The Gold Prospecting Bog That Almost Isn't. LOL!

Have you had a busy winter?  I certainly have!  It has been tough finding time to blog, even though there is a LOT to tell you.

We went to Tucson and visited friends in Arizona while we were there.  We traveld around the Superstitions, Wickenburg and the Vulture Mine, but missed the Bradshaws and Links Creek this time.

Gold was selling high in Tucson, so we did not indulge in a buying spree as we have in past years.  Many of the old gold dealers have gotten out of the business as the face of selling gold to the public is changing.  We did visit the big show downtown one day and took a few pictures of the gold that was there.  You did get to see the one big Aussie nugget.

What brought me to the blog today is the spot price of gold hoovering just under $1500.00 right now.  I saw it was $1496 a few mintes ago and silver is at $43.  Silver has really been jumping in the past couple of weeks!

What has kept me so busy the past few months has been health issues with my Mother.  She has decided to quit her wandering ways and will share a permanent address with Larry and myself where she will be closer to family and can get the help she needs with the small things like getting to the hospital if she needs to.  She is 81, so it's about time.  She can fly out a visit whomever she wants to for as long as she wants to, but mov ing her every 6 months to 2 years is becoming hard on her, and I'm getting too old to want to do it anymore.

I spent some time this last weekend doing some information updates on the site.  There are a LOT of new regulations for the Arkansa River in 2011 coming out of the BLM this spring and I will have some time to tell you some of it in May before we take off for prospecting season.

I have many questions coming at me about the GPAA claim on the Arkansas above Elephant Rock, so I will address that now.  The BLM is requiring a plan of operation and a bond for any claim that wishes to allow motorized equipment on the Arkansas River.  The GPAA has elected NOT to file the required plan nor to put up the bond necessary for reclamation of the area, so be aware that those claims will be restricted to panning and sluice boxes.  Recirculation equipment can be used as well as metal detectors and dry washers, but anything that requires water being pumped from the river will not be allowed in those areas.  You will have two agencies watching, so if you are out there with your dredging equipment they WILL find you.

Along with this restriction on the GPAA claims, be aware that all claims in the dam site area south of there have been dissallowed and there will be no public prospecting at Elephant Rock, the last I heard.  If that changes I will let you know.  Propsecting for gold in Colorado is a challenge every year.  This one is no different.

Gotta run! May is coming up fast and I have a million things to do before Memorial Day weekend.  I think of all of you often.  I just do not have the time right now to talk to you very often.  I'm sure you all understand.  I WILL be writing to you as often as I can, and if you have any questions you know where to find me.  hookedongold@gmail.com.  As always,

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com

Hooked on Gold Gazette 4/16/2010

An Interesting Collage of Trees I Shot Last Summer







• Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1137.70
• Spot price last Gazette : $1162.20
________________
Gold ‘N’ Store

Calendar of Events
APRIL
• 1st Happy April Fool’s Day
• 2nd Good Friday
• 4th Easter
• 14th GPOC meeting
• 23rd – 25th Denver Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Spring Show
_______________________________________
NEWS
Well, here it is Friday again and time for your Gazette. This week has certainly gone by fast and the weekend will be even busier than this last week has. Hope you all got your taxes filed on time this past week. If not………

I want to start out by thanking my customers. I have to say I have some of the nicest customers on the planet! They are patient and work with me, and I want to take this time to thank them for everything they have helped me with this past month. Selling on line is not easy, but with folks like all of you, it becomes a pleasure! Several have gotten extra special additions to their orders for their assistance in troubleshooting little things in the store I would not know about without their help. THANKS!

Oh, boy! Things are finally warming up here in Colorado, and although the mountains continue to get snow, even the ski resorts are giving up their seasons. Runs are getting slushy and messy, and run off will begin soon. My March energy bill was 30% higher than the year before due to all the cold weather. Glad it’s gone for another 6 months or so, and I can finally get out there and find some GOLD!

Don’t forget the Denver Gem and Mineral SPRING Show coming up April 23rd through the 25th at the Holiday Inn North off of I-25 and Broadway. We always find something new and interesting there. A good time to meet up with friends and have some good conversations, too. If you are looking for gold nuggets, meteorites, opal, gemstones, jadite, turquoise, tiger’s eye, or any other type of gem grade stone, you should check this show out.

