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!