Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Newsletter

Transcription

1 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Newsletter A Non Profit Organization Established May 8, 1997 President s Corner February 2018 Hello fellow prospectors, Hello 2018, and what a great year it s going to be! We ended 2017 on a positive note with a great turnout for the Christmas Potluck. We had a capacity crowd at the Fresno Flats Museum who enjoyed the Christmas Gift Exchange along with our great year-end raffle. May I take a moment to congratulate Director, Carol DaSilva who was our Christmas Nugget winner. She also prepared a great beef stew that was enjoyed by all. We had some special guests who were visiting from Switzerland join us for the potluck. We presented the family a Chunky Monkey Bag of Coarsegold Prospectors Dirt and welcomed them to our meeting. I heard later they joined the club! In January, the newly elected board met at Fresno Flats Museum. It is my great pleasure to announce that Dave Hill volunteered to be the Editor for the Club. The Board also voted to change the newsletter from a monthly letter to a quarterly letter. Dave s first edition should be available soon. Thank you Dave and we look forward to many concise, informative newsletters. We also created the new Events Calendar for 2018 that will be posted to the website. In February we are going to move the Desert Run back to Presidents day weekend and the following weekend, February 24 and 25 th we will have an outing at Garrett Wimer s property in Prather. This will be our official meeting and raffle location for the month of February. Gayle, Dave Hill and I visited the property recently and it s beautiful right now. Hopefully we will receive some more rain by then and have more water available. Gayle will be sending directions to the property but we can always meet you at the Shell Station in Prather and guide you to the property. If you are not sure we can meet at the Shell Station in Prather at 9:00 a.m. If you can get the Newsletter by , please do and save club funds. Dave at lacyhill@comcast.net, Attn Newsletter. Thank You, Your President, Frank Benard P a g e 1

2 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors 2018 Board Members President FrankBenard Treasurer & Membership: Gayle Proffitt Crampton Vice President & Parliamentarian: Claude Wilson Claims & Editor: David Hill Secretary: Leslie Eidsness Claims & Ways & Means: MikeEidsness Board of Director: Carol DeSilva Board of Director: Ann Borella

3 Notes from Treasurer and Membership Director, Gayle Proffitt-Crampton 1) Members who have not paid their annual dues yet, please do so, the grace period ends February 24th, ) Members need to have a signed copy of our updated liability release on file with the Membership Director if they are going to be on our claims. The renewal application is on the last page of this newsletter. Lifetime members can disregard the $35.00 dues. 3) If any members have prospecting equipment they are not using, please consider donating it to the Club to put in our raffle. Notes from Newsletter Editor, David Hill A huge Thank You to our previous Editor, Kelly Hall for his many years of service to our club! I always look forward to getting each new issue of the newsletter. I will do my best to continue producing an interesting, informative newsletter. I welcome any suggestions of news or articles of interest to our members. You can call/text my cell or me at lacyhill@comcast.net with suggestions. Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Starts New Scholarship Fund Coarsegold Gold Prospectors is an accredited non-profit organization. We enjoy giving back to our great mountain communities and the families that reside here. We recently adopted a new program: a scholarship fund. Each year we will select students from our two local High Schools to receive our scholarship. Our goal is to help make it easier for these students to pay for their tuition, books and other costs associated with their desire to better themselves through an accredited institution. We will work in coordination with the counselors at the High Schools to help us in making our decisions as well as monitoring and dispersing funds to these students. This assures that they are maintaining the attendance and other factors required to receive the disbursements during their enrollment. We ask that you help us in helping our local students further their education, through Junior College, Universities or accredited Trade Schools. We have no set donation amount. We only ask that you donate what you are able to. Everything helps!!! Please go to our website Coarsegoldprospectors.com and click on the Scholarship Tab. Thank you for your donation and for making it a little easier for our young students and their families! P a g e 3

4 Seventeen Things I Love About Gold Prospecting, by David Hill 1. Spinning a pan of concentrates and watching a flake of gold get larger with each swirl 2. A good pan after a gold slump 3. Sharing stories around the campfire with fellow prospectors 4. When Carol and Ann cook dinner 5. Finding garnets and other minerals in concentrates 6. The rare day when I find more gold than Don Garret 7. Getting the bedrock so clean you could eat off it 8. Falling asleep to the sound of the creek 9. Jumping in a deep pool on a hot day 10. Waking up and realizing I m in the mountains on a prospecting trip 11. The sound of rain on the roof of my van 12. Splitting a piece of slate bedrock and seeing visible colors inside 13. Enjoying the night sky: meteors, satellites, Milky Way, moonrise 14. Finishing a hard day of digging with a nice red solo cup of wine 15. While sniping, fanning the bedrock reveals a picker 16. Walking the creek looking for a new hot spot 17. When the gold from a trip covers the bottom of a vial What are your favorite things about gold prospecting? them to me at lacyhill@comcast.net and I ll compile them in a future newsletter. Water Conditions OnSome Of Our Claims on February 7, 2018 Bull Creek from bridge (L): enough water flow to sluice. Bonell Gulch along mine road (R): scattered pools, long dry stretches, a few places with trickling flow. Ladybug Gulch (not pictured): a few pools also. P a g e 4

