Mines, Panning Gold and Historical Exploring

[Redoverfarm]

The telescope at the National Radio Observatory at Greenbank.  The dish is approximately 300 ft dia.  That is what they claim.  It can rotate 360 deg and not deviate more than the thickness of a piece of paper.

http://www.gb.nrao.edu/

[MountainDon]

thanx MD,
I asked in case I decide to visit the area or move there.

Spring or fall are best time to visit the SW IMO. Summer too hot and winter sometimes unpredictable.

[glenn kangiser]

Come on Glenn sell apaknad a piece of your place. I like him and I think we could turn him into a Mariposan. This could be the start of your commune 

I'm in a 20 acre minimum area but even at that each piece only has about a couple acres that are relatively flat and relatively easy to use.   Not that I don't like neighbors but they may have to cover their eyes if I have to run out to the generator au naturale.

[apaknad]

Glen, what makes you think anyone would want to look?

[glenn kangiser]

I'm such a fine example of perfection, I guess...

[Wolfer]

Nice

Glen I been reading thru and Noticed your like to Prospect a tad bit. well remeber Old tunnels and such aint all that safe....this coming from a guy that spent More time chisng thru old tunnels than most people do walking down main street.... anyway ya know gold Is exteemely heavy My brothers and I  have been known to take a shop vac in and vacumm the floor then pan it out.... can turn some nice color. their are plans on the net  for a gas powered shopvac built with a leaf blower might be handy for someone stumbling around in the dark.LOL
anyway when ya get stuff like in volume and its say 1940 what do ya do?



here is an answer i have found at an old mining site i have posted pic of in another thread tak a gander and see if ya can throw and idea what it is ill explain it in a few days


im sure ya can figure it out if ya were standing next to it But give it a whirl it shows the how some old timers use there heads. and No im not calling ya old

[glenn kangiser]

OK -- taking a stab at what I can see.....

It looks like a hammer mill to crush the ore, then a conveyor up,  to drop into some kind of home made centrifugal separator.  Maybe swirling water - heavys settle to the bottom and lighter waste goes out over the rim at the spout?

[glenn kangiser]

If anybody recognizes this tin box let me know.  I found 3 of them in an old mining site.



They measure about 3"x 3 1/4" x 5/16" when closed and have 6 holes in the back - one in the center and 5 evenly spaced in about a 1 inch dia circle.  The hinges still work and all were closed and under a few inches of soil.

[Redoverfarm]

Haven't a clue Glenn.  Maybe it is to let that old moldy money breath

[Whitlock]

Nice

Glen I been reading thru and Noticed your like to Prospect a tad bit. well remeber Old tunnels and such aint all that safe....this coming from a guy that spent More time chisng thru old tunnels than most people do walking down main street.... anyway ya know gold Is exteemely heavy My brothers and I  have been known to take a shop vac in and vacumm the floor then pan it out.... can turn some nice color. their are plans on the net  for a gas powered shopvac built with a leaf blower might be handy for someone stumbling around in the dark.LOL
anyway when ya get stuff like in volume and its say 1940 what do ya do?



here is an answer i have found at an old mining site i have posted pic of in another thread tak a gander and see if ya can throw and idea what it is ill explain it in a few days


im sure ya can figure it out if ya were standing next to it But give it a whirl it shows the how some old timers use there heads. and No im not calling ya old

Wolfer anyting gas powered underground will kill you.Not a good idea my friend.
:)nice pictures

[glenn kangiser]

Good catch, W.  I missed that and think of it each time I get a wild mining idea -- wouldn't do it but didn't catch it. 

We have 3 dead guys near here from running a generator just inside a mine.  CO overpowered all of them one after the other. 

