New 49'er Newsletter

FOURTH QUARTER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 10

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

Here is the list of winners for the Friday 27 October 2017 New 49’er Legal Fund-raiser Drawing:

Legal Drawing Legal Drawing 2

Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

1. John Stewart III of Canton CT
2. Rex & Jeannne Wheeler of Cloverdale OR
3 . Dorthy Easley of Tamarac FL
4. Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA
5. Steve Van Meter of Cocoa FL
6. Robert Guardiola of Riverbank CA
7. Mathew Ziesak of Eureka CA
8. Byron Brown of Sandy OR
9. John Krueger of Gold Hill OR
10. Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA

Ten 1/10- ounce American Gold Eagles

1. James Porter of Bend OR
2. Joseph Redmond of Hermosa Beach CA
3. David Thomson of Grand Canyon AZ
4. Robert Guardiola of Riverbank CA
5. Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA
6. Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA
7. Gary Heglund of Salem OR
8. Gary Fox of San Leandro CA
9. Bill & Leone Lant of Campbell River Canada
10. John Krueger of Gold Hill OR

Four 1/4-ounce American Gold Eagles

1. Van Wilhite of West Point CA
2. Theo Campbell of Rogue River OR
3. Michael O’Connell of Crescent City CA
4. Forrest Sutherland of Klamath Falls OR

And the Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle

1. Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Thank you each and every one for all your support of our effort to keep small-scale gold mining alive in America.

A special thank you to our drawing assistant, Valisha Armstrong, who works at one our local schools in Happy Camp.

Comment: Either Rick Rowan is one heck of a lucky guy, or he bought thousands of tickets!

Myrna Karns from Our Office Has Passed Away
Myrna Karns

Here is Myrna helping with the legal drawing in July of this year.

I am saddened to announce that longtime New 49’er supporter, Myrna Karns, passed away on September 14thShe was 79 years young. Many of you who have attended our Saturday potlucks will remember her because Myrna sold tickets at the prize table for more than 20 years. Myrna worked as a loyal staff member in our front store-office for the past 6 years.

The rest of us in the office recognized that Myrna was struggling with her health towards the end of this past season. She wrote it off as her allergies acting up with all the wildfire smoke in the air. But the reality was that she came down with bone cancer and her health deteriorated rather quickly. As tough as she was, she made it to the final potluck of our 2017 season; and she continued to open up our office every morning until the ambulance finally had to take her away. We will miss her dearly!

Here is some history on Myrna that was sent to us by her favorite niece, Kelly Parker:

“The thing I most admired about Aunt Myrna was that she was always adventurous and commonly defied convention. Her long-term career was as a printer/machinist for Interlake Steel in Illinois. When she showed up for the interview, the boss said it was a man’s job. She said that was fine and to please return her resume. He saw that she was riding a HarleyDavidson motorcycle, and he asked what she did when it broke down. She said, “I fix it.” She got the job.  They put her on a machine without instructions or training. So she took the machine apart, cleaned it, put it back together, and figured out how to run it.

No muss…no fuss. Aunt Myrna married Carl Karns and they moved to Ohio. She worked at a print shop, but their hobby was building underwater metal detectors. They actually met while detecting. They eventually sold their detectors to the police department that used them to find weapons and discarded treasure.

A younger Myrna KarnsThey bought a print shop in Ft. Pierce, Florida and continued detecting. The cache was always better after storms. A neighbor found an emerald necklace, they found pieces of eight, rings, etc. They always tried to find the owners of high school rings.

Once at a neighborhood fair, you could buy a bag of dirt for $3 and pan for gold. She enjoyed the heck out of that! She bought $30 worth. She was happy when she found something, but her joy was more about the process.

Myrna eventually signed up for The New 49’er newsletter and then bought the videos. When her husband died, she moved to Lewisville, Texas to be with family. She told her dad about the gold and Happy Camp. He encouraged her to go out there. She visited a couple of times before making the big final move in 1997.

While in Texas, she was a bus driver, waitress, dishwasher, and helped build the HARM missiles. She had a strong work ethic. She made money to support her hobbies and to eat, but was never interested in becoming rich.

She loved Pepsi. She bought a Pepsi machine, made it work and stocked it. If you don’t think the nieces & nephews LOVED that about their aunt…she was so stinkin’ cool!

She rode motorcycles for years until her back finally had enough. She gave up riding in 1990. Her dad and her brother also rode bikes, so it was a family thing. She was part of Motor Maids in the tri-state area. It’s a women’s motorcycle club.

She loved water, swimming, diving, boating, gold panning… anything water-related.  She became quite good at underwater gold dredging until her body just wasn’t up to it, anymore.

She had a strong faith in god. Shout out to Pastor Bill Estes of Happy Camp who sat by her side for the last 13 hours of her life so she wouldn’t be alone when she left this world.

Death was just one more adventure for Myrna to undertake. She was comfortable, at peace, and ready. You’ve heard that saying… Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body; but rather skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride! That was my aunt Myrna!”

Gary Wright and I visited Myrna in this wonderful Hospice center in Yreka shortly before she passed on. She was as bright and clear-headed as ever. She was clearly comfortable and at peace with the idea of moving on. The last thing she said to us was, “What the heck; it’s totally boring just laying here looking at the ceiling; so I guess it’s time for me to see what comes next.”   I gave her my most heart-felt hug and asked her to keep an eye out for me in the next world. She promised that she would. Myrna’s promise was as good as gold!

Legal & Political Updates

Our California litigation is challenging the State’s authority to impose a moratorium upon suction dredging. As part of an ongoing effort by State authorities to eliminate small-scale mining completely, “suction dredge” has been redefined by State lawmakers as any mechanized device within 100 yards of a waterway for the purpose of excavating or processing minerals.

There was a court hearing in San Bernardino on 17 October. We are now waiting for the judge’s ruling. Here is our attorney’s explanation of how that went.

Frankly, after struggling for many years in the California courts to win our mining rights back, I have very little faith that we will ever succeed in State Court. California has been nearly completely taken over by progressives. Some might call them socialists; but I have come to the conclusion that this is more like foolishism.  California is definitely on a death spiral. This is not just about small-scale mining. This is about the entire State. There appears to be zero rational leadership capable of seeing the consequences.  Here is a very short video that clearly lays out where the State is going.  I advise everyone to watch it and pass it around.  Please understand me: I am not discussing immigration. I am discussing economic consequences and a complete lack of rational leadership.  One America News, by the way, is an up and coming conservative cable news station which is vastly different than the well-established fake news media which we all grew up with and trusted.

Did you know that California is now considering banning all internal combustion engines in the State? This includes motor vehicles!  In fact, the process has already been started. Said another way, this is not going to end well!

Here is the lesson: Sound economics are unshakable natural law. They are facts of life that cannot be changed by wishful thinking or political ideology. Not even a State can spend more than it takes in without eventually going broke. Since the State is too large to “bail out,” and cannot print its own money (thank god for this), nearly everyone who depends upon the State of California for income is going to get the shaft.

If I had to guess, I would predict that we are more likely to win our small-scale mining rights back because there will no longer be any game wardens to enforce the State’s crazy laws! Why? Because there won’t be any money left to pay them!

While I am on the subject of how things might turn out, we should take note that while law abiding conservatives are being portrayed as racists and Nazis by the false news media, America’s far left, violent extremist groups are busy organizing for violent revolution. You don’t see much about this in the mainstream media. But we should not ignore the evolving realities.

Here is another thought: California has hired an army of lawyers to challenge the Trump Team’s policies on immigration, energy production on the federal lands, and the list of ongoing lawsuits against the Trump agenda goes on and on. But what happens when a State runs out of money?  You can only tax citizens so much before they also go broke. The State could eliminate unnecessary programs to cut costs; but that is unlikely under existing “leadership.”

I don’t know if a State has ever filed for federal bankruptcy protection. A declaration of bankruptcy by the State of California would place the Trump Team in charge of California, right?  Keep your eye on the far left extremists; they will be ready when law and order retreats.

Just as a side note, California’s budget acknowledges a potential liability to small-scale miners of $5,500,000,000 (yes, that’s $5.5 billion) because of our ongoing takings litigation.

As I have said, we live in very interesting times!

As many of you will recall, “Rinehart” is a dredging case that began several years ago which challenged the State’s authority to overrule an act of congress concerning small-scale mining on the federal lands. We won this case unanimously in California’s Third Appellate Court. Then the California Supreme Court reversed the Decision in another unanimous Decision. We are now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court has requested a briefing by the Solicitor General.

The American Exploration & Mining Association is a large organization which mostly represents the interests of large-scale mining. But they also support small-scale miners when we need them The New 49’ers belong to their membership. They are very well connected in Washington DC. So for the most part, they have taken the lead role in urging the Solicitor General to write a favorable brief on our behalf. My understanding is that the new Solicitor General (a Trump appointee) is in the process of writing a brief as to why the U.S. Supreme Court should review the Rinehart case. Let’s collectively cross our fingers on this one!

At the same time, California’s legal challenge to block the federal government (Trump Team) from developing natural resources on the federal lands is working its way through the courts. Natural resources are the foundation of any economy! They have to come from somewhere! But, as is demonstrated by the linked video above, California leadership does not look very far ahead.  Or perhaps they do and we cannot understand why they are deliberately running the State into the ground… In any event, these State/federal lawsuits move forward on a fast track. The outcome in this and other ongoing litigation should help us, loggers, farmers who need water to grow our food, and a big part of America’s national economy.I receive emails from people on occasion requesting that I do not express my opinions on political matters and just publish stories about mining gold.  I always answer the emails that are polite and respectful. My time is too valuable to waste on haters. My answer generally explains that State policies have reduced small-scale mining down to hands and pans. While there is some enjoyment in that, the real adventure is deeper down in the streambeds which we cannot reach without the use of motors. Locating those deposits generates excitement that everyone wants to read about!

I have been in mining for 38 years. I had to learn everything through the school of hard knocks. Everything I have was worked for — not to say that there have not been hundreds or thousands of supporters just like you guys along my very long journey. Good and bad, it has been a great journey!

If it were not for my VA and SS benefits, I would have had to throw in the towel several years ago. And truthfully, since the State is not allowing me to use a dredge to recover the fast water gold deposits, I would rather devote my remaining years chasing fish and other interesting adventure on the South China Sea.

But there probably is nobody else within our industry in a stronger position to keep the hope alive and legal bills paid. With so many of you supporters out there, and all those who helped carry the load over the many years, and all those who kept small-scale mining alive since America’s beginnings, I am bound by personal duty to see the battle through until the end, whichever way it goes. There is no other path for me!

I’ll still manage to do some adventures searching for fish and other interesting things during our slow winter months when not much is happening in Happy Camp. While they have nothing to do with our New 49’er program, these adventures are as wild as it gets. While we wait to get our industry back, especially during the slow winter months, if you want to share in adventures more like this, please let me know. Just to be clear, I’m talking about sharing the stories, not bringing anyone else along in the flesh.  Otherwise, I could tell some mining stories from earlier times.

Thanks very much for your personal contributions, support and taking the time to communicate with me directly when you feel the need. Nobody understands your frustration better than I do.

You want to know how I feel? I feel terrible that the State has us down to hands & pans when we could be a thriving industry doing our part “to help make America great again.” I feel deeply betrayed to have put my life on the line (tip of the spear) for my country, only to have it taken over by enemies of the traditional American way of life. I am deeply upset that the judicial branch of government, which is charged with the duty to protect Americans from the excesses of the legislative and executive branches, has largely become a tool to enforce the unconstitutional excesses and destroy the American Dream. Here is an example of what the State is paying millions of dollars to do, which small-scale gold miners used to do for free with the use of our suction dredges, while at the same time, adding real wealth to the State’s economy. It’s okay for the State to run heavy equipment out into the river. But it is a criminal offense for us to use a 12-volt bilge pump within 100 yards of the river!

What?

It kills me to supervise a weekend project when there are more local volunteer helpers out there than members or guests arriving from outside of Happy Camp. I am embarrassed to be at a Saturday night potluck when the 25 or so people there mostly live in Happy Camp.  During the 90’s, we had hundreds of people attending our events!

I know: The big adventure comes from the deeper gold deposits which require some mechanical assistance. Most experienced miners only want to pan the concentrates from their suction dredges or high-bankers!  So things have slowed down quite a bit during the past several years. But there remain enough of you out there with continuing hope that monthly and annual cash flow is able to keep our program alive. You guys are correct; we should not let go of the 60+ miles of gold-rich property that we make available to our members. If we do, there will never be such a golden opportunity for small-scale miners to attain personal freedom again.

The truth is that I had pretty-much given up on the America which I was so lucky to grow up in. I did not anticipate someone big and tough enough like Donald Trump to come along and turn everything upside down! I’m sure that was quite a surprise for almost everyone. Like him or not, he is, at least for the moment, making progress in our direction (see links below). He truly is facing off with the dark side – which is huge! But Trump is a fighter. As much as he has accomplished in his life, it is amazing his enemies, with unlimited resources, have not found anything he has done wrong that will bring him down!

And there is reason to believe The Trump Team’s momentum is going to pick up. There are a lot of bad people who have had it their own way in the deep state who should be in jail. I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. We still have to wait and see how it plays out. If Trump comes out on top, I believe we will get our dredges and motors back; and then our industry will flourish like never before in modern history. And America will regain its strength and become great again – for everybody. There is still some hope!

As long as there remains hope, and others are willing to help carry the load, I will stay the course.

Even though most of the news we are seeing has been associated with heath care reform, tax reform, Russian meddling in our election process, immigration reform and Donald Trump’s tweets; there is a lot of progress being made at the administrative level of government where we have to do business.  Here are just a few examples that you guys might find interesting:

Donna Brazile: I found ‘proof’ the DNC rigged the nomination for Hillary Clinton

Big Three Networks skip Donna Brazile bombshell that DNC was rigged for Clinton

E.P.A. Announces Repeal of Major Obama-Era Carbon Emissions Rule

BLM cancels 10 million acre Sagebrush Focal Area Withdrawal Proposal

EPA moves to nix Obama’s ‘waters of the US’ regulation

New Interior Department Order limits most NEPA studies to a year, 150 pages

Ryan Zinke calls for lifted restrictions on national monuments

Oregon Dems push phony precedent to block Ninth Circuit Court nominee

Trump is remaking the federal judiciary (while the press freaks out over his tweets)

Chance to Win More American Gold & Silver Eagles!

gold and silver eaglesThere will be 26 prizes in all:
Two Grand Prizes: 1/2-ounce American Gold Eagles
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets).

This drawing will take place at 2 pm on 23 February 2018 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win. There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’rs Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

You can find out more about this legal fund-raiser right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

$10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

 Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

 

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

THIRD QUARTER, SEPTEMBER 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 9

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

 

Thankfully, the smoke from wildfires surrounding Happy Camp cleared up enough that we went ahead with our group electronic prospecting 2-day outing in mid-August. The event was attended by the allowed capacity of around 40 New 49’er members. This was in addition to seven New 49’er members who are very experienced at using metal detectors to discover gold both in exposed bedrock cracks and in extremely rich deposits along hillsides where ancient lode deposits have weathered away into pockets of raw wealth. You can find out more about these types of gold deposits right here.

Big smile nuggets
Detecting bedrock

There remains a lot of gold to be found in bedrock cracks alongside and inside the waterways with these new high-tech metal detectors!

These detecting events are being sponsored by The New 49’ers with our extensive gold properties in northern California, Whites Electronics who are the world leader in metal detecting equipment, and Armadillo Mining Supply in Grants Pass, Oregon – all longstanding friends and allies in the effort to keep small-scale mining alive in America.

Since the States of Oregon and California are making it more difficult (for now) to prospect for and develop gold deposits within active waterways (We are in litigation because several States have passed laws forbidding us the use of mechanized equipment), we are discovering that there are plenty of prospectors and members who are equally interested in prospecting for gold with the use of modern metal detectors – which is a technology that has made huge strides forward during recent years.

Out of deep respect, I want to acknowledge the following experts who donated their time and effort to both of this year’s electronic prospecting projects:

DennisDennis Dickson who was the primary organizer of this year’s detector outings. There is nothing Dennis does not know about every different kind of detector on the market, including every metal detector that has ever been sold. He spends a big part of his time traveling the world on behalf of Whites Electronics, teaching dealers how to use the latest technology to find gold, which largely has to do with “pulse induction detectors.” Dennis has gone to places in north Africa where I would not even consider going! Based out of Merlin, Oregon, which is just north on the other side of the mountain from Happy Camp, Dennis has the vision that we can use these pulse detectors to develop a whole new gold rush of prospectors onto the extensive gold properties which we make available to our members. On this particular venture, Dennis and most of the other experienced helpers arrived a day early so we could go out and do some advanced prospecting. Here he is on video:

Tom Using trigger to magnify

Whites was also represented by Tom Boykin; a very nice young guy who knows everything there is to know about using detectors to discover natural gold. It’s impossible for anyone to not like Tom from the moment you meet him. He has recently been promoted to the Project Manager at Whites Electronics.  Here he is caught on video teaching some of our members how to interpret the signals being given off a gold detector in gold country:

TeachingSamantha Everett (“Sam”) from Armadillo Mining Supply in Grants Pass, Oregon was also present to help beginners through the early part of the learning curve. She also plays a major role in making sure these events go off smoothly without a hitch. I caught her on video trying to hide behind a brave face. This is because video cameras scare the heck out of her. Only because we were having fun, I held the camera on her long enough to make her blush:

JoshJosh Bohmker is a very well-known prospector on the Oregon side of the Siskiyou’s. He was present with his prospecting buddy, Trevor Sheffield. Josh played a big role, if not the leading role, in re-discovering the famous, extremely rich, Briggs gold pocket just up on the border which separates Oregon from California. This is right at the headwaters of our very own Thompson Creek.  I view Josh as one of the future leaders of the small-scale gold mining industry. Not because he is into politics; but because he is authentic and is masterful at using modern technologies to discover Mother Nature’s most cherished treasures. He is one of those rare individuals who can convert hard work and ingenuity into pure wealth (the true definition of alchemy). Someone must keep the dream alive as us old-timers start using fishing poles more often than gold mining equipment. Josh will certainly be one of those guys! See for yourself in this video which was put together by Tom Boykin of Whites Electronics.

