RMPTH0912

Montezuma, Colorado by John Horner

T wo men, D.C. Collier and H.M. Teller, found silver at about the same time around Montezuma. Collier was the guiding force in laying out the town. Teller

later became a senator, but Collier was here to stay. Col-lier Mountain is where many of Montezuma’s best strikes were located and is just above the town. The strikes were made in the 1860’s, but the camp did not start growing until the Webster and Argentine passes were developed which made transportation in and out of the district eas-ier. Montezuma peaked around 1880 with about 800 citizens, by this time it had a post office, three hotels, a school-house, steam sawmill, smelting furnace and concentration works. In 1881, the city was incorporated. The following year, a newspaper, “The Montezuma Millrun” began publi-cation, with a second newspaper following. The first school, built in 1876 and called the halfway school, was properly named because it was located about halfway be-tween Montezuma and Saints Johns. The halfway school became too small and a second school was built in 1880. Yet another bigger school was needed and was erected in 1884. The first hotel was built in 1868. The Preston House was

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v. 16, n. 9 September, 2012 Going for the Gold

Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Newsletter

The News Visit RMPTH On The Internet At http://rmpth.com

Contents

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

- Plato

1 Montezuma, Colorado 2 About The News 3 Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show 5 Lost Any Gold Recently? 6 Beddingham Nose 7 Annual Paul E. Lange Coin &

Prize Detector Hunt 8 New Breed Of Forty-Niners 9 1873 Dime Auctioned 10 Calendar of Events 11 Calendars 13 Nice Meteorite Find 14 Smith’s Mummy Cave 15 Setting Sluice Angle 16 Trading Post 17 Learning To Use A Gold Pan 18 2012 Schedule of Events 19 Contact List

~~~ NOTICE ~~~

THE DATE FOR THE ANNUAL PAUL E. LANGE DETECTOR COIN & PRIZE HUNT

HAS BEEN MOVED TO SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 DUE TO A SCHEDULE

CONFLICT WITH THE PROPERTY OWNERS. SEE FLYER ON PAGE 7 FOR

FURTHER DETAILS.

The News, September 2012

T he News is the official newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Club (RMPTH): our mailing address is P.O. Box

271863, Fort Collins, CO. 80527-1863. Opinions expressed in The News are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the club or its members. Publication of information in The News constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither RMPTH, nor its coordi-nators, nor The News, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on pros-pecting, detecting and treasure hunting topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Submittals for pub-lication may be made in writing or, preferably, in AS-CII text format on IBM-compatible disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the edi-tor for information. Copyright Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in The News without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article ap-pears is sent at no cost to RMPTH at the above mail-ing address. Clubs wishing to exchange newsletters with RMPTH are invited to send a copy of their news-letter together with an exchange request.

About The News Advertising Classified advertising for topic related items is free for non-business ads. See the “Trading Post” section for donation pricing of camera-ready display ads. Do-nations for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are avail-able on request. About RMPTH RMPTH is an independent nonprofit hobbyist social club, open to anyone interested in prospecting, detect-ing or treasure hunting. Its purpose is to provide an educational and social forum of mutual benefit for members. RMPTH holds a monthly meeting and con-ducts various field outings, as well as offers special presentations and seminars. Active participants have voting privileges. The monthly newsletter, The News, is readily available on the Internet. Persons wishing to receive the newsletter in hardcopy, mailed format are required to provide the amount of $24 per year re-quired to print and mail. Otherwise, no annual dues are charged as the social club functions strictly by donation.

Political Correctness Following is the winning entry from an annual contest calling for the Most appropriate defini-tion of a contemporary term. This year's term: Political Correctness. "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." Thanks to Dick French


Tips on Digital Scales

Digital scales are widely available today that are inexpensive and very accurate. These scales can be easily adjusted to weigh in several

formats, including grams and pennyweights. lf you are using one of these scales you need to be sure that the is set to use the format you

prefer. Areas of potential confusion include the way some scales abbreviate grams and grains, and the similarity of troy and regular

ounces. Be sure you check to see that you and your scale are on the same page.

If you are using the gram format it is easy to do a quick check of the format selection and the calibration of the scale by weighing a $1.00 bill or a nickel. The $1.00 bill should weigh almost exactly one gram

and the nickel should weigh almost exactly five grams.

The Outpost, newsletter of the Three Forks Treasure Hunters Club

TREASURE HUNTER’S CODE OF ETHICS

I WILL respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner's permission. I WILL fill all excavations. I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property. I WILL use thoughtfulness, consideration, and courtesy at all times. I WILL build fires in designated or safe places only. I WILL leave gates as found. I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find. I WILL NOT litter. I WILL NOT destroy property, buildings, or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures. I WILL NOT tamper with signs, structural facilities, or equipment.

Gold Glossary GANGUE - The non-valuable rock and waste deposits that are associated with the valuable minerals in a lode deposit. for each square yard of material to make a profit back when these dredges were common in the 1890s and on into the early 1900s.

