Desert Gold Diggers

The outing for the month of June was to our newest claim in the Greaterville mining district, "Great Hope #4". We met at the usual parking area at the Gardner Canyon turn off and caravaned to the claim shortly after 7:00 a.m. This new claim butts up against Great Hope #1 on the east side.

We had another great turn out with 33 members and 2 guests in attendance. Almost everyone was using their drywashers but 3-4 members chose to break out their mini-sluices. Jerry Schultz ran his drywasher as a common dig and several members pitched in. They, like most everyone else, found mostly flour gold. However, Gil came up with at least a half dozen nice size pieces of gold with his drywasher while Kenny Deventhal decided to go down the road to Great Hope #1 and hit the gold laden feeder wash. Right away he had gold in his pan. So how much gold did you get Kenny?

The main wash on this claim has been known for a long time to contain good gold on bed rock. Unfortunately, the overburden is quite deep and it doesn't take much digging before one starts hitting water. Since this is a new claim, it might take awhile before we discover where the best hot spots are. Maybe it might be worth while to check out some of the feeder washers for the gold streaks.

Considering the time of year, it really didn't start getting hot until mid afternoon. There was a nice breeze blowing most of the morning to keep everyone comfortable. What a great day for an outing.

Pictures courtesy of Butch Phillips, description from the Gazette. Please let me know the names of those not given or if any names are wrong.

Prospecting can be a family operation.

Gil Mireles knows how to pan in comfort.

Kenny panning out his concentrates.

Digging his glory hole.

Bob Melzer getting ready to hunt the big ones.

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This page was last updated on 12 July 2005.