Snowbird Journal--Jan 11, 2009--Desert Gold Diggers

Since I had so much fun panning for gold in the Black Hills and when we returned home to southern Indiana we decided to join the local prospecting club to see how they do it in the desert.

We were concerned about trespassing on Federal, State, Indian, or private land, but the local club has about 30 of their own claims.  Once a month they have a group dig and today was the day for this month.  Betsy and I crawled out of bed at 5:30 AM to get ready to meet the group at 8:00 AM about 40 miles southwest of Tucson.  The temperature was a crisp 27 degrees, but the full moon was spectacular.  The directions to the meeting place were spot on.  After a brief meeting and sign in we all loaded into our vehicles and headed to the claim.  I was the only dually in the group and the "road" was just barely wide enough to get those big fat fenders through the trees, bushes, and brush.  I remember thinking at one point, "just keep on truckin' cause you can't turn around, and you've only got about 15 vehicles behind you".  We arrived at the claim with both fenders attached,  and actually for the most part undamaged.  The Dig Director took all the novices under his guidance and we headed off to the wash to see if we could locate some gold.  After filling our buckets with soil and sand we headed back to the parking zone and ran the sand/soil through different size screens to eliminate the rocks and bigger pieces of debris.  In the desert where flowing water is scarce you can still wet pan, but you have to bring the water with you.  The actual panning is done in a large plastic tub that's filled with water.  Another method is called a recirculator and it is a system where water is recycled from a reservoir to the top of a chute where the sand/soil is placed.  The water washes the sand/soil over a section of carpet like material.  The theory being that the gold will be caught by the carpet material.  After all your sand/soil has been run through the recirculator you remove the carpet from the device and put all the sand and hopefully gold that it's collected in a gold pan.  Then you wet pan the collection sample and hopefully come up with some gold. The obvious advantage to the recirculator is that you can process a lot more material than just using the wet panning method.  One of the area's I investigated was the wash itself.  I found a backpack and a couple of shirts.  Apparently items left by the illegal aliens who used the area to sneak in.  I heard someone else say that he was also in the wash and found a spot where water and deposited about 20 backpacks.  Another new member from Wisconsin and I were talking and  decided that with the obvious illegal alien traffic in the area (about 25 miles from the border) we didn't feel real comfortable coming out here by ourselves.  We exchanged phone numbers and in the future we may try our luck again.  I'm sorry to tell you that no one found much gold. I had one pan that had a few itsy bitsy, tiny, specks.  Another man found a small flake, but that was about it.  This particular claim is not known as a producer, but the one just up the road is.  We'll go to that one next time.  Betsy isn't in to this digging in the desert deal, so she uses the time to sketch and paint.  I might add that she's getting rather good at her art work.   We enjoyed the experience and found that most of the club members were very willing to share their knowledge.  We'll do this again. 

Top Photo--Jamie "Just Call Me Coronado" Heading Out

Second Photo-- How many buckets/containers does it take to prospect?

Third Photo--Feeding the recirculator

Bottom Photo--Betsy sketching