Helo!

[golden optimist]

Actually, I have very few pictures of me in that era. I wish I had more. This is me at computer school Keesler AFB in 1962. Right out of basic and my first stripe.
Leonard

mekeesler2.gif (787.57 KiB) Viewed 3462 times

[Joe S (AK)]

Wow - even the mighty start off as mosquito wings!

You do seem to look mighty comfortable perched on that fire plug, too!

*******************************

So, the question still presents itself - how did we all start out looking for (and somehow, against all odds, finding) Gold.

Me first, I suppose:

I moved to Alaska in '66 and, just starting out in a strange new world (for me from eastern Pennsylvania at least), I relied on an older friend to show me the ropes on most things "Alaskan".

A couple of weeks after I arrived, Bob (the friend) asked if I had ever had an interest in learning about Gold panning. I certainly did have an interest - just no opportunities to learn anything about it in the past. We decided to travel south of Anchorage that weekend where Bob would introduce me to an acquaintance of his, a mining engineer, who had owned a mine since the early 1900s.

We went to Erickson's Crow Creek Mine, in Girdwood, where I quickly met Arnie Erickson - a true "Old Timer". Bob and I where welcomed, offered coffee and then, after the conversation slowed, shown a good spot out back to try our luck. We were off and running in high gear on this famous, early 1900's, mining claim. We certainly could rely on Arnie's experience for good advice because Arnie (like many Old Timers) carried one of his prized nuggets around in his pocket to show folks. It was the size of a quarter but seemed to be the size of a baseball - and I swear it must have glowed in the dark.

That weekend jaunt was just a one day panning trip but I did bring back a few small bits of Gold to dream over until - the next weekend. After that, the weekends until freezup were all filled with trips to Erickson's to keep trying my luck and sharpening my skills.

Shortly after the first trip I made myself my first sluice box. 3/4" plywood floor, 1"x4" solid wood sides, 4 feet long, an old wool blanket scrap for a carpet and square 1/2"x1/2" wooden ladder riffles. Let me tell you, after over a long weekend with water flowing through it, the weight of that box was *noticeably* increased. Luckily I was 19 years old back then and NOTHING was too heavy to carry after finding Gold for the weekend.

The next spring, before breakup, I was back for even more weekend adventures and then late that fall I was on my way to basic training and the adventures that brought.

Well, that first spark down deep inside has burned furiously over the years. 40 years with the Air Force as well as other pursuits often got in the way - but the fire always was there. Now I mine on my Alaskan claim as well as on some others at the invitation of friends. I've seen a lot over the years - and hope to see much more before the trail gets dim.

Joe

[russau]

Well mine wasn't as "glorious" as Joe's but it started out a a party at my best friends house. He invited another guy that he wanted to introduce me to. His name is Chuck and he mined gold in Alaska for several years and he wanted to do some digging in Misery's creek /streams. Well upon meeting him the first thing he did as we shook hands was to drop a (small) gold nugget into my hand (to my surprise ) and we hit it off from there and went out prospecting often in various states. That set the hook in me ! That was back in the late 80's. But joining D.E.F. and going to the Georgia rally and meeting Gene "Geno" Wiley and Leonard and the C.C.C. boy's topped it all ! I wish I had done this a LOT earlier in life BUT I really enjoyed it while it lasted for me. Now I'm just a F.O.G.

[Joe S (AK)]

All us F.O.Gs. are now tasked with properly teaching the F.N.Gs. what we have learned over the years.

Tempus Fugits no matter our place in life so, the responsibility to pass along that knowledge sits firmly on the shoulders of the F.O.G's. After all, someone taught us and so we should pass that on.


Joe
NCOIC of the F.O.Gs.

[russau]

So true !

[russau]

We surely need a new infusion of young blood into our mining community to help pass it on !

[Jim_Alaska]

I thought I would put this on this forum so that I wouldn’t get off topic on the threads on the other forums that are dealing with prospecting in specific localities as well as the ones dealing with Geophysical prospecting.

