Surprise!

　
Spring is here, according to Alex. He came running to tell us the yellow “mountain”lion flowers are blooming!

Need a little explanation? We live in the foothills of the Black Hills. A mountain lion has been tracked (collared) toward the back of our property, so we are always cautious! Easy enough to confuse, those dandelions…

Wednesday was the first on-site inspection of the claim we are in the process of permitting. This visit was to visually inspect the property for unique or exceptional characteristics that need to be avoided while mining.

We were pleasantly surprised to see less snow on Iron Creek than we expected.  That was offset by intermittent rain and snow throughout the several hours on-site.  Luckily the party was prepared for weather and we were able to walk to areas of interest.

Life is full of surprises, and not always pleasant! The surprise in store was being informed that our project is indeed in a special, exceptional, critical or unique area… the Spearfish Creek Watershed.

First we’ll discuss that history and how it came about. South Dakota D.E.N.R. (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) website provides the following information: The South Dakota legislature in 1995 passed a bill to “ban new surface mining permits on private land from rim to rim in Spearfish Canyon. Legislature also passed a resolution that encourages the USFS to designate Spearfish Canyon as a Scenic Byway, which would effectively ban surface mining on federal land within the Canyon.” We were aware of this rim-to-rim mining ban, but were several miles from the rim of the canyon.

That action was followed by… “In November 1996, Lawrence County voters narrowly passed an initiated zoning ordinance that would effectively ban surface mining on 48,000 acres in the Spearfish Canyon watershed.” That was followed by, “A federal judge struck down the Lawrence County zoning ordinance banning surface mining in Spearfish Canyon watershed that was narrowly passed as an initiated measure by Lawrence County voters in November 1996." We were also aware of this, having voted on that initiative and seen the subsequent action.

Here is what we were not aware of… “The Board of Minerals and Environment in 1990 adopts special, exceptional, critical or unique land rules after two public hearings. Several areas have since been added to the preliminary list of special and unique lands following public hearings including Spearfish Canyon Watershed, Craven Canyon in Fall River County, and Danby Park/Bugtown Gulch near Custer.”
How does this impact us? It’s hard to say at this point. Our plan as submitted to D.E.N.R. and the U.S. Forest Service already addresses any issues that might arise. We had avoided any disturbance of Iron Creek, in fact have created a 50-foot buffer zone surrounding the creek. We are transporting water to and from the site and using an entirely self-contained system that will not create discharge. Erosion control, in the case of natural events such as a heavy rain, are addressed.

We want to emphasize here how much we care about that entire area. Both of us spent much of our childhood in the Spearfish Canyon and Iron Creek Lake area. One of the things we’ve discussed through the years as claimholders was the unsightly remains of historic mining left on our claim. We have no obligation to reclaim previous mining, but will reclaim as much as possible to a more “natural” landscape. Our intention is to leave this site more scenic than we found it! It is also our practice to clean up garbage (the historic garbage dump, the site of a recent road accident, clay pigeon debris from a recent target practice someone carried out from the road) and address noxious weeds when found.

We continue our quest for a mining permit… sometimes you have to work a little harder for something you really want.  The decision will be in the hands of the D.E.N.R. Board of Minerals and Environment.
　
　
　

Claim it!

We want to discuss obtaining a claim… something that seems relatively simple if you know the process but is a lot more involved than you might think!

It seems a simple process to pick a creek, pan out some color and decide to stake a claim. It would be simple… if everyone else hadn’t had the same idea!

We started prospecting in the late 80’s… the price of gold was good and some of the previous generation of prospectors were letting loose of claims due to advancing age. They were still tough to find, but they did exist. To be honest, it was part luck, part diligence and mostly persistence that got us the claim we are now in the process of permitting.

That venture helped establish much of our prospecting procedure. Since then we’ve prospected probably 200+ claims with a few thin years when personal situations didn’t allow us out much. We’ve settled on five filed placer claims at least for the moment, and have another four we are seriously considering personally. We have also obtained about 10 filed claims for friends and family, another 20+ found but never staked. All of the claims, staked or not, have returned varying degrees of gold from “show” in the pan to some nice-sized nuggets.

How do we find these claims and why? First off, we love prospecting! Secondly, through the same luck, diligence and persistence with a good dose of experience, Bob can sit down with a map, a wealth of mining history, and LR2000 and find gaps between existing claims for us to prospect. He loves that almost as much as the actual prospecting, which is my favorite part of the experience. His expertise, backed by mining history, points us to the pay zone! So, depending on availability of water, we have found gold on about every claim we’ve ever prospected! It’s amazing what’s out there!

