Spring fever/gold fever

I’m having a difficult time distinguishing between spring fever and gold fever. I’m thinking gold fever is just the prospector’s version of spring fever, but then I remember that gold fever starts in about January! So maybe all the weather associated fevers can just be lumped into one for the prospector.

It’s still March at this writing, and we have already been out sluicing! That’s virtually unheard of here in the Black Hills. We often get nice enough weather to be out in the forest looking for new prospects, but rarely are we able to throw a sluice into an ice-free stream and tolerate March water temps. In fact, March water temps usually compute into below freezing, better known as ice!

So here I and Bob are, it’s 80 degrees at 5 p.m. when I get off work. We spend about 1/2 hour setting up, an hour digging and sluicing, then another ½ hour clean up and toting everything back to the truck. It is still warm, but there are clouds building and we are lucky enough to get out of the woods before a few sprinkles hit the ground. We didn’t pan down the concentrates until we got home and were pleasantly surprised with what we had produced.

It will be another one of those memorable prospecting events, March 28, 2015, the year we went sluicing in March!

Here’s hoping we do get more moisture though, whatever form it must take! The smaller creeks will not have water if we continue at this rate.

 

Just a note... spring is breaking and we know of a few placer and lode claims still available here in the Black Hills. Contact us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com if you are interested. Grab a claim now... while you still have the right to do so!