built the following year. One of the bigger hotels, the Rocky Mountain House, went into operation in the late 1870’s. The devaluation of silver in 1893 was a shock to Monte-zuma, as it was to most of the silver camps. Many people left but some stayed hoping for better days. In 1956, Mon-tezuma only had about a dozen people still living there, then construction workers moved in to work on the Robert's Tunnel, which is a tunnel that diverts water from the west-ern slope to Denver. A telling blow in Montezuma’s sur-vival was delivered a week before Christmas in 1958 when a fire started in the Summit House hotel, which housed five families at that time. The results were devastating, destroying the hotel, two houses and six garages. About half of the town’s 75 residents were left homeless. Needless to say, it was a very bleak holiday season. There are still a few people living in the area. GPS coordinates are Lat. 39 34’52”N, Long. 105 52’00”W.

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If you can't afford a doctor, go to an airport - you'll get a

free x-ray and a breast exam, and; if you mention Al

Qaeda, you'll get a free colonoscopy.

Montezuma Scene


Property Wanted For Detector Hunt

RMPTH is looking for private property on which to hold an organized club detector hunt. Obviously, it would be most ideal if this property is known to have seen some

past historical activity. If you have such property or know of someone who does, please contact Rick

Mattingly to plan a club field outing event.

Mineral Specimen Identification As part of their community outreach, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Dep. of Earth & Atmospheric Science, Professional Services Division offers FREE MINERAL SPECIMEN IDENTIFICATION. Participants will aid in the education of future Geoscientists! Details and specimen submittal forms with instructions can be downloaded from: SPECIAL OFFER FREE MINERAL SPECIMEN http://college.earthscienceeducation.net/MINPET/MINID.pdf

Lost Any Gold Recently?

Swiss Gardeners Find Gold Ingots Worth $126,000 In Bush Near Town Of Klingnau

Posted: 07/13/2012

H ave you misplaced a gold bar recently? Maybe a couple, even? How about ten, with an esti-mated worth of $126,000, near the Swiss

border? If so, police in the Swiss of town of Klingnau near the German border would like to speak with you. Gar-deners stumbled across a number of unmarked gold bars, known as "ingots," under a bush while cutting grass there. "I saw a package wrapped in white tissue paper, with lots of adhesive tape around it. It looked like a packet of drugs," said Jean-Marc Wenger, one of the workers, to The Local. Police state that no one has reported them missing, adding to the intrigue. Under Swiss law, reports the Daily Mail, the workers can claim the gold as theirs if no one else proves ownership within five years. European treasure hunt-ers, even the inadvertent ones mentioned above, have had a great couple months. In late June, two English metal detector enthusiasts un-covered a stash of ancient coins worth an estimated $15.6 million. Huff Post Money

Refreshment Volunteers September—Dick & Sharon French October—Johnny & Jeanne Berndsen November— Barb Schuldt


Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light.

- unknown

Beddingham Nose

Circa 1500 - 1700, found November 2009 on Itford Hill, Beddingham, East Sussex

R ay Wilson, 83, a member of the Brighton Metal Detecting Club, has been heading out into the East Sussex coun-

tryside most Sundays for 30 years, unearthing coins, cups and bits of old metal. But three years ago while searching along a sunken track, he pulled something from the ground that was rather more unusual than any of his previous finds. “At first I thought it was a Roman nose protector worn by soldiers under their helmets or possibly a bit of an ancient statue,” said Mr Wilson, a retired harbour controller from Newhaven. But after handing it over to the Sussex PAS, the detective work began. Photographs of the bronze nose, meas-uring 1.7in (long) by 1.45 in (wide), were sent to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where it was agreed that it was unlikely to be from armour which is mostly made of iron. Images were then inspected by experts at the Science Museum in London and the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, also in London. Curators at both agreed that the item was most probably a post-medieval prosthetic nose, dating circa 1500 - 1700, that belonged to a gentleman of means who had lost his nose and possibly part of his upper lip to syphilis, a common problem for the Tudor middle-classes. The museums have examples of silver and ivory noses in their collections, but the bronze nose is the first of its kind recorded and experts have suggested that it may have been used for “everyday” wear, exchanged for a silver or ivory model for special occasions. The nose, which has slit holes at the side, would have been secured to the face by a leather or string tie like a mask. Stephanie Smith, the PAS finds liaison officer for Sus-sex, said: “This was a very exciting find because while

it doesn’t have huge monetary value, it is such a rare, interesting and bizarre object that tells a funny story about life during that period. Dallying with prostitutes became a socially accepted aspect of a gentleman’s life, but unfortunately disfigurement from syphilis, for which there was then no cure, was one of the side-effects and a metal prosthetic was deemed a better alternative to a large hole in one’s face.