This tread got me to reminiscing about “the good old days”. So this little story is about those times.

This story begins back when I knew absolutely nothing about prospecting or gold, had never even thought about it other than reading an occasional story about an old prospector. One day I was invited by a friend to come and see the log home he had just bought on the banks of the Chena River, just west of Fairbanks. I went over to see it and we had coffee and talked. In the course of the conversation he asked if I would like to see what he was doing down on the river in front of his house.

We went down there and climbed down the cut bank to see a small suction dredge tied to the bank. I had never seen one before and didn’t know what it was, so he showed me how he would pull the bank material down into the water and then suck it up with this dredge. What really got my interest was that he pointed out small specks of gold that had been caught in the riffles and matting. This was all new to me and it sparked my interest.

I began reading about gold and prospecting. I even went to talk to Jim Madonna who owned the local prospecting shop in Fairbanks; he was also a professor that taught mining classes at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. I ended up buying a small two and one half inch dredge from him and set out to strike it rich.

It is almost embarrassing to relate this part of the story, but keep in mind that I knew absolutely nothing about mining or gold. This was probably about 1979. By the way, I still have that little Keene dredge and it still runs like a champ. It still has the original Briggs and Stratton engine.

Well, here I was with my new little toy and chomping at the bit to try it out. I packed it in my truck and set out for a small creek I knew of along the Dalton Highway, just north of Livengood. On arrival I got my equipment down to the creek and set it up in the water.

Right away I found that most of the rocks in the creek were too big to go up the nozzle, it was a real pain. Sooooo, I took the path of least resistance and searched out places in the creek that were made up of easy to suck up SAND. Now this was a lot better and easy to work. Little did I know that by doing this I would never find any gold and true enough, I found no gold, not even a speck.

This caused me to sort of lose interest in the little dredge, but not about mining in general. So in the course of talking to others, some of whom were miners, I found that you had to actually look for and move the rocks to get to gold. And another surprise was when I learned that you didn’t just suck up the surface that was easy to get at. You actually had to move the rocks and go down deep enough to where any gold might be. Imagine my surprise, but I was starting to learn.

This discovery started me on the long learning curve to successful gold recovery. It wasn’t very long into the process of using that little dredge that I learned that you can only “long arm” it without air to a very short depth. I knew nothing about actually getting under the water to use a dredge. So, I did the next best thing, I improvised. I made a six foot long handle and fastened it onto the nozzle. Now I could get down deeper than just the length of my arm. But those pesky big rocks were still a problem. It seemed like once you got into gravel that was of a size that would go up the nozzle, you were left with a whole bunch of large rocks in the bottom of the hole that you couldn’t reach. It was then that I discovered a “potato fork.” This long handled, four prong fork would allow me to pull up the larger rocks so that I could go even deeper.

It was in this manner that I got hooked since I was actually finding a bit of gold. But as in most every case, a persons first dredge is never big enough, bigger is always better. So it was not long until I was looking for a bigger dredge and did find a used one that I could afford. It was a five inch Keene triple sluice. Now I had a whole new learning curve to go through, but go through it I did and came out the better for it. I was now learning how to operate a dredge that had an air compressor and finding that I could actually dive to operate it. The rest is history; I recovered a lot of gold in my days in Alaska using that dredge. I hope you have had fun reading about the exploits of someone learning about prospecting in Alaska.

[russau]

Nice read Jim! I also meet Jim Madonna while up in Alaska in 2000. We were waiting for our plan to Birch Creek for a 3 week adventure. We went through his mining shop and had a nice talk with him. That was great!!

[Jim_Alaska]

Yes Russ, Jim was quite a guy on a personal level and a real resource in mining knowledge. Those were the days to never be forgotten.

[russau]

Yes Russ, Jim was quite a guy on a personal level and a real resource in mining knowledge. Those were the days to never be forgotten.

This reply read like Jim Foley had passed and read like it was in the second person??? I hope not ! I always enjoyed corresponding with Jim!