5 A Voice From Above, By David Hill On a crisp Autumn day a few years back, I was prospecting in the San Joaquin River Gorge upstream of Millerton Lake. It was a rare day when the water flow out of the powerhouse was low enough to wade across to get at the better ground on the Madera County side. Excited, I quickly set up my Le Trap sluice box in a riffle area and weighed it down with a couple of rounded river rocks. I turned my attention to a gravel deposit nearby that had yielded some decent color previously, shoveling and washing material through a quarter-inch screen. Preoccupied with my task, I didn t notice that PG&E had bumped up the flow through the powerhouse. Still facing the bank, I heard a sound like the voice of God coming from above: THERE IS A SLUICEBOX FLOATING DOWNTHE RIVER! Startled, I jumped up to see that indeed, my trusty Le Trap was about 20 yards downstream, a green raft headed for Lake Millerton. I stumbled down the gravel bar in my chest waders, not gaining any ground at first as I pursued the Le Trap. Luckily, the riffle flowed into a deep pool and the green vessel slowed down in its voyage. Gaining ground now, I saw that downstream of the pool the next riffle was bounded by high granite walls on both sides of the river. I had one chance at saving my Le Trap at the top of the riffle. Finally getting ahead of the sluice, I slipped and stumbled on the algae-covered rocks to about waist-deep water, reached out and miraculously got hold of the wayward escapee. Heart still racing, I walked back upstream to see a group of guys on the Fresno County side laughing at me. It turns out the voice I heard wasn t God after all, but belonged to a member of the Delta Gold Diggers there for a prospecting outing. After anchoring the Le Trap more securely this time, I sluiced the material I had dug before re-crossing the river before PG&E decided to increase the flow again. I wish I could say my adventure resulted in a pile of gold, but I only recovered a few dozen shiny flat San Joaquin River colors that day. At least I didn t lose a $90 sluice! If you have a gold story you d like to share with the club, the Editor at lacyhill@comcast.net Here is 29 Grams of Gold (almost 1 ounce) Found in Bonell Gulch by a Member P a g e 5

6 2017 Christmas Party at Fresno Flats P a g e 8

7 CGP Upcoming Outings for 2018 Meetings start at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning, changes will be ed to you February 17 & 18 February 24 & 25 March 23 March 24 & 25 April 28 & 29 May 26 & 27 June 23 & 24 July 28 & 29 August 25 & 26 September 29 & 30 October 27 & 28 November 10 December 8 January 26, 2019 Feb. 16 &17, 2019 Feb. 23 & 24, 2019 March-Dec Desert run to Goler Heights near Randsburg, CA Big Sandy Creek, Prather, CA (trailers not recommended) Maintenance work day, Smitty s Claim (near Bonell Gulch claims) Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Texas Flat (Willow Creek), coin shoot Big Creek (& Willow Creek) Texas Flat (Willow Creek) Bonell Gulch & surrounding claims Desert run to Goler Heights near Randsburg, CA Fresno Flats Museum, Thanksgiving potluck, bring favorite side dish Fresno Flats Museum, Christmas potluck, bring favorite side dish Fresno Flats Museum Board Meeting, no raffle or outing Desert run to Goler Heights near Randsburg, CA Big Sandy Creek, Prather CA (trailers not recommended) To be determined at January 2019 Board meeting 2018 Non-Outing Events February 24 & 25 GPAA Gold & Treasure Show, Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona CA March 10 & 11 Mother Lode Mineral Society Rock & Gem Show, Stanislaus Co. Fairgrounds, 900 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA April 7 & 8 April 21 & 22 May 4 August 18 & 19 September 15 November 3 Mariposa Gem & Mineral Show, Mariposa Co. Fairgrounds, Hwy miles S. of Mariposa (we are educating & vendors at this show) GPAA Gold & Treasure Show, Southpoint Hotel, Las Vegas 65 th Annual Coarsegold Rodeo (we are educating here) Delta Gold Diggers 4 th Annual Gold & Outdoor Festival, Mother Lode Fairgrounds, 220 Southgate Dr., Sonora, CA (we are vendors here) Oakhurst Heritage Days, Fresno Flats Historic Park, Oakhurst, CA(we are educating here) Pomegranate Festival, Madera Fairgrounds (we are educating & vendors here) P a g e 9

8 Coarsegold Gold Prospectors P. O. Box 152 Coarsegold, CA Membership Application/Renewal: Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Association P.O Box 152 Coarsegold, CA Coarsegoldprospectors.com Please print Last Name FirstName Phone Address City State Zip Membership Dues: Individual/Family $35.00 Annually New Renewal Release of Liability: Coarsegold Gold Prospectors Members purchase the right to use the Association s mining facilities and services as is, and each Member further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Coarsegold Gold Prospectors and its leasers from all claims, liabilities, losses and expenses incurred by reason of injury to any person or property, arising from use by that Member, Member s family or Member s guests on Coarsegold Gold Prospectors facilities. Annual dues are from January to December. Members are age 18 and above. If a family member is age 18 he/she will have to join as a Member. Each Member also agrees to carry personal accident insurance. I have read and understand the above section. Signature Date P a g e 10