"Although it has a darker and green tinge now, then, it would have looked rather more fleshy and been much more subtle when worn. We get so used to seeing old coins, but something as unusual as a false nose keeps us excited about the job.” The nose is still owned by Mr Wilson. The Telegraph

A prosthetic nose found by Raymond Wilson Photo: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER


September 15th Paul E. Lange Detector Coin & Prize Hunt

Just a few additional notes about the upcoming hunt:

Please follow the directions to the Mioseks’ provided above and remember that bathroom facilities will be limited. We want to thank Bob and Darlene in advance for opening their property to the club once again for this annual event.

Remember, a fun event like this with good friends is hungry business! So, bring your favorite foods for the

potluck after the hunt. The club will provide eating utensils, plates, cups, napkins, and coffee. Also, this year we will again have a Swap Meet after lunch , so bring your items for sale or trade!

2012 ANNUAL PAUL E. LANGE DETECTOR COIN & PRIZE HUNT SATURDAY, September 15 2012

10:00—2:00 Bob & Darlene Miosek Property

3413 Meining Road Southwest of Berthoud, Colorado

This fun detector hunt is open to all. Cost for active RMPTH members and immediate family will be $10 per adult, $5 for 13-16 of age and no charge for 13 or younger. Fee for non-member adults will be $20 and $10 for

non-member children 16 and younger. The field will be planted with colored pennies which will be redeemed for antique coins, and prizes. This will be a hunt based purely on luck rather than skill, with easy to locate

and recover targets for all. Come join us for a fun hunt and collect your coins and prize finds!

Map to Miosek Property southwest of Berthoud, Colorado 2012 Annual Paul E. Lange Detector Coin Hunt


says Finkelstein, who previously documented street performers in New York City’s Central Park. “You can photograph the landscape. You can photograph the faces. But how do you photograph a motivation?” California’s identity is veined with gold. The modern jackpot industries (Hollywood and high-tech) inher-ited their air of perpetual optimism from the myriad boys and men who, upon hearing of the gold discov-ered at Sutter’s Mill in January of 1848, waited for the spring prairie grass to grow, then steered their wagons for the bonanza. “The gold was available to anybody with a pick and a pan,” says Malcolm J. Rohrbough, a historian and author of Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation. “There was no license you had to buy. There was no central authority. This was one of the most remarkable examples of the democratiza-tion of the economy. It was open to all Americans, as our national myth says it should be.” California wasn’t yet a state, but, thanks to the forty-niners, soon it would be. Within a few years, there were 100,000 prospectors, many of them factory workers and farmers accustomed to measuring prof-its in pennies. Some grew rich—a good miner could make $20 a day, compared with the national average of $1—and others made their fortunes supplying min-ers. Leland Stanford, founder of the university bear-ing his name, got his start provisioning prospectors. So did Levi Strauss. The lifestyles of the modern-day prospectors are, in some respects, not so far removed from that of the forty-niners, judging from Finkelstein’s portraits. With their streaming beards, profound sunburns and fin-gernails caked with river mud, they could have wan-dered out of the mid-19th century, even though many have outfitted themselves via get-rich-on-gold web-sites—apparent successors to Stanford and Strauss. There is no cellphone reception at the mining camps and few modern amenities, and the tools of the trade have barely changed: many prospectors use the pan and sluice. They scour the same rivers, often looking for gold the forty-niners missed. In fact, in 2009 Cali-fornia banned a popular dredging technique in part because the miners were stirring up mercury deposits that the forty-niners (who used the toxic metal to at-tract fine-grained gold) had left behind. California en-vironmentalists, who also fought the first gold rush, continue to raise concerns about how gold miners affect the landscape. The atmosphere in the camps may well be darker than in the old days. A number of miners “are desper-

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New Breed Of Forty-Niners

There's a New Breed of Forty-Niners Rushing to the Pacific

Lured by the soaring price of the precious metal,

prospectors are heading for the California hills like it's 1849 all over again

By Abigail Tucker Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2012

N ugget Alley is a fabled fork in the San Gabriel River just an hour outside Los Angeles. Gold prospectors with names like Backpack Dave,

Recon John and the Bulldozer are again flocking there, and to California’s other strike-it-rich water-ways. In previous lives they were movie lighting techs and Caribbean sport boat captains and penny-stock investors and soldiers. Now all day they hunt for color against gray river rocks. Their ramshackle camps have, by some estimates, doubled over the past four years as the unemploy-ment rate spiked and the precious metal skyrocketed to a record high of more than $1,500 an ounce. Scores of hard-core prospectors work the San Gabriel, and perhaps 50,000 people throughout the state prowl a few weekends a year with pans and metal detectors and dowsing rods. If they’re lucky, they find yellow powder as fine as flour, “clinkers” (big nuggets named for the pleasing sound they make on the bottom of a pan) or sculptural crys-talline specimens that, stared at long enough, resem-ble lace doilies and dragons. Occasionally, a five-ounce nugget comes to light, and a highly skilled and tenacious prospector might pull $1,000 out of the ground on a day fortune is with him. But most find just flecks, barely enough to keep them in groceries, for all their exertions. River miners crush fingers, toes and even teeth shoving aside huge boulders to reach the gleam beneath. “I’ve been bur-ied under the water three times,” says Bernie McGrath, a prospector and former pipeline worker. “It’s a treacherous way to make money.” It’s also, in Nugget Alley (part of the Angeles National Forest), un-authorized. Sarina Finkelstein, a photographer at work on a book about California’s “New 49ers,” as she calls them, wonders if something besides the dream of wealth has been driving them. “You can photograph the gold,”


Blackhawk Colorado In Blackhawk there were many rich area mines, mostly base metal and sil-ver, with by-product of gold. The Gregory diggings were rich placers discovered in 1859. At Russel Gulch, area gravel deposits were productive placer deposits. There were many area lode mines. Early day production generated $400 per day per man at $35 an ounce!

