prospecting equipment, within the park area is non-motorized; meaning motorized equipment of ANY kind is not allowed. Not even solar powered mining equipment. We can run motorized equipment below the park area where we always do (no dredging of course). This means we can power sluice. The one requirement for power sluicing is that the water and tailings from the sluice cannot run back into the river. Either it gets dissipated by a holding dam or by running back into the bench gravels and disappearing. Normal hand sluicing is permitted within the park area so don t be concerned about that. The lower boundaries will be flagged so you ll know where you can power sluice. Detecting, sluicing, sniping, and panning are permitted in the park area and outside as well. There are no restrictions here. At this moment campfires are not permitted. This may change before the outing. We generally are permitted to have a group campfire. Again, any dry wood donations for the group campfire are appreciated. The facility consists of pit toilets, picnic tables and river access. NO RUNNING WATER so, bring your own water to drink and clean up with. You may park along the road but not on the bench area itself. Bring plenty of drinking water, chairs, extra tables and pop-ups if you have them. The weather is always subject to change at this time of year. Be prepared! It has rained and snowed on us in the past. The Bear River Campground is only on the park side of the river where we camp. The opposite bank is private land so please keep that in mind. This is a super outing for us and we ll likely have 90 or more people. Parking your rig, tent, etc. is important to conserve space. We ll likely have someone to direct and position you at a camp site to help conserve space. Directions From Sacramento: Take Hwy 80 east, going toward Reno from Auburn. About 10 miles past Auburn, take the West Weimar Crossroads exit. Go left over the freeway, (North) for 1.5 miles to the end at the T intersection at Placer Hills Road. Turn right on Placer Hills Road and travel about 2.5 miles to Plum Tree Road. Turn left on Plum Tree Road to the Bear River Park/Campground on your left. The Parking lot is on the left at the bottom of the hill, go left into the parking lot, then go to the far left of the parking lot, through the Green Gate. The private campground is about one mile after you go through the gate. Be sure to lock the gate when you come in or leave. There is another way through Colfax, if you know it. It s a good way to go as well. For those coming the first time, use the instructions above, not through Colfax. Thanks. Any other information will be sent out as we get closer to the outing so watch your ! Thank You, Robert Jordan, Outings Director- robster132@gmail.com, Cyndy Burchard, Secretary/Membership- cyned0523@yahoo.com

25 MOTHER LODE NUGGETS Helpers are needed for the Panning Championships in September over Labor Day Weekend. Please contact Ray for details. Thank You! Pssst you don t have to be a Nugget to help the Nuggets. Come on out and join us. If you would like to help the Nuggets during any event, please contact RAY DODDS at: Phone or by at: mrgoldminr@gmail.com The Biggest Nugget of them All! Ray Dodds

26 Mother Lode Goldhounds Schedule of Events 2017 We meet the second Friday of every month from 7-9 pm at the Veterans Hall, 100 East Street, Auburn, CA. Directions: Take Hwy. 80 toward Auburn, get off at Hwy 49 and turn toward downtown Auburn. At the first stop light turn right, drive one block and turn right again. The Veterans Hall sits on your left. Bring your friends. The Public is invited. Come early for snacks, buy door-prize tickets, and visit with friends. Special Events Schedule for 2017 October Bear River Group Campground Outing #2 December 8 Goldhound Meeting Christmas Potluck, Elijah s Jar & Ugly Sweater Contest Goldhound Meeting Schedule for 2017 October 13 Goldhound Meeting November 10 Goldhound Meeting December 8 Goldhound Meeting Christmas Potluck, Elijah s Jar and Ugly Sweater Contest OTHER CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA) We meet the third Saturday in January, April, July and October River City Prospectors Chapter meets quarterly in Rio Linda, CA. GPAA has member only claims and outings. Their Pick & Shovel Gazette has good information for everyone who supports mining. For GPAA Gold Show dates check: or call The club has claims and outings for members. Their Pick & Shovel Gazette has good information for everyone! Find us on Facebook or Contact Jim Hutchings at (530) or contact the GPAA at Visit the GPAA web site at Roseville Rock Roller Gem & Mineral Society Meetings on the second Tuesday of every month at the Placerville Fairgrounds in Roseville, 800 All American City Blvd. or rockrollers@hotmail.com Sacramento Valley Detecting Buffs Meetings on the first Thursday of every month at the Sacramento County Old SMUD Building, corner of Elkhorn & Don Julio in North Highlands, CA. El Dorado County Mineral & Gem Society Call (530) or visit Gold Country Treasure Seekers Located in Placerville, CA. This is a club for metal detecting enthusiasts. For more information contact Jan Nixon, gcts@gmail.com

