Pan it out!

          The creeks are ice-rimmed, which makes me shiver just looking at them.  I’m not about to dip a toe, or a pan when frost-bite is the most likely result!

          So, if you’ve ever spent a winter in the Black Hills, you know there are always breaks in the weather and you might get a 70 degree day perfect for panning!  That doesn’t mean the creeks are … that’s why with each outing this time of year I try to bring home a few buckets of material and throw them in a tub with a lid. Winter arrives, we get a nice day and I’ve got material to pan.  It’s a bit like looking for discovery… you don’t know what’s there until you run a pan!

          Today is a nice November day.  I can’t get to the creek for various reasons, but I can take a break, run a pan and see what I see.  It’s a great reward when you can’t get out there, but need a break from tedious chores!

     The material I am panning is from layers near bedrock on a creek that floods in the spring, then quickly dries up. Amazingly, we do less prospecting there when the creek is running than later.  Flooding moves gold, but it also saturates everything.

          We usually do some “bedrocking” later in the season.  The same principals apply as those in working a gravel bench.  The top layers may have a little recent flood gold, but the deeper you go the more plentiful the gold. 

The best way to approach this is to start digging in the “gut” of the stream where the flow is strongest during flooding. Digging down isn’t much fun, but as you do you can expand the hole horizontally to make the process easier.  I recommend expanding across the stream.

          Sample as you go, looking for black sands or nodules. This will tell you which layers have gold. Bench gravel in the creek is the same as outside the creek. There can be layers of large rock (bigger flood years), layers of grey clay (decomposed rock or forest fire ash), layers of red (mineralized) rock… every stream differs.

          Generally you’ll need to get below large rock and encounter a hard-packed small sized gravel layer to find good gold.  This is the layer I would recommend hauling home for some off-season panning!

          Do you remember the movie made in South Dakota and Nebraska called “Twister”?  They chased tornado(s) and knew they were getting close by “we’ve got debris!”  That’s a good indicator in the creek also… rusted tacks and square-headed nails have been there a long time and are heavy enough to settle to the pay zone.

          When and if you’re lucky enough to reach bedrock, you’ll be able to see the “landscape” left by years of flooding.  Erosion will have loosened layers, eroded crevices and craters… I usually work this area with one of those automotive broom and dustpan sets… letting it dry first if necessary. Keep working back and forth across the streambed, getting an idea where the best gravel dropped out.

          Whatcha gotta love about this is… next spring it will flood and fill your diggings and you’ll be hard pressed to know where you started and Mother Nature left off!

          Congrats to Joel on his new placer claim and we hope Katie and John are enjoying the Black Hills experience... Happy digging!