34 replies to this topic

[fishing8046]

I think we all wonder what if so I thought a poll would be cool just to think What if.....

[Prescott Gold Hunter]

I would try to make a living at Mining, If I were free from Responsibility and family and laws, I would definitely give it a shot. I know its not Practical. But hey. Beats sitting on my Arse!

[wolf]

Never did anything else but mine or mine related. Most times for myself sometimes for the big companies. Never got rich but i cant complain.

[russfordAZ]

I would definitely go for it. Gold or no gold, just living free and self-sufficient in nature would be worth it for me. Just learning to survive in the wild would be "job one". Any gold would be a bonus. My second choice of locations would be Alaska. It has fewer people, more space, and good gold. Drawbacks would be cold weather and bears. My third choice would be AZ. My first choice would be to travel with the seasons between the two. I'm not sure how long I would last at my age, but can anyone think of a better way to go?
...rf

[Adam]

I would move closer to good ground so I could hunt more ofter & longer. Right now every trip I make is a minimum, and I mean minimum of a 5 hour drive total...

[Bob T.]

I am just about in that shape now, except that I do have a wife but no house payments or car payments or anything else.

Thats the reason that I spend at least four to five days per week mining/detecting and will do so as long as I am able to.

If I get gold its OK, if I don't, thats OK too. It's what I love to do. Wouldn't have it any other way.


Bob T.

[Rod]

If the definition of free is no responsibilities and unlimited cash flow, I'd travel the world for a few years and while doing so mine/prospect here and there to see what happens 'round this big blue marble. Then I'd comeback home to AZ and start up another larger commercial operation after buying some carefully selected patented claims, if the owners would sell.

Its not easy to prospect/mine for a living without a real commercial type operation on excellent ground, for most its just an existence.

Would it change the way I do it, for sure.

Of course because I enjoy female companionship and frequent, good sex I'd end up married

[keitharmy]

I would spend the vast majority of my time in the sticks. I've always thought that given more time to explore and learn certain areas I would probably do much better then I do now. Alaska, California, Nevada and more of AZ. I would probably stay out there until my fingers were bloody and ribs were showing. Then beaten down and of course fabulously wealthly and loaded down with gold, yeah right. I'd head into town for some rest and knowing me I'd meet some young flat belly and end up married again. Then I'd go back to sitting around the house day dreaming and grumbling about how my wife doesn't like my "hobby".

[Grubstake]

I don't cost much! But I'm a long ways off from being FREE. Grubstake

[oldrider]

I wont change because I am retired but I left my run too late, should have started seriously years ago!

It's the learning about prospecting, it takes time and work and family always seemed to get in the way!

Same thing with sex, I got all this time and a willing partner but for the life of us we can't remember what all the fuss was about!

Oh well, back to the asylum!

[Gilaoro]

I do pretty much as I like now, age and health is my major hold back, seems like it takes 5 or 6 months every year lately to get all the Drs appts done.

I have tried it all at one time or another, did best with crystal mining but gold feaver and ever fewer spots available to dig crystals moved me to
gold clubs because I like to travel.

If the situation was different I would have stayed in Baja but it just got too crazy about the same time the economy went to hell, 2002 for me.

For me AZ in the winter and somewhere in the Mountain west is the best, spent a lot of time dredgeing in Idaho in the '90s so went back in 2009,
and got hooked up with the owner of a patented 1860,s mine that also has placer, he is not a miner but would like to improve the property but not destroy it.

So last season one of my AZ prospecting pardners and I started trying to develop it as a "Pay to Play" operation. last year we got started late and never got the word out enought,
then he had to drop out in July due to family ilness, so I was by myself most of the timrq
now with CA closed we are getting lots of interest although ID is considering changing their dredgeing regs too but this year they are still liberal.


The original plan was to keep it to 20/25 members on a yearly basis and use the firsts years income to pay for development, now with the explosion
of gold prospecting interests we are going to have dailey use also.

