Here is some pictures of my Good Friday......i went out to Nettleton on the Arkansas River....first time with the dredge on a river in Kansas.....spent about 6 hours out there and came away with about 50 colors..mostly specks and flour but there was some that could be classified as a fleck....NOT FLAKE...fleck is a bit bigger then a speck but not a flake lol....my grandparents showed up to watch me and take some pics...i'll post there pics once i get them...the sheriff showed up across the river and asked grandpa what i was doing and grandpa said he is looking for gold...he has found some out here (panning).....i guess the sheriff only looked at my operation for awhile and then said good luck and left.... . It was a fun day and i am figureing i sucked up about close to 2 yards of material.....this material was mostly sand and was really easy to suck up...hec there was times it sunk down fast and gave me expressions lol......this first pic is my camp

ME.....

After math....tailings....there was alot of river rock tailings...i was surprised

My hole........

bottom of hole.......this hole came up to my hips...had to change from hip waders to chest waders..

ive found fine gold in the Kansas river in outside of Wamego KS. with my grandchildren.

Scott, how in the heck did the sheriff even know you were there??????

very cool scott. i'm happy to see you be able to get out and play.

Thanks for the great pictures Scott!

You beat me starting your season. Hope you have a great year houndin rocks and gold.

faaus

Thanks all....Russ that's what happens when you live in such a small area....can't even take a pee without someone knowing about it.....as far as the sheriff knowing was probably cuz the people that live just off the highway down the road probably heard my motor and called it in........sometime i'll post a pic of the road going into the river witch makes this area easy acess .....yes the river goes right over the road and the road goes under the river.....no bridge..there use to be one there and some of the remains are still there and when panning right in the middle of the intersection you have to keep watch.....i would know this for a fact lol because people still cross the river and some get stuck right in the middle of the river when it's up...my friends got stuck and water came in the truck...but now it up and don't think no one has got stuck yet....there has been many people cross and i watched them just barely make it......good thing cuz i don't want to have to pull them out ......and all have stopped and asked me what i was doing and i told them...it shocked most people knowing that there is gold in Kansas......

P.S. there is signs down the road warning of high waters and usally the river has been dry there makeing it easy to cross but the river is up now

small towns! yep, i know what your talking about!

Grandparents got there pics of the outting.....here is two

The other pic

Scott, i like your placeing the engine in the tub! thatll keep it from sinking in the sand/mud while running.plus you never know if/when that itll leak some oill/gas out into the enviroment and cause polution.you ought to get the award for your civic enviromental awareness!:) but really it is a good idea!

Scott, great job getting out there. Your getting our left overs. Robin and I have been digging on our new claim with our highbanker and we did our first clean up of the cons and it looks pretty good. We do know about those micros, specks, flecks, flakes and thats what we are up to now. We aren't in the river though, we are up on bench gravels. So what we are losing you can get after our reported record runoffs this year (supposable 3x the normal), great snowpack this year as D & D will probably attest too. Good luck out there and may you fill the poke. Howard and Robin

Thanks guys......yuppers that tub helped...at first i didn't do that and the motor sank but the tub did the trick.....also the sluice sank alot and had to readjust alot....i'm going to do the same with the legs just add my clear tub to one side and the lid to the other......that should do the trick. That sand out there is like quick sand

I went out again Saturday the 19th and found about 70 more specks to add to the collection and i also found something interesting...it was like some kind of metal like copper chunk kinda rolled up but one side has a gold look on the edges and the back is mostly gold... if it is gold or something else....will have to bring it to the outting and have people tell me if they think it's gold or not..... This time i had a good sized group of about 7 of us... the wildlife and game guy came out and asked what i was doing and i told him, he said he never saw something like this operation or prospecting in general in this area..he said good luck and went across the river...a guy from work came out and did some panning and i think he found a few specks upriver. It was a fun day and dad dredge tended ........i will post pics once grandparents get the prints back. I also made the same hole bigger....i also got to a point where i hit a ledge of some kind...think it's asphalt...i sucked most of the surface and under it as far as the nozzle could go...i think it was part of the bridge at one time. I gave two creatures a water park ride down the suction hose .... a crawdad and a tadpole.... i don't think they survived but they could of made it maybe it just gave them a comma.....all in all it was a really fun day.

Scott the next time this fish and wildlife guy comes by offer him a drink and show him what your doing with a explaination of how itll help the stream/fish health. maybe explian to him how a dredge is the only enviromentaly safe way to remove any mercury and itll remove the lead bullits from the stream .make sure you have a clean and orderly camp. this will help all down the road.ands thanks for your report.

