B5F41I1

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GARY MANGIACOPA ARCHIVE
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Title:      B5F41I1
Slug:       b5f41i1
Categories: Lost Treasure
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from all the
staff at GTH!
Happy Holidays
Contents
VOLUME 10 ISSUE 6 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1997
Cover Story:
Gold, Diamonds and Rubies in the Forbidden
Zone!
by Dave McCracken
Adventure in the stronghold of the Khmer Rouge.
Fiction:
A Merry Christmas for Boys Ranch
by Barbara Barton
page 8
An orphanage in need of funds, an unexpected treasure, and
an elderly woman who doesn't believe in Christmas. page 4
History:
Kimberly, Queen of the Utah Gold Camps
by Robert L. Foster
A look at a mine and a town in the Utah mountains just wait-
ing to be reborn.
How-To:
Save the Day and Find Your Way
"Who Hunted the Beach"
Puzzle See page 52
page 19
On The Lighter Side:
Of Mice and Men
Weekend Prospector's Q and A Column
by Patrick O'Brien
Lighthearted Australian friends plan well for a dredging
trip--they think!
"Scatter My Ashes..."
by Ron Callender
by Bob Bass
Directions that will keep you on the right track!
page 23
Overseas:
by Jim Straight
A myriad of problems encountered by readers are
answered by Jim.
page 6
Lost Mine:
Lee's Lost Mine
by Gary Hinkley
The story of John D. Lee, his ferry on the Colorado, and his
lost mine.
Lost Treasure:
Treasure of Julian Behuaud
by Dorothy Rieke
page 25
This story of gold, hidden by a recluse, and mostly forgotten
for many years, offers a good lead by a relative.
Metal Detecting:
They Spoke the Language of Gold
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
page 14
Searching the bank of the lower Colorado River provides
Jude' with some very unexpected finds!
Metal Detecting:
New Mexico's Old, Abandoned Adobes
by Ken Weinman
page 16
Little known or hunted, these treasured relics of New Mexico's
past can be fruitful.
page 33
page 41
The story of Ron's 40-year odyssey in search of the goldfields
and gold of Crawfordmoor (Scotland).
Research:
Do You Have Something To Hide?
by Kenneth Bain
Tips that will help find, as well as hide, treasure.
page 36
page 31
Special Events California's Sesquicentennial:
Panama's Role in the Gold Rush
by Jake Brouwer
A look at the "route of choice" to California's Gold Rush.
True Adventure:
High Mountain
Terror
by Sam E. Phifer
An unexpected storm
brings danger to a
routine contract.
page 48
On our Cover: A Cambodian soldier dips his hand into the river and brings
up rubies in every handful!
Inset: A beautiful, large sapphire discovered near Pailin, Cambodia.
Page 39
DEPARTMENTS
Editor's Column, page 2
In The News, page 11
Website Info,
page 13
Letters, page 46
Books, page 47
Classified Ads, page 53
Calendar of Events, page 54
Dealers, Advertisers, page 54
Gold & Treasure Hunter - November/December 1997 3
E

[PAGE BREAK]

Contents
VOLUME 10 ISSUE 4 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1997
Cover Story:
England Bound!
NG
Gold & Silver
Oldies
CRYPTOGRAM
See page 52
Michael O., Smith
I look at how to plan, what to expect.
Fiction:
The Pedlar of Swaffingham
page 12
History:
by Jeremy Gadd
A pedlar who finally listens to the voices he hears, which
leads to an adventure.
page 6
The Yukon Territory's Fortymile
by Ron Wendt
This well preserved ghost town gives up its clues to the for-
tunes men made there in the past.
page 39
How-To:
The Ultimate Desert Treasure - Water!
by B.G. Revis
Product Report:
Field Test Fisher's
New CZ-7
--
Quicksilver
by Jude' Colleen Kendrick
Research:
page 9
Quartzsite Digging Report
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
An update on this popular winter recreation area.
page 48
This how-to could save your life!
--
page 14
How To Buy A Used Metal Detector...Cheap
by Phil Philcox
Special Events California's Sesquicentennial:
James W. Marshall - Opportunity to Poverty
by Richard H. Peterson, Ph.D.
page 42
A look at the unusual man who started
California's Gold Rush.
page 24
Issues:
California Mercury Mine Case Could Answer
Lord of The Northern Mines
Touchy Legal Questions
by William S. Pierson
by Cindy Hayostek
Sierra City. California's Kentucky Mine.
page 7
An enlightening look at what mine owners face.
page 31
Travel:
Lost Treasure:
The Sergeant's Gold
Arizona - The Grand Canyon State
by Phil Philcox
Page 37
by Gary Hinkley
Treasure:
This story of gold discovered and lost again in this century, in
The Hunter's Treasure
a well-known location, may interest many of you.
page 18
by W. Craig Gaines
Page 49
Metal Detecting:
Coinshooting My Own Backyard
by Henry Langseth
An experienced detectorist offers some valuable tips on
keeping records and their use.
page 26
Overseas:
Going Around In Circles
by Ron Callender
Ron and his wife tour the Victoria, Australia gold fields in
three days!
Poetry:
The Men That Don't Give In
by Daniel Dictus
page 22
page 46
On our Cover: Finds made in England by Michael O. Smith
(Inset photo), dating from 1400 B.C., while on a group tour
For a complete rundown of the finds, see his story on page 12
of this issue.
2 Gold & Treasure Hunter - September/October 1997
True Adventure:
Priorities
by Bob Rethwish
What can happen
when
you mix up
page +
Danger!
Dredging Below
the Chute!
by Marcie Stumpf|
A story every dredger
should read.
page 50
DEPARTMENTS
Editor's Column, page 3
Books, page 17
Calendar of Events, page 17
In The News, page 20
FMDAC Column, page 46
Classified Ads, page 53
Advertiser Index, page 54
Dealers, page 54
your priorities!
e
A
b
CBSSPPATE

[PAGE BREAK]

er
600X25L
G
40
W
CC
RESEARCH
QUARTZSITE
DIGGING M
REPORT
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
CLAIMED! NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS
POINT! REMOVAL OF MINERAL
MATERIALS STRICTLY PROHIBITED!
hese were the signs that kept getting in my path this
past winter in Quartzsite, Arizona. Areas that I had
always prospected in were now covered with new
claim markers. I saw enough white PVC pipe markers to do
the plumbing of a grand hotel!
So I thought that I would help out a bit for this coming
winter and supply all of you diggers with a few suggestions.
There are still public lands open to mining around
Quartzsite, but it changes every year. Because of this, I would
suggest checking with the local BLM Ranger and he or she
will give you the updates. This past year, the Dome Rock area
was still open and people were getting fair amounts of gold.
Now a couple of alternatives to public lands: many of the
owners of "working mines" are allowing people to prospect on
their claims on a "daily fee" basis. Some are as low as $5 a
day. There were several people whom I spoke with who
10000
BBoyle
Above: Jude' Kendrick on the desert near Quartzsite, loaded
down with mining gear, and ready for whatever is needed.
"EUREKA! A UNION SOLDIER'S BUTTON!"
were prospecting in this way. So, it doesn't hurt to ask
when you spot someone working these mines. Hint: If
you see a property aggressively marked with "No
Trespassing" signs, don't bother.
The best alternative I found was the new Quartzsite
Prospecting Club. The club was organized by two pro-
fessional miners, Leland Weeks and Brad Kole. They
hold, and have also acquired for the club, over 1,000
acres of gold bearing properties.
I personally worked all of the claims and there was
gold on all of them (I got some nice clinkers, too)!
Leland and Brad started the club because of all the
closures. They will take you out to see the properties
and if you sign up they are always willing to help new-
comers out and show you how to use your equipment.
The cost of the club is $60 for one year. All you
have to do is see Marilyn Melquist at the Nugget Patch
in Quartzsite. The address is 225 N Central (Hwy. 95
[AD] north), and her phone number is 520/927-8833.
Marilyn is a gold prospector and has also been
known to take newcomers out in the field to help them
learn how to nugget shoot. You can also write to
Marilyn at Quartzsite Prospecting Club, P.O. Box
2622, Quartzsite, AZ 85346.
So, keep this in your file and when you head for
Quartzsite this winter, check it out-it will be worth it!
48 Gold & Treasure Hunter - September/October 1997

[PAGE BREAK]

METAL DETECTING
Language of Gold
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
WHAT DID
A CANADIAN, A
FRENCHMAN,
A GERMAN, AND AN
ENGLISHMAN ALL
HAVE IN COMMON?
had packed up and hit the road this
I past winter and my first stop was
Angeles, I spent all of my hunting years
studying stories mostly pertaining to
southern and central California. I had
only researched the southwest Arizona
area for about three months and was look-
ing forward to the years ahead, digging
through Arizona's old bookstores and
libraries. Yet, my three months paid off.
After a few weeks of prospecting,
nature reared her nasty head for about
five days, so I decided it was time to do
some treasure hunting or at least give my
detectors some exercise. I had a couple of
friends visiting and searching for trea-
sures appealed to them a lot more than
helping me dig for gold.
I decided to track down some of the
old ports along the Colorado River. I cer-
tainly was aware that most, if not all, of
the evidence of their existence would be
gone. Yet, I was determined to find some
sign of the ports or of their inhabitants.
Years I had hunted the California side
ago
of the river and had found a few little
goodies.
The Colorado River was the "super
highway" for Arizona and southern
California starting around 1852, when
steamboats carried settlers, merchants.
and particularly miners, and provided
transportation for supplies and ore ship-
ments. Many of the smaller ports were
Jude with her finds from "Foreigner's Bend," near La Paz
on the Arizona bank of the lower Colorado River.
the miners' only hope for purchasing their
much needed supplies for their journey
into the goldfields. Thousands of the
lower California miners, having worked
the played-out areas of the state, jumped
on the band wagon via the Bradshaw
Trail and the Mojave Trail to try their
luck on the Arizona side. On their minds
were the words "La Paz Diggings," and
dreams of the riches from mines in the
magnificent Castle Dome and Kofa
Mountains. The largest and most produc-
tive mine was the King of Arizona and, as
I understand it, because everything from
the mine was marked K of A, the moun-
tains were then called the Kofa's.
I had obtained several of the old river
maps of the 1860's that showed the small
ports of Olive City, Mineral City, Weaver,
Dismal Flats. Three Point Bend, and
Sleeper's Bend. No mileage of course,
but that didn't matter. Oh, sure! Also,
according to a few books that I had read,
between the major crossing at Yuma and
the ferry at Ehrenberg, there were several
"no name" ports and small settlements
along the river.
On the Arizona side of the Colorado
River, just south of the town of
Ehrenberg, there is a good dirt road that
16 Gold & Treasure Hunter - November/December 1997
straddles the river for several miles. I
drove it as far as the Cibola National
Wildlife Refuge, which you can drive
through, but no digging! I am not sure
how much further the road continues
south, but believe it is pretty far.
All the time that I was driving, I was
realizing that the river has risen and fall-
en thousands of times and that some of
my evidence is probably underwater or
just plain washed away. I was looking for
anything lumber, rock walls, or areas
that could be used as resting or camping
spots. I drove several miles without see-
ing a thing and was driving my friends in
tow crazy by pulling over every ten yards
or so. My "enemy" was the tall river
reeds on both sides of the road that were
probably hiding my treasures.
After about an hour, I came to a spot
on my left where there were remains of
an adobe and rock building. I wasn't sure
if this was one of the ports, but I hopped
out of the truck and started investigating.
There was trash everywhere, old and new,
and after detecting countless "throw
aways," I decided to continue on down
the road. Besides, this building was a
neon sign for other detectorists. I wanted
a less obvious place.

