Permitting changes....

Breaking news…

some major claim jumping going on; will fill you in as more details develop!

In the meantime, we’re looking at extending a service to research your claim and see if anyone is staking over the top of you! The first 10 claimholders to email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com will get a FREE TRIAL.  We'll look up your claim, tell you yes or no as to whether someone has filed a claim over yours.  If a "yes," we will give you more information for a small fee!  Send your name and claim name... we'll take it from there!  The claim must be registered with BLM.

Fox Claim Investigation is a real possibility for a much needed service!

Now back to our weekend activities!

We spent some time at our Iron Creek claim this weekend. Sunday was an interesting experience with a foggy day getting progressively denser as we left Spearfish.

There we happened upon some bicycle riders looking to catch a ride to Big Hill for a race. They clamored in Old Rusty with their bikes and hitched a ride, making the race just in time! That’s what multi-use is all about… be friends with fellow forest inhabitants!

Anyway, the fog actually made for good working conditions. It made me think of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but mostly the beautiful scenes not the scary ones!

We had quite an agenda to meet and got at least partly there… we have received notice from Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of revisions we need to make to our permit. Mostly it consists of more detail.

A very helpful Game, Fish and Parks employee also gave us a “heads up” that DENR is looking for use of waddle for erosion control. We’ve noticed this product being used on road construction and Bob said he had heard it referred to as sausage previously. It is a bound straw product that really does resemble a string of sausage! We thank him for that info and agree it looks like an excellent sediment barrier.

Another item needing more detail is historic mining acitivity in the proposed disturbance area. We’re very grateful it is only in the disturbance area; this claim was extensively mined with both placer and lode activity! This means possibly 2-3 pages of detail and photos, well worth the effort.

We started our first test pit and were pleased to encountered the expected 1-1/2 foot of top soil which we will need for reclamation, then broke into gravel bearing black sands. That is exactly as expected and confirms our estimates.

The fog deteriorated into drizzle and we made our way home… next item is to get down to the paperwork!

We have a new claim to investigate over the Fourth of July weekend. We’ll share that with you if the weather cooperates!

Survival!

         We are constantly planning our trips around weather, especially this spring, when saturated ground and a quick thunderstorm could leave us stranded in the forest.  We also don’t like to “rut up” forest roads… one of the reasons we keep seeing roads being closed to the public!

         But there are lessons to learn about survival in the forest, and I spend a little time with young people visiting our claims to inform them of the wonders of the forest and a few survival techniques if they are ever stranded.

         I truly believe Mother Nature has provided for everything, but it takes a knowledge of the land to make use of those resources.

         First a disclaimer!  I am not a professional and I do not recommend indiscriminately taking anyone’s advice without doing your own research and/or consulting a professional.  I learned much of this as a child, from parents who respected nature and its gifts.  I truly wish I had been able to get to know my grandmother, who died when I was 10 years old, because she served as the local midwife and country doctor to many in her days on the prairie.

         We had a nice day on Father’s Day with some friends and family gathering at our claim.  My grandchildren and a friend were having a good time “fishing” and building dams.  I took the opportunity to show them some “old man’s beard” or “tree moss” – edible and high in vitamin C.  It also has antibiotic qualities and can be used to dress a wound if other resources are not available.

Wikipedia states, “Native Americans employed it as a compress to severe battle wounds to prevent infection and gangrene, and it was also taken internally to fight infections.”  Amazing what you find if you’re looking!

         A commonly overlooked food source is dandelion greens.  Wikipedia declares,  “dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron and manganese,” then continues with medicinal uses: “Dandelion is used as folk remedies in North America, Mexico and China. Culturally, it was used to treat infections, bile and liver problems, as well as cancers, and as a diuretic.”  There’s an additional precaution here that reinforces my previous disclaimer – allergies exist to any plant, so it would only be logical to avoid any plant family you might have an allergic reaction toward!

         I have been known also, to chew up the seeds of a stinging nettle plant when overcome by a pollen allergy far from home.  Nettles are also good for arthritic joints, but they do sting!

         Several varieties of tubers exist in the Black Hills, which could make a nutritious soup in a pinch!  As kids on the prairie, we would dig up and eat what was commonly called “Indian turnip.”  It was fibrous and tough, but satisfied hunger, and what kid isn’t hungry all the time! 

