Every fall as a student, I was assigned an essay, “What I
learned on my summer vacation.”
Summer vacations for us consists of prospecting, often with
friends made through email and phone contacts. It’s always fun, entertaining
and educational!
Now you’d think after 20-odd years, there wouldn’t be much
new happening, right? Well that is a grossly misleading statement. We learn new
things about new areas, and oftentimes new things about the same area!
We teach and we learn. A couple of really pleasant surprises
were phone calls saying, “You’ve got to see this!” One of those meetings
produced a 3.8 gram nugget!
We had several guests on one of our easily accessible claims
and as we opened up some historic creek diggings we were pleased to reach
bedrock. Several subsequent adventures there opened up an old creek channel.
Every day that we can get there, we do some digging with great results!
Education is not always positive. We learned there are still a lot of claimjumpers with far fetched stories of why they are mineral trespassing. Really, guys, how many of you really had a uncle, or a grandpa, or a cousin that previously owned our claim and "left" it to you in their will?
We learned that the
government is working in mysterious ways… an environmental study ordered on our
permitted claim. No mechanized mining for us this season!
We’ve also had a friend shut down prospecting in California…
an executive order called a halt to that. Another acquaintance who’s more into
hunting and fishing advises us that he is feeling less and less welcome on
public lands.
Be aware of what is happening to public lands in your area! Check for public notices, public hearings. Your rights might be on the agenda!