[PAGE BREAK]

At this point in the day, I was now
searching for a lagoon or inlet for my dog
Treasure to play in and for us to stop and
take a lunch break. About two miles past
the old structure, I found a place that was
safe for Treasure, so off she went and we
started our lunch. Talking to my friends,
my eyes were wandering off (how rude!)
across the road where I was noticing a
large sort of high, flat area. I thought
that if this area had been above water in
the old days, it would have been a great
resting place for miners or travelers. By
my vague calculations, I thought that I
also might be looking at the site of one of
the smaller ports; so after eating I walked
over and started detecting. My friends
decided that it would be more fun to stay
and play with Treasure.
Within a very short period of time, my
detector rang out, and after digging three
inches or so, there was my prize-a coin!
A silver coin! An 1888 Canadian 5-cent
piece! Well, luck had picked it for me. I
ran across the road, told my friends
(NOW they wanted to join me) and
grabbed Treasure and tethered her to a
large bush that was up on the flat area. I
was definitely staying!
I walked around for a few minutes and
tried to envision the area with people in
it-where they would rest, find shade,
etc. There were several more bushes like
the one I'd tied Treasure to, towards the
east, so I went to detect there. My detec-
tor started scraming over a lot of modern
junk and then that "coin bang" rang out
and I dug up (in total DISBELIEF) an
1867 English shilling!! Now this was get-
ting weird! I detected feverishly for
almost another two hours and assumed
that my luck was spent, so I decided to
call it a day. After rounding my friends
up, I went over to get Treasure, who was
asleep under her bush. After unleashing
her, I thought I would try one last shot at
the bush that she was tied to, and almost
as quickly as the coil hit the ground, off
went a double signal -- right where
Treasure had been! I jokingly said to my
friends "It's just another foreign coin."
Well, it was no joke! About 1-1/2 inches
down I pulled out a 1914 Republique
Francaise 2 Centimes coin! A very, very
thin coin, but in good condition.
I had stumbled upon an early United
Nations meeting place! Now the second
part of that double signal was right at the
base of the bush and about a foot from the
first. That signal produced an old, solid
silver watch fob type "thing" with the ini-
tials ARA engraved on it. On the back
was marked "GERMANY!"
This whole area was unreal and I
decided to nickname it "Foreigner's
Bend." I started thinking that at all these
separate time periods, possibly four sepa-
rate countrymen shared the same dream
the dream of gold and riches. Gold
might have been their universal language.
So if you are wintering in Quartzsite,
Arizona, or just having a picnic along the
Colorado in the spring or fall -- do a little
research first, grab your detector, ignore
your friends when they talk to you and
you never know what you'll find. Good
Luck!! ☐
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[AD] Dept. M, Albuquerque, NM 87192-0875.
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Gold & Treasure Hunter - November/December 1997 17

[PAGE BREAK]

CONTENTS
VOLUME 7 ISSUE 3 MAY/JUNE 1994
Photos: Highbanking photo by Marc Rogers, treasure photo
by Ron Callender, gold photo by Michael M.Miller.
FEATURES
GETTING THE MOST FROM
MILLION DOLLAR DAY
MOTHER EARTH
AT THE 16 TO 1
33
31
By Mark E. Battersby
By Candace Hale
WAITING FOR DISCOVERY
By Ron Callender
1853 GOLD PIECE
8 BRAGGING RIGHTS TO AN
By David R. Toussaint
36
GETTING COINS OUT OF GRAVEL
WITHOUT A HASSLE
12
WHISKEYTOWN,
By H. C. Walters
KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
By Marcie Stumpf
40
40
THE LITTLE TIN RETURNS HOME
By Cheryl Poor
15
DO-IT-YOURSELF MINING
OFFERED
555
51
"FALLING" FOR HIGHBANKING
22 By Rollin Moseley
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
IS THIS MR. LEE?
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
24
24
DEPARTMENTS
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
39
PRODUCT RELEASE
39
LETTER FROM OUR READERS
48
PRODUCT REVIEW
27
BOOK REVIEW
43
NEWS RELEASE
52
ADVERTISER INDEX
54
INDUSTRY UPDATES
46
46
EQUIPMENT DEALERS
54
CLASSIFIEDS
53
Gold & Treasure Hunter - May/June 1994 5

[PAGE BREAK]

GOLD & TREASURE
HUNTER
DAVE MCCRACKEN publisher & editor-in-chief
JANICE TROMBETTA, managing editor, production
and distribution manager
MARIA MCCRACKEN advertising director and
design & layout
DOYEN SALSIG copy editor
MARCIE STUMPF, staff writer
[AD] KAREN DAVIS (916) 493-2062
administrative coordinator
[AD] BILL STUMPF (916) 493-2062
circulation manager
JAMES BRUNER, R.M. CALLENDER,
LEONARD M. MELMAN, PAM SELBERT,
FRANCIS X. SCULLEY, RON WENDT
contributing editors
EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTION
MICHAEL GOSSAGE
GOLDPANNERS ASSOCIATION
12 PIKEPURSE LANE
RICHMOND, NORTH YORKSHIRE DL10 4PS
ENGLAND
[AD] Gold and Treasure Hunter (ISSN 1064-7295)
is the official publication of the Modern Gold
Miner & Treasure Hunter's Association
(MGMTHA). Distributed worldwide, the maga-
zine is published bimonthly: Jan/Feb, March/
April, May/June, July/August, Sept/Oct, Nov/
Dec. Subscriptions may be obtained by send-
ing a check or money order in the amount of
[AD] $15 U.S./ $23 U.S. foreign per year to: Sub-
scriptions, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA
[AD] 96039, telephone (916) 493-2062. Subscrip-
tion price includes postage and handling. Sec-
ond-class postage paid Happy Camp, CA
96039, and additional mailing entries. POST-
MASTER: Send address changes to Gold &
Treasure Hunter Magazine, P.O. Box 47,
Happy Camp CA 96039. Copyright © 1994
by Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunter's As-
sociation, all rights reserved on entire contents.
The contents may not be reprinted without
written permission from the MGMTHA. For in-
formation regarding membership or editorial
submissions, write or call Gold & Treasure
Hunter, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039,
[AD] (916) 493-2062. (Physical address: 27 Davis
Road, Happy Camp, CA 96039) Volume 7,
Issue 3. Printed in U.S.A.
Gold & Treasure Hunter cannot be responsible for
claims made by advertisers or the editorial accuracy
or the authenticity of editoral content. Submitting
manuscripts: Manuscripts submitted for publication
must be accompanied by full return postage and
freelancer's Social Security #. Although every pre-
caution is taken, Gold & Treasure Hunter assumes
no liability for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs
or illustrations.
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
DAVE MCCRACKEN
Our Recent Industry Success
Is From Pulling Together!
By now, most people know the Cali-
fornia Department of Fish and
Game (DFG) released an amended Draft
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and
proposed regulations for suction dredg-
ing which are much more "user
friendly" than the earlier Draft and the
earlier proposed regulations which
DFG has been pushing for the past two
years.
This EIR, when finalized and
adopted, will likely be the environ-
mental legal foundation which supports
suction dredging in California for at least
the next decade. Material from the
Draft is likely to be exported to other
states.
The bottom line of the Draft is the
California Department of Fish and Game
is saying that when done in confor-
mance with their proposed regulations,
suction dredge activity in California
poses less than a significant negative
impact on the state's fish and game re-
sources. This is the result of over a year of
intensive gathering and compilation of all
the information and study data available
concerning dredging and wildlife by DFG
staff and their best biologists. I know I
don't need to tell you that this is a major
success for our industry. Since far, far
more dredging activity takes place in
California than in any other state, this
opens up the door for small-scale miners
in other states to petition their state
agencies to take a look at the final
conclusions made by California DFG
and perhaps improve regulatory condi-
tions in those states, as well.
How did all this happen? As many of
you may recall, just a year ago California
DFG cancelled all standard suction
dredge permits in California; things
never looked worse for our industry.
The answer is that we organized and
pulled together!
First, the various groups within our
industry put the word out to their mem-
berships, and through the various indus-
try publications, that letters and phone
calls were needed to the Governor and
the state lawmakers. Our industry re-
sponded; and sources inside the DFG
have told me the Department has never
received that many letters and phone
calls on any other issue in the history of
the agency! In turn, the Governor's office
and state legislators put pressure on
DFG to find reasonable and workable
solutions in the regulation of our indus-
try. The Department then asked indi-
viduals representing the most active or-
ganizations (on this issue) within our in-
dustry to meet with them to try and find
reasonable solutions.
After a number of meetings in Red-
ding and Sacramento, the Department
published the current Draft and pro-
posed regulations which are substan-
tially improved over earlier versions.
Not everyone is going to like every-
(Please turn to page 19)
Gold & Treasure Hunter - May/June 1994 3

[PAGE BREAK]

TRUE ADVENTURE
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
IS THIS MR. LEE?
PROSPECTORS
CONFRONTED BY
GHOST WHILE
SEARCHING FOR
GOLD!
or years I have been
For and
reading
zines about lost mines and treasure sites
being "guarded" by ghosts. Basically, I
have always read these articles purely as
entertainment pieces, although I've al-
ways been
open minded towards any-
thing unless it is absolutely disproved.
But this story that you're about to
read, and the photos that you see, are
not from old treasure tales. This hap-
pened to me--and I have yet to explain
it! Before I go further, I have to tell you
that I am not a crazy person. In fact,
except for being "different, as my
friends put it, because I prospect for
gold and chase treasures, I am actually a
very normal person. So--I won't begin
this story with "It was a dark and stormy
night...!"
I had been out in the old Dale
Mining District, in southern California,
with my prospecting partner Gail, look-
ing for a placer gold deposit that I had
been researching. This area is basically
a lode mining district, however, there
are some placer deposits. They are diffi-
cult to find, though, as even in the
washes the gravels do not have the ap-
Top picture frame showed only
bushes and the full moon!
Bottom picture captures appari-
tion seen through author's
camera.

[PAGE BREAK]

pearance of placer carrying materials.
We had explored and drywashed the
washes for about two days.
From the first day that we went into
this area, strange things had happened
that we just joked about and then passed
off as nothing. We had been "followed"
by an X in the sky, shaped by clouds
over the Bullion Mountains. It was up
there for almost an entire day. Being
treasure hunters as well as prospectors,
Gail and I laughed and said "X marks the
spot--there must be a treasure up there!"
Weeks later we would come to realize
that our joking had a lot of truth to it.
At the end of the second day we had
stayed out in the desert longer than
usual. We normally like to reach the
highway pavement before dark, but we
found ourselves coming out of the
washes on a dirt road with the headlights
already needed and on. This trip was
during January, so darkness came early.
We reached the highway about 5:30
P.M.
Talking about our day, we headed
moon
was
west along 29 Palms Highway towards
the town of Twentynine Palms. We
were surprised that the
already starting to rise over the North
Bullion Mountains. It
was large and
completely full as it started to peak up
over the highest point of the mountain.
I wanted to get a photo of this because
it just looked so perfect--like a post
card scene.
I'm sure that I wasn't making
a heck of a lot of sense yet
Gail knew me well enough
to know that something
had frightened me!
The north side of the highway has a
wide dirt shoulder, so I pulled onto the
sand and we got out and I started taking
pictures. Since I didn't have the perfect
film for night shooting, I figured I would
take the shots anyway and just hope for
the best. I took the first shot, said some-
thing to Gail, and then looked through
my viewfinder to set up for the second
shot. Gail was standing about four or five
feet behind me.
All of a sudden, I saw (in my viewfin-
der) what you see in the photo and in
one motion pushed the button, yelled out
a gasp and jumped backwards, almost
knocking Gail down. All I kept saying
was, "Did you see that, did you see it?" I
had startled Gail by my jumping at her
but she said she was looking down the
road and asked me what I had seen.
I attempted to explain it--saying only
that it was tremendously bright, shaped
like something "almost human," above
the ground and very, very close to my
face. I also was saying I was sure that I
had gotten it on film. I'm sure that I
wasn't making a heck of a lot of sense,
yet Gail knew me well enough to know
that something had frightened me!
After I pulled myself together, I de-
cided that I would take a third shot to
see if "It" was still there. The taking of
this third shot was uneventful, but
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Gold & Treasure Hunter - May/June 1994 25

