Dear Members, July 2011 - By AnnieAugust 12th Meeting -The timing of our Annual Ice Cream Social could not have been better. The Red

Hat Ladies and the Nuggets (Please remember your Ice Cream servers!) will help serve up different selections of Ice Cream at the start of our meeting, 7:00pm, or as soon as Don signals!

Labor Day, 9/2-9/4, Foresthill Annual Heritage Celebration and California State Gold Panning Cham-pionships. The time is here already! If you can help we would appreciate what time you can give to this event. This is an important fund- raiser for our Club and helps pay for expenses to run the club for a year. If you plan on staying at the Memorial Park for the weekend we need to know. This is free to our members & volunteers. You may come in on 9/1 afternoon to 9/5. If you cannot sign up at the meeting, email Don to let him know to reserve a spot for you.

We heard from the Sacramento Valley Detectors and their club will be running the Metal Detecting Booth this year! Great! Bob Harrison will be the chairman for the Club and we will have more information at the Memorial Park and in our August newsletter. We are looking forward to working with them and are so pleased to have Metal Detecting “hands on training” at our event. If you are interested in helping out here, bring your detector and come early to scan area for training. Bill and Carol Bowman are now secure in Nevada but will there for the Championships. Carol will be looking for timers to sign up at our next meeting! The Nuggets will be teaching gold panning to the children and we will have an information booth and set-up for membership. And again I am hoping that Kathy Percy will be the coordinator for the gold panning registration with help from Jean Hussy. Kathy & Bill Percy have been doing this since the World Gold Panning in Coloma in 1998. There is no one that know this as well as Kathy. Updates will be in the August newsletter. ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal, July2011 – If you have not subscribed to the ICMJ pick up a copy at Pioneer Mining or your nearest Mining Shop. This covers so much about our current mining is-sues and they do a great job keeping us informed on their website. I know that we are all tired of constantly having to fight for our rights. All sides are attacking the future of mining in California! Please support the ICMJ, PLP and others that are spending hours on the computer and emails. The Goldhounds are sending out a lot, but it is necessary right now. I will be glad when the fun can actually begin again and we do not have to watch our back! The miners now have a new spokesman, the Western Mining Alliance, their website www.western-miningalliance.org – Don has sent this out already via email to our members. The Western Mining Alliance has a lot of good information on their website including sample letters and contacts.

The Karuk Tribe and their spokesperson tried another tactic to stop dredging. Now that the SDEIR is almost complete, (November), the spokesman for the Karuk tribe, Craig Tucker and his friends, are very dis-pleased that the science is refuting their position. In an effort to stop the court ordered SDEIR they got some of their friends to write up a Bill and submitted it to their friendly legislature. AB120 section 12 was writ-ten by these people: Allison Harvey, Auburn Rancheria; Steven Evans, Friends of the River; Cal Trout Sierra Club and an Indian artifacts protection group. Please continue to mail letters as this is always more important in a Legislator’s front office and make phone calls to say, “Please Vote No on this Bill.” Thank you also to Ted Gaines and Tom McClintock for going to the Governor on our property rights. Special thanks to Rachel and Mike Dunn, owners of the Gold Pan California prospecting store in Concord. They met with several leg-islators in Sacramento and coordinated efforts with miners to put pressure on legislators but to no avail. They also succeeded in getting numerous articles published with major news outlets exposing the bogus budget numbers and highlighting the plight of the suction dredge miners. Keep fighting!

Susan Hamann called to let us know about a new book on the market called the “Golden History Books” by Jody and Rick Hornor from Pilot Hill. We are offering them a booth at our Foresthill Heritage Labor Day weekend. Jody and Rick have done a lot of research to write this book about the people who lived and made California history. More information next month or you may call (916) 933-4490 or 800-989-8112. Take care, Annie

Pennyweight Bar Outing Thursday June 23, 2011

Six of us made this trip on a forecasted 100 degree day! Attending were: Janet Peterson, Ray Dodds,Peter Breyfogle, Jim Ruppel, Dale Sorenson, Don Robinson.Pennyweight bar has been hit so much it looks like craters from WWII. Yet there is still gold there and all of us found our share. By noon time though the heat started setting in and we all decided it was time to move on! It was a good outing and got us out of the house. The river was running very high.

