Metal Detecting

Mining the Internet: Detector Treasures
By Garret Romaine


Combing through the vast backwaters of the Internet for metal detecting information is no easy task. For each tantalizing clue about lost treasure, there are pop-up surveys to evade, political news to ignore, and ads for drugs that I can’t even pronounce. But this issue, I’ve got a nice collection of links to new (and old) reports that should make every detector owner smile.

Ancient gold wreath
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26455572/
Greece continues to be a source for ancient artifacts, although tomb raiders and looters are running ahead of the authorities in many places. In August 2008, an ancient gold wreath fashioned to resemble olive leaves was uncovered in northern Greece, at the ruins of ancient Aigai. The city of Aigai was the first capital of ancient Macedonia, and was the city where King Philip II — father of Alexander the Great — was assassinated.

The story goes on to note that nearby, “in a royal cemetery at Vergina, just west of Aigai, Greek archaeologists discovered a wealth of gold and silver treasure in 1977.”

Ancient coins found in Philadelphia
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B0CEFDD1739EF34BC4F51DFB7668389669FDE
This old article, dating to 1872, mentions a large trove of gold coins found while workers excavated a cellar. At first the young men believed the coins were brass, and they admitted throwing the coins at each other for fun. A local jeweler soon straightened them out. The coins dated to the earliest days of the Pennsylvania colony.

Roman coins in England
http://www.ancientcoinnews.com/2008/07/treasure-hunters-delight-at-discovery.html
Three treasure hunters using metal detectors located a nice cache of 1,700-year old coins in 2007. The coins date back to the reign of four emperors: Diocletianus, Maximianus, Constantius and Galerius, who ruled Britain between 296AD and 305AD. The find wasn’t just luck: “Mr Staples, 32, said he had been searching for treasure with a metal detector for more than 15 years. He said: ‘The coins were found below the surface of the ground where the land had been ploughed quite deep. We were hovering the metal detectors above the soil when it started beeping really fast to indicate there is a real hoard of metal. We found 20 coins on the first day and a similar amount the following day. Then it was a case of a couple here and there after that.”

Australian coin mystery
http://www.yowiehunters.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=72
“In the first week of December 2004, two New South Wales amateur prospectors searching for gold unearthed an unidentified ancient coin amongst rocks in uninhabited forest country near a mountain ridge to the north-east of the claimed Gympie Pyramid site with a metal detector. It was found under nine inches of soil amidst old metal fragments. The Dhamurian Historical Research Society at Gympie was alerted to the amazing discovery by an E-bay auction in late January 2005. A successful negotiation with the owners resulted in the final purchase of the historic artifact so that it remained in the possession of Gympie regional researchers.”

Tons of coins found in China
http://www.coinlink.com/News/world-coins/15-tons-of-ancient-coins-discovered-in-shanxi/
“A cellar containing 1.5 tons of ancient coins, including some 2,000-year-old ones, [was] discovered by a villager in Changzi County, North China’s Shanxi Province.
The man in Qianwanhu Village discovered the cellar with some 10,000 coins, ranging from 3 cm to 1 cm in diameter, on August 23 when he was digging a channel to place pipes for tap water, said Li Lin, an official of the Changzi Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. The “money cellar” was 1.5 meters under the earth, with coins being piled orderly into a cuboid of 1.3 meters long, 0.65 meter wide and one meter high, Li said.
Most of the coins were made during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) with the remainders made during Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and Tang Dynasty (618-907), Li said.”

Roman coins on British beach
http://www.coinlink.com/News/ancients/ancient-coins-discovered-on-beach/
“Ancient coins have been found on a beach in the Western Isles giving new clues to the far reaching influence of the Roman Empire. Archaeologists believe the pieces of copper alloy date from the middle of the 4th Century. They were found in a sand dune, but the location in the Uists has been kept secret to protect the site. Archaeologists said it was a “lucky find” as the coins were at risk of vanishing in a high tide. Just seven other Roman coins have previously been found on the isles. A Roman brooch and pieces of pottery have also been uncovered in the past.”

Roman hoard in Portugal
http://www.coinlink.com/News/ancients/archaeologists-in-portugal-net-haul-of-roman-coins/
“Archeologists in Portugal have found more than 4,500 Roman coins bundled together inside the wall of a blacksmith’s house dating from the fourth century.
Antonio Sa Coixao, who is leading excavations in Coriscada in northeastern Portugal, said Wednesday by telephone the 4,526 copper and bronze coins were inside a hollow wall and covered by dirt and tools. The coins had apparently been put in a sack which had mostly disintegrated, he said.”

