Discovery Channel Gold Rush

Nome's weather is dominated by the Discovery Channel Gold Rush and can change quickly. Inside the summer time, highs common inside the mid-50s, with lows within the low to mid-40s. The coldest 3 months are December by means of February, when the highs typical about 13 degrees and the lows common a little beneath zero.

The beaches are often still covered in ice pack and snow in Might. June offers the most effective combination of clear skies and warm temperatures. As the summer time progresses, far more rain can be expected. Severe storms are frequent and also the window of opportunity for working the beach sands diminishes as September approaches.

Within the summer time of 1898 John Brynteson was a member of an exploration party from Council City prospecting the Seward Peninsula. Foul weather forced their ship to seek refuge inside the mouth of the Snake River, 13 miles west of Cape Nome. The men passed the time waiting for the storms to abate by prospecting the drainages inside a four or 5 mile radius of the ship. They found some color in their gold pans, but not enough to excite them. J. Brynteson, on the other hand, had faith and he formed a partnership with the two other Scandinavians, Lindblom and Lindeberg.

The miners continued to prospect and they ultimately worked their way to Anvil Creek where they discovered an impressive amount of coarse gold. After restocking their meager supplies at Golovin, a tiny trading post 100 miles east, they immediately returned to Anvil Creek, formed the Cape Nome Mining District, and between the three of them, staked out 43 claims. By energy of attorney, they also instantly filed on 47 extra claims for backers, relatives and friends. Nome is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast of Norton Sound within the Bering Sea, approximately 540 air miles northeast of Anchorage.

You will find no roads connecting Nome to any major city in Alaska. A robust 4,000 folks now inhabit what was once 1 of the most populous cities in Alaska. Half of the population are Native American Eskimo. Incorporated in 1901, Nome lies within the location of the Bering Straits Native Corporation. The Sitnasuak Village Corporation has its land holdings in and around the city of Nome.

Find out alot more about Gold Mining in Alaska on Discovery Channel's New Show:

GOLD RUSH: ALASKA, follows six men who, in the face of an economic meltdown, risk everything - their families, their dignity, and in some cases, their lives - to strike it rich mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska. Inspired by his father Jack, Todd Hoffman of Sandy, Oregon, leads a group of greenhorn miners to forge a new frontier and save their families from dire straits. While leasing a gold claim in Alaska, Todd and his company of newbies face the grandeur of Alaska as well as its hardships, including an impending winter that will halt operations and the opportunity to strike gold.

Here are six areas which have alleged treasure.

Eagle may be a town situated on the Yukon River. This old town was a fur-trading post that became a boomtown throughout the gold rush of the 1800's. Rumors have it that you'll find buried gold caches in the vicinity of the hundreds of deserted dwellings inside the area.

Fort Yukon is located on the Yukon River, approximately 135 miles northeast of Fairbanks. There are actually various tales of buried treasures left by the miners who worked that area.

Nome is located on the south shore of Seward Peninsula. This was the internet site of a well-known gold legend. In 1898 at Anvil Creek, four miles north of Nome, a tent city that extended 15 miles along Nome Beach became wealthy with numerous miners producing record numbers of gold finds. Stories of buried gold in that location have circulated because that time.

Fort William H. Seward is really a ghost town situated at the neck of Chilkat Peninsula. This town was founded after the gold rush of 1898. Roughly eighty brick buildings can still be noticed. Searching around the old buildings with a metal detector could yield some outstanding treasures, or relics.

Old Sitka is situated 6 miles north of Starrigavan Bay. This town was the major Russian settlement in Alaska when it was attacked and destroyed by the Tlingit Indians in 1802. The ruins of some buildings are nonetheless visible. Like the town of Old Sitka mentioned above, searching around the old buildings may perhaps result in artifacts. Fort William H. Seward Ghost Town located at the neck of the Chilkat Peninsula, at the southeast corner of the State.

Founded in 1898, Fort William H. Seward grew as a result of the discovery of gold in that location. It really is now a ghost town. These days, several of the ruins can still be seen.