[PAGE BREAK]

getting the film back would not be un-
eventful.
Gail and I always take in our pros-
pecting trip film right away and then
usually get together in a week or so to
exchange copies. But this time, I dropped
off the film on the way home and was
there the very next morning to pick it
up. Picking up those prints was the be-
ginning of a different kind of "treasure
hunt!"
I go to a small processing store in the
valley and usually the person handing
you your order is the one who
processed the film. To my surprise, the
young man handed me the order and
said, "What in the....did you take a pic-
ture of?" Right then I knew I had
captured "It" on film. I can't recall what
I said to him, only that I wanted to get
out of the store and see what he had
seen. I flipped through the prints, finally
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coming to that first shot of the moon, and
there it was--what you see! The third
frame again only showed the darkness,
the bushes and the moon.
I felt excitement and fear all at the
same time. I knew that my camera focuses
at 18 inches, and that what was in the sky
on the photo was a bit fuzzy, so I knew
that I was right when I felt it was close to
my face. If you look, "It" is extremely
dense in parts and in other places you
can see the moon through it and the
bushes.
I couldn't wait to get home and call
Gail. I finally reached her and told her
what was on the print and said I would
get it to her as soon as I could. When she
did see it--she was shocked!
He had found this ledge in the
Bullion Mountains and had
recorded his ledge location in
San Bernardino, not making
any attempts to hide it
I spent the next week or so asking
photographers and film processors if
anything technical could have caused
this. I had thought maybe the flash did it,
yet they all said that it was not what they
call a flash-trail, and besides, it had not
happened on the other two frames. Some
of the people who viewed it literally had
their hair stand up on their arms when they
saw it. So--what was "It?"
About a month later, reading through
another book on the Dale Mining District,
a possible answer was there in print on
those pages.
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26 Gold & Treasure Hunter - May/June 1994
I came upon a story about a pros-
pector of the area named only Mr. Lee.
Mr. Lee, as the story goes, found an in-
credible ledge of gold-bearing quartz
around the 1890's. He had found this
ledge in the Bullion Mountains and had
recorded his ledge location in San Ber-
nardino, not making any attempts to
hide it. Apparently, after making a trip to
San Bernardino for provisions, Mr. Lee
was shot through the heart on his
return to the Bullion Mountain area.
The murder went unsolved. After his
death, everyone was trying to locate
the mine and the helper that he suppos-
edly had with him. He was never found
and neither was the ledge. It is said that
a large dump and an arrastra was near
his diggings. Even ex-Governor Water-
man, an experienced prospector, of-
fered a reward for finding the ledge.
No one ever claimed that reward and
apparently no one found Mr. Lee's
ledge.
I've been searching on and off since
that time for any record of exactly
where Mr. Lee took his last step. Since
29 Palms Highway was one of the main
routes then into San Bernardino, and it
runs along the base of the Bullion
Mountains, I am thinking that we took
the same road as he did.
So, the question remains--did we pull
over where Mr. Lee died? Was I
pointing my camera towards his lost
ledge? Yet the biggest question in my
mind, if I am to believe that "It" is Mr.
Lee, is, was he saying "go away" or
letting me know that I was looking to-
wards the treasure location?
I may never find the answer, but
that's all right, because this is one of
those prospecting stories that I'll
always have to tell around the campfire--
only this one will be the truth!
I did make it back to that spot during
a later trip to the area. Of course, it was
during the day this time. Nothing hap-
pened at the spot. I just stood there and
looked around for a while, but it cer-
tainly gave me a strange feeling.
If you have any information on Mr.
Lee or have something to say about this
photo, please write me through the
magazine. I would certainly be inter-
ested in anyone's input. And that in-
cludes
you, Mr. Lee!!
a
a
S
f
I

[PAGE BREAK]

Research:
Table of Contents
VOLUME 10 ISSUE 1 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1997
FEATURES
IS THERE A FORTUNE IN YOUR ATTIC?
by B.G. Revis
On The Light Side:
page 4
MURPHY'S LAW STRIKES!
by Kitty Nelson page 9
On the Light Side:
THE NEW 49'ER
by John Grunenwald
Mining Methods:
page 12
STARTING THE NEW YEAR RIGHT
by Jessy Ford page 13
Fiction:
ADVENTURE AT PIRATE'S LAKE
by Bailey H. Mapp page 15
True Story:
GOLD FOOLS
Metal Detecting:
FIRST GOLD!
by Carol F. Marshall
page 42
History:
PHONY AS A THREE-DOLLAR BILL!
by Grover Brinkman page
Gems and Minerals:
47
DIGGING FOR GLITTER
By Pamela Selbert page 48
Issues:
THE NOSE OF THE CAMEL
by William Perry Pendley
Lost Treasure
50
page
THE TREASURE OF EL TEJANO
by Gary Every
by Ben Paliferro
page 20
Valentine's Day Special Story
MY MOST VALUABLE TREASURE
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
How-To:
page 21
PROSPECTING AND MINING IN PERMAFROST
by Ron Wendt page
BOB'S BURN (CREEK)
Overseas:
by Eddy Bell
page
True Adventure:
22
25
WE DID IT! -- A couple decides to gold mine full-time.
by Bob Rethwish
Travel:
page 27
WHERE THE STREETS ARE PAVED WITH GOLD--
Ontario, Canada's rich mining district
by Sandra Downs page 30
Lost Mine:
THE HERMIT'S GOLD--A story you won't soon forget!
by Ken Hodgson
Nugget Hunting:
page 33
DETOURS OF GOLD
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
page
36
WEEKEND PROSPECTOR'S Q AND A COLUMN
How To:
by Jim Straight
page 40
DEPARTMENTS
EDITORIAL
NEWS RELEASES
19
CALENDAR
53
LETTERS
53
CLASSIFIEDS
53
ADVERTISER INDEX
& DEALERS
54
Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997 3

[PAGE BREAK]

My Most
Valuable
Treasure
VALENTINE SPECIAL
Jude has a most unexpected surprise when
her longest treasure search reaches its end!
J
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
"'ve written articles in the past about
the years spent researching certain
treasures-two, five and ten year
periods. Yet one particular hunt has been
the longest by far-44 years! This trea-
sure, my most valuable, was the hunt for
my birth father whom I had never seen
nor had he ever seen me.
Now, if you are sitting there wonder-
ing why this story would appear in this
magazine, the next paragraph will clear
that all up for you, as life certainly does
hold some great surprises.
Without going into the search and cir-
cumstances, I'll just tell you this-after
finding my father and later sending him
photos and my published articles, I
received the third or fourth letter from
him in which he wrote this unbelievable
sentence - "Jude', what a coincidence, I
have been a Treasure Hunter for almost
30 years!" I was in total shock. If there
had been any doubt that he was the right
person, that letter took care of it all.
After that letter and more questions
about where we had each been, our letters
started containing our treasure finds and
our adventures. It definitely made things
more comfortable between us.
The time finally came, two
weeks ago, for me to meet him. I live
in southern California, born and raised,
and he lives in Mississippi. You can
imagine the anxiety of the trip and what
to pack, etc., but strangely enough, my
priority was getting my detectors packed
up and shipped safely ahead of me. I
don't know too many people who would
have had their detectors as a priority in
these circumstances but I was going to be
able to treasure hunt with my father, and
I certainly couldn't have said that before!
I am obviously, at this point, unable to
go into the book-length details of the air-
port meeting, but I am sure you can all
imagine the scene. Driving to my father's
home in Hattiesburg, I was almost
silenced (believe it or not) by the beauty
of the area. As far as you could see there
were lush forests of pine trees shading the
smaller clusters of magnolia trees. As I
started noticing the old homes and evi-
dences of homes from long ago, my
instinct was to hop out of the car-detec-
tor or not! Being that I come from a much
"newer" state, I was sure there would be
a pile of old bottles and goodies just wait-
ing for me at every lot I spotted.
After arriving at the house (who could
sleep!) it was "show and tell" time. Not
what you'd
expect of family
photos and albums,
but of treasures my father had found. I'm
sure he felt something was wrong with
me as I looked at all the incredible items
as a person who had not eaten would look
at a steak! I don't believe I have uttered
the word "Wow!" so many times in my
whole life. I had only seen items that old
in other people's treasure articles.
The next day I realized that one of the
other things we had in common was our
detectors and the love of our old ones. I
have hung onto and use frequently, my
18-year-old Garrett Groundhog, despite
the fact that I own new detectors. My
father has done one better than that-he
uses his White's Coinmaster, which he
purchased in 1969, and he will not trade
it in on a new model. He told me that his
Coinmaster has never failed him. We
even had a few "discussions" on which of
our oldies was the best, but I certainly
understood his attachment to his after he
told me the story of his very first find
with the detector fresh out of the box.
My father had decided to try his luck
with the new detector on his lunch break,
one day in 1969. Apparently, a traveling
carnival had just pulled up stakes near his
Continued on page 24
Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997.21

[PAGE BREAK]

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Continued from page 21
office so he headed out to the grounds.
Not being very familiar with the detector,
he wasn't sure what was happening when
the signals started sounding all over a
large area. He pushed away a little dirt
under a signal and found a quarter! And,
to make a long story short, every signal
was another quarter, ending in a total of
over $60. Obviously, someone had
dropped the entrance money and the trac-
tor that skimmed the grounds to clean
them up just covered the coins. This was
the beginning of his fever.
My detectors finally arrived on the
third day and we were off to my father's
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house on the Gulf Coast. The sand of the
Gulf is a powder sand, definitely not what
I'm used to in California. It had rained
just prior to my arrival, which packed the
sand stone-hard! You could actually walk
on it and leave no prints. I had to alter my
methods of searching, but, it didn't take
long.
On the fifth day of the visit we head-
ed for Biloxi. Now this is an old town-
founded in 1699! Hurricane Camille had,
30 years ago, left many empty lots there.
We were passing several sets of "stairs to
nothing" and again they were calling to
me. My father explained that we needed
permission to hunt them, and there was
not enough time left in my trip for that.
We did search a few "unposted" ones and
found a few old bottles, but no pirate
hoards, which are said to be all over the
area.
There were several empty lots around
my father's Gulf house as well, areas that
were okay to hunt. But, and I'll admit it
freely, I was a little scared to hunt the lush
forest because of the snakes and "things"
that I was not familiar with. I know
California deserts and rivers and the crit-
ters there, but I am not too thrilled with
Copperheads and fire ants. So, I just
dreamt of what might be hiding in those
havens of nature.
The end of my visit came much too
soon. What did we find? Well, 157 pull-
tabs, a pair of glasses, old bottles, 37
cents and.....each other! ☐
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24 Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997
Gold Mine Engineering
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[PAGE BREAK]