27 Gold Pan California, Gold Adventures 1021 Detroit Ave., Concord, CA For more information call (925) 825-GOLD Golden Caribou Mining A small-scale mining gold club in Belden, CA. For more information call (530) or visit UPI - United Prospectors Meets every other month at outings, President@unitedprospectors.com - Info Club can offer outings to claims E. Orangebury Ave., Modesto, phone (209) Shasta Miners Club has claims for members use. Meetings at 7 PM on the third Wednesday of every month at the Moose Lodge on Lake Blvd. in Shasta, CA., just up from Shopko on the left. Call (530) The 16 to 1 Underground Gold Miners Museum Contact them for tours of a working underground mine and special events. (530) Write: PO Box 907, Alleghany, CA info@undergroundgold.com Comstock Gold Prospectors Meetings on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the Masonic Lodge, 2425 Pyramid Way, Sparks, NV. Write P.O. Box 20781, Reno, NV or visit The Sierrans for Responsible Resource Development (the Sierrans ) is a non-profit social welfare organization formed to educate residents, businesses, government agencies, and the community about the benefits of responsible and sustainable resource industry in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. (530) P.O. Box 404, Grass Valley, CA Western Mining Alliance Miners who fight for our rights to dredge and mine in California. WMA has a great online newsletter and a great people to work with. Visit: westermingalliance@gmail.com ICMJ s PROSPECTING AND MINING JOURNAL - Scott Harn, Editor, and his team works hard to get this monthly mining magazine on line & in the mail. Check them out. - info@icmj.com ICMJ offers current news on the dredging regulations, PLP, Miner s Alliance, and are the best online source of recent gold news. You can search for great how-to and where-to articles on dredging, metal detecting, mining operations, assaying, legislative updates, geology, history, metals prices and financial news.

28 Public Lands for the People PUBLIC LANDS FOR THE PEOPLE Conejo Dr., San Bernardino, CA 92404, (909) , P.L.P. continues to work on your behalf to keep public lands open. Donations are tax deductible. They have great raffles posted in the ICMJ to help with attorney fees and they need help! Fighting for your right to mine is very expensive so PLP is auctioning off any donations you can make to help raise money. If you can help they will take just about anything from old heirlooms to vehicles. PLP hosts a running auction for gold on ebay. AMRA - American Mining Rights Association is a 501 (c)(3) Non-profit Association and was created by miners and public land users, for miners and public land users to preserve and maintain their rights as they pertain to access to their public lands and their rights to obtain the minerals on those lands. We are not a gold club but rather an advocacy group. American Mining Rights Association PMB #607, 6386 Greeley Hill Rd., Coulterville, CA support@americanminingrights.com johnr@americanminingrights.com shannonp@americanminingrights.com GOLDHOUND MEETING AND MEMBER INFORMATION NAME BADGES: Club name badges can be ordered at any club meeting. See Member Stephen Johnson at the meeting as you come in the door - Badge with Pin Clasp: $4.50 Magnetic Badge: $5.00. Please stop by the Raffle table and Thank Steve Johnson for taking over this important task for the club. GOLDHOUND T-SHIRTS See Cyndy Burchard if you are interested in a Goldhounds T-shirt. You can call at or her at: cyned0523@yahoo.com. Cyndy will need to know what size you need, and for the women, whether you want a Gold OR Pink one. If you worked at the Gold Panning Championships and signed in with the person in charge, you will receive a shirt. Otherwise they are $16 each Announcement on Jackets and T-shirts I have the T-shirts and Jackets from Dancing Dawg Productions. If you haven t paid me for your Jacket, now is the time! If you see these jackets and would like to place an order, please Cyndy Burchard. We need to have at least 12 at a time to get them back quickly. The cost is $45 each. GOLDHOUND PATCH for your hat or jacket are can be bought at each meeting for $6.00 each. See Cyndy Burchard CYNDY BURCHARD is in charge of our membership and is the club Secretary, as well as our Sunshine Lady. Cyndy also sends s out for the Goldhounds. A BIG THANK YOU to Cyndy for all her hard work.

