Tinton gold

Weekend outing Oct. 17, 2010
Autumn in South Dakota… what an amazing experience after two successive years of early snow.
This weekend’s destination is the Tinton mining region, famous for nuggets and larger “rough” gold. We have a destination in mind south of Tinton, but are well aware that access may not be possible unless a private property owner is in residence and willing to give us permission to pass.
Fall colors are waning, but there are still bright spots here and there. The Iron Creek road out of Spearfish (which in our youth was a two-wheel rut) is showing some washboard from a summer’s traffic.
We detour slightly at our turn-off and check for claim jumpers and status of paperwork on our Iron Creek claim. Claim posts have been removed by claim jumpers or vandals, a common occurrence.



Nugget City

 The road to Tinton takes us past Nugget City and the site of Potato Creek Johnnie’s cabin, or at least what remains of the tool shed. It’s getting difficult for even us native Black Hillers to find the spot.

Only remnants of Potato Creek Johnnie's
cabin site are a few boards from the tool shed.

 Another detour near the head of Beaver Creek, where we spot a indistinct trail toward old workings. A hike down the trail to the north and east exposes placer workings. We encounter a fence line, and knowing that it designates private property, hike up the hill to find several trenches, deep enough to know they must have found something!

Prospect tench is taller than Alex!

Back to our trusty “Old Rusty” Ranger pickup and on down the road. The first promising access is gated with what is becoming a most familiar sign...

So, no go for Old Rusty there. As much as we dispute this infringement on public access, we do our best to play by the rules!

The next road is into private property, but runs along the fringe of the boundary. There is a rutted road through private property and Forest Service, then a residence beyond which the road is padlocked.

So where to go now? We decide to go back to the spot where we detoured and scouted out workings. Just past where we pulled over there is another gated entrance. Bob asks if we want to see an old shaft, and of course we said, “Yes.” We got the usual warning about open workings and unstable ground, but a reminder never hurts!

The trail was pretty well established and, rock picks in hand, we proceeded to break quartz and examine formations.

Around the bend we spotted a tailings pile and proceeded to walk single file (six-year-old Alex in between the two adults). A wide, probably 12-foot deep shaft had caved, but did not appear to have been too deep. Possible ore on the dump site was iron stained quartzite and a dirty brown quartz. A road cut exposed 20 to 30 feet of the vein system, what looked to be on a northwest trend. The trail continued toward a draw with what appeared to be extensive placer workings.

Score another one for Fox mining… claim posted.