[Wolfer]

good catch  the gas vaccum is designed for crevasing and such nvr even thought about co2 , when we used generator and shop vacs we always left the gens in the trk and ran lots of extension cord, glad someone was lookin out for us.


good eye glen   it driven by a set of duels off the sterling in the  cabin pic. Material is fed into the hopper  and into the mill portion thru gravity. It then is picked up my the elevator and dropped inthe pan...... notice the pan is hanging by chain there is reason,  chain carries vibration and allows for free movement..   the pan hangs at angle to the ground and has a small mercury contianment pool right below the lip. it is then used like a giant gold pan.

as for the tins...... They look Like cap tins seen'm round and seen'm square but the holes r different

[apaknad]

ok, here's my guess. it's a dollar bill yay, i win. hmmm, no wait. i didn't answer the question. well, could it be a cigarette case for after you rolled your own?

[glenn kangiser]

We thought about the cigarette tins, Dan - roll your own could be possible but they would be pretty skinny.  Maybe 1/4 inside depth.

We also considered the idea they may be blasting cap tins, Kyle and that one is still in as a possibility.  No identifiable marks on the cans.  The ones you saw had holes also? so that could be it.  Holes to vent moisture I assume.  I just didn't find a size match on the net. 

[glenn kangiser]

Found one on ebay that looks like it but is embossed.

It sold for 195.40   

[MikeC]

Some of the mining stuff remaining in the country from back then is simply astonishing.  A few years ago we visited Warren Id where there are remains of a massive gold dredge, which kept going upriver till it ran out of river.

picture here:
http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p265501coll1&CISOPTR=332&REC=11

Warren is close to nothing.  Dirt road in to this day.  The entire dredge, piece by piece was brought in by mule or ox teams pulling wagons.  How many  dredge buckets would fit on a wagon?  And the dredge chain, the boiler, and engine?  All assembled in the sticks.

Dang, these people WORKED!

[glenn kangiser]

We had one nearby - I understand a lot of it went back to work in Canada IIRC.

Tuolumne Gold Dredge



http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=7323
   
By Richard Wisehart, April 19, 2008   
   
1. Tuolumne Gold Dredge Marker

Inscription. Behind this monument rests the historic Tuolumne Gold Dredge which started operation at Patricksville, just east of this location, on June 15, 1938. A Walter Johnson No. 52 Model, it floated on a self-created pond of water. It was larger than a football field, weighed over 2500 tons, and cost $543,148 to construct. The dredge used electricity to drive 120 4000 lb. buckets 70 ft. deep to recover gold. It ceased operation in July 1951. The total amount of gold recovered is unknown.

Erected 1998 by Estanislao Chapter No. 58, E Clampus Vitus.

It is hard to imagine how they got this equipment into the places they got it.  Some machines were made in small enough pieces to pack in, but many were not and still they got them into the locations they wanted,

[apaknad]

holy tamales batman...now that's what i call a dredge! glen, you got one of those?

[glenn kangiser]

It is about an hour drive or less away.  Not mine though.  I was at it one time years ago before the owner sold part of it.  Bummer - More info I read closer.  Australia - not Canada it appears got the parts.

"Regarding Tuolumne Gold Dredge. The dredge is listed in the National Register of Historical Places as Structure #71000208. It is located on private property and in the 1980's the owner of the property sold a portion of the dredge to a buyer who moved that portion to Australia."

Wish I could find a good old pix of it.

There are miles and miles of tailings from that dredge.  Snelling is a giant rock pile all around where this thing was floated on its own lake.-- power lines followed it across the valley.

Here is one that was in Sacramento area - http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/qtvr-dredge.html

Click on the picture and hold---- on the linked page - not this one - slide the mouse to look at the panorama.

More info this page is linked from.

http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/fever19-dr.html



This one is similar to the way the La Grange one looked when I first saw it.

[Redoverfarm]

Glenn I was watching a show in which they said there were 47,000 abandoned mines in CA.  Sad part is that they are going around sealing them up.

[glenn kangiser]

Yup - the Forestry and BLM and environmental wackos are destroying history as fast as they can.  You have some good stuff in your area, John.  I don't know how far.  Ever check it?

[Redoverfarm]

No I never have glenn.  The only thing I know of at the bottom or the back of a shaft is Coal.  The price  is not high enough to go digging for it by hand.

[glenn kangiser]

The fun is in the hunt and the historical exploration.