While down in the Rogue River, at ENNIS RIFFLE this last Sunday (09/13), a couple of us MEGs with a Mineral Exploration Machine had our first encounter with a couple Sheriff/BLM? Deputies with an apparent intent to get us to admit we were committing a crime of “dredging” in the wild and scenic “corridor”.

We informed them we were not dredging and in fact it was them committing a crime by interfering with our mineral exploration work. When asked to show their authority and jurisdiction expressed in the Grant (a copy of which we carry and handed them), neither produced any. It took a bit of educating them to the fact they were mischaracterizing our work tools and what we were in fact doing was what is authorized under the Grant of 1866. Hal, after repeated attempts of one of the Deputies to get us to admit to his assertions of dredging, told the deputy if his report or any subsequent citation issued were to indicate any different then what we explained to them we were actually doing (asserting our Rights under the Grant to the locatable minerals) would be a fraud.

We went back to work and they left. A “Victory” for us in standing up for our Rights and Entitlements??? We’ll see.

1866 Grant of Locatable Minerals to all citizens of the United States, and those who have declared their intention to become citizens. See www.GrantedRight.com the Law page.

Oh, by the way, we got our first real sizable piece of gold; 7/16 long by 16teenth through…and a few smaller pieces as well.

MEG…Hal’s defacto publicist

i loved this post! keeping your wits and story straight is very important! thankyou for this post! most people would be toooo nervious to get it right and tuck tail and run!SALUTE to your response!

This picture shows the gold Hal and I discovered this last September working about a 12 hour time period in Ennis Riffle and an hour or so in Galice area…just above Rocky Riffle Barr I believe its called…in a bouldering looking outcrop of bedrock. All this was found out of six or so test holes in knee to chest deep water. The top left on the picture was found in the Galice area (just above Rocky Riffle Barr?) in about an hour in two of the hundreds, if not thousands of bedrock cracks running through the river in these areas. (The crack was about 6" wide at the top tapering down to just a crack at a depth of about a foot and was worked about four to six feet in length…it continued out into deeper and swifter water.)

A friend of ours spent 4 or so hours with a friend of his working the Ennis Riffle area with us just a few feet away had their own discovery that certainly put a smile on all our faces.

The gold at the bottom left is piled up a bit, so I'm not sure it is seen for the amount that is actually there. Sorry I don't remember a total weight of all, but it is under an ounce...6 or 7 something comes to mind. The total work hours was spead over a couple of weeks or so...a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there, three or four hours on a week end, and then an hour or so on our last working (Galice)...in all total about fourteen hours.

Click to view attachment

MEG...Hal's defacto publicist

P.S. Does it not make one wonder why BLM is telling people this area is “removed” from “mineral entry”???