I also captured Josh prospecting with his detector during the 2-day project. While his target turned out to be a small piece of iron, there is plenty to learn from his demonstration of how to pinpoint a target that is singing out on your detector:

TrevorHere is another video I captured of Trevor moving quite fast to identify a target that was reading out on his detector. This was a text book demonstration. While the target ended up being a small piece of iron, it just as well could have been a gold nugget or full pocket of gold that had been uncovered by recent storm events along the Klamath River:

Cliff Leidecker from Rogue River, Oregon also honored us with his support of the project. Most members will remember Cliff as the engineer who helped us set up our gravity water system earlier this season.  Cliff is also one of the smartest and most determined guys involved with our latest generation of small-scale prospectors. We are so lucky to have his support behind our program!

Miguel Rodriguez is one of our local members who is so good with a metal detector that he declined to participate in our nugget hunting contest at the final event of this project. The reason, he said, was that he would easily find every gold nugget that I had hidden in the contest area. As it was, he found all of the remaining gold nuggets I had hidden within minutes after everyone else had given up!

Since firefighting crews had taken over the Happy Camp Grange Hall, we arranged for the Karuk Senior Citizens Hall to be made available to us on Friday afternoon. The Hall was filled to capacity. Dennis, Josh and the others on the team of helpers and teachers had set up various displays of gold samples, detectors and other electronic prospecting supplies. They entertained a full house of enthusiastic participants with educational advice and very interesting stories. This was followed by a spaghetti dinner that was prepared by regular supporters of our New 49’er Saturday evening potlucks.

Samantha from Armadillo sold drawing tickets for a bunch of valuable prizes. All of the proceeds were donated to The New 49’er Legal Fund.

We all met on Saturday morning and drove downriver about 7 miles from Happy Camp to our Wingate River property where there is a gargantuan historical hydraulic mining site on the far side of the river. That old gold deposit extends at least a thousand feet to the top of mountain peaks where old-timers mined ancient gold-bearing channels that had been pushed up there millions of years ago by geologic forces beyond our human experience.

Boat on river nuggets

We used my jet boat to safely transfer everyone across the river. Beginners remained down towards the river where our experienced helpers were providing demonstrations. More advanced prospectors headed up the mountainside to search for gold on the numerous terraces where ancient streambeds had been mined more than a century ago. There remain patches of ancient streambed still in place up there.  There is also nice gold to be found in bedrock cracks.

While he found the nuggets at an earlier time, here is some video I captured of one member who had already found some beautiful nuggets of pure wealth at the top of the mountain:

Just like any other type of serious small-scale gold mining, using even the most advanced electronic innovations to find gold deposits, with the occasional exception of luck, requires time and practice.

Great smile! Found first nugget!

Nugget hunt contestOn the chance that anything of great value might not be found during the few hours we had on Saturday, to make sure the event would end on a positive note, I used orange ribbon to block off a special area and hid 11 small, but nice, of my own gold nuggets on top of some exposed bedrock down near the river. All of the nuggets were hidden by a thin layer of sand.

The area was large enough that even I could not remember where the nuggets were hidden once I was finished. The only way anybody was going to find these nuggets was by pure luck, or by properly interpreting the signals being given off by their detectors. It was lots of fun to end off the project with a gold nugget hunting contest! Here is a video I captured of a young lady who located the first nugget using her detector: 

Her close friend actually found one of my hidden nuggets just by sweeping sand around on the bedrock; pure luck! I captured the excitement on video:

Authenic nugget find

Here was a nugget found within the contest area that I didn’t hide!

One participant actually found a beautiful gold nugget that I had not placed in the contest area! This was a truly amazing surprise! Here it is on video:

The group participants went at the contest area with a fury that even surprised me, and the nuggets were discovered one after the other.

After about 30 minutes, most participants figured all my hidden nuggets had been found. So they were ready for the boat ride back across the river. I estimated that there were still at least 2 or 3 nuggets remaining in the contest site. That’s When Miguel Rodriguez attacked the contest area with his detector. Truly, I have never seen anyone so skilled at keeping his detector coil just above uneven ground while moving amazingly fast over the bedrock. Indeed, by the time I returned for the final trip across the river, Miguel had recovered the last of the nuggets that I contributed to the contest!

Found a nugget! Found another nugget

 

Wildfires Have Kept Happy Camp Under a Layer of Smoke for Most of Our 2017 Season
Happy Cmp fire Smoke

Despite having a very wet winter, the wildfires along the Klamath River watershed started early this season. More recent thunderstorms sparked fires that have burned 53,600 acres near Happy Camp. As of a few days ago, there were 1,137 personnel assigned to the fires, and the fires were only 24% contained. Word around town is that these fires will burn until the rainy season sets in.

My impression is that Happy Camp is not in danger. But the smoke becomes very thick and uncomfortable at times, largely depending upon the direction of the wind. Because of thick smoke, and the loss of the Happy Camp Grange Hall to the firefighting teams, we were forced to cancel the final two weekend group mining projects of this season. Asking participants to dig gravel under those conditions would have been a bad idea!

Having said that, as uncomfortable as the smoke can be at times, we should feel blessed compared to what is presently happening with the flooding down in Texas and Louisiana! Goes to show you no matter how difficult the challenges that we are facing, we don’t have to look very far to find others who are confronting much more difficult circumstances.

Ray Koons, Our First Member, has Passed Away

Ray Koons R.I.P.I am disheartened to announce that Ray Koons passed away from natural causes on the 19th of August. He was 91 years old. Ray, and his wife Cricket (who passed away a number of years ago), were our very first members in The New 49’ers. They joined up in Quartzsite Arizona in February of 1986. That was only a month or so after we began advertising the idea of a mining club. Ray and Cricket signed up even though most others had little or no faith that my plan would succeed. There were quite a few people in Quartzsite who were interested. But most were nervous about wasting money on something that might fail. So Ray and Cricket visited Happy Camp a few weeks later (mid-winter of 1986) and met our staff – which was mainly made up of my dredging partners in those days and my ex-wife, Maria. They returned to Quartzsite with a good review and we immediately started signing up new members.

By 1987, we had over 500 members, many or most who showed up in Happy Camp. We were in no way prepared for so many people. The chaos of the 1987 season turned into the most difficult and challenging days of my life. Ray Koons recognized the difficulties and jumped right in to help manage. We appointed him as Director of Internal Affairs. His first job was to create a set of rules, enforce them, and get rid of the (quite a few) troublemakers. Ray put order into the chaos and remained as our Internal Affairs Director for the following 25 years. He also took on the role of Acting Manager of The New 49’ers during the many times over the years that I went off on foreign adventures – sometimes for years at a time.

Ray was completely loyal and dedicated to me and The New 49’ers for most of my adult life. He was one of the few very best friends I have had in this life. There is no doubt in my mind that if the situation ever came up, Ray would not have hesitated to give up his own life to save mine. Friends who are that devoted are hard to find. In this case, Ray found me. Rather than miss him, I choose to remember all the good times we had together over the many years, and the difficult times we overcame side-by-side. I am blessed to have had such a dedicated and loyal friend.

New Chance to Win American Gold & Silver Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 2 pm on Friday 27 of October 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

$10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
Annual Dues

We bill all Full Members $50 for annual dues in August.  September through the end of the year is when we must shoulder the load of substantial property tax and filing fees to the county and Bureau of Land Management. These are legal requirements which allow us to continue making a very substantial number of federal mining claims (60+ miles of gold-rich river and creek properties) available to our members.

I want to thank those of you who immediately responded to this message last month. With your help, we have succeeded in meeting all the requirements to maintain the gold properties we all have access to.

For those who have not yet paid annual dues, I ask that you please fit them into your budget as best you can.

For many years, our New 49’er members have been the leading force of keeping the small-scale gold mining opportunity alive in America. Small-scale gold mining remains one of the last true free enterprise opportunities in America, where hard work and ingenuity can take the place of substantial financial capital to create a viable business opportunity which can generate pure wealth and personal freedom. The incredible amount of gold-rich properties we make available to our members will never be duplicated again. We should not give it up until there is no hope left!

As it is, things being the way that they are; even if every member pays the $50 annual dues, I personally support cost overruns with other sources of income which I earned before becoming a gold miner, along with savings put away during better times.

Costs associated with maintaining our extensive properties, our material infrastructure and to hold onto our very experienced and loyal staff exceed the amount of income we bring in. I don’t expect this reality to change until either we get motors and underwater mining back, or until the dollar value of gold goes up so high that non-motorized mining will produce a living wage.

There remains hope that America will wake up and realize we need to produce value and wealth in excess of what we consume. Mr. Trump and his team appear to be leading the charge on this, though he is not getting as much support from congress and the mainstream press that he deserves. However, his outstanding performance in dealing with the storm damage in Texas and Louisiana seem to be bringing some of his detractors around.

Also, there is some reason for hope in that several States, including California, are suing the Trump Administration right now to try and prevent coal and gas exploration on the federal lands – largely due to “the possibility” of environmental consequences (sound familiar?). On somewhat of a fast track which is sure to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, the question is going to be answered as to how much authority the States have to prevent the federal government from allowing natural resource development on the federal lands. 

The States and environmental organizations opposing Trump are the very same bunch that have more or less shut down the use of mechanized equipment in small-scale gold mining. Our legal question in Rinehart remains on the list being considered for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The States’ legal arguments against Trump and their arguments against small-scale miners are much the same; except that our position is even stronger. This is because we have a property interest in the minerals that we want to develop.

I personally believe that if we persist in our fight against totally unreasonable laws and regulations which have been put in place by the far left, and are directly in the way of “making America great again,” we will ultimately prevail and win our industry back. If I did not believe there remains hope, I would surely not be continuing to invest my retirement income into our program.

We are on the front lines of the fight for personal freedom. I will be the first to admit that it is uncomfortable. But if we do not hold the line for small-scale gold mining in America at least until all hope is gone, I guarantee nobody else is going to do it.

I am eternally grateful to those of you who stick it out alongside me and our loyal staff.

Do We Really Need a Hard-copy Version of this Newsletter?

In line with my explanation above, we are taking a hard look at how we can continue to provide the important services to our members without wasting money.

To keep members informed and interested, we began sending out hard-copy newsletters with the monthly billings all the way back in 1986. The hard copies have continued to be sent out nearly every month to all members, including those who had fully paid for their memberships more than 30 years ago.

But now in the modern age, nearly everyone has access to the Internet.

So we find ourselves making up two versions of the newsletters; one that goes out in the mail, and another which is placed on the Internet.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  The video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  All of our future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster. The Internet at least provides you with the opportunity to join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

If you are not able to sign up for our Internet version of the newsletter, please contact Montine at 530 493-2012.

As a substantial cost savings, we are considering eliminating the hard-copy version of our newsletter (this may be the last one). Depending upon how many of you rely upon a hard copy to stay informed of our activities, we might save a lot of money by printing the Internet version and sending that out to you, instead.

We will be looking closely at how we might eliminate other unnecessary expenditures in the coming months. This is not about survival. It is about using our cash flow wisely to provide you with the very best service that we can.

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

 

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

THIRD QUARTER, AUGUST 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 8

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 I cannot explain the reason for it; but just like there are some people who cannot find very much gold no matter how hard they try, every once in a while someone comes along that finds plentiful amounts of gold in nearly every place he or she looks! 

I find myself somewhere in the middle. I have found plenty of gold in my time. But with an occasional exception, I have had to work hard to locate high-grade gold deposits. It’s only because I have worked really hard for most of my life that I have managed to climb the ladder to moderate success.

Dr. Gold! Nuggets

I tell people all the time that if there are two keys on a ring with only one that will open a locked door, I will choose the wrong key on the first try nearly every time. The same holds true when I am sampling for rich gold deposits. I usually guess wrong in the beginning of a sampling plan. The reason I eventually succeed is that I don’t give up trying. You only need to discover a rich gold deposit every once in a while to make the activity worthwhile; sometimes more than worthwhile!

But there are others who come along and just stumble into rich deposits. Several years ago, longtime supportive members Mark Chestnut, Jim Yerby and I teamed up to sample for high-grade underwater gold deposits on the Rogue River in southern Oregon. We devoted an entire season using two 5-inch dredges and my jet boat thoroughly sampling multiple locations, and never did find a gold deposit that would produce more than a quarter ounce per day using a 5-inch dredge. Gold had climbed to around $1,900 per ounce at the time, so it was still pretty good income. But we were used to finding much more gold than that. So we just kept on sampling new areas in search of something better.

At the very same time, brand new beginners were arriving on the Rogue River and dredging down into rich gold pockets on their very first try! Not just one or two; there were a bunch of beginners striking rich deposits while Mark, Jim and I looked on with dismay.

All I can say is that there is more to successful gold mining than following a good sampling plan and doing the hard work. There is also this luck factor. Maybe call it karma. Some people are just luckier than others; that’s all!

Our most recent weekend group project included 53 eager members. We did the program down on our Wingate property which is around 7 miles downstream on the Klamath River from Happy Camp. This is where we have devoted the past several seasons.  We like the area because there is plenty of parking and camping area for members; there are toilets on site; there is a river access where we can launch and recover boats; and there is good gold on both sides of the river. We devoted last season to the far side of the river, mostly using my jet boat to ferry people back and forth. Several seasons ago, we worked the far side further upriver, which required us to use powerful jet boats to ferry members around on the river in large rubber rafts, even through two aggressive sets of rapids. There was so much adventure involved that it would be a reasonable estimate that at least half the group participants attended mainly for the river rides.

We have now been organizing these weekend group projects for more than 30 years. More recently, we have added a security presence up in the parking areas, and also a medical person in case of any accidents or emergencies out along the river:

This season, we have been working the Highway 96 side of the river along a gravel bar down on the lower part of Wingate. This is largely because we were hoping to tap into a small stream on the far side of the river to power up an underwater suction device and get members back into the water, again. We have discovered a very rich gold deposit just out in the river there which we are eager to develop.  But the (very) warm summer, more or less, has diminished the water supply from up the mountain to where it will no longer provide the water power we need to operate an underwater suction device. That’s okay. The gold deposit is not going anywhere. One day, we will get our chance…

Two of our more experienced regular project helpers hiked upstream a few hundred yards during an earlier weekend project and sampled in some exposed bedrock along the streambank up there. They showed me what they found. It was quite good. So a few days before this project, more longtime loyal supporters Dickey Melton and his granddaughter Lilly, Mark Turner and I went down and confirmed the gold strike in the exposed bedrock. It only took one pan from each of us to know that this was going to be a very productive location for the group outing. Here is an image of what we recovered in just four pans. Nothing wrong with that!

Discovery gold Diane

Diane Helgesen helped make this gold discovery

As is normal, we devoted Saturday morning to introductions.  These are always interesting. People come from all over the U.S., and sometimes from other countries.

Then I do a lecture about the fundamentals of following a sampling plan when prospecting for gold. Because gold is so much heavier than the average streambed material in or alongside a waterway, it follows very defined patterns as it is washed downstream during major flood events. It’s important to understand these patterns. This is because they can help guide you through a series of steps that will ultimately lead you into high-grade gold deposits. I believe starting these projects with a review of the fundamentals is important. At the same time, the afternoons can get so hot out on the rocks, that asking participants to work hard out there two days in a row can be too much. My lectures and story-telling in the air-conditioned Happy Camp Grange Hall is much more comfortable.

After lunch on Saturday, we all went down to Wingate to do just a little sampling. We only have two objectives on Saturday afternoon: (1) to teach beginners how to pan gold. This is very important because it is the beginning of the learning curve. On this project, we had at least a dozen experienced members out there working with the beginners. One of the things that makes our group so good is that we have quite a lot of experienced members who enjoy coming out on these projects and helping beginners get off to a good start. (2) The second objective is to locate the richest pay-dirt we can find so we can process as much of it as possible early on Sunday morning.

I was out there watching the activity when “Doctor Gold” presented himself with the results of two gold pans taken out of a single crevice in the bedrock. He had four beautiful nuggets and some flakes and fines to show for his effort.

I said above that I don’t consider myself to be very lucky. By this, I am really talking about the small things. For example, I don’t do very well in casinos because I ultimately make the wrong guesses and lose the money I have limited myself for entertainment.

But I consider myself very lucky and fortunate concerning the bigger and more important things in life.

Internally, I have a strong belief that there is an ever present, absolute intelligent, all pervasive presence of grace and goodness that, more or less, guides how the material universe unfolds as the ever-changing present moment gives us the illusion of time (the present moment is all that really exists). Each of us, with our individual and separate backgrounds, have different ways of defining and relating to this. Some choose to not look at all. The rest of us associate with infinite presence in our own ways. Regardless of the different paths or faiths we have chosen, I personally believe we are all acknowledging and pursuing more understanding of the same thing.

Sorry; I know this is supposed to be about gold mining, not a religious discussion. I am only doing this to lay a foundation for the entrance of “Doctor Gold,” otherwise known as Mike Leamy.

