The Art of Drywashing Finding Gold in the Desert

Aureate Grit in Arizona'south Washes

How and Where to Find Golden in The Desert

Text and Photos by Lee Allen

A curt history lesson, please. A million years agone, rocks melted, the earth croaky, and gold nuggets formed. End of class.

A million years later, the nuggets are hard to find, but weekend prospectors search the desert wadis (washes), hoping to get lucky.

"Gold is not going to go too far from its source unless there's been lots of time and lots of water to launder it downhill," says David Steimle, a chapter president of the Aureate Prospectors Association of America (GPAA). Standing recently in a wadi at the foot of Arizona's Santa Rita Mountains, he said, "Flood waters thousands of years agone done nuggets downward the mount through these arroyos and deposited the gold flakes we're looking for today. Prospectors who accept worked these gullies know they don't produce a lot of sizable chunks, but they practise give upward a bunch of fine aureate dust."

Steimle walks Arizona'south wadis, poking and prodding the dry out creek beds besides as mountain arroyos and mineral-rich sand, looking for gold still hiding in placer beds. "Placer deposits occasionally run for miles along a stream," he says. "Some spots get scratched and discovered, others are nonetheless undetected subsequently all these years."

In fact, a large pct of the earth'due south gilt deposits are still undiscovered despite man'due south efforts to locate pockets of the precious metal. "Streams and their tributaries that flow beyond gilt-begetting areas are likely to behave traces of the precious metal," says Diane Blight of the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. "Where gilded has been found in the past is the best identify to seek it today."

Gilded was first reported about one hundred and 20 five years ago, near where Steimle stood, in what proved to be the largest and richest placer deposit in the southeastern corner of the state. In fact, Arizona'due south placer mining industry had its official beginning with the discovery of golden along the flanks of the nearby Quijotoa Mountains. From 1875 to 1880, several hundred miners and their companion burros worked an expanse from the nine thousand four hundred pes Onetime Baldy Summit to lower acme claims. Their efforts produced about 15 thousand dollars in gilded each year. The hardest working miners each took out virtually 1 ounce of gold per twenty-four hour period. At that time information technology was valued at seventeen dollars.

One time the richer gravels had been worked over, commercial mining concluded. Only weekend prospectors began to announced, seeking what their earlier counterparts might have missed.

Placer gold is still found in about all southwestern deserts, according to former Bureau of Mines engineer George Fansett. "Moving water has been the most stiff cistron in the germination of placer deposits," he says. "The usual practice is to seek aureate past panning along the h2o courses—stream beds, sand bars, gulches and arroyos. All areas that look as though a slowing downward or slackening of water electric current occurred are worthy of closer test since gold, being heavier than most materials, tends to settle and sink to bedrock. Depressions may concord rich pockets of gold while bedrock that is fissured and shattered, interim as riffles, also holds good potential," he says. The potential every bit well equally the dreams, success and frustration is reflected in the names of some mining claims: "Great Promise," "Maybe, Maybe Not," "Wishful Thinking," "One More Fourth dimension," "Easy To Get," "Attempt Your Luck," "Claret Blister" and "Big Bruiser."

"Many men have attempted to make a living reworking old placer footing," says Fansett. "If the footing has not been worked over many times and the bottom of the wash non advisedly searched, a painstaking cleaning of crevices and potholes may yield lucrative results."

Lucrative is an ill-divers discussion here. GPAA fellow member Judy Miller has searched for gold in these stream beds using both dry out- and moisture-wash methods. "I've been doing this for about four years," she says. "I've had success, but based on what I take home afterward each trip, I'm not even so ready to retire." Further downstream from where Miller digs, sifts and pans, beau club member Mike Rebholz chews on an unlit cigar as he swishes water in his greenish plastic pan. "I'll tell you what," he says with a grin, "it's not the Mother Lode, just for this spot, it ain't bad. There'southward colour in the pan, and if we could practice that every pan total, past the finish of the day it would exist worthwhile. We'd accept a pile big enough to come across without a magnifying drinking glass. It's fun though, that's the main thing." Fun and a few flakes are what information technology'due south all about to most participants.