NUGGET HUNTING
Above: Jude' displays her finds made with the
new Minelab XT17000.
Below: Standing next to one of the signs she had
made for her truck.
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
W
ANTED: 1/4 carat pierced
diamond earring! That is what
I
lost out on the desert this
past trip. My exchange, I suppose, for the
gold the desert gave up to me.
I recently had a week off work and
decided to do some serious nugget shoot-
ing in Quartzsite, Arizona, and as it
turned out, also on the East Fork of the
San Gabriel River in southern California,
If any of you are not familiar with
Quartzsite, it is a wonderful oasis where
RVers from all over the country come to
stay for the six-month winter season.
Much of the land surrounding the town is
open to prospecting (always make sure
you are not on an active claim, which is
easy as most are well marked).
DETOURS
OF GOLD
A HASTILY PLANNED NUGGET
HUNTING TRIP HAS
UNEXPECTED RESULTS
There were a few
obstacles in the way of
this trip, though. One of
them was that my gold
detector was sick. But,
thanks to Wilma at
Down Under Treasures
in Henderson, Nevada,
that problem was solved
when she supplied me
with
a Minelab
XT17000 (because this
was a writing trip) and
enabled me to use a
great gold detector.
Before the trip, I
had an idea for a possible way to obtain
some "side stories" for the magazine. I
am a collector of the old Desert maga-
zine. If any of you remember, a few of
their writers always had the "Desert"
logo on the side of their vehicles when
they went on their adventures. In many of
their stories they wrote that people
approached them because of the logo, and
the writers were often taken to spots of
great prospecting and rockhounding. So,
I thought, "Why not?" And, I had two
signs made for my truck doors with Gold
& Treasure Hunter on them.
On the way to Quartzsite, my friend
Cricket and I stopped in Blythe for a bite
to eat and a break from driving. Leaving
the restaurant, I noticed an elderly man
standing by my truck. As I got closer, he
wasn't moving, so I just asked if I could
help him. He said he saw the signs on the
36 Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997
truck and did it belong to me (Yeah-the
signs worked!). After convincing him that
it was my truck and that yes, I was a gold
prospector he told me that he'd recently
struck a small vein on his claim, and
would we like to see it.
I have to tell you, it's a little hard to
trust a story like that or the person telling
it, but while we were standing there talk-
ing, several people coming out of the
restaurant waved to this man and even a
Border Patrol officer said hello, so it was
obvious that he was a local and not some
"desert rat" that had just crawled in from
the sand!
GOLD and
TREASURE
HUNTER
Magazine
(C
17820 82 83
110
S

[PAGE BREAK]

No one said his name and he would
not tell me, so I didn't push the issue. He
said I could follow him to his claim,
which was in the nearby mountains, but I
was not allowed to see where he was tak-
ing me. Now, how do I do that? I'm not
very good at driving blindfolded!! Well,
he meant for me to just get there and not
observe the surrounding hills, rocks,
roads, etc. (Why in the world he trusted
me is a mystery.)
After about a half hour more of talk-
ing, Cricket and I said O.K. I had learned
a lot from some old timers and I definite-
ly wanted to see his ledge. We decided
(Cricket and I) that if the ride there was
getting too remote, we would just turn
around. Well, to our surprise, the claim
was only about 200 yards from Highway
95!
There on top of a small butte was his
working claim and on the east side was a
hand-dug trench with a vein of gold that
looked like it came right out of a mining
museum, or at least that has been the only
place I've ever seen a similar one. The
vein was about five feet long and at least
2-1/4 inches thick! He said he had opened
it up just a few days before and was going
to get much of it out that day and the next,
which would be easy, as the matrix it was
in was very decomposed. I asked, but,
sorry, no photos, no names, no nothing-
he just thought I would get a kick out of
seeing this great little strike. (I suppose if
I had some Enquirer reporter blood in me
I'd have found some way to take photos,
but I respected his request). That did it for
me! I left there "super-charged" with the
thought that I would have great luck
prospecting on this trip.
After arriving at Quartzsite and set-
ting up camp, I drove into town to let my
friend, Ed "Half-Bucket" Daugherty
know I'd arrived. Ed and I planned to do
a few days of nugget shooting in some
hot spots he had found. Well, we didn't
need the few days! The next morning Ed
and his friend John Z. arrived and the
three of us headed out to an area they'd
found just south of Dome Rock. The trip
out there was a little rough for me as I had
a broken rib and the bouncing of the truck
had me in great pain. (Now, don't say to
yourself, how silly of me to go prospect-
ing with a broken rib-because I already
know!)
Ed and John set up their drywashers
and I grabbed the XT17000 and headed
down the wash. Well, as it turned out, this
was a great drywashing area, yet there
were great hunks of Galena everywhere
in the wash which, even though the XT
ground-cancels just about everything-
these pieces were like a river of tin cans
all over the canyon. So, that day I just
drywashed with the boys.
The next morning we all took off to
another hot spot. After working the area
for a few hours with the detector, I had a
signal, faint as it was, that sounded much
different from all the others. I dug it up
and there it was-a perfect little nugget! I
had finally become a "modern gold
miner." They say "the first one is the
hardest to get" so I assumed that the rest
of the day the nuggets would just be
jumping out the the ground (not really),
but I did think it would be easier. I went
on detecting for two more hours without
finding anything more, but it didn't mat-
ter, I had my prize! Oh! It was in this area
that I lost my diamond earring as I was
fixing my hair for a photo.
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Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997 37

[PAGE BREAK]

That evening Ed and John came to
visit camp on their way out of town, and
when I brought out the nugget to surprise
everyone-I dropped it in the sand! Well,
you had to be there, but there we were,
the four of us, grabbing detectors, down
on our knees, everything-trying to find
it. It is amazing how dropped gold seems
to travel! We finaly found it and I proud-
ly displayed my treasure.
The rest of the trip to Quartzsite,
unfortunately, had me lying around camp
for two days as I had pushed my rib too
far, and was beyond my pain threshold. I
did walk up above camp for awhile and
detected the old tailings, and found a
1954 silver half-dollar.
The next morning we packed up early
and headed for home. But, I had not had
enough of my "detecting fix" so we
decided to make a detour up to the East
Fork of the San Gabriel River. There is
always gold there, if you can find it. We
parked near the site of the old mining
town of Eldoradoville and I grabbed the
XT17000 and headed down near the
bridge. Cricket took my dog Treasure
and they went off to play in the water.
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Nothing happened for over an hour,
and then, as if someone said "give this
girl a break," that same wonderful sound
came from my detector, except there
were over five signals coming from an
area about 1-1/2 feet wide. Instead of
pinpointing, I just shallow-dug the entire
area. Well, lucky me-I brought up the
first flake, the second, the third, then a
little surprise of a 1936 Buffalo nickel,
and the fourth-a beautiful coarse
nugget about the size of my pinky nail!!
I yelled YES!!
I've got to admit, I've recovered a lot
of gold in my 18 years at prospecting, but
this gold-from nugget shooting, was
the most exciting find of all!! Before we
left the area, I made sure I
got all
my
treasures on film (this time without los-
ing an earring).
On the ride home I had images of an
old prospector from the 1930's possibly
dropping his "poke" and having its con-
tents dump into that one little spot under
the bridge where it somehow remained
through all the floods. Well, you never
know, but it's there-no matter how it
got there, so Good Luck!
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but something was missing. We knew
there must be more to life, but had no
idea what it might be.
Then our answer came right out of the
blue. Carl, an old childhood friend of
ours, dropped by our home unexpectedly
one evening and surprised us with an
intriguing proposition. He said, "Bob, I
bought three placer gold claims at Big
Bar on the Trinity River. I'll pay you
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I stopped listening right after I heard
"$500 per week!" So I asked Norma,
"What do you think? You know Carl as
well as I do. You know how full of it he
is sometimes." Carl looked at Norma and
smiled.
She told me, "Why don't you try it
and see what you think? I'll take care of
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38 Gold & Treasure Hunter - January/February 1997

[PAGE BREAK]

E
Table of Contents
FEATURES
ISSUES
VOLUME 9 ISSUE 2 - MARCH/APRIL 1996
AMERICA'S SMALL-SCALE MINERS: WHO ARE THEY?
By David C. Knowlen
HISTORY
CHIEF'S BOTTLES ARE MUSEUM PIECES
By Grover Brinkman
TREASURE
THE OLDEST GOLD IN THE
WORLD By Norman A. Rubin 8
Right: Author
Jude Kendrick
looks over her
beach-hunting
finds
TRUE ADVENTURE
NORTH CAROLINA'S UWHARRIE MOUNTAIN GOLD
By Ronald Reeves
15
HAPPY CAMP REVISITED
By Ernie Pierce
18
LIGHTER SIDE
THE REFORMATION OF
BOOMTOWN
By Robert W. Swerman 21
OVERSEAS MINING
A HUGE MASS OF GOLD
By Joseph Evans
METAL DETECTING
TREASURE IN THE SAND
By Jude Colleen Kendrick 52
FICTION
DEPARTMENTS
EDITORIAL
BOTTOM OF THE PAN
28
PATRICK O'CASEY AND THE
FIELD OF DREAMS
By Cindy Barden
54
NEW PRODUCT RELEASES
56
HOW-TO
PRESS RELEASES
27
THE HOW-TO GUY
By Sam Radding
57
36
INDUSTRY UPDATES
56
LEGENDS
IN SEARCH OF VASQUEZ
TRUE ADVENTURE
HAULING GOLD BY DOG
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
TEAM
39
By Ron Wendt
59
MYSTERY
INCIDENT AT BREWSTER
MINE By Scott Lipanovich
42
ADVERTISER INDEX &
EQUIPMENT DEALERS
61
LEGAL FUND DRIVE
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
IN PRIZES!
See Page 49
CALENDAR OF EVENTS &
CLASSIFIEDS
62
Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1996 3

[PAGE BREAK]

IN SEARCH
OF VASQUEZ
LEGENDS
ntrol
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
"While I'm out hunting, I try
to put myself in the boots of
the bandits..."
trol
liburcio Vasquez was quite a man! According to his-
tory and, of course, legend, this famous Californian
Diego. His hideouts spanned the same distance and his
caches-well, they are said to be buried just about every-
where! Personally, I feel Vasquez would have needed a
"magic carpet" to be in all the places he was supposed to be.
Yet, the man did get around!
During the 1870's Vasquez both fascinated and
annoyed Californians with his audacious raids. In 1874,
the California State Legislature offered a $3000 reward for
his capture which was later raised by the Governor to
[AD] $8000.
An interesting note: Vasquez was not only a bandit, he
was a gold prospector as well. He prospected Mill Creek,
a major tributary in the Big Tujunga Canyon of the San
Gabriel mountains in southern California. He was there
during the early 1870's. He had apparently built an arras-
tre at the site. His camp was still in good condition in 1916
when Paul Beque and Tom Lucas, two early Forest
Rangers burned everything at the camp that was com-
bustible and then washed some of the gravel out from the
arrastre and recovered $6.00 in gold nuggets and dust.
Now onto the hunt! I, like hundreds of other people have
searched for his "booty" for many years. Each time, of
course, after much research, I was convinced this would be
my time to find it. I have concentrated my searches in the
southern California area near the old mining town of Acton.
The unusual rock formations, formed millions of years ago
from violent eruptions, created a maze of hiding spots for
the bandit. The formations even carry his name: "Vasquez
Rocks." This area, at least by what I have researched, real-
ly was a hideout for Vasquez and his men.
In recent years, metal detecting the rock formations has
been a little frustrating as countless commercials are being
filmed there along with the recent movie "The Flintstones."
If you like to collect movie goodies-they can definitely be
found there along with older movie things from the old
Westerns. I have found very old bullet cartridges and
Tiburcio Vasquez, legendary early Californian bandit
thought they might be from a real shoot-out, only to find out later
from their markings that they were blanks used in the Westerns
filmed there.
I have found some real "keepers" though! About 6 years ago,
hunting in an area of the rocks where I knew they hadn't filmed, I
found a very old rifle strap. The leather was hard as a rock and the
brass buckles badly corroded, yet it was still old and was evidence
of some one being there. An hour or so later my detector went off
Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1996 39

