Gold Prospecting~

[snow]

Anyone here give it a whirl? did my share in colorado and alaska over the years and now close to retiring was thinking it might be fun to try it in the dakota's,we always found gold in colorado just not alot of it,mostly flower and wire gold,alaska you busted your ass going thru material to find a bone here and there but we were'nt commercial miners.

Thinking the hills might yield some yellow $$.

 

[sweeney]

As kids we used to pan all over in the hills, probably in spots we shouldn't have some of the time. We would take fishing rods and gold pans and walk a bunch of the creeks usually once you caught a bunch trout out of a hole we would gold pan, tons of fools gold and every once in a while a few specs of the real stuff. We took the kids out the other summer and hiked some creeks and dug around and panned, didn't find much but fun, then we seen a mt. lion and the old lady decided we were done mining.

 

[Davy Crockett]

I tried a few times over the years in a dry creek bed on the farm and never found anything but I did a bunch of drilling in Custer SD one year and an old prospector came over and panned the top 20' of drill cuttings and found a couple small specks and a bunch of small ruby stones so I hauled a bunch of cuttings home and panned that fall and found a couple more slivers and a whole bunch of small ruby stones. Total value from all of it was probably 50 cents .



An old geologist in the oilfield claimed that the biggest ND gold nugget was found in a chicken gizzard over by Wolford ND. I found a related story from NDGS with turkeys. All I ever found in chicken gizzards was 22 brass . It would be a fun hobby if I ever found anything.
I can see some relaxing time spent metal detecting in my future , I haven't had a lot of time to get used to it yet but I ordered one and tried it out in the yard and within 1/2 hour I found a Canadian toonie and a few other coins within 50' from of my house.

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn6_h.htm

Another gold story.

http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/dakota-datebook?post=71107

 

[NDbowman]

I've heard the story about the largest nugget also, I heard it was by Denbigh though. I've also heard of a mine south of Towner that was called the penny mine because that was the value of the gold they'd get in a day of panning.

 

[riverview]

I googled ND gold mine claims that were filed and there wasn't many.

 

[Lapper]

I tried a few times over the years in a dry creek bed on the farm and never found anything but I did a bunch of drilling in Custer SD one year and an old prospector came over and panned the top 20' of drill cuttings and found a couple small specks and a bunch of small ruby stones so I hauled a bunch of cuttings home and panned that fall and found a couple more slivers and a whole bunch of small ruby stones. Total value from all of it was probably 50 cents .



An old geologist in the oilfield claimed that the biggest ND gold nugget was found in a chicken gizzard over by Wolford ND. I found a related story from NDGS with turkeys. All I ever found in chicken gizzards was 22 brass . It would be a fun hobby if I ever found anything.
I can see some relaxing time spent metal detecting in my future , I haven't had a lot of time to get used to it yet but I ordered one and tried it out in the yard and within 1/2 hour I found a Canadian toonie and a few other coins within 50' from of my house.

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn6_h.htm

Another gold story.

http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/dakota-datebook?post=71107

j

the ruby stones are garnets. The streams in the hills are lousy with them. A friend used to get buckets of dirt from a mine around hill city and then pan it at home. He found a fair amount of gold flecks although not enough to cover expenses. He had fun with it though.

 

[snow]

Interesting,guess just a few us rock hounds here,agates and arrow heads is another fun past time.