         Several years ago I had an infection set into the optic nerve of one eye. Extensive testing resulted in a recommendation to take an aspirin a day to improve circulation! I jokingly asked the doctor if I could just chew on some willow bark each day… he asked for an explanation. I told him that willow bark is the natural “aspirin” of the plant world. He didn’t know that, but I bet he looked it up because he was very interested!

         We see the Sego lilly in bloom, which has a nut-sized bulb claimed to be sweet and nutritious!

         The morel mushroom season is over, but is another source of nutrition found in the Black Hills.

         A strong word of precaution to all – drinking stream water is never a good idea!  There is a lot of livestock grazing in the Black Hills, and a variety of natural minerals in each stream.  Bring plenty of water from a reliable water source.

         We also see (pointed out by a friend a week or so past) that poison ivy is already quite tall.  Most people wonder why I wear jeans year around… there’s one of several answers to that question!

         The wild iris, a beautifully delicate native of the Black Hills now in bloom, is considered poisonous.

         One last thought if you were forced to survive under extreme circumstances.  Small pieces from a pitch stump are a good fire source, whether for warmth or emergency signal.  Fires are not allowed in the national forest unless in an approved fire pit, so don’t “play with fire” unless it is an emergency!

         So the sun is shining… I think we’re off to the woods -- have a wonderful day!

Exploring....

 

        We tried a little different kind of exploration this past Monday. 

        The occasion was Alex’s birthday and we wanted to do something that all three grandkids would remember… a friend who is renovating buildings at a Black Hills cave invited us for a tour and we knew the kids would love it and adults enjoy the adventure.  We were accompanied by our daughter, Alex’s mom.

        Our first sight of the cave opening was overwhelmed by the spectacular view of the scenery in the gulch below.  Spring in the Black Hills could not have a better portrayal!

    

        We were informed that this public entrance to the cave is man-made, which explained why it resembled a drift more than a cave!  We were soon into the natural cave area and immediately struck by the magnificent beauty of dog-tooth spar, calcite and flow stone covering floor to ceiling!

        Man-made concrete steps and a cleared pathway made navigating the cave safe and user-friendly.  The former public areas were lit, but we broke out the flashlights when we ventured further.

        Bob thought it would be fun to take a UV lamp into the cave.

        Evidence of man was present in the grafitti scrawled in many places, and areas of defacement dating back at least to the Chicago World’s Fair, as explained by our host who said the cave owners of that time had shipped quantities to re-create the cave for the fair.

        Bob was excited to see a small stranded example of angular breccia encased in dog-tooth spar in the lower portions of the cave.  We also thought we saw some quartz crystals.

        He also spooted a conglomerate, something our host had questions about. 

        Some notable features of the cave included a bridal veil falls,    bear’s den and president’s room, among numerous other caverns.

        We cannot begin to expound on all the beauties of the tour that concluded at a small “lakes” area.

        We estimate we toured a fraction of the cave, probably about ¼ to ½ mile of the possibly 4 miles of caverns.  Time and waning energy turned us back toward the entrance.

        We stopped at the lodge for a quick tour and refreshments, then turned the kids loose on a 60-foot climbing wall.  Harnessed up, Robey (10) climbed half way to the top before loosing his footing.  Zia (8) could climb about 5 feet but had a little trouble finding footing after that.  Alex just swung on the line and was satisfied with that!

        The day was complete with dinner, cake and gifts.  Happy birthday Alex!

Shade tree prospecting

        Summer is here, with temps last weekend in the 80s and 90s.  That’s perfect weather for sluicing, but we wanted to do some sampling at our hard-rock mines and it worked well for that also.



Alex rides shotgun over Treasuure Coach.



        Saturday we visited three mines.  We’ll kindof take them one at a time. 

The first is a dry placer mine we’ve chanced (through Bob’s diligence) upon.  It could be either a placer or lode, having both properties, but we’ve staked it as a placer for a possible exploration permit in that context. Research shows this mine, adjacent to a privately owned lode, was prospected to have placer gravels: “free gold can be panned from the rock and dirt on this hill.”

