Nome, Alaska Braces For Start of Gold Rush Part Deux | Alaska Dispatch

Nome, Alaska Braces For Start of Gold Rush Part Deux | Alaska Dispatch:

"Gold Rush Part Deux unfolding in Nome - Craig Medred | May 22, 2012

The news coming out of Nome, Alaska reads like something from 100 years ago: "Five hundred tons of mining equipment is on the way to Nome with Northland Service’s first barge,'' the Nome Nugget reported this week.

This could be the early days of the Alaska Gold Rush, but it's not. This is Gold Rush Part Deux.

Thank the skyrocketing price of the yellow metal and television. There has always been gold in the beaches of the fabled City of the Golden Sands. Mining in Nome waned after the early Gold Rush but never stopped. There were always people pulling money out of the ground, which is what drew the Discovery Channel north to start filming the reality show "Bering Sea Gold."

read more about Nome Alaska prospecting boom

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State Park Closure: CALIFORNIA STATE MINERAL AND MINING MUSEUM: Trip #40 of 70

State Park Closures Trip: CALIFORNIA STATE MINERAL AND MINING MUSEUM: Trip #40 of 70: "CALIFORNIA STATE MINERAL AND MINING MUSEUM"

The Fricot Nugget (pictured ) weighs thirteen pounds and is one of the finest and largest examples of crystal-lized native gold in the world. It is the largest surviving specimen from California’s Gold Rush era and can be seen in the vault at theCalifornia State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa. 

It was discovered in 1865 near Georgetown



Sadly, the Fricot Nugget is once again getting ready to do a disappearing act.  visit on May 10 found the museum already packing their contents for shipment to a warehouse in Sacramento, in preparation for the July 1 closure. Artifacts will be stored there until money is once again available for the parks to re-open. In other words, maybe never.    ...read more

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California - Sounds of the Gold Rush

California Gold Rush Glimpses Video: "DEJA VU—Sounds of the Gold Rush

Standing alone on a hillside, gazing down at what’s left of a Sierra mining camp, you hear the wind sigh through the pines as you glance at a crumbling stone wall, stubbornly defying time, as long as it can.

It is part of the nostalgic spirit, clinging to the once bustling diggings, where water still gushes over and around the stream’s rocks, just like it did back then. You wonder about the rush of hopeful miners, scrambling after their share of riches, working in icy water from sunup to sunset. “Wonder what it sounded like?” you think as your mind drifts away."   read more....  http://www.goldrushglimpses.com/sounds.html


Gold Rush Glimpses III, part of a popular series of books from author Craig MacDonald, has been featured in numerous media outlets.

Before dawn, a miner’s snoring like a trombone inside his tent, while a rooster crows outside. But it’s not long before the dozens of eager prospectors take their spots by the river and begin feverishly searching for their fortunes. You can hear the clinking of pickaxes, the grating of shovels, the rattle of gold pans, the rocking of cradles and the splashing of water all around.

When a lucky miner finds some gold, he may let out a triumphant shriek or say nothing at all, in hopes of finding more before his secret isn’t......    read more....

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Stolen rare mining museum artifact recovered | TheUnion.com

Stolen rare mining museum artifact recovered | TheUnion.com: "Stolen rare mining museum artifact recovered"

A rare wooden mining ore cart was recovered along the side of a road just outside Nevada City Monday morning, less than a week after it was stolen from the North Star Mine Powerhouse and Pelton Wheel Museum in Grass Valley, according to the Grass Valley Police Department.

As reported in Monday's edition of The Union, the museum officials had offered a $200 reward for the 75-year-old stolen wooden cart after they noticed the artifact missing from a line of seven more-common metal ore carts in the museum's outdoor yard on Allison Ranch Road five days ago.

“We just don't know how to say it,” said museum Director Robert Shoemaker about the cart's return.

“It's just wonderful.”

The wood cart was a rare piece of the area's rich mining history. With more than $440,000,000 worth of gold extracted from 1848-1965, Nevada County was the most gold-producing county in California, according to California Division of Mines and Geology estimates.

With hundreds of operations that dug thousands of mining miles beneath the county, sturdy ore carts were critical, Shoemaker told The Union Sunday.

By the 1920s, most of those operations had switched over to metal ore carts because the wood carts were far less durable, which is why few remain, Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker estimated the stolen mine cart would fetch more than $1,500 if sold to a collector.

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GPAA: Gold & Treasure Show Headed to Red Bluff, California

GPAA: Gold & Treasure Show Headed to Red Bluff, California: "GPAA: Gold & Treasure Show Headed to Red Bluff, California
Gold Prospectors Association of America: Catch the fever at the GPAA Gold & Treasure Show March 10-11 in Red Bluff, California."