It is a unique place consisting of 3 patented parcels, a 9 acre mill site thats flat and between Grimes creek and Charlotte Creek and just west of the still standing
1860's era mine and town of "Golden Age", in the 1800s and up until WWII there was about 5000 people living in the general area, some house are still standing and in use.The other parcels are a 3 mile by 1000' patented claim on Charlotte Creek about 1/1/2 miles S of the mill site. Thsi portion of the creek was never hydroliced in the days that all the other was because they used it to supply water to Pioneerville and Placerville and surounding mines. The water was flumed off the creek at the upper end and eventually went into wooden flumes across the valley and 27 miles down stream. The owners great/great grandfather would not let the chianasse mine it or anyone else to keep the water clean. his parcel had a sawmill ana hotel, a stable and a whore house but it was all burned years ago, plenty of square nails so far!

Another 2 miles up the MT is the hardrock mine that was the paying mine for them, it started in 1860 and in its best years employed 2 shifts of 100 men each had 2 sawmills on the property suppling timbers, the mine,mill and houses were electric be powered by a water generater at a lake they built. The original house is still standing, the bunkhouse and other houses are collasped on site, the goverment ordered the mine closed in 1942 and all the equiptment was sold for scrap, the ball mill and assay office remain collasped by the shows.

I took samples and had the ore assayed ( all the mine records are lost) and just for PGMs it assays 22.54 Oz PT of silver and .56OZ PT of Gold, its a complex ore and has sulfides and other stuff in it, Zinc, Lead, Copper and ?? We are going to sack and try to get milled ore that remains stacked and in the ore bins out this year, it has very difficult acress due to roads being washed out. The present owner the grandson of the founder was raised by his grand mother in a one room log cabin thats still in use although it been moved to the mill site.

He owns all the water rights for Charlotte Ck since its spring fed and starts on top of the MT. The MT is presently being core drilled by Mesquite Gold, it is said to be the largest undeveloped Moly in NA.

We are going to keep yearly menberships at 20 persons , it will include the hunting/fishing beside the mining, they will be $1000 a year and dailey use will be $20 includes camping overnite, we have electric service. R/Vs of '35 foot can make it fine, an ATV is almost a nessisity as parking on the creek is very limited, it runs in a 30/40foot overgrown gultch a 2-2 1/2" dredge hibanker is plenty for Charlotte Creek. Right now its pack it in pack it out. We have settling ponds and will have handicaped panning and highbaning available and plan to haul in material from a commercial mine near by that has some good mine run dirt, it sells by the yard and I plan to sell it by the 5 gallon bucket, I got 4 1/2OZ+ from a 10 yard run last year in a commercial highbanker, it cost $250 and took me and my supposedly dredge tender 10 hours to process it, we had a 5 gal bucket of cons and sucker-bottled the 4 1/2 Oz from under the matting in the sluice, I was one pooped puppy after all that shoveling of rocks too big for the sluice ( 5 yards at least it felt like it) that night he pulled out with the gold, the cons a .86OZ nugget and some other stuff, o'well he missed 70 Lbs of ball mill concentrates thats loaded with silver and gold, all my dredges and misc tools laying around!
He could have took my china rihno knockoff, its insured!

Its 9 miles to Garden Valley, 27 miles to Placerville, 19 miles to Centerville, 35 miles to Horseshoe Bend , 32 miles to Idaho City, 52 miles to Boise and about 5000 feet, its just 1/2 mile SW of the Grimes Monument at the top of Grimes Pass, 2 1/2 miles to the Payette river. Good verizon cell service.

So thats what I will be doing this summer from May 1 to probably OCT, stop by if your in the area, its 1050 miles from Wickenburg, just get on 95 and head North!

Max

[wolf]

Gilaoro:
i have prospected all over that area. know exactly where you are. Will try and make it over this year.

[piccalo]

If allowed total freedom, financial and other-wise, I would be in Australia serching for elusive nuggets.

[Gilaoro]

Gilaoro:
i have prospected all over that area. know exactly where you are. Will try and make it over this year.

Wolf,
Come on over we can always stir up something, it gets lonesome during the week .