"A lot of the states take a pick and a pan along on every outdoor jaunt," says Steimle. "I have no get-rich-quick fantasies. There are days when some flakes show up and others when the pan keeps coming up empty. Information technology'south the chase that's well-nigh exciting, knowing the side by side shovel load or upturned rock could produce flakes or fifty-fifty a pocket-size nugget. Not that finding something doesn't make your middle shell faster, just I savour the hunt as much as I enjoy any discovery.."

"You're not going to go rich mining gold," says New United mexican states geologist Dave Salars. He uses gold panning as an excuse to be outdoors, "kind of like going fishing without baiting your claw," and he'due south non also concerned about bringing home gold grit as long as the activity itself offers fresh air and sunshine. "I make more than money some weekends at swap meets, buying bargains and re-selling the stuff," he says, chuckling, "just I do enjoy the exercise, camaraderie and the search for cached treasure." He's plant some, as well, in the Pinos Altos Mountains of New Mexico. "I found a chunk of pyrite material with a rice-sized piece of gold inside. It fabricated my centre beat faster, and I got the gold bug actually bad," he remembers.

That was seven years – and a lot of unsuccessful trips – ago. Salars, at present social club president of the two hundred and 50-member Desert Gilded Diggers, Inc., is quick to caution, "You don't do this to become rich. You learn existent fast why gold is worth so much, because it's hard to find and hard work to recover. Y'all've got to examine a lot of sand earlier you're successful."

Weekend golden seekers need to sympathize that experience is the all-time instructor, and it takes do in the field to gather that experience. "Some folks go out and buy a bunch of equipment like metal detectors, thinking 'I'm going to get rich this weekend,'" Salars says. "Two years after, they've used the equipment twice and it'due south for sale—sort of like the practise machines bought with practiced intentions that stop upwardly equally expensive clothes hangers."

Salars likes placer mining because of its nickname, "Poor Man'south Mining," which implies that required supplies are minimal. "You don't need much in the mode of uppercase investment or equipment," he says. A basic panning kit should include an inexpensive xiv-inch plastic pan with molded washboard-blazon riffle insets, a small hand shovel, a stone hammer, a sturdy long-bladed screwdriver or pry-bar, a whisk broom, tweezers and a sniffer bottle. The sniffer is used to suction the small flakes out of the pan. (Larger nuggets may be picked out by mitt for instant gratification!)

Simply as at that place is no complete and correct equipment listing, there is no right way to conduct a hands-on search for the shiny metal. If you're lucky enough to live in an area where the elements provide standing or slowly moving shallow water, y'all've just eliminated the demand to bring your own. If not, the option is to carry h2o to the dig site, keeping in mind that ane gallon weighs eight pounds, and some of the liquid needs to be saved for drinking.

To pan for gold, gather a handful of gravel and put information technology in your pan (preferably a green, crimson or blue pan to reverberate the glint of whatsoever elusive gold flakes). Choice out the larger pieces of rock and dirt. Pour water into the pan, swishing it effectually to separate gravel from dirt. Tilt the pan slightly (ten-degree angle, riffle end downward), allowing heavier materials to settle in the bottom. Eyeball the activeness constantly looking for black sand, red silicate garnets or gilt. When the elusive gold flash-in-the-pan does appear (notice the optimistic "when," not "if"), apply your sucker bottle or tweezers to remove the chip or nugget.

While "painfully rare" describes the chances of a lucrative "strike" occurring on a weekend outing, "medium rare" often describes the sunburn new prospectors may acquire. "Vesture a wide-brimmed chapeau, utilize plenty of sunscreen and drink lots of water," says Salars. "Go along an center out for critters—ii-legged, iv-legged and eight-legged. Tell someone where you lot plan to exist and when you expect to return. And bring a friend. The buddy organization isn't only for swimming."

Golden dust

Relish the consequence and keep expectations to a minimum. "There is no reward greater than that of fresh air and exercise and, if cipher else, amateur prospectors are sure to find enough of both."

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