Shake, shake, shake

Saturday officially opened the prospecting season for us… Alex said to be sure and say he was sitting on a rock, not in a snowdrift! We did a little sluicing on our lower elevation claim which had open water and some areas free of frost in the ground! It was 70 degrees Saturday, back to rain and possibility of snow on Sunday. Gotta love the Black Hills!

But we need to back up one day, because a drive-by this claim introduced us to some prospectors from Colorado uncertain of claim boundaries J and wandering up the gulch… Bob politely pointed them in the right direction but he was sympathetic of little running water for sluicing. Run-off is still minimal due to deep gulches not receiving any sunlight.

So the season begins… same places, new faces!

Guess the question, as always, is “did we get any gold?” The answer, as always, is “of course we did!” When you know where to dig…

We had promised a few weeks ago to talk to Jim, the fabricator, and get a little more info on the trommel he is developing. First of all, excuse me if this is occasionally stated as trammel – my fingers can’t seem to remember the “o”, some subconscious quirk in my brain!

Bob took some photos and this week we will feature the “grizzly” part of the operation. The grizzly features ½-inch spacing on a vibrating grizzly to free rock debris and is further enhanced by high pressure spray.  Jim has incorporated his own design to make this a highly efficient first phase of processing. Two vibrating systems, the subsequent on the trammel feed, will assure maximum recovery of black sands and reduce the load in our main sluices.  Jim plans to market this design… both on this scale and a smaller recreational scale. We’ll put you in touch with Jim if you’re interested!

Tying back to the claim jumpers already encountered… we are seriously considering an association for Black Hills claimholders geared to informing them of their rights as a claimholder and an information network that would allow us to look out for each other! We do take note of license plates when we encounter obvious claim jumpers, and would share that information one way or another to fellow claim holders… and you! It is fairly obvious that outside of the “tourists” we encounter, there are a number of local offenders that make their season migrating from one claim to the next.

I guess the gold is always brighter…