Max

[Uncle Ron]

Yo All...I'm in pretty much the same position as Bob, but I still work...I prospect about 5 days/week but usually can arrange my work time around my prospecting time...I moved to Wickenburg 11+ years ago simply because it is smack dab in the middle of the big AZ goldfields and it got me back to the desert I love...Grew up near Death Vally, CA, and was influenced by Seldom Seen Slim and some other real old timers...Been mining and prospecting since 1977... Was up in Siskiyou County mining for 20+ years...Panning, dredging, sluicing and for a few years ran a fair sized placer operation with 37 miners working for me and a couple partners up on the Salmon River ... We found lots of gold but never enough to cover payroll, diesel, powder, etc. ... Sold a lot of gold, including big nuggets, cheap just to keep the operation running ... Also did some development work on Preacher Creek in Alaska ... Did a lot of buying and selling of commercial gold properties which netted some very good money, but then started mining and lost it all ... ... So all in all, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, looking for the big one and happy with the little'uns ... Loving the big AZ...Cheers, Unc

[russfordAZ]

Hi Max, Hope Polly is doing well and will be ready for the trip. Linda and I will try and make it up there this summer. It's hard for us to leave for the whole summer because of all the watering/weedeating around this homestead, but I'm sure we can find a week somewhere. I have a few questions for you. If you'd rather answer in an email: russford@cableone.net
How much is out-of-state hunting/fishing license? How close is good fishing and what would be in season to hunt on the property? The day use fee is $20 + you buy the dirt, is that right? The mine run dirt is $25 yd, right? It all sounds doable and it would be a good brake during the heat of the summer. That assay I did for you didn't show a lot of sulfide gold, but it sounds like there is good free gold from the mine material (I can still shovel like a phantom when I see gold in the header. Of course Ibuprofen is my best friend).

Wolf, drop an email and let me know when you are planning to make it. Maybe we can meet up?

.... russ

[Gilaoro]

Hi Max, Hope Polly is doing well and will be ready for the trip. Linda and I will try and make it up there this summer. It's hard for us to leave for the whole summer because of all the watering/weedeating around this homestead, but I'm sure we can find a week somewhere. I have a few questions for you. If you'd rather answer in an email: russford@cableone.net
How much is out-of-state hunting/fishing license? How close is good fishing and what would be in season to hunt on the property? The day use fee is $20 + you buy the dirt, is that right? The mine run dirt is $25 yd, right? It all sounds doable and it would be a good brake during the heat of the summer. That assay I did for you didn't show a lot of sulfide gold, but it sounds like there is good free gold from the mine material (I can still shovel like a phantom when I see gold in the header. Of course Ibuprofen is my best friend).

Wolf, drop an email and let me know when you are planning to make it. Maybe we can meet up?

.... russ

Thanks Russ!
She will be ready or I will B----? No you know I don't make threats I can't carry out!

To answer your questions: Fishing lisence I don't know, dredge permit is $30, we have trout right on the property in both Grimes and Charlotte creeks. The Payette river is 2 1/2 miles and it has bigger fish. The hunting is in the fall, theres bears, elk, and deer, moose but I don't think the let you shoot one, also Mt lions and wolves, we had a resident deer last year at the camp.

Day use is $20, includes camping, dredgeing,highbanking, metal detecting, sluceing. The mine run dirt is from a commerical operation up the road about 8 miles, it is not mine, I hope to buy it by the truck load and haul it to our campground and dump it by our settleing ponds, if he will sell it to me then I will resell it by the 5 gallon bucket, a lot of people don't want to run a yard, especicaly after you dump it in front of them! some of them just have small recirculators, I will have some small highbankers for rent and a 2 1/2' dredge and I am looking to have a 2" highbanker too. You can go up to his place and run all you want in your own highbanker but he is only open on saturdays most times and does not live on site, might be hard to find so I would not drive from Boise on spec.

