Wyoming Prospecting
TPeden9481
Snowing today, got to stay home and watch my grandkids, (the future
prospectors). Was going thru some of my files and found this I'd wroten down
years ago on one of my treks. Thought that perhaps someone would be interested
in it.
Field Report
Prospecting Trip on Douglas Creek
Medicine Bow Mountains Wyoming
Stopped in Larimie and filled up the gas tanks, bought some candy, a bag of
assorted Tootse Rolls. Drove westward on Wyoming 230, no snow on top of the
ridge. Everything is greening up, numerous wild flowers.Drove as close to the
confluence of Douglas Creek as I could. Gathered up my gear, and
climbed down the steep hill side to the Platte. Low water on the Platte, about
waist high at the deepest.
Entry 1: About one hundred feet from the Platte. Large cobbles, no sign of iron
oxide.Panned five pans no color. Test hole about three feet deep. Didn't reach
'bedrock'.
Entry 2: About one mile from the mouth, I found a small spring running into
Douglas Creek, the water from the spring is very rusty. Good sign.. Panned ten
pans from around the seep. No colors.
Entry 3: The gulch is getting very narrow, and steep. Not many gravel bars.
Found rust layer of cobbles about four foot higher than the creek bed, panned
five pans of this material. No color..
Entry 4: Figure I'm about two mile up the creek. A small creek meets with
Douglas Creek from the north. Nice park, panned ten pans from gravels of this
creek, various locations, no colors.About fifty foot above the confluence of
this creek on Douglas, I found a gravel bar, rusty stains on the cobbles, very
little small gravels. dug around and panned ten pans of what I could find,
averaged four colors per pan, very small pieces but its GOLD.
Entry 5: Upstream about one hundred foot from last test. Large gravel bar, big
cobbles, rusty stains, panned five pans, very little color average about one
color per pan. Cought a fish, for lunch. Mmmm good.
Entry 6: Traveled about two miles, didn't find anything that looked
interesting to prospect. I'm in a wide, gent area, the creek has lots of
meanders. Deep pools, lot's of brookies, but no good looking gravels. Another
creek joins Douglas from the north. I left most of my gear at the mouth of
this creek, testing the gravel up stream for about one thousand yards. No
colors.
Entry 7: The canyon pinches up, getting very steep again. The water is running
fast, found one gravel bar, panned five pans found a few colors.
Entry 8: The last mile was rough, I'm tired, so here as the creek opens up
again I think I'll spend the night. Cought two brookies for supper. Good
pleasant night. After morning coffee, and cleaning out the pan, found some
colors about two per pan in a gravel bar. Surprised me, as the gravels didn't
have any sign of iron oxide.
Entry 9: Traveled through a neat area, gentle grade, not too brushy, lots of
Gooseberries, just right for breakfast. Just got back from prospecting up
another creek, not much water, no colors. Went up this creek for about a half
mile, found old tiehack cabin. Nothing neat, just usual rusty tin cans. No
colors.
Entry 10: At the confluence of another creek. No colors in it's gravels. Found
another old cabin.
Tested the gravels of Douglas Creek, no colors.
Entry 11: Much to my surprise, here is signs of an old dredging operation.
Numerous piles of tailings. Found old channel of the creek, dug down about two
foot and found bedrock. Worked the layer on bedrock of three hours, ran
material through the sluice box. Lots of heavy's some gold. All the gold is
very fine. Nothing larger than a grain of table salt.
Entry 12: I have worked my way up creek for about a mile. Found a well traveled
trail, lots of empty fish hook holders, etc. from fishermen. Found a useful
coffee can. I've tested the gravels in numerous spots. Very few colors. Still
signs of old dredging . The canyon has really opened up. Very broad, open area.
I'm camped just up stream from a public camp ground. Looked through the camp
spots, didn't find anything. But I did find a can of Coke in the creek. Went
down excellent with supper. A Jeep woke me up this morning . Those fishermen
sure make a
lots of noise. Worked numerous gravel bars, no colors. The dredge workings have
stopped.
Entry 13: I've traveled though a large valley, Douglas Creek is pinching up
again. The canyon is bending towards the north. Neat area, steep walls on both
sides, an old trail wonders its way up through this canyon. Makes for easy
going in most spots. Tested many gravel bars, very few colors. Until I found
this gravel bar. The cobbles are rust stained, few small gravels lodged in
between, I've worked this bar for about two hours. Moving the large cobbles,
digging up the gravels and putting them into the coffee can, then dumping the
coffee can into my sluice. Every twenty cans, I've 'cleaned up the sluice,
getting about a half of a pan of con's. probably average fifty colors per pan
or better as the gold is very fine.