Old coin found in Wales
http://www.coinlink.com/News/ancients/metal-detector-roy-unearths-the-oldest-coin-found-in-wales/
“Retired butcher Roy Page, 69, of Coedpoeth, found the detailed 2,000-year-old coin on a farm near St Asaph when he went on a search there with the Mold-based Historical Search Society. Roy handed the tiny silver coin to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who identified it as dating from the second century BC. It is believed to have been brought over some time after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, or during earlier visits in the first century BC. Roy, who has been metal detecting for five years, said: ‘The person who held the coin was probably a Roman.’”

Roman hoard in Wales
http://www.coinlink.com/News/ancients/exceptional-roman-coins-hoard/
“Nearly 6,000 copper alloy coins were found buried in two pots in a field at Sully, Vale of Glamorgan by a local metal detector enthusiast in April. After the ruling by the Cardiff coroner, a reward is likely to be paid to the finder and landowner. It is hoped the coins will be donated to National Museum Wales, which has called the find ‘exceptional’.
Two separate hoards were found by the metal detectorist on successive days, one involving 2,366 coins and the other 3,547 coins, 3m away. The 1,700-year-old coins dated from the reigns of numerous emperors, notably Constantine I (the Great, AD 307-37), during whose time Christianity was first recognised as a state religion.”

New Roman emperor
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3518621.stm
“A coin that solved the mystery of a little-known Roman emperor is going on display at a new exhibition. The base silver coin, bearing the face of Emperor Domitianus, was found by Brian Malin as he combed a field in Oxfordshire with a metal detector.
Only one other such coin exists, showing the face of the man who ruled Britain for just four days, but was dismissed as a hoax. Mr Malin's coin is on exhibition at the British Museum in London. Experts say his discovery proves the earlier coin, found in France 100 years ago, was genuine and that Domitianus did exist. The coin, estimated to be worth more than £10,000, goes on display on Wednesday at the British Museum in London.”

Gold coins of usurper found
http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=4606
“The number of known gold coins of would-be Roman Emperor Carausius recently increased from 23 to 25 specimens. The two newly uncovered examples depict Carausius, who helped himself to Roman Britain as his own private fiefdom in 286 A.D.

There is excitement among museum curators, collectors and the machinery sales manager who found the two coins in a field near Ashbourne, Derbys, but the real story is the proof that once again Britain's Treasure Trove laws work, while demands in other countries that all antiquities and coins found in the ground are cultural patrimony and therefore must be turned over to the government without any reimbursement possibility to the finder simply drive the finds underground.”

Emperor Valens gold coin
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/04/15/Gold_coins_of_Emperor_Valens_found_in_Egypt/?section=BigPhoto&template=cheetah-search%2Findex.txt
“The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced an interesting discovery. Gold coins forged by Roman Emperor Vales were unearthed at the astonishment of archaeologists; these findings represent the first of this kind in the Land of the Pyramids.
The two coins were found during excavations in the west part of St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai. The image represented on the front side of the coins is very similar to that of Valens' and specialists agreed that he is indeed. Valens ruled the Eastern Roman Empire between 364 BC and 378 BC; his reign was nothing close to peaceful. He had to black-out the revolt by Procopius, and then fight the Sassanids, but the war with the Goths meant his end. Gold coins of this type were known in Valens' time as solidii. This type was introduced by Constantine I in 309 and was used until the 10th century. Formally, a gold coin in Roman times was known as aureus.”

Islamic coin found near Oslo
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2452938.ece
“An Islamic coin from 805 AD, found on the Hurum peninsula just west of Oslo, is causing a stir among Norwegian archaeologists. The silver dirhem, minted in Iran, is one of the earliest examples of coins to turn up in the Nordic countries. Several other hordes in the area have contained similar coins, but none date back as far as this. The previous finds have been 100-150 years younger. According to Houshang Khazaei, a researcher at the University of Oslo, the coin was minted in Mohammadiyyah in Iran. The ruler at the time was Harun al-Rashid, the fifth and most famous of the Abbasid caliphs. For several hundred years dirhems were minted in countries in North Africa and the Middle East. They were used in Europe too, much like the US dollar or the euro today, and likely came to Norway with Viking traders. The dirhem contains about three grams of silver. Payment was made by weight rather than according to the denomination on the coin. Therefore many were cut in half or into quarters to make small change.”

Steamship discovered with gold coins
http://www.hunttreasure.net/rare-gold-and-silver-coins-from-sunken-steamship-examined/1079
“Rare gold coins discovered in a sunken steamship off the Louisiana coast have been put under the microscope of sorts, by coin experts. The SS New York was a 165-foot side-wheel steamship that was found under some 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.
It carried within its hull coins made in old U.S. Mints of New Orleans, Charlotte, N.C., and Dahlonega, Ga. -- mints that have not been in action for many years. David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack’s Rare Coins and coin expert, said some of the coins are in uncirculated or mint condition and could be worth $50,000 to $100,000 each.”

Unfortunately, the full text of this article is now removed.