[PAGE BREAK]

with a "bang" and about 3 1/2 inches
down I found an 1872 silver dollar!
Well, I certainly felt there must be more
nearby, but I never found the "more!"
While I am out hunting, I try to put
myself in the boots of the bandits.
Where would I hide my stolen money-
even, why would I hide it, and also I
wonder if they all came back for every-
thing they buried. Vasquez supposedly
hid so much-did he return for it all?
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Did he forget where he buried some of it?
The latter is the possibility we Treasure
Hunters hope for.
One hair-raising trip-and I mean
almost literally-at Vasquez Rocks
happened when I had first started
searching there. It was a beautiful win-
ter day, with the exception of high
winds, when I arrived for my day of
hunting. I had taken a path I thought
was a good route to the top of a crest
and to my surprise, I found a grave. It
was simply marked "Mother". No date,
no name! About four hours later, I
started noticing very black clouds com-
ing in, but I was too into the hunt to
consider leaving. Until the thunder
and lightning began and about 200
yards in front of me a lightning bolt
streaked across the sky! There I was,
with my metal detector and an army
shovel-all ready to be a perfect light-
ning rod! I thought about dropping
everything, but I could not get myself
to do it. The lightning was all around
me, and I ran back to my truck as fast as
I could. I made it fine, but the next
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One other area famous for Vasquez'
presence, almost in the same area is,
Chilao or Horse Flats. It is in the San
Gabriel Mountains right off of Angeles
Crest Highway #2. Vasquez, according
to legend, stole horses from local ranch-
es and hid them on this mountain mesa. I
have hunted this area several times and
have found many horseshoes and shoe-
ing nails, so there were horses there.
The area is a campground now, and I
have also found modern things as well,
such as coins and once a pearl ring. So it
is possible that this was a hiding place
for some of his loot.
Tiburcio Vasquez was called the "last
bandit". He was captured at the home of
Greek George, a driver of the Fort Tejon
camel train. His house was located in the
vicinity of what is now Beverly Hills. He
was given the death sentence and people
actually wept as he was a quiet, educat-
ed, genial gentleman.
I have also discovered that in 1918 a
Hollywood actress by the name of Bessie
Love bought a cabin in the area of Laurel
Canyon near Los Angeles. Just after
pur-
chasing the cabin, she was warned of a
"curse" being on it and the area sur-
rounding the cabin.
Apparently, Vasquez used the hidden
canyons and caves in this area to hide
some of his stolen riches. Even then,
during Vasquez' time, fortune hunters are
said to have haunted that area-still
searching for Vasquez' hidden treasure.
Bessie moved in regardless of the
"curse" stories, but soon was experienc-
ing strange happenings and actual sight-
ings of a ghostly presence in her cabin.
After five years of hauntings, Bessie
packed up and moved.
As late as 1993, present residents of
the old bungalow cabin have been expe-
riencing odd happenings. I suppose after
a hundred years the fortune hunters are
still at work!
To reach the "Vasquez Rocks" take
the 14 Freeway (Antelope Valley
Freeway) and take the Aqua Dulce off
ramp. Go north and just follow the signs
to the park below the formations.
I believe that one day, something of
Vasquez' will be found. I hope I find it,
yet, if not, you may be the lucky person!
Good Luck! ■
40 Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1996

[PAGE BREAK]

METAL DETECTING
TREASURES IN THE SAND
"Wait for low tide
and go out to where
you can see the
bottom of the shore
incline and detect
there...'
"T
lost,
here is no beach out
here-you're
you're crazy!" These
were the words coming from my
friend, Rosemarie "Cricket" Church,
about 10 years ago, when I was dri-
ving to a little known beach, Jalama,
located in south central California.
There was nothing I could say to
convince my friend that at the end of
this 14 mile road there was a beach.
All that you see for miles is beautiful
pastures, ranch houses and cows graz-
ing. Close to the end of the drive, you
are suddenly in a mountainous area
which adds greatly to the confusion.
Until, finally, you reach the top of a
crest, pass over the railroad tracks and
there it is-the ocean!
Jalama Beach is a wonderful area
with great history and great detecting. To
throw in some pluses-you can find root-
beer-colored agate, jade and also some
empties onto the beach at Jalama, and
fossils in the eroding shale cliffs. A river
that is the site of an early Indian village of
the Chumash tribe. They called the vil-
lage "Opoo." Quite a few relics were
found years ago, and some crude tools are
still found today. These are on display in
the small general store at the beach.
There are stories that, in the 1920's
and 30's, Jalama attracted rich, health-
minded people who traveled there for the
natural hot springs. The State of
California closed off the springs in 1947.
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
Now to the good part-the detecting!
Jalama is known for its treacherous rip
tides and unpredictable surf. On a recent
trip there, the surf had apparently gone
Above: Author shown detecting at
Jalama Beach, near Lompoc
really high and deposited, high on the
beach, what I call a "shelf line." This is
an area of the sand where the surf has
picked up the coins and rings and goodies
that are offshore and brought them high
up on the sand in almost a straight line
with the ocean.
The oldest I found on this particular
trip was only in the 1940's-everything
else was from the 1960's. Along this
same "shelf line," my friend, Gail Butler,
detected an old silver woman's ring with
beautiful filigree on it. It looked very old
52 Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1996
and Spanish-or that may be wishful
thinking!
Wishful thinking-yet not impossible,
since just north of Jalama stands Point
Arquello. Many ships sank off this
point, Spanish, as well as several
ships during WWII. Since the sands
shift severely to the south, there is a
possibility that something from those
ships could end up on Jalama Beach.
I returned to Jalama three weeks
later just my dog Treasure and me.
In two days I found a heavy gold
bracelet, a man's silver band and
about $9.00 in coins-$3.25 was sil-
ver!.
Now, you don't have to go to
Jalama Beach. Winter is the best
time to go to any beach and detect
what all of the summer beach goers
left behind. Try to stay away from
the beaches that are "groomed," the
ones that use large vacuums and
sifters to pick up trash. Those beach-
es are usually barren-unless of
course, you get a few deep coins.
I feel the best time to detect is
after a big storm, when the tide has
been high and the waves pounding.
AIR
FORCE
BASE
I

[PAGE BREAK]

You are more likely to find that "shelf
line" and maybe something from an old
galleon! If you are real brave, definitely
try surf detecting. Wait for low tide and
go out to where you can see the bottom of
the shore incline and detect there. You'll
need some sort of sifter other than your
sand sifter, as the wet material doesn't
exactly go through them very well. A
wooden box
frame of PVC pipe with 1/4 inch
chicken wire works great.
If you happen to own an underwater
detector, well, then you can do just about
anything out in the surf-but, most of our
regular detectors are only safe to get the
coils wet-don't get the "brains" wet!!
I have found that my newer gold
detector works a lot better in the wet sand
areas, as they are made to cancel out high
mineralization. My older detectors work
also, but it is harder to ground cancel out
the static from the wet sands.
If you are new to metal detecting.
don't ever forget the importance of your
ear phones on the beach. In the beginning
days of my detecting, some 100 years
ago, I felt I didn't need them-but you
do! The sounds of the surf and wind can
and will cover up those faint signals of
the deep targets. Besides, they will also
keep your targets "private" in case some
on-lookers are around and hear that target
and ask "What did you find?"
Beach detecting is a great traveling
"side trip." If you are going up the coast
for any reason, throw your detector in
with your luggage and stop for a break
along any beach. You never know what
treasures that stop might bring. There are
some strange things to find on the beach-
es. On one trip, I found a miniature solid
silver skull. It was not from an earring or
necklace as it had no solder marks on it at
all, just the skull. Was it from an old
pirate ship? Well, we all have imagina-
tions, thank goodness.
To reach Jalama Beach, take the
Highway 1 exit towards Lompoc off
Highway 101 (in either direction). Take
Highway 1 approximately 6-8 miles and
you'll see signs to turn left to Jalama. A
couple of my other best detecting beach-
es are: Carpinteria Beach south of Santa
Barbara, and further south is Sycamore
Cove, north of Zuma/Malibu.
If you are planning a coastal detecting
trip, do your homework! There are miles
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upon miles of shoreline that have no
sand-just cliffs and rocks. Although
beautiful to look at, I found out the hard
way that I needed to research "where the
sand lies."
So, hit those beaches, before the
crowds return. Yet, when they do, the
whole cycle will begin again. They lose
it-we find it!! Good Luck!! ■
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Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1996 53

[PAGE BREAK]

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
New
meets
Old
by Jude Colleen Kendrick
am actually writing this article as a
form of self-defense, or at least in
order not to be blackmailed! (All in
jest, of course.)
A few weeks ago, through the office
at Happy Camp and directly through
Kay Tabbert, a New 49'er member was
given my phone number to inquire
about my collection of magazines. I
received the call early in the evening
and found myself still on the phone late
into the night.
I was talking with Kevin Donnelly,
who is a gold prospector along with his
brother, Paul. They have had great luck
up at Happy Camp and, according to
Kevin, the best instruction from Dave
McCracken.
Kevin and his brother are (compared
to myself) new to prospecting-four or
five years new. I found myself listening
to someone who had all the enthusiasm
and "fever" that I had 18 years ago
when I began chasing gold and trea-
sures. I hadn't felt that I had lost much
of mine through the years, until an
evening on the phone with Kevin. He
had read most of my articles and
seemed happy that we could "talk
shop." I was thrilled, as well, since
nobody in my group of city friends
wants to talk about gold unless it is on
their bodies!
Kevin and I spoke several times
after that and then decided to take a day
trip up to the San Gabriel River. I know
the river well and have had some great
luck there, so, I thought-it's close, it's
easy, no problem! What I did not real-
ize was that I had "softened up" through
the years. I had been choosing all of my
places throughout California, based on
where I pretty much could just drive up
and pull out my prospecting equipment.
With the exception of my extensive
Jude' handles a "delicate" situation
with an impressionable novice.
exploration of the Chuchawalla
Mountains and a few remote places
along Piru Creek, I really haven't gone
prospecting to any areas where I had to
put any effort toward getting there.
Until that Saturday morning with
Kevin.
We started out early, meeting in
Rosemead, and headed up the canyon to
the Eask Fork of the river. I knew that
we would probably do a little exploring,
but basically I figured that we would
just be nugget-shooting or sluicing
close to the road along the river. Boy,
did I
get that wrong!
With Kevin's gold fever being fresh
and strong, I found myself climbing up
and down ravines I normally only view
from my truck with binoculars. On top
of that, Kevin wanted to sample all the
ravines and tributaries. Now, I am pret-
ty strong and I considered myself in
very good shape, but I haven't carried 5-
gallon sampling buckets up and down
hills for years!
There I was, "the big prospector," as
Kevin put it-crawling on my hands
and knees praying that it was lunch
time. Kevin, continually "in the air,"
pretending to write a letter to Gold and
Treasure Hunter saying, "Dear Editor:
Here I am with the adventurous Jude'
and she has pooped out!" Very funny.
I'm glad I can take a joke, although
40 Gold & Treasure Hunter - November/December 1996
there were a couple of times during the
day I thought about Kevin "accidental-
ly" falling into the river!
At one point at the end of the day, I
suggested we take a shortcut (or so I
thought) up the opposite side of the
mountain in order to reach my truck.
We found ourselves on a no-path, no
right-of-way jungle-clawing our way
through thick vines and mud. Oh, this
was getting to be real fun. At the end,
we arrived at my truck and, well, I was-
n't standing when we got there-I just
sort of rolled on the ground over the last
small hill, and settled next to my truck
tire. Kevin was again busy "writing to
the editor!"
Gold?? Well, we got a little, but,
who cared! All I wanted was my heat-
ing pad! We'd made plans to go again
the next day (to have this fun all over
again), but, it rained-somebody heard
my wish!
Kevin and I have planned some
other prospecting trips in the future, but
they are going to be the type where I am
at the river highbanking, and just wait
till I get going at that! Kevin will see
my enthusiasm.
So, all you "old timers" out there,
watch out for those "greenhorns." Their
excitement is wonderful, but their phys-
ical methods may just "kill you!!"
Good Luck!