        We used the research and Bob’s map to “get acquainted” with the property, familiarize ourselves with the private property boundaries, and do some testing.  These old mine sites are dangerous, so we cautiously explored the old workings and tried to pinpoint “this hill.” We collected two classified buckets of placer gravel to test at home, since no water was immediately available and we wanted a decent quantity for a test.  We stopped at a small pond of water en route to the next mine and were pleased to see some black sands in test pans.

        Our next stop was a lode claim located for a friend.  He was along and we grabbed several buckets of samples off a dump.  Extensive workings also exist on this claim, with an adit, several open cuts, and a huge glory hole.

        Our final stop was one of our claimed lodes, taking more extensive samples for what has been reported to be 1/3 ounce ore.  These three locations are all new to our friend and we had a lot of fun exploring and explaining!



crushed ore



        The dirty work is yet to come though.  Sunday morning we met up to crush the ore we had sampled.  First through the jaw crusher which takes it down to about 5/8 inch, then through the cone which reduced it further to approx. grain size.  We kept the ores segregated to test individually.

        We then headed home to do some “shade tree” prospecting under a huge oak tree in our yard! 

        I looked like a crusher hand by the time we classified all the crushed rock.  The oversize went back into the sample bags awaiting pulverization.

        By the way… we cannot get a true representation of ore unless we can find a pulverizer, stamp or roller mill.  Does anyone out there know of one available for sale or custom milling? 

        The approx. 50 lbs. of material from the first mine sluiced out some flour gold and a very small piece attached to quartz.  That certainly supports the reported 1/3 ounce per ton and we have unpulverized material still to be reduced!

        Next we sluiced out the placer gravels and found at least one small piece of gold there, with nice black sands.

        The final ore from the second mine has yet to be sluiced… another day, same shade tree!

        You all should be thinking about free-milling quartz lode claims…

        Wednesday we got out to placer mine in temps that hovered in the 50s, but we stayed warm shoveling and had a couple of new guests to help out!  The return was excellent and we had an opportunity to put our concentrates through a spiral pan to help eliminate black sands.  It certainly did the trick, taking our concentrates from 1/3 pan to 2 tablespoons of material and showing off the very nice gold we recovered!

         We like to ramble on... anything you want us to ramble about?  Drop us an email; especially if you have some resolution to our pulverizing problem!

       

Pan it out!

Happy birthday to me!

        Blogging this week isn’t coming easy… surprising to those of you who know either of us well.  Seems we always have some subject to expound…

        I’m going to talk a little about panning.  We’ve discussed before the different pans used and the merits/drawbacks of each.

        A weekend excursion included a test run of Jim’s mini-trommel.  It really ate up the gravel and by the time I arrived there was a 5-gallon bucket with about 3 inches of concentrates to be panned.

        First off I will re-state that I have small hands (which the majority of my life have occupied a keyboard).  Jim’s larger pan weighed too much with all those concentrates, so I fetched my smaller pan and split the concentrates into smaller amounts. 

        Next mission was to find a relatively quiet place in the creek with enough water to submerge a pan.  I had already soaked off most of the clayish material in the larger pan, so I was ready to pan.  The next obstacle presented was a large number of nodules which we decided to screen off with a classifier.  That made life so much easier!

        Some will ask why so much fuss just for panning?  I can pan down a test pan in a matter of minutes and tell you if there’s gold or indication of gold!  Concentrates, however, demand utmost attention because you are panning black sands almost as heavy as gold and the gold can creep out with every swirl.

        Then there’s clay.  Clay can rob your gold faster than anything.  If you do not completely break up clay particles you can easily pan out your gold with the clay.

        The nodules can be eliminated with patient panning, but the type of small, flat gold we were processing can ride right out of the pan under a shield of nodules.  It’s quicker and easier to screen them off, check for oversized gold and trim down your panning time.

        Concentrates are tricky to pan because they contain a concentrate of gold!  Caution from the start is necessary.  Don’t ever hand your concentrates to a rookie panner… you could lose a lot of gold!

        We also spent a little time this past week panning some of Felix’s gold from Alaska.  That is easier panning because there’s a relatively small amount of black sands and nodules.  Most of the material washes away with a minimum of effort, leaving you with a nice bit of gold to show for your effort!  I think I would recommend this for off-season practice if you have the money to spend.