Larry got his ‘new to him’ fully enclosed UTV yesterday. You remember what a fiasco last year’s experience was like. It did teach us that an enclosure is beneficial to us when we are a 12,000 feet metal detecting for gold and silver and it starts to rain. Not many places to get into shelter up at that altitude. This grandma needs a little more comfort now, so we found a great deal on a used Polaris that was enclosed. Yeah, I know. I’m a whimp. What’s your point? LOL!

I hear from around the web that we have people already coming our way from out of state to begin their summer prospecting for gold on the Arkansas River. Chad at Tin Pan Prospecting (LINKTHIS) reports that he is getting lots of calls for reservations this year, too, for the Fairplay area. Sounds like a busy season for gold prospecting.

I’ll post some links for you next week. The Gazette is getting pretty long and I want to get it out to you. International California Mining Journal had an interesting article on finding gold in Maine, if any of you are from that part of country, as well as what is going on with the dredging court battles in California. Always a good read for what’s current. That’s it for me, folks.

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley (MQS)

Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know

THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now OPEN TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until OCTOBER 1st.

http://www.hookedongold.com/

http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/ A prospecting forum and social posting community

hookedongold@gmail.com contact us

PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 2/13/10

HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE

• Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1094.20
• Spot price last Gazette : $1066.90
________________
Gold ‘N’ Store

Calendar of Events

FEBRUARY
• Tucson Show in Tucson, Arizona
• 2nd Groundhog Day
• 4th Heritage Lecture at the Western Mining Museum SOLD OUT
• 7th Super Bowl Sunday
• 12th Lincoln’s Birthday
• 10th GPOC General Meeting 7:00 p.m. Colo. Sprgs.
• Denver Museum with GPOC
• 14th Valentine’s Day
• 15th Presidents Day
• 22nd Washington’s Birthday
• 26th – 28th Gem and Mineral Guild Spring Show – Jefferson County Fairgrounds
_______________________________________

NEWS

Did everybody’s team win the Super Bowl? No? Bummer! Missed my deadline on the Gazette yesterday as things piled up on me. You know how it is. When it rains it pours. You go for weeks without much going on and then everything hits at once and everything has to be done at the same time. This will be short this morning as we are off in a little while to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with GPOC. The gold room is our objective and hopefully the schist piece with gold in it is in the show case that came out of the Terryall area.

Also, our friend who had hip surgery needs us to lend a hand this weekend as he is released from the hospital and goes home. They live way out of town have stairs everywhere, so we will be going along for the weekend to make sure they can get around everywhere and Larry is there to help if there are problems or things need to be modified.

BLM information for this season continues to come out and I will be posting more on what information I have next week after I am sure our friends don’t need a hand with things after this weekend. That first three days are the worst, but after that things seem to settle down.

Everyone is getting antsy to get out in the water. My monster sluice is itching to get wet, too, and everything is ready but the weather. Come on sun! All for now. Gotta run. Here are a few links to keep you busy while I’m away. In case you missed this amazing video showing an elk herd crossing a road near Estes Park you should give it a look. Over 4 minutes and they kept on coming. Several were wearing radio collars, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxxOTkfKPk These vids are of amazing lightening strikes in extremely slow motion. http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/02/gallery-lightning . I did not find any that were interesting on gold prospecting this week, but these are definitely worth a look see. Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)

Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know

THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________

www.hookedongold.com

www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com A prospecting forum and social posting community

hookedongold@gmail.com contact us

PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 10/17/09

Two pieces of equipment used at Cache Creek to muck out the beaver pond.


Mucking out the beaver pond. This is about the size the pond ended up being. It goes a ways to the left of this shot, but I couldn't get it all in.

HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE
· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday, last Gazette: $1052.80
· Spot price last Gazette May 2nd: $885.80
________________

Calendar of Events

OCTOBER

· 31st Halloween

NOVEMBER

· 26th Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

If you haven’t checked out the Prospecting Community Network you might want to. We have a great group started with several already blogging and getting involved. You will be able to view the main page when you pull the site up to decide if it is a place you would like to hang out at.