Entry 14: Gone about two mile on up stream, tested a few bars, few colors.
Think I'll stop here for the night. Good protected spot. I found two large
rocks close together, made a cover with some spruce broughs, looks like it's
going to rain. After I'd made camp, I worked a few close bars, didn't find much
exciting. Cought and ate two brookies. It started to rain as the sun set, my
camp
isn't that water proof. Woke up with a wet bed roll, cloudy misty just plain
miserable. Found that I can set back under this overhang, and keep dry, I'm
setting here watching the drizzle.
Entry 15: It's rained most of the morning. Well not really rain, just misty.
Anyway, the sun did come out, I headed up the creek . Tested many gravel bars,
didn't find much. The canyon has opened up into another large park area.
Explored another old dredge working's found some color in the banks of the
dredge hole. This working is about two hundred yards away from the creek. I've
set up camp under a spruce tree, Big boughs, should protect me from rain if it
drops again tonight. Heard some cars off and on during the evening, must be
near a road.
After I broke camp, and hiked up the creek for a short ways, I found the
Douglas Creek road. It hasn't taken me as long to get through the canyon as I
figured it would have.
I cought a ride with a couple going to Larimie, got out at highway 230, walked
down to WyCola, and Richard gave me a ride back to my pickup. All in all
Altough it wasn't a profitable trip, I did have fun, got a few colors, but
didn't find any reason to ever go here again.
John Mason
Great journal that you kept on your prospecting trip. I felt like I was right along
with you on the journey. Do you have any more of the journals? If so please post them
as it sure helps stave off the cabin fever.
>
Golden Optimist
We are planning on another weekend or 2 at Kaufman Creek this summer. We're
going to put the dredge in a couple of different places. If we don't find
much that's all right too. It's a nice place to spend the weekend;
Greatjournal. It made it even better since I've met you.
Leonard
Don Thompson
Deposits"
Placer descriptions
Albany placers; begin in sec. 16, T .14N ., R. 79W .and extend north
up Douglas Creek for about 5 miles. These placers include Moores
Gulch, Elk Creek, Bear Creek, and Daves Creek (Figure 23). Rob
Roy Reservoir , constructed on Douglas Creek below the mouth of
Moores Gulch, floods large portions of the Albany placers. Stream
gradients for these placers were reported by Beeler (1906a) to aver-
age 62 feet/mile in Douglas Creek, 120 feet/mile in Moores Gulch,
and 80 feet/mile and greater in the remaining smaller gulches. Gra-
dients much greater than 70 feet/mile are generally considered too
high for good placer development.
Beeler (1906a) reported that much of the gold recovered from
these placers was coarse and jagged with considerable "flour gold"
and traces of platinum and palladium. Twenty-five yds3 of the rim-
rock gravel between the confluence of Daves and Douglas Creeks
were tested and yielded about 1.5 oz gold and $5 to $6 platinum
(1906 prices?).
The Moores Gulch placers were the first placers worked to any
extent in the Douglas Creek district. Knight (1893) reported these
gravels were exhausted in 1870 after yielding about 500 oz of gold.
However Beeler (1906a), reported that between 1869 and 1870,
4,000 yds3 of gravel were worked on Moores Gulch that yielded
about 435 oz of gold, and that another 60,000 cubic yards of gravel,
which should average greater than 0.048 oz/yd 3, remained unmined
(Table 14).
Table 14. Estimated gold-bearing gravel resources for the Albany placers,
Douglas Creek district (Heeler, 1906a).
Estimated Average Estimated Au
Placer name yds3 of gravel oz/yd3 Au resource
.
Douglas Creek 3,020,160 0.024 72,485 oz
Dave. Creek 70,000
Moore. Gulch 60,000 >0.048 >2,880 oz
Elk and Bear Creeks 250,000
On Douglas Creek proper, the gravels were reported to average 6
feet thick. It was estimated this portion of the Albany placers con-
tained 3,020,160 yds3 of gravel, with gold values averaging 0.024
oz/yd3. On Elk and Bear Creeks combined, 250,000 yds3 of gravel
were estimated to lie in the drainages (Beeler, 1906a).
About 2,200 yds3 of gravel were mined on Daves Creek. These
gravels averaged 0.077 oz/yd3 Au and yielded about 170 oz of gold.
Beeler (1906a) reported another 70,000 yds3 of gravel remained
unmined in the creek (Table 14).
--
Don Thompson
Zoomie(BushBug)
ACA#3460
TLCB#335
Any Time, Any Place
Pull the chocks, lets get this kite in the air.
"Golden Optimist" <dre...@golddredger.com> wrote in message
news:8c3mjc$9...@journal.concentric.net...