1873 Dime Auctioned 1873 dime sells for a pretty penny: $1.6 million August 10, 2012 By The Associated Press

A dime made in 1873 has cost someone a pretty penny: It sold for $1.6 million at auction.

The rare coin was minted in Carson City, Nev., during a one-day run of dimes. An anonymous bidder won the pristine coin, said Chris Napolitano, president of Stack's Bowers Galler-ies, which auctioned it during an American Numis-matic Association convention. The final price included a 15 percent buyer's fee. "Generally speaking, in the coin auction business, you might get a couple of people fighting each other" as they bid, he said Friday. "On this one, we had four or five buyers over a million dollars. We had a fair amount of buyers pursuing it." The 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dime was auctioned Thursday night. It's part of the Battle Born Collection, which contained one of every coin struck in Carson City before the mint there closed in 1893. All 111 pieces were auctioned off Thursday night, fetching a total of nearly $10 million.

The 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dime Brynn Anderson / AP


Calendar of Events

MAP TO THE MEETING PLACE Pulliam Community Building

545 Cleveland Avenue, Loveland, Colorado

Directions: The Pulliam Community Building is situated on the west side of Cleveland Avenue in Loveland,

Colorado. Park at the rear of the building (west side). Entry to the meeting room is from the doorway on the south side of the building (not the main entrance on Cleveland Avenue!).

RMPTH DUES

RMPTH is an unincorpo-rated Social Club with

no income generated. All expenses are covered by donation. Members are requested to consider donating a minimum of $1.00 at each monthly meeting to cover club

expenses.

September Meeting Wednesday, September 5. We will meet at the Pulliam Building in downtown Loveland at 7:00PM. Refer to the adjoining map for directions. Meeting Agenda 6:00 - 7:00 Planning & Social Hour 7:00 - 7:30 Business, Announcements & Find of the Month Program 7:30 - 7:45 Break 7:45 - 9:00 "Cripple Creek Historic Video Presentation” by Johnny Berndsen


September 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 3 Labor Day

4 5 RMPTH Planning Session 6:00P RMPTH Meeting 7:00P

6 7 8

9 10 11 12 Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show

13 Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show


15 Annual Paul E. Lange Detector Hunt 10-2 Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show


17 18 19 20 21 22 Off Road Detector Hunt

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

October 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 RMPTH Planning Session 6:00P RMPTH Meeting 7:00P

4 5 6

7 8 Columbus Day

9 10 11 12 13 Off Road Detector Hunt

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31


RMPTH Field Outing Statement

NOTE: The Coordinators and participants stay in touch and continue to review and plan upcoming presentations and outings for the year on a monthly basis. Our editor Rick Mattingly needs timely event information for each

issue of The News. Please get information about any par-ticular event to him by the 15th of the month to meet the

printing deadline for the next issue.

Planned trips, outings, activities, and meeting programs are in the newsletter and on line at the clubs website.

Planning is a work in progress and additional outings and activities are added and sometimes deleted on an ongo-

ing basis. Events planned in the upcoming month are emphasized to the attendees at the monthly meetings. Contact the Presentations Coordinators or Editor if you have any suggestions or ideas throughout the year for

fieldtrips, outings, and programs.

The best made plans may change at the last minute due to the illness of the Trail Boss, weather, land access, ve-hicles breaking down, wrong meeting sites, etc. Please

be understanding of extenuating circumstances and con-tact the coordinator or Trail Boss of a specific event if there is any question of an event being cancelled or

changed at the last minute.

ate people and they don’t know anything about gold mining, but they have a dream that you can make a living doing this, and it’s sad,” says Gregg Wilkerson, a Bureau of Land Management gold mining expert. “The forty-niners wanted to be a part of building a society and a community, but most of the prospectors I’ve met these days, they just want to be left alone,” says Jon Christensen, executive director of Stanford’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. Perhaps the starkest difference between the modern prospectors and their predecessors is age. The gold rush was a young man’s game, but many of today’s miners are cash-strapped retirees trying to add a little shine to their golden years. This gives the new mining movement, Christensen says, “the feeling of being the end of something, rather than the beginning.” Still, Finkelstein believes the latter-day miners share something of the forty-niners’ spirit. “They don’t have to be gold prospecting,” she says, adding: “There’s a certain personality to gold prospectors. In many ways it’s the personality you get from an excited 7-year-old boy who wants to go out exploring every day, to take a risk, to gamble, to get his hands dirty.” Most on Nugget Alley are free of car and house pay-ments. They enjoy the shade of the riverside alders and hook the occasional trout. And every night they have front-row seats to the glorious San Gabriel sun-set, which gilds the river and turns the dusty moun-tains gold. Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Theres-a-New-Breed-of-Forty-Niners-Rushing-to-the-Pacific-160282065.html#ixzz22QM6K4v3 Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Theres-a-New-Breed-of-Forty-Niners-Rushing-to-the-Pacific-160282065.html#ixzz22QLlSijP

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And that’s what its all about. Modern day forty-niner displays a pay-day nugget for the author.