[PAGE BREAK]

CONTENTS
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2 MARCH/APRIL 1995
FEATURES
PROPERTY RIGHTS WIN
PRODUCT REVIEW--
By William Perry Pendley
BOUNTY HUNTER'S
NEW QUICK DRAW
25
25
GET OUT OF DODGE
By Jerry Dolph
10
HOW TO TRACK GOLD
30
By Wayne L. Harvey
HENRY
15
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
LARRY AND PAM RICHARDS 35
By Pam Richards
SUPERSTITION AND
MR. KENNEDY
19
BAD LUCK BEAR
39
By Ray Spriggs
By Carl D. Wheat
ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN'T
ALWAYS GOLD!
23
By Jude Colleen Kendrick
DEPARTMENTS
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ADVERTISER INDEX
53
53
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
33
EQUIPMENT DEALERS
53
INDUSTRY UPDATES
34
CLASSIFIEDS
54
SHOPPER'S GUIDE
51 & 52
Price Increase: Due to rising costs, it is necessary for us to raise the cover price of our magazine to $3.50
(USA) and $4.50 (Foreign). New subscription rates are $18 (USA) and $25 U.S. Funds (Foreign) per year.
SAVE MONEY! Use blow in card to take advantage of 1/3 OFF subscription rate!
Gold & Treasure Hunter
March/April 1995 5

[PAGE BREAK]

PROSPECTING
ALL THAT GLITTERS
ISN'T ALWAYS GOLD!
By Judé Colleen Kendrick
"Don't Forget To Watch For Native Diamonds!"
They say that diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Well, that's true! I love diamonds, yet, since I
am a gold prospector, gold has been my more
frequent friend! But, women are not the only ones
who love diamonds-men have regarded them as
great treasures for centuries and prospectors have
been finding them in their pans, sluices and dredges
for just as long.
There have been hundreds of accounts of the early
prospectors in northern California discovering rare
gems in their concentrates. Many of them, not having
any knowledge of what diamonds looked like,
discarded them as "heavy crystals." Now that thought
makes me cry!
The most unusual and mysterious thing about
these diamonds showing up where they did in Cali-
fornia is that they don't really belong there!
Although a lot of the geology in northern California
is volcanic diamonds are normally found in
Kimberlite pipes. These pipes are blue-green in color
and are somewhat like seams that exist through a
mountain or hill that is composed of a separate type
of rock. But where are the Kimberlites in California?
I spoke with Howard Coppersmith, a geologist
who has specialized in Kimberlites and diamonds,
and he told me "I have investigated the diamond
finds in northern California and it is a mystery to
me!" Now that statement creates a puzzle. Where did
these diamonds come from? The California State
Division of Mines has even stated that diamonds have
been found in California since shortly after placer
mining began in 1849. These finds were mostly in the
Mother Lode area and some geologists believed that
they were washed down from the volcanic rock in
the Sierra Nevada.
Northern California is not alone in its diamond
finds. There have been diamonds found in southern
California's rivers and creeks as well! Fourteen years
ago or so, I was sluicing on my claim in the Piru Creek
area and a crystal-looking rock kept staying in my
sluice at about the third riffle. I figured that after
cleaning my sluice and panning out my concen-
trates, the rock would disappear-it didn't! I remem-
ber picking it out with my tweezers (it was about the size of a Dove Shot-
Shot Gun pellet) and trying to figure out what it was. I just decided to
throw it into my gold bottle (which I am glad I did) and that I would look
at it further when I got home.
Author demonstrates a California native diamond she
recovered in northern California.
Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1995 23

[PAGE BREAK]

LUOR ALV
ceipt
(Continued from Page 13)
with both hands outstretched, holding
my breath, and feeling along the 100 feet
of wall. Every once in a while I had to put
my T-shirt back over my mouth and nose
to try to gulp down another breath of air.
I stumbled awkwardly over piles of loose
muck and bumped into unknown things
on the way.
Then I began thinking, "God, it seems
like this is taking a long time. Way too
long. How much is left, a minute. . a half
minute?" Then I found it, the roughness
of the man-way gate. I'll have to admit
that feeling that iron gate made me one
happy camper.
I stumbled down through the top of
the man-way and was only halfway down
the first ladder when the first hole ex-
ploded. What a rush! My round had
started up its timed methodical explo-
sions again. Being that close to the ex-
ploding dynamite really clears up a fella's
sinuses, I can tell you that. Each concus-
sion "squeezed" me tight. I thought,
"Hell, I've never been hugged by dyna-
mite like this before." I guess I must have
been hallucinating.
It didn't take long at all to get down
to the bottom of the man-way and collect
my lunch gear. Then I made a real
hurried walk out to the shaft. Just as I got
there the last man was stepping onto the
skip and everyone was waving and
hollering, "Come on, Dolph, let's go."
They said a bunch of other stuff too, but
we won't go into that.
It only took a few seconds for the rest
of the round to finish going off. And I
still, to this day, don't know what hap-
pened to the seven minutes it should
have taken for the fuses to burn their full
lengths, after they were lit and before the
holes began exploding, either. The only
thing I can think might have happened
is that I must have passed out some-
where between the time that I lit the fuse
and when I got to the first ladder. Surely
it didn't take all that much time for me to
get from the face, where the drill holes
were, out to the man-way.
Maybe some day the good Lord will
tell me all about it.
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[PAGE BREAK]

-------
and some gold targets. So this training is
worth years of trial and error. Henry
learned to identify the sounds of hot
rocks vs. good targets. He also be-
came familiar with the ground bal-
ance function of his detector. Once he
had mastered this-he was on his
way
to success!
panning and sluicing for gold-which
mostly was fines and small flakes. While
he was happy with this, he really wanted
to find a nice nugget to take home.
Deciding his best chances were with the
use of his metal detector, he arranged
with Gordon to go out to the Indepen-
dence Claim and do some nugget shoot-
Henry spent most of his two weeks ing. After he began, he received a strong
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signal that for some reason started to
decrease about four or five inches down.
Yet, after he and Gordon removed some
of the bedrock, it was strong again.
Henry did not know there was a nugget
until Gordon washed it off and dropped it
in a cup offering the prize to Henry.
"It looked like just a black rock to
me," said Henry, yet there in the cup
was a one pennyweight nugget sit-
ting up like a chocolate bunny! Now
that's the way to end a vacation! Be-
sides, Henry had vowed not to shave
until he found a nugget, so I'm sure
there are some happy postal workers
back in Fairfield!
Henry had sent postcards to many of
the patrons along his route back home,
but now the "clean shaven" Henry was
really looking forward to showing them
his nugget especially to the woman at
the bakery where he gets his coffee every
morning.
"She's going to faint when she sees
this!" stated Henry.
Henry shared that he has no ties back
home, that he can come and go as he
pleases so, I feel it is safe to say that
one of the places he'll "go" next year is
right back to Gold Rush Days in Happy
Camp, California.
Good Luck Henry!
Learn Nugget Hunting From A
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May 13 -14
June 17-18
July 10 - 11
August 26 - 27
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Organization,
27 Davis Road/P.O. Box 47,
Happy Camp, CA 96039
[AD] Call (916) 493-2012 for reservations.
16
Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1995

[PAGE BREAK]

E USE ONLY:
TRUE LIFE ADVENTURE
mail man from fairfield, connecticut finds his first
gold nugget in happy camp, california!
"F
our hours of panning and I was totally
hooked!" Those are the words of a new gold
prospector, Henry Kutash of Fairfield, Connecticut.
When asked how he got started in gold prospecting,
Henry said he had originally panned for gold in
historic Jamestown, California and also a little in vari-
ous areas of southern California. But he didn't find
much gold there, so he kept searching for a new, more
productive, area to spend his valued vacations.
Last summer, Henry traveled 2,800 miles to attend
Gold Rush Days in Happy Camp, California. This is the
annual celebration of Modern Gold Miner and
Treasure Hunters Association. Participants gain access
to the 50+ miles of mining properties owned by The
New 49'ers Prospecting Organization and get to keep
all the gold they can find in a week. Henry was
determined to recover his fair share!
Gold Rush Days includes a number of organized
events, including specialized training programs and
group mining projects. Henry definitely took advan-
tage of each and every day of his two-week visit to
Happy Camp. He participated in every activity that
was scheduled, took every lesson that was available
and went along on all the organized outings. He was
particularly impressed with how friendly and helpful
everyone was in Happy Camp. According to Henry,
"The nicest thing about the New 49'ers is that they
are so family oriented. All members of the family were
enjoying prospecting together."
During the first week, he learned how to really use
his metal detector for nugget shooting. "Not that it's
so difficult, actually," said Henry, "it's just that it takes
some practice to atune yourself to what you are
listening for. To find gold nuggets with a detector, you
just have to get out there and work at it. Happy Camp
gave me the opportunity to receive some expert help
which moved me along quite rapidly on the learning
Of course, it also helps to be in the right
location!" Afterwards, Henry attended the advanced
class taught by Gordon Zahara-who is northern
California's leading specialist in metal detecting for
gold. Gordon sets up a special double set of head-
phones for his students so that he can listen in on what
they are doing with the detector. Sometimes there is
very little difference in sound from specific hot rocks
curve.
HENRY
Cover story by
Judé Colleen Kendrick
The organized group rafting trip was one of the highlights
of Henry's Gold Rush Days vacation.
Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1995 15

[PAGE BREAK]

I forgot about it for a couple of diamond! He told me that it was not of
my
weeks until I needed to take watch
to my jeweler, who was also a
rockhound. I figured he might know
what it was. Boy, did I get a surprise
when he told me that it was a raw
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Gold & Treasure Hunter - March/April 1995
the best quality, but it was indeed a
diamond. You can't see much in the
photo, but they are out there-I found
one!
Of the accounts through California's
history, as far as I could research, the
largest diamond found by a prospector
was just close to 3 1/2 carats! Now
wouldn't that be a great bonus for your
prospecting trip? Of course, we all know
how "yarns" are spread and a lot of
them hold no merit but many of the
diamond accounts were written up in
local newspapers of the areas and the
finds appraised by local jewelers.
I suppose why they are where they
are or have been is not very important,
unless, of course, you are actually out
hunting diamonds. So if one day you
discover a "heavy crystal" that doesn't
want to leave your pan-whatever you
do, don't throw it away! Have it checked
out, because you never know-all that
glitters isn't always gold!
Good luck!!
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[PAGE BREAK]

10
or
CONTENTS
Cover Photo: Mack Coyer prospecting
near Oakridge, Oregon. Pl
Norm Coyer
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 4 JULY/AUGUST 1990
FEATURES
CAVE DIVING
By Dave McCracken
A MINER'S MARK
By Val Valentine
ONE-MAN SHOW
By Ron Wendt
WHY JOIN MGMTHA?
er
in,
By Dave McCracken
ENVIRONMENTAL VISION FOR THE 1990'S
By William K. Reilly
s)!
S
By Marcie Stumpf
DRY-LAND DREDGING
CREVICING
11
13
17
18
22
21
24
By Linda Montgomery
LOST PADRE'S TREASURE
26
By Ken Hodgson
SUPERSTITION WEST TREASURE HUNT RESULTS
29
DEPARTMENTS
A FAMILY DREDGING TRIP IN VIRGINIA
36
By Thomas N. Toomey
MINELAB'S EUREKA ACE DUAL
By Gordon Zahara
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIE
39 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
32
BOOK REVIEWS
NEW PRODUCT RELEASE
42
FROM OUR READERS
25
INDUSTRY UPDATES
Pictured Above: Members of Superstition West Treasure
Hunters Club, an MGMTHA Chapter, during their recent
coin and nugget hunt in Apache Junction, Arizona.
EQUIPMENT DEALERS
CLASSIFIEDS
Modern Gold Miner & Treasure I

[PAGE BREAK]

