Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Newsletter A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 Presidents Corner February 2015 Hello Prospectors and Miners The Feb. Outing was great, nice weather and nice people and nice GOLD for some more than others count Mike and me in the others. Two members brought a large recirculating system and put the shovel to the dirt and were rewarded with some very nice gold. We had new faces and long lost members come out for the outing. The raffle was full of lots of nice prizes and a folding sluice box that ended up going home with Glenette, congratulations. I knew everyone wanted it except Mr. Bauer who won it first AND donated it back what a kind gent he is thank you Jim. We hashed out our outing schedule for the year which should be in this newsletter. Jim Hill is now a lifetime member congratulations Jim. Thanks to Dale for donating sluices and many fine things for our raffle Thank you Dale. We voted to keep the Present Board for another year Thank you Board. You can now get Campfire permits on line from the Forest service, don t leave home without them. We will be at Heritage Days for the Coarsegold Rodeo Fri. May 1 st. to teach the school kids about mining and how to pan. We need about 6-7 volunteers we will take names as it gets closer. The gold show will be in Stockton March 7 th & 8 th We re not in it but I know some members will be there. If someone wants to sell the Club some gold 10-12 mesh we will pay 80% spot call me at (559)760-8714. Also Kenny says make sure your Dues are up to date with the Club. We will be clearing the BACK road at Smitty s claim Fri. March 20 th before the outing. Go past the turn to Smitty s and about 200 yards or so on your right there is a nice parking spot before you crest the hill. We will meet there at 9:30 if your late we ll be down the road if all you bring is yourself that s fine or tools are good to. Please save the Club funds and get your Newsletter by e-mail it s bigger and better contact Kelly at claimjumper01@gmail.com Attn. Newsletter. Our NEW Claim fund Raffle will have A Shaker table, Hand crank Trommel, Drywasher (minus the blower and a GOLD NUGGET. Tickets go on sale soon the drawing will be at the Christmas dinner. Need not be present to win tickets are $5 ea. buy 10 get 1 free. As always I thank our Board, Volunteers and Members for all they do. Your President, Greg Voisard, AKA Nuggetboy P a g e 1
Coarsegold Gold Prospectors 2015 Board Members President, Ways & Means: Greg Voisard 559/760-8714 Vice President: Ann Borella 559/301-0720 aborella@sti.net Secretary: Carol DeSilva 559/301-0720 supply.mom@hotmail.com Treasurer, Membership, Web Master: Kenny Hall 559/658-5756 deadwood@sti.net Claims: Greg Voisard 559/760-8714 Assistant Claims: Ed Bailey 559/855-8535 beatle@netpet.net Parliamentarian: Jim Hill 559/924-6290 jim-sarah@sbcglobal.net Board of Director/Claims: Mike Eidsness 559/645-4392 Board of Director/Newsletter: Kelly Hall 559/862-0570 claimjumper01@gmail.com P a g e 2
No Gold There Have you ever had someone tells you there s no gold there. Western Mining Alliance How many times have you heard There s no gold there. Or an area is all worked out. A number of years ago I spent a few summers looking for some new claims. I found a small ravine which was pretty non-descript and no real reason gold should be there. There were no claims on the ravine and I asked around about the history of it. Most of the miners in the area agreed there was no gold in this ravine. That made perfect sense, it was a very small ravine, there were no hydraulic pits which would have fed it tailings and a road crossed right over it, giving some really easy access. Despite the information on the claim I decided to go check it out anyways. It was in an area where I had some existing claims. I first stopped on a river where I already had claims, but there was an unclaimed section I wanted to check out so I hiked into the river to try it with a pan. I didn t hold out much hope because this particular section paralleled a road and all you had to do was grab your pan and walk fifty yards to the creek, which is what I did. I reached the creek and scraped up some gravel and dirt from a likely looking area, but there was nothing special about it; it was just another section of the creek, no particular reason there should be gold here, and no reason there should be gold up this high in the creek anyways. It was well past where I thought the enrichment zone was. Most of us have a couple of different panning styles, if you re just prospecting an area you tend to work your pan pretty quick, check out the bottom and wash it back in the creek. It takes an awful lot of fine gold to cover the bottom of a bottle, and I don t have the patience for panning my way to riches. I rapidly panned the material down to the black sand and starting swirling the water around to see if there were any signs of gold when I started seeing a line of fine gold at the top of the black sand. The more I washed it down, the more gold there was. There was enough gold in the pan I was tempted to take out my bottle, but I wanted to move down-stream a bit and see what I got, so I washed the gold back into the creek. Catch and release. If you re wondering how much gold, it was all fine, but probably about 50 colors or so. I moved downstream and got about the same result. Moved downstream again and the same result again. It seemed to me this little creek was loaded with fine gold. But it shouldn t have been. There was no source for the gold I could determine. There