        Our advise is:  practice, practice, practice! Oh, and use a catch pan… even accomplished panners can lose gold. 

And then it rained...

 (Steal a K.I.S.S., now featured on our website)

           The map shows our little corner of the world having received 4-7 inches of rain the past week, and it hasn’t let up this morning!

        Creeks are crowding their banks and sometimes overflowing.  We’re looking at another 1-4 inches in the next few days.

        Our moods are reflected by the weather and I apologize right up front, but it’s been a tough month losing both of Bob’s parents.

        The kids are all out of school and we look forward to the weather that should accompany summer vacation!  They all had a great time with my sister on Monday when we were blessed with a partially sunny day.

        The weekend was a bust as far as weather goes… but we did have a little excitement Sunday when another sister made the trip from Rapid City to her home with a “box of bees.”  Bob and I were there for the homecoming (Bob grew up in the bee business) and the little critters settled in without incident.  I’m sure they were busy bees yesterday when the sun came out!

        We did a drive-by at Boulder over the weekend.  The creek was going strong and we noticed the Black Hills Prospectors had an outing despite the rain. 

        A word of caution to those not so familiar with the Black Hills… these mountain streams can swell very quickly and we don’t want to see anyone get stranded!  Many a time we have been sluicing when a storm drives us out of the canyon and to higher ground with the potential threat of flooding!  I remember a couple of years back we pulled into the Camp Five area to take a look at the creek, only to watch a pickup stranded to the hood in water, then slowly be pulled downstream.  That was actually pretty lucky… the driver had time to escape!



Wallace Falls



        Robey, our oldest grandson, also had a lucky escape during post-flood season.  We now refer to a small pond on Boulder as "Wallace Falls" since the day we were sluicing downstream and Robey took a little hike through shin-high water up the creek around a curve.  Grandpa Bob has good instincts and went to check on him.  Robey was floundering in water over his head... grandpa hollered for him to grab on and he did, pulling himself up enough to be rescued.

          We later heard several stories (Robey is great with stories) about him seeing Nemo, a few yellow sharks and I'm sure a lobster or two...  someday we'll get a sign made to commemorate Wallace Falls.

        So we’ll get back to work this coming week; back to the sanity of gold fever!

        We will post some new photos on the website of the mini-trommel Jim is developing for sale… but give me a few days to wind down and get life back to a steady pace.

Boulder this weekend!

          Spring this year in the Black Hills has been a mixed blessing.  It’s been a wet one, which always makes us happy on behalf of the agriculture industry and recreational mining.  The higher Hills snowpack is melting and filling the creeks, topped off by almost daily rain.  We have a flood watch for later this week, 3-4 inches of rain in the forecast.

          The down side of this is very few days at claims unless we want to be hardcore… pretty difficult with a six-year-old in tow.  We’ve also had some personal complications with the death of Bob’s mom one month ago Monday and his dad in hospice.

          So Monday we had a sunny day with wind and that seems to be our best hope for the week!  Phone calls to family members occupied the majority of the day.  We’ll look forward to the weekend, which brings us back to a topic we’ve discussed before but never seem to be able to make progress…

          This weekend we will be at our Boulder Canyon claim (if I’ve promised you a panning lesson, now would be the time!) to keep a watchful eye for those who don’t seem to get the fact that a registered claim is off-limits to prospecting.  We try to post as much information as we can to help awareness.  It doesn’t seem to matter… I can’t even recall how many phone calls we’ve received reporting claimjunpers!  It seems interesting that our phone number can be found (it’s on every location certificate) to report to us, but those claimjunpers can’t find it to request permission!

          So we’re putting the word out to fellow claimholders, report claimjunpers!  We’re tired of our recreation being disrupted by trespass; we’re tired of our diggings being gutted; we’re tired of filling in someone else’s hole before we can start mining.  I, for one, would enjoy going to our claim and enjoying the outing, uninterrupted by worrying who is 4-wheeling to the upper regions of the claim and what kind of equipment is on the back of the 4-wheeler! 

Later today we might get a phone call J from the U.S. Forest about our Plan of Operations.  We’ll fill you in on that as it happens.  In the meantime, we are organizing safe mining with MSHA… a requirement for any surface mining.