Discovery gold

Here is the gold recovered out of 2 pans!

Over the years, I have come to discover that the great intelligence controls all or most of the important things that happen in my life. Even considering the losses and uncomfortable experiences which I have endured, I can look back upon them at a later time and see that I was ultimately lucky that things turned out the way they did.   Over time, more and more, I have been standing back and not internally resisting those things that are too big for me to change, and accept them as they are.  Perhaps this could be defined as a form of faith that everything happens exactly as it is supposed to.  After all, how else could it be other than what it is?

As part of this, whenever I can find a moment, I pause and emanate true appreciation for the good things that come my way. I’m talking about heart-felt thankfulness from the center of my being.  Doing this has allowed me some amount of freedom to step back and be more or less entertained to watch and see what is coming next. Sometimes I don’t recognize the gifts until the moment they are exposed to me.

I didn’t know that Mike Leamy was “Doctor Gold” until he showed me the nuggets he found in a bedrock crevice on Saturday afternoon.  This was a very magic moment for me.  In that single moment, I knew we were going to have plenty of gold to split off amongst the project participants on Sunday afternoon, and I knew there were going to be some nuggets to raise the level of excitement. Here is the moment captured on video:

Hard-pack Hole in the bedrock

The gold was being recovered out of crevices and holes in bedrock under a beautiful layer of hard-packed streambed.

With the second objective of Saturday afternoon all taken care of, and our project helpers all working with beginners on their panning techniques, I turned my attention to transferring all our project gear and floating sluice 200 yards upstream on the gravel bar.  Two hundred yards is not very far on an open field. But it is a very long way across uneven rocks on a gravel bar out in 100+dregree exposed sunshine at 3 PM in the afternoon. So I had brought my jet boat down to do the equipment transfer.

My boat crew included Scott Coleman and Todd Moody. Music Adame from our office was also along with a video camera to capture any important action.  Launching the boat was routine because we do it all the time. We managed to load all of the mining support gear in a single load for the boat. Other helpers were up at our new location to assist with unloading the gear.

Then we motored back downriver to get the floating sluice. This consists of a modified 6-inch sluice box from a Proline 6-inch dredge that is suspended between two large Keene pontoons. We built the system so that the sluice can be adjusted to capture the exact amount of running water that we need from the river. This recovery system will process the equivalent of around three motorized high-bankers.

Tod surfing Towing

The conservative thing to do would have been to lift the floating sluice up into the front of my jet boat and drive it up to our new location.  But I was so jacked up by Dr. Gold’s nugget discovery, I decided to tow the floating sluice up the river at high-speed with Todd surfing on top. I figured it would be cool for all the project participants to see us flying up the river with the sluice at about 25 miles per hour. Are we having fun or what?

I have learned a lot of things the hard way during my earlier years of working the Klamath River with commercial dredges supported by a jet boat. Some of the lessons were painful and expensive. I even flipped a 12-inch dredge over one time! At least nobody ever got killed (only because divinity was looking over our shoulders). And while some of the experiences were dreadful at the time, I look back upon all of it now as fantastic real life adventure. I suppose, because of this, I occasionally have had to learn the very same lessons over and over again. This was another of those times!

There was no way I was ever going to tow Todd at high-speed up the Klamath River on that floating sluice. This is because water ultimately would wash up into the sluice and force the front of the platform underwater. And that’s exactly what happened as we got up to speed and Todd was raising his arms in triumph. Fortunately, Music was capturing the action with the camera. In just a second or two, water from the river washed up into the sluice, and the whole platform dived head over heels in the fast water flow of the river. Wrong!

Our first concern was for Todd, because he fell forward and was swept directly under the platform at high speed. But he came up just behind the sluice and managed to get hold of it. Our next concern was for some swimmers and rafters who were in the water just downstream of us. I used the boat motor to hold us against the current to allow time for the swimmers to get out of the water.

Flipping the sluice over Loading sluice into boat
Dickey

Dickey knows how to feed the sluice just right.

Ultimately, we drifted down into slower, deeper water, flipped the sluice over, lifted it up into the front of my boat, and drove it up to our new processing location. Nobody was seriously hurt. The gear was all recovered. We delivered it where we needed to be. But it was one heck of a lot of adventure on the river!  It was a good thing that Miss Music was there to capture the action on video:

During the summer months, we do Saturday evening potlucks at the Grange Hall. We had a full house and there was plenty of delicious food to go around. We kept the meeting short; because we were planning on meeting out at Wingate at 6:30 the following morning.

Sunday morning was cool enough that I decided to begin with a long sleeved shirt. Our plan was to dig and process as much pay-dirt as we could before the heat of the day reached the gravel bar.  True to the sampling plan I discussed on Saturday morning, mostly everyone started digging out cracks in the bedrock up and downstream directly in line with where Dr. Gold found the beautiful gold nuggets on Saturday afternoon. Everyone just went right to work filling buckets.

By the time John, Todd and Dickey were satisfied that the floating sluice was set out in the river with the correct amount of water flow, there were already plenty of buckets of material to process. Two fairly large screening devices were set up to eliminate larger rocks from the material we would process.  This floating sluice recovery device has been working out quite well for us, by the way. Here is a demonstration I captured on video:

Getting the work doneScreening

I looked around on the bar and there was a whole lot of work going on. Some were digging out cracks. Others were using brushes to clean all the material off the bedrock where gold often hides. Others were carrying buckets to the screens. Others were screening the material into plastic wash tubs that had been placed under the screens. Others were placing screened material into buckets and walking them down to the side of the river. Those buckets were being passed out to Dickey who was feeding the floating sluice. Everything was running like a well-oiled machine. Mostly, we were just having a whole lot of fun. Here is where I turned the camera around and put the spotlight on Diane:

Dave with goldGold in hand
Gold girl

Diane has been our trusted “gold girl” for many years.

After a while, I spotted Dr. Gold coming my way with his hand held out like he had something good to show. I knew this was going to be good the instant I saw him. He had picked a bunch of magical golden flakes out of a crack and wanted to brighten my day. Seeing those golden flakes in his hand heated me up enough to take my long sleeved shirt off even though it was still quite cool out there in the morning air. Our “gold girl” (also known as Diane Pierce) was right there ready to take possession of the gold. By this, I mean that on gold mining projects such as this, we have found that it is wise to have a single, trusted person take careful possession of any and all gold recovered on the project. The nature of gold is that it is hard to find and easy to lose. Putting a single person in charge of keeping the gold safe dramatically reduces the chances of loss. Diane has been our “gold girl” for many, many years. She is quite good at it. If someone is finding gold, Diane will be right there wanting to get it in her special bucket. I only got to hold Dr. Gold’s beautiful flakes of pure wealth for a moment before Diane took possession and screwed the lid back onto her special bucket.

After a while, Dr. Gold brought over a handful of sand that he swept out of a crack that had gold all through it. All of this was a bit unusual. While we always see the gold when we are dredging or crevicing underwater, we seldom see it up out of the water in dry dirt.

Then longtime supportive member, Craig Colt, came over with a bucket with some material in the bottom that he said had lots of gold in it. It was only enough material to fill half his pan. But the amount of gold he recovered in that single pan was the most I have ever seen out of raw material being dug out of the ground. The pieces were sizable flakes with some heft to them. They were just beautiful to look at.

John RoseGold Nuggets

Team Leader, John Rose, confided in me that he had never seen a richer pan of gold out of raw material. Normally, rather reserved, John was lit up like he had been struck by lightning! Fortunately, I had the camera on to catch the excitement:

A little while later, Craig came back with another pan that was just about as good. This was definitely one of the better surface mining areas we have worked in a while! Here is a bunch of the action captured on video:

The sun was just lighting up lower Wingate bar at about 10:30 am. Even though Dickey was feeding the floating sluice as fast as he dared (if you over feed a sluice, some of the gold will not become trapped), I estimated that he had enough screened material to last another hour or so. That was plenty. So we asked all the participants to finish up the buckets they were working on and end off on the digging part of the project. After cleaning things up on the bar and putting our gear away, we all agreed to meet back at the Grange in Happy Camp at 1:30 pm.

Some of the participants stayed out there to watch Dickey finish up the pay-dirt and clean the concentrated material out of the floating sluice box. There was a lot of nice looking gold in the clean-up; more flakes and nuggets than we have seen during earlier projects this season.

Gold concentration devices, in this case, our floating sluice box, do not only recover gold. They recover other heavy elements, mostly iron sand and small iron rocks. So when we remove material from a sluice box, we get the gold which is all mixed in with the other heavily concentrated material.

A gold mining program is made up of four phases. The first is sampling or prospecting in an effort to locate a high-grade gold deposit. The second phase is to excavate and process the pay-dirt from the deposit. This usually requires some advanced planning so that oversized material (rocks and boulders) are not placed on top of pay-dirt which has not been mined, yet. The third phase is called final clean-up where we follow a step by step procedure to separate the gold from the other heavy materials which have also been trapped in the recovery system. This was our mission on Sunday afternoon. The final phase of mining is to go back out to the mining site and fill in our excavations and make the surface conform back nearly like it was before we started mining.

Even though most participants are pretty worn out on Sunday afternoon, I strongly encourage them to participate in, or at least watch the final clean-up steps. That’s because this is the part that many prospectors never get to see, unless someone shows them. In this way, our weekend projects take participants through the theory of how to prospect for gold, to learning how to pan gold, to learning how to use a pan to sample, to seeing what a high-grade deposit looks like, to production mining in confirmed pay-dirt on a small scale (hand mining without the use of motorized equipment), to the final clean-up steps which result in all the gold we recovered in about three hours of work.

Final goldLady smiling 

In all, we recovered 339.6 grains. This is just under ¾-ounce of pure wealth.  It would have been about $900 at the going price if traded into dollars.  There were 22 beautiful pieces that qualified as nuggets. These were the first nuggets we have recovered this season. That’s because we were mining on bedrock.

Before splitting the gold, I asked for a vote on using the gold to buy a whole lot of pizza and beer so we could have a grand celebration. Only John Rose thought that was a good idea. So we split the gold evenly amongst 53 participants, including several rather young children that worked just as hard as us older folks out on the bar.

After all, you can get pizza and beer just about anywhere. Raw gold is Mother Nature’s most cherished treasure. While it still can be traded for paper money, once you have been exposed to it, you begin to gain the perception that gold is true wealth. Paper money is only as valuable as the faith that people have in the governments that print it. Everyone who goes away from our weekend projects with a share of gold that he or she helped recover knows that they have earned some true wealth which will maintain its value long after today’s political systems and paper money have become past history.

In closing, I want to give a special thanks to Lynda and Mike Leamy (Dr. Gold) who honored us with their participation in this project. There is something mystical about this that is beyond my understanding. But I have seen on rare occasions when gifted individuals are able to manifest true wealth just by being present. This was one of those rare occasions.

Annual Dues Are More Important These Days

We bill all Full Members $50 for annual dues in August.  September through the end of the year is when we must shoulder the load of substantial property tax and filing fees to the County and Bureau of Land Management. These are legal requirements which allow us to continue making a very substantial number of federal mining claims (60+ miles of gold-rich river and creek properties) available to our members.

In real terms, the true value of the gold along these extensive properties is probably more valuable than the net assets of any financial institution on the planet. We should be calling our properties the “Klamath First National Bank.” Ours is the only bank in the world where you can go out and make a draw anytime you wish. There are no interest or bank fees to pay.  And you never have to pay the gold back!

This is as close as it comes to an opportunity to maintain some degree of personal freedom during these ever-more difficult and troubling times.  As far as I know, we are the only organization in the world that makes a very large bank of pure wealth freely available to our members.

Having said that, most of us remain disappointed that the State is preventing us from using motors to gain access to the more valuable deposits of gold which are largely out of reach to non-motorized programs.. Even though we have been doing our absolute best to reverse the situation, this is one area in my own personal life where I admit that I have trouble reconciling with the philosophy I explained above that “everything happens exactly as it is supposed to.” Though I do continue to remind myself…

As it is, things being the way that they are; even if every Full Member pays the $50 annual dues, and every Associate Member pays an annual renewal fee, I personally support cost overruns with other sources of monthly income which I earned before becoming a gold miner, along with savings put away during better times.

Costs associated with maintaining our extensive properties, our material infrastructure and to hold onto our very experienced and loyal staff exceed the amount of income we bring in. I don’t expect this reality to change until either we get motors and underwater mining back, or until the dollar value of gold goes up so high that non-motorized mining will produce a living wage.

There remains hope that America will wake up and realize we need to produce value and wealth in excess of what we consume. Mr. Trump and his team appear to be leading the charge on this, though he is not getting as much support from congress and the mainstream press that he deserves. So we must try and estimate the depth of the swamp and predict if Mr. Trump has the capability to drain it. The whole world hangs in this balance. It remains too early to predict the outcome.

One of the developments that gives me hope is the Trump Team’s most recent push to reopen coal mining on the federal lands. This article does a good job reporting the opposing views and demonstrates that there is a strong push right now to develop America’s natural resources in a responsible way, rather than to continue making them off limits.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on how much timber is harvested off the federal lands these days compared to how much is burned to the ground in wild fires due to really stupid policies which have been adopted by State and federal authorities. Or, as in our situation, there is no evidence whatsoever that a single fish has been harmed due to suction dredging for gold. In fact, the most recent study performed on the cumulative impact of all suction dredging was so small that it could not be measured. But the States of Oregon and California will not allow us the use of even a 12-volt bilge pump to operate a mini-concentrator to collect gold.

My gut feeling is that that even though energy (coal) is the first priority, in order “to make America truly great again,” the Trump team will be taking a close look at all of the stupid policies which have been adopted to prevent every different kind of natural resource development on the federal lands. We produce the basic building blocks, the very foundations, of a strong economy and vibrant job market. That the Trump Team is beginning with coal should give us all reason to hope that they will eventually get around to us and the other natural resource development industries which could be responsibly developing wealth opportunities on the federal lands of America.

Integrity and pursuit of the truth is the only road towards enlightenment and prosperity. There seems to be some meaningful progress at the moment.

Largely due to what I have explained in the paragraphs above, I personally believe we should stay the course for a while longer and see how these larger forces play out. I am willing to invest my personal resources to keep the program going as long as you guys, our members, are also willing to hang in there until we overcome what is destroying America, or it becomes clear that there is no longer any hope.

My own assessment of your support will be in what percentage of Full Members are willing to invest $50 a year, and how many Associate Members are willing to renew your annual memberships to help keep our dream alive.

I am eternally grateful to those of you who stick it out alongside me and our loyal staff. 

New Chance to Win American Gold & Silver Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 2 pm on Friday 27 of October 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

$10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
Winter Hours 

As of the 1st of September, we will switch to winter hours at our headquarters in Happy Camp.  This means the office and store will remain open between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday, except for normal national holidays.

As we did last winter, we may cut back further on open hours depending upon how many members are around. If we do, we will make an announcement on our web forum and in the newsletter.

Our final evening potluck of 2017 is scheduled for Saturday evening, 26 August (please take note below).

Boy did this season go by fast! 

Legal Update

Four issues are up for decision before Judge Ochoa in San Bernardino Superior Court:  (1) whether the Court should revise his summary adjudication ruling on federal preemption in light of the California Supreme Court decision; (2) whether the California Department of Fish and Game violated the California Environmental Quality Act and Administrative Procedure Act in issuing the 2012 regulations; (3) whether the Legislature violated the “one subject” rule in the California Constitution when it passed the second two bills concerning the California moratorium; and (4) whether takings claims for the regulatory taking of unpatented mining claims are impossible because the regulation makes all discoveries no longer valuable.

After an initial delay on 12 July, the hearing was set to take place on July 25th. But the attorney who was representing the State came down with some medical condition, so the hearing has been pushed back to September. An exact date is not set, yet. 

Join us for our Group Mining Projects This Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members. All participants share equally in the gold we recover.

Remaining 2017 Schedule of Event: August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host another two 2-day electronic gold prospecting project in Happy Camp on Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  Bring your own metal detectors. Meet at our office at 4 PM on Friday. Bring your own drinks. Dinner will be served.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012.

Important note: Because of a large fire downriver from Happy Camp, the Grange Hall has made it’s facility available to provide fire fighters with a place to sleep. We need an inside space to begin our weekend projects, and to split the gold that we recover. So we were forced to cancel the weekend project and potluck which was scheduled this past weekend. It’s not certain how long this or other fires will burn. So before making a trip to Happy Camp to attend any of our organized events for the remainder of this season, we strongly suggest you call our office for an update: 530 493 2012.

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

THIRD QUARTER, JULY 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 7

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

Note; Normally we put the newsletter out much earlier in the month. We have been holding off for news of what the results would be in our remaining litigation with the State of California. The hearing was scheduled for 12 July. More on this below.

 

Happy New 49'ersNew 49'er plate

It is well established that the best way to learn how to prospect for gold is to devote some time prospecting with others who are further along in the learning curve.

During the early years of The New 49’ers (first season was 1986), because of the extensive gold properties which we were making available to our members, we attracted a lot of people that did not have a clue about how to prospect for and locate high-grade gold deposits along our Klamath River and side-creek tributaries. Within the first weeks of the 1986 season, most of our members were finding hardly any gold. It did not take long, and the consensus among them was either that there was never any gold on our properties in the first place, or I had already mined all the rich gold deposits, leaving our members with little or nothing to find on their own. Needless to say, this situation became a severe emergency for me in just a short time.