Denver-Fort Logan In March 1887, Lt. General Phil Sheridan came

to Denver and, after viewing the 11 sites suggested by the local citizens’ committee, he selected a tract south of Bear Creek nearly 10 miles from downtown Denver. By September, arrangements to purchase the land were com-pleted and in October the first soldiers arrived from forts in Kansas. They first camped on a

ranch near the new military reservation. On 31 Oct. 1887, the troops moved onto the grounds of the “Camp Near the City of Denver,” mark-ing the official beginning of the fort. People in

the area referred to the camp as “Fort Sheridan,” although no official name had been

designated. However, before his death in 1888, General Sheridan indicated he preferred to have his name associated with a fort north of Chicago, which had unofficially been called “Fort Logan” in honor of the U.S. senator from

Illinois who had introduced legislation in Congress to create the fort. The new post near

Denver was officially named “Fort Logan” in April 1889.


Nice Meteorite Find

13-year-old boy using metal detector finds 2-pound meteorite

By John M. Glionna Los Angeles Times July 11, 2012

A s the director of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics, Carl Agee gets tons of calls, packages and emails from people claim-

ing to have had the rare experience of actually finding a meteorite. Sadly for Agee, most are merely terrestrial rocks, what he calls meteor-wrongs. Then he met 13-year-old Jansen Lyons. Two weeks ago, the teenager walked into the institute – his mother in tow – carrying what he said was a 2-pound hunk of space rock he found at an undisclosed location in the Albuquerque suburb of Rio Rancho. Skeptical, Agee took a look-see. And sure enough, he confirmed this week, the lad had located a large "L6 ordi-nary chondrite" that Agee estimates had been on the ground for about 10,000 years. Agee told the Los Angeles Times that after yelling and hurrahing, he told Lyons he had a sure-fire career as a scientist. “Meteorites are rare – it’s difficult to find them. And usually where they’re located are in well-known locali-ties, places where there are existing craters or strewn fields, so people know where to hunt for them,” Agee told The Times. “But to find a meteorite on a hike using a homemade metal detector – not to mention being only 13 – is frankly quite extraordinary. But this kid is really bright. He’s home-schooled and he’s going to make a great scientist someday.” Jansen found the meteorite last September. He told the Associated Press that he developed an interest in

meteorites in 2008 after reading a book that belonged to his brother. Since then, his fascination skyrocketed so much his grandfather eventually designed and built him a metal detector to assist in his searches. Jansen now has three metal detectors. "I've turned over every single rock in our backyard several times," he told the AP. But when he found the meteorite last year at a loca-tion the family does not want to disclose, he said, he knew he had something special. The rock has a unique fusion crust and a tell-tale black coating. Meteorites are remnants of asteroids, or sometimes comets, that fall from the sky onto Earth's surface. The one Jansen found is the second-most common type and is composed in part of nickel-iron metal.

He called the university me-teorite institute, which had been closed for months, even though many people doubted the veracity of his find. “I promised my mom that if anyone tried to say it's not a meteorite, I was going to prove them wrong," he said. Jansen is keeping the mete-orite, although a small chunk will be displayed at the museum. "I think it'd be a really great shame to sell it," he said. Agee is still amazed this me-teorite just dropped on his

doorstep. “It’s a nice-sized sample,” he said. “It’s not a boulder, but it’s not a bb-sized pebble either. It’s something you can hold in your hand.” He said the rock will be named the Rio Rancho Mete-orite. Meteors are never named after their finders, he said. “Asteroids maybe, but meteorites are always named after their localities.” He said he wasn’t sure whether Jansen was disap-pointed. “No matter what it’s called,” Agee said, “it’s quite a find.”

