I Remember.........

I remember one time as a kid, I came across a little piece of rock with gold in it. I was spending the summer with my maternal grandparents, and one evening my grandmother told me to run to my great grandparents' to get some fresh eggs. My great grandparents only lived 4 blocks away and so I usually walked the streets to their house. When I arrived there my great grandmother was already expecting me and told me to go out to the chicken coupe and grab me some eggs. When I returned she gave me one of those styrofoam egg cartons and had me put the eggs in it so that they would not break on my way back to grandmas. Anyways, she had something else she wanted me to take back and told me to hang out for a minute while she went to the kitchen and grab the items. As I waited, I remember looking around in the piano room and they had this little closet stuffed with readers digest and some knitting things and my eyes caught on a little tiny shiny object sitting on one of the shelfs. Being curious I picked up the object and noticed it was a blue-ish looking rock with yellow in it and noticed it was quite heavy for it's size. I immediately thought that it was gold and by this time great-grandma was calling my name so I just without thinking put the rock in my pocket and left the room. Years later, I was going through some of my things and I came across the very same rock I "borrowed" from my great-grandmother years ago. I inspected it closely and sure enough it was gold and it was imbedded in this rock that had a cobalt blue look to it. I never did find out where it came from because that side of the family since passed on. As I thought about it I knew gold came in quartz veins, or you can sometimes find it in igneous rocks. I couldn't determine if it was actually gold laden ore or if it was something that may have been an after product when they processed the gold ore. It has been 15 years now and I think about this little rock from time to time and everytime I look for it I can't seem to remember where I put it. I thought about interviewing some of the related family members that are still alive and see if I can narrow down who might have been prospectors in the family. Then I can move to those who may have more stories on their lives, and hopefully trace down the possibility of which mines they worked and where. If they have no mining history then excitement really goes and hopefully I can find out where they might have done some prospecting and where and if they have anymore info on that related topic. I have a hunch that this little rock might have been slag lefted over from one of those melting operations, and back in those days processing ore to get the precious metals out were definatley not a 100%. Anyway, if anyone has any similar stories of thoughts about this particular post please feel free and let me know.

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.

Old Spanish Trail...

I have been reviewing some maps that are online and so far I narrowed it down to where the Spanish Trail comes out of New Castle down through Enterprise down to St. George and on. From what I gather the Santa Clara River comes out of Pine Valley through Central then winds on down through Gunlock Res. and past the Paiute Indian Reservation and finally turns southeast towards St. George and dumps into the Virgin River. The Spanish Trail just keeps going straight through the Paiute Indian Reservation and keeps going south. So that means the Santa Clara River and the Spanish Trail Follows each other from outside of Central, UT and they go through Gunlock Res. and down to the Paiute Indian Reservation before they split and go different directions. I'm guessing that wherever the road leads by Central down to (hopefully before) the Paiute Indian Reservation is where I would want to do my search. I am probably going to need to do more research because one source say's that the road this prospector was taking was headed towards the west over utah hill and says that he crossed the Santa Clara River at some point. The best part is that the more I research and study the more I learn my history:) .

About me.....

I guess it would be fair to say alittle why I'm interested in starting this blog. I have recently picked up this hobby of gold prospecting since 2006. I was first introduced to Placer Gold when I was a kid. My grandfather who was a short time prospector, showed me a small vial of nuggets he and his dad found while panning gold in Arizona back in the 1930's. His dad was one of those hard core prospectors who would spend much time as he could spare searching for lost mines and placer grounds. I remember as a kid that grandfather had some claims he would work once a year, and we would spend nearly a week working and grading the claims. As I grew older and he passed on I too fell away from rock hounding and wanting to search for gold. During the past few years I have picked up the love of getting out and wanting to search for the treasured metal that has been around for centuries. I currently live in Southern Utah where history itself is very broad. That is the other reason I have the love of wanting to get out in the hills, because here you are withing a hour drive to some of the most beautiful country and some very remote spots around. We are just 5 miles to the border of Arizona and the Arizona Strip which is a vast wilderness area protected by the BLM for recreational use for the public. This area has highly rich Indian heritage and other cultures that may have lived here years before us, and not to mention other creatures such as Dinasours with their tracks being found everywhere. I know there is'nt much gold here in southern utah but being close to Arizona, Nevada, and California the stories say that gold is everywhere. I hope with this and being out in the open I can meet other people with the same interest as me. I hope to share stories and work together to solve mysteries and other riddles to maybe someday be one of those prospectors lucky enough to find something to tell about. The purpose behind this blog is to meet others out there who have the thirst to know more and to be willing to share ideas and hopefully crack those stories to finding the treasures. Don't hesitate to post and share other topics as I'm open to anything that is in interest of Prospecting and Lost Mines.

Santa Clara lead/silver

I'm speculating that this lost mine is between santa clara and gunlock res. I really don't know exactly where the Old Spanish Trail went but apparently rumor has it that you look for a cliff with rose color quartz shooting out.

When times are tough.......

With work shortage and times of despair, I can say that I do have alittle more time on my hands to read, think, and ponder those old lost mine stories and such. Has anyone done any research on the old spanish trail, and know where I can get a decent map of the route? I am trying to locate the lost Santa Clara river lead/silver mine.