Being brand new to dealing with a large number of people, the group perception that I had cheated them out of their money came on all at once, completely by surprise, and tested me to the core of my existence. During the early part of 1986, we had a lot of very upset New 49’ers in Happy Camp. Looking back on my life, I recognize that overcoming this was perhaps the most challenging situation I have ever had to confront. And I have been through a lot of very difficult situations!

It is difficult enough to have one or a few people believing you have cheated them; but resolving the combined consensus of a hundred or so people is an overwhelming task.

The truth was that, regardless of what they believed, most of our early members had no idea of how to execute a sampling plan to locate high-grade gold deposits along the waterways we were making available. Looking back now, I see that I should have anticipated this. But in 1986, all I knew was that I had a heck of a lot of people around Happy Camp that believed I was a shyster.

I immediately came to the conclusion that the only way out of the problem was to put my own mining plans on hold, and use all my effort to help each member, one at a time, get into high-grade gold. Those who made the most noise and threats of legal action or violence against me were top on the list. Those were very long days beginning at sunrise and ending when it was too dark to see the bottom of the Klamath River.

Teaching members how to do it was not going to work during that first season. I had to show them the gold! And that’s exactly what I did for every single member who arrived in Happy Camp during 1986.

There is a lot more to this story which I will not go into here. Maybe I’ll write a book about it someday. Let me just say that I made 1986 my personal challenge to keep around 100 mining programs into high-grade gold throughout the entire season. Since the beginners knew nothing about what they were supposed to look for, many of them strayed right off the high-grade shortly after I put them into it. Then I would return and move them back onto the golden target, again and again.

The more gold I helped members find in those early days, the more difficult the consequences were. By mid-summer, some of our more aggressive, younger members were dredging as much as five or more ounces of gold off the bottom of the Klamath River every day, just using 5-inch dredges. This infuriated pick & shovel miners up on the surface that were working just as hard to recover a quarter ounce of gold.

The reality is that a quarter ounce of gold per day using a pick & shovel is exceptionally good. But it is disappointing compared to a five-ounce clean-up.

It was normal during the 1986 season for inexperienced members to be exhilarated over the amount of gold they recovered in a single day. Only to return back to the RV park where they were staying and find out that their neighbors had recovered many times more gold on the same day. It is remarkable how fast exhilaration can turn to rage! To the beginners, it just wasn’t fair that others were finding more gold than they were.

But how much gold you recover is never about fairness. It is about following an organized sampling plan to locate a high-grade deposit. Then it is about how much of the rich pay-dirt you can process in a day. Some deposits are richer than others. Suction dredges process more volume than a pick & shovel. These are just the realities. But in those days, the easiest way to get into richer gold deposits was to apply very uncomfortable pressure upon Dave Mack to go out and do it for the members. And that’s what I did for the entire season.

While it was necessary for me to show our early members that there was gold to be recovered off our properties, and that I was not a con man just trying to steal their money, the strategy did nothing to teach those early members how to find their own gold deposits. And it did nothing to prepare me for a five-fold increase in membership before the beginning of our 1987 season. By May of 1987, Happy Camp was inundated with gold miners, many or most that did not know how to follow a sampling plan. Our membership jumped to 500 members as we went into our second season. All I can say is that was a lot to manage.

1987 was the season that I stopped prospecting for members and started doing weekend and week-long Group Mining Projects so that members could learn how to do it on their own. At first, there was a great deal of disappointment in this new strategy. After all, it was much easier if I did the prospecting and all of the members mined the gold.  But there were too many members for me to service that way. By mid-summer, at least half our members had quit The New 49’ers. We never saw most of them again.

Alan with droneOthers who understood the potential attended our group projects and began learning how to find their own high-grade gold. Their success gave others hope; and before the end of our second season, our organization was up on its feet and running more smoothly. We have continued doing Weekend Group Projects every season now for the past 30 years. We consider these projects one of our most successful actions and one of the most valuable benefits of belonging to The New 49’ers.  Our weekend projects are free to all members.

Our first Group Project of this season started out with around 66 people, including more than a dozen experienced volunteer helpers. These are mostly local members who enjoy coming out and helping make the group prospecting adventures more enjoyable for everyone.

As most of you are aware, the States of California and Oregon have imposed a moratorium upon the use of mechanized equipment to support any gold prospecting program, no matter how small, within 100 yards of any active waterway. We are now challenging State authority over mining on the federal lands in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, as long as they accept the case.

Without the use of motors, we have had to improvise on how to direct water through our recovery systems so that we can process enough volume of pay-dirt to make the effort worthwhile in the amount of gold we recover.  There are various ways to accomplish this. If you look at last month’s newsletter, you will see that this season, we went through a herculean effort to channel water from 400 feet up a mountainside down through pipe to obtain the volume and pressure we needed, and then stretched it across the river through a pressure hose suspended by a steel cable, to deliver running water to the surface mining programs along our Wingate property which is located around 7 miles downstream of Happy Camp.

Dave panning

Dave Mack giving a panning demonstration

As always, we started Saturday morning at the Happy Camp Grange Hall to do introductions and devote a few hours to chalkboard theory on how to perform a sampling plan. After lunch we devoted the afternoon mostly to helping beginners learn to operate a gold pan. Learning to pan effectively is the first step in the gold prospecting learning curve. This was a very enthusiastic group of New 49’ers. Our helpers were teaching panning all up and down the lower end of Wingate Bar. Someone captured some video of me providing a gold panning demonstration to onlookers:

Since this was a new location for us, other experienced members were sampling to find which flood layer in the gravel bar was going to produce the most gold for our effort. We were getting mixed signals on this. In some places, the top 6-inches were producing plenty of fine gold. My sample demonstration produced more than a hundred tiny gold colors. Others were finding larger flakes of gold as they dug deeper into the bar. Besides teaching people to pan, our main objective on Saturday afternoon was to identify the most productive place(s) to dig on Sunday. Here is some video we captured of the action:

Sampling pan

Potluck on Saturday night was a full house at the Grange Hall. There was plenty of delicious food to go around. Excitement levels almost lifted the roof off the building. Everyone was excited about the gold we were going to recover on Sunday.

We met back down at Wingate at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. We start early on Sunday so we can get all the physical labor finished before the heat of the day arrives on the gravel bar. My helpers and I were down there 30 minutes earlier to set up the gold recovery systems and connect our gravity water feed system to them. All was ready when people started showing up, and we just needed to organize work crews. Alan Mash captured the following videos which show how we were set up:

Highbanking at Wingate

Sunday is all about processing as much of the high-grade pay-dirt as we can without over-working the group participants. This is rather easy to do. We can see when people are getting tuckered out when more and more of them are sitting down in the shade. No matter how disabled some people are, we can always find something productive for everyone to do.  For the most part, this was a very aggressive bunch, and we probably could have operated four recovery systems to capacity. We only had set up two. So participants probably spent as much time waiting for available buckets (to fill with more pay-dirt) as they did in actually working the gold deposit.

Still, we processed a lot of pay-dirt. We had members feeding the high-bankers as fast as we believed they could capture the fine gold. When we do this, it is always a good idea to check the high-banker tailings from time to time to make sure that any gold losses are minimal:

we're going to get a lot Waiting for buckets

Waiting for empty buckets!

This project was organized so that we started excavating down close to the river, removing the top six inches of material from the gravel bar, and just rolling cobbles back as we worked our way up the hill.  We did this because on the day before, we were finding the most consistent good pan results on the surface of the bar. Even so, some participants continued to sample on Sunday and were finding good pay-layers by going deeper:

Longtime supporter and very valuable member, Alan Mash, was present to capture this project on video with his state-of-the-art drone. I captured this video as he skillfully maneuvered the drone down along our water system, and then up through the trees to capture everything going on from above the forest. He then used the drone’s camera to find us again down hidden in the forest. We live in a very interesting time:

Finding gold deeperHere is the final presentation that Alan put to music up on youtube. Is this amazing or what?

We put an end to the digging at about 10:30 am. This was because there was still an hour of processing to do just to finish off all the filled buckets. After doing some final reclamation up on the bar to make sure all the deeper holes had been filled in, we cut everyone loose to go freshen up, have some lunch and meet back at the Grange Hall on Sunday afternoon for the final gold clean-up procedure and split.

As we went through the final clean-up steps at the Grange a few hours later, everyone could clearly see that we had recovered a lot of what was mostly very fine gold. This was consistent with what our pan samples were turning up out of the top gravels on the day before.

Ultimately, since we use no chemicals in any of our mining processes, the steps began with some wet final concentration steps outside, and then some dry screening and blowing steps inside the air-conditioned Grange Hall. As we worked the final material down closer and closer to just gold, as is normal during these events, the noise from the combined chatter of all the participants got louder, almost too loud to hear myself think. This happy noise is music to my ears. I experience personal satisfaction in organizing events that have a good outcome, that make people happy, and that provide people some hope.  Comparing this with how it all started so many years ago when nearly everyone believed I was a crook, I experience an internal gratitude that is beyond my ability to express in words.

Gold is the most beautiful and powerful substance in the material world. Truthfully, if you take raw or pure gold in hand and look at it closely and absorb its essence, especially under a microscope; it will trigger inside of you the feeling of true love. Owning physical gold, or having the knowledge of how to go out and recover gold when you need it, is about the closest you can come to attaining true freedom in the material world. This is because when you have gold hidden away, you are not beholden to others that you choose not to associate with, including governments which no longer serve the people. Gold is freedom!

So there is more to this business of showing people how to find gold than material aspirations. We are in the business of truth and freedom. Most people who go through our group projects experience some sense of this.

The New 49’ers is an association consisting of thousands of very capable, interesting and very friendly people. It is the members that make it great. While we are serious about recovering as much gold as we can, and we are serious about our duty to regain the mining rights we have lost during recent years so the freedoms can be passed forward to the next generation of Americans, we also try to make the experiences as fun and as exciting as possible for everyone involved. Here is some video that captures some of our group spirit:

Final Gold Cleanup

In time, we will win our motors and suction dredges back from the totalitarian-driven officials who are in control of many State agencies for the moment (but perhaps not for long). When we do, we will truly be in a position to help make America great again.

In all, we recovered 15.8 pennyweights of gold in several hours of rather light work because we were only operating two high-bankers. That’s a little more than ¾’s of an ounce, or about $900.  With that, we could have thrown a big pizza and beer party for everyone involved. But instead, each of the 56 people who participated on Sunday received an equal share of what we recovered.  Once again, everyone went away with a taste of freedom (gold) in their pockets. Myself and my ever-loyal helpers all went home with a sense of deep satisfaction.

First Electronic Prospecting Project Was Fully Attended 
Classroom Detecting group

Electronic prospectingFerrying People specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply and several local pocket gold mining specialists, sponsored a free 2-day group electronic prospecting project in Happy Camp on Friday evening & Saturday, June 9 & 10. The event was filled to capacity.

After some very helpful theory and inspirational discussions on Saturday evening, along with a great Spaghetti dinner, the participants were escorted to our Wingate metal detecting property on Saturday morning which is located up a trail to a historical hydraulic mining area. The entire event went off very well. Everyone who participated expressed a lot of appreciation. We are very lucky to have partners in the industry, and very experienced prospectors from the other side of the mountain, that believe in us enough to volunteer their time to put on such events.  Here are some video sequences that captured some of the action:

Whites Electronics was very kind to promote the event on youtube

Winners of Legal Drawing on 23 June
Drawing tickets Myrna

Here is the list of Winners for the most recent Legal Fund drawing:

Grand Prize 1-ounce American Gold Eagle: Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA

Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles:  Randy Waters of Gold Beach OR; Scott Hansen of Happy Camp CA; Dabney Eastham of Fort Bragg CA; Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WA; Dale Mahoney and Vicki Byrd of Wenatchee WA; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; John Stewart III of Canton CT; Dave Saturno of Fountain Hills AZ & Randy Peacock of Colorado City TX

Four 1/4-ounce American Gold Eagles:  Billy Brown of Cannon Beach OR; Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY; David Rohrschneider of Winnebago IL & Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY

Ten 1 ounce American Silver Eagles:  Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; Michael Danner of West Hills CA; Bob and Michele Spaulding of Fort Jones CA; Larry Parks of Citrus Heights, CA; Kevin Creamer of Ulster Park NY; J Nelson of Skagway AK; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA & Michael O’Connell of Crescent City CA

I cannot express in words the thanks we feel to all of you that have participated in this Legal Fund-raiser. Our industry would have been long gone years ago if it were not for you guys!

Legal Update from Our Attorney

12 July 2017:  This morning I appeared before Judge Ochoa in San Bernardino Superior Court, for a hearing at which four issues were up for decision:  (1) whether the Court should revise his summary adjudication ruling on federal preemption in light of the California Supreme Court decision; (2) whether the California Department of Fish and Game violated the California Environmental Quality Act and Administrative Procedure Act in issuing the 2012 regulations; (3) whether the Legislature violated the “one subject” rule in the California Constitution when it passed the second two bills concerning the California moratorium; and (4) whether takings claims for the regulatory taking of unpatented mining claims are impossible because the regulation makes all discoveries no longer valuable.

Unfortunately, the Judge announced that he was sorry for dragging us all to San Bernardino, but he was not ready to proceed on any of the motions.  He proposed rescheduling on July 24th.  Unfortunately, I will be out of the country on that date, and will be undergoing a medical procedure.  He then said August was not a good month for him, which would push any re-argument into September.

As some of you may know, there is some consensus to attempt to delay the first and second issue to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will grant the petition for review in the Rinehart case, but matters (3) and (4) can and should be decided as soon as possible.  There was some discussion with the Judge in which he indicated that he was not prepared to wait for possible U.S. Supreme Court developments in making decisions in his Court.

On that basis, my best judgment was to proceed with a telephonic hearing on July 25th (it will be at 10:00 a.m.), rather than suffer further delay into late September for an in-person hearing.

James L. Buchal, Murphy & Buchal LLP, 3425 SE Yamhill Street, Suite 100, Portland, OR  97214 

The Political Winds Are Blowing in Our Direction

Frankly, after many, many years of litigation in the California court system to recover the simplest of civil and property rights which have been granted to us by congress, and stolen away by overzealous State authorities, all to no avail; I have little remaining faith that we will ever find real justice in California (or Oregon). These State governments have become too socialized for the good of hard working American people with traditional values; the very values which made America great in the first place.

My own opinion is that as long as the Trump Administration is serious about making America great again, it will be absolutely necessary to remove the shackles holding down our natural resource industries which operate on the federal lands. Any and every economy begins with the basic building blocks of raw natural resources.

Some State governments (maybe like in Montana) will welcome the federal government’s intention to dramatically reduce the bureaucratic morass of rules and regulations that have our once-great country all tied down. Other State governments (like in California and Oregon) will fight to the death to prevent development of natural resources on America’s federal lands. That’s going to put the Trump Administration and Republican congress in heated conflict with the very same extremist groups, State agencies and powerful individuals who we have been unable to defeat in the California courts. It is just a matter of time. I believe the time is coming soon. And I believe there is reason to maintain hope that Mr. Trump will be able to swiftly accomplish what we have not been able to do in the better part of a decade.

Just as an example of what’s coming our way, please take a look at the statements and intentions of Ryan Zinke, former Commander of SEAL Team 6 and Governor of Montana, who is now the Interior Secretary of the United States.

Just because I am on the subject, if you want to get a closer look at who Ryan Zinke is, take 4 minutes and watch this youtube video.  This is not someone who wants to be a traditional American politician. This is a person who is exercising his sacred duty and the opportunity he has been presented with to help make America great again.

Yes; there is reason for hope!

New Chance to Win American Gold & Silver Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 2 pm on Friday 27 of October 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
We are Now on Summer Office Hours

As of the first of May, our office and store in Happy Camp have been open between 9 AM and 5 PM Monday through Friday, and between 8 AM and 12 Noon on Saturdays. 

Join us for our Group Mining Projects This Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members. All participants share equally in the gold we recover.

Remaining 2017 Schedule of Events: July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host another two 2-day electronic gold prospecting project in Happy Camp on Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  Bring your own metal detectors. Meet at our office at 4 PM on Friday. Bring your own drinks. Dinner will be served.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012.

Important note: With the gravity flow system presented in the story above, we had hoped to power up an underwater suction device and schedule some underwater group mining projects this season. Unfortunately, the very warm summer has nearly eliminated the source of water we were using for that gravity system. There is no longer enough water power in that place to support an underwater program. Sorry about that.

But stay tuned; that extremely rich underwater gold deposit remains there for when our day comes…

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, JUNE 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 6

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

 

Through an incredible amount of effort with the help of around 20 New 49’er members over five long days, we have constructed a very effective gravity water system that is accessible on the Highway-96 side of the Klamath River on lower Wingate bar (K-23A). This is located around 7 miles downstream from Happy Camp.

Cliff turning on water Hose fully stretched across river

We constructed a similar system last season about a mile upriver on our Oak Flat property, on the far side of the river, primarily to supply our surface mining operations with water to process gold-bearing material. After doing one weekend group mining project over there, we concluded that we were not going to recover as much gold as we are able to further downriver on the Wingate property.

The main limiting factor with this type of gravity water flow system is that the source of water must be reasonably close to a high-grade paystreak.  Several years ago, longtime member, Derek Eimer made a very rich gold discovery out in the river a few hundred yards downstream from where our gravity system was set up at Oak Flat. So we extended the system down to the river; and after some trial and error, we were able to power up my 5-inch underwater suction device without the use of motors. Since the location was just downstream from what appeared to be a natural riffle in the river (rapids), I had high hopes to uncover an extension of Derek’s extremely rich gold deposit. But after quite a lot of effort, we discovered that the rapids were the remains of an old road or wing dam that the old-timers had constructed long before flood control  (dams) made the river run so much higher during the summer months. That portion of the river had already been mined.

