Hi everyone another new guy here. I have been lurking the forums for a while now and signed up a couple weeks ago, although not as a paid member yet as work has been slow up here lately.

I am in Grand Lake, same neck of the woods as Swizz and GB. I have had crystal fever for about 5 years now and have done pretty well. Just this spring went out gold prospecting (for real) for the first time, as in i finally had some tools and knowledge. Now I have 2 sicknesses....
I know that my county isnt the best for gold, but i have found some decent colors up here anyway. I am used to driving at least 2 hours too get pretty much anywhere from here, prospecting not excluded. I have visited Clear Creek a couple times now and not done too bad for only running about 6-8 buckets. I had a question about prospecting there after reading your posts here. Are you not allowed to pan/sluice below tunnel 1 at all? I can't seem to find a clear answer on that.

Anyway I was planning on headed out this weekend and my partner has to work, so i wouldn't mind meeting up with some company. I was thinking of going for gold one day and maybe topaz the other.

Lastly I want to thank you for a great forum with tons of info. I will try to post some pics soon to make you all drool, do any of you remember the big plate at the front door of the 2006 Denver show??

Good prospecting to you all and hope to see some of you out in the field. Swizz if you guys want company anytime let me know my buddy and I are young and can work the heck out of a #2.

Mike

Welcome marntson.
I'd be happy to get out and dig with ya but I've got the opposite problem regarding work.... too much!
Coincidentally, my current project is a log home in Grand Lake (Columbine Lake area). Unfortunately, I'm pretty swamped until the snow sticks.
If I get one more day of prospecting in before winter I'll be really happy but I don't think I can swing it. GB has the lapidary bug and has lost interest in Gold (he should change his screen name to Cab Barnstormer ) but I'm all about the bling.
Regarding the areas you've already prospected.... make sure you're not claim-jumping. Go to the BLM site and find the Geo Communicator map. There are some claims in our area (both Lode and Placer)... just don't want you to get in any trouble.
Glad you found CP!

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the Colorado Prospector website! We are glad you've been enjoying browsing around the site, we all look forward to your future participation.

Swizz and GB are much closer than we are for getting out this weekend. Hopefully you can get together though and find some good stuff. Swizz will have to call in sick.

Too funny Swizz.......Cab Barnstormer Heck we just incorperated the gold into the lapidary with inlays.....it's a good mix too! Then ya' gotta get gold and or silver to set the finished pieces into as well. It's never ending.

Mike, I do not remember the plate at the 06 Denver show. What was it? And was it yours? Crystal fever is darn hard to shake as well. We know that one by experience too.

On Clear creek, like Swizz pointed out, careful on locations because of all the private (patented) claims which are mostly in Clear creek county. Downstream from there in Jefferson county is open space though where you can pan or sluice except for the private (location) claim just above tunnel 3 begining at Elk creek heading upstream. It's well marked.
Below tunnel 1 would be close or on the county and town property boundries in there somewhere. Not sure of where but again....if it's on Jefferson county open space, you should be okay.
Stop in at the county office for specifics like maps with those boundries and or questions too. They are usually more than happy to answer them.

Careful with that geocom mapping guys.....I just happened to have checked some land the other day on there, and again, found it to be rather inaccurate with the claims placement on the maps. That could cause problems later on for sure if you are using that information as "complete or accurate" in your research. Always cross check your findings with other sources.

Good luck out there this weekend, hope ya'll find a huge un'!!
CP

Another good one is the road right of ways. If you stay within the right of way, you generally have no trouble. I never have, anyways. The right of way depends on the entity (county/state/federal road dept or DOT). Within city/town limits, it all depends on the land-use/property laws.