NOTE:  The U.S. Forest Service is mapping disturbance area into their map of areas of interest, which will be smubmitted to the state historical society for evaluation.  Another 60-day process, but progress none the less!  A recent wildlife survey is thought to be acceptable for the Plan of Operations.

Too many questions...

　

Mother’s Day dawned bright and beautiful, and it didn’t surprise our children and grandchildren that “grandma” wanted to spend the day sluicing! Temps were in the 70s, the creek water was warm enough to pan a little and bench gravels dry enough to classify… who could ask for more!

We re-visit some points made during the several hour on-site Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) inspection. Discussion digressed to various topics as we walked the claim boundaries and pointed out historic mining activity and the resulting impact.

One discussion regarded a permit awarded to an individual who had secured permission from a placer claimholder only to be denied access by a lode claimholder -- whew!! We have emphasized this point several times… you cannot locate a placer claim over someone else’s lode claim, and vice versa. What we can see from our research (no names were mentioned) is that the placer claimholder gave permission when the lode claimholder was the first claim filed.

So if our research is accurate, the placer claim was invalid to start with!

The real issue was that blasting was part of the permit application, which infringes on the lode claimholder’s rights.  If you contemplate blasting, you're stepping across the line from placer to lode.

The final question in our minds would be, was lode proven? Our information was that the permit applicant had assayed the material to be removed (interest was in landscaping rock) and no minerals were found. Is this a valid lode claim to start with?

What a complicated mess! Too many questions; too few answers.

It was brought up again that persons are buying mining claims and trying to pursue real estate rights… a mining claim gives you rights only to the minerals, not the land! I guess I’ll just repeat this every time I blog…

Another issue discussed was mechanized mining without pursuit of the permit process. “Call us (DENR) and report it whenever you see illegal activity,” we were advised. Dredging was mentioned as evident on Iron/Deer Creek below our claim. There was also some discussion of grievances resulting from larger than usual disturbance and the resulting liability to the claimholder. We usually prefer the personal approach, as we do with claimjunpers… so we’ll have to think a little on that one.

That also brings us back to placer over lode claims… nobody that we can see has the right to placer mine on the claim adjacent to us. Do you recall a blog about the placer claimant re-locating over an existing lode claim? The lode claim doesn’t allow placer activity; the placer claim is invalid!

There’s plenty to think about here… let us know your thoughts!

Self-contained mining...

 

          We’ve mentioned several times the self-contained system being developed by our friend Jim, the fabricator. Jim has informally named it “KISS”, for obvious reasons that we won’t outline here!

          By the way, the sun is shining, temps are in the 50s and it’s gorgeous out there, but roads are muddy from recent snow/rain.  We’ll forego off-road trips today to preserve our forest. Protection of the forest is important to us, and that is why we promote Jim's system.

          Self-contained is our goal and there are multiple reasons to be self-contained.  Jim has followed through and has conscientiously designed a system that recirculates water hauled into the project.

          The first thing we wanted to avoid in permitting was taking water resources from the U.S. Forest.  A water right is necessary to use stream water.  This is not desirable, primarily because it is an intermittent stream that can dry up as early as June 15; there is no guarantee of an accessible source of water.  So our plan included the most sensible, at least to us, alternative of hauling water and avoiding application for a water right.

          The double edge of that environmental sword is discharge.  A discharge permit is also required for any water being discharged into a watershed, contaminating the site.  A self-contained system re-uses available water.  The only loss is to evaporation, thereby minimizing impact on the environment.  This was our plan even before we were informed of the Spearfish Creek watershed.

          How does the system keep water contained? 

          The first use of water is spray bars on the grizzly.  This water flows from the grizzly to the primary shaker screen which feeds into a large sluice, then into a contained tank.  This will be a continuous cycle of recirculation back to the grizzly.

          The second use of water is to the trommel screen(s) with variable sizes of screens available.  Those trommels feed sluices that release water into contained tanks and cycle back to the trommel.  Jim has designed a flexible system that can use one or two trommels, depending on customer demand. 

          All-in-all, we’ve tried to envision (and Jim has created!) the best-case scenario for efficient mining and minimal impact. 