Viking treasure trove
http://www.hunttreasure.net/viking-treasure-trove-found-on-swedish-island-of-gotland/1019
“The island province of Gotland is a part of Sweden so when torrential rain pours down and unearths a few coins, you’d expect them to be of Swedish origin.
With two old coins emerging after the downpour, archaeologist interest perked up and exploration began.
“The result? The discovery of 52 more coins. And more interesting, all but six of the coins came from other regions and countries. They weren’t Swedish. How did they get there?
“Given that the coins were dated between the late 900s to early 1000s and taking into account the history of the island, the answer… from the Vikings.
“At one time Gotland was a Viking hub of sorts. And Viking were notorious for their travels and the "acquiring and hoarding" of multiple country coinage.
“As a point of fact, Gotland has had more Viking treasure and archaeological findings than nearly anywhere in the world.”

Rogiet hoard
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/1903/
In September 1998, thousands of Roman coins from the third century AD were discovered by Colin Roberts at Rogiet, Monmouthshire. This was one of the finest hoards ever recorded from Wales and were declared treasure in December 1998.
The 3,750 coins had been buried, possibly in a wooden box, around AD 295-6 (we believe this to be the date since there were no coins later than this in the box) and span a forty-year period, with twenty-two emperors represented, a sign of the political instability of the times.

Ancient coins in America
http://www2.privatei.com/~bartjean/chap11.htm
This is excerpted from a chapter called “The Coincidence of the Coins,” from the book In Plain Sight, by Gloria Farley. The write-up is about curious coin discoveries in the United States. The coins were ancient, and some were found buried so deeply that it strained imagination to think a modern collector could have lost them. “Although some of the coins presented in this chapter do not have a verifiable context, still there is enough evidence to be considered that coins were brought here anciently. It is hoped that more coins will emerge as the readers of this book become aware of what they possess. The report of coins by many authors bolsters the validity of the inscriptions, in many ancient scripts, recorded in America.”

Ancient torc discovered
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3484377/Metal-detector-mans-350000-Iron-Age-neckband.html
“A metal detector enthusiast discovered a 2,000-year-old golden neckband worth £350,000 while out looking for bits of Second World War aircraft. Maurice Richardson discovered the Iron Age gold and silver choker, known as a torc, in a Nottinghamshire field near his Newark home. Archaeologists believe the torc, the most expensive single treasure find since 1996, was made by the Iceni tribe, once headed by Boudica, which had its power base in present-day East Anglia.
“Four other similar torcs have been discovered, but they were all found some 100 miles away in Norfolk. Dr. Jeremy Hill, head of research at the British Museum, described the Newark torc as ‘probably the most significant find of Iron Age Celtic gold jewelry made in the last 50 years’".

Summary
Many of the websites listed here are reliable sources of good information, so you might want to bookmark some of the home pages and check back occasionally. As detectors get better and go deeper, you can expect more of these important finds to pop up in the news. If you can’t make the discovery yourself, at least you can read about it. Sometimes that’s all the motivation you need to plan your next junket into the field.

Arbuckle Mountain, Oregon

Last weekend the North America Research Group (NARG) sponsored a fossil dig at Arbuckle Mountain, about 20 miles southeast of Heppner, Oregon. The big attraction here is a giant palm frond, Sabalites eocenica, from the Eocene Clarno Formation. In addition to palm fronds that can reach four feet in size, the area is noted for avocado, magnolia, willow, and other leaves. There is a weak lignite zone through the area, with some short-lived coal beds worked at nearby Coal Mine Hill.

Some of the NARG team camped at Arbuckle Corral on Friday night; others stayed in town or made other arrangements. Digging began in earnest before noon on Saturday. Soon the team had zeroed in on a productive strata. Tim Fisher, who lists about ten separate GPS coordinates for this area on his invaluable OreRockOn DVD and website (http://www.orerockon.com) soon got into a nice zone and pulled out an unidentified flower, along with palms about a foot in length. The team also recovered nice specimens of cypress and metasequoia.



Tim's zone extended across the top of the road cut, and at least five different excavations produced good material. The team continued digging until dinner, retired to an excellent meal around a roaring campfire, and settled down to a cool evening in the pine forests of eastern Oregon.



The next morning, the team went back at it. We cleared some more material, gathered up the best stuff, emptied out the ditch along the road to keep the Forest Service happy, and generally cleaned up. A nice lady came down the road in an ATV with a big harvest of Shaggy Mane mushrooms, but she reported that there was a new gate at the top of the road.

For an October fossil search and rescue, the weather was ideal. Maybe that was why the camaraderie was so great, but I don't think it's the only reason. I'm always struck by how easy it is to get along with other fossil hunters, rockhounds, and gold prospectors. We shared a ton of information over the campfire, pressing each other for insight into new areas. I like that part the best; there are so many spots to hit out here.

