Any rock hounds ?

[Trapper62]

Your comment makes me want to look even more as we have a seasonal creek that runs through ours and in one inside corner we found an are of jet black sand, its not very big but got my curiousity up to the point where I purchased a pan but never have used it.

Do you remember when someone blew a dam on Thompson Lake (I think that was the lake) and it almost flooded over Highway 5 east of town? That water all came through this seasonal creek and really opened it up, it is after this that we started finding very interesting stuff. A well driller that I talked with this summer said they fine lots of shells in certain areas.

 

[snow]

check the black sand with a magnet to see if its black iron,if it is good sign gold may be present.most of the 1800 gold mines in colorado have mounds of black iron tailings the old timer's disgarded,I would dig below these mounds ,load up 5 gal buckets with the tailings and pan thru em always finding color usually flower gold and some spec's of wire gold I used strong magnets to seperate the black iron from the gold we found.

Drilled many water wells in minn in my younger days,the term colder than a well digger's ass has meaning in minnesota,lot's of glacial drift,usually down to 20 to 40' in some area's,like you stated we also found petrified wood and also pockets of iron pyrite,my first time screening tailings one year had me thinking i'm rich on a sunny day,dang screen was full of bright yellow fools gold,old timer on my rig just laughed at this youngster,don't recall sea shells but the rotary would grind everything up,didn't spend much time on the cable tool rig except as a helper setting up dynamite charges to open up bed rock water vains open holes or setting pipe

 

[Frosty....]

Anyone have any ideas what this might be? Found in Southern Arizona.

 

[pointer]

Petrified dino turd just missing the corn

 

[Davey Crockett]

It sort of looks like petrified wood but hard to tell . I was hoping to find some pictures that I saw earlier that had petrified wood with fossils that resemble the one you posted but can't find it. That website even had some old ship wreck wood with sea shells and other fossils that had been attached to the wood or bored into it and it was all petrified/fossilized . Here is a start for your journey , Half the fun of finding a rock is figuring out what you have once you drag it home .

http://www.safossils.com/



Trapper , I remember the spring when Thompson lake let loose, We had 6'' of rain on a wet spring and it washed out the road just south of the lake and I spent part of a day rock hunting the washouts after they dried up. The black sand is what the old timers talked about but if you have a low area with steep banks where the water moved a lot of material look for sandbars that are well sorted and check out the upstream ends of them and under the bigger rocks. Funny how it works with erosion and materials sort themselves and take the work out of it. My dad was crossing the creek on horseback when he was a kid back in the 20s and dropped and lost his 22 and looked for it a few times I'm guessing in the 30s when it was dry but he thought it was lost forever. Then in the 80s late in the fall the creek was dry and I was exploring and right where the crossing is laid the old 22 right on top of the creek bed. It was way beyond repair but so far it's been my best find out at the creek. We most likely don't have enough gold in the hills to buy a steak dinner but its fun to get out and look for it you never know until you try.

 

[Allen]

We most likely don't have enough gold in the hills to buy a steak dinner but its fun to get out and look for it you never know until you try.

This may not quite be true, but if you go looking for riches up there you most certainly will be disappointed.

 

[snow]

Anyone have any ideas what this might be? Found in Southern Arizona.

kinda looks like molten rock,lava.... or the more I look at it petrified sea coral...

 

[Frosty....]

Thanks guys and I'll check out the link Davey.

Here is a chunk of petrified wood I found down here...wish I could get this piece home! It's at least 5 feet long and who knows how much is still buried.

 

[Trapper62]

So how strong of a magnet are you talking, a basic magnet or electromagnet run off of a battery (think I can still remember how to make that)? So what characteristic determines fools gold from real gold?

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Isn't that ship wood call toredo bored wood, you can find that in parts of ND as well. I was after all that water came through that we really started finding interesting "stuff". This area is a sharp bend that has quite a bit of sand/silt deposits in the inside corner, but a large portion of it is black sand. May be my spring project, instead of looking for morels (which I never find)!

 

[snow]

So how strong of a magnet are you talking, a basic magnet or electromagnet run off of a battery (think I can still remember how to make that)? So what characteristic determines fools gold from real gold?

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Isn't that ship wood call toredo bored wood, you can find that in parts of ND as well. I was after all that water came through that we really started finding interesting "stuff". This area is a sharp bend that has quite a bit of sand/silt deposits in the inside corner, but a large portion of it is black sand. May be my spring project, instead of looking for morels (which I never find)!

trapper any small pocket sized magnet works,old timers would tell me stories how they seperated gold from black iron with liquid mercury in the old days,these boyz never lived a long life tho... curious how they did it. coloring of iron pyrite once you see it isn't as yellow as gold,google for pics you'll see the difference.

