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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Back to the Creeks

There are strange thing done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
These are the opening lines of Robert W Service epic poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. A first hand Bankers observations of the creeks and the men that worked them. Poetry aside the rush of 98 was a part of American history. Fortunes were found and made, lost and stolen the times were tough but the miners were tougher. They stayed on the creeks till they no longer hit pay dirt and then they moved on and found new creeks.
The mining industry today in some respects is founded on that early gold pan technique. The easy creeks gave out and men moved on but not before million of ounces of the noble metal had been found. Claims lapsed but were recorded and records survive till Today. During the dirty thirties when men were up against a depression and unable to feed their families they returned to the creeks and in many cases were as successful, as miners were the first time around on these same creeks, and same claims. You see there is a seldom thought answer as to why these creeks would pay again. The short answer is permafrost.
Tough times are upon America again jobs are being lost by the thousands on a daily basis. And enterprising men will again return to the creeks, technology having served the placer mining industry very well. Light weight aluminum sluice boxes suction dredges allow the modern miner to go over old ground again with great success. This new equipment is so much more efficient than wooden sluice boxes wing dams and pick and shovel. Today a lot of ground is worked with track hoes and dump trucks pay dirt is measured in dollars per cubic yard. Let the corporate entities work that way what I suggest is do it the old way proper free miner licensing first and foremost. Keep it simple stupid, the kiss formula back pack, gold pan GPS unit, topographical maps and research on the net before you leave home.
Now remember earlier I mentioned permafrost, well it always melted a little every year but now its melting big time. This is what always held the allusive heavy metal and now it is giving up its hold. Old creeks will run again. And men will return to them. Remember that tango daddy predicted the RUSH of 2010! Gold in 1898 $17.00 an oz Gold in 1930s $32.00 an oz
GOLD in 2010 ?? Current price $ 900.00 an oz.
Go for it!

2 comments:

Annette said...

Not sure I live close enough to any where there would be any, but I will check it out...lol Thanks for the interesting tip...

Tango daddy said...

Well an old truck driver like you should be able to find the back roads but the perma frost is up in Sarah territory. Remember Gold is where you find it!