Permitting changes....

Breaking news…

some major claim jumping going on; will fill you in as more details develop!

In the meantime, we’re looking at extending a service to research your claim and see if anyone is staking over the top of you! The first 10 claimholders to email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com will get a FREE TRIAL.  We'll look up your claim, tell you yes or no as to whether someone has filed a claim over yours.  If a "yes," we will give you more information for a small fee!  Send your name and claim name... we'll take it from there!  The claim must be registered with BLM.

Fox Claim Investigation is a real possibility for a much needed service!

Now back to our weekend activities!

We spent some time at our Iron Creek claim this weekend. Sunday was an interesting experience with a foggy day getting progressively denser as we left Spearfish.

There we happened upon some bicycle riders looking to catch a ride to Big Hill for a race. They clamored in Old Rusty with their bikes and hitched a ride, making the race just in time! That’s what multi-use is all about… be friends with fellow forest inhabitants!

Anyway, the fog actually made for good working conditions. It made me think of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but mostly the beautiful scenes not the scary ones!

We had quite an agenda to meet and got at least partly there… we have received notice from Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of revisions we need to make to our permit. Mostly it consists of more detail.

A very helpful Game, Fish and Parks employee also gave us a “heads up” that DENR is looking for use of waddle for erosion control. We’ve noticed this product being used on road construction and Bob said he had heard it referred to as sausage previously. It is a bound straw product that really does resemble a string of sausage! We thank him for that info and agree it looks like an excellent sediment barrier.

Another item needing more detail is historic mining acitivity in the proposed disturbance area. We’re very grateful it is only in the disturbance area; this claim was extensively mined with both placer and lode activity! This means possibly 2-3 pages of detail and photos, well worth the effort.

We started our first test pit and were pleased to encountered the expected 1-1/2 foot of top soil which we will need for reclamation, then broke into gravel bearing black sands. That is exactly as expected and confirms our estimates.

The fog deteriorated into drizzle and we made our way home… next item is to get down to the paperwork!

We have a new claim to investigate over the Fourth of July weekend. We’ll share that with you if the weather cooperates!

Survival!

         We are constantly planning our trips around weather, especially this spring, when saturated ground and a quick thunderstorm could leave us stranded in the forest.  We also don’t like to “rut up” forest roads… one of the reasons we keep seeing roads being closed to the public!

         But there are lessons to learn about survival in the forest, and I spend a little time with young people visiting our claims to inform them of the wonders of the forest and a few survival techniques if they are ever stranded.

         I truly believe Mother Nature has provided for everything, but it takes a knowledge of the land to make use of those resources.

         First a disclaimer!  I am not a professional and I do not recommend indiscriminately taking anyone’s advice without doing your own research and/or consulting a professional.  I learned much of this as a child, from parents who respected nature and its gifts.  I truly wish I had been able to get to know my grandmother, who died when I was 10 years old, because she served as the local midwife and country doctor to many in her days on the prairie.

         We had a nice day on Father’s Day with some friends and family gathering at our claim.  My grandchildren and a friend were having a good time “fishing” and building dams.  I took the opportunity to show them some “old man’s beard” or “tree moss” – edible and high in vitamin C.  It also has antibiotic qualities and can be used to dress a wound if other resources are not available.

Wikipedia states, “Native Americans employed it as a compress to severe battle wounds to prevent infection and gangrene, and it was also taken internally to fight infections.”  Amazing what you find if you’re looking!

         A commonly overlooked food source is dandelion greens.  Wikipedia declares,  “dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron and manganese,” then continues with medicinal uses: “Dandelion is used as folk remedies in North America, Mexico and China. Culturally, it was used to treat infections, bile and liver problems, as well as cancers, and as a diuretic.”  There’s an additional precaution here that reinforces my previous disclaimer – allergies exist to any plant, so it would only be logical to avoid any plant family you might have an allergic reaction toward!

         I have been known also, to chew up the seeds of a stinging nettle plant when overcome by a pollen allergy far from home.  Nettles are also good for arthritic joints, but they do sting!

         Several varieties of tubers exist in the Black Hills, which could make a nutritious soup in a pinch!  As kids on the prairie, we would dig up and eat what was commonly called “Indian turnip.”  It was fibrous and tough, but satisfied hunger, and what kid isn’t hungry all the time! 