I know I should put the GPS coordinates in this article, but I'm going to resist the temptation. Join NARG at http://www.narg-online.com and you can visit the area with us next year!

References

The Ore Bin, June 1961
http://www.oregongeology.com/sub/publications/OG/OBv23n06.pdf

The Oreg Bin, May 1969
http://www.oregongeology.com/sub/publications/OG/OBv31n05.pdf

Idaho's Yankee Fork dredge

Mining the Internet: Yankee Fork Dredge

By Garret Romaine
(this article will appear in the next issue of Gold Prospectors magazine; sorry about the length)

Driving west last summer from Challis, Idaho, toward the interesting town of Stanley, I took ID 75 as it followed the Salmon River for mile after scenic mile. The Sawtooths loomed on the horizon, while alpine forests dipped down to transition into sagebrush hills. Some tantalizing gravel bars were just emerging from the low water of late August, offering opportunities to search for agate, jasper, and petrified wood, or wash some gravel for black sands and fine gold. Mentally plotting the mileage from here to Portland, Oregon, I reached the tiny crossing at Sunbeam and saw a sign for the Yankee Fork dredge. Somewhere in the dim recesses of my gold-fevered brain, a light went off. I seemed to remember this area was once a major producer. Besides, there was that word ‘dredge.’ On the spot, I detoured north onto Yankee Fork Road. And I’m really glad I did.

In this article, I’ll describe the Yankee Fork district in detail. I’ll provide you with the history of the Yankee Fork gold rush, culled from some dependable research materials. I found two excellent descriptions of the actual “eureka!” moments when prospectors located fabulous quartz veins. In addition, I’ll share some web links that briefly describe the recreational activities available to current visitors during those brief summer months when the area is most hospitable. With ghost towns, museums, abandoned mines, and that magnificent dredge as a base, the Yankee Fork of Idaho’s Salmon River has a lot to offer

**

First off, let’s answer the basic question: how rich was it? According to the U.S. Geological Survey:

“Anderson (1949, p. 14) credited the district with a total production of gold and silver valued at $13 million to about 1948. Of this, $12 million was mined before 1910. Umpleby (1913a, p. 78) estimated that about 40 percent of this was in gold (about 252,000 ounces). From 1948 through 1959 the district produced 14,253 ounces; most of it was from dredging operations. Total gold production through 1959 was about 266,600 ounces.” (USGS Bulletin 610, p. 128)

That’s a good haul, by any yardstick. Interestingly, the district started slowly, as access was difficult, there were no railroads anywhere near the area, and the Boise Basin discoveries were much easier to reach. The original discovery in this district was at Loon Creek, about 30 miles north of Sunbeam, as Sparling describes in Ghost Towns of Southern Idaho:

“When Nathan Smith discovered placer gold on Loon Creek in 1869, he set off another rush into the back country…Near the mouth of Canyon Creek, the tent and log town of Oro Grande began to take shape... In 1879 five Chinese miners were killed by Sheepeater Indians. There is some doubt as to whether Indians committed this crime or white men intent on robbing the Chinese of their gold, but the incident helped touch off the Sheepeater Indian War... The town site was burned over years ago and nothing remains today. The next settler at the mouth of Canyon Creek was Billy Casto, and on most maps, the site of Oro Grande is shown as Casto.” (Sparling, pgs. 95-100)

Loon Creek proved to be a flash in the pan save for the Lost Packer mine. In his classic book, Gold Camps and Silver Cities, Merle Wells picks up the story:

“Yankee Fork got off to a surprisingly slow start. Joel Richardson and a party of Yankee prospectors examined Yankee Fork while traveling through that part of the country in 1866 or 1867. Aside from bestowing a name on the stream, they left little imprint before retiring to Montana. By 1868, a few men were washing out gold at nearby Robinson Bar [on the Salmon River]. After the rush to Loon Creek in 1869, mining was under way on both sides of Yankee Fork.

“Prospectors radiated out in all directions from Loon Creek. D.B. Varney and Sylvester Jordan brought a group of miners over to Yankee Fork in 1870, where most of their claims proved a disappointment. Only one of the new Jordan Creek claims yielded enough (in this case, $10 per man a day) to justify working. The next spring the decline of Loon Creek inspired two more gold hunters to cross over to Yankee Fork. They had a hard time of it. According to Clitus Barbour, ‘Arnold and Estis (Estes) the discoverers of Yankee Fork camp, toiled in the snow and storm twenty-five days transporting their supplies in there on sleds from Loon Creek, a distance of only twenty-five miles, over a divide thousands of feet high.’ On the strength of opening discovery claims good for $8 a day, about twenty miners organized a district and went to work. By the end of July, five companies were preparing their claims for mining. Fifty or sixty men, mostly from Loon Creek, were on hand. Some of them ‘were busy opening their claims, while others were running up and down the river, uncertain what to do, and waiting for the turn of events.’ Not until the new claims turned out profitable did the doubters go to work. Even then Yankee Fork attracted little outside interest. Only fifteen men spent the winter, and no grounds for a stampede materialized in 1872. Lode discoveries, in fact, did not come on any important scale for three more years.” (Wells, pg. 118)