This is the way it goes in gold prospecting. Sometimes, a lot of the time, you make the effort to sample and don’t find what you are hoping for. The key is to keep trying. Because with gold, you only need to hit the jackpot every once in a while.

In any event, we learned a lot last season about how to set up a gravity flow system that will power up an underwater suction device without the use of motors.

While we were working out gravity flow last season, one of our members launched a 4-inch suction dredge with a motor downriver at Wingate. In good faith, he believed he was within existing State laws if he was dredging for jade, rather than gold. He was dredging down there for a few weeks before the wardens came down, issued him a citation and took his dredge away. Eventually, with assistance from The New 49’er Legal Fund, his case was settled, he paid a small fine and recovered his mining gear. He is back on the river this season experimenting with gravity flow systems.

But since he dredged two holes down at lower Wingate, I took the opportunity to do some samples out of the bottom of his excavations in a layer change about 3 feet into the streambed; and I discovered what appears to be an extremely rich pay-streak. Directly across the river is a rather small spring-fed stream. This stream extends steeply up the mountainside. So we began making plans last season to construct an improved gravity system at Wingate this season. This one was going to be more challenging, because it was going to require us to transfer the water-flow across to the Highway-96 side of the river where the rich gold discovery is located.

Naturally, before we launched into this project, we received a nod from both State and federal authorities.

Fast water Dave & Steve in boat

As most people know, this has been a very wet winter. The Klamath River is still running high and dangerous, though it is now dropping by the day. Because we were going to need to cross back and forth across the river so many times to construct this system, we waited as long as we could to get started. Our first weekend group project took place just this past weekend (June 3 & 4). So we began constructing the gravity flow system several days before Memorial Day. We wanted to support the first project with running water. Even so, getting helpers and gear across the river safely required all of my small boat management skills. Here are two video segments that make it look a lot easier than it actually was:

Cliff

Longtime member and very valuable New 49’er supporter, Cliff Leidecker, was the engineer behind this project. He devoted a big part of his winter accumulating aluminum irrigation pipe and fittings, valves, and most of the other things we would need to construct the system. From his surveys this past fall, Google Earth, and engineering manuals, even before we started construction, Cliff knew exactly what we needed to do. Here is our explanation on video:

Moving pipe

We used my jet boat to transfer 30-foot sections of pipe and other items across the river. Our biggest turnout of helpers was on the first day when we hauled the materials down and across the river, up the stream, and placed everything where it would be assembled on the following day. Our pipe system extends 340 feet up the mountainside to an elevation that is nearly 100 feet above the river. It’s a pretty steep climb!

Fitting pipe Dave & Craig smiling

Assembling irrigation pipe is rather easy. The challenge was mostly to do with supporting the pipe in places that the steep stream took sudden drops and installing directional changes so the pipe would follow the stream. We had to cut the pipe in places to make it all fit. Everything had to be tied to trees for support because of the water-weight that would be directed through the pipe.

By the end of the second day, our entire pipe system was in place down to a tree at the base of the stream. From there, we intended to connect a steel cable and stretch it across the Klamath River so we could suspend a pressure hose to transfer the water to the Highway-96 side.

Water stream from pumpPipe down the hill

We had a valve at the bottom of our piping system. All of us felt a great deal of satisfaction at the end of the day when we directed the stream into our system and watched it blast out of the valve down towards the river. Cliff had designed a much improved gravity flow system over what we used last season! This season, we have a lot more volume and pressure. Here is the action on video:

The most challenging part of the project was in stretching the steel cable across the raging Klamath River. This was all happening during the Memorial Day weekend while various rafting groups were floating past us. So we placed watchers upriver with walky-talkies to tell us when it was safe to block passage on the river, first with a rope, then followed by the cable.

The problem on the road side of the river is that we would have had to use a 500+ foot length of cable to reach the nearest tall tree located up near the highway. That was just not going to work out. So we found a smaller, gnarly tree down closer to the river that had survived the huge storm of this past winter, even though the entire tree had been submerged in the torrent of water and debris. Fortunately for us, some of the tree’s very strong roots had been exposed by the storm. We could not stretch the cable across the river directly to the tree or its roots without blocking river traffic. So we built a steel tripod with a heavy pulley that was suspended 12 feet above the tree’s massive root system. Here is some video of how we intended to make it happen:

Cable across the riverThe reason I say that the most difficult part was stretching the cable across the river is because the river is running so fast and violent.  Even with two strong men trying to hold it back, when the river caught hold of the rope, it immediately took all of the rope downstream with the cable following just behind.  It was everything I could do to drive the boat across the river and pass off the rope to six helpers that were standing ready. Those guys gave it all they had; and inch by inch, we made progress, finally getting the cable out of the water on both sides of the river. The struggle ultimately ended up in a standoff when the cable was just at the water’s surface; man against nature.  A bunch of men! Finally, I placed the bow of my boat up against the gravel bar, gave it some throttle to hold the boat in place, and abandoned the boat to go up and add just that little more effort to get the cable above the raging river

I’m really sorry we did not capture this part of the program on video. It was, by far, the most exciting part of the project. But if we did not have everyone out there throwing all of their effort at getting the cable above the river, we would not have made it. Here is our explanation the following morning of what happened:

If the river won that battle, we would not have had flowing water ready for the first weekend project of this season. We would have had to rest up for a week before we tried again with more help from other members. The struggle was so difficult; I’m still feeling lucky that we made it.

Guys up on tripod Tripod with pulley

Once we got the cable out of the raging river, it was rather easy to keep it there. Then we used trucks up in the parking lot to further lift and tighten the cable and position it so we could feed it though the pulley on the tripod. By the time we had the cable tightly strung across the river and fastened down to the tree, all of us were totally spent.  But we were feeling really good about what we had accomplished.

Only several helpers showed up the following day. My guess is that all the others from the day before spent most of the day in bed.

Linking hoses together Banding hoses
The final step in our plan was to connect pulleys to 200 feet of 4-inch pressure hose and pull it across the river, suspended by the cable, where we could quick-connect it to our gravity water system. This exercise was rather easy compared to the earlier two phases of this project. Since we bought the 4-inch pressure hose in hundred-foot lengths, it was necessary for us to use a coupler and commercial banding to connect two hoses together.

We positioned three red markers out on the hose where it crossed the river so that air traffic is able to see the obstruction, though it is unlikely any air traffic will be flying that close to the river because it is so fast.

Cliff had acquired just the right 4-inch T-fitting and valve to which we connected the 4-inch pressure hose on the gravel bar. One leg is intended to power up an underwater sucker once the river drops more and slows down. The other leg is set to feed high-bankers. Both legs have valves so we can control the water. Here it is on video:

Pressure valveOnce all was in place, we opened up the system and the water flowed to the Highway-96 side of the river just as Cliff had planned. When we turned off both valves on the gravel bar, the pressure gauge climbed to 40 PSI.  That really made us happy. Back in the days of motorized mining gear, we were usually getting about 32 PSI out of our pumps, sometimes as much as 35 PSI.

At one point during the day, all progress was put on hold while several of us drove to Happy Camp to gather more gear that we needed. Rather than just wait around Scott and Cliff took the opportunity to do some initial sampling of the gravel bar – and the result was better than they expected. Here it is on video:

High-bankers smilingThis was a job well done, thanks to Cliff’s engineering and a concerted effort by a bunch of New 49’er members – all just in time for our first weekend group mining project of the season – which turned out really well, by the way (next month’s story).

Here is an aerial view of our entire water system leading down to the first group mining project of the season:

There is good gold on this lower Wingate gravel bar. I’ll go into that next month. But the real bonanza we are after is just out in the river on the other side of what remains of the willow vegetation on the bank of the river.  From what I saw last season, the gold is very rich out there.

The river remains too high and fast to mine out in the river right now. But we see areas where we can begin testing our underwater systems. We will start with that later this week.

Once we open up the deposit out in the river and it is safe, we plan to add underwater mining into the weekend group projects. Those who want to try underwater mining will have an opportunity.  We have already arranged for very experienced members to help with beginners so that all will be done with care and safety. Those who prefer to mine on the surface will be able to do traditional high-banking. We will also have very experienced underwater miners operating the underwater device. This should push the gold production to record highs. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!

If all is going well with the underwater mining, we will schedule at least two 2-day underwater group projects later this season which will be made available free to a limited number of participants. Please stay tuned for more news as we progress into the season. 

We are Now on Summer Office Hours

As of the first of May, our office and store in Happy Camp have been open between 9 AM and 5 PM Monday through Friday, and between 8 AM and 12 Noon on Saturdays.

Last Chance to Win American Gold & Silver Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 3 pm on Friday 23rd of June 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

But you better hurry, because there is not much time left!

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
Join us for our Group Mining Projects This Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members. All participants share equally in the gold we recover.

2017 Schedule of Events: June 24 & 25, July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host two 2-day electronic gold prospecting projects in Happy Camp this coming season. Bring your own metal detectors. The projects will happen on Friday & Saturday June 9 and 10 and Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  Meet at our office at 4 PM on Friday. Bring your own drinks. Dinner will be served. (Sorry; these two projects are fully booked)

We are also hoping to organize some underwater suction mining projects (without the use of motorized pumps) in an established very rich gold deposit (in shallow water) this summer. Watch for more news on this as we attempt to move forward.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012

Happy Birthday to our Youngest Member!

Music with sonBy Music Lee Adame, New 49’er Member Services

A year ago this month, the youngest New 49er was born to a couple of miners Matt Bynum & Music Lee Adame.  What started off as a dredge team of 4, dwindled down to 2; and wham bam thank you ma’am, a star was born. His name is Xy Adameus Bynum.  Conceived on a New 49er claim, born of a loyal miner and welcomed to this world by some of the best Americans one will ever know.  The old adage “it takes a village to raise a child” holds true and I am so grateful to be a part of the 49’er community as we raise Xy with integrity as a future guardian of the liberties of our country.  Thank you all for making America great again — one child at a time.  Happy Birthday Xy guy, love you! 

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

 

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, MAY 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 5

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

 

 

Story by Laura Bagley

Now that spring is in the air, Scott and I are back out along the Klamath River. Finally!

Since we live here year-around, it occurred to me the other day that it is common to take things for granted that we experience every day; things that others would really wish for. For example, your life partner, or your kids, or your mom. They are there all the time, so we can get into this mindset that we accept them as commonplace and don’t stop often enough to take a real close look or listen and appreciate them. When someone I really love suddenly is gone from my life, my biggest regret is always that I should have taken more time to fully appreciate them while I had the time.

Klamath River Young girl smiling on river
Happy Camp

This is where Indian Creek flows into the Klamath; where “Happy Camp” got its name. This is also the location of our K-21 property on the river

This is not only true of the people in our lives. It is true of all the blessings we get used to. Especially the surroundings where we live. Being from southern California, I think this is one of the many reasons I love living in Happy Camp. There are four distinct seasons here. The surroundings are changing all the time. We just went through a brutal winter. While some of it was pretty uncomfortable, every day brought on something new. New things cause us to wake up and take a fresh look. Waking up and taking a fresh look is a good thing!

Now that we are into spring, I am noticing that a lot of things are waking up. Spring flowers are coming alive in places that were under three feet of snow just a while back; the grass is that beautiful shade of green; a new season of beautiful green leaves are changing the landscape; the singsong of summer birds is in the air when I wake up in the morning. I assume these are the normal wonders wherever there are four seasons.

The most amazing thing about Happy Camp is that we have the mighty Klamath River, and all of the incredible miracles which are intimately linked to it. We all know that the river is full of gold, even though Mother Nature is so good at concealing her most precious treasures.  The gold is what brings many of us to Happy Camp and the Klamath River. But it is not the gold which prompt many of us to live here. We live here because of all the other wonders that the river provides; you would be challenged to find a more abundant setting anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. There are also good people here; others who have also made the choice to live in a more serene setting.

But living here all the time, with all of the life-situations which occupy our minds, it’s common to just accept our surroundings as they are and stop recognizing the real jewels that are all around us.

Dave Mack’s boat sinking adventure several newsletters ago ended with a simple and profound wisdom. He said that every breath matters. Because, when you cannot get a breath, nothing else matters for very long. If I may, I would like to add something to that: Every moment matters. Because each moment is all there really is – and what you decide to do with it. You can think about the bills you have to pay, or cannot pay. You can wish you were somewhere else. There is an infinity of things you can do with the present moment.  And you should do all of those things.

My suggestion is that you make the most out of the ever-present moment, whatever you decide to do with it.

River Elk

Which brings me back my idea for this story.  The search for gold along the Klamath places you in locations where you or others would likely not go. Like sitting down along the river working your gold pan.  Sometimes we get so narrowly focused on finding the golden hotspot, we don’t take the opportunity to appreciate how lucky we are to just be there in the first place. Here is just one example:It would not be uncommon to be panning at the river’s edge to glance up to see two yearling bear cubs playfully meandering upriver towards you. They are a good quarter of a mile away, having not seen or smelt you, yet. In that moment, you’ve forgotten all about your gold pan. Fifteen minutes pass by as these cubs have captivated you in fascination at their comical antics. They’ve been working their way along the bank pouncing and pawing in the shallows. A hunting training program in the works, seems they have targeted frogs they spooked to hop into the river.  Obvious to you they are novices at this skill, but it hasn’t deterred their fun. The lack of talent is quite amusing.

PanningYou keep scanning the river bank, because these cubs are a year shy of being too far from their mother. The cubs continue closing the distance between you, rambling on this frog finding expedition. They’ve no idea they are being observed. Suddenly one of the cub’s pops out from between some boulders much closer than it was seconds before, a wee bit closer, uncomfortably close. You stand up finally, not to get a better view. Now you want to be seen. The cub still has not noticed you, it just keeps running in the shallows spraying water everywhere. It climbs up on a rock so close that you are startled it hasn’t seen you. Now you are looking for Mamma bear in earnest. How fast can bears swim?

The cub whips its head up just as you’re considering your plunge into the river. Did he catch your scent? Nope; without so much as a glance in your direction, both cubs are fleeing the scene in a head long race back down river. You were spotted for sure. Mamma bear must have called those cubs back to her when she spotted you. Last you see is the two cubs sprinting up into the trees down by where you first saw them.

Then you snap back to the task at hand; ah that’s right you were panning, “I wonder if there is any gold in my pan…” 

My advice is to not miss out on the beauty of nature while you’re out looking for gold. Take in the bald eagles, the osprey, the hawks, the otters, the turtles, the frogs, the elk and the deer. Be spellbound by the landscapes, the wind whispering though the pines and the roar of the river rapids. The Klamath National Forest has more wonders than we can experience in a lifetime!

The added bonus is that you get to keep all the gold you can find!

See you on the river. 

Preparing for the 2017 Season!

New PipeHaving really worked hard to get through the learning curve last season in setting up gravity water feed systems, we are busy preparing something special to support our Group Mining Projects this season. Fortunately, there is a water source directly across the river from a high-grade pay-streak we located towards the end of last season.

The following two videos pretty much tell the story:

 

 

Legal and Political Perspective

We certainly do live in interesting times!

Now, with two of President Trump’s major initiatives blocked by federal judges (setting immigration policy, and threatening to withhold law enforcement funding to sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce federal law), it would appear that a big part of his agenda “to make America great again” can be prevented from happening by his (our) opposition just filing lawsuits in front of left-leaning judges. This is where our industry has been sitting for about nine years.

Anyone who has been watching the news knows that to designate a federal judge for life, he needs to be appointed by the president and confirmed by a majority in the U.S. Senate. According to Wikipedia, There are currently 874 authorized Article III judgeships: nine on the Supreme Court, 179 on the courts of appeals, nine on the Court of International Trade and 677 for the district courts.

So we have this interesting situation where there are, more or less, 677 federal district court judges in America who have the power to block President Trump’s team from moving forward with the’ agenda to “make America great again.” This was the job America voted him in office to perform!

So it would appear that the President of the United States is not truly our Chief Executive after all.  I wonder if the Trump team is figuring this out at the same time we are?

According to my limited research, federal judges are appointed for life, and can only be impeached (removed) by an act of congress, for cause, in a trial setting. Only a handful of judges have been removed over time. Seems odd that it is so much easier to appoint a judge than to remove one.

So, while the Trump Team can probably do a lot with how the federal bureaucracy performs, my best guess is that when it comes to the larger issues that are holding America back, particularly at the State level, the Trump Team is going to have to fight it out in the courts – likely the most left-leaning courts in America. Yet again, there is always a solution if you are looking for it.

It is all going to be very interesting as we watch America try to unshackle itself from the chains that are holding us down. One thing is sure in my mind: If Trump cannot figure out a way, it’s never going to happen.

Legal Fund-raiser with 25 American Gold Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 3 pm on Friday 23rd of June 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.
 Summer Office Hours Start on the First of May

Starting on the first of May, our office and store in Happy Camp will be open between 9 AM and 5 PM Monday through Friday, and Between 8 AM and 12 Noon on Saturdays.

Join us for our Group Mining Projects This Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members. All participants share equally in the gold we recover.

2017 Schedule of Events: June 3 & 4; June 24 & 25, July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host two 2-day electronic gold prospecting projects in Happy Camp this coming season. Bring your own metal detectors. The projects will happen on Friday & Saturday June 9 and 10 and Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  Meet at our office at 4 PM on Friday. Bring your own drinks. Dinner will be served.