Typically in Colorado real estate ownership continues UNDER the water to the end point of the boundary. So if the property boundary ends in, let's say, the middle of the Colorado River (I'm thinking of a property I nearly bought decades ago), it's ok for folks to canoe and raft there, but as soon as they set foot on the gravel underneath, they are trespassing. Me, personally, I don't have a problem with that law, but then it's a matter of improper use. I figure it doesn't matter if they are trespassing or not, who cares? They ain't setting up camp right there. So long as they are doing no damage or intruding on your life or property, who cares? Let them fish or swim. Just so long as they don't mess with my sluice box.....

But you will find that in some areas, Grand Junction, Colorado Springs & Denver in particular, the city takes ownership of the larger watercourses. Few properties in either community actually have property boundaries going past the high water mark, if even that close. That falls under the so-called "greening the community" idea where they put trails along the creeks and rivers. And technically in such a case, unless there is a specific law saying you can't, you can pan. Maybe not sluice or dredge, but you can pan. But approach that issue VERY carefully.

Whoa Coalbunny, hang on there.
Road easements are not ok to assume open. They are just easements for the road, it's use and maintenence, they do not transfer any ownership. That means the minerals under the road (private/patented or location claims) is still owned by the prop/claim owner.
Understandably easy to mistake in todays world but you don't want to get into a situation out there, so be very careful.

On waterways, they are regulated by the Corps of Engineers and they "delegate authority" to states for the overseeing of the waters within the state, which then falls to city/town entities concerning drinking water supplies.
It's basically a chain of command, just like the FS is "delegated" the authority to regulate surface resources (agriculture and timber) and surface use/occupancy.........but not mining as BLM never delegated that authority to them.

Good input folks, and great work diggin' in!

CP

So prospecting this weekend turned out to be a bust, I only got out for about an hour each day. Dang family time.

How inaccurate is the geocommunicator? I have used it many times in the past and had no clue it was way off. There are only a couple claims up at the top a willow creek but I have never had to go that far up to find decent color.

Here is a pic of the plate I found on Mt. Antero in 2006. As far as I have heard it is the biggest intact plate to come off Antero to date. Bum part of it all was there was zero aquamarine in the pocket.

Another, if you look close in the pics behind you can see us "inside" the pocket it came from.

The big quartz crystals from that pocket the one on the left is about 60 lbs. the one on the right is about 50, its just laying down so its hard to see.

Very nice plate for sure!! Too bad there weren't any aqua's though, rats! Maybe the next pocket will be loaded with the blue ones.
Spectacular find / pocket anyway, thanks for sharing the pics. Bet you had some fun that day, nothing beats pulling new finds out of the ground!

On the geocom mapping overlays, there is just too much left open to varaibles when the system attempts to place claims on maps. For instance, the piece I happened to be checking on was a 160 acre parcel.......imagine three 40 acre claims in a row with the 4th being under the middle 40 to the south, so a long rectangle with a square attatched middle bottom. That was the parcels shape which was entirely surrounded by patented claims. On the geocom map it showed what it believed to be that parcel (under location claims-160 acres), but the shape of the "claim" parcel was entirely square and covered many, many private or patented claims parcels.
I believe this is an unavoidable problem as the mapping overlay uses a quarter section description that can leave alot out of the accuracy depending on what is recorded for claim........I'm just guessing on that though.

Just remember to cross reference those finding if using the geocom.......or any sources of information for that matter. The proper information should be verifiable through other sources for it's consistency. Mapping programs in today's digital tech world especially.

Thanks again for sharing nice plate pics.

CP

I see. Well, times have changed, I see. I know in my earlier days anything under the highway was considered highway property, except for hardrock, and then the state had the option of retaining ownership through the hardrock IF the hardrock activities in any way endangered the highway ir right-of-way.
As for ACE, I thought they had jurisdiction of navigatable waterways, which is hard to define as a navigatable waterway is one that can sustain commercial traffic. Which means they have jurisdiction pretty much anywhere you can float an inner tube.

I just got caught up on this thread. Damn!!!!! Those are some incredible finds. Excellent work.

Those are some fantastic finds Mike! Good job!! Bet you about fell over when you spotted those in the hole.
Thanks for sharing your pictures with us.