Now we’ll get back to finding claims for people. You can go on the internet and find them for sale or ask any prospector to help you find a claim. The internet claims are an interesting study in “what are you getting?” There seems to be a lot of photos of luscious creek terrain on reputable gold-bearing creeks. I’ll re-state what I commented back to one inquiry… Every part of a gold-bearing stream is not a gold producer and/or maybe it’s not accessible due to terrain, closed gates, blocked by private property… there’s a lot of inaccessible gold out there!

Asking any prospector to find a claim is comparable to asking anyone dressed as a cowboy to teach you to ride a horse! They may talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? Do they have a claim and have gone through the claim staking process? Can they tell you, other than generic prospecting procedure, where to look for and find gold? The first good indicator would be if, in any part of the Black Hills and its infinite variety of geology, they could point out the probable pay zone in an exposed cutbank and you could pan out at least some black sands!

The price of a claim advertised could very well be a reflection of its potential. Gold is hovering around $1500 an ounce. With a due amount of diligence (and you’re talking about two people in their 50s, one with a bad back), a pennyweight of gold can be recovered most days we get out. We’re looking at $60+ worth of gold each day. If they’re selling a claim for a couple hundred dollars you can bet it would take a lot more time than that, even at better than geriatric speed, to pay off your investment!


So a good investment is going to cost you a little more… but when you think about recovering the cost in as little as one or two weeks’ time, you’ve got a good claim!


Lode opportunities, we believe, have not been this good since the 1876 gold rush! We have acquired five lode claims, with a couple more we’re looking at this spring. There are some patented mines out there (off limits); there are a few companies that are blanketing sections at a time, but in general there are a lot of good lode opportunities just waiting to be claimed!

A final reminder, and we want to make this very clear. Owning a claim grants you mineral rights and protects you from mineral trespass, but you do not own the real estate! This is a common misconception, and even with our stressing this loud and clear, people find the concept hard to grasp. The same land can be leased by livestock owners, can host camping, 4-wheeler trails, snowmobiling and a variety of other multi-use activities. Your claim secures only the minerals!

Happy prospecting, stay off claimed and private property and if you want a claim, we’re here to help! Email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com for more info.

          Patience is the word this week as we await a phone call from the State to schedule an on-site inspection.  We’re also awaiting a letter from the U.S. Forest Service formally addressing areas of interest within our claim boundaries and proposed disturbance. 

          We’ve already “informally” addressed a culvert and drainage that we will avoid during mining.  Other areas of interest as informally identified are outside the boundaries of disturbance.

          Weather has been rainy, but that’s a far sight better than snow!  Rain helps to dissolve the winter’s accumulation of snow, allowing some good run-off into Black Hills creeks.

          We did enjoy a short road-trip to the Rochford area one sunny day last week.  It was a little chilly for any real prospecting, but snow cover is minimal in that specific area.  Likewise here in the foothills where last week's rain dissolves the remnants of snow.  A glance at the Northern Black Hills skyline tells us that Crow Peak still has plenty of snow, so we’ll probably try to make it up that way next week if no new snow is received.  The forecast is for a rainy week, which could really reduce the snow banks in the Tinton region.

          We spent the morning with Jim the fabricator, working out some final details of our trommel operation.  Jim thinks he’ll be more or less finished with final details by the end of the week.

          Last week we detailed the grizzly system, which will wash and separate out large rock.  I need to correct the size of segregation.  I stated it as ½-inch and Jim corrected that to 1-inch.

          From the grizzly, the system feeds into a vibrating 3/16-inch screen which will drop out all the black sands.  We anticipate high volumes of black sands which will be recovered in the first beach-box style sluice.

          The remaining gravels will be trommeled and sluiced in two trommels, sized we think :) at 1/8 and ½ inch.   

          Jim says he’s ready to start fabricating trommels and sluice boxes for those interested. 

Send us an email at hillshistory1876@gmail.com if you’re looking to obtain a high-quality, locally fabricated system.    The systems can be electric or gas operated, depending on your needs.  He’ll help you to decide what system will work best for you and custom build to your needs.

          We’ve done a little “web shopping” to look at what’s out there in small-scale equipment.  We’re seeing a lot of stuff for the entry-level recreational prospector, and a lot of large-scale mining equipment.  There’s not much to offer for us more seriously minded prospectors… we’re thinking Jim might be able to fill that gap!

          Just a reminder… mechanized mining of any sort in South Dakota requires a state permit.

         

         

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…