Considering that this was as soon as a prosperous town, a lot of relics, or treasures might possibly have been left behind. For More Information about prospecting in Alaska and other Gold Prospecting related topics, check out WWW.Gold-Prospecting-Equipment.net

How to Find The Best Gold Prospecting Tools

Gold panning can be a lot of fun and a very profitable adventure if you know what to do and where to look. It can also be hard work, much harder than you might imagine while sitting around fantasizing about it. If it were easy more people would be in the streams since gold can fetch more than $1000 per ounce as I write this article. Gold is expected to double in the near future, if the experts are right, and in todays economy panning for gold may be a good way to make some real income while you wait for the job market to improve, if it ever does.

You can't have an article about gold prospecting without a story or two. This one happens to be true. A friend told me of a creek that some of the local people knew about but didn't advertise the fact to keep down the activity. It was a small creek than ran a good pace and was of an average depth of about six to eight inches. It was a great creek to pan in because you always got to see some color and sometimes might find a piece about the size of a match head. There was a tale of an old wine-o that lived in the shack about a half mile up from the creek. The creek was a long way down and the slopes were steep. When he ran out of wine he would take his pan down to the creek and pan enough gold to buy his next round.

Years before that story was told there was talk that the creek, at one time, was a real gold producing mine. Back in the later 1800s a man from up North came to the area and dug out an undisclosed amount of gold and went back up North. Apparently this type of thing was common in the area during that period of history. He probably panned the creek to the mother lode he found in the bank and dug it all out leaving the small bits that remain to the day. You couldn't find enough now to get rich but just finding it is exciting enough.

Word of mouth is the only way a lot of gold producing spots carry on the history. Try finding it documented is truly a challenge. You would think a lot of documentation would be produced, but just think, no one has any incentive to give away information they believe to be valuable. Most of what I have seen written down turns out to not be of much use. Notice I didn't tell you where to actually find the creek.

You will need to do is some research to figure out where you will start panning for the elusive substance called gold. Here are some ideas to get you thinking.

1.Research the Internet for known gold bearing regions. Gold is where you find it, but it is easier to find where others have already located it. Most gold regions are well documented. Just because you are in one of the regions doesn't mean gold is everywhere, well maybe it is but not right where you standing or maybe....

2.Stream beds are the best places to pan since there is water available to wash the material in the pan and the gold has already been concentrated for you in some spots. Think of yourself as a piece of gold going down stream and where you might end up, those are the best places to find concentrated amounts. Applied physics could be used, at this point, but you it won't keep you from getting blisters on your hands. You can pan any dirt by supplying your own water but that is a different subject and can be done better with different equipment.

3.Make sure you have permission pan the property you are on. There are some clubs you can join for a fee that own the land or have gained permission to use the land you can use such as the Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA). Many of the National Forest's in some states allow low level panning in their steams. Any creek in a gold bearing territory is suspect. Just make sure you have permission, leave the land as you found it, and try not to disrupt the natural beauty. Also, try to be sure you are not panning on someone else's mining claim. It is still possible to file and obtain claims on some public lands.

4.Once you have located a good place and learn the basics of panning you can refine your search by panning in the most promising places in the stream. Some streams require you digging quite deep to locate the gold, other not so deep. Bends in the stream will concentrate gold on the outside edge. Large rocks and boulders will concentrate gold on the bottom and in crevasses. You will develop a sixth sense about such things after spending many hours panning and not finding much of anything.

You will need to acquire a few tools of the trade and learn to use them. The following is a list to get you started.

1. Gold Pan. Start with a smaller one and later get a larger pan so you can move more material. Black plastic pans with ridges are best.

2.Shovel. Cheap, wooden handled, shovels will break under pressure while digging rocks in a stream bed. Buy an expensive fiberglass or metal handled shovel to save money in the long run.

3.Classifier Screens. Build your own with different size screens to filter out larger rocks. These are not completely necessary. A shovel, pan and something to put your gold in is all you really need, but screens can sometimes make your time in the stream a little easier.

4.Q- Tips and a Glass Vial with Water-Tight Lid. Wet the Q-tip end and twist the cotton into a fine point. Fill the vial with water. Pick up small gold pieces with the cotton tip and when you place it just below the surface of the water in the vial it will fall to the bottom. Do this while squatting over the pan in case you drop it.

5.Waders. Keeping your feet and cloths dry while standing in a stream will make the difference between panning for an hour or all day before wanting to leave. Think of the trout fisherman. How long would he be fishing if standing in a stream with no waders. Fisherman waders are perfect for what you need. Good ones are quite pricey, but the cheap ones will tear easily and be worse than not having any.

6.Mosquito Stick. Sprays don't work very well for long stays in the stream. The stick, or solid type will stay on you all day and gives you another thing you don't have to worry about.

There are other tools such as crowbars, crevice tools, magnets, magnifiers, and such that you may need, eventually. These things become more obvious as you develop expertise. Stay away from using mercury. Mercury will absorb gold easily and has been used in the past to pick up small pieces in sluices. You may pan out some mercury left behind in such operations. The prospectors would heat the mercury and burn it off to get to the gold. Such a practice can be harmful and breathing mercury fumes is a bad idea. A good link that tells you what to do with the mercury you may find is http://www.wikihow.com/Dispose-of-Mercury

You will need to know how to pan for gold so here is the method I have found that works for me and should work for you. Work it is, hard work. If you have a weak back or are picky about insects and general discomfort you may what to reconsider this as a hobby or vocation.

There isn't any one way to pan. You will develop your own technique through practice. Start slow and once you figure it out you can speed up. Put some suspect material in the pan. Tilt the pan and shake it. Gold will most likely be the heaviest thing in the pan. Think of it sinking to the bottom of the material in the pan as you shake it. Pick off the larger stones during this process.

Keep going until you end up with smaller and smaller amount of material in your pan. Once you get down so far you can check the pan for signs of gold. If you see any pieces get them out immediately since it is easy to loose them if you continue. When you get better you can keep it going knowing you won't loose anything since you will be better at it. Gold is usually associated with what is called black sand when getting to the bottom of your pan. Black sand can contain other metals and minerals besides gold. With the black surface of the pan and the black sand the gold stands out really well. Having direct sunlight to look for it is also a big help.

The problem is you won't know if it is working since the odds are low that there is any gold in the pan to start with. Try putting in small pieces of heavy material such as lead shots and see how many you can leave in the pan for practice. Maybe do this at home with a bucket of water to keep the lead from ending up in the natural environment.

If you come across any clay you will need to break it up in the pan by hand. Don't throw it out. If you don't break it up well enough you could be floating gold out of your pan. Gold can stick to the clay and some clays are known to be associated with gold in some regions.

There is a lot I have left out since it is hard to include everything in such a short article. You will find that there is nothing like the real experience to make you a seasoned 49er. Beware of something called gold fever. It is real so don't take it lightly. If you get it, blame it on yourself. All it takes is one good nugget. When your spouse gets upset because they can't get you out of the stream know it is because of the fever.

There should be some mention about sluicing since you will soon be wondering about it. If there is enough water flow and you are in an area where sluicing is permitted then you should consider such an option. Sluicing can increase you gold take several times over and with much less work than with panning alone. You will still need your gold pan to find areas that are productive enough to set up a sluice and to pan concentrates from the sluicing operation. Sluicing is a subject for another article and is something you should consider only after mastering gold panning.

 

Gold rings are very different than gold nuggets since they're often alloyed with other forms of metal. They're normally near to the surface area and usually can't be tuned out or selected for with a notch filter despite having the most effective metal detector. By far the perfect place to look for gold rings is at the beach. Specifically in the shallows of a dropping tide in a common resort area. The reason is because several vacationers don't realize that the colder watercan make their fingers shrink and unsuspectingly drop their extremely valuable ring jewelry.