were no lode mines uphill or upstream, no hydraulic pits and no reason I could find for gold to be there. I mentally filed away a plan to file a claim on the creek and then hopped in the truck and drove a few miles back to where the ravine I was interested in. I parked the truck near where the old logging road crossed it and took out my pan and hiked about fifty yards downstream and tried a pan. Nothing. I moved again and tried again, again nothing. My first couple of pans confirmed what I d been told; there was no gold in this particular ravine. Having an afternoon to kill, and it being a nice day to just hike the creek I headed upstream towards the headwaters, panning every so often with the same results. The creek appeared to be empty of gold except for the occasional bit of very fine dust. Turning around and looking downstream the canyon narrowed and became choked with brush, I didn t plan on busting brush to head downstream, not with the results I was getting, but I decided to hike about a mile around, then drop into the bottom of the ravine near where it had a very steep drop into a river I already had a claim on. It was an easy hike to the lower end, and after cutting some manzanita out of the way I found a spot on the bank where I could grab some material. P a g e 3
We all know what we re looking for when we re sampling, and this spot flattened out and had some nice bedrock showing although it was soft bedrock, not my favorite type. I scraped up some material and panned it out and it was just loaded with gold. I actually took out the bottle and kept it. I spent the next hour panning up and down the stream and found it to be pretty spotty except that one spot which ran for about 100 yards, then dropped into a very steep canyon. Over the next few months I kept returning and trying to figure that ravine out. I d hit a crack in the bedrock and pull out a line of nuggets. I d pan material and get nothing. I d pan all afternoon and get nothing, then move a few feet and hit it again. I put my pan away and started paying attention to the sides, trying to figure out what was going on. I spent afternoons hiking the ravine down one side, then up the other. I finally brought in the metal detector and started detecting the sides and I got a faint hit. I dug it and found a piece of quartz which was giving me a nice signal. I broke the quartz open to find it filled with gold. I then narrowed my search from where I found the quartz piece and started going back and forth uphill, finding more quartz gold. About halfway up the hill I found an abandoned hard rock mine with a tailings dump extending down the side. That explained the quartz gold, but not the placer gold which was well worn. I continued searching the sides and found another old mine with tertiary gravel tailings, then another old quartz mine. Dropping lower into the canyon I found yet another old quartz mine, then another one which almost dropped vertical into the water. Finally, I decided to walk this ravine all the way down, which meant doing a lot of rock scrambling through the lower end and I started finding exposed quartz veins which had pockets dug out of them. The evidence of old hard rock mining was just everywhere. I followed the ridge up to the top and on top of the hill was the explanation for all my placer gold an old hydraulic pit which couldn t have been more than a quarter mile square and very shallow depth to the bedrock. This old ravine which people told me had no gold was full of old mines, and when I finally put it all together, this tiny ravine had cut the old tertiary channel just a few hundred yards above where I eventually claimed. The upper half of the ravine had no gold, the lower half was great. I ve had a claim on this area for a number of years. It s one of my favorite spots to spend some time. As I ve worked this creek I ve found post holes drilled into the bottom of the ravine where either a sluice or a flume was set up, with the old wood still in it. I ve found the remaining wooden beams of a flume which diverted the entire ravine, and of course the stacked rocks indicating people had been here before me. Prospecting is slow, detailed work which requires patience. Prospecting is the physical effort required to get out there, bust brush and see what s going on with a creek. The historical records show the biggest nuggets sometimes came from the smallest ravines. I m keeping my fingers crossed there is still a big one waiting in that ravine. I aim to find out. Remnants of a hard rock mine show just a hint of the old tunnel. The remains of an old tunnel are shown above. This is just one of several I found in the ravine, but it was the only one which still had a bit of the portal showing. There are few canyons you can visit in the Mother lode where you won t run into evidence of previous prospectors. The more intense the search, the more likely they found something worth digging for. Finding the old mines doesn t mean you ll find gold in the creek. Often, like the ravine here, the spring floods would just sweep everything right on down to the canyon. Most of us who ve spent some time out prospecting have run into the old stacked rock walls in the river canyons. Most people say it was the Chinese who did the rock stacking, but I often wonder. This set of stacked rock to the left seemed to be a retaining wall for a tunnel entrance, but I couldn t find the tunnel. To the left: Stacked rock lines the sides of the ravine providing evidence of previous mining. After all these years the rock is still standing. P a g e 4
