Lots of rain for Turkey Day......

With all the rain we have been getting here in Southern Utah I can't help to think about going out and doing some panning. Of course here in the desert we don't get water running in the wadi's year round and when it rains why not head out to the dry wadi's panning for gold? (I know it is not smart to be out in the dry wadi's during any kind of storm just because of flash flood warning!) This past summer I have been sampling some of the gravel bars in the Bull Valley Mountain area just north of where I live trying to locate some placer deposit. It has been very unproductive as far as trying to locate where the gold lies, which up in these parts the gold is very fine. I have one prospecting buddy say that a geologist friend of his told him that a 1/2 dollar size nugget came out of this area. I have inquired a time or two about where this location may be but all he say's is that it is roughly west of the GoldStrike Mine in the BeaverDam Wash area. I plan to return to this area in the springtime where the runoffs are nice and spend some time narrowing my search down to where the gold may be. I have been studying the topographical maps where I want to begin and so far I guess the BeaverDam Wash goes all the way to Slaughter Creek which lies west of the GoldStrike Mine. As far as I know the GoldStrike Mine is inactive, and so I visited the area just to try and get an idea what kind of ores to look for. This mine is an open pit mine and from what I learned the gold is pretty much imbedded throughout the whole area not really in any vein or anything. The process was quite a story with all the steps that they had to take to reclaim all the gold. This mine closed down in the early '90s and has'nt been re-opened as of yet. Since timing hasn't been right to reactivate the mining operations, I seen a few people out picking at the mine thinking they'll find stuff. I'll post pictures next time I find them so you can see what this place looks like.