          Jim is developing a line of self-contained individual trommels and sluice boxes to be used in high bank mining.  He will customize to your demand.  Contact Jim by email at our site:  hillshistory1876@gmail.com

         It all reflects our personal regard for the forest, a back-yard playground for us as children! 

         

Surprise!

　
Spring is here, according to Alex. He came running to tell us the yellow “mountain”lion flowers are blooming!

Need a little explanation? We live in the foothills of the Black Hills. A mountain lion has been tracked (collared) toward the back of our property, so we are always cautious! Easy enough to confuse, those dandelions…

Wednesday was the first on-site inspection of the claim we are in the process of permitting. This visit was to visually inspect the property for unique or exceptional characteristics that need to be avoided while mining.

We were pleasantly surprised to see less snow on Iron Creek than we expected.  That was offset by intermittent rain and snow throughout the several hours on-site.  Luckily the party was prepared for weather and we were able to walk to areas of interest.

Life is full of surprises, and not always pleasant! The surprise in store was being informed that our project is indeed in a special, exceptional, critical or unique area… the Spearfish Creek Watershed.

First we’ll discuss that history and how it came about. South Dakota D.E.N.R. (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) website provides the following information: The South Dakota legislature in 1995 passed a bill to “ban new surface mining permits on private land from rim to rim in Spearfish Canyon. Legislature also passed a resolution that encourages the USFS to designate Spearfish Canyon as a Scenic Byway, which would effectively ban surface mining on federal land within the Canyon.” We were aware of this rim-to-rim mining ban, but were several miles from the rim of the canyon.

That action was followed by… “In November 1996, Lawrence County voters narrowly passed an initiated zoning ordinance that would effectively ban surface mining on 48,000 acres in the Spearfish Canyon watershed.” That was followed by, “A federal judge struck down the Lawrence County zoning ordinance banning surface mining in Spearfish Canyon watershed that was narrowly passed as an initiated measure by Lawrence County voters in November 1996." We were also aware of this, having voted on that initiative and seen the subsequent action.

Here is what we were not aware of… “The Board of Minerals and Environment in 1990 adopts special, exceptional, critical or unique land rules after two public hearings. Several areas have since been added to the preliminary list of special and unique lands following public hearings including Spearfish Canyon Watershed, Craven Canyon in Fall River County, and Danby Park/Bugtown Gulch near Custer.”
How does this impact us? It’s hard to say at this point. Our plan as submitted to D.E.N.R. and the U.S. Forest Service already addresses any issues that might arise. We had avoided any disturbance of Iron Creek, in fact have created a 50-foot buffer zone surrounding the creek. We are transporting water to and from the site and using an entirely self-contained system that will not create discharge. Erosion control, in the case of natural events such as a heavy rain, are addressed.

We want to emphasize here how much we care about that entire area. Both of us spent much of our childhood in the Spearfish Canyon and Iron Creek Lake area. One of the things we’ve discussed through the years as claimholders was the unsightly remains of historic mining left on our claim. We have no obligation to reclaim previous mining, but will reclaim as much as possible to a more “natural” landscape. Our intention is to leave this site more scenic than we found it! It is also our practice to clean up garbage (the historic garbage dump, the site of a recent road accident, clay pigeon debris from a recent target practice someone carried out from the road) and address noxious weeds when found.

We continue our quest for a mining permit… sometimes you have to work a little harder for something you really want.  The decision will be in the hands of the D.E.N.R. Board of Minerals and Environment.
　
　
　

Claim it!

We want to discuss obtaining a claim… something that seems relatively simple if you know the process but is a lot more involved than you might think!

It seems a simple process to pick a creek, pan out some color and decide to stake a claim. It would be simple… if everyone else hadn’t had the same idea!

We started prospecting in the late 80’s… the price of gold was good and some of the previous generation of prospectors were letting loose of claims due to advancing age. They were still tough to find, but they did exist. To be honest, it was part luck, part diligence and mostly persistence that got us the claim we are now in the process of permitting.