As it ended, the first Gazette of the Fall is a day late. I considered waiting until next week, but I have enough info to share now and an hour this early morning to get the Gazette to you even if it is a little late. Why is it late, you might ask? Well, I am painting one room upstairs while we have a few nice days and I can open the house to dry it, AND I was playing a new game. Yes, I know it is hard to believe that a new game could deter me from writing to you, but it is true. So, I am up early to atone for my wasted time yesterday that should have been devoted to you. :>D

So, what have all of you been up to this summer? Have you found gold? Won gold at a meeting? Had hail break all the windows in your house? What? Leave some comments to this blog so I don’t think I’m out there all alone. Some of you are wondering why I twitter and Facebook so much, and I have decided that it is because those places are where I have interaction with other prospectors and those interested in gold. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing this blog, but there is very little input from you. It is hard to know what you want to read when there are no comments left for me to comment on. A blog can be almost as interactive as any social networking site, in fact they are an extension of blogs and the interactivity that was first born in blogs. So, take a minute and make a comment when you find something you like or don’t like. YOU hate it when I’m not blogging, but a blog is supposed to be two way. Give me something more to write about, and I’ll write. I’m a writing fool, as you can tell from all the sites I have, and anyone who has emailed me will tell you that I LOVE trying to answer questions.

We found gold this summer. Not a lot, but we did find gold. Helped a lot of other people find gold, too. We spent a great deal of time hosting at Cache Creek, and the BLM tells us that most people appreciated someone being in the area to help them set up equipment, teach panning and tell them where in area to find gold. The area was absolutely SLAMMED this summer, and so new regulations are being drawn up by the BLM to get some control over the area. Larry and I have been allowed to put our two cents in, and they are looking at our recommendations as guidelines. If you don’t like the new ones, you can blame us for being in there so much and people who were in there all summer moving over 100 yards of material with sluice boxes. Limits will be imposed next year, and a fee structure that will be more fair to everyone. This area is meant for RECREATIONAL PROSPECTING, which means it is not governed by the mining laws. BLM is free to impose regulations on the area as they deem necessary as with any campground, parking area that has a fee, etc.

The pond was mucked out in late September, and a couple of additional settling ponds were dug in, too. The two smaller ponds will not stop the silt from going into the beaver pond if the present amount of silt continues to run down the creek. Most people will say the highbankers are at fault for this, but from personal experience, I can say that the majority of it comes from the sluices that are run directly in the creek. Highbankers are required to settle their material before it returns to the creek, which also means the water must be diverted away from the main creek. There can be as many as 6 highbankers in the area, but on most days the sluice boxes outnumber them by about 5 to one, and I have watched sluicers move as much material through one sluice box as a ‘banker. Our average count of vehicles in the parking lot was around 28. That means on most days there were between 40 and 75 people in the area a day; every day. We ended up with two port a jons to handle the wastes, and had we not been there to get that done, the place would have been an even bigger mess than it has been in past years.

As a result of this year’s use and our record taking for the BLM, they are considering hiring a summer time employee to help regulate the Arkansas River and Cache Creek. That means that all of you who have bragged about being able to get away with anything because there is not anyone in the area to make sure you comply, have created a situation where we now have to pay a salary to keep you in line because you can’t be relied on to be personally responsible for yourself on public lands without law enforcement there to make sure you do. This means that everyone who uses the area will probably be required to pay a daily fee, and most probably have restrictions on the number of days you can use the area per season. Thanks a bunch. The ounces of gold I saw taken out of there by single or two man teams of men who worked the area all summer was substantial, and they all should have had their own claims and not using public lands in this way. All were using sluice boxes which have no fees, so they took it out for free. One team switched to a highbanker, but also stayed in the area with it for over 6 weeks. Almost all were very protective of their area and kept others out by placing equipment near and around their work areas. If you even looked like you might want to work near them they became irate and combative. Some situations were volatile enough to call in law enforcement, and there are charges still pending on at least one case. Oh, and then there was the fire, which apparently was started by a small campfire that had been left unattended above the last hydraulicing wall, most probably by prospectors. There were also reports of dredging going on and spies who watched everyone from the rock burms. Yes, we need to be able to keep people in line at Cache Creek. Some people are reporting that they feel the area is dangerous and being taken over by lawlessness. And there we were. With a sign and a green cap and a note book. There were days I carried my hand pick for defense. Yes, we need more regulation at Cache Creek. No, we aren’t happy about it, but yes, we (the public) need this regulation and support.