Gotta find old elm tree stands for morels trapper,thats the sure thing but not sure if north dakota has elm tree's? here in minnesota we work the st croix river valley for our morels and a hefty supply of ticks in the process,I dried a bunch of morels out one year ground them up and spread the spores along my old creek bed,worked half assed the following year but it was a dry cold spring,still have a few pop up but not many.,one good run along the river netts a couple pounds that gets me thru the summer plus I hate ticks.

 

[Allen]

Fool's gold (iron pyrite) is every bit as shiny, but it has right angles in its crystal structure that are easily viewed with the naked eye on large pieces, and with a hand held magnifying glass on small pieces. Real gold won't have those right angles.

Pertified teredo bored wood is North Dakota's state fossil. North Dakota State Fossil: Teredo Petrified Wood (ereferencedesk.com)

Maybe the most boring state fossil in all the states that have a state fossil. Pretty common though.

 

[snow]

Fool's gold (iron pyrite) is every bit as shiny, but it has right angles in its crystal structure that are easily viewed with the naked eye on large pieces, and with a hand held magnifying glass on small pieces. Real gold won't have those right angles.

Pertified teredo bored wood is North Dakota's state fossil. North Dakota State Fossil: Teredo Petrified Wood (ereferencedesk.com)

Maybe the most boring state fossil in all the states that have a state fossil. Pretty common though.

can't say about right angles as the pyrite that spitted out from our rotary was ground down to a to pebbles in our check screen nice and yellow but not near as shinny as the real gold we found in the hills but the fools gold we drilled up was a one time deal in central minnesota never came across it since,sure got me goin tho.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Wife found a pretty cool rock last summer, I'll have to take a pic of it . We had happy hunting due to wet conditions and no spring planting.

 

[snow]

Frosty,your pic had me scratching my head,zoomed in on the center pic,take a look you can make out tiny clam shells,so most likely these things are coral,best guess I have

 

[Trapper62]

Took me long enough but here is a picture of the Garnets we have found in the Turtle Mtns. Had them checked and they are gem quality. Trying to find someone to cut them, wife wants to try and make a piece of jewelry out of the bigger ones. Pencil eraser for reference.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Those are awesome, I was thinking they would be red for some reason. I'm sure we have those over here or something that looks like that. It wouldn't hurt to call Ritter brothers from Williston to ask how much to cut and polish them. I got to know Tom Ritter quite well , He was in the oil business too and we drilled a few wells for him in the 70s and 80s so he hung around the rig and we had some interesting visits about diamonds and gems. He was a cutter back then but he is getting right up there in age but the business is still up and running so It wouldn't hurt to call and get a quote but I bet it will be spendy.

I see the saws and polishers have dropped way down in price. They were high dollar items back then but since there are making lower quality tools for hobbyist

It's been a good spring to get out and I have found a few interesting rocks but I can't get my phone to take pictures so will have wife to take some with her I pad.

 

[Trapper62]

They are a very dark red when you polish them. I have talked to a couple people in Bismarck that cut gems and they both told me that the saws used to cut harder gems get to hot to be used on garnet. There is a place out east that was recommended but I hate to ship them anywhere? I will get ahold of the place in Williston and visit with them, thanks!

Those are awesome, I was thinking they would be red for some reason. I'm sure we have those over here or something that looks like that. It wouldn't hurt to call Ritter brothers from Williston to ask how much to cut and polish them. I got to know Tom Ritter quite well , He was in the oil business too and we drilled a few wells for him in the 70s and 80s so he hung around the rig and we had some interesting visits about diamonds and gems. He was a cutter back then but he is getting right up there in age but the business is still up and running so It wouldn't hurt to call and get a quote but I bet it will be spendy.

I see the saws and polishers have dropped way down in price. They were high dollar items back then but since there are making lower quality tools for hobbyist

It's been a good spring to get out and I have found a few interesting rocks but I can't get my phone to take pictures so will have wife to take some with her I pad.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Rock carvers have been here since 10,000 BC.

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We are finding some old rocks.

 

[Trapper62]

Here are the pictures of the rock I found not to far from the Mooring Stone, definitely man made.
Side View
Top View
Bottom View

 

[Davey Crockett]

That's interesting Trapper, about how big is it ? My wife and I have been spending a lot of time out looking this spring and I have spent a lot of time online researching some of what we find. One is a good sized slab of petrified tree bark , Based on the curvature I'd guess the tree would have been close to 20 feet in diameter. Next time the boys are home I'll challenge them to measure it up and do the math.

Wife found a nice hammerstone a couple days ago, we have found a lot of effigies and sea fossils, Some of those effigies can play mind games with a person. And then we have several hundred pounds of that leverite that Allen was talking about.

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Of all the hours of looking we still haven't found an arrowhead on the farm.