So early placer mining was barely productive. Because these were experienced prospectors, they knew the source for the gold must be nearby, and the search would heat up again each spring once the snow melted. Here’s the description of the big discovery, again from Wells:

“Searching on a Sunday afternoon in June 1875 for the lodes from which Jordan Creek’s extensive, but otherwise unimpressive, placers originated, W.A. Norton came across the vein that every prospector dreams of finding one day. Very few ever had his kind of luck. In a high-grade vein he found a seam of exceptionally rich ore only two or three inches thick. With the help of a partner or two, he was able to pound out $11,500 worth of gold in a hand mortar in thirty days. That was enough to pay some oppressive debts and to start developing the mine. No rush to Yankee Fork attended Norton’s discovery of the fabulous Charles Dickens, as it was called. His find went by almost unnoticed. Then, when winter struck early, Yankee Fork was depopulated almost entirely. Packers had no opportunity to supply the high mountain camps. Yankee Fork was reduced to a population of only three, while neighboring Loon Creek declined to four.” (Wells, p. 118)

Winters in this area can be deadly, as elevations start at about 6000 feet where the Yankee Fork meets the main stem of the Salmon. Snow often piles up over ten feet deep, temperatures drop below zero and stay there, and opportunities to hunt for game are scarce. That must have been one dismal camp. But surely one of the reasons the men stayed put was the opportunity to find another ledge like the Charles Dickens.

Wells picks up the story the next year:

“When prospectors resumed in 1876, other extremely rich lodes followed the Charles Dickens. Most notable of all was the General Custer which James Baxter, E.M. Dodge, and Morgan McKeim discovered on August 17. In a manner somewhat different from the Charles Dickens, with its wealth of ore suitable for hand mortaring, the Custer also rated as a prospector’s dream. In this discovery, most of the vein happened to lie exposed on the surface. (The way miners describe it, most of the hanging wall simply had slid off the vein.) Thus the miners could avoid much of the expensive development work (that is, driving tunnels and raises or shafts deep into the mountain along a mineralized vein in order to verify the presence of enough ore to justify bringing in a mill) ordinarily required before a prospector could sell out his discovery. Erosion had done most of the development work. Moreover, the relatively low cost of getting out high-grade ore from the Custer enhanced its value greatly. One man could pull down twelve tons of ore a day. E.W. Jones reported in 1877: “The owners merely break the ore loose…tumble it down in large masses to the dump, break it up, sort it and sack it.” At that point, the ore was ready for packing to a mill in Salt Lake City, where $60,000 was realized from the small open cut. Somehow even this marvelous discovery did not generate an old-fashioned gold rush to Yankee Fork.” (Wells, pgs. 119-120)

Now stampeders flocked into the area. Soon the nearby towns of Bonanza City and Custer sprang to life, as described by Sparling:

“The rich placers along the Yankee Fork and up Jordan Creek encouraged the miners to build Bonanza City in 1876. By 1880 the town had fifteen hundred people, a post office, stores, hotel, many houses, and a newspaper, The Yankee Herald. Prior to 1880, Bonanza and Custer were supplied by freighters using pack strings of horses or mules, and the demands of these towns was largely responsible for the growth of Challis as a supply center. Since nearby Custer didn’t have a cemetery, the one back in the hills behind Bonanza served both communities. Some log building remain along the road in Bonanza, but many have tumbled down and been destroyed…

“Situated about two miles upstream from Bonanza, Custer grew with the development of the rich quartz mines. The Charles Dickens was the first big mine, and others nearby were the General Custer, the Lucky Boy, the Black Mine, and the Montana Mine. With the defeat of General Custer in 1876 still fresh in their minds, the miners named the town in his honor. A toll road over Mill Creek to Challis was opened in 1880 and allowed freighters to bring in the heavy machinery that a mill required. The Custer Mill started operating in 1881 and closed down in 1903, and at one time it had thirty stamps going. A tramway was built up the mountainside behind the mill to carry down the ore. Unfortunately the mill has been burned down and only the foundations remain.” (Sparling, p. 97)

As happened in many remote districts, land ownership issues cropped up early in the development of the better properties. However, the legal problems were nothing that a little outside capital from California couldn’t solve, as Wells describes.