Ok pics time......grandparents got there prints back

Cleanup time

Panning time

Here is a link to the rest of the pics of the same outting

http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/i...st=0#entry14578

cool pics Scott keep up the good work

Yesturday i went back out to Nettleton like i have been doing atlest once a month now but this time was different....the boy scouts came out and i showed them how to pan...this first pic was me with the group of 6 kids that was out there


P.S. that is me in the chest waders in the middle

I took this pic looking down the road.....as you can see the river does go over the road and before i showed the kids how to pan someone went over the river and almost hit one of the kids and splashed most of the kids with a wave of water don't ask me why people think they have to cross.....i know i wouldn't even try...i would find another way.....DANG PEOPLE....sigh

Here is me showing the kids how to pan.....The first pan i panned into the tub but the water got too nasty so i took another pan and panned it into the creek and that's where the kids panned....i found out it was easyer to get a pan of material and pan right beside them so they could see how it's done while they are doing it.....it was a fun day and i think most of the kids learned something about panning....all of the kids did a good job...like i told them it takes alot of practice and it took me about 8 years to master it and i'm still learning.....

Today i panned the cons from yesturday..... did the pan look good but i decided that all the bigger stuff i got was probably Fairplay gold still stuck in the miners moss....i made a mistake i should of recleaned the mats when i got home because when i cleaned up in Colorado the mats were kinda cold and frozen even though i thought i cleaned them up really good at the dig .....sigh so what i may have to do is take out the bigger specks and put them into the Fairplay vial and keep all the lil specks and add them to the Kansas vial.....i didn't even think about recleaning the mats and i should of....so even the lil specks could still be Colorado gold but wait all of the Kansas gold i have found is probably Colorado gold anyways soooo.... ......oh well we will just have to see how many specks i can get out of it....i only worked on the dredge for like 4 hours so if i can get over 50 specks then i did ok. ........no gold in this pic is mostly all the lead i took out yesturday classified down and i take out about that much everytime i go out...mostly bee bee's

Good job Scott!!!

You make me proud to be a Kansan! :)

Friday night grandpa told me that i made the local paper.......i was surprised but i also didn't know that the scout leader's wife wrote in the local paper either......here is the clip of the article from the paper.

You did great Scott!
Thats something those kids are going to remember forever.

Went back out Saturday 19th.......this time it was just me and dad out enjoying the outdoors...haven't been able to clean the cons yet......my dredge hole is much bigger now and i got threw alot of material this time and only worked like 5 hours...running out of spots to keep dredgeing but there is only going to be like one maybe two more outtings.......i also uncovered a log that is so far about 15 feet long or longer...sometime i'm going to hook up a come-a-long or hook it up to my truck and drag it out of there .....what i'm wanting to do is cut it up and burn it with some metal sheeting under the fire pit and then pan the ashes....might be surprised how much gold is hideing in the grains and crevises of the wood ...here is a pic of what the area looks now...it has changed some....alot greener and this is about the way it looked last month

Cleaned up the cons yesturday and here is the take from last weekend....there is some chunkers in there

Way to go Scott.
Really nice to see ya workin with the kids and the locals.
Even gettin some color in yer pan.

Carry on

Hey Scott,

I'm proud of you Buddy! It was really great of you to work with the scouts!

Heavy Pans,
faaus

Welp i went out again yesturday.....this is a new spot farther downstream on private land...this spot was much nicer then the last and much cleaner water ....grandparents really enjoyed this spot more then Nettleton......i only used the highbanker this time and dug on the bank to the right and if you look hard enough you can see the handle of the shovel....i haven't cleaned the cons yet but i will post a pic.......as of right now i'm thinking this was my last Kansas Prospecting outting with the operation...i might go out and mess around panning but i'm going to take it easy...i probably shoveled about 50 buckets and made a nice sized hole in the bank and that wore me out and got a nice sunburn...there was cloud cover at times but that sun was hot down in that valley ...so i'm going to just take it easy and wait for the bigger stuff in AZ because this small stuff just isn't really worth the work anymore.

Kansas Gold Up-To-Date......now your probably wondering how many colors are in there......idk.....but if i had to guess.....around 500 or so and remember that this picture is zoomed in alittle..... lol

Nice!

And that's Kansas gold...right?