I had another assay made of some of the stuff you assayed and some ore from the dump and they were very close but the guy that did the ball mill stuff that you did said it was the nastest's stuff he had ever saw, what I sent you was washed, his was mine run, he said it should be treated as hazmat! I am not savy on that hard rock stuff and didn't realize gold ore could have lead and zinc in it too.
After the goverment closed the mines in WW2 they sold all the steel for scrap, 18 months later they asked him to reopen the main tunnel and produce ZINC for the war effort, records show they produced 900 tons in a very short time. Two days before the season ended last year I was going to set up a 2 1/2" dredge right below where the mill sat on the creek, the creek there is very small and my dege tender at the time let the suction get stopped up with moss and burned out the engine so still don't know what they spilled there, I have heard storys that the old grandmother was always panning in that spot and turned in her gold to the Govt in 1933 in one gallon jugs!

One of the residents in the 1970's was an "end of the world is coming type" and buried money in PVC tubes, one has been found with $22,000 in gold coins in it over on a FS claim that borders the patented ground, the guy that buried it was a ret AF Mg General so he ws no dummy!

The only problem I have is my attention span, the FS burned the old hotel and about 7 houses on the site and the square nails are thick, I found these but can only ID the 1893 US quarter. the other is a sheild nickel with out the cents mark, they were commonly gold plated and passed as a 5 dollar gold peice.

Come on up and I,ll show you the sights

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[Mingusmtn]

I'd move to the Prescott area for my home base and travel the west for prospecting. Go to high elevations in the summer and lower for the winters.

Doug

[Wyndham]

if I were younger, if I had known where things are 20yrs ago, if, if, if.But It be what It be. God figured I'd better be where I am instead of where I want to be. Wyndham

[prairie dog]

If I was a multi-millionaire and had no worries and never had to work another day in my life, I would still pick up my detector as much as I possibly could and go hunt gold nuggets. I would still put my wife and kids first, but I LOVE the hunt. It's not about the money. It is about the passion.
Matt

[LarryAzAu]

Yeah if money wasn't an option, I would built a cabin on site of a commercial operation to oversee it and live there up in the Bradshaw's somewhere!

[bigrex]

Yeah, living in AK for the summer and wintering in AZ, then alternating years, Australia the next summer (in the northern hemisphere) and then wintering in the Dominican Republic or some south American place might be nice, or hitting all the best western states, CA, NV, AZ, ID, MT, CO. Even if it were only a couple years spent that way, oh well, it's nice to dream. When you're young you sometimes can't afford it, when you're old you're sometimes too beat up to enjoy it. Well, I still have a few years ahead of me, we'll see how it goes, I need to get out more in nature, sitting behind the computer working too long will put you in an early grave.

[old timer83]

Yeah, living in AK for the summer and wintering in AZ, then alternating years, Australia the next summer (in the northern hemisphere) and then wintering in the Dominican Republic or some south American place might be nice, or hitting all the best western states, CA, NV, AZ, ID, MT, CO. Even if it were only a couple years spent that way, oh well, it's nice to dream. When you're young you sometimes can't afford it, when you're old you're sometimes too beat up to enjoy it. Well, I still have a few years ahead of me, we'll see how it goes, I need to get out more in nature, sitting behind the computer working too long will put you in an early grave.

my daughter [63] coined a new word, computer potato.. very similar to couch potato

[Arkyrick]

Max sounds like a great place your working on good on you!
Rod your married and still have frequent good sex?
Russ it's good to see your still swinging a pick!

[Tonkalong]