         Several years ago I had an infection set into the optic nerve of one eye. Extensive testing resulted in a recommendation to take an aspirin a day to improve circulation! I jokingly asked the doctor if I could just chew on some willow bark each day… he asked for an explanation. I told him that willow bark is the natural “aspirin” of the plant world. He didn’t know that, but I bet he looked it up because he was very interested!

         We see the Sego lilly in bloom, which has a nut-sized bulb claimed to be sweet and nutritious!

         The morel mushroom season is over, but is another source of nutrition found in the Black Hills.

         A strong word of precaution to all – drinking stream water is never a good idea!  There is a lot of livestock grazing in the Black Hills, and a variety of natural minerals in each stream.  Bring plenty of water from a reliable water source.

         We also see (pointed out by a friend a week or so past) that poison ivy is already quite tall.  Most people wonder why I wear jeans year around… there’s one of several answers to that question!

         The wild iris, a beautifully delicate native of the Black Hills now in bloom, is considered poisonous.

         One last thought if you were forced to survive under extreme circumstances.  Small pieces from a pitch stump are a good fire source, whether for warmth or emergency signal.  Fires are not allowed in the national forest unless in an approved fire pit, so don’t “play with fire” unless it is an emergency!

         So the sun is shining… I think we’re off to the woods -- have a wonderful day!

Exploring....

 

        We tried a little different kind of exploration this past Monday. 

        The occasion was Alex’s birthday and we wanted to do something that all three grandkids would remember… a friend who is renovating buildings at a Black Hills cave invited us for a tour and we knew the kids would love it and adults enjoy the adventure.  We were accompanied by our daughter, Alex’s mom.

        Our first sight of the cave opening was overwhelmed by the spectacular view of the scenery in the gulch below.  Spring in the Black Hills could not have a better portrayal!

    

        We were informed that this public entrance to the cave is man-made, which explained why it resembled a drift more than a cave!  We were soon into the natural cave area and immediately struck by the magnificent beauty of dog-tooth spar, calcite and flow stone covering floor to ceiling!

        Man-made concrete steps and a cleared pathway made navigating the cave safe and user-friendly.  The former public areas were lit, but we broke out the flashlights when we ventured further.

        Bob thought it would be fun to take a UV lamp into the cave.

        Evidence of man was present in the grafitti scrawled in many places, and areas of defacement dating back at least to the Chicago World’s Fair, as explained by our host who said the cave owners of that time had shipped quantities to re-create the cave for the fair.

        Bob was excited to see a small stranded example of angular breccia encased in dog-tooth spar in the lower portions of the cave.  We also thought we saw some quartz crystals.

        He also spooted a conglomerate, something our host had questions about. 

        Some notable features of the cave included a bridal veil falls,    bear’s den and president’s room, among numerous other caverns.

        We cannot begin to expound on all the beauties of the tour that concluded at a small “lakes” area.

        We estimate we toured a fraction of the cave, probably about ¼ to ½ mile of the possibly 4 miles of caverns.  Time and waning energy turned us back toward the entrance.

        We stopped at the lodge for a quick tour and refreshments, then turned the kids loose on a 60-foot climbing wall.  Harnessed up, Robey (10) climbed half way to the top before loosing his footing.  Zia (8) could climb about 5 feet but had a little trouble finding footing after that.  Alex just swung on the line and was satisfied with that!

        The day was complete with dinner, cake and gifts.  Happy birthday Alex!

Shade tree prospecting

        Summer is here, with temps last weekend in the 80s and 90s.  That’s perfect weather for sluicing, but we wanted to do some sampling at our hard-rock mines and it worked well for that also.



Alex rides shotgun over Treasuure Coach.



        Saturday we visited three mines.  We’ll kindof take them one at a time. 

The first is a dry placer mine we’ve chanced (through Bob’s diligence) upon.  It could be either a placer or lode, having both properties, but we’ve staked it as a placer for a possible exploration permit in that context. Research shows this mine, adjacent to a privately owned lode, was prospected to have placer gravels: “free gold can be panned from the rock and dirt on this hill.”

