 |
| Abandoned cabin on private property. |
We’re contemplating a new (additional) permit project on recently acquired claims in what we can now disclose as the California and Friday Gulch area north of Hill City.
You might want to kick yourself a little… we offered claims in the area last winter! The story is classic, though.
Way back in 1992, Bob and a friend did a little prospecting on California and Friday Gulch. They found good gold, staked a claim and filed it, but subsequently the “friend” disappear and the claim was dropped.
Around 2004, Bob recommended the claim to another “friend.” He didn’t follow through and probably won’t because he now resides in Sioux Falls for the next 35 years J.
Late last fall we corralled the grandkids and got to California Gulch about dusk, couldn't do much that trip except see the potential and listen to kids complain! We located a claim for a group of friends on California Gulch. They followed through! We wanted to locate in Friday Gulch ourselves, but also offered opportunities to our followers. It was a chance in a lifetime, since no one but us had discovered that a 40-acre patented placer claim had been re-conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service.
April of 2011 rolls around and we prepared a new 60-acre location certificate for ourselves and a friend. In exchange for us doing all the research, he would pay to have the claim filed.
That didn’t happen.
We headed out for Friday Gulch on three occasions this spring/summer. The first time we tried the access Bob had originally used in 2004. It was round-about and we spent most of the time trying to figure out where we were, or weren’t as the story goes!
The second trip was on a hot day, Rusty overheated at least five times. We did get almost where we wanted to be but another overheat was just too much and we headed home.
Three’s a charm, so they say. A rainy day in the area got us to California Gulch to look over our friends’ claim and venture into Friday Gulch.
A mineral trespass sign informed us there was already a claim. This definitely dampened our spirits, literally and figuratively!
 |
| Pits and diggings cloaked in Aspen groves. |
Like good prospectors we came home, ran the area on LR2000 (again!), saw no active claims. We drove to Rapid City, pulled claims and found one claim filed in January 2011(therefore expired) and another July 2011. Luckily for us, that locator wasn’t aware of the re-conveyed placer claim.
We worked around his locations and dates, claiming an adjacent area and returning to post location certificates. We then received an angry phone call accusing us of claimjunping – par for the course!
Around came October, the previous locator didn’t follow through and file with BLM. We staked the remaining claims for friends. They then received angry phone calls, which of course trickled down to us! We ran everything on LR2000, made another trip to Rapid City and declared our friends’ claim valid.
Sorry to make a long story long, but we have now procured the area and will start pursuit of an exploration permit soon. An exploration permit differs from a small placer mining permit in several ways. The main reason we’re seeking an exploration permit would be that we don’t know that area as well as Iron Creek, where we have ten years of experience as recreational miners! Bob has sound theories, but we need exploration to give us definite direction.
Just a few teasers on what y’all missed out on and what we’ll be looking for…
 |
| There's still very little water... an isolated water hole. |
1902 -- “There are a number of people working in a small way working the placer in this vicinity (Hawk-Wright Friday Gulch) and quite a little gold dust is being recovered at the bank. Some of the men are compelled to haul their dirt quite a distance to water, but the clean-ups they make seems to justify them in doing so. Nothing very big is being made, but all who are at work are taking out good wages and doing better than thought they would working for somebody else. Friday Gulch, which has been worked for 25 years, continues to contribute not a little placer gold still.”
1903 – “From the Lucky Baldwin’s property which adjoins the Sunbeam in Friday Gulch some excellent ore is taken out and free gold specimens are numerously found. Many openings have been made on the ledge and in all of them ore containing values have been found. The deepest shaft is 65 feet, on which a day and night shift are employed.”
Just a note… here in the next few months we’ll fill you in on the Mystic area and what we’ve found there!
No comments:
Post a Comment