We’ve asked a few of our friends made through our website and blog to share their prospecting experiences… Joel sent this:
February 2, 2012 
DIGGING FOR GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS
for no other reason other than, we just like to….. 

I spent a few months in Colorado back in 1978 with a long-time friend, mostly rock climbing and trout fishing. It was the summer before my senior year in high school, Volkswagen Camper all the way! (No flowers)

We had a goal at one point of fishing a different trout stream everyday as we traveled throughout the state.  We failed on several occasions because we came to streams that were so good that we couldn’t leave… we caught a lot of trout and on many occasions were catching four species of trout within the same creek system.  

Then one day along a creek in Gilpin County. Colorado, I came upon an old timer running a sluice box. I knew what it was that I was lookin’at and what he was doing, but my knowledge of working placer ground ended right about there.  Trout fishing was gonna have to wait for a bit!

The next three days he taught us how to run a sluice, how and where to dig in the area, all the basics. I was fascinated by the process. 

The old timer was getting by, making his grocery and gas money selling one ounce jars of gold to tourists and anyone else curious enough to stop by wondering what he was up to.  I wanted to buy one of those jars so bad it was killing me, but if we could cobble together enough cash to fill the gas tank we were grateful. 

In fact we ran out of money along the way and found light construction work in Aspen a few weeks later, enough cash for the return trip home to Minnesota.  The old timer built us a wooden sluice box that we still have to this day, that was a long time ago. 

They say this is incurable. They are probably right, I never got over the feeling I experienced looking at the old timer’s gold and I did not forget the stories he told.  We didn’t actually recover that much gold, most of it probably went out the bottom of our sluice but that’s ok. 

The gold we did recover remains to this day in the same glass tube with a cork in it, I glance at it once in a while and think of the old guy and still thank him for helping us out.

Over the years I dabbled panning here and there, nothing very serious. Now it’s time to catch up a bit; which I have done in the Hills over the past few years. There’s success on some days and less on others, it’s all good.

My daughter Luella, aka Lala, or Lalabuggy now wears her Gold Nugget earrings quite often, a great reminder of one of our trips to the Hills this past summer.  We were fortunate to find two pieces of similarly sized and shaped gold to make a perfect pair!  We brought them to a jeweler and had posts soldered on.  This was last August when we camped out with tents in the Black Hills National Forest very near the location we were digging and finding gold. 

That dig site now lies adjacent to my first actual gold claim in the Black Hills!  We named this claim GALA GOLD, after Lala and Gabe, her older brother.  In addition to the GALA claim we now also own claims in the Northern Hills, named LALABUGGY and NUGGETCITY.  The detailed stories about how these claims were acquired would find us at the bottom of at least one bottle of wine or several beers, not enough time here today, subject for another blog…

 I pondered and dabbled with the idea of owning a mineral claim in the Hills for a few years, believing that eventually I would have a small dig to call home.  The learning process started out slowly. I read several books and talked to various people about the subject, those that would lend an ear and actually offer up an idea to help me along my way. I also spoke with several folks that were like asking a trout fisherman where you would go to catch 16” brook trout… these secrets are well kept.

I traveled through various websites and investigated several companies that offer these services and claims for sale. All proved in the end to not be worth dealing with for a myriad of reasons, some unscrupulous.  I kept asking questions and digging deeper and learning what I could, sponge-like with desire to learn how to “really accomplish” what I was after. 

I have some training with the US grid system for land surveying, plotting, description and map reading, so I considered attempting the process on my own.  However, there is far more to this process than knowing how to read a map, and recognizing a posted claim site that may or may not be valid.  Proper research through the local governments (county) and governing federal agencies (BLM) is required to gain full understanding of private property boundaries, existing valid claim sites, and other roadblocks such as monuments and areas not open to the staking of mineral claims, not to mention finding an area where there is gold to the extent that the ground is worth staking. 

In step Bob and Teresa Fox, the team who made my mineral claim ownership a reality.  I could not speak more highly of their knowledge of the interworkings of this entire process.  I learned volumes working with Bob and Teresa over the past several months, details that experience only can teach.  They guided me through the process and advised me along the way and tailored the claims to fit what I was looking for. More importantly they became great friends during the process.  If you are considering a mineral claim in the Black Hills, I would not look anywhere else.  The experience was a lot of fun and I enjoyed every minute of it along the way. 

I enjoy everything about searching for gold in the hills: the history, the hunt, the dig, the adventure, the geology, finding a flake or a nugget, and revisiting digs that may not have been worked in 130 years.  Then there’s also some fantastic trout fishing, hiking, camping, and a myriad of other things to do. 

In our diggings, we’re picking up where they left off… those old timers who searched for gold during the rush and during the years that followed.  What we wouldn’t give to talk to them now as I did with the old timer in Gilpin County.  What questions would you ask? “How ya doing?” or “Find any gold in this area?” Maybe you'd inquire, “Did you do well in your diggings up on that bench gravel?”  These old miners have all gone home, as they say, returned to the very ground they spent their lives working.  Like our ancestors past, we can’t ask them any more questions; we have to go learn it for ourselves, discover and have our own fun.

It’s our turn. Heck, I can’t wait for Spring! We’ll be out there digging and having fun and I hope you do too!  Maybe you’ll see us along the road with our old red Cherokee. If you do, stop by and say “Hello” or “Are you finding any gold?” or “Do you know where I can catch 16” Brook Trout?”  

I might tell you…good digging!  

Joel