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OUR GOLD MINE |
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Pictures are thumbnailed.
Left click on one for full size image. |
Last update:
February 23, 2016 |
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The “Utopia” gold mine is a hand tools only operation located on unpatented claims somewhere in the State of Montana. The gold is contained in glacially deposited
placer gravels, somewhat reshaped by meltwater and
occasional runoff from frog stranglers. These shots
were taken at the top of the digs in 2009 and 2010.
Our excavations extend approximately 600 feet down the
drainage from this
point. |
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These pictures were taken in August, 2012. As you can
see, the hole has gotten a bit larger.
The right image
shows a rock discard pile with a view, which the Forest
service said is too large and should be leveled. When
I suggested that the purple peckered ewok (a previously
unknown insectivorous avian variety) was nesting in the pile, they
decided to let it remain because if anybody ever saw one it
would become an endangered species. |
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The mine
produces mainly coarse gold: bright flakes and
nuggets, with the largest found so far weighing more than
1.5 ounces. A 1.3 ounce nugget was found in September,
2011 by Gloria Edden. The photos on the left show "mine run",
and the nugget on the right weighs about 16 pennyweights (.8
ounce). |
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The deposit was discovered around 1980, and we have been
conducting a “hand tools only” operation seasonally (summerly)
ever since. Presently, there are three partners, L to
R: Amos Knapstad, Dave Edden, and Yours Truly.
Here are some
brief biographical remarks and a little about how we came
together. |
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I was one of several original
owners, and eventually acquired 100% of the mine which is
now shared with my two new partners Amos and Dave. My day
job was community college math instructor (first in Brooklyn,
New York and now in the suburbs of Houston, Texas), and I
used the summers to escape to Montana and dig off my
frustrations. I retired on May 31, 2015, and may
devote more time to developing this passion into a real
money-making venture or give it to the GPAA.
On the left Dave and I are looking for
sapphires at the Gem Mountain sapphire mine, and relaxing with a friend in his
back yard. |
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One morning I was
washing buckets of dirt in a stream below the mine. I
had hit a rich pocket, and was picking nuggets out of a
micro-sluice every few seconds – about three ounces of them
were in a stainless bowl next to me when I was approached by
a somewhat irked redneck. “You are fouling up my coffee
water – don’t you know there is a cabin down below?” I
replied, “No. Look in the bowl. Want to join me?” The
Eddens and I have been friends ever since. That's Dave
and his wife Gloria on the right She is saying: "Dang! That
one's bigger than mine!"
Dave Edden is
an experienced hard rock miner who was forced to retire when
the mine he was working in was closed by its corporate
owner. Gloria and their son James also work with
us. |
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I have collected corundum specimens
(rubies and sapphires) for many years, and one of the
World’s legendary sapphire deposits (“Yogo Gulch”) is located in
central Montana. In the 1980's I had the chance to visit the site and
meet Amos Knapstad, a “Sapphire Villager” who had digging
rights on the mineralization. That acquaintance grew into
an alliance for rock and fossil hunting, and now gold
mining.
Amos not only hunts gems and fossils (left: in the Green
River shales, Wyoming) but he is also an
expert faceter. My wife’s engagement ring contains a clean (VSI?) nearly 4 carat pale green round brilliant
Missouri River sapphire he found and cut. From his
pictures, it is not hard to see why he has been a “shopping
mall Santa” on more than one occasion. |
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Here is how
we looked in August, 2012. Left to right: Amos, Gloria
and Dave, son James, and my hirsute alter ego. Note the
bird in the herb garden - a good example of what local
people do during the long, cold Montana winters. |
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In the past, our operation
has been “hand tools only”. We dig dirt, screen out the
larger rocks, and transport buckets of screenings to a wash
site, usually the Eddens’ back yard. There is no water
where the gold is mined, and that is probably why it is still
there.
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The dirt is fed through a sluice
box, which is designed to allow water to flush out the less dense
materials while retaining the “heavy fines” which are
primarily a mixture of black sand (iron oxides - magnetie,
hematite) and gold. Occasionally, a large “picker”
shows up in the sluice (see small "picker" on left).