The Gold Prospectors Association of America will hold its Gold & Treasure Show March 10-11 in Red Bluff, California. The show will feature mucking and gold-panning contests as well as seminars led by Tom Massie, host of “Gold Fever” on the Outdoor Channel, or guest speakers.

With the price of gold spiking to record highs in 2011, GPAA President Brandon Johnson said gold fever is definitely rising and memberships to the organization have shown substantial growth over the last year.

“Spiking gold prices are sometimes the deciding factor to turn off the TV and actually go gold prospecting to experience it for yourself. A quarter-ounce or pennyweight of gold is worth a lot more now than it used to be,” Johnson said.

“Prospecting isn’t necessarily all about having the gold. It’s as much about finding it,” he said, adding that for many members the thrill is enjoying the outdoors with family and friends.

The Gold & Treasure Show in Red Bluff will feature vendors and displays of gold nuggets, jewelry and prospecting equipment such as metal detectors, drywashers, spiral gold pans, dredges and highbankers.

Showgoers over 18 years of age will get a chance to win a two-week Alaska Gold Expedition trip to GPAA’s famous Cripple River gold prospecting camp near Nome, Alaska. The event will run Saturday, March 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, March 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tehama District Fair, 650 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff, CA 96080, Tyler-Jelly Building.

Admission is $5.

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Limits planned for suction dredging; gold miners upset » Redding Record Searchlight

Limits planned for suction dredging; gold miners upset » Redding Record Searchlight: "Limits planned for suction dredging; gold miners upset"

Under a new set of rules proposed by the state Department of Fish and Game, the agency would reduce the number of gold miners' suction dredging permits it issues annually statewide from 4,000 to 1,500 and prohibit dredging on more than 20 north state streams.

The regulation is one of many proposed changes to statewide regulations that the DFG has proposed to comply with court orders and recent state laws.

Chip Hess, who owns the Miner's Cache in Redding, said the regulations are hurting businesses and families.

"We have hundreds of families in the north state that make a living or supplement their incomes from mining," Hess said.

"First they shut the lumber industry down. Now they're basically shutting the mining industry down," he said.

The DFG took public comments on a first round of proposed regulations last year. Based on those comments, the agency made further changes in the proposed suction dredging regulations. It is taking public comment on the newest proposals until March 5.

Other new regulations include a provision that after a suction dredge is removed from a stream, it would have to be either decontaminated or kept out of the water for two weeks before putting it back in another stream. Two dredges could not be operated within 500 feet of each other on a stream. And dredging could only occur from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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DreamWeaver writes4

The SEIR was based on flawed science, and Mark Stopher knows this yet still wants to quote it? An unmodified gold suction dredge is the MOST EFFICIENT device known for REMOVING mercury, gold, and other heavy metals from the streams. As measured in several State and Federal test it was found to be 98% efficient in removing mercury from the streams and rivers. This compares to 93% efficiency using the centrifugal dredge the environmentalist want to use. Keeping the gold dredges out of the water, will leave the mercury, which can then be carried downstream to warmer water, where it may methylate and then ACTUALLY harm the fish. And as flytyr correctly pointed out, mercury and lead occur naturally here. There are places here in Shasta County where on a hot summer day you can see it "bleeding" out of the rock and flowing down to the stream below. But let's take the dredges that would remove it out of the water. Makes no sense.

Todays modern gold extraction techniques, including suction dredges do more to clean the environment in a single weekend than most other "environmentalists" do in a year. Anyone who would like to join us and help fight this bureaucratic nonsense should contact PLP (Public Lands for the People), WMA (Western Mining Alliance), or locally for more information drop an email to shasta_miners@yahoo.com

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The Nome Nugget - Alaska's Oldest Newspaper

The Nome Nugget - Alaska's Oldest Newspaper: "The Bering Sea gold rush is on its way

Is Nome ready for those who have been bitten by the gold bug?

BY DIANA HAECKER

Just after the premiere of the Discovery Channel’s “Bering Sea Gold” TV reality show starring Nome gold dredge miners aired on January 27, Nome’s city offices and other businesses and organizations have been inundated with phone calls that inquired: What permits do we need to dredge for gold up there? Is there a mining camp? Can I buy a dredge up there? Can just anybody go and mine the beaches of Nome?
The city, the office of the harbormaster, the Nome Visitor and Convention Center, the Nome Nugget newspaper and land owners like Bering Straits Native Corporation and Nome Gold Alaska Corp. have been receiving inquiries as to what it takes to come up to Nome and rake in the gold.
City manager Josie Bahnke said that the volume of calls from Lower 48 prospectors have been overwhelming. Kerwin Krause with the Alaska " READ MORE

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