Jansen Lyons, 13, searches for a meteorite near his home in Rio Rancho, N.M. After years of searching and several thou-

sand misses, he finally found his first. (Adolphe Pierre-Liouis / Albuquerque Journal / July 5, 2012)


Smith's Mummy Cave

S tories and theories on the whereabouts of Monte-zuma's treasure are numerous. Amateurs and experts alike have spent countless hours studying

the long-ago story of the Aztec ruler who allegedly sent a large group of warriors north with a load of treasure. So, when someone comes forward saying they know the loca-tion of at least part of that treasure, most folks treat the claim with a certain amount of doubt. Which is why Mr. Smith has spent six years trying to figure out how to tell his story. Smith, 30, a part-time packer and guide who spends much of his free time exploring the nooks and crannies of the Arizona Strip, believes he has stumbled onto a major discovery in relation to Montezuma's treasure. His biggest problem: Figuring out how to tell the world. "I'm caught in between a rock and hard place," said the quiet Smith. Smith, described by friends and family as a survivor who feels more at home in the outdoors than under a permanent roof, but as a person who can be counted on, claims to have found a large ice cave containing artifacts, gems and as many as 27 bodies, which he believes makes up part of King Montezuma's legendary cache. Accounts say Montezuma sent a party of more than 2,000 warriors north ahead of invading Spaniards, the group heavy-laden with gold and silver. Speculation per-sists that the treasure is located somewhere near Kanab, in the canyons and mazes along the Utah-Arizona bor-der. Smith, who now works as a guide near Puffer Lake, says he was riding his mule one day in March 1985, when he stopped to smoke a cigarette on the slope in the Mt. Trumbull-Mt.Logan area. He felt cold air coming from under the slab of rock he was sitting on. On investigating what appeared to be an ice cave, Smith stepped inside the entrance and saw what he thought were bodies and vessels along each wall. The spooked Smith immediately covered up the entrance and left the area, not returning until mid 1989. On his second visit, Smith explored more of the cave, careful not to disturb the contents. He returned again earlier this year (1991) to explore further. "I haven't slept much since I found this cave," Smith said. "Every time I go back, I'm jumpy for weeks after." Smith recounts finding what appears to be six animal skin sacks full of gems of a variety of colors. He also

says he found as many as 30 closed animal skin vessels that are 2 to 3 feet long. Stacked along one wall are 26 bodies, wrapped in some kind of material, but well-preserved because of the frost that has enveloped them in the cave. But no gold. Smith, who since finding the cave claims to have studied the many legends and stories of the huge treasure, says everything fits into place. But, getting Bureau of Land Management officials and the news media to believe his story has been a battle. Bill Lamb, district manager of the Arizona Strip of the BLM, said when he heard of Smith's find several years ago, he called Mr. Smith to check out the story. "We chatted for awhile, but he was very noncommittal,: said Lamb. "We hear stories like this all the time, usually things over near the Kanab area....When people come in and tell us, we record them and look into them. Still, if he's found something, he deserves credit for it." However, under existing federal regulations, Smith will have to work through proper channels to process the find, something he hasn't yet done. "If something is going to be done with his find, it must be done under the law. If he'd come to us, go through the procedures, we could work it out. If he bypasses us, he could have more trouble," said Lamb. According to Lamb and Vermillion Resource Area Head Archaeologist Aline Laforge, two laws--the Archaeologist Resource Protection Act and most recently, the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act -- are very specific on what happens when a site like this is discovered and how items must be handled. Lamb also worries how he would police such a find if it were identi-fied as part of the Montazuma legend. For the time being, however, the wary Smith has chosen to try and attract television companies who might be in-terested in the story. An episode many years ago in which he feels he was denied credit for a major rock panel find in the Grand Canyon has caused him to dis-trust government archaeologists. According to Smith, there is an area television station interested in taking on the project, and helping him work through proper channels


Gold Glossary GOLD SNIFTER - A small hand operated suction device that is used to extract the gold out of the bottom of crevices and other bedrock irregularities.

Symbol: AU Atomic Number: 79

Atomic Weight: 196.967 Melting Point: 1063° (1945° F)

Specific Gravity: 19.2 MOH’s Scale of Hardness:

2.5 - 3

Karat

24K = 100% Pure Gold 18K = 75% Pure Gold 14K = 58% Pure Gold 10K = 42% Pure Gold

Troy Weights

1 grain = 0.0648 grams

24 grains = 1 penny weight (DWT) = 1.552 grams

20 DWT = 1 ounce = 480 grains = 31.10 grams

Gold Facts

YOUR ADVERTISEMENT COULD BE HERE! Call Rick Mattingly at 970-613-8968 or [email protected]

Setting Sluice Angle

I can't tell you how many times someone has asked, "What angle do I set up my sluice box". The worst part is, there is no stock answer. Every river and stream is different. The average spe-

cific gravity of the sand can vary so much, there is not one setting to go by, water flow may be faster in one spot than another. I have moved up river 50 ft and had to change the angle. Here is a sure fire way to tell where your angle belongs. First off, you will have to move any larger rock through your sluice. If you classify your material (getting out the big stuff), you may be able to use less flow or angle. You have to understand that, the riffle is the catch. As water flows over the riffle it makes what is called an eddy, this is a back flow that puts down a low pressure area just behind the riffle. I'm not going to go into riffle design here, but know that the riffle is the key. Some riffle's like fast water and some like slow. Makes no difference here. To set up the box you have to move all the large stuff off and then get rid of most of the heavier sands. A box is running right when you fill the front with gravel (and hopefully some gold). When the box has finished running the gravel down onto the riffle area of the box, the space fills between the riffles, you can start to look for the last of the gravels to leave the front of the box. Now, if the box is running too slow, you will not see most of the carpet clear behind the first riffle for something over 45 seconds of time. If the box is running too fast then you will see most of the carpet in 15 sec of time. Remember that the box is affected by four things: av-erage weight of the gravel, size of the gravel, water flow through-out the box, and the angle of the box. When you get it set for time you are ready to go mining. Remember 45 Sec. is too slow and 15 Sec. is too fast. Tip Courtesy of GetGold.com

Proline Medium Sluice Box.