On our way up the river to Pennyweight Bar.

Iowa Hill Bridge. Notice the water level.

Pennyweight Bar Outing Thursday June 23, 2011

Jim, Dale and Janet getting ready to start. Jim and Dale hard at it!

Peter found a hot spot for gold! Ray was finding gold in every pan.

Dale’s gold in black sands. Ray’s gold spred out in pan.

Goldhound Outing Saturday July 2, 2011

Attending: Mike Wendling, Brian DiMuzio, Ron and Forrest Gribble, Erik Auspaugh, Debra Auspaugh, Ray Dodds, Ron Earl, Kirk Demarest, Mark Winter, Tom Skinner, Hal Warwick, Linda Cameron, Aaron Wagner, Mike Ronkovich, Jim Hutchings, Gary Logue, James Spearow, Jay Gillaspy, Don Robinson.

The heavy snows this year provided an opportunity to check out some of the ravines in the high country which usually don’t carry water. This year they are running, and some pretty good. This was a pure explo-ration trip above the Foresthill Divide. Twenty of us met at China Wall and proceeded from there to the Function-Junction Road. There were six ravines crossing with running water and we wanted to check each one as we went along.Well, the first four provide a few tiny grains of color but nothing to get excited about. Two of them had small streams running and they looked promising but we didn’t find anything to speak of. The fifth had a good stream running as well and we decided to stay there for awhile. By the time we finished it was too late to go any further and we called it a day. The gold was hard to find. Gary Logue picked up a nice heavy flake and most of the rest of us got just fines. One exception, Mike Bowers was way up the stream and got a good hit in a crevice 9 inches deep. Gary Logue was nearby and saw Mike banging away on bedrock but he didn’t quite have the tools to get down in the crevice. He got Gary to help and the two of them finally got out this really nice ½ dwt piece! This made our trip a success! Don

Goldhound Outing Saturday July 2, 2011

Goldhound Outing Saturday July 2, 2011

Mikes Nugget.