The Empire Strikes Back Western Mining Alliance If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege. Ron Paul Rinehart to State Supreme Court On January 21st, the California Supreme Court voted to review the case of Brandon Rinehart. Brandon Rinehart is a young miner from the Bay Area who was cited on Father s Day 2013 with dredging without a permit. He was then convicted in February 2014 in a Plumas County Superior Court without being allowed to present his defense. Rinehart appealed and in September 2014 the Appeals Court overturned his conviction and remanded the case back to Plumas County for a new trial. The State petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Appeals Court ruling claiming their right to regulate the environment was at stake. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court voted 7-0 to review the Rinehart case. By accepting the case for review the decision of the Appeals Court is now de-published, meaning it can t be cited by lower courts in making their decisions. We are finally in the end game. The future of suction dredging hangs in the balance on the Rinehart case. Regardless of what we do in San Bernardino, whether we work out appropriate regulations, or whether we win or lose, everything hinges on Rinehart. It s likely we ll see a significant slowdown in activities in the San Bernardino case while the timeline is set for the Supreme Court case. Both sides will be gearing up for the epic battle which will decide whether you have a right to mine your claim. The state and the environmental groups will trot out their same arguments: we are destroying the environment and they have a right to stop it. We ll argue we re not, but the reality is the suction dredging EIR says we are and until we overturn the EIR they will continue to cite the EIR as their evidence of harm. We still maintain our legal challenge to the EIR. There is principle used in military operations which says you must support your main effort. Rinehart is the main effort. We must all get behind this case and ensure we have sufficient funding to put up the defense we need. This is our one shot. We can t appeal the Supreme Court decision; all we can do is take it to the federal level which means starting a new case from scratch. We can win this, in fact we ve already won it twice, but it doesn t matter whether you beat the opposing team during the regular season, or the playoffs, what matters is whether you beat them in the Superbowl. Major Victory in San Bernardino Court In a measure of a man s life it would be hard to equal the victory Jerry Hobbs gave us on his passing. The preemption ruling he had fought so hard for was handed down on January 11th. On January 12th we received our second major victory in the fight to restore suction dredging. Judge Gilbert Ochoa, of the San Bernardino Superior Court, ruled the state s laws banning suction dredging are unconstitutional. This effectively strikes down those portions of the laws which prevent you from using a suction dredge, including the regulations. The ruling was based primarily on the Appeals Court decision in the Rinehart case and relied heavily on the court s decision. (The decision is posted on our website). The San Bernardino court moved forward with the ruling despite knowing the California Supreme Court was considering the issue as well. The trial court ruling provides us with an even firmer foundation to fight the State in the Supreme Court. Everyone wants to know what this ruling means. We don t know. Is it legal to dredge now? By the California Constitution any ruling which overturns a law must be reviewed by a higher court. We re not lawyers, so we can t give you legal advice on what this ruling means. From our perspective it s another step on the path towards restoring dredging. There are differing opinions on what the ruling means, and depending on who you ask you ll get a different response. Our attorneys are hesitant to issue guidance either way without a final ruling from the court, so we ll await the judge s P a g e 5
order. The state, of course, has said it doesn t affect the ban on suction dredging until the ruling is reviewed by a higher court. What we do know, is we have the first definitive ruling on the legality of the suction dredging ban and it didn t go well for the State. We also have an Appeals Court opinion on the legality and it didn t go well for the State. Update on Taser pointed at AMRA members by USFS Most of you are aware of the issue s some of our members, hunters and the public in general have had with illegal searches and detainment s in Stanislaus National Forest by 3 LEO s (Law Enforcement Officers) recently. AMRA is representing these individuals. We have been conducting an investigation (some of us are former white-collar crime investigators and interrogators) for the past month and have obtained statements of even more incidents involving these three. We sent a certified letter to Capt. Rieck to establish a communication line with her and her agents several weeks ago. Ms. Rieck is the female LEO, and Captain over all the LEO s who pulled a Taser on our member for not producing an ID when she illegally demanded one Ms. Rieck has opted to ignore this serious matter so we have moved to the next stage and will share our newest letter to her with you. We would also like to explain the laws here. Probable cause is clearly written into the USFS LEO code of conduct manual and is required before they can demand any ID. The cases and statements we have obtained were of people minding their own business simply