Prospecting & Detecting
A Few Pointers About Cracks and Crevices
October 2013 by Chris Ralph

Forrest Fenn Treasure Chest Finally Found?
Fenn posted photos of what he claims is the long-hidden chest and its contents after it was found, though some believe the whole thing was a hoax because he refuses to identify the finder.
A Golden Vacation
Each day for the first part of the week my boys and I picked and chipped away at that wall, stockpiling dirt in 5-gallon buckets and cement mixing tubs.
Sluicing and Detecting Downstream
…early last fall, I found my first gold-rich patch along a few crevices in the same river and found five grams of gold nuggets in one outing.
I Just Tripped Over A Nugget
I metal detected a number of years before I saw my first nugget peeking out from the dirt before I had scraped or dug for it. This one was in the steep sidewall of a narrow, but deep drywash.
The Forms of Crystalline Gold
The largest and most perfect single gold crystals are nearly always in the form of octahedra. These large octahedral crystals often possess deeply recessed faces.
The Dredge Report

The Highs and Hazards of Desert Prospecting
We hit on a good spot the last time we were at this location and we made up our minds that we weren’t going to let hurricane-like winds stop us.
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• It's Hard to Find Gold!
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• Potential Gold at Old Hydraulic Sites
• California State Panning Championships—Foresthill, CA Heritage Celebration
• Prospecting Tales: Forest Service, Fires and Bears—Oh My!
• Melman on Gold & Silver
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