California’s Northern Sierra County by Don Robinson

From the mid 1850’s and even into the early 1900’s, California’s Northern Sierra County boomed with min-ing activities. This area was flooded with miners, establishing such towns as LaPorte, Gibsonville, Spanish Flat, Whisky Diggings, Hepsidam, St Louis, Potosi, Poker Flat, Port Wine, Scales, Poverty Hill and on and on.Mining towns were everywhere is this heavily wooded territory, and the gold was plentiful and large. Little remains today of most of these mining towns, where the elevation averages about 5500 feet. The climb on the road from Brownsville is long and winding, and sometimes it feels like the drive is the twilight zone, because it feels like you’re never going to get there, and the road and deep curves seem repetitive. It’s only a one-hour drive from route 20, out of Grass Valley, but it seems longer. As you climb towards LaPorte, the basic center of activity today, the trees being to tower way up, and their diameters sometimes go to five or six feet. This area is a lumber-man’s dream for sure. Most of the territory belongs to the Forest Service, with patented mining property inter-spersed throughout the forest. These patents were from long ago mining activities and it’s surprising that there isn’t more private property in the territory. The area is also heavy with active mining claims so a person has to be careful in exploring and prospecting. The entire area is laced with placer works, large tailing piles, worked ravines, large hydraulic pits, with quartz river rock visible just about everywhere. There are also some numerous hardrock mines near a serpentine belt that runs through the northeast portion of the area. At least two very large, ½ mile wide, Eocene and Pliocene quartz bearing channels ran through the territory, first covered with various volcanic mud flows, and then partially exposed again with subsequent erosion patterns. Two modern current river flows, Slate and Canyon Creeks, cut deep through these old channels, running basically south-west. These two flows are deep and narrow, sometimes cutting down 800 to 1000 feet. The entry points to these modern flows are very limited, making prospecting difficult. Before the early day miner’s the placers of Slate Creek and Canyon Creek were very rich. These were mined ex-tensively, then followed by heavy hydraulic mining of the ancestral channels now lying above the river cuts. Once hydraulic mining ended drift mining became dominant with various tunnels reaching the channel at new points not possible by hydraulic mining. The pay was generally outstanding, with ores averaging one to two ounces per day, per man with a pick and shovel. As all this activity continued Slate and Canyon Creeks were filled with tailings and lost gold, enriching them for the modern day prospector. Mining has always been restricted by a short mining season caused by early winters, late springs and sometimes up to twenty feet of snow in the higher country above LaPorte. The spring erosion patterns flushed the small feeder streams into Slate and Canyon Creeks, turning them into high-powered sluice boxes themselves. This fast current also moved much of the old mining tailings out, making the slate bedrock more accessible in these two streams. In the various articles we read about mining, there are always references to the quantity of gold found and the numbers are sometime staggering. I always wonder why, with all the gold they found, we can’t find more ourselves! The value of looking at old records and the large finds do serve a purpose, because they point to some directions for our prospecting. I could list three full pages of great gold finds in this territory, and I won’t do that. I’ll list a few just to give you a feel for what they were doing in the old days. If you want to have a more significant list, find the old book titled “Over North” in Sierra County, by James J. Sinnott. You will be fascinated by his writings and history of the terri-tory. Here are a few finds: 2/24/1859. “The Eureka Company at Cumberland Ravine took out one day this week a piece of gold weighing 60 ounces.” 07/05/1862. There has been quite a show of big lumps at Gibsonville the last week. A lump weighing 92 ounces was found by Mr. Myers working in the sluices outside the tunnel of the Pittsburg Company.” 07/26/1883. “A rich quartz boulder weighing 160 pounds was found in the Nevada Hydraulic Mine at Whisky Diggings.” 1854. “On Canyon Creek, near Poker Flat, Carliste and Company took out 60 to 120 ounces of gold during last week. The nearby O’Hannon claims were taking out four to five ounces per man per day. From one crevice, which was about four feet wide and about four feet deep, which crossed Canyon Creek, the four men recovered 625 pounds of gold in one week and in the following year took out an additional 125 pounds of gold.”

MOTHER LODE GOLDHOUNDS MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION P.O. BOX 149, FORESTHILL, CA 95631 FILL OUT & MAIL MEMBERSHIP APP. ALONG WITH YOUR CHECK/MONEY ORDER www.goldhounds.com - email: goldworld@wildblue.net - 530-367-2891 VM leave message. $40.00 Individual or $45.00 Family (one year) Senior & Spouse (age 70+) $30.00, send check to above addresss. ( ) New membership or ( ) Renewal----Are you interested in the Exploration Team? ( ) yes or ( ) no

NAME_________________________________________EMAIL________________________________________________ ADDRESS________________________________________________PHONE______________________________________ CITY____________________________________STATE___________ZIP CODE__________________________________I hereby apply for membership/renewal with the Mother Lode Goldhounds. I fully understand Mother Lode Goldhounds and it’s agents do not provide goods or services for my activities including, for example, mining equipment or supplies, lodging, transportation, food service, etc. Mother Lode Goldhounds is not liable for any negligent or unwillful act or failure to act by providers of such goods or services during my activities. I acknowledge that there may be certain risks involved with activities as a member including, but not limited to, rugged or uneven terrain, uncertain or unpredictable river currents, physical exertion for which I am not prepared, or other unknown forces of nature, high altitude, accident or illness without access to means or rapid evacuation or availabliity of medical supplies, the adequacy of medical attention once provided, or negligence on part of Mother Lode Goldhounds. I hereby agree to be responsible for my own welfare and accept any and all risks of unanticipated events, illness, injury, emotional, trauma or death. I acknowledge that the cost of Mother Lode Goldhounds membership is based upon participants executing this release of liability. That whatever recreational event I, or my family, attend that I am responsibile and at no time will have legal or financial claim against, nor will hold responsible, any member or club official of the Mother Lode Goldhounds for any damages or injuries. I agree that this release shall be legally binding upon me personally, all members of my family and all minors traveling with me, my heirs, successors, assigns and legal representatives, it being my intention to fully assume all risk associated with my activities as a member of the Mother Lode Goldhounds. I have read and fully understand this release and membership application