That venture helped establish much of our prospecting procedure. Since then we’ve prospected probably 200+ claims with a few thin years when personal situations didn’t allow us out much. We’ve settled on five filed placer claims at least for the moment, and have another four we are seriously considering personally. We have also obtained about 10 filed claims for friends and family, another 20+ found but never staked. All of the claims, staked or not, have returned varying degrees of gold from “show” in the pan to some nice-sized nuggets.

How do we find these claims and why? First off, we love prospecting! Secondly, through the same luck, diligence and persistence with a good dose of experience, Bob can sit down with a map, a wealth of mining history, and LR2000 and find gaps between existing claims for us to prospect. He loves that almost as much as the actual prospecting, which is my favorite part of the experience. His expertise, backed by mining history, points us to the pay zone! So, depending on availability of water, we have found gold on about every claim we’ve ever prospected! It’s amazing what’s out there!

Now we’ll get back to finding claims for people. You can go on the internet and find them for sale or ask any prospector to help you find a claim. The internet claims are an interesting study in “what are you getting?” There seems to be a lot of photos of luscious creek terrain on reputable gold-bearing creeks. I’ll re-state what I commented back to one inquiry… Every part of a gold-bearing stream is not a gold producer and/or maybe it’s not accessible due to terrain, closed gates, blocked by private property… there’s a lot of inaccessible gold out there!

Asking any prospector to find a claim is comparable to asking anyone dressed as a cowboy to teach you to ride a horse! They may talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? Do they have a claim and have gone through the claim staking process? Can they tell you, other than generic prospecting procedure, where to look for and find gold? The first good indicator would be if, in any part of the Black Hills and its infinite variety of geology, they could point out the probable pay zone in an exposed cutbank and you could pan out at least some black sands!

The price of a claim advertised could very well be a reflection of its potential. Gold is hovering around $1500 an ounce. With a due amount of diligence (and you’re talking about two people in their 50s, one with a bad back), a pennyweight of gold can be recovered most days we get out. We’re looking at $60+ worth of gold each day. If they’re selling a claim for a couple hundred dollars you can bet it would take a lot more time than that, even at better than geriatric speed, to pay off your investment!


So a good investment is going to cost you a little more… but when you think about recovering the cost in as little as one or two weeks’ time, you’ve got a good claim!


Lode opportunities, we believe, have not been this good since the 1876 gold rush! We have acquired five lode claims, with a couple more we’re looking at this spring. There are some patented mines out there (off limits); there are a few companies that are blanketing sections at a time, but in general there are a lot of good lode opportunities just waiting to be claimed!

A final reminder, and we want to make this very clear. Owning a claim grants you mineral rights and protects you from mineral trespass, but you do not own the real estate! This is a common misconception, and even with our stressing this loud and clear, people find the concept hard to grasp. The same land can be leased by livestock owners, can host camping, 4-wheeler trails, snowmobiling and a variety of other multi-use activities. Your claim secures only the minerals!

Happy prospecting, stay off claimed and private property and if you want a claim, we’re here to help! Email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com for more info.

          Patience is the word this week as we await a phone call from the State to schedule an on-site inspection.  We’re also awaiting a letter from the U.S. Forest Service formally addressing areas of interest within our claim boundaries and proposed disturbance. 

          We’ve already “informally” addressed a culvert and drainage that we will avoid during mining.  Other areas of interest as informally identified are outside the boundaries of disturbance.

          Weather has been rainy, but that’s a far sight better than snow!  Rain helps to dissolve the winter’s accumulation of snow, allowing some good run-off into Black Hills creeks.

          We did enjoy a short road-trip to the Rochford area one sunny day last week.  It was a little chilly for any real prospecting, but snow cover is minimal in that specific area.  Likewise here in the foothills where last week's rain dissolves the remnants of snow.  A glance at the Northern Black Hills skyline tells us that Crow Peak still has plenty of snow, so we’ll probably try to make it up that way next week if no new snow is received.  The forecast is for a rainy week, which could really reduce the snow banks in the Tinton region.

          We spent the morning with Jim the fabricator, working out some final details of our trommel operation.  Jim thinks he’ll be more or less finished with final details by the end of the week.

          Last week we detailed the grizzly system, which will wash and separate out large rock.  I need to correct the size of segregation.  I stated it as ½-inch and Jim corrected that to 1-inch.