29 GOLDHOUND MEETINGS are held the 2 nd Friday of each month at the Auburn Veterans Hall, 7:00PM-9:00PM, 100 EAST ST., AUBURN, CA. Take Hwy. 80 toward Auburn, get off at Hwy 49 and turn toward Old Town Auburn. At the Lincoln turn right, go one short block and turn right again on to East Street. The Veterans Hall sits on the left, parking is in the back. Invite your friends, the public is always welcome to attend. GOLDHOUND CLASSIFIEDS Do you have something for sale? For Barter? Maybe you have a request of your fellow miner s? Or just want to offer something free for the asking? List it free for all Goldhounds, here on the Goldhound Classifieds. Send your ad and contact information to Sherry Andersen at SherryRocks57@gmail.com along with any photos needed. Your ad will be in the next newsletter and can go on the Goldhounds Live page on Goldhounds.com web site if requested. **************************** THE MOTHER LODE GOLDHOUND NAME, IMAGES, AND PHOTOS ARE THE PROPERTY of Mother Lode Goldhounds and cannot be used without expressed written permission. Don t even try it, remember, we hang claim jumpers.

30 The Mother Lode Goldhounds and Nuggets want to recognize and offer our sincere Thanks to Hansen Brothers Enterprises for their generous donations of gravel used during the Championships and by the Nuggets during gold panning demonstrations and lessons.

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33 GOLDHOUND MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION 2017 Contact Cyndy Burchard at or (775) for questions or concerns regarding your membership status. If you would like to join/renew your membership, please print out this form, fill it out, and send the complete form with a check/money order payable to Mother Lode Goldhounds to: Mother Lode Goldhounds P.O.Box 1753 Fallon, Nevada ( ) $40.00 Individual ( ) $45.00 Family ( ) Senior & Spouse (age 70+) $30 ( ) New membership ( ) Renewal (one year applies to all) NAME ADDRESS PHONE CITY STATE ZIP CODE I hereby apply for membership/renewal with the Mother Lode Goldhounds. I fully understand Mother Lode Goldhounds and its agents do not provide goods or services for any of my activities including, for example, mining equipment or supplies, lodging, transportation, food, etc. Mother Lode Goldhounds is not liable for any negligent or unwillful act or failure to act by providers of such goods or services during my activities. I acknowledge that there may be certain risks involved with activities as a member including, but not limited to, rugged or uneven terrain, uncertain or unpredictable river currents, physical exertion for which I am not prepared, or other unknown forces of nature, high altitude, accident or illness without access to means or rapid evacuation or availability of medical supplies, the adequacy of medical attention once provided, or negligence on part of Mother Lode Goldhounds. I hereby agree to be responsible for my own welfare and accept any and all risks of unanticipated events, illness, injury, emotional, trauma or death. I acknowledge that the cost of Mother Lode Goldhounds membership is based upon participants executing this release of liability. That whatever casual event I, or my family, attend that I am responsible and at no time will have legal or financial claim against, nor will hold responsible, any member or club official of the Mother Lode Goldhounds for any damages or injuries. I agree that this release shall be legally binding upon me personally, all members of my family and all minors traveling with me, my heirs, successors, assigns and legal representatives, it being my intention to fully assume all risk associated with my activities as a member of the Mother Lode Goldhounds. I have read and fully understand this release and membership application SIGNATURE DATE

34 Frank, finding nuggets on the North Fork. NEWSLETTER ISSUED MONTHLY - Issue #354 October 2017 Mailing address: MOTHER LODE GOLDHOUNDS P.O. Box 149, Foresthill, CA A CALIFORNIA NON-PROFIT MINERALS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PUBLIC WELCOME! One Year Membership: $45.00 Family $40.00 Individual Editor: Sherry Andersen (916) SherryRocks57@gmail.com Goldhounds (530) goldworld@wildblue.net