“By the spring of 1879, Joseph Pfeiffer of Rocky Bar had brought in San Francisco engineers and capital, and had arranged purchases enough to enable work and production at the Custer to resume. ‘People generally thought him crazy’ to be investing so heavily in an undeveloped prospect located hundred of miles from a railroad and on a practically unimproved pack trail ‘in a wild, sparsely-settled country, surrounded by hordes of hostile Indians.’ Yet Pfeiffer had recovered his initial $60,000 investment by shipping ore to Salt Lake City, and his California associates, who included George Hearst and the president of Wells Fargo, supplied the balance (over twice that amount) to straighten out title. The next step was to stop hauling ore by pack mule to distant mills in Atlanta or Salt Lake; freight costs to Blackfoot, where rail service was available by 1879, ran $100 a ton. Then George Hearst induced Alexander Toponce to build a toll road to Challis, over which stage service to Bonanza commenced on October 3, 1879. Toponce’s road made it possible for Pfeiffer’s San Francisco capitalists to bring in a thirty-stamp mill for the Custer. In spite of all the excitement, production at Yankee Fork mines amounted to only $420,000 in 1879. Then, ‘after many unavoidable and tedious delays,’ the Custer mill was completed at the very end of 1880. Production in 1881 rose immediately to over $1 million. The Yankee Fork mines at last were showing their great potential.” (Wells, p. 123)

Government geologists soberly relate the rest of the story:

“However, these high-grade deposits proved to be shallow, and the district began to decline in the 1890’s, and its mill closed in 1905. There were sporadic attempts to revive some properties, but no significant activity occurred until the reopening of the Lucky Boy mine in 1939. Placer mining along the Yankee Fork was also renewed about that time. World War II curtailed activities, but a few properties were reopened in 1946 and 1947. Production in the late 1940’s was almost entirely by a dredge that operated along the Yankee Fork, although small-scale production from lode deposits continued through 1957 (T. H. Kiilsgaard, written commun., 1962). The most productive placers in the district were along the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, from the mouth of Jordan Creek almost to the mouth of the Yankee Fork.” (USGS, p. 128)

Geology
No detailed description of a mining district is complete without at least summarizing the geology reports. If you get a chance to explore some of the abandoned mines and their tailings piles, you need to know what to look for. In addition, the gravels that have been turned upside down along the Yankee Fork are worth exploring with a heavy hammer, in hopes of busting up a quartz chunk and revealing some interesting minerals. So even though this next paragraph can be heavy slogging, I feel duty-bound to include it in this writeup. All the usual players for Idaho are present: old rocks from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Ages, and a healthy dose of that great lump of granite, the Idaho Batholith:

“Bedrock in the Yankee Fork district, according to Anderson (1949, p.8-11) consists of contorted Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks that are intruded by quartz monzonite and granodiorite of Mesozoic age. The Paleozoic rocks are the Wood River Formation of Pennsylvanian age and the Casto Volcanics of Permian (?) age. These are cut in the northwest part of the district by quartz monzonite of the Idaho batholith. The Paleozoic rocks were subjected to two periods of deformation - one at the close of the Jurassic and one at the close of the Cretaceous. During Oligocene time the Challis volcanic flows covered most of the older rocks, and these were intruded in Miocene time by relatively small masses of dacite and rhyolite porphyry (Anderson, 1949, p. 8-10). The Challis Volcanics were gently warped and fractured, and these fractures were filled by epithermal silver-gold deposits. Most of the lodes are simple fissure fillings, but where the rock was complexly fractured, the ore minerals are disseminated and the deposits resemble stockworks (Anderson, 1949, p. 15). Typical vein filling is quartz, which may be fine grained, coarse comb, or drusy. Veins characteristically contain pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, arsenopyrite, enargite, galena, stephenite, miargyrite, pyargyrite, argentite, aguilarite, gold, and electrum; some calcite may be present. In the weathered zones, native silver, argentite, cerargyrite, azurite, malachite, chalcocite, and covellite are present in various amounts.” (Anderson, 1949, p. 16-17).

Dredge Links
By far the most interesting aspect of a drive up the Yankee Fork is the big dredge near Custer. There are several links on the Internet that can direct you to historical facts about the massive dredge, plus information about the fascinating museum at Custer that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Entry fees are quite reasonable for both the dredge tour and the museum visit, and they’re both family-friendly. I’ve weeded down and snipped a bit of representative text for each link below.

US Forest Service
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/yankeefork/pointsofinterest.shtml#dredge
“In 1979, the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Association was chartered by former employees and their families. This dedicated, hardworking group of volunteers has restored the dredge and it is open for guided tours. This fascinating tour is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend from 10:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. They will even show you how to pan for gold!”

Sun Valley Guide
http://www.svguide.com/s06/s06_history.htm
“Ghostly remnants of another Idaho mining boom-and-bust linger along the nine miles of dirt road just north of the Sunbeam Dam and Yankee Fork turnoff on state Highway 75. Wooden shards, remnants of homes that once occupied the exuberantly named settlement of Bonanza, lay between the trees. Cabins, better-preserved icons of what passed for civilization in the 19th century wilderness, stand farther along the road in Custer. Between these relics of the Old West looms a brooding artifact, a younger cousin to those mining yesteryears that seems, at first glance, to be just a mirage in the backwoods of lush forests and richly stocked fishing streams.

“The word behemoth is insufficient to describe the giant Yankee Fork gold dredge. It is a grayish monster languishing in its final resting place, a mechanical dinosaur idling in a perpetual pond, now serving only as a fascinating curiosity for tourists. Turn the clock back 60 years and the dredge resembled a well-lighted, four-story hotel; and it had a purpose. It spent its days swinging a giant arm to gouge and sift earth by the tons per minute in search of gold.”

Oregon State University pictures collection
http://digitalcollections.library.oregonstate.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/streamsurvey&CISOSORT=title|r
I know that’s a lot to type; you can Google for ‘Yankee Fork Dredge pictures’ and get there just as fast. Great old black and white photos here.

Suite 101 motorcycle adventures
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/motorcycles_adventure/114450/2
“Designed by the Bucyrus-Erie Company for the Snake River Mining Company to suit the specific geology along the Yankee Fork, work crews constructed this 988-ton, 112-foot long, 54-foot wide and 64-foot high dredge next to the river where it floated in a pond of its own making.

“From 1940 to 1953, the dredge traveled relentlessly upriver for a total of five and one-half miles. It operated 24-hours a day except from late fall until early spring when ice and cold caused its shutdown. During its 13 productive years, the dredge turned six million cubic yards of stream gravel into more than 1 million dollars worth of gold and silver. In 1966, its last owner donated the dredge to the Forest Service.”

Yankee Fork Dredge State Park
http://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/yankeefork.aspx
“At Sunbeam, interpretive signs describe the beautiful Salmon River and the remnants of the Sunbeam Dam, the only dam ever constructed on the Salmon. The dam was built in 1910 to generate electricity for nearby mines. The operation went bankrupt in 1911 and the dam was breached in 1934.”

Off Road Explorers
http://www.offroadexplorers.com/html/yankee_fork_dredge.htm
“Despite being abandoned for a half century and having the occasional band of hippies residing in it during the 1970’s, the dredge is amazingly intact. It has been somewhat restored by a group of volunteers who work with the forest service and give tours of the dredge for a small fee.”

Historic Photo Archive
http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/capsmonner/monner4895.htm
“In the early 1930's several placer miners joined together to form a company to see if they could get someone interested in dredging their claims on the Yankee Fork. Twenty-nine claims were involved. During 1938 and 1939, the Silas Mason Co. of Shreveport, Louisiana became interested. When tests indicated approximately $16,000,000 worth of gold was recoverable, they formed a subsidiary, the Snake River Mining Co., to manage the dredging. The Bueyrus-Erie Company was awarded a contract to build the dredge in 1939 and completed it in the fall of 1940. The Olson Manufacturing Company manufactured most of the steel work in Boise, Idaho. The parts were shipped by train to Mackay, then hauled by trucks to Yankee Fork and assembled in 1940.”

Vital Guide Books
http://virtualguidebooks.com/Idaho/MountainsOfIdaho/SalmonRiver/YankeeForkDredgeOne.html
Short QuickTime movie about the dredge.

Go Northwest
http://www.gonorthwest.com/idaho/central/Stanley/stanley.htm
Information about the town of Stanley:
“In summer, the small town swells with visitors who use Stanley as a base for exploring the Salmon River, the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, and other public lands. Popular in summer are rafting, float trips, hiking, fishing and hunting, and in winter, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing… The town takes its name from the surrounding basin, itself named for Captain John Stanley, a Civil War veteran. He was leading a party of prospectors who passed through the basin on their way to Idaho City. The party found a small amount of placer gold, and Stanley didn't return but one of the party, A.P. Challis, did and mined around Stanley for many summers.”

Camping
There are developed campgrounds between Sunbeam and Bonanza City, plus more campgrounds near Casto. I see more camping areas on the road from Custer to Challis, and there must be eight developed sites along the Salmon on either side of Sunbeam. Contact the Chalis-Yankee Fork Ranger District office at Challis: (208) 879-4100 or on the web at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/yankeefork/index.shtml. Many campgrounds in this area can be reserved over the web.

Summary
There are some current claims being worked in and around the massive dredge tailings below Bonanza City, where apparently some unworked ground escaped the big dredge. I witnessed one person with a metal detector walking through the tailings, but there were probably a dozen fishermen out that day. Many small streams that empty into the drainage are worth exploring, particularly above Custer and further up the rough road to Loon Creek/Casto. Topo maps for this area show many mines and prospects worth checking out if you have time. There is a huge open pit operation west of Custer, along Jordan Creek, so watch for heavy truck traffic during normal business hours.

Bibliography

Anderson, A. L., Silver-Gold Deposits of the Yankee Fork District, Custer County, Idaho. Idaho Burau of Mines and geology Pamphlet 83. 1949. 37 pgs.

Koschmann, A.H., and Bergendahl, M.H., Principal Gold-Producing Districts of the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 610. 1968. 283 pgs.

Sparling, Wayne C., Southern Idaho Ghost Towns, Caxton Printers Ltd., Caldwell Idaho. 1996. 135 pgs.

Wells, Merle W., Gold Camps and Silver Cities: Nineteenth-Century Mining in Central and Southern Idaho, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho. 2002. 233 pgs.

Umpleby, J. B., Some Ore Deposits in Northwestern Custer County, Idaho, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 539, 1913. 104 pgs.

Too Much Rockhounding?

Maybe I've been traveling too much, putting on too many miles. Maybe I almost caught my brother-in-law's cold when we went to Lincoln City, Oregon, for the Fourth. But upon coming home, I was exhausted, and I soon fell into a fitful nap with some amazing images.

No, I didn't dream I was surrounded by fossilized T-Rex skulls. Instead, I imagined I was putting together a short expedition for a few folks and found myself as the lead organizer. Wanting to get some kind of vehicle that would have a strong low gear, I found myself borrowing an air-conditioned wheat harvester from Arnold Schwarzenegger. And seated next to me in the navigator's chair was Queen Elizabeth. I know it was her because she was wearing a nice little hat.

Thank god I woke up soon after shifting into second gear. I have no idea where that dream was headed.

Links

Got a nice note from Jason, the operator of a good Idaho rockhounding site:

www.1rockhound.com

Check him out.

Travels in Idaho

Just got back from a whirlwind tour of the Idaho Panhandle area. Four of us started up at the Roosevelt Cedars grove, near the Canadian border out of Nordman/Priest Lake, and pretty much criss-crossed Idaho until we got as far south as Fabulous Florence. Amazing trip: 2600 miles, 60 GPS readings, as many as 31 sites to write up for my Rockhounding Idaho book.

As far as wildlife, we saw moose, bear, coyote, elk, deer, rabbits, squirrels...about what you'd expect. Maybe one eagle, lots of hawks, and a group of four turkey hens that looked very tasty. Oh, and my first wild turtle. It was a big red eared pond turtle, booking across the dirt road in front of me as I was angling toward a feldspar crystal area near Sagle.

Some things I learned:

1. Priest Lake is beautiful
2. Copper Falls is very nice
3. Moyie Falls is hard to photograph
4. Wallace is a neat little town
5. Pierce is also worth visiting, but Headquarters is a little empty
6. The Clearwater River is a ragin' torrent
7. Elk City is still charming
8. Red River Hot Springs is worth the drive
9. Dixie is dying; the saloon is closed

The last time we visited Dixie, there was a dartboard near the door with the smiling face of a young Bill Clinton, peppered with darts. I was looking forward to buying a round in there again, but no dice. We didn't have time to drive the loop or head for the Salmon from there.

Many of the rivers and creeks were near flood stage. Out on the St. Joe River, we tried to hit the Mammoth Springs Campsite, but ran into a bank of snow a mile from camp and had to turn around. That also meant Bathtub Mountain and Freezeout Ridge have to wait for another day.

The Emerald Creek garnet area has been tamed down to a place where you dig from a pile of garnet-bearing dirt the operators brought in, screen it, and wash it in a common trough. I remember when you could dig around in the creek yourself. I guess those days are gone.

I tried to make the trip on four-ply tires and ended up driving into camp, late at night, on two occasions with hissing tires. One of those was a Saturday night, so when it turned out to be unrepairable we had to buy a tire at Wal-Mart instead of Les Schwab.

Rock Walks Around Portland

I was recently asked to "capsulize" some of the rockhounding locales around the Portland area for an article in "Metroscape," published at Portland State University. It was a fun task, as it basically meant taking my book text and cleaning it up a little. It was also a nice little nostalgia tour to think about some of those areas that I haven't been to in a year or so.

In all, I wrote up six sites:

1. Clackamette Park, where the Clackamas river joins the Willamette. Good supply of rounded river rock with agates and jaspers throughout.
2. Memaloose Bridge, far up the Clackamas almost to Ripplebrook Ranger Station, with mostly agate and jasper but also some zeolites and other oddities.
3. Independence Island, my favorite canoe trip from last summer when the water was low. More agate and jasper, plus excellent petrified wood.
4. Cedar Butte, a noted locale for black crystals of augite. The material is lying in the dirt and in the cliffs, and kids love it.
5. Nehalem River, another river walk that has the usual suspects plus fossil concretions and Indian artifacts.
6. Washougal River in Washington, with good agate and jasper from the Columbia River.

I'm anxious to see what the editor does with all my hand-drawn maps. I'll let you know.