TRUE STORY ADVENTURE
BY DAVE MCCRACKEN
CAVE DIVING
Actually, I had no business
diving in that cave with the
equipment I was using. The equip-
ment was old and used heavily in
my dredging operation. The regu-
lator leaked out of the side; the
mouth piece rubber was no longer
being held on by a band or plastic
wire tie; my underwater flash-
light was not working well. It
would flicker on and off again,
making it necessary to bang it on
something when it went out in
order to get it to come back on. I
simply did not think the whole
thing through. I have been diving
all my life, and I should have
known better. But I do have an
excuse; it was treasure fever that
was clouding my judgement, and
I had it bad.
It all started when an acquain-
tance of ours told us about the
treasure in Hall City Cave. My
brother and I had been dredging
in a very rich paystreak, three to
four ounces a day with a six inch
dredge--in the middle of the cold
winter months. We were only
dredging about four hours a day.
The gold was just pouring in. And
then a big storm came in which
knocked us out of the water for
about a week. That is when the
old man came to tell us about the
treasure which the Indians hid in the cave.
As the story goes, sometime during the
late 1800's, a few renegade local Indians
attacked and killed the miners of a small
hydraulic mining operation near the town
of Hayfork, in Trinity County, in northern
California. And while the mining opera-
tion might have been small, they were
doing very well. The Indians apparently
"Mark Keene and Ivan Jackovich exploring
the same cave at a later date."
stole about one hundred pounds of mostly
nugget gold from the dead miners.
Since the Indians were on foot, and
also carrying a very heavy load, it did not
take long for the posse to catch up with
them. In fact, as a last ditch effort to get
away, the Indians stashed the gold some-
where so they could move faster. When the
posse caught up with the Indians, only the
Indians knew where the gold
The men in the posse thought
were smart; they told the Ind
that they would not be hung
their crimes if they would tell w
they hid the gold. And of cou
the Indians told the posse that
hidden the gold in Hall City C
Then they were promptly
right on the spot.
As it turns out, Hall City
has a deep submerged cave
the back of the cave. The cav
said to be bottomless--becaus
one apparently has ever been
to get to the bottom. And of co
not the posse, or anyone else,
found the gold. Did the Indi
hide the gold somewhere in
cave? Did they just dump it
the bottomless cavern to get
it? Did they have some secret h
place in the cave--perhaps un
water? Or did they hide the
somewhere else altogether?
During more recent years,
have been several deaths in
cave--as the story goes. Dra
ings--as scuba divers have t
unsuccessfully to recover the
den gold nuggets. And there
strong legend that powerful
dian spirits remain in the cave
guard the treasure--to scare a
or kill anyone trying to recover
The old man told us the story, belic
that if
anyone could recover the go
was us, because of our superior skill
experience, and our integrity. Espec
our integrity, since the old man wante
equal third of the treasure if we foun
He had the information and the maps
were to provide the necessary equipm
and do the actual diving part of the
Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunte

[PAGE BREAK]

TRUE STORY ADVENTURE
BY DAVE MCCRACKEN
CAVE DIVING
Actually, I had no business
diving in that cave with the
equipment I was using. The equip-
ment was old and used heavily in
my dredging operation. The regu-
lator leaked out of the side; the
mouth piece rubber was no longer
being held on by a band or plastic
wire tie; my underwater flash-
light was not working well. It
would flicker on and off again,
making it necessary to bang it on
something when it went out in
order to get it to come back on. I
simply did not think the whole
thing through. I have been diving
all my life, and I should have
nown better. But I do have an
excuse; it was treasure fever that
was clouding my judgement, and
had it bad.
It all started when an acquain-
tance of ours told us about the
treasure in Hall City Cave. My
brother and I had been dredging
in a very rich paystreak, three to
four ounces a day with a six inch
dredge--in the middle of the cold
winter months. We were only
dredging about four hours a day.
The gold was just pouring in. And
then a big storm came in which
knocked us out of the water for
about a week. That is when the
old man came to tell us about the
treasure which the Indians hid in the cave.
As the story goes, sometime during the
late 1800's, a few renegade local Indians
attacked and killed the miners of a small
hydraulic mining operation near the town
of Hayfork, in Trinity County, in northern
California. And while the mining opera-
tion might have been small, they were
doing very well. The Indians apparently
"Mark Keene and Ivan Jackovich exploring
the same cave at a later date."
stole about one hundred pounds of mostly
nugget gold from the dead miners.
Since the Indians were on foot, and
also carrying a very heavy load, it did not
take long for the posse to catch up with
them. In fact, as a last ditch effort to get
away, the Indians stashed the gold some-
where so they could move faster. When the
posse caught up with the Indians, only the
Indians knew where the gold was.
The men in the posse thought they
were smart; they told the Indians
that they would not be hung for
their crimes if they would tell where
they hid the gold. And of course,
the Indians told the posse that they'd
hidden the gold in Hall City Cave.
Then they were promptly hung
right on the spot.
As it turns out, Hall City Cave
has a deep submerged cavern at
the back of the cave. The cavernis
said to be bottomless--because no
one apparently has ever been able
to get to the bottom. And of course,
not the posse, or anyone else, ever
found the gold. Did the Indians
hide the gold somewhere in the
cave? Did they just dump it into
the bottomless cavern to get rid of
it? Did they have some secret hiding
place in the cave--perhaps under-
water? Or did they hide the gold
somewhere else altogether?
During more recent years, there
have been several deaths in the
cave--as the story goes. Drown-
ings--as scuba divers have tried
unsuccessfully to recover the hid-
den gold nuggets. And there is a
strong legend that powerful In-
dian spirits remain in the cave to
guard the treasure--to scare away
or kill anyone trying to recover it.
The old man told us the story, believing
that if anyone could recover the gold, it
was us, because of our superior skill, our
experience, and our integrity. Especially
our integrity, since the old man wanted an
equal third of the treasure if we found it.
He had the information and the maps; we
were to provide the necessary equipment
and do the actual diving part of the opera-
Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunter 7

[PAGE BREAK]

tion. "What the heck," we decided, we
weren't doing anything else productive,
just watching the rain and waiting for the
river to slow down and clear up.
The old man drove; and other than a
few logs crossing the seldom-used old
logging dirt roads, and a little snow, we got
to the cave with little trouble. It only took
about an hour to pack the diving gear up
the semi-steep hill to the cave. The cave
itself was not very large. It was about
seven feet tall in places, ten or fifteen feet
in others. Most of the cave was wide enough
to walk through, except one spot in which
it was necessary to squeeze through side-
ways. The cave did not extend very deep
into the mountain, only about forty or fifty
feet or so. It looked very deep as we shined
our flashlights into the water.
The cave was dark and gloomy. Men-
acing spirits were dancing in the shadow's
as we shined our flashlights around the
cave, while moving the equipment into
place. The small area of the cave suc-
ceeded in giving us a closed-in feeling.
Something about the atmosphere inside
the cave was very wrong. We all had the
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same feeling that what we were doing was
not right-like we were trying to steal some-
thing that did not rightfully belong to us.
There was an unmistakable feeling of men-
acing gloom inside the cave--like we were
in big trouble, and that we should get out.
In fact, the feeling was so strong, we
went outside and had a short discussion,
reaffirming our justifications for being there,
agreeing that the gold was indeed ours, if
we were able to recover it, and also resolv-
"Did the Indians hide the
gold somewhere in the
cave? Did they just dump
it into the bottomless
cavern to get rid of it?"
ing that if disembodied beings were in fact
making us feel so nervous, than it was all
the more likely that the gold was hidden in
this place. And, of course, it was also okay
with the others because it was me that was
D&K DETECTOR SALES, INC.
Metal Detecting & Prospecting Headquarters
going to do the diving; I was the most
experienced.
The water in the back of the cave was
crystal clear--and ice cold. I chose earlier
to use my dry suit, and I took fifteen pounds
of lead off my weight belt to make me less
heavy in the water. In dredging, it is neces-
sary to weight yourself heavily to the bot-
tom. In diving--especially cave diving--
you want to achieve neutral bouancy, so
you can swim up or down as you like. My
problem was that my weights were in 15
pound increments. To take another 15
pounds off would make me too light. To
leave it on made me sink rather quickly. It
was a choice I had to make. How easy it is
to simply make a decision. Then you are
stuck with the consequences! I chose to go
heavy.
The "pond" at the back of the cave
was the surface of what turned out to be a
round shaft which extended down into the
earth at almost a vertical angle. The shaft
looked to be around six feet in diameter,
and shining my flashlight down, I could
tell that it was deep. I could also see what
appeared to be additional chambers which
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extended off the top of the main shaft.
Perhaps this was an old mine? No, I re-
member thinking, there were no tailings
or waist dumps outside the cave. Must be
limestone, I thought, remembering the
limestone caves near Del Loma which the
Indians used to conduct raids from Denny--
over 20 miles of underground connected
caverns. This underwater cave could be
bottomless, I thought
the s
ued
I pas
upw
"G
thou
my
look
perf
coul
teen
me.
sam
was
stop
in t
with
thei
Rather than wear the scuba tank on the
first dive, I felt it would be safer to use the
fifty foot airline that I had brought. One
end of the airline attached to my scuba ing 1
tank, which was to stay at the surface. The
other end attached to my regulator, which
went into my mouth. This way, I could do
a preliminary exploration without having
to worry about getting trapped in tight
corners and not being able to back out with
a tank on my back. The airline also gave
me a direct link to the surface. Rope does
not generally work very well for this sort
of thing underwater, because it has a ten-
dency to get tangled around vital things. I
just wanted to do a preliminary look around
without getting too far away from the sur-
face, which in this case, was going to be no
more than fifty feet. Then I could think
about putting the tank on my back and
venturing further into the darkness. As it
turned out in the end, this was a decision I
would be glad I'd made.
We only had one scuba tank, and since
my brother was not scuba qualified any-
way, I had to settle for him acting as a
holding a flashlight at the surface.
I had the only underwater flash-
wan't very much he was

[PAGE BREAK]

breath, however, because if it is more water,
it is necessary to act quickly to avoid
drowning! Almost always, though, you
get nice clean air on the first intake after
blowing the water out of the regulator.
That's why it was such a surprising shock
to me when I got a second mouth full of
water!
Now I had no air in my lungs at all, and
whipped the flashlight around just in
time to see the rest of the regulator sink out
of sight into the darkness. I still had the
mouthpiece in my mouth. Pulling on the
airline the way I did must have made the
rubber mouthpiece pull off the regulator.
How could I be so stupid to dive without
fixing it first? The realization of my posi-
tion was terrifying. My body was scream-
ing for air, and I was a long way from
getting any. "Do I go down 15 feet to the
main shaft and then climb another 35 feet
to the surface? I don't think I can possibly
make it that far! Or, do I go towards the
my making it that far either?"
sure thing--even if there is little chance of
I don't even remember turning around
in the cave. Going down was not physi-
cally difficult because I was weighted heavy.
But as I went deeper into the cave, the
increased pressure of the greater depth
compressed my lungs even further, mak-
ing my body turn into a panicked, psy-
chotic animal. The body was screaming to
turn around and go back up the small shaft,
to do anything, anything to get air. Ever
have anyone hold your head underwater?
Or hold you down, blocking your nose
and mouth from breathing? If you have,
then you have some idea of what I was
going through. It took every bit of disci-
pline I could master to make the bottom of
the small shaft.
NO
TM
The momentum, and the extra lead on
my belt, caused me to slip even further
down into the main shaft. My lungs were a
vacuum; it felt like they were squeezed
flat. This feeling, and the panic, were one
and the same. There was no discipline left.
Just a mad scramble to get up the shaft. It
was difficult. The shaft was almost straight
"My body was
screaming for air,
and I was a long
way from getting
any.
up, and the extra lead on my belt was pull-
ing me back down. My feet were slipping
on the smooth rock surface, and there were
no hand holds. I was making progress, but
it was painfully slow. I found myself watch-
ing the action in slow motion from outside
the body. Inch by inch the body was mov-
ing, but it was not going to make it in time.
The panic and desperation were kind of a
far off feeling now, and then the flashlight
flicked off...
It was the sound of drums after all--and
they were louder now, much louder, all
around me, in fact. The monotones, rhyth-
mic pounding of the drums had an alluring,
hypnotic affect. It was a wonderful feeling
to be a part of the ceremony. No, I was the
ceremony! This was not something that
was foreign to me or something that came
from the outside. It was something I have
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always had with me and chose not to l
at. The distant feeling of desperation
thusiasm, and the feeling of greatnesst
over as I watched my fellow warrior bre
ers dancing and leaping with wond
strength, glory and bravery around
fire. They were singing: "Hey Yey
Yey, Hey Yey Yey Yey," to the beat of
drum. And I realized with exhilaration
this was a place where effort, emotiona
thought all came together as one. A pla
where I was, along with my brothers,
complete understanding and knowled
of the universe. A place which transcen
time. This was my place, and the realize
tion brought about the enthusiasm to jum
in and give myself completely to the eter
nal dance around the fire...
"The light went out," the voice from
another world said.
"What?" said another voice.
"He was just about to the surface
I think he lost his light again," said th
strangely familiar voice, with obviou
concern.
"Huh?" I remember asking myself.
"'What is this?" And the sudden realiza-
tion of the sadness this would cause to my
brother--and to my family and close friends.
"Not this way" "I told myself; and looking
up, I realized that it was not a fire I was
looking at, at all. It was my brother's flash-
light at the surface, just above me.
It wasn't hard to scramble up the last
few feet to the surface, and I came out of
the water like a madman, gasping for air.
The first breath was vastly painful, the
second, not so bad. I was left the rest of
that day, and the next, with mixed emo-
tions; the feeling that I was simply happy
to be alive, and also the feeling that I had
been robbed from something important.
"You OK. Bro?," asked my brother.
Yeah, I was going to be O.K. I spent the
next hour or so diving in the shallow parts
of the cave. This was not the first time I
have come close to drowning, or the sec-
ond for that matter, and I prefer to try and
stay in the near vicinity until the shock
wears off. Kind of like getting back on the
horse again immediately after it has thrown
you, I guess.
And the treasure? It is probably still
there. You can have it if you can get it! I
know now it doesn't belong to me--if only
for the reason that I am not going back af-
ter it. I'll get my nuggets the hard way; I'll
stick to gold dredging!
10 Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunter

[PAGE BREAK]

TRUE ADVENTURE
BY DUNCAN W. MACVEAN
JUNGLE TREASURE
There is one treasure "guaranteed" to
those who would placer mine in the
tropics. Gold divers are embarking, in re-
ality or in dreams, to newly opened areas
in the jungles of Brazil, Borneo, New
Guinea--new frontiers. All will find the
one guaranteed dream, the one guaranteed
tropical treasure trove--ADVENTURE.
Dredging in tropical waters, moving
boulders and avoiding man-killing water
creatures, gets the ol' adrenalin pumping.
And, below, I'm going to tell you about
one of the heart-racing experiences that
happened to me.
No experience is much scarier than
diving blind. Jungle rivers are often as
clear as ditch water, because of mud, silt,
or suspended organic materials. Under
these conditions you can't see while under
water; you must feel your way along the
river bottom. And that can lead you to the
adventure of a lifetime.
For prospectors willing and ready to go
for the adventure, now is the time. The po-
litical and economic climate for the small
entrepreneur has never been better and is
improving. The restrictive regimes of many
countries are being overthrown and re-
placed by governments desperate for the
influx of capital and receptive to start-up
projects, including mining. In fact, cur-
rent trends could lead the Soviet Union to
open its doors to prospecting by foreign-
ers.
The Siberian gold fields would be like
Alaska, only potentially richer. Nyet, no,
not for me. I'd rather stay warm and take
my chances with tropical climes.
of
And take my chances I did. A number
years ago, a small, loosely-bound ag-
"Maneuvering the dredge into position for a dive on Potaro River
gregate of placer miners from California,
including myself, took our dredges on an
expendition to the country of Guyana in
the northeast part of South America. Our
quarry was diamonds.
We were headed for the Potaro, a river
in the highlands that flows the color of rich
coffee. The hue is the result of a blend of
tanins leached out of the fallen dead
leaves from the tropical rain forest through
which the river cuts its black swath.
Diving in the Potaro River is as blind as
driving on a country road on a moonless
night with no headlights. In the depths of
the river you can't see your hand held six
inches in front of your face. You must
grope your way over and between boul-
ders while steadying yourself in the re-
lentless current.
The overland segment of our jo
into the interior was by truck acro
jungle on a narrow, sandy road that
at Kangaruma. This tiny spot on the
this point of embarkation for seek
fortune or nature who dared venture
the dark Potaro, was camp for the ne
days.
We eagerly worked together those
rich with anticipation. Our eyes sp
with adamantine brilliance as we bu
boats and pontoons from local mal
and assembled our supplies, engines,
air and water lines needed for our
inch diameter, underwater dredges
distributing supplies to the four-
crews, we split up, each dredge unit
Modern Gold Miner & Treasure Hun

[PAGE BREAK]

arate way, casting off into the river backwash where the current was slow.
hing for prospecting sites.
elected to go farther upstream than
ther dredge teams. I sought out more
rous areas to dive and areas with
deposits of sand overburden. These
were the least likely to have been
worked by surface dredges which pre-
ly plied the Potaro.
by crew consisted of an East Indian,
ry, our cook and camp keeper, an
Guyanan, Charlie, who spoke Eng-
with a distinctly Caribbean accent, an
rican engineer, Norm, and me.
The day of shadows in the depths came
other days on that dark ribbon flow-
rough the lush tropical forest--steamy
oppressive. We completed the dreary
of clearing a large table of sand
burden that morning. We had been
cing on it for days, and the sweet feel
e gravel underneath spelled payday.
Charlie and I were alternating diving
We had finished our lunch and mid-
siesta, and Charlie was working the
om. I felt three tugs on the waist-line
by rope. Charlie was coming up, so I
up the slack. When Charlie surfaced,
aid he wanted to quit for the day.
Hey, what? You've only been down
wenty minutes. What gives?" I asked.
atrickle of red on Charlie's upper lip
wondered if he'd had a recurrence of
nosebleeds he sometimes acquired
diving in deep water. But we were
king that day in only 15 feet; a shallow
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He replied, "Don' go down today, Mon.
It's no good. Dem be spirits der.'
"What is there?"
"I don' know, Mon. It don' feel good."
Charlie had been given to telling ghost
stories occasionally when we gathered
around Jeffrey's cook fire in the evenings,
so I figured his imagination was working
overtime. No superstition was going to
deter me. Besides, going down below af-
forded a cool escape.
I took the weight belt from Charlie's
waist and strapped it on me. Picking up the
air hose and placing the mouthpiece be-
tween my lips, I grabbed hold of the for-
"An entity brushed
my arm. A shadow
sensed like the
feathery touch of the
edge of a curtain
blowing lightly in an
open window. I
turned, but couldn't
see a thing.
guy wire and jumped overboard. De-
ward
scending into the darkness hand over hand
along the wire was like spelunking without
a light.
When I reached the river bottom, I felt
my way to the front of the dredge pipe.
Charlie, in his rush to ascend, had dropped
the nozzle end of the pipe into the rim of a
sand bank. The pipe slipped in my hand
when I tried to pick it up, and the jagged
edge we had been meaning to file down
sliced my finger. Damn. I readjusted the
nozzle to work the strip of gravel below a
large boulder at the edge of the table we had
cleared.
I stopped and stood for a moment in the
dark, rubbing my cut finger. I held my
breath and listened to the cavitations of the
current as its force flowed over and around
me. Close at hand was the sound of gravel
being sucked through the pipe. I heard in
odern Gold Miner & Treasure Hunter
the distance the gravely crunch of move-
ment of a boulder.
But, wait, there was some other sound,
like a breeze, as if some strange wind were
taking over dominance from the current.
Then still silence again, as much as a cur-
rent could ever be still or silent.
No, it was a change in sound--a mother
knows when her child's cry is different.
There was something out there. I yanked
hard once on the safety rope, the signal for
the crew to cut the power to the dredge.
The noise in the dredge quieted down.
Yes, something there, moving nearby.
Getting closer.
An entity brushed my arm. A shadow
sensed like the feathery touch of the edge
of a curtain blowing lightly in an open
window. I turned, but couldn't see a thing.
Suddenly I shivered, and goose flesh tingled
over my body.
"Get hold of yourself," I shouted in
the chambers of my skull. How do you see
a shadow in a cave with no lights? There it
was again; something you don't see just
past the corner of your eye.
It swished by like a dart. I gripped the
guy wire. Dizzy, better get to the surface.
No, only swaying in the current. Fear--go
up now! I pulled on the safety rope. Three
tugs, I'm coming up.
Ten feet, as quick as I could rise. Five
feet. Nearing the surface. It was getting
light, and I could see a leaf floating by im-
mediately above my head. A shadow over
my left shoulder slithered by. This time
there was a slight humming sound, a pure
base note that vibrated on the skin of my
shoulder.
I burst to the surface, spitting out the air
hose mouthpiece. "What was that?"
Charlie smiled his irregular grin. "Only
an electric eel, Mon."'
Only!
Later, after I dried off and had a stiff
swig of Demerara rum, I was able to calmly
reflect on the shadowy encounters. The
electric eel? I definitely felt the current,
the hum from the shadow on the surface;
but the cel didn't touch me, and it undu-
lated and moved slowly. Not like down
below, where a denizen of the depths swished
by me, brushing me like the shaft of a
deadly arrow.
Soon the sun was beginning to set over
the forest canopy. We were tired of the
pork tails and rice that had been our fare
for the past week, so we went fishing.

[PAGE BREAK]

he gravely crunch of move-
ilder.
there was some other sound,
as if some strange wind were
ominance from the current.
nce again, as much as a cur-
er be still or silent.
a change in sound--a mother
her child's cry is different.
mething out there. I yanked
he safety rope, the signal for
ut the power to the dredge.
the dredge quieted down.
ing there, moving nearby.
г.
brushed my arm. A shadow
e feathery touch of the edge
blowing lightly in an open
ned, but couldn't see a thing.
vered, and goose flesh tingled
of yourself," I shouted in
of my skull. How do you see
cave with no lights? There it
mething you don't see just
r of your eye.
by like a dart. I gripped the
zy, better get to the surface.
ing in the current. Fear--go
ed on the safety rope. Three
ing up.
s quick as I could rise. Five
the surface. It was getting
ild see a leaf floating by im-
ve my head. A shadow over
der slithered by. This time
sound, a pure
skin of my
Norm held a short-fused dynamite stick,
and I lit it. We counted down the seconds,
and he tossed it in the downstream edge of
the backwater area where we had been
diving that day. The concussion of the ex-
"Not like down below,
where a denizen
of the depths
swished by me,
brushing me like
the shaft of a deadly arrow.
plosion killed three fish which came float-
ing belly up to the surface.
Charlie dove in, grabbed the three pi-
scine bodies, and hurled them onto the
shore at my feet. The fish were good
sized--thick bodied and varying from 12 to
21 inches in length. And such a set of
teeth!
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My eyes opened wide as what I saw
forged in me the chilling comprehension
of the danger that lurked in the depths I'd
worked in that day. The fish were all pira-
nhas.
These deadly fish were no doubt at-
tracted by Charlie's and my blood. And
piranha, as I was told later by a naturalist
friend, are known to swim together in
areas of the river where the current is
slow moving,
The trio still looked ferocious an hour
later when they were served up for
dinner. Each had its mouth stuffed--like
the head of a pit-roasted wild boar--with
cumquat-like fruit ringed with needle-sharp
teeth. They were among the most delicious
fish I'd ever eaten, and the danger in the
diving hole had been removed...at least
for awhile.
The piranha provided one spirit-stir-
ring day that was unforgettable, and there
were many other days to rival that one.
Did I have good luck in my findings? Yes
indeed, with gold nearly everywhere we
searched and enough diamonds, too...but
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that's a story for another day.
Looking back on it and weighing eve-
rything, all the troy ounces and carats
couldn't tip the scales away from the rich
cache we all cherish--ADVENTURE.
66
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