Funny Gold Mining Memories

[libertydave]

My-of-my! How things have changed! This event occurred back in the mid-1980s.

I'd been driving on a Forest Service road with my old 2-1/2 inch dredge in the back of my pickup truck. I was heading to a favorite creek up in Washington's northern Cascade Mountains. Looking in my mirror I noticed that a green Forest Service truck was behind me. I got to the creek and pulled off onto a roadside clearing with the ranger parking right behind me. He came up and introduced himself ('Glenn'). He looked at my dredge and gear and he asked a few questions about gold and mining. Then he asked me if I could use some help.

Ranger Glenn helped me tote my dredge and hoses and all my gear down to a clearing alongside the creek. He hung around for a while and told me he liked watching people "enjoying 'our' forests" and added "it must be fun finding a little gold". Ranger Glenn came back later, it was around noon, and asked me if I wanted to take a break for some lunch. He'd stopped by a restaurant and had a sack with a couple of cheeseburgers, fries and two shakes. I offered to pay him but he would not take my money. Around five he again returned and he helped carry my dredge and gear, loading it into the back of my truck. He asked me if I'd found any gold. Driving back to the highway I watched him turn the other direction. I never saw him again.

A couple of years ago I'd been doing some high-banking on that same WA creek...and I had an encounter with a couple of not-too-friendly FS guys who apparently did no like what I was doing. How different their attitude was compared to Ranger Glenn's.

LD

[Hoser John]

Amen as new persons in charge change it all-great story. One of the nastiest rangers ever Gomez drove on top of my dam on his atv and announced he got a complaint about creek being blocked. Dam-what dam?I don't see no damn dam. YES times have changed. John