        We used the research and Bob’s map to “get acquainted” with the property, familiarize ourselves with the private property boundaries, and do some testing.  These old mine sites are dangerous, so we cautiously explored the old workings and tried to pinpoint “this hill.” We collected two classified buckets of placer gravel to test at home, since no water was immediately available and we wanted a decent quantity for a test.  We stopped at a small pond of water en route to the next mine and were pleased to see some black sands in test pans.

        Our next stop was a lode claim located for a friend.  He was along and we grabbed several buckets of samples off a dump.  Extensive workings also exist on this claim, with an adit, several open cuts, and a huge glory hole.

        Our final stop was one of our claimed lodes, taking more extensive samples for what has been reported to be 1/3 ounce ore.  These three locations are all new to our friend and we had a lot of fun exploring and explaining!



crushed ore



        The dirty work is yet to come though.  Sunday morning we met up to crush the ore we had sampled.  First through the jaw crusher which takes it down to about 5/8 inch, then through the cone which reduced it further to approx. grain size.  We kept the ores segregated to test individually.

        We then headed home to do some “shade tree” prospecting under a huge oak tree in our yard! 

        I looked like a crusher hand by the time we classified all the crushed rock.  The oversize went back into the sample bags awaiting pulverization.

        By the way… we cannot get a true representation of ore unless we can find a pulverizer, stamp or roller mill.  Does anyone out there know of one available for sale or custom milling? 

        The approx. 50 lbs. of material from the first mine sluiced out some flour gold and a very small piece attached to quartz.  That certainly supports the reported 1/3 ounce per ton and we have unpulverized material still to be reduced!

        Next we sluiced out the placer gravels and found at least one small piece of gold there, with nice black sands.

        The final ore from the second mine has yet to be sluiced… another day, same shade tree!

        You all should be thinking about free-milling quartz lode claims…

        Wednesday we got out to placer mine in temps that hovered in the 50s, but we stayed warm shoveling and had a couple of new guests to help out!  The return was excellent and we had an opportunity to put our concentrates through a spiral pan to help eliminate black sands.  It certainly did the trick, taking our concentrates from 1/3 pan to 2 tablespoons of material and showing off the very nice gold we recovered!

         We like to ramble on... anything you want us to ramble about?  Drop us an email; especially if you have some resolution to our pulverizing problem!

       

Pan it out!

Happy birthday to me!

        Blogging this week isn’t coming easy… surprising to those of you who know either of us well.  Seems we always have some subject to expound…

        I’m going to talk a little about panning.  We’ve discussed before the different pans used and the merits/drawbacks of each.

        A weekend excursion included a test run of Jim’s mini-trommel.  It really ate up the gravel and by the time I arrived there was a 5-gallon bucket with about 3 inches of concentrates to be panned.

        First off I will re-state that I have small hands (which the majority of my life have occupied a keyboard).  Jim’s larger pan weighed too much with all those concentrates, so I fetched my smaller pan and split the concentrates into smaller amounts. 

        Next mission was to find a relatively quiet place in the creek with enough water to submerge a pan.  I had already soaked off most of the clayish material in the larger pan, so I was ready to pan.  The next obstacle presented was a large number of nodules which we decided to screen off with a classifier.  That made life so much easier!

        Some will ask why so much fuss just for panning?  I can pan down a test pan in a matter of minutes and tell you if there’s gold or indication of gold!  Concentrates, however, demand utmost attention because you are panning black sands almost as heavy as gold and the gold can creep out with every swirl.

        Then there’s clay.  Clay can rob your gold faster than anything.  If you do not completely break up clay particles you can easily pan out your gold with the clay.

        The nodules can be eliminated with patient panning, but the type of small, flat gold we were processing can ride right out of the pan under a shield of nodules.  It’s quicker and easier to screen them off, check for oversized gold and trim down your panning time.

        Concentrates are tricky to pan because they contain a concentrate of gold!  Caution from the start is necessary.  Don’t ever hand your concentrates to a rookie panner… you could lose a lot of gold!

        We also spent a little time this past week panning some of Felix’s gold from Alaska.  That is easier panning because there’s a relatively small amount of black sands and nodules.  Most of the material washes away with a minimum of effort, leaving you with a nice bit of gold to show for your effort!  I think I would recommend this for off-season practice if you have the money to spend.

        Our advise is:  practice, practice, practice! Oh, and use a catch pan… even accomplished panners can lose gold.