          From the grizzly, the system feeds into a vibrating 3/16-inch screen which will drop out all the black sands.  We anticipate high volumes of black sands which will be recovered in the first beach-box style sluice.

          The remaining gravels will be trommeled and sluiced in two trommels, sized we think :) at 1/8 and ½ inch.   

          Jim says he’s ready to start fabricating trommels and sluice boxes for those interested. 

Send us an email at hillshistory1876@gmail.com if you’re looking to obtain a high-quality, locally fabricated system.    The systems can be electric or gas operated, depending on your needs.  He’ll help you to decide what system will work best for you and custom build to your needs.

          We’ve done a little “web shopping” to look at what’s out there in small-scale equipment.  We’re seeing a lot of stuff for the entry-level recreational prospector, and a lot of large-scale mining equipment.  There’s not much to offer for us more seriously minded prospectors… we’re thinking Jim might be able to fill that gap!

          Just a reminder… mechanized mining of any sort in South Dakota requires a state permit.

         

         

Shake, shake, shake

Saturday officially opened the prospecting season for us… Alex said to be sure and say he was sitting on a rock, not in a snowdrift! We did a little sluicing on our lower elevation claim which had open water and some areas free of frost in the ground! It was 70 degrees Saturday, back to rain and possibility of snow on Sunday. Gotta love the Black Hills!

But we need to back up one day, because a drive-by this claim introduced us to some prospectors from Colorado uncertain of claim boundaries J and wandering up the gulch… Bob politely pointed them in the right direction but he was sympathetic of little running water for sluicing. Run-off is still minimal due to deep gulches not receiving any sunlight.

So the season begins… same places, new faces!

Guess the question, as always, is “did we get any gold?” The answer, as always, is “of course we did!” When you know where to dig…

We had promised a few weeks ago to talk to Jim, the fabricator, and get a little more info on the trommel he is developing. First of all, excuse me if this is occasionally stated as trammel – my fingers can’t seem to remember the “o”, some subconscious quirk in my brain!

Bob took some photos and this week we will feature the “grizzly” part of the operation. The grizzly features ½-inch spacing on a vibrating grizzly to free rock debris and is further enhanced by high pressure spray.  Jim has incorporated his own design to make this a highly efficient first phase of processing. Two vibrating systems, the subsequent on the trammel feed, will assure maximum recovery of black sands and reduce the load in our main sluices.  Jim plans to market this design… both on this scale and a smaller recreational scale. We’ll put you in touch with Jim if you’re interested!

Tying back to the claim jumpers already encountered… we are seriously considering an association for Black Hills claimholders geared to informing them of their rights as a claimholder and an information network that would allow us to look out for each other! We do take note of license plates when we encounter obvious claim jumpers, and would share that information one way or another to fellow claim holders… and you! It is fairly obvious that outside of the “tourists” we encounter, there are a number of local offenders that make their season migrating from one claim to the next.

I guess the gold is always brighter…

Have we got a plan!

          We awoke to snowfall, made a trip to Rapid City in fog and snow, returned to the Northern Hills to find the snow had abated only to have it start snowing big, fluffy flakes most of the afternoon.  The temps are moderate, however, hovering in the 30s.

          We were happy to receive feedback from our contact at the U.S. Forest Service today (Monday).

          Before I go into the feedback, let me state that Bob had a pretty good idea what not to try for in this mining permit process.  That left us with a pretty feasible plan and avoided all sorts of pitfalls in the permit process.  We’ve seen a few applications throughout the years, both large and small scale.  We knew that to try for a permit this year, we had to keep it simple.

Our feedback was stated as questions regarding “map showing areas of surface interests.”  Specifically, it addressed a buffer zone around the creek, ATPs (culverts), known plant occurrences, potential plant habitat and a known snail colony....

A lot of this Bob already knew and we had addressed in both the Notice of Intent to D.E.N.R. and Plan of Operation to the U.S. Forest Service.  We avoided trying to mine in the creek, chose an area with few trees and limited varieties of plan life… the snails were a surprise but their habitat was not within the proposed disturbance area, so did not change our plan.

So, other than a buffer zone around one culvert and its drainage, we’ve got a good Plan of Operation.  Next step is completion of an environmental analysis and hopefully, final submittal of the Plan of Operation.