We are also hoping to organize some underwater suction mining projects (without the use of motorized pumps) in an established very rich gold deposit (in shallow water) this summer. Watch for more news on this as we attempt to move forward.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012 

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

 

 

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

SECOND QUARTER, APRIL 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 4

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

 

Story by Laura Bagley

The last four days have been sun-filled, warm and with blue skies above — which hasn’t happened much over the last three months. It has been a river of storms all winter, one right after the other, pounding us in northern California.

 

Big Foot Oak Flat

There I was celebrating that we were having a white Christmas with about ten inches of snow on the ground. I was happily humming Christmas songs all day, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”  I’m now 52 years old (young), finally having my first white Christmas. It just doesn’t snow much in southern California. Here I captured all those warm feelings on video:

Happy Camp Happy Camp Snow

As that snow melted away a couple days later the next snow storm moved in. Then another, and they just kept coming. I had stopped humming by this time as day after day it just kept snowing.  Not that it wasn’t beautiful. It was! But it was cold. Especially when the electricity was going out more than it was staying on. This was from snow accumulation taking down the power lines.

Scott and I had offered to set up our RV on the back corner of the New 49’ers headquarter building in Happy Camp for the winter. Our main duties have been to present a security presence after hours, and, just as importantly, to make sure the building’s outdoor drainage system kept working when it snowed or rained. This, to keep the building from flooding.

We have been plugged into the building’s utilities; but that only kept us warm when the electricity was on. We went days without; only to have it go back off within hours after they got it turned on again. It was like that for a whole month!  Three warm blankets, one a nice goose down, and each other to share body heat. Worst part was getting out of the blankets. Burr, freeze, chill!

Dickey & snow

Here is Dickey standing in front of the snow pile between the buildings!

By the end of these record breaking snow storms raging through Happy Camp, we had 36 inches of snow on the ground and on top of the headquarters roof! It was piled up on the sides of the road.  We had a small mountain of it stacked up from the snow plows in front of the office that looked like the Matterhorn at Disneyland.

Part of the job of keeping the building from flooding is shoveling the snow away from the outside walls.  This was not much of a problem until snow started sliding off the roof of the building. Snow falling off the roof made a pile so high that it slid down against the building, and it was deep! Scott shoveled and shoveled and shoveled snow. It was about 3 weeks of shoveling. He put in a couple hours a day. One day on the far side of the building he and another member, Ray Moore, shoveled for about four hours just to keep up.

Shoveling snow is harder than digging for gold; because all you have to show for it is blisters on your hands and a sore back! Well, we also had the personal satisfaction of keeping the inside of the building dry. It was like a contest between us and Mother Nature.

The snow on the post office side was stacked as just high but Scott had paths through it to our door and where we were parking our truck.

Most exciting was the few nights all that snow was melting off the roof. Big portions were sliding off and crashing onto the ground. Several large slides crashed into the back end of our trailer that woke me out of a dead sleep to standing up next to the bed ready to defend against attack. Yep; it was quite the adventure!

Dave Mack’s 8-inch dredge in the parking lot was covered under a pile of snow for weeks. At one point, the large flatbed trailer in the parking lot had so much snow on the rear end that it was popping a wheelie!

Finally, the snow turned to rain in mid-January; and it rained on and off (mostly on) until about four days ago, we had rain and more rain.  All that rain melted the snow, and water was running down the sides of the mountains from everywhere.

The sudden surge of water switched Scott and I from snow alert to flood control.  It’s impossible to know how much water is running down the embankment behind the headquarters building when it is pounding rain on the roof of our RV during the middle of the night. Scott and I took turns going out in the rain with a flashlight to take a look. Burr, wet, chill!

Long ago, Dave Mack and his team installed a drainage system around the building to capture flooding water and direct it out into the parking lot in front of the building. But the system only works if the drains remain clear. It only takes a small amount of leaves, dead grass and/or other ground debris to block a drain. The drains were blocking up in the beginning; but after a few days, it was just running water. Overall, under the circumstances, we were lucky and all that water drained away from the building. Good thing; because if it wasn’t draining, we would have been out there digging drainage ditches in a downpour during the middle of the night. No doubt about it!

>Wingate river access

Here is the USFS river access at Wingate during the storm. We did most of our group projects last season on the bank directly
across the river. What bank? I’ll bet it is nearly 30 feet underwater in this picture. Imagine the redeposited gold over there!

It was raining inches per day for several days before the 9th of February.  This was when the river crested. Scott and I took a ride downriver to have a look. Oh my god, was it a raging torrent of angry Mother Nature!  Just as we were going out of town, when we crossed Indian Creek, we could see that the river was almost cresting its banks in some places. Here are some videos we captured at Wingate and Oak Flat.

One of our miners was camped at Chambers Flat, one of the Club’s long term campgrounds just below town. We saw that the water was around 30 feet from his camp on our way downriver.  By the time we returned from Wingate, the edge of the river had reached his camp. So we pulled in and helped him pack his camp so he could move to higher ground.

The Klamath River put Highway 96 underwater causing the road to be closed upriver from Happy Camp in several places. That was the highest the river has come up since the big flood of 1997. Several suction dredges were lost to that storm.

Now that the river has dropped quite a bit, it is very exciting to see how different some of the New 49’er mining properties look. There are new sand bars where they didn’t exist before. But more importantly, sand which covered some excellent gold deposits we know of has been washed away! Most exciting is that we should have lots of new flood gold all along the river.

Lower Wingate

Check this out. This whole area on lower Wingate was covered with sand before the storm. The bar is still underwater. One of our members rolled
one rock out of the way a few days ago, scooped a few handfuls of hard-packed gravel into his gold pan, and recovered 5 beautiful flakes of gold!

As soon as the river goes down a bit more, Scott and I will be out prospecting every day.

We are really looking forward to seeing all you guys out here this summer. It should be a great season of group digs, metal detector workshops, potlucks and fellowship that makes the New 49s the best gold mining association in America.

PS:  The latest snow report from the Klamath National Forest says the snow pack in the mountains surrounding the Klamath River is currently at 112% of average; and even more importantly, the snow water content is 121% of average. This should be helpful to keep portions of the banks in shallow water making underwater crevicing more productive then it has been for a long time. We are also working on a gravity water system that should allow us to do some shallow-water non-motorized underwater suction mining this summer. I can’t hardly wait!

Members Already Finding New Gold Deposits from High Winter Flows!
Path to Dickey's work site

Look at what the storm did to the path down to my regular gold mining site. And this is way up the side of the hill!

Update from Dickey Melton:  Well, I am relieved to announce that spring is here; the sun is shining; and it’s warming up. It’s hard to imagine that we were completely snowed in just a month ago.  There is still a lot of snow in the mountains and the rivers will be running higher than normal for a while. The Klamath River has been raging all winter, and even ran over its banks several times. It’s still running just under flood stage. There are several places on highway 96 that are one lane because of slides. That is actually a good sign if you are into getting lots of gold. I cannot even imagine how much new gold was introduced to the Klamath River and its tributaries this winter!

Gold that was already in the river has been moved around some. We all know that it is the large flood storms that create concentrated gold deposits. There was so much rain this year, every canyon and crevice along the side of the mountain had water running down them. A few hardy New 49’er members are already getting good gold in the wet sand as the water is dropping bit by bit. That gold will sink as the sand dries but will still be there, just have to work a little harder for it. I’m impressed at the quality of gold they are recovering. All this should lead up to some fantastic prospecting this coming season. So if you want to get in on finding your own gold; in my opinion, this season should be one that will be remembered for a long time to come. So, come on down to Happy Camp and be part of the action.  I hope to see you out here!

Dickey Melton Featured in International Advertising! 

Most active members know Dickey. He is in important part of our Internal Affairs Team. He is present on all or most of our Weekend Group Projects. Dickey takes lots of newcomers out and shows them how to find gold. And now, it appears he is becoming an international ambassador for small-scale gold miners. The industry is very lucky to have Dickey putting a friendly, positive image out there for us! This is just one of several programs and magazine articles which Dickey has starred in. Check it out right here: 

Legal and Political Perspective

We certainly do live in interesting times!

While the industry continues ongoing litigation concerning motorized small-scale mining, particularly suction dredging for gold, in California and Oregon, and the all-important Rinehart petition has been submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, I personally believe that meaningful relief from totally unreasonable over-regulation (mostly by State agencies) on the public lands is most likely to come from the Trump administration and U.S. congress as they move their agenda forward to “make America great again.”

Here is a very interesting link that shows the Trump Team is going to run right up against the very same forces that have deliberately reduced California’s small-scale mining industry to an operational level far below every other country in the world — back to long before the California Gold Rush!  There is no way we can make America great again until reasonable and sustainable resource development is encouraged once more on the lands managed by the federal government. While the Trump Team appears to be making good progress with the federal agencies, they will still need to overcome the obstructionist policies by State agencies which are controlled by left wing extremists. My best guess is the Trump Team will get it done much faster than we have been able to do in the State Courts.

We will need to have some patience; because the Trump Team and congress are clearly occupied with the larger issues facing America that the vast majority of Americans are interested in – like recent national defense issues which have been developing for years, like controlling who is allowed to enter our country, revamping our health care system and tax reform.  But even as these issues are mostly what the mainstream press is covering, it is clear that the Trump Team and part of congress are working on how to eliminate unreasonable environmental regulation and liberal policies that have been strangling the American economy for a very long time. To give you an idea how this is all starting to move along, I borrowed the following updates from the March newsletter of the American Exploration & Mining Association:

“President Trump has released his $1.1 trillion “America First” budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018. The fiscal blueprint only offers top-line spending figures for each agency and highlights programs that would see major increases or cuts in the coming fiscal year. 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):  The blueprint calls for a 31 percent spending reduction for EPA, slashing its budget by $2.6 billion below current funding levels to $5.7 billion in fiscal 2018. The budget aims to cut climate change and environmental enforcement programs and slash EPA’s workforce by 3,200 jobs. 

Department of the Interior (DOI):  In the White House proposal, DOI would receive $11.6 billion, a 12 percent reduction from current spending levels. A top priority in the blueprint is boosting energy development on public lands.  Further, it sustains funding for DOI’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue and eliminates unnecessary, lower priority, or duplicative programs, including discretionary Abandoned Mine Land grants that overlap with existing mandatory grants, while reducing funds for lower priority activities, such as acquiring new lands. 

Senate Energy & Natural Resources Hearing:  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing March 28, 2017 on The United States’ Increasing Dependence on Foreign Sources of Minerals and Opportunities to Rebuild and Improve the Supply Chain in the United States. Witnesses included Alf Barrios of AEMA and member Rio Tinto. You can view the entire hearing and download written testimony here.  In her opening statement, Murkowski underscored the economic and national security risks associated with our growing foreign mineral dependence:

Our foreign mineral dependence is a threat to our ability to create jobs in America,” Murkowski said. “It threatens our growth, our competitiveness, and our national security.  It may seem abstract right now, for some who are not responsible for managing a supply chain. But there will come a day when it will become real for all of us-when we simply cannot acquire a mineral, or when the market for a mineral changes so dramatically, that entire industries are affected.”

Here are more meaningful developments which demonstrate progress is moving rapidly in our direction:

Neil Gorsuch confirmed by Senate as US Supreme Court justice  This returns the high court to a conservative majority!

Executive Order Takes Aim at “Excessive” Regulations 

Trump Repeals BLM Planning 2.0

President Trump Signs an Energy Independence Executive Order

Trump Signs Order Dismantling Obama-Era Climate Policies  

Aggressive Cuts To Obama-Era Green Rules to Start Soon: EPA Head

Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) Introduces New Legislation to Eliminate BLM and US Forest Service Police 

Idaho House Votes Overwhelmingly to End Income Taxation of Precious Metals

You should know that we are quietly working on freeing up our industry from prohibitive regulations.  When the time is right, we will ask for your active participation.

We are also organizing as best we can to sponsor productive group projects for the 2017 season.  We will soon begin construction of a gravity water system that will direct running water to the lower bar on our Wingate claim where recent rich gold strikes have been discovered. We intend to do all or most of our 2017 Group Mining Projects at Wingate.

For as long as we have been held down, it’s worth waiting a while longer. After all, we are talking about regaining access to America’s vast natural treasures – the very substance that must be made available if America is to be made great again. I had my doubts that it would happen during my lifetime, but finally America’s new leaders are actually looking for solutions at how to get things back on track. Our country has been mismanaged so severely, we are going to need to be patient while the mess gets untangled.  There is good reason for hope!

Myself, and the others on our active team, want to express our sincerest gratitude to those of you who have been supporting our efforts.

Summer Office Hours Start on the First of May

Starting on the first of May, our office and store in Happy Camp will be open between 9 AM and 5 PM Monday through Friday, and Between 8 AM and 12 Noon on Saturdays.

New Legal Fund-raiser with 25 American Gold Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 3 pm on Friday 23rd of June 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

 

Join us for our Group Mining Projects This Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members. All participants share equally in the gold we recover.

2017 Schedule of Events: June 3 & 4; June 24 & 25, July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host two 2-day electronic gold prospecting projects in Happy Camp this coming season. Bring your own metal detectors. The projects will happen on Friday & Saturday June 9 and 10 and Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  Meet at our office at 4 PM on Friday. Bring your own drinks. Dinner will be served.

We are also hoping to organize some underwater suction mining projects (without the use of motorized pumps) in an established very rich gold deposit (in shallow water) this summer. Watch for more news on this as we attempt to move forward.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012 

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

FIRST QUARTER, MARCH 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 3

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

The New 49’ers Legal Fund, separate from The New 49’er Prospecting Association, is an organization with the purpose to defend the civil and statutory rights of members of natural resource dependent communities through public education, participation in litigation, and other public processes that involve such rights, and providing legal assistance to indigent members of such communities.

The New 49’ers Legal Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax-exempt organization based in Happy Camp, California. For more information concerning legal matters, please go here.

The Legal Fund, in one way or another, along with several other industry advocacy groups, is involved with most of the legal challenges being faced by small-scale gold miners in the western States of America.

Most of the money The Legal Fund raises comes in as the result of several drawings we do every year. Fortunately, there are quite a large number of contributors. The most recent drawing took place on the 24th of February at our headquarters in Happy Camp, California. Here are the winners: 

One-ounce American Gold Eagle:  Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY

Quarter-ounce American Gold Eagles:  Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; FairOaksFinds of Fair Oaks CA and PJ and Jack Wray of Auburn WA

Tenth-ounce American Gold Eagles:  Jerry Rady of Escondido CA; Walt Morrison of Kent WA; Chester Morris of Mount Aukum CA; Don Brady of Happy Camp; Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY; Spencer Bailey of Bakersfield CA; Ryck Rowan of Spokane WA; Joseph Burda of Pacifica CA; Dennis Kim of Honolulu HI and Phil Robinson of Redway CA

One-ounce American Silver Eagles:  Daniel Connolly of Atwater CA; Stephen Clapham of Klamath River CA; Jeffery Arnold of Hercules CA; Larry Alexander of Ceres CA; Joe Martin of Willits CA; William White of Portland OR; Jan Nelson of Skagway AK; Donald Hill of Vallejo CA; Dennis Taylor of Cheyenne WY; Gregory Dennis of Livermore CA

Congratulations to all the winners!!

Thanks to all of our loyal supporters, we can consider this another very successful fund-raiser.  As promised, the Legal Fund will now follow with another fund-raiser duplicating the very same prizes – since these seem to generate strong interest.

 

New Legal Fund-raiser with 25 American Gold Eagles!

Gold and Silver Eagles

Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 3 pm on Friday 23rd of June 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

All contributions are tax deductible. You can find more information about the drawing right here.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

 

Legal and Political Perspective

We certainly do live in interesting times!

While the industry continues ongoing litigation concerning motorized small-scale mining, particularly suction dredging for gold,  in California and Oregon, and the all-important Rinehart petition has been submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, I personally believe that meaningful relief from totally unreasonable over-regulation (mostly by State agencies) on the public lands is most likely to come from the Trump administration and U.S. congress as they move their agenda forward to make America great again.

We will need to have some patience; because the Trump Team and congress are clearly occupied with the larger issues facing America that the vast majority of Americans are interested in – like controlling who is allowed to enter our country, our health care system and tax reform.  But even as these issues are mostly what the mainstream press is covering, it is clear that the Trump Team and part of congress are working on how to eliminate unreasonable environmental regulation that has been strangling the American economy.

So now we are working the political side of the big equation; something that has been closed off to us for most of my career. I am aware of at least 2 federal legislative bills being circulated that will bring us much-needed relief concerning resource development on the public lands, and on privately-held land that has been patented because of proven mineral reserves.  We are quietly providing support to both of these efforts. When the appropriate time comes, we will ask you to send in your letters, emails or make phone calls in support.

While it really hasn’t happened yet, it is just a matter of time before the Trump Team and congress are going to run directly into the very same extremely-liberal players at the State level who have basically reduced America’s mining industry down to early-1800’s technology. Here is proof that this is going to happen!

There was a time when America had the strongest mining industry in the world. Now, it would be easier to get a mining permit in North Korea or Iran! And it’s not just mining. It is nearly everything that allows individual freedom to create wealth.

I’m betting that what we have not been able to overcome in 7+ years of litigation can be resolved by the new administration as they run smack into the forces that have been holding us down. We just need to give it some time. Here are just a few examples of how things are changing:

Metals and Mining Matter

Congress Moves To Roll Back Regulations Of Federal Lands

New Interior Chief Vows Review Of Obama-Era Rules, ‘Bold’ Restructuring

New U.S. Environmental Chief Says Agency Can Also Be Pro-Jobs

Arizona Senate Committee Passes Bill To Treat Gold As Money, Remove Capital Gains Tax

Know that we are quietly working on freeing up our industry from prohibitive regulations.  We are also organizing as best we can to sponsor productive group projects for the 2017 season.