driving on a public road, or sitting in a creek running a tiny sluice box. This is also clearly defined in the 4th Amendment and decided by the US Supreme Court in Terry v Ohio. You have a fundamental right to be free from illegal searches and detainments. Just because you are driving down a public gravel road with a buddy doesn t constitute a violation of any law or justify a vehicle blocking the road in front of you, having a USFS LEO get out, not identify themselves, ask if you have any guns or drugs and when you state NO, demand you get out while they search your vehicle without warrant or probable cause. We will keep you all posted on this important and dangerous issue. February 20, 2015 Heidi Rieck Patrol Captain Jeanne Higgins Supervisor Stanislaus National Forest 19777 Greenley Road Sonora, CA 95370 RE: Blatant Violations of Public Person(s) Civil Rights. Dear Patrol Captain Rieck: We sent you a certified letter which we have confirmed your receipt of several weeks ago and have received no communication from you as requested. We had hoped you would take this matter as serious as AMRA, its members, the public, the local Sheriff s, the numerous State Representatives, Senators and multitude of media outlets we have contacted. Be advised that over the past month, we have secured numerous signed statements from the public confirming multiple unlawful actions by you, Agent Brooks and Agent Rosas. We thought this might be an isolated incident, but our investigation has produced some alarming patterns of stopping people at random and performing illegal searches and detentions. Ms. Rieck, as a public employee, you are bound by certain laws and as an LEO, you take an oath of office, something we are very familiar with. In that oath, you swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. You are bound to uphold and honor the laws. Along with those laws are the Amendments of the Constitution and to be even more specific, the 4th Amendment which protects its citizens from unlawful and unwarranted search and seizures. Your open disregard for the public s civil rights is simply alarming and dangerous. Your actions of intentionally ignoring these blatant civil rights violations will not make this go away Ms. Rieck. We are giving you 10 days from the receipt of this letter (also certified) to contact us or we will/may proceed with the following. We will provide all of the facts, statements, video and evidence we have discovered conclusively proving these severe and dangerous violations of these people s civil rights in our on-going investigation to the newspapers we have been in P a g e 6
communication with, the TV outlets, including some national entities, radio broadcasts and social media. We will/may file a civil action against you individually, your agents Brooks and Rosas and also litigation with the USFS. To refresh your memory on the letter we sent previously, here is the incident which prompted our investigation: On January 24, 2015 at approximately 1:00 p.m. at one of our claims located on Dogtown Road on Bean Creek three of our members were contacted by two National Forest law enforcement officers subsequently identified as Charlie Brooks and whom we had originally been provided information on identifying Blanca Rosas. Now we know conclusively that the female LEO was you, Capt. Heidi Rieck. At the time of the encounter our members were engaged in the legal activity of using a sluice box to mine on a valid mining claim. The members were legally parked and their vehicles were tagged with current registration. The encounter commenced when Brooks demanded our members produce identification. When this demand was challenged, Brooks responded that we need to know who is in our forest and to check to see if you have any warrants. It must be noted that neither you or your officer identified themselves. Two of our members, husband and wife, produced their driver s licenses and an expired AMRA membership card. Brooks took exception to the expired card. Brooks escorted the wife, a woman of small stature and over 60 years of age to her car to retrieve her current membership card. She was advised by Brooks to keep her hands in plain sight at all times and to make no sudden moves. In the meantime you demanded our third member, who was mining about 100 feet from the husband and wife, to produce identification. When asked why identification was necessary since he was doing nothing wrong, you said you needed to check for warrants and made a statement implying that you were keeping people from claim jumping. Our member replied that he was not required to produce identification. At this point both you and Brooks approached our third member and again demanded identification. When our member again refused Brooks said he would call the Sheriff, to which our member replied go ahead. You then drew your Tazer from its holster and directly threatened our member while demanding identification. The conduct of Brooks and yourself is outrageous and dangerous. Both you and Brooks obviously have no regard for the civil rights of the public engaged in a legal activity. As noted above neither of the National Forest officers identified themselves during the encounter on Dogtown Road. As news of the encounter circulated, a number of members and other entities have come forth and provided AMRA with statements concerning similar encounters with the National Forest officers, who subsequently were identified as Brooks and Rosas. The encounters typically involve unlawful detentions and searches, unlawful citations which resulted in