Yuppers most all of that is Kansas.......there might be a speck or too from Fairplay's May outting because i may of not got all the gold out of the miner's moss when i cleaned up at Fairplay....the mats were frozen at the time and may of not dropped all the gold......but i bet all this Kansas gold came from Colorado anyways.....lol......i figure glacial drift before the John Martin Reservoir Dam was built west of Lamar...that's my perdictions....or maybe that dutch oven treasure spilled into the river...that gold was from the CA Gold Rush....hec i'm not for sure....all i know is gold is gold....no matter where it comes from....

Hey ScottKS,

Can you tell me more about that "dutch oven"?

In 1851 a party of returning California gold miners and their families was attacked by Indians just across the Arkansas River from what later became Taylor Ranch two miles southwest of Offerle. $90,000 worth of gold dust was buried in a Dutch oven at the site, and the only survivor was a eight year old girl who was taken captive by the Indians. She survived to pass on the story to her descendants. In 1918 a woman who claimed to be related to a survivor of the massacre (none outside of the eight year old girl was known to exist) turned up in Kinsley with a map indicating that the treasure was hidden somewhere southwest of town, but she was unable to find it.


http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OZ-KansasTreasures7.html (Look under Offerle)

hi
Scott

Here is Nettleton as of last Saturday.....really sad....it has gone downhill alot....mostly because of beaver dams...sigh
Click to view attachment

Here is a better looking spot...this spot is just south of the little town of Garfield (down stream from Nettleton...hec the last outting i posted (Aug 24 2008, 02:10 PM) is down stream about a mile or two from here....lol).....just under the bridge....if you look hard enough you can find a floor sweeper..sigh people just don't respect our lands anymore...they think they are junk yards...sigh......well anyways..lol
Click to view attachment

In some of these pictures you can see where the beavers have dammed up the river.....that's why it's a smaller down to a stream right under the bridge.
Click to view attachment

Here is the spot i dug (right by the fallen branches in the river)....found a fleck....yes a fleck...bigger then a speck but smaller then a flake...In the first pan of 3...the last two was zip...lol.........if the weather looks good enough i might get a wild hair and take out the dredge this Saturday ....that will make it the first time this season...oh my oh my...hec might even go out the next weekend...better getter done before cold strikes .....hey Mike B. or any other peeps near by....let me know if you could make it over this weekend (If i even go out) or any other weekend....would like to see some other prospectors out with me if anyone can make it ......lol
Click to view attachment

See what a week can do ......lol...oh well i probably wasn't going to go out anyways ....here is the after math pics....and also a pic of the other side of the river at Nettleton...

Can see the sweeper better in this pic....it's now takeing a bath....lol he he he
Click to view attachment
Maybe that beaver dam gave way...maybe it was one farther upstream and made a chain reaction...i don't really know...lol
Click to view attachment
Nettleton west side
Click to view attachment

Made my river run today.....started at Nettleton followed the river road to Garfield bridge......did about 2 hours of gold panning and found two specks.......then went to the other side of Nettleton. Click on this link to see the rest of this trip......Geocaching.....

http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/i...amp;#entry18185

Click to view attachment

What is the bedrock out there?

It's really deep......50+ feet deep (i have been told anyways).....haven't found a place yet that it's exposed......lots of free flowing sand in the way....BUT....there's gold in it...only dig like two shovels in each spot to sample and find color......usally it's like a speck every 3 or so pans.....lol.......every lil bit counts

P.S. And with my combo it adds up much faster.....average around 100 specks in a 5 hour day

2010 Dreding Season has offically started

Last Saturday i took samples...once again my last post is still right....i found 3 specks in 6 pans

Before
Click to view attachment
Before
Click to view attachment

After Math: Today was Dredging (no pics with the dredge but i posted a video on facebook....idk if it will work from here or not)(I know it will work if i had everyone on here listed as friends on facebook) lol http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#...2098&ref=mf (Let me know if it works for ya!!!)

After
Click to view attachment
After
Click to view attachment

Looks like i must of moved alot of material...i made a sand gravel bar...lol....it's not that much wider but it's much deeper

It's been over a month since i have been out (with the dredge) but the river has been flooding...so i have been takeing samples in non flooded areas instead (flooded spot...pic below). P.S. this pic was taken last Saturday.
Click to view attachment

Here is the setup for today....beaver dam has a chunck gone...it made me have to rethink how to setup...will post the results when i go threw the cons. :)
Click to view attachment
Most everything (for the dredge itself...except the engine and gas) goes on that backpack frame and i had problems getting up with it on my back...so i'm going to have to try and build something...like something like them garden wagons with the big floatation wheels.

Wagon all loaded :)

Link to the store i got it from while i was in Longmont CO (Saturday)

http://www.lowes.com/pd_214397-52314-TC420...&Ntt=garden

Click to view attachment