Another thing that came to our attention was that the GPAA put the area in their claims guide as an open area. This brought in many more people than the area was ever meant to support, and while the area was originally expected to last 20 years, the number of years left for the area could be less than 10. Long range plans for the area had included a campground, but with so few years left for use, those plans have been put on hold. Right now, everyone is scrambling to get the area under control and limit the environmental and use impact. Remember this area is a conservation area, and we are confident that had we not been there to document what was going on and help BLM understand what needs to be done, Cache Creek would have been closed this year due to extreme damage to the area and the amount of material moved and silt sent down the creek. The area was originally closed down, you will remember, due to silting of the Arkansas River, and so silting is a major concern to keeping the area open. While we are not sending silt into the Arkansas, it is sent to a beaver pond and over the dam into the conservation area below. We are confident the new regulations will give us many more years of safe use, but we NEED the cooperation of everyone to keep the area open.

I have a few links for you to follow. The first is to an animated film on youtube about an Alaskan prospector and is appropriate for our Halloween holiday coming up soon. It is about 8 minutes long http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYqtDqE69no
Another is an article about bacteria that could be an explanation for some gold deposits. It also could allow gold to be grown in a lab and lead to new technology for finding gold http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/esrf-bhf100709.php
And now Oregon wants to be like California. They are now looking to ban recreational prospecting there, too. Read: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/kulongoski-wants-to-head-off-calif-gold-miners-64391782.html

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 01/16/09

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $842.40
· Spot price last Gazette: $853.60
________________

Calendar of Events
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

Well, I didn’t get around to all of the things I wanted to talk about last week, so I’ll have some more posts for you this next week. I’ve been using the tweetdeck to twitter to the twitter home and facebook at the same time. You can follow me by clicking on the link in the sidebar for twitter. You’ll need an account before you can follow, but don’t be intimidated by this little site. You’ll find some very interesting things going on other than just gold in 140 characters or less, in other words it’s all real short. LOL!

If you’ve been watching gold this week, you know it’s up from its’ low of around $815, and in case you missed it, I blogged about where the price might be this year earlier this week. Scroll down the page and you’ll find it. Everyone I know is watching for the “Obama Bounce” in the stock market early next week. Should be an interesting 100 days.

I wanted to take some time to also address the same old stuff we’ve been going over for years now, about how you present yourself as a prospector. In the Federal Registry Vol. 73, No 216, pg 65984, The U.S. Forest Service has published a rule titled, The U.S. Forest service has published a rule in the Federal Registry titled “Clarification for the Appropriate Use of a Criminal or a Civil Citation To Enforce Mineral Regulations”. It seems that the Forest Service is now adding camping to their list of activities that might cause a “significant disturbance of the surface resources” on a mining claim. They have also made it clear that recreational activities are not protected under the 1872 Mining Law, and that recreationalists exceed the scope of those laws. Included in this exclusion are activities such as educational seminars, treasure hunts, hunting camps, or summer homes, and that the main intent of the mining laws is to govern larger operations than “recreational” mining would entail. Should be an interesting summer of finding gold with them out giving warnings and citations to those who are in violation. Their main interest is said to be compliance, and they will try to get compliance where they can, but if not…. Have fun out there!

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE

Here are a few links to DIY projects:

The Wee-Washer
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/wee-washer.html
Prospecting Equipment photo's
http://showcase.netins.net/web/1rowellpage/prospecting.html
Vintage Projects
http://www.vintageprojects.com/misc/dry-washer-prospecting-plans.html
How to Build a Drywasher
http://www.thunting.com/geotech/pages/misc/projects/drywasher1/index.html
Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Gold Blog as Promised

Happy New Year to all of you! I DO hope your New Year will be one of the best you have ever had, and that you find a boat load of gold, too.

Sadly, yesterday's blog had to be postponed as Larry's Dad passed away and we had to hurriedly go to Longmont to see him before he died, and to help his Mother with arrangements. I have some interesting things to report on, but they will have to wait until next week after we have gotten through all that needs to be done in the next few days.

