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You done purty good there partner...U digging up around Newhall? You got a Keene Engineering Sluice? You might want to get a 1/2 screen to screen the dirt as you shovel it into your bucket. Done business with Keene going back to the 1970's..Told them one day there was more Gold in selling the equipment than in them thar hills and they said "your right."

Fell in love with the purty yellow stuff when I was in the 8th Grade and saw some guys were running sluice boxes up on the East Fork of the San Gabriels. They would climb up the side of the mountain and bring down the dirt to be washed through a Sluice. From that time on I was bitten and have climbed over a good part of the East Fork at one time or another. I knew some of the old timers who prospected up there in the 1930's and 40's..ya know during the Depression..

Knew this old timer whose Dad used to prospect down in Arizona in the 20's & 30's. One day when he was a kid he and his Dad were walking along with his Dad behind. His Dad said, "You in the habit of not picking up Gold nuggets.?" His Dad picked up a nice nugget just laying on the ground. Keith was a cement contractor out in Arcadia, CA and when he could get away he would billy goat his wooden Dry Washer up the sides of the mountain. He would always find about what you found for a coupla hours of shoveling. Keith always did wear grey work cloths

I know one place out on the East Fork in a Hydraulic Cut where the bedrock comes down in a sloping fold, if you moved about six feet of burm you would be able to dig virgin dirt along a low point in bed rock. You ask your friend what that means...

I've taken a few trips up into Northern CA and have dredged on the N Fork of the Yuba and North Fork of the Feather in Plumas County.. Also bin up on Slate Creek and did some panning at Howland Flat in Sierra County..which is 12 miles shy of Poker Flat..of Bret Hart fame. Very purty territory up there..Wouldn't mind goin back to Slate Creek..but its all claimed up and you would have to pay a rental fee to work a claim.

I even built my own 4"suction Dredge running an 8hp Briggs motor..bought the motor/pump/air compressor and hoses from Keene and the Jet Tube from Arthur Fiedler in Grass Valley...he was old back then and was one of the first suction Dredge builders...Had someone bend the t6061 Aluminum for a 6 foot sluice and header box. built my own floatation out of metal tubing and would float the thing on Tractor Inner tubes. Been up onthe Yuba and Feather rivers with it...Floated it across the Nfk of the Yuba river that was chest deep...

Talked to a coupla Farmers outa Salinas back in 75, they were workin their claim on the N Fork of the Yuba...had a 6 inch Keene Dredge with 2 8 hp Briggs motors along with a hugh Navy surplus winch with a 55 gallon drum cut down to haul boulders outa their hole in the bottom of the river. They had a pile of boulders the size of 60 gallon tanks all piled up nice and neat. Seems like they went up there summer time had a coupla new PU trucks and a brand new travel trailer. Asked them what the biggest nugget they ever found and they said 32 oz..they also said the year before they went down through 30 feet of overburden to get to bedrock only to find a old miners pick and pan. To get the big stuff you gotta go deep down into the river...where no one has bin before.

If ya wana fool around with a Dredge a 4 incher or 5 incher is the minimum to run..the key is to run a large volume of gravel through your sluice box and to be able to get down into the river. Anything smaller is basically wasting your time unles you are just Sniping here and there....One man can run a 4 inch Dredge..I've done it..

Would like to go one Prospecting one more time up into Northern CA...I would probably buy the Keene Floatation pontoons and one of their new light weight Sluice boxes...and put my Dredge back together that way...It is a lot of fun working in the river in a wet suit on a hot summer day...especially if yer findin the yellow stuff...you can't wait to get back in the water in the morning if you have found a few nuggets the day before. It is back breaking work and moving boulders the size of a small car isn't much fun..My problem is that I don't have anyone to go with..and it is too dangerous to go alone..especially if you are diving on an air system..