It couldn’t have been a nicer week… Mother’s Day in the Black Hills followed by a week of June-like weather including some really great rain the latter part of the week!
It’s fun to be able to show exposed gravels and use it as an educational tool to portray how gravels are deposited through hundreds of years of erosion.
The modern-day prospector, we are finding out, is as varied as the geology of the Black Hills. The majority are there for two reasons… to enjoy the outdoors and hopefully find a little gold! To enjoy with friends, we have found, adds a rare social element of exchanging ideas and learning from each other.
So our widely diverse group consisted of a publisher, a laundry owner and her two adult sons, an equipment contractor, our trusty mechanic, a geologist, a couple of our more mature friends, two grandkids… all in all a nice representation of ages and trades!
Some feedback from our friend Pat:
“This past mother’s day was fun and different, no usual restaurant dinner with crowds of people packed in the restaurant foyer waiting for a table, kids crying and racing around bored with all the waiting… instead we were invited by our friends Bob & Teresa to share digging and sluicing at their Iron Creek claim with their family and other newbie prospectors like ourselves. We threw a few sandwiches and drinks in the cooler, gassed up the jeep and headed out for the fun. After greeting the others that were there ahead of us (we were late getting there due to the boys and I having a difference of opinion on which way to turn and back tracking a little), the boys met Teresa & Bob’s grandson and they went off exploring, looking at long dead deer bones and stuff like boys will do, while I visited with Teresa and others.
“Then it was time to get into the dirt, my youngest took over from me and said he wanted to dig, so he and my older son filled a few buckets wherever a good hole or hill was pointed out to them and I asked Teresa for a few lessons in how to set up the sluice and the correct way to pan. It’s s good thing she showed me how since I would not have known how to fill in by the head of the sluice to make it flow like it should, and I need to be more patient with my panning I learned. I can see I was rushing the process too much. Hands on learning is always better than going by the books or the internet! And so as far as ‘mothers days holidays’ go, it was definitely one of the most memorable ones! Thanks, Teresa & Bob for the invite and for sharing your digs and lessons! “
This weekend included locating a 20- and 40-acre claim west of Custer. One is purely recreational, the other with a permit in mind.
The upcoming week includes an on-site inspection at Friday Gulch with the hope that no scenic or unique characteristics surface! We always enjoy talking with state and federal representatives… and never fail to learn something!
We’ve also found some very interesting properties to further check out… might be able to add up to 100 acres of prime prospecting to our holdings!
Nice write-up about your gold prospecting! I have several friends on the Wyoming side of the Black Hills, perhaps I need to push them a bit more into prospecting!
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