All mistakes and misspellings were

intentionally made so that you could have the

pleasure of finding them.

Trading Post

About Trading Post

The News runs classified ads in Trading Post for three consecutive issues. Trading Post ads

for topic related items up to 10 lines (or 70 words) long are free. To place an ad in Trading Post contact Rick Mattingly at (970) 613-8968

evenings or e-mail at: [email protected]

Commercial Advertising Specifications

(Monthly Donation Rate) Full Page (8 1/2" X 7") $30 Half Page (3 1/4" X 7") $20 One Third Page (3" X 4") $15 Business Card (2 3/4" X 1 1/2") $ 5

Ads must be received by the 15th of the preceding month. Contact Rick Mattingly for in-

formation on this service at (970) 613-6968 evenings or e-mail at:

[email protected].

FOR SALE: 23-foot Forest River Sierra bumper pull travel trailer with slide out. Has all the comforts of home. Great condition and not used enough - Need to sell ASAP! Price $7995. If you have any questions please call Jennifer Lange at 970-980-5776. FOR SALE: Minelab SD2200 Gold Nugget Metal De-tector: 10-1/2" Mono Super Coil, 10-1/2" SD Series Super Coil, two batteries w/wall & car charger, head-phones, backpack, waist battery pack, signal enhan-cer, extra lower stem, instruction booklet & video, carry case. Ready to go for the gold: $1900. Contact Paul at (970) 482-7846. WANTED: 12 Gauge Home Security Shotgun. Moss-berg, Winchester or Remington. 40 cal & 45 cal Auto Pistol. Ruger, S&W, SIG, Glock. Guns must be in ex-cellent working condition. Call (970) 222-2323 or leave message with make, model & asking price. I will return your call. WANTED: Used lapidary equipment. Call Kathie 970-221-1623 WANTED: Federal or state duck stamps; mint or used. Contact John Hart at (307) 778-3993. YELLOWSTONE FAREWELL Wyoming adventure novel. Diamonds, Gold, Volcanic activity, Prospecting. Factual geology; Fictional story. $18.00 + $4.00 S&H. Spur Ridge Enterprises, POB 1719, Laramie, WY 82073. Internet: http://yellowstonefarewell.com/ ROCK SAW FOR SALE: Used, refurbished. New ¼” thick Plexiglas top, corners reinforced with alumi-num, reinforced handle, vise opens to 7 ½”, screw feed or gravity feed, 18” diamond blade (lots of dia-mond left), wheeled dolly included, price $375. Con-tact Bob Smith at (303) 819-3523 cell or [email protected].

NOTE: Purchase arrangements are between the buyer and

seller only and involves no financial benefit to RMPTH.

My New Favorite Quote! “I've got my detector set on pull tab recovery mode and while digging the

tabs I accidentally find rings.”

— Tom Warne, RMPTH


Learning To Use A Gold Pan

Challenging and Fun To Do

A gold pan is the FIRST piece of equipment you will need to find gold, and the LAST one you will use to finish cleaning your gold, that is still the most

portable, cheapest, and efficient gold finding machine out there. Learning to use a gold pan isn't hard, but it takes a little practice. Just like learning anything new, you aren't going to pick one up and automatically know how to use it. However, it doesn't take a long time to learn its' ins and outs, either. Even separating gold from black sand isn't all that complicated as long as you re-member that speed and angle are everything in gold re-covery, no matter what the piece of equipment is that you are using. All gold recovery equipment that is based on water is patterned after the gold pan. Each piece of equipment developed over the centuries is merely an attempt to take the principles of the gold pan and make a larger version that will move more material as efficiently as the gold pan will. However, without the gold pan, the deposits would not have been found. Prospecting with a gold pan will tell you quite accurately where a deposit should be, and simply following the float up hill will point out the deposit on a mountain side. Even in the desert, a gold pan can find gold for you. Dry panning for desert nuggets has been used for centuries as well, and the dry washer is patterned after the gold pan's use in desert conditions, although without quite so much dust being kicked up. HEEHEE. However, pan-ning for nuggets in the desert can be faster than using a pan in the water, if you know the techniques. The prin-ciple of dry panning is the same as wet, to get the gold to the bottom of the pan. But without the aid of specific gravity to help you, the technique needs to be finessed a bit. You will need to put less material in the pan, shake it down, and then spin the sand off before you can turn the pan around and blow the rest of the sand off the nug-gets. Simple, right? I know many prospectors who have buckets of concen-trate in their garages and can't get the gold out simply because they won't learn to use a gold pan. Other types of separation equipment can be expensive, time consum-ing, and not always as effective. Invest in a good gold pan with a wider bottom that isn't crowned (that means flat), and learn to use it. You'll be able to put clean gold into a vial anytime you find gold in a stream or river, and amaze everyone around you. It's also helpful to see the volume of gold you are getting to tell if you should move to another spot or not, thereby increasing the amount of gold you find. After all, your objective is to find more gold. Thanks to Gold Prospectors of Colorado

