r/Prospecting

Just more than 76 years ago, a four-engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster, serial number 42-72469, disappeared along with 4 crew and 38 passengers in northern British Columbia or southern Yukon. Since it vanished during the evening of January 26, 1950, several unsuccessful aerial searches both using aircraft and imagery have been conducted for the missing C-54D Skymaster and the souls on board. This lack of success indicates it is likely that it will only be found by accident by someone, e.g. either a prospector or logger, who works on the ground in the back country during the summer.

 Prospectors working in this area by can help in the search for the missing Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crew, and passengers, by being alert while in the back country for aircraft wreckage or unusual metal debris (especially if some of it is painted red). If observed, a person need only to take pictures (especially any serial numbers) and a few notes; record the location as best as circumstances allow; and pass it on to the Skymaster 2469 CAN/AM Society. It is important that nothing is either disturbed or removed. Reports of past observations of suspected aircraft wreckage in the area are also welcomed.

An excellent documentary about Skymaster 42-72469 is:

For Canadian viewers. go to Vanished: The U.S. Air Force DC-54 Mystery | Skymaster Down

For US viewers, go to Vanished: The U.S. Air Force DC-54 Mystery | Skymaster Down

The sketch map of the area illustrates the official and a possible alternative flight paths and its last known position. It might have drifted off course, e.g. towards either the Carcross or Lake Watson areas.

Whats up peeps late to the game just started prospecting this year! Ive already got the fever real bad, ready to quit my job and break my back full time. The only problem is right now Im only making about $4/hr gold panning so im going to need everyone to tell me where all their best gold spots are please and thank you! 😃

On a more serious note... have some questions.

Whats the deal with prospecting army corp of engineers property? I know a nice little creek with a little bit of gold close to home. Ive panned it a bit, but would love to bring the little 6 inch sluice in there. Ive been told thats a no go and they are generally not happy with sluice boxes or people moving dirt? It would be so nice to have somewhere so close I can go! Dont even care there's hardly any gold.

Next, does anyone happen to know of any clubs with decent claims in the calaveras area? Looking for claims as close to home as possible to get out more and get the sluice in the water! And if not near Valley Springs, whats your favorite club with claims within 2 hours?

And finally... like every new prospector I am always looking for places to go and people dumb enough to go with me! So far I have spent more time exploring around doing recon than actually panning and have a massive list of places I CANT go. I have been all over the place this spring places like mineral bar, bear river, briceburg, electra/big bar, camp 9, etc... Any suggestions close to valley springs would be greatly appreciated!

Anyone want a partner in crime get at me! Outdoorsy, reliable, introvert, into backcountry camping, hiking, fishing, shooting, good with maps, history nerd, build cars for money, extremely 420 friendly, and willing to bust my balls and risk poison oak and hypothermia just to see some shiny stuff in my pan!

Made a homemade cleanup sluice, do you think the waters too fast for a cleanup sluice?

Late last year I picked up this Miller Table from Royal Manufacturing out of California. I have to admit I was a little skeptical about it. But, after trying it out a few times throughout the winter and now into spring, I'm completely sold on the thing. For those who are familiar with placer mining in the state of Idaho, more notably on the Snake River, you will know exactly how fine the gold is. Basically you can sneeze and make it all disappear. I think I read somewhere that it will take like 60,000 plus fine pieces to make an ounce. Well, this small table has been able to pull all of that fine gold out of my concentrates from the Snake River. I am completely dumbfounded on how great this thing works. Now there has been some times where I've seen some gold in my pan and my pan was unable to keep it. But the table managed to get it. I'm looking forward to this summer and actually getting out and doing some dredging in a few places and of course panning in the areas on Snake where dredging is not allowed.

Hello,

I found what I thought was a piece of Chalcopyrite in a box of old core samples and other stuff that I got from an antique store on the west coast a few years back.

I was holding it recently and realized that it was dented by my fingernail so I decided to give it a streak test. To my surprise, I found it to be extremely soft. It holds under every acid that I have, even 22k and platinum to the point where nothing will get it off of my scratch plate now. The outside looks very much like pyrite/chalcopyrite but the inside does look more gold colored. It also has some whitish silver streaks throughout that are also soft and leave a metallic silvery white streak that also holds under every acid that I have.

In terms of the reactions to the acid, lt has very minor smoking under 14k acid, it starts to lift a bit under 22k and also gets some whitish streaks under the 18 and platinum acids. It was a solid nugget before I tested and when I hit it with a hammer, it broke in half revealing the brighter gold interior. Also, I gave it a polish and it polished like gold, very easy to put a mirror finish on it.

Last photo is streak color of the silver parts. Streak plate is all the acids as indicated by the number of the streak-

Tried a new spot today and had some luck! Definitely heading back soon to see what else is hiding.

I found this rock sticking out of the ground near a bunch of old quartz tailings. I know that the white rock is most likely quartz, but the little gold flakes make me curious. Is it just pyrite? Possibly little gold bits?

The other day I was cleaning out some concentrates from a sluicing run when I noticed a strange hexagonal rock. I didn’t think anything of it till i found another while sorting out some gem quality garnets. I decided to look into and found out my new spot had tons of Corundum!

Looks like I’ll be going back to do some gem sieving!

Or do other minerals cause this color? Found in central California

Cool rock has a quartz center.

Hey guys, not really a prospector, I hopped off my skidsteer to take a piss and in the little creek, looked down and saw this. Possibly of there being a little bit of gold? (NC mountains)

After recently graduating from r/prospecting and YouTube, I took my gold monster out for a spin.

I did my research, I was on the outer edge of California’s mother load on Forest service land and MLRS was telling me the closest claim was many miles away. I looked up two gold mine sites on historic maps, one down by the river and one up on a steep hillside. I looked up trail access, and supposedly there was an unmaintained trail.

So I headed there earlier in the week and I even made the effort to stop by at the forest service. Inquiring prospecting details for that area. They couldn’t have cared less, handed me a flyer covering metal detecting and sent me off. It was a gorgeous afternoon and the trail quickly turned into bushwhacking, a mile or two into the trail I found a snorkel on the ground, best guess I have is someone tried sniping 🤷‍♂️.

I kept going another hour and almost reached the first mine location, but I couldn’t get to it because I had to cross what looked like a small creek on maps-It was just too sketchy and I was solo after all. The second mine side up that steep hillside I had to quickly turn around because bushes with thorns and other crap growing made that impossible. Lots of poison oak everywhere, I’m glad I know how it looks, especially the sneaky kind, which is basically brown sticks only.

I assisted my options and decided to detect the cracks of the steep hillside granite slabs. Within a minute, I dug up a few, “poopy rocks” and also some smaller material, see pictures. I didn’t bring a pan, and the steep hillside prevented river access anyways, which was going very strong. So I ended up packing a bunch of material. A couple hours went by learning how to use that gold monster and also enjoying my my time out in the field. On my way back, I decided to metal detect the trail. I quickly learned what it is like to dig up bullets and trash. Granted, it’s not gold, but it’s all about learning how to use a metal detector after all.

I then headed back to my car, with a few bullets, shells, trash, an ancient penny, a snorkel, poopy rocks, and finer material, which I hope has some gold.

A true Californian day!

Back at the car, I spotted a tick on me, and then thoroughly inspected myself. Five ticks later, I left for my dispersed campsite, quick dinner and then I called it a night.

Anyone missing a snorkel?