For as long as we have been held down, it’s worth waiting a while longer. After all, we are talking about regaining access to America’s vast natural treasures – the very substance that must be made available if America is to be made great again. I had my doubts that it would happen during my lifetime, but finally America’s new leaders are actually looking for solutions at how to get things back on track. Our country has been mismanaged so severely, we are going to need to be patient while the mess gets untangled.  There is good reason for hope!

Myself, and the others on our active team, want to express our sincerest gratitude to those of you who have been supporting our efforts.

Join us for our Group Mining Projects Next Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members.

2017 Schedule of Events: June 3 & 4; June 24 & 25, July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, in concert with Whites Electronics and Armadillo Mining Supply will host two 2-day electronic gold prospecting projects in Happy Camp this coming season. Bring your own metal detectors. The projects will happen on Friday & Saturday June 9 and 10 and Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  We will meet at our Headquarters in Happy Camp at 9 am.

We are also hoping to organize some underwater suction mining projects (without the use of motorized pumps) in an established very rich gold deposit (in shallow water) this summer. Watch for more news on this as we attempt to move forward.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012 

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

FIRST QUARTER, FEBRUARY 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 2

Dave McCracken

 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 

Anyone who is paying attention knows that there are a lot of changes already happening in just the first two weeks since Donald Trump has taken over as President of the United States. Clearly the very determined trend is in the direction of undoing the death grip that too much government has had on the American economy and our liberty. Things are moving very fast, some which are generally coming in our direction.

As one example, here is an answer given by Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, to conservative talk host, Lars Larson, at a White House briefing yesterday on national television:

First; to me, it is remarkable that the new White House is allowing conservative talk hosts to participate in the daily briefings!  Secondly, Mr. Spicer’s answer suggests that the new Administration is aware that natural resources from the public lands, including minerals, must be utilized to expand the economy. This is especially hopeful to us! 

It was also telling several days ago when President Trump encouraged Canada to resubmit its application to build the Keystone Pipeline. Mr. trump said the application would likely be approved quickly.  But even more importantly, he insisted that all of the pipe will be manufactured in the U.S., “We are going to put a lot of skilled workers back to work…like we used to in the old days.” 

Based upon the executive orders President Trump has signed so far, his executive appointees, and his choice of federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, my impression is that he fully intends to put Americans and our country first again. What a relief!

And as if the stars were really lining up in our favor, Brandon Rinehart filed his Petition with the U.S. Supreme Court just today (3 February)!  Pacific Legal Foundation’s very enlightening press release can be found right here:

The problem is, that while the Trump Team is off to a strong start on the new “America First” agenda, they are getting crucified by most American and international media outlets and some liberal foreign leaders.  Most mainstream press organizations are owned and managed by liberal organizations that have been working for decades to destroy America from the inside. My impression is that they are going absolutely bonkers while Mr. Trump and his team are undoing their dirty work with steadfast determination. 

Action Alert 

There are so many important things happening at the moment which will affect the remainder of our lives, the future of America and the world, I encourage everyone to make a stand right now and tell Donald Trump that we are 100% in favor of his efforts. We must encourage him to “Stay the course!”

The whole world hangs in the balance! 

Violent outbreaks by our adversaries on the left have already started. They may get a lot worse. My prediction is that the forces (“the dark side”) which hate traditional America are going to organize to do whatever they can to stop the Trump Train.  As far as I am aware, this is the first real chance we have had of in my lifetime to get America back on track with what our founders intended during the first American revolution. We are now in the second American revolution.  I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that the biggest battles and most dangerous challenges are still in front of us.

For the moment, a very productive thing we all could do to lend support is to send a letter or an electronic message to Donald Trump and let him know that we fully support his efforts.  Let’s not allow the main stream press do our talking for us.

And just to be sure that small-scale miners don’t fall through the cracks, please inform Mr. Trump that we have been getting rolled over for the past nine years by the very same groups and individuals that are trying to bring him down.  I am attaching a letter from the attorney who has represented our industry since the beginning of our difficulties. The letter explains our situation quite well.

I see the Trump Train as the solution to the problems our industry is having with the various States, especially California and Oregon.  This, because most small-scale mining takes place on the public lands. There is no way America is going to rebuild its entire infrastructure and military if State agencies will continue to be allowed to obstruct resource development on the public lands. So there is a battle coming between the Trump Train and obstructionist State agencies. I’m guessing it’s going to happen soon. I’m also betting we are going to win.

So let’s cheer on the champion for our side. Please send Mr. Trump some encouragement and a copy of Mr. Buchal’s letter. The postal address is on Mr. Buchal’s letter.  You can direct an electronic message right here: (Click on the “Participate” tab at the top of the page). In that case, include this link to Mr. Buchal’s letter into your message.

I would be very proud if we could generate thousands of encouragement letters from our industry supporters.   Thanks for whatever you guys can do!

 

Legal Fund Drawing in Just 3 Weeks!

Gold and Silver EaglesThere will be 25 prizes in all:
Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles

Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 12:00 Noon on 24 February 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

So far, there has been very little participation in this drawing. But you guys always come through in the final two weeks. Thanks for anything you guys can do to help!  

Join us for our Group Mining Projects Next Season!

There is a learning curve to successful gold prospecting.  One of the most effective methods of progressing through the learning curve is to go on prospecting adventures with others who more experienced than you are.

Our 2-day Group Mining Projects are one of the primary benefits of New 49’er membership which set us apart from other mining associations.  All weekend events are free to Full & Associate Members.

2017 Schedule of Events: June 3 & 4; June 24 & 25, July 15 & 16; August 5 & 6; August 26 & 27 

Schedule of Events

In addition, electronic prospecting specialist and New 49’er member, Dennis Dickson, will host two 2-day electronic gold prospecting projects in Happy Camp this coming season. Bring your own detectors. The projects will happen on Friday & Saturday June 9 and 10 and Friday & Saturday August 18 and 19.  We will meet at our Headquarters in Happy Camp at 9 am.

Group projects are limited to a certain number of participants. Scheduling in advance is strongly advised to ensure a position on any specific weekend project: 530 493-2012 

Sign up for the Free Internet Version of this Newsletter

We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

Sign up for our Free Internet Newsletter!

Note: You are free to unsubscribe anytime just by clicking a link if you decide to do so.

The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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New 49'er Newsletter

FIRST QUARTER, JANUARY 2017                               VOLUME 31, NUMBER 1

Dave McCracken

 
 
 

Newsletter By Dave McCracken General Manager

 
 
Note: We normally avoid publishing stories in our monthly newsletter that are not directly related to The New 49’ers. But since this is mid-winter, and Happy Camp has been, more or less, shut down by severe weather (so there is not much gold prospecting to talk about), and the story below provides an entertaining explanation of why the January newsletter is going out a bit late; I’m going to share with you some of the adventures I have been through since our December newsletter. Now that we are all safely back on land and I have more time, I will add a little more explanation to what originally went out in the hard copy newsletter: 

Message from Dave Mack, 17 December, 2016 4:00 PM, Philippine Islands: 

blue boat skyline

I am talking to you through my brother Tim because my Laptop is not working any longer.

My underwater exploration boat got sucked into a giant whirlpool several nights ago, flipped over and sunk all within 15 seconds.   Jasmin and I were asleep and nearly went down with the boat 30 miles north of the nearest populated island.

We spent the next 14 hours floating around the South China Sea until a boat picked us up the on the following day.  Only wearing panties and underwear bottoms, it was the coldest night of our lives!

I mostly believe in and practice the following two philosophical concepts:

1)  Everything happens exactly as it is supposed to. We do our best to make things go the way we want them. Then we adjust ourselves to the way things actually go.

2) God, or The Great Intelligence, or however we personally choose to define that greater force which directs the infinite creative reality we are experiencing always gives us exactly what we need (but not always what we believe we want).

This underwater exploration boat was one of my most prized possessions. Short of running it into something very hard, the boat was unsinkable. Every system on the boat was working exactly as it was supposed to.

We have had occasional problems with flash storms hitting us all at once during the middle of the night, one time forcing us to cut our anchor line to keep from getting swept onto remote rocks by severe winds, we returned this time with heavy chain and a 3/4-inch braided rope and a buoy so that I could secure the boat to a very large boulder or coral head on the bottom of the ocean. In this case, it was a very strong coral head. This allowed us a totally secure answer to any winds Mother Nature wanted to direct our way.

Nearly every problem (many near disasters) we have encountered while doing these underwater search projects for the past several years have had to do with severe winds, usually in the total darkness. Though we have seen a number of very powerful whirlpools out on the South China Sea, they are usually associated with strong tidal flows which rush around the larger islands – though we did see a very large whirl pool one time out in the middle of nowhere with no visible reason for it being there.

skin diving fish
Jasmin

Jasmin likes to drive the boat.

Even though I have seen them, nothing in my life experience jolted me into the realization that we could encounter a powerful whirlpool while at anchor. This is something that is very unlikely to happen when taking shelter in a protected bay. But on this night, we were secured to the bottom of the ocean so far out in the South China Sea that we could not see land in any direction.

I am not at liberty to discuss the nature of these boat exploration adventures we are doing. The truth is that we do some spear fishing to supply the boat with fresh meals.

Since the seas were mostly calm on this trip, we had made the 200-mile voyage down to our destination on a single day. It took us 8 or 9 hours, including one stop to top off our fuel. Unless the seas are bad, Jasmin normally likes to drive the boat. She drove most of the way. She also cleans the fish we catch, cooks all the meals, keeps the boat shipshape, and participates in most of the underwater work. Jasmin is the best boat mate I have ever had.

Our destination was a place where several volcanic rocks protrude out of about 180 feet of water way out in the middle of nowhere. The water is about 50 feet deep near to the rocks, then drops off rapidly into depths too deep for scuba diving. The location is 90 miles out in the South China Sea from the large island of Mindoro, and about 35 miles north of the Large island of Busuanga – which you cannot even see out there unless it is a very clear day. Hardly anyone goes out there, though it is not uncommon to see and visit with local fishermen from remote islands that are shorter distances away.

rocks

These rocks extend up out of deep water way out in the middle of nowhere.

Our surveys around these rocks have a lot to do with the fact that they are full of natural caves. The caves provide hiding places for fish and interesting places to explore.

We were tired when we arrived at the rocks. Even though the weather was mostly fine during our voyage, we were seeing threatening storms on the horizon all around us. So I went down on a hookah system (tether line to supply air to me underwater) and shackled a very strong chain around the base of a huge coral head in about 50 feet of water. Then I connected the heavy rope and buoy to the chain. This would serve as our secure connection to the ocean bottom for the week or so that we expected to be there. That connection was so strong, there was no storm in the weather forecasts that posed any threat to us, day or night.

Since it gets dark early and we were tired, we settled for a snack and went to bed early. There was some mild rain and we could hear thunder in the distance. But since I set the anchor mooring on the down-wind side of the rock, the sea was pretty quiet in our location.

I’m estimating that it was around 9 pm when I felt the boat leaning strongly to the port (left) side.

Being in charge of a boat and passenger(s) out on the open ocean is a big responsibility. Murphy (as in “Murphy’s law”) lives out on the water. Even when you do everything right, unexpected surprises come up that can be catastrophic.

Storm 1 Storm 2

There were some smaller storms around us which prompted me to connect an unbreakable bond to the ocean bottom.

In addition to those who depend upon me, I also have a sacred responsibility to care for the boat – just as the boat has an unfaltering duty to keep us safe. This is not something easy to explain in human language. But anyone who has ever spent a lot of time on the open seas in a vessel will likely agree with me that every boat has a life force, even if it is not the same as what humans experience.

I don’t sleep very deeply when we are out on the ocean, even on a calm night. When I felt the boat leaning to port, I sprang out of my bunk to see what was causing it. This boat had floor lights which we kept on all night.  So there was plenty of light to see a very substantial wave of water rushing in through the stern (rear) door opening. The whole deck was awash with water and the boat was leaning hard to the port side. Water was flowing in so fast, my first thought was to wake Jasmin and tell her to grab the life preservers. She was still trying to wake up.

There was the loud sound of rushing water coming from behind the boat and I could see that the water was moving past the boat kind of like a river, but at a tilted angle. A large standing wave of water just behind the boat was sucking us deeper into the water.

Looking back, I immediately recognized that the boat was going to go down. So I turned around, got on my knees between the boat seats, reached under the bed, and tried to pull out the heavy life preservers – which we keep right there for when we need to get to them quickly. What I got was the waterproof bag which contains our bedding when we are on the go. In just that moment, the boat flipped over entirely upside down. Something heavy smashed me in the head; probably a set of divers weights. After the boat flipped, the heavy motor dragged the stern of the boat straight beneath the rest of the boat. It was all I could do to get out of the canopy-covered area of the boat without passing out for lack of air.

I was worried Jasmin did not get out of the forward cabin where I saw her just moments before.

When I came to the surface, the bow (front) of the boat was still floating a few feet above the water, pointing straight upward as if giving a final farewell to the above-water world. I held onto the bow. The boat was not drifting anywhere because of the way I had it attached to the ocean bottom. To my surprise and relief, I spotted Jasmin holding onto the large Yeti cooler that was floating like a cork. But the cooler was being pulled directly towards the whirlpool.

Jasmin is a good swimmer, and joined me at the boat, which was ever-sinking deeper into the ocean. There were no life preservers on the surface. But there were two inflatable boat bumpers (they keep your boat from getting scraped up when up against docks) there still tied to the boat. The first one came undone quickly. Determined to have more floatation, I was pulled at least 10 feet underwater by the boat before getting the second bumper untied. I tied the two bumpers together to provide us with some floatation.

Then, my diving equipment bag popped up to the surface. We had that out of storage earlier in the day when I set the mooring on the bottom of the ocean. Inside the dive bag was my buoyancy compensator (BCD) – which is basically a life preserver that you can blow up through a mouth piece. There was also an underwater flashlight, my spare face mask and my titanium dive knife. The waterproof bag that I pulled out from under the bed before the boat flipped over also floated to the surface. I used the straps and snaps to connect everything together.

So there we found ourselves floating in the ocean out in the middle of nowhere, with a light rain coming down on is. Best I could tell; the whirlpool had either spun itself out or moved off.

We were together, unhurt, and alive.

The volcanic rocks there are too steep and sharp-edged to climb up on.

We fit Jasmin into the BCD; I used the two boat bumpers for floatation; and we crawled into the diving bag together as best we could and hugged close all night to preserve our heat.

The ocean water was 86 degrees. Sounds warm, right? And it is, if you are not going to spend hours and hours in the water. But the 12-degree difference between the water and our normal body temperature eventually had us so cold that our teeth chattered with shivers when either of us had anything to say – which, by the way, caused us to giggle at our predicament.  Though internally, both of us were feeling a deep loss for the boat which has served us so well.

At first, I believed a local fishing boat would be by in just a short period of time. I had the flashlight tied onto Jasmin’s BCD, ready to use as a signaling device at any time.

I also tied the knife there. There are a lot of sharks in the South China Sea. We see them on nearly every dive. My own experience with sharks is similar to dogs. If you boldly charge forward at a shark, he will normally go away in search of easier prey.

sunsetThe rain picked up after a while and was very cold on our heads. So we draped the waterproof bag over us for the rest of the night. It helped to preserve the warmth that we were breathing out of our bodies.

I was really surprised that we did not hear or see a single boat all night.

First signs of daylight show themselves at 5 am. That’s what I was waiting for. With the light would come a new day, warm skies, and at least a few local fishing boats.

Warmer air was nothing short of nourishing as the sun rose. But there was still not a single boat to be seen.

The problem was that the ocean currents were drifting us to the northeast out towards Apo Reef. Apo is the second largest coral reef in the world and is designated as a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. That means local fishermen don’t go out there (those that do, end up losing their boats to the authorities).  So that was not the direction we wanted to go…

At about 7 am, facing the prospect of another night or more slowly freezing to death out in the ocean, I pointed to an unoccupied island that was seven miles away. Jasmin and I know the island from earlier voyages. We know there is clean drinking water there.

If you don’t drown, die of exposure or get eaten by something, it is the lack of drinking water that will kill you when you are lost out in the open ocean.

island in the distance

If you look close, you can see the small island way off in the distance that we were going to swim to as an attempt to save ourselves.

Nearly anyone else would have laughed at me under those circumstances if I suggested we needed to swim to an island that was so far away, we could only see it when the ocean swells allowed us a slightly heightened view. Jasmin started paddling even before I finished the suggestion. This is what ultimately saved us. She paddled and I pushed. After a few hours, I was estimating that we had moved about a mile in the right direction. My concern was that changing tides would create currents that would defeat our effort. All we could do was try.

When I first heard the boat, both of us thought it was an airplane way up in the sky. But the sound grew louder; and pretty soon, we saw that it was a boat coming from the direction of Apo. It was coming straight at us. In fact, our intersection was so perfect that the boat would have run us over if we were not seen. But the guys in the boat saw us long before stopping to pick us up.  “Man are we glad to see you!” is all I could get out of my shivering, teeth-chattering voice. This turned out to be quite a large fiberglass speed boat that had been designed and built for a dive company in El Nido, Palawan, maybe about a hundred miles further to the south.