Hi all,
I have been lucky. I worked on the railways for 20 yrs in a fairly remote area looking after 200 mile of railway track. I worked a lot with aborigines so learnt a lot of their traditional ways. I then went prospecting for gold for 10 yrs before settling down with a mining company working in the Exploration side prospecting for Iron Ore. I still work a lot with Aborigines in my mining job doing heritage surveys but am seriously thinking of going prospecting again due to the heavy Safety politics in mining. I am starting to loose all the skills I worked so hard for all my working life and I do not want to get to the point where it becomes unsafe for me. I have been roaming the Aust bush since I was 6 and it was not till I was 36 did I really appreciate the bush for what it was. Now when I am walking the bush I feel happy and calm not just listening to but being part of the nature. The feeling I get now is a bit like being out in the freezing cold and then walking inside next to a fire. My passion is nature and the land. I sap up all the knowledge I can when it comes to bush tucker and survival. I have been lost twice, once when I was 7 and last time about 10 yrs ago and it is one of the scariest things that can happen. The bush is very unforgiving if you are not prepared.
I will be honest in saying that when I go prospecting for 2-3 weeks at a time I am not out there to become rich with gold I am out there to become rich in the knowledge of learning more about my surroundings. The gold will come to you in its own time when you least expect it.
Time is going so fast and I do not want to get caught up with the latest technology as I find that computers, TV’s Mobile phones etc are real time wasters. Sure some technology is good for us but I believe a lot is not and it just makes us become lazier in life robbing us of quality life in our senior yrs. I am a believer in do it now why you can because life is too short. That is why I am seriously thinking of going back to my prospecting.
Can you make living out of it?????????
Yes you can, if you are not greedy and you want the simple things in life.
It is true when they say "The best things in life are free" You just need to know where to look.

Cheers to all

Tonkalong

[old timer83]

i can see that we are going to get some good, interesting posts out of our new aussie! go for it, tonkie!!

[t-bone]

Im like adam..got to travel 2+ hours to get to good prospecting ground where you are free to roam.work takes all my free time so i Plan,do research,Day Dream,Plan,do research,Day Dream... ect..ect..(Repete)But im working on my escape you can bet on that....

[piccalo]

As long as we are fantasizing,

1. I would seek out a lost love, (one in particular).
2. I would follow in the footsteps of Tonkalong.
3. I wouldn’t return to the U.S. unless all
Liberals were banned from politics.

Hey, it’s my fantasy and I get to call the shots!

[nm jack]

Hi all,
I have been lucky. I worked on the railways for 20 yrs in a fairly remote area looking after 200 mile of railway track. I worked a lot with aborigines so learnt a lot of their traditional ways. I then went prospecting for gold for 10 yrs before settling down with a mining company working in the Exploration side prospecting for Iron Ore. I still work a lot with Aborigines in my mining job doing heritage surveys but am seriously thinking of going prospecting again due to the heavy Safety politics in mining. I am starting to loose all the skills I worked so hard for all my working life and I do not want to get to the point where it becomes unsafe for me. I have been roaming the Aust bush since I was 6 and it was not till I was 36 did I really appreciate the bush for what it was. Now when I am walking the bush I feel happy and calm not just listening to but being part of the nature. The feeling I get now is a bit like being out in the freezing cold and then walking inside next to a fire. My passion is nature and the land. I sap up all the knowledge I can when it comes to bush tucker and survival. I have been lost twice, once when I was 7 and last time about 10 yrs ago and it is one of the scariest things that can happen. The bush is very unforgiving if you are not prepared.
I will be honest in saying that when I go prospecting for 2-3 weeks at a time I am not out there to become rich with gold I am out there to become rich in the knowledge of learning more about my surroundings. The gold will come to you in its own time when you least expect it.
Time is going so fast and I do not want to get caught up with the latest technology as I find that computers, TV’s Mobile phones etc are real time wasters. Sure some technology is good for us but I believe a lot is not and it just makes us become lazier in life robbing us of quality life in our senior yrs. I am a believer in do it now why you can because life is too short. That is why I am seriously thinking of going back to my prospecting.
Can you make living out of it?????????
Yes you can, if you are not greedy and you want the simple things in life.
It is true when they say "The best things in life are free" You just need to know where to look.

Cheers to all

Tonkalong

[nm jack]

If money was not a problem I'd go to Australia and look up Tonkalong. It's somewhere I've never been and would love to see the natural wonders.
For now I will roam the desert southwest in the winter and the Colorado Rockies in the summer. Dredging and Drywashin'

[3rdgear]

I would definitely get myself in the middle of good gold country and try to mine every day I could. Like others, age and the body is my limitation right now. I would still get out and do what I could. I am so much more "alive" when I am out in the dirt, playing, than any other time in my life.

[3rdgear]

I think we all wonder what if so I thought a poll would be cool just to think What if.....

How in the heck do you vote?? The only choice I get is "Delete My Vote".

Tom