WEEKEND & SMALL-SCALE MINER’S CODE OF ETHICS

I WILL respect other prospector’s claims and not work those claims without the owner’s permission I WILL have on-site all necessary permits and licenses I WILL build fires in designated or safe places only, and in accordance with current State and Federal guidelines I WILL be careful with fuels and motor oils and be cog-nizant of their potential destructive effect on the envi-ronment I WILL remove and properly dispose of all trash and debris that I find - I will not litter I WILL be thoughtful, considerate and courteous to those around me at all time I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, fisheries and private property, and respect all laws or ordinances governing prospecting and mining I WILL NOT remove stream bank material, destroy natural vegetation or woody debris dams, nor discharge excess silt into the waterways I WILL NOT refuel motorized equipment in the stream I WILL NOT allow oil from motorized equipment to drip onto the ground or into the water I WILL NOT prospect in areas closed to prospecting and mining

Offer Your Assistance To Any Of Our Program Coordinators


Month Meeting Program Trip/Activity

January East Coast Silver Treasure Find

Berkely Lake Detecting No Trip/Activity Scheduled

February Gold Wheel Recovery Systems Presentation By Darrell Koleber No Trip/Activity Scheduled

March Historic Gold Scale Presentation GPS, Compass & Map Clinic

April Found Explosives Safety Presentation

Prospecting, Detecting & More Clinic at Lions Park - Advertised and Open to the Public

Berkely Lake Detector Outing

May Gold and Platinum in Wyoming By Wayne Sutherland, WGS

‘Let’s Go Gold Panning On The Arkansas’ Event Clear Creek Gold Outing

Keota Ghost Town Outing

June Detecting Presentation

By Tom Warne & Rick Mattingly Eldora Ski Resort Detector Outing

July Spanish Treasure Trails Presentation Teller City Ghost Town Tour North Park Sand Dunes Tour

Eldora Ski Resort Detector Outing

August Gold Refining Presentation

By David Emslie

Ames Monument Tour and Vedauwoo Detector Outing Lucite Hills Gem Outing

Vic’s Gold Panning Outing

September Cripple Creek Historic Video

By Johnny Berndsen

Annual Coin & Prize Hunt Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show—Denver

Off-Road Detector Outing

October

Railhead Camp Presentation

By Rick Mattingly

Off-Road Detector Outing

November Annual “Show & Tell” &

Silent Auction Local Detector Outing

December Annual Find of the Year Awards &

Christmas Party Flatirons Mineral Club & Model Train Show

Good Hunting in 2012!

Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Club 2012 Schedule of Events


Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters

Contact List RMPTH Coordinators Home E-Mail

Coordinator Robert Crain 1-970-484-6488 ———————–

Coordinator Bryan Morgan 1-970-416-0608 [email protected]

Coordinator Rick Mattingly 1-970-613-8968 [email protected]

The News Staff

Editor-in-Chief Rick Mattingly 1-970-613-8968 [email protected]

Assistant Editor Dick French 1-970-482-2110 [email protected]

Internet Web Site

Web Master Rick Mattingly 1-970-613-8968 [email protected]

Volunteers/Coordinators

Find of the Month Joe Johnston Betsy Emond Paul Mayhak

1-303-696-6950 1-970-218-0290 1-970-482-7846

[email protected] ———————–

[email protected]

Presentations Johnny Berndsen 1-970-667-1006 johnnyberndsen.com

Club Historian Peggy Stumpf 1-307-632-9945 [email protected]

Club Librarian Joe Johnston 1-303-696-6950 [email protected]

Panning Demos Bryan Morgan Darrell Koleber

1-970-416-0608 1-970-669-2599

[email protected] [email protected]

Setup & Refreshments

Volunteer Needed! ———————– ———————–

Door Prize Tom Warne Jacob Wootton Johnny Berndsen

1-970-635-0773 1-970-980-6016 1-970-667-1006

[email protected] [email protected]

———————–

General Information Contact: Rick Mattingly at 1-970-613-8968

Visit RMPTH on the Internet at: http://rmpth.com

Let’s Go For The Gold !

The News Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Club

P.O. Box 271863

Fort Collins, CO. 80527-1863

SEPTEMBER, 2012 ISSUE

RMPTH0912

Documents

Transcript of RMPTH0912