Gold was back down a bit at $874.90, yesterday, but over all it has been staying within about $20 either way for most of the last week. Talk to you next week, and in the mean time you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/ShirleyWeilnau, www.facebook.com, or www.myspace.com . I also run a family and friends oriented blog on myspace that I started a few days ago, so check me out on your favorite social bookmarking site.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 7/25/08

A peaceful spot on a private claim somewhere in the Colorado High Country

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $928.40
· Spot price last week: $954.60
________________

Calendar of Events

JULY

4th - Fourth of July
9th GPOC Regular Meeting
26th – 27th Burro Days – Fairplay 1st leg of the burro trifecta

AUGUST

1st – 3rd - COLORADO STATE GOLD PANNING CHAMPIONSHIPS Breckenridge, Co.
2nd – 3rd – Boom Days – Leadville 2nd leg of the burro trifecta
9th – 10th Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista 3rd leg of the burro trifecta
13th GPOC Regular Meeting

SEPTEMBER

· 1st - LABOR DAY
· 10th – GPOC General Meeting
· 12th – 14th Denver Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Panning Demo with GPOC
· 30th – Last Day for Motorized Equipment on the Arkansas River in Colorado
_______________________________________
NEWS

Newsletter is late today because I had better things to do………like picking up my grandsons for a week stay.

As many of you read yesterday, the Gold‘ n’Store is being reworked. The page was too large and crashed the end of June. The new format will be of pictures with item names and links to the description pages. Hopefully this will keep the page size small enough to load properly. If not, I will have to split it up further. In any case, it will take some time to rework and find a format that we can live with. You can view the new format from the home page. All other links to it are dead as the original page was deleted this week.

I will discontinue the streamflow guide for this season as most rivers are where they will be for the rafting season, but you can look at it yourself as I will keep the link at the bottom. If it isn’t live, copy and paste it into your browser. Sometimes blogger doesn’t allow links for some unknown reason. The Arkansas is still a little high at 1400 cfs, but it will continue to go down the next few weeks, and will begin its’ big drop the middle of August when rafting season is over. I hear that the rafting was great this year, although the numbers launch was not used much with the river so high. GOOD news for gold dredgers, though, who have been watching the river stay above safe levels most of the summer. Even those that dive are not in the water much. We hear that the Elephant Rock area is beginning to show some promising gold catching bars as the water levels drop. We also hear that temperatures in Alaska this year are well below normal. Must be global warming.

Fairplay Burro Days will be this weekend, and GPOC will have their panning troughs out for the public to pan in and get a lesson or two from a few people who know a little about it. Colorado Gold Panning Championships are coming up August 1-3 in Breckenridge, too, so you have a couple of weekends to catch a prospecting show while you are out and about. Oh, Boom Days are the same weekend, and then Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista will be the following weekend. Gee, I guess that’s three weekends with prospecting shows. The Cotin Tail Gem and Mineral Show will also be at the Buena Vista Fairgrounds during Gold Rush Days. Lots to do before the river goes down!

Cache Creek is getting plenty of action this year, with probably 3 times as many people visiting than last year, and many things will be changing. Stay tuned to HookedonGold, as we bring you those changes as they occur. We will be in Breckenridge next Friday for the championships, and then at camp for a couple more weeks, so your newsletter will be suspended until August 22nd. Watch for blog postings until then.

http://stream-flow.allaboutrivers.com/Colorado/river_flow-sCO.html

Google had begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ .

Until next week……
___________________________________
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now opened TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until October 1st.
_______________________________________
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Finding Gold near Rich Hill

Rich Hill, Arizona Area






Oh my! What a difference warmer weather and digging in the dirt makes! We had the good fortune to get permission to prospect on private property in the Rich Hill area. The desert is awake and blooming. Air is warm but not stiflingly hot….yet. Snakes are out, but we did not see any. We did find gold, but not a 2 pounder. We were really there to help the owner read his wash and give him some ideas of how to go about working some of the surface until he can afford to bring in bigger equipment and excavate. He told some amazing stories of others in the area who have found hundreds of pounds of gold nuggets, but they sit on bedrock and you have to use front end loaders and elevators to get to it.

Because we helped him the first time we were there, weren’t there to just “take his gold”, and were happy just to have the day out and the opportunity, we were invited back. Believe it or not, manners and politeness matter even in the back country.

We had been talking about researching your area the past couple of weeks, and this is a good example of how to get really good information……know someone, or know someone who knows someone. Locals have the best information about their areas. Yes, it takes time to make those connections, and sometimes you get lucky meeting someone. The only way to make those connections, though, is to be out there finding gold. Enjoy!