The effluent builds up below the tailbox, forming "Lake
Edden" (on the right). |
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While
Dave supervises, Gloria mucks the silts and lighter fines
(which we call "futher"), lest they back up and clog the
tailbox of the sluice. He is thinking:
"It's a nasty job, but somebody has to do it!" I
should not repeat what she is thinking.
The truth
is this is hard work, and breaks and comic interludes are a
necessary part of the daily routine. We do it for the
love of the game, and when the gold pays for the beans and
the beer it's a great season! |
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The final
separation is done in a gold pan. My collar is up
because the state bird of Montana is the mosquito. At the mine, the oversize gravels,
bedrock traps, and sidehills are “shot” with a metal detector. Most of the
large nuggets are found in this manner. From her
expression, I think Gloria found a small one. |
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Nobody can accuse us
of being extravagant or wasteful. I did actually
eat that entire 4 pound steak after a hard day's work.
Our accomodations in town are pristine, the campsite has few
amenities, and we do have some
interesting challenges every now and then. The bear
picture was taken by Gloria in her back yard. I
took the snow shot in Elliston, eight miles to the east, in the month of August!
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Security in
the winter is provided by several feet of snow. During
the mining season we employ local sentries (ground squirrels
and chipmunks, left). Compared
to our dreams of golden riches, their wages are peanuts (right)!! |
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2013 update: |
We had a very
interesting summer. One new wrinkle was a new ranger
unfamiliar with our activities, and there were new restrictions and
hoops to jump through prior to the start of the new digging season.
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We filed a Plan of
Operations in March, and apparently that triggered three things that
we had not experienced in the past. First, there was a public
comment period (30 days I think) where everyone had to wait to see
if there were any contested issues before proceeding. Second,
we had to wait for a sensitive plants expert to examine our work
area, making us very careful not to insult our weeds. Third,
we were told our hand tools only small mine was subject to
reclamation bonding (which may not be true if a court precedent
applies to our case), and we were to be responsible for weed control
even though some of the weeds may have been imported by the Forest
Service to stabilize slopes denuded by a fire and not within the
boundaries of our active work area. |
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We took the licking
and kept on ticking. Our group included two friends from our
North Carolina corundum activities, and we had a great time getting
some good gold and great cooking every evening thanks to Dave and
Gloria. See some pictures below the 2014 updater |
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2014 update: |
More new rangers, more
restrictions. We had to post bond for weed control,
winterization, pit reclamation (including a bootleg one not dug
by ourselves), and revegetation of our rock discard piles (think
about that one)! We did, and after a few lost days while the
final arrangements were approved (despite my request in the spring
they be done before I arrived). |
The first two pictures below show
the 2013 and 2014 diggings (winterized in the last photo). Is
this a small mine or not? The third photo shows Dave
shooting the bottom with a Fisher Gold Bug. The other
two show me screening and one of our better cleanups.
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2015 update |
This year was to some
extent wasted because of restrictions imposed by the Forest Service.
The rangers seemed to disagree with our assertion that our hand
tools only operation has not caused and will not cause a
"significant" disturbance of surface resources. As a result,
we had to await approval for a Plan of Oerations that was for a term
of one year for our 35 year ongoing explorations and that required
reclamation using material we did not have. Then, because we
did not do it, we were issued a Notice of Noncompliance by the
District Ranger!! Sometimes I wonder
if they know which end of the cart the horse goes on, and let me say
nothing about which end of the horse .... Enough of that for
now. |
Here are a few pictures of what
we did get done at the digs. Some nuggets were easy to find
even by our rookie shooter (note the arrows, see fuzzy it in second
photo), while others were more deeply buried. The second
nugget, found by a friend from Helena, weighs about 13.7
pennyweights (.685 oz.). Both were found with MineLab 5000's.
That's Frank Wedl, an old gym buddy from New York who comes out
every now and then, and our new swinger, Chuck Pharis from
Tennessee, taking advantage of photo ops with yours truly (not
exactly American Gothic, but it could be worse)! |
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We met another nugget
shooter, Ray Powell, a resident of Helena, and he used a MineLab
5000 to find several nice nuggets in what we had thought was barren
ground beyond the edge of the deposit. This is good to know,
and may tell us where to dig in 2016, if the Forest Service will let
us. Pictures of some of the booty will follow in 2016. |
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2016 Update |
Dave Edden passed
away unexpectedly on February 12, 2016. I will miss my partner
and dedicate this page to him, his loving wife Gloria, and their
children Marney, Amber, Allen, and Jim, all of whom shared the
passion at one time or another on the hill. May you rest in
peace, Good Buddy!
