Black Diamond

[libertydave]

Hi Russ, You must be referring to the Similameen River located just south of the town of Oroville, WA, and just a few miles south from the Canadian border This river has a rich history of gold production in the late 1800s and the Resources Coalition miner's rallys back in 2006-7 were a lot of fun and brought many to this area. Town folks loved the miners and tourism $$$ they brought but the event ended in 2008. FYI, I wrote an article for the ICMJ on the rally in 2007. Also, my earlier references to WA favorite rivers were only to the western WA side of the North Cascades.

In 1987 I acquired a Keene 6" dredge with a 16 Vanguard and before heading to CA and the Yuba in 1988 we tried it out it on the Similameen about a half dozen miles west of Highway 97 and we found some nice fine gold in the river gravels in all of our dredging efforts. Lots of Canadians come south here to work the Similameen and a Canadian author by the name of N. L. Barley has written several books on gold mining and ghost towns in this region. Regs today prohibit using that large of a dredge but still know that lots of dredgers who use a 'four' on this river. All the best.

LD

[russau]

yep Dave i read that artical. we really had a great time up there! meet a lot of really great people.i belonged to the bedrock prospectors and Resources Coalition at the time and since let it drop.good people!!

[libertydave]

Russ,

Mining clubs and associations around here are all growing...Bedrock, NAMA, WPMA, North Central WA Prospectors, and several more. NAMA's membership has nearly doubled. And new mining equipment businesses are opening so it is fun to see the 'growth' in the small scale mining industry. One new mining shop is in downtown Renton, "Black Jack's Detectors and Mining Equipment", and they have opened a store in Longview, WA and planning a third store up north. Instead of seeing your local shops go out of business it's refreshing to see new ones open their doors. Also makes the folks at Keene and Proline happy.

If this is a result of TV exposure (aka Todd and Jack) I'm glad to see this industry grow.

[dickb]

OR...................... everybody is leaving Cal to go find some color. Glad things are looking up for you folks.

Dickb

[russau]

AHMEN to that!