Good Prospecting to You,
Hookedongold

HookedonGold Gazette

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $923.20 Market was not closed today until 3:30 p.m. MST. The newsletter is late waiting for the market to close.
· Spot price Jan. 25th: $907.90
______________________________________

Calendar of Events

FEBRUARY

TUCSON GEM, MINERAL, and FOSSIL SHOW – Tucson, Az.
13th GPOC Meeting 7:00 p.m. Colo. Springs
22nd – 24th Gem and Mineral Show Jefferson County Fairgrounds, Colo.

MARCH

9th Daylight Savings Time Begins in Colorado
12th GPOC General Meeting 7:00 p.m.
17th St. Patrick’s Day
20th First Day of Spring
21st Good Friday
23rd Easter
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NEWS

WOW! Have you been watching gold this week blow through the $30.00 a gram price only to sink below $895 and back today above $923? Much of it has been due to the ups and down of the dollar, but mine closures in South Africa last week have contributed.

News from our friends at the Tucson Show report higher sales in gold the first few days of the open than during the whole show last year! Why is gold more attractive this year at $900 than it was last year at $650? Oh, man do we hate that we are not there this next week.

Platinum has increased in price this month to $1870, an increase of some $400 an ounce since the first of the year.

DeBeers is in the news this last week having settled on complaints that they have been controlling and gouge pricing the consumer sine 1997. Read the article at http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/BuyADiamondGetARefund.aspx .

The new site template is almost finished and is looking great. The photo albums will have a different look temporarily until a script can be developed for what I want. It will hold up publishing the new look, so we will put up a temporary fix until the other can be finished. Could be this next week!

Weather is HUGE here right now. Today almost all mountain roads are closed due to blowing snow and 70 to 80+ mph winds. Tonight is supposed to be worse. In addition, I25 is shut down from I70 north to 58th Avenue due to a water main blow out. It could be a week or more before all of that part is reopened. The HOV lanes are being used to get traffic through, and a couple of temporary lanes may be opened later today or tomorrow.

Something FUN going on in Denver starting next Friday is the Gold Show at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Hooked on Gold will join GPOC doing some panning demos for teachers on the 16th at the museum, so I am sure we will all get a chance to see the gold show while we are there. It will be similar to the show in Houston that their museum put on a couple of years ago. Sorry, but pictures are not allowed in the museum, so we aren’t going to be able to get any to you. Check out www.dmns.org for more info.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide gold panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com .

Until next week……
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If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT FOR THE WINTER UNTIL APRIL 1, 2008.
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Good Prospecting to You,
Larry and Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
http://www.thevideosense.com/user/MQS/ Prospecting Videos
www.hookedongold2.com Looking for metal detectors on e-Bay? Click here
info@hookedongold.com contact us

Gold Hunting in Arizona Postponed

Have you ever had a trip planned, packed for, and you were SOOOO ready to get away and go prospecting and looking forward to finding some gold, to have some emergency come up a few hours before departure that made the trip still possible, but not all you had wanted it to be?

Well, 16 hours before we were to leave to go to Arizona and the Tucson show, a family emergency came up at my brother's house that meant if we continued with our trip, it was very likely we would be unable to visit with him and his family, and we would miss a very important propsecting opportunity. We already knew that driving would be hazardous on Sunday, and the weather would not be good for prospecting until Wed, but we had still been willing to go until his called made everything seem futile.

We will not be going to Arizona until the end of March, not attending the Tucson show this year, not selling emeralds, not buying gold, not finding gold, not visiting with our many friends and aquaintances in Tucson, not leaving the snow for a few weeks. It has taken me this long to actually be able to tell you this.

However, there still is the gift show at the end of the month where I can get a new supply of mining desgn scenes, mining themed gifts, to put onsite soon, work on the new template and getting the new items on site later this month. We also can now attend a very important demo for school teachers on the 16th at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, just in time to unfold their new gold show. It also means you will get another newsletter this Friday. Lots of gold news to report on.

I don't know how the weather is where you are, but we are getting hit with snow every couple of days. Fortunately, the city is not getting more that a coupe of inches each time, but even we are above average in snow for this winter season. Some of the mountain areas are at 240% of snowpack for this year, and our biggest snows are usually in March. How's the weather where you are?