SIGNATURE_________________________________________________ DATE____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DON’S EXPLORATION TEAM - EMAIL: GOLDWORLD@WILDBLUE.NET OR CALL 530-367-2891 VM You will receive an email and it becomes your option to go or not. A rating of 1-10 will be added, 10 being the hardest. You may not always find gold but Don is always looking for new areas to prospect. You should be in good shape as you never know where Don may take you. If interested in the team email Don to be added to the Expo Team. The email states where to meet and what time you will leave. Be on time or you will be left behind._____________________________________________________________________________________________NAME BADGES: CLUB NAME BADGES - MEMBER JIM KURY TAKES CARE OF OUR BADGES. PIN CLASPS FOR $4, OR MAGNETIC FOR $4.50. EMAIL: JMKURY@SEBASTIANCORP@ATT.NET _____________________________________________________________________________________________MOTHERLODE GOLDHOUND T-SHIRTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN BLUE OR WHITE, DIFFERENT SIZES, AND WILL HAVE THEM AT OUR MEETING.. IF YOU HAVE NOT MET “TERESA” SHE HELPS US AT THE RAFFLE TABLE AND WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE T-SHIRTS. IF YOU NEED A SPECIAL SIZE LET HER KNOW. FOR OUR CHAMPIONSHIP T-SHIRTS THIS YEAR WE HAVE YELLOW! PUT YOUR ORDER IN IF YOUR ARE INTERESTED NOW SINCE WE WILL BE ORDERING SOON. TWO-SIDES, STATE CHAMPIONSHIP ON BACK AND GOLDHOUNDS/MINER ON FRONT, $15.00. THANKS TO OUR MEMBERS FOR YOUR PATIENCE._____________________________________________________________________________________FOR SPECIAL ORDER T-SHIRTS, SWEATSHIRTS, COLORS AND DESIGNS ALSO GREAT BUSINESS AD-VERTISEMENT WITH PERSONALIZED CREATIONS, CONTACT; DON NICHOLS, DONSIMAGES@HOTMAIL.COM OR (916) 384-7767 - WE NEED RED ONES DON FOR OUR LADIES!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MEETINGS ARE HELD THE 2ND FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH AT THE AUBURN VETERANS MEMORIAL HALL, 7:00PM-9:00PM, 100 EAST ST. Take Hwy. 80 to Auburn, then Hwy 49 East, at the first stop light, turn right, go one block, turn right again. The Veterans Hall sits on the left, parking in the back. public invited.__________________________________________________________________________________________

2011 GOLDHOUNDS MEETING SCHEDULE & OUTINGS. BE SURE WE HAVE CURRENT EMAILS! July 16-19 LaPorte Prospecting trip, (4-days) Don has sent information July 3. If you did not receive this send an email to him right away. We have had about 5 returns with no phone to call and verify. Don has updated the latest in this newsletter. August 12 Time for our annual Ice Cream Social with the Red Hat Ladies and Nuggets serving up differnt selections of Ice Cream at the start of the meeting. So be on time or you may miss out on the fun. Goldhound meeting, 100 East St., Auburn. 7-9 pm.August 20, 21, 22 Sailor Flat (3-days) Don will send out information as time gets closer. September 3 & 4 Labor Day weekend Goldhounds will sponsor the Ca. State Goldpanning Championship, Foresthill Heritage Celebration. Volunteers will be needed Friday, Sat.& Sun. (9/2-9/4). If you plan on spending the weekend at the Foresthill Memorial Park, this will be free for our Members.and volunteerrs. Let us know so we can plan on the number of spaces. You may come in Thursday afternoon through Monday noon.September 9 Goldhound meeting, 100 East St., Auburn Veterans Memorial Hall, 7-9 pm.October 13-10/17 Bear River Outing (Members only). The October 14 meeting will be held at the Outing. Notice will be posted, more information will follow.October 14 Goldhound meeting will be held at the Bear River during our Outing 10/13 - 10/17. November 11 Goldhound meeting, 100 East St., Auburn Veterans Memorial Hall, 7-9 pm. December 9 Goldhound meeting, 100 East St., Auburn Veterans Memorial Hall, 7-9 pm. Christmas potluck & food drive for Elijah’s Jar serving Foresthill & Iowa Hill Divides. SPECIAL EVENTSAug. 6 & Aug.7 will be the Placer County Annual Tour of Museums. The “Nuggets” attended this last year and signed on for this important Tour to honor our Museums in the Mother Lode Country. We will be Gold Panning at the Gold Country Museum, at the Auburn Fairgrounds, from 10:00 to 4:00. Come join us and dress for the 49ers!

Aug. 6th & 7th the Orangevale Community Center will hold their annual Gem & Jewelry Show. Orangevale Commu-nity Center 6826 Hazel Ave. Orangevale -Sat, 10-6 - Sun. 10-5, www.TreasureTroveOfGems.com or info@treasuretro-veofgems. com. OTHER CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONSRoseville Rock Rollers Gem & Mineral Society meets 2nd Tues. monthly, Roseville Fairgrounds, Garden Room, 800 All America City Blvd., www rockrollers. com or Box 212, Roseville, 95678 or call Florence, (916) 961-6868. email rockrollers @ hotmail.com. or WWW.ROCKROLLERS.COM El Dorado County Mineral & Gem Society - email info@eldoradomineralandgem.org - 530-676-2472 or www. eldoradomineralandgem.org. Gold Country Treasure Seekers, a metal detecting club, meets 3rd Tues.mthly. at the Senior Center, 937 Spring St., Placerville. Info: contact Pres. Ken Wright at K2wright@mindspring.com. Gold Prospectors Association of America, meets quarterly in Sacramento. Next meeting July16. For info, Jim Hutchings, 530-367-5108. (For INFO: WWW.GOLDPROSPECTORS.ORG OR 1-800-551-9797) Call toll free for all shows. Club has claims and outings.BLUERIBBON Coalition, 4555 Burley Dr., Suite A. Pocatello, ID 83202-1-800-BLUERIB.www.sharetrails.orgSac.Valley Detecting Buffs meet 1st Thurs. monthly, Sac.County Old SMUD Bldg. corner Elkhorn & Don Julio in No. Highlands, or call 916-987-9336 - www sacramentovalleydetectingbuffs.com.Shasta Miners, meets 3rd Wed., 7 pm, at Moose Lodge on Lake Blvd. just up from Shopko on the left. info 530-623-0744, club claims, mthly. & newsletter. Public Lands for the People, 7194 Conejo Dr., San Bernardino, CA 92404, (909) 889-3039, WWW.PLP2.ORG- PLP continues to work on your behalf to keep public lands open. Donations are tax deductible.Gold Pan California, Gold Adventures, 1021 Detroit Avenue #D, Concord, CA 94518, (925) 825-GOLDSierra Nevada Mining Council will not be holding monthly meetings until Sept. 2011. Any information on this Council, call Caroil Marshall 530 272-5915. Update will be made after 9/2011.Box 1567, Grass Valley, 95945, email:miningcouncil.orgGolden Caribou Mining, a small-scale gold club, in Belden CA. Info: (530) 283-5141 www.goldencaribou.comBlueRibbonCoalition, Preserving our Natural Resources for the Public instead of from the Public-sharetrails.org------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MOTHER LODE GOLDHOUNDS NEWSLETTERP.O. BOX 149FORESTHILL, CA 95631(530) 367-2891

July 2011

TO:

Frank, finding nuggets on the

North Fork.e-mail: pmining@pioneermining.com Fax (530) 885-0583

NEWSLETTER ISSUED MONTHLY - Issue #287 July 2011Mailing address: MOTHER LODE GOLDHOUNDS

P.O. Box 149, Foresthill, Ca. 95631 A CALIFORNIA NON-PROFIT MINERALS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

PUBLIC WELCOME!Newsletter/Membership Cost $45.00 Family Per year $40.00 Per year for Individuals

Publisher and Editor: Goldhounds (530) 367-2891 (vm) email: goldworld@wildblue.net

www.goldhounds.com