dismissals and behavior which can only be described as harassment, threats, intimidation and unlawful activity. Another incident occurred recently near Bull Creek when Brooks blocked the road with his vehicle, detained several vehicles, demanded identification and conducted searches of the vehicle. This behavior by you and your law enforcement officers is disturbing and dangerous. AMRA is advising its members of their rights in such cases and are encouraging them to report any contact with these officers and you. Since the incident on Dogtown Road, the Mariposa and Tuolumne County Sheriff s Department have also been advised regarding your, Brooks and Rosas conduct. We are continuing our lengthy and detailed investigation into the SNF LEO s. You have 10 days from the receipt of this letter to contact us concerning this matter. Sincerely, Shannon Poe President American Mining Rights Association PMB 607, 6386 Greeley Hill Rd. Coulterville CA 95311 P a g e 7
Miners Meeting Live Broadcast AMR We have now set the miners meeting for March 14th (10am to 2pm) in its entirety and wanted to share with everyone how they can participate in this crucial and long overdue uniting of the mining community in California. While we cannot accommodate every small miner in the state who wishes to attend, we are going to broadcast this meeting live on the internet for all to hear the vision and how we are truly going to unite into one powerful force. How we are going to provide every single small miner with the facts, the science and the truth behind suction dredging, right of access and mining law, the truth about mercury and what to do if a USFS LEO (law enforcement agent) points a Taser at your face demanding ID for sitting in a creek. All of this will be in one publication which will be available to everyone..free of charge and without promoting any company. We have close to a hundred people scheduled to attend this meeting and we expect listeners in the thousands if not more. Yes, we are quite aware that the opposition to small mining will be actively tuned in and you know what folks, they are going to hate this meeting because we are going to provide every single small miner with the truth to combat their lies and propaganda. Mark March 14th on your calendar and join us in this important meeting. Here are the links to the live broadcast: For Goldprospectorsspace members http://www.goldprospectorsspace.com/page/gps-talk-radio For non members can listen at any of these links-http://www.prospectorsradio.com http://www.goldprospectingradio.com Live on 1000mikes-http://en.1000mikes.com/show/goldprospectorsspace_radio Live on tunein-http://tunein.com/radio/goldprospectorsspace-radio-s234321/ Archives -on tunein-http://tunein.com/radio/goldprospectorsspace-radio-p655256/ Archives on 1000mikes-http://en.1000mikes.com/show/goldprospectorsspace_radio and on prospectorsradio at-http://www.goldprospectorsspaceradio.com/ Next outing March 28 th & 29 th 2015, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claim 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 Total @ $15.00 each Hats w/logo: Colors: Tan Grey Size: One Size Fits Most Quantity Total @ $8.00 each Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Color Logo Decals Total @ $3.50 each or Two for $6.00 Quantity Total $ Total Order $ Call Kenny Hall at 559/658-5756 for orders and mailing cost. P a g e 8
UPCOMING OUTINGS for 2015 Meetings start at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning Check Forum for any changes February 21 st & 22 nd 2015, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claims March 14th & 15 th 2015, Mother Lode Mineral Society Rock & Gem Show Turlock, CA (Not an outing) March 27 th 2015, Brush work at Smitty s Gold (Volunteer Work) March 28 th & 29 th 2015, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claim April 11 th & 12 th 2015, Mariposa Gem & Mineral Show (Not an outing) April 25 th & 26 th 2015, Desert Run to Goler Heights Near Randsburg, CA May 2 nd & 3 rd 2015, Coarsegold Rodeo (Not an outing) (Volunteer Work) May 30 th & 31 st 2015, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claim June 27 th & 28 th 2015, Briceburg Bridge (No camping at bridge) (No motorhomes or trailers across bridge, can t make turn) July 25 th & 26 th 2015, Texas Flat (Possible coin shoot) August 29 th & 30 th 2015, To be Determined September 26 th & 27 th 2015, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claims October 24 th & 25 th 2015, Desert Run to Goler Heights Near Randsburg, CA November 14 th 2015, Fresno Flats Museum Thanksgiving Potluck December 12 th 2015, Fresno Flats Museum Christmas (Mexican Potluck) January 30th 2016, Fresno Flats Museum February 27 th & 28 th 2016, Bonnel Gulch & Surrounding Claims If you know of an event or you just want someone to go prospecting with let us know about it. Email me at claimjumper01@gmail.com and I can post it in the newsletter. Or if you got something to say and no way tell it, let me know and we can print it in your newsletter. P a g e 9
Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Association P.O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA 93614 Membership Application/Renewal: Coarsegold Gold Prospector s Association P.O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA 93614 559/658-5756 coarsegoldprospectors.com Please Print Last Name First Name Phone # Address City State Zip Membership Dues: Individual/Family $35.00 Annually Renewal E-Mail 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 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: