Ditlihi's Adventures On The Treasure Trail In Southwest New Mexico

[ditlihi]

That's some funny ars chit ! Kinda like a turd circling the toilet but never makes it down ?

LMAO!!!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... But you made it clear that "research " is rather insignificant or moot. .....

Not when it's research on (d), eh ?

 

[ditlihi]

Not when it's research on (d), eh ?

Ladies and Gentlemen....I rest my case.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.....

....and then just go on your way and forget about it?

....
Just curious.

ditlihi, I think you would agree that the picture you just painted, has very little in common with the camp-fire story yarns that have been tossed around for 50 to 100 yrs, eh ? Dents Run, Yamashita, Lost Dutchman, Pearl ship, etc.. Ie.: the ghost-stories where .... their only "evidence", is the story itself. Contrast to what you just painted, is something entirely different. Eh ?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ladies and Gentlemen....I rest my case.

Ah, ok. So you define research into A, B, and C, to be on-par (as-to-potential results of goodies) as D. Right ?

 

[ditlihi]

ditlihi, I think you would agree that the picture you just painted, has very little in common with the camp-fire story yarns that have been tossed around for 50 to 100 yrs, eh ? Dents Run, Yamashita, Lost Dutchman, Pearl ship, etc.. Ie.: the ghost-stories where .... their only "evidence", is the story itself. Contrast to what you just painted, is something entirely different. Eh ?

Tom, listen to yourself.....then go back and read this thread again.

If you still think it's about You or all the treasure legends you have listed...then I can no longer help you. As a member of another forum is so fond of saying, I am not an Idiot Whisperer.

Good luck and Happy Hunting.

 

[maxxkatt]

It is fun to read about and dream about finding lost treasures and gold mines. But chasing them? That is a lot of effort with a very bad ratio of time spent looking and actually finding any lost treasure.

A better strategy and use of your time especially in the south west is maybe do what Bill Southern does.

see his youtube channel NUGGET SHOOTER JOURNALS.

Bill spends his times hunting dry washes for gold nuggets. Bill knows how to read desert areas for likely native gold nuggets like an experienced beach hunter knows how to read a wet beach.

He also is a rock hound so he can do double duty when out metal detecting.

Also you should get a detector better suited for gold like the Nox 800 that is a killer on the smallest of nuggets.

If you have not watched some of his nugget hunts, you might enjoy them.

Then the was this other guy some years back that hooked up four metal detectors on the back of a small low trailer hooked to his jeep. He was only looking for really big nuggets. had all four detectors wired up to his head phones. Drove around for days or weeks or months (not sure) and he found one of the largest gold nuggets in the SW. Measured in pounds not ounces.

does anyone remember that story?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... go back and read this thread again.....

" .... There is a little known story of an old Spanish silver mine in this area that was re-discovered in the mid to late 1800's, but had to be abandoned due to Indian raids ongoing at the time...."

I took that to be of the caliber of camp-fire story. I guess I'd need to know the origin and proof of it, to lump it into the "legends" category, eh ?

So if the "proofs" of it, is the story itself, .... then, yes, I'd lump it in the legend category.

Your current question involved the 2nd part of the story, that it was re-worked in the 1920s, hence .... you had asked ... if the 1920s items you found could have a connection with the story. Right ?

As to why I took the "story" to be of the camp-fire legend class, is the familiar rings that it has to a host of others : "lost mine". "Spanish in the SW", "Indian raid". I could be wrong, but ... you posted it for input. So ... I gave my input

 

[ditlihi]

It is fun to read about and dream about finding lost treasures and gold mines. But chasing them? That is a lot of effort with a very bad ration of time spent looking and actually finding any lost treasure.

A better strategy and use of your time especially in the south west is maybe do what Bill Southern does.

see his youtube channel NUGGET SHOOTER JOURNALS.

Bill spends his times hunting dry washes for gold nuggets. Bill knows how to read desert areas for likely native gold nuggets like an experienced beach hunter knows how to read a wet beach.

He also is a rock hound so he can do double duty when out metal detecting.

Also you should get a detector better suited for gold like the Nox 800 that is a killer on the smallest of nuggets.

If you have not watched some of his nugget hunts, you might enjoy them.

Then the was this other guy some years back that hooked up four metal detectors on the back of a small low trailer hooked to his jeep. He was only looking for really big nuggets. had all four detectors wired up to his head phones. Drove around for days or weeks or months (not sure) and he found one of the largest gold nuggets in the SW. Measured in pounds not ounces.

does anyone remember that story?

I follow Bill like a stalker, lol, facebook, youtube, and so on. He's the Real Deal and a real nice guy, love his stuff.

Wasn't prospecting when we stumbled on this site, but you're right. We plan to bring in some better equipment when we return this fall.

Never heard about the dude with the 4 detectors behind his jeep, sounds a little far fetched, lol, but hey...whatever works. Do you remember his name or any details a person could look him up by?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

It is fun to read about and dream about finding lost treasures and gold mines. But chasing them? That is a lot of effort with a very bad ration of time spent looking and actually finding any lost treasure....

Here's when the most caches were found by md'rs, ironically : In the 1960s and early 1970s, when detectors were awkward, insensitive, non-discriminating, etc... The detectors of the 1960s to very early 1970s, were doing good to get a coin to 4" deep, right ? And there was no TID, no disc, etc...

Yet they had utterly no problem finding a soda can or hubcab to a respectable depth. So the persons, back-in-the-day, that took those wimpy machines out to ghost towns, cellar holes, ruins, etc... might have a hard time getting a coin. But ... they'd have no problem getting a soda can, tractor plow blade, etc...

Therefore, there was more caches found (as a ratio of hobbyists into the hobby) than there is today. Today, we effortlessly pass those soda cans and hubcabs, right ?

Thus in my opinion, if someone wants to find caches, their best bet is to simply get a 2 box machine (like a TM 808) and hunt ghost-townsy sites. The 2-box machine will not find anything smaller than about a soda can sized object. Thus they are the perfect discriminator against pesky coins, foil, rings, tabs, nails, etc....

 

[maxxkatt]

Never heard about the dude with the 4 detectors behind his jeep, sounds a little far fetched, lol, but hey...whatever works. Do you remember his name or any details a person could look him up by?

no that is why I posed the question about him. maybe some other members here remembers more about it.

 

[ditlihi]

Thanks, would love to hear more about it if they do.

 

[maxxkatt]

I tend to be firmly in Tom_in_CA's camp when it comes to gold legends.

I spent two years almost every weekend panning and metal detecting for gold in the North Ga mountains in areas thick with over 100 gold mines. Met lots old timers and one rather informed retired state geologists. Read several old original manuscripts of real gold miners in the late 1800's.

So, so many stories and so little evidence of these lost treasures. The only really good gold story that was true of a Canadian who came to the area in the 70's and was dredging with a 4" unit and hit a pot hole and pulled out in one day enough gold to spread out on a full size bed. He left the next week with the gold. The state geologist said he knew the guy and saw the gold on the bed.

As an aside, we always found very small amount of tiny gold flakes. Our strategy was to use our Fisher Gold Bug to find lead buckshot in the streams and pan that gravel. Rarely failed. But never found any large nuggets. My two sons and I did have lots of fun and they learned a lot about being in the woods and watching for snakes, yellow jackets and abandoned vertical mine shafts covered with bushes. We found many abandoned mines, but our rule was never to enter them. Way too dangerous.

 

[ditlihi]

I tend to be firmly in Tom_in_CA's camp when it comes to gold legends.

I spent two years almost every weekend panning and metal detecting for gold in the North Ga mountains in areas thick with over 100 gold mines. Met lots old timers and one rather informed retired state geologists. Read several old original manuscripts of real gold miners in the late 1800's.

So, so many stories and so little evidence of these lost treasures. The only really good gold story that was true of a Canadian who came to the area in the 70's and was dredging with a 4" unit and hit a pot hole and pulled out in one day enough gold to spread out on a full size bed. He left the next week with the gold. The state geologist said he knew the guy and saw the gold on the bed.

As an aside, we always found very small amount of tiny gold flakes. Our strategy was to use our Fisher Gold Bug to find lead buckshot in the streams and pan that gravel. Rarely failed. But never found any large nuggets. My two sons and I did have lots of fun and they learned a lot about being in the woods and watching for snakes, yellow jackets and abandoned vertical mine shafts covered with bushes. We found many abandoned mines, but our rule was never to enter them. Way too dangerous.

So am I in regards to the big time treasure legends, he just hasn't figured that out yet, lol.

Funny you mention that, I spent a year not too long ago in North Carolina doing the same thing, and not too far from the area you described. I'm not a novice, been in the mining business for 25+ years so I know a little. But I'm always ready to learn something new. And I heard about the pothole find, wouldn't that have been a sight...a bedload of nuggets. We can only dream of a find like that.

I'm having a blast looking, can't think of a single thing I'd rather be doing.

 

[maxxkatt]

I hunted around Auraria, GA it is about 6 miles SW of Dahlonegha, GA. Dahlonegha was the bigger city with the only banks. Auraria had a population of 10,000 at it's height before they all left for better finds in CO and CA. My friend Larry Otwell was a retired state geologists and he wrote a book "Panning Georgia's Gold". He taught me a lot. He passed in 2005. My boys and I panned and dredged for gold almost once or twice a month year round for about 2 years. Larry provided me maps where every gold mine in that area was marked on the map.

It was interesting there were two major faults that formed an oblong circle around Dahlonega and tappered off to a close in in the north and south as far south as into Metro Atlanta. And all the gold mines were inside the bounds of those two faults.

I always thought or hoped I would find a buried cache around Auraria because the miners would not take their gold to the bigger city of Dahlonega but once or twice a month according to some older stories. They would bury the day's gold finds each night to prevent from getting robbed. All we found were iron relics. Found some cool 1890's hand forged pick axes.

Now you cannot find any areas to pan or hunt in those areas. It is getting too developed.

 

[KOB]

I hunted around Auraria, GA it is about 6 miles SW of Dahlonegha, GA. Dahlonegha was the bigger city with the only banks. Auraria had a population of 10,000 at it's height before they all left for better finds in CO and CA. My friend Larry Otwell was a retired state geologists and he wrote a book "Panning Georgia's Gold". He taught me a lot. He passed in 2005. My boys and I panned and dredged for gold almost once or twice a month year round for about 2 years. Larry provided me maps where every gold mine in that area was marked on the map.

It was interesting there were two major faults that formed an oblong circle around Dahlonega and tappered off to a close in in the north and south as far south as into Metro Atlanta. And all the gold mines were inside the bounds of those two faults.

I always thought or hoped I would find a buried cache around Auraria because the miners would not take their gold to the bigger city of Dahlonega but once or twice a month according to some older stories. They would bury the day's gold finds each night to prevent from getting robbed. All we found were iron relics. Found some cool 1890's hand forged pick axes.

Now you cannot find any areas to pan or hunt in those areas. It is getting too developed.

Wow ! What an adventure. I'm sure you had some quality time with your boys. They will never forget that experience with dad. Kind of surprised that you didn't mention finding any gold. Not even a gram of flakes or a little nugget ? Even though you had a great mentor with a ton of knowledge of the area. I'm sure alot of RESEARCH was involved. Awesome times at least !