The future of this venture is in doubt, but we had so many years of
pleasure in the quest that it will always be favorably remembered.
I will report here what we decide.
I have gone
through my picture file and found some additional images that you
might enjoy. They are thumbnailed below so we can capture them
at the Star Video Productions studio where I am working informally
with the owner. We will be putting together a DVD with stills
and video clips from our escapades over the years. It may be
out by the fall of 2016. Captions appear below the images. |
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1: Dave, Gene, and Little Bear camping
2: Dave and Will (yours truly) at top of digs (in 2008?)
3: Dave shooting, Jim screening, me pondering something.
4: Break time (ca. 2013). 5: Dave,
Gloria, and me sluicing in Eddens' back yard. 6: The
three partners screening. 7: Gloia's wintery picture of
a tree on the Divide above the mine. |
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8: Sunset in Avon (forest fire to the west of town). 9:
Nugget from mine. 10: Ditto! 11: More gold,
from cleanup. 12: Dave and Glorria picking sapphires at
Gem Mountain. 13: Owner Chris Cooney is on left.
14: Talk about focus on task, ... |
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15: Dave and Amanda Montoya. 16:
Hamming it up with Dave and Buzz (Gordon Burns). 17: Ben
Brink math faculty colleague). 18: Ben reading the
manual, telling Dave what to do (Ha!). 19: Ben and Will.
20: Jim Edden, Dave Edden, Jim Sturrock (college roommate).
21: Jim Sturrock's wife (passed away). |
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22: My dad and me (ca. 2014).
23: Avon dinner table. 24: Never a bum steer in
their house! 25: Dinner crowd. 26:
Ben, Will, Dave expressing gratification. 27: Dave and
Little Bear. 28: Time to warm up the coffee! (See
1 above.) |
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29: Gloria's picture - in back yard!
30: Joe Kellermann at wet side campsite. 31: Dave,
Gene, Will with nothing better to do. 32: Nugget.
33: Break time. 34: Supervising the sluicing
operation. 35: Dave and P.J. sorting stones. |
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36: Amos, Dave, Will in mining gear and
plumage. 37: Dave with some of our gold. 38:
Jim at the mine. 39: Dave at the mine. 40:
Dave at the barbecue. 41: After the barbecue (in back
yard). 42: What the fuss is all about. |
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43: I had a moustache once - Marney and
daughter (name?) 44: "Joe from Ohio" 45:
Russ Carbone, from New Jersey. 46: Guests from Tennessee
GPAA chapter (I forget, will look up names). 47:
"Joe from Ohio". 48: Russ and Dave taking a break at
mine. 49: Family tree. |
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50: Jim, Glenda, Lesley, and P.J.
51: Loaded, ready to go to Avon! 52: Our mascot
(leprechaun?) from Joe from Ohio. 53: Will and Frank Wedl (gym buddy). 54: Chuck Pharis and Will.
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Here are some
other nuggets I have seen. On the left is the "Boot of
Cortez", a 389.4 ounce nugget found in Sonora, Mexico.
I had the chance to examine it when it was brought to
America (a long story - and I am convinced it's quite
authentic). The owner, Theo Manos, is holding it.
I recall the cabochon in his ring is from the "Sixteen to One"
mine. |
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On the right above is "Fred" a 90-ounce
gold in quartz nugget, estimated to contain about 66 ounces
of gold. (It does resemble a frog sitting on a rock,
doesn't it?) It was found on a dump in Arizona by Bud
Guthrie, a Montanan with a Fisher Gold Bug. Bud has
since sold it (new owner wishes to remain anonymous).
I was able to display it at the National AmFed show in Billings a few years ago (see case of his
booty in first picture): provided that security guard ALF
accompanied. On the right is some of the gold from our own
mine, not sure how much it weighs; but the big ugly nugget, which
we call "Vienna Sausage", is a little over 1.3 ounces (26.18
dwt.). |
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