The guys helped us into the boat and served us up with drinking water and fresh sandwiches. We were not hungry. But the water went down like the elixir of life — which it is! Jasmin really appreciated a warm shirt. Under my BCD, all she had on was a pair of panties. My body was too large to fit into any of their shirts. But I was content to be up on a warm boat, even in just my underpants.

After hearing our story, the guys in the boat offered to take us anywhere we wanted to go.

In my mind, there was only one place to go. I had to get back down to the boat where we had clothes, footwear, money and identification. The boat was in 50 feet of water.

I had plenty of diving gear and full scuba tanks on the boat. But I needed help getting down there. There was a time that I could reach down to 50 feet on a single breath; but not anymore.

So we settled on my original plan, regardless of what boat eventually picked us up. We were to be dropped off at Dimpac Island. This is a very remote place just north of Busuanga.  There is a small, friendly fishing community there.  We take shelter at Dimpac during bad weather, and have made friends with some of the locals. I was hoping someone might have a compressor that would help me reach the boat.  This idea was a long reach; but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

salvage

Here are just some of the goodies we recovered the first day. Everything was rinsed in fresh water and stored away in a safe place.

When we reached Dimpac, we discovered that there was quite a substantial tourist diving boat there with divers in the water. What a stroke of luck! This was one of Dugong Dive Center’s several boats. Over mobile phone service, they arranged to immediately dispatch another dive boat with a crew of 4 dive-masters and a boat crew to help us do initial salvage. It was 4 pm that afternoon when we arrived back out where the boat sank and made the first of 2 dives.

Four of Dugong’s divers and myself worked until dark to recover most of the valuable items off the boat.  I don’t have images of this, because my underwater cameras came up with bags full of disorganized salvage. All I can say is that these Filipino dive-masters working for Dugong were highly professional, hard workers, and maintained a good natured and supportive posture throughout their involvement.

The dive service arranged for Jasmin and I to stay in a very comfortable resort  named Cashew Grove Beach Resort. The resort manager (Melody) was waiting for us on the beach when we stepped out of the boat and escorted us to a warm shower and hot meal. She and her staff arranged a secure place to store our salvage.

The following day, Melody arranged with a second dive service from a nearby resort, Club Paradise, to provide a boat and 4 more dive-masters who turned out to be just as helpful as the team that helped us the day before. In just a few hours, we recovered everything else off the boat that could be removed.

recovery team sunk

The boat remains on the bottom of the ocean at the time I am writing this message.  I have pretty much written that off as a loss. I’m thinking the nearly new 200HP Suzuki 4-stroke outboard motor, with all of its high tech electronic systems, would cost as much to refurbish as to buy a new one. This aluminum hull was the nicest boat I have ever had. But even if we could get it floating (likely), we would still have to tow her 200 miles to Subic Bay, strip out everything, and begin from scratch.  I have already done that once.  Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Tim and Dave

My brother Time and I celebrating just weeks before when we finally had this boat totally ready for its mission.  That was a very happy day.

Immediately upon my return to Subic Bay, my most trusted and experienced boat mentor convinced me that we could fully recover and restore the blue boat and motor if we moved fast.  I had my doubts about a full recovery and the costs involved with a project of that magnitude.  But I know that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I did not do my absolute best to recover the boat; an almost sacred friend that would have given up its own existence to preserve mine and Jasmin’s.

So Tim and I immediately pulled our 2nd (white) underwater dive exploration boat out of dry storage and assigned some work orders to the local boat shop. This was all in preparation for a recovery expedition to try and raise the blue boat and get it back to Subic.  We needed to make two voyages down to pick up our salvage at Cashew Grove, anyway. So there was not much to lose in trying to raise the boat.

A longtime friend of mine who does mechanical work all over the world agreed to accompany me and try to get the motor operating on the 1st boat.  We were just waiting for Super Typhoon Nock-10 to pass by before making the 200-mile voyage to the south where the boat is waiting on the bottom.

Message from Dave Mack, 4 January, 2017 9:00 AM, Philippine Islands:  Once again, I am forwarding this message by mobile phone through loyal brother Tim who has provided very close support since you last heard from me.

As luck turned out, we managed to get my new Laptop going and I was back in live communication with our Happy Camp office the very day that Super Typhoon Nock-10 passed directly over my present location.  All of the weather forecasts predicted 7 days of fair and calm seas.  So, my friend (who I am deliberately not naming) and I departed immediately to Busuanga Island in the Philippine South.

white boat

White boat to the rescue!

We only provisioned the boat for one week because we were carrying a lot of gear and bulky flotation devices to support the recovery mission. We expected to be finished with our mission in less than a week.

It took us two days to get down to Busuanga.  This was not because of the distance.  It was because of my increased concern about the need to drop anchor at night in protected coves.  The problem here is that the weather does not always do what the forecasters say. A calm night can turn into a ferocious storm in just minutes. We have resolved how to sustain very strong winds and seas. Whirlpools in the darkness are another matter altogether!

Our first stop on day-2 of the voyage was where the first boat sunk. Unfortunately, all that remained was the 650 pound 4-stroke Suzuki 200 HP motor.  Someone unbolted the motor and took away the hull.  This is very unfortunate, because these types of aluminum Aussie-Built special long range dive boats are hard to come by in the Philippines.  Having said that, I keep reminding myself everything happens as it should. Clearly, someone else is more enthusiastic than I am about investing the resources to resurrect that boat.

Fortunately, we still have another boat.   Though I will not be putting down anchor in unprotected locations…

Which brings me to the present:  With the boat gone, we devoted a full day searching the entire north coast of Busuanga to see if we could find it. No luck. So we made fast work on day-4 in recovering about half of the salvaged items (the other half will be recovered on the next trip) which were being stored safely at Cashew Grove.

Checking in with Tim over mobile phone service, even though it was too late in the day to start our voyage back, Tim informed me that an entirely new storm system was moving in and that we had to depart immediately to avoid getting caught in it.  Tim strongly emphasized the need to head north as fast as the white boat would take us. The surface of the sea was already choppy even before we departed.

The first 100 miles of our voyage to Lubang Island was just plain brutal.  I am talking about strong winds and waves coming straight at us from the north, sometimes getting slammed so hard, I had concerns about the boat breaking up.  My friend screamed and cried with every slam.  But there was no choice to turn around or stop.  My sole objective was to make it to a small protected cove on the West Side of Lubang Island where we could get certain shelter.  There was no other place we could go get out of the storm’s blow.

We came into the storm that Tim had warned us about 30 miles south of Lubang Island; which, by the way, is the Verde Island Straight.   When the tides are running, these are the most treacherous waters in the Philippines.

Fortunately, the wind and waves were battering us from the East.  With only a few hours of daylight left, this allowed me to direct the boat parallel to the peaks and troughs of the 6-foot waves.  Even so, we were taking a lot of water over the windshield and into the boat, along with occasional punishing slams. These caused my friend to scream out in pain.  I was hurting, too. But he was beyond miserable.

We could have put up the flexible storm window to keep more water out of the boat and my eyes. The reason I decided against it is because so much water on the windshield blocks all or most visibility forward of the boat. Take it from me when I say that running 25 MPH sideways to 6-foot seas requires that you see where you are going.

It didn’t take long for the water coming over the windshield to flood out both of the boat’s GPS sounders.  This was not a serious problem during the daylight.  But after dark, without the sounders, there would be no way to find the protected cove on Lubang.  Just as the sun was on the horizon, with darkness fast approaching, I gave the boat full throttle.   This was a race that we were about to lose!

I was taking a severe pounding myself; but the salt water and spray in my face was so severe that I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.   At one point, my eyes swelled completely shut.  That was when we slammed so hard that my friend fell out of his seat and was writhing in pain on the deck, pleading with me to stop the boat.

I stopped the boat long enough to flush my eyes with fresh water and explain to my friend that we were either going to make it to the protected cove on Lubang or die trying.  Then I suggested he sit in the back of the boat where he might be more comfortable.

It brings me no pleasure to inflict so much pain on another person. But pain is better than dead! Getting swept out through the Verdi Island Straight into the South China Sea overnight during a tropical storm is something we probably would not have survived.

Back to full speed, we pulled into the protected cove just as total darkness set in.   Fifteen minutes later and we would not have made it.

The following morning, my friend wanted off the boat at any cost.  He was so desperate, he pleaded with me to drop him off on a remote coral reef down on the Southwest corner of Lubang which has no roads or trails leading to it.  It would have been a death sentence! He just wasn’t thinking clearly.

Over his strenuous objections I drove the boat around the island and dropped him off at a ferry port where he could catch a ride back to the mainland, and a bus back home. I took on fuel and limited provisions at the port.    As my friend stepped off of the boat, it was the first time in my life I ever saw someone express true joy.  I am talking joy on the level of being in the presence of god.  You would have thought it was New Year’s Day (it was)!  He did everything except kiss the filthy ground at the port.

On that note, this was how we spent both Christmas and New Year’s.

By mobile phone, Tim told me the weather forecast was showing 3 foot waves and 15 knot winds out of the Northwest.  I still had a 100 mile crossing directly to the North of Lubang Island to reach Subic Bay.  So I decided to go for it.

But the waves turned out to be 6 feet and larger coming directly out of the north on such a short interval that the bow of the boat torpedoed through nearly every wave.  I had the foul weather windshield zipped in for this trip even though it prevented me from seeing clearly what was in front of the boat in heavy water.  My plan was just to follow north on the Boat’s Compass until I reached Subic.  After 10 miles of submarining through waves, I decided to turn back and wait out the storm.  That was five days ago.

So I am on the boat alone, having returned to the protected cove.  By driving 2 miles to the north, I am able to pick up a mobile phone service and get daily weather reports from Tim.  The forecast is for high seas and strong winds for at least the next week.

Low on provisions, I am feeding myself mainly on the fish I am shooting with my spear gun. This second boat has a hookah compressor on board, much like the compressors we use when dredging for gold. Most others might consider this over the top; but I have been having good luck by dropping anchor out on reefs in 60 feet of water, and going down to use the anchor to drive the boat. By this, I mean when I free the anchor from the bottom, high winds on the surface sweep me along the bottom of the ocean at high speed until I come upon habitat that is supporting game fish. Then I plunge the anchor again into something solid. I do this over and over. As I only need a single fish a day for myself, I have continued to make more friends with local fishermen by giving my extra catches away.

Once the dive is over, I float the anchor with a lift bag to make sure I’m going to recover it in those strong winds.

Since there is nothing else I can do to get this boat back home at the moment, I’m making the best out of my situation. Underwater adventure has been my life passion; and honestly, the solitude is allowing me some valuable time with myself.

Yesterday, I decided that I should have a larger boat. Up until now, the reason I have used smaller boats is that I can take them out of the water between voyages – and especially when I am not in the Philippines. I’ll be looking towards future seasons to trade this convenience off with the benefits and increased safety margins associated with a larger platform.

Like I said, the adventures just keep getting better and better.

With the need to put out a January newsletter as one of my primary responsibilities this story is the best I can do in my present situation.  This is especially important since we have a Legal Fund drawing coming up very soon.

Please indulge me as I provide several lessens I have learned from these experiences:

  • Nothing is unsinkable! I’m not talking only about boats. I’m talking about everything.
  • We should make the best we can out of every day we have remaining in this life. Because when your time is up, you don’t want to leave important unfinished business behind. I’m mainly talking about relationships. But I’m also talking about pursuing our life dreams.
  • It’s very interesting how quickly and how substantially life’s most important things can change. It all starts with a breath. Without that, nothing else matters for long. Sometimes we get all tied around in circles worrying about things that are of little or no consequence. Perhaps this is why some forms of meditation focus entirely on breathing. Want to experience the miracle of life? Just relish in a single breath of air.
  • During 14 hours of misery on the water, there was never a single complaint from my loyal boat-mate, Jasmin Montes. Though, there were numerous times when we found ourselves giggling at the difficulty of our situation out there in the middle of nowhere with our teeth chattering. Courage is a wonderful thing to share!
  • I’m already on the lookout for a larger boat. Good chance when we pull that altogether, I’ll be glad things happened the way they have.
  • As it turns out, the exact right boat came along and picked us up with perfect timing. If we had not tried to swim for the island, that boat would have never seen us. Think about that a second: That resort in El Nido ordered their new boat months and months before, took delivery hundreds of miles to the south, chose their exact path out of the infinity of routes they could have taken to the south – only to intersect with Jasmin and I like a bullseye at exactly the right time to rendezvous with a commercial diving company. What are the odds of all that happening? The odds were far more likely that we would still be out there floating around as shark bait!
  • These near death experiences help me to appreciate my truest and most loyal friends. I’m talking about you guys!!  And of course, the thousands of close supporters from around the world who appreciate my adventures.

As it was, the weather eventually cleared up enough to allow me passage across to Subic Bay from Lubang Island. The boat has been washed down and placed in storage. I have ordered replacement GPs sounders and placed several work orders with the boat shop to bring the boat back to full readiness. The local dive shop will replace the scuba compressor that went down with the first boat. Jasmin and I are gearing up to recover the remainder of our salvage and resume our exploration adventures shortly after I publish the February newsletter.

Note: I want to extend my most sincere thank you to Ian and Melody, along with their entire staff at Cashew Grove Beach Resort in northern Palawan, Philippines. In addition to providing an extraordinary service to their customers (diving, trekking, exploring, enjoying the beach, fantastic meals and lodging), they deliver hospitality far beyond what you would expect from anyone short of family: +639 98 5533 184.

Legal/Political Updates

I know we all have our own views on this. We will have to allow things some time to see how things work out.  My own initial impression is that Donald Trump is going to be very good for America. Looking at the team he is building around himself, I get that his full intention is to pry the government off the backs of working America.

In my mind, it’s not a matter of whether or not Mr. Trump wants to “make America great again.”  The question remains how he is going to deal with the substantial forces which fully intend to obstruct his efforts.

For about as long as I have been an adult, liberals have been having things go their way with so little effort that they have not had to work very hard to make life much more difficult for those of us who have had to make our way by creating wealth and wealth-producing services. Having been on the front lines doing battle with liberals for quite a long time, I have come to the conclusion that very few of them are willing to accept reality as it actually is.

So I am predicting that there will be lots of commotion as the new Trump administration and republican majorities begin implementing policies which will force our liberal brothers and sisters to confront a whole new reality.

In a similar way that Jasmin and I intersected with that boat out in the middle of an open sea, Donald Trump has arrived in American politics at just the right time to turn our country around. He is just the right guy, and perhaps the only guy, who will hopefully be prepared to reverse decades upon decades of misguided, socialist policies which have all but destroyed the American dream.

Dave MackI’m not concerned about Mr. Trump realigning the federal government to support working America. My foreboding is more about how he will persuade obstructionist States and localities. It is State policies that have destroyed so many wealth-producing industries. Imagine, as gold prospectors, the State of California has made it against the law for us to use any mechanized device to locate and recover gold within 100 feet of a waterway – even if there is no measurable impact upon the environment.

That’s liberal thinking; totally divorced from the reality of economic principles.

I predict the Second American Revolution has already started; and it is likely to get ugly (and perhaps violent) as the Trump Team increases pressure upon powerful liberal forces who will do everything within their power to obstruct his progress.

Since the future of America’s “greatness” will largely depend upon our rediscovering the values and principles which made our country great in the first place, along with the future of our small-scale gold mining industry, I strongly encourage you to keep an open mind, contribute in a positive manner, and stand firmly behind Mr. Trump’s efforts as he faces off with the enemies of America’s traditional way of life.

And just remember: (1) Everything happens exactly as it is supposed to, and (2) Each of us gets exactly what we need, even if it’s not what we are asking for! And (3) if it’s not what you think you want, just take a breath!

California Waterboard Scoping Hearings:

The California State Waterboard is conducting Public Workshops in anticipation of creating a new Suction dredging permit. Here is their announcement. I would advise those of you who live close enough to attend the Workshops and put in a good word for our side.

Legal Fund Drawing Coming Soon!
Gold and Silver Eagles

There will be 25 prizes in all:
Grand Prize: 1-ounce American Gold Eagle
Four ¼-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1/10th-ounce American Gold Eagles
Ten 1-ounce American Silver Eagles
Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc.).

This drawing will take place at 12:00 Noon on 24 February 2017 at our headquarters in Happy Camp. You do not need to be a member of our organization to participate. You do not need to be present to win.  There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win.

Legal contributions can be arranged by calling (530) 493-2012, by mailing to The New 49’ers Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039, or online.

Purchase Tickets for the next legal Fund-raiser Drawing

  $10.00 each – Enter the number of tickets you wish to purchase into the quantity field then click “Update” before checking out. Our office will automatically generate a ticket in your name for every $10 legal contribution we receive ($100 would generate 10 tickets, etc). There is no limit to the size or frequency of your contributions, or to the number of prizes you can win. Your contribution to The New 49’er Legal Fund is tax-deductible.

Thanks for anything you guys can do to help!

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We strongly encourage you to sign up for the free on line version of this newsletter.  The Internet version is better. This is because you can immediately click directly to many of the subjects which we discuss; because the on line version is in full color; because we link you directly to locations through GPS and Google Earth technology; and because you can watch the free video segments which we incorporate into our stories.  Actually, the video segments show the adventures better than we can write them!

Signing up also places you on our Political Action Team.  Things happen so fast these days; it takes too long to organize political action through the U.S. mail.  As an example, by contacting our supporters this way, in a matter of hours, we recently generated a large bundle of letters to the California Supreme Court. All of these future battles will be organized over the Internet since it is so much faster.  Please join us in the battle to maintain our remaining freedoms!

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The New 49’ers Prospecting Association, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039 (530) 493-2012  www.goldgold.com

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