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Gold Prospecting in Nevada
You are here: MineralCollecting.org >> Posted Articles >> Article 21

by Cal Pierson, Sparks, Maryland
This article appeared in the January 1999 issue of the Mineral Mite, the newsletter of the Micromounters of the National Capital Area in Washington, D. C.

GOLD PROSPECTING IN NEVADA, MAY 1998.

For someone like me who has gold fever, a week of prospecting in Nevada with one of the world's experts is a dream come true. Ed Coogan, of Coogan Gold Company, Turlock, California, invited me to join him and his wife Kay on their trip to three old Nevada goldmine sites last May. When May finally arrived, I flew to via San Francisco to Reno where Ed and Kay picked me up at the airport. We drove to Lovelock, Nevada, our first base of operations, and spent the night at Sturgeon's Hotel and Casino. Even with the jet lag and lack of sleep, I was raring to go in the morning. We drove about forty minutes to some abandoned gold mines and dumps at the base of the Seven Troughs Mountains in Pershing County. Ed spent an hour getting the electronic prospecting gear (Gold Bug I & II electronic gold detectors) ready. We put on our rattlesnake gators, grabbed our gear and we were off. The first dump piles mainly contained electrum (an natural gold/silver alloy having less than 70% gold). My detector didn't differentiate gold from iron and other metals, so I was getting lots of old rusty nails and rifle shell casings. But then I hit it: a half-inch rock laced with visible gold, the first prize of the day! Ed was so excited for me, he broke out a miniature of rum and we drank it out of styrofoam cups - and even threw some on the ground as thanks to the gods!

Ed's a man after my own heart. He never stops working for his precious finds. We all got more electrum in the morning, but no more gold. In the afternoon, Ed started working a dump just next to an old vertical shaft. He steadily locked on one after another target of gold. Kay and I weren't finding much, so we started raking 3 inches of sand and rock down an incline after every pass by Ed with a detector. He kept finding gold and by 6 p. m., we had eighteen gold specimens from a quarter inch of gold in matrix to a two and a half-inch piece. Almost all had visible gold on an edge and several were very heavy with gold. It is wire gold at this locality and can be etched out of the quartz matrix. In all, we had collected probably two to three ounces of gold the first day, with a value (as specimens) of $1,700 to $1,800. According to Ed, it was his best day ever at that locality. Hopefully, the next two days would set new records.

By the way, the desert where we were was a spectacular sight, with several mountain ranges in view - one with snowy peaks. The frequent rains had brought out vivid red, blue and yellow wildflowers everywhere. What a sight!

I must have jinxed us by mentioning rain because it rained most of Monday and now we were off to Seven Troughs with rain clouds looming. It was very wet in the mountains, but we went in anyway. We skidded in the muddy, winding roads on our way to the mine dumps but only stayed about thirty minutes in the cold rain. We decided o get out while we could. Although disappointed with the weather, I had a fun day conversing and reading the novel London, by Edward Rutherford. Kay won $250 for the day at the slots. Ironically, she was reading the same book I'd bought.

Tuesday's weather was much better, but altogether different. We got to the gold dump on dry roads and saw antelope on the way. We'd also seen a bald eagle, several varieties of hawks, a jackrabbit, a small scorpion, several small lizards and even heard a wild burro, whose ancestors had probably been released in the mountains by early prospectors. Fortunately no rattlesnakes so far! We also had luck in finding gold this day - 18 or so beautiful pieces, some large and some small. Actually, Ed wanted me to have one of the most attractive pieces for my collection, a quarter inch piece with attractive spikes and ribbons of gold standing out from the quartz matrix. I'll treasure it! The weather was fascinating today - mostly clear sky, then storm clouds which brought down light fluffy hail and then snow late in the day as we left. Driving home we saw many hills with a slight dusting of snow. By the way, Kay stayed at the hotel all day and raked in more winnings at the slots.

After I'd washed our finds for the day, we gathered in my room to enjoy the gold and divide it up. Ed had a great method of creating 3 equal piles of specimens by quality and quantity of gold content - based on strength of readings from a gold detector. We then flipped coins for heads, tails and odd man piles. I flipped and got the pile with fewest pieces, but which included the biggest piece of the day. We enjoyed dinner together, shared many funny stories and even caught the end of a great Bulls/Pacers playoff game.

After another waffle breakfast, Ed, Kay and I again went prospecting at the same mine dumps in the Seven Troughs area. Kay and I raked down a ten-foot high tailings pile while Ed pulled out eight nice gold specimens. It was a pleasant, sunny and cool day for prospecting - good weather for working hard outdoors. Had lunch that my wife Trish would have liked - peanut butter with bananas and some of Kay's homemade energy bars. Each of us enjoyed brief periods of lying on the hillside and soaking in the Nevada sunshine.

After lunch, our productive tailings pile petered out so we finished raking another pile we'd worked the day before with no luck. We finished the day by pulling down a gravel pile that contained electrum and got about ten pieces. Back at hotel, we watched the Bulls crush the Pacers before dinner. At dinner I learned how Ed and Kay started gold prospecting and opened their business.

Today (Thursday) we're off to Hawthorn, Nevada to prospect on two mine dumps with a very different kind of mineralization. The gold occurs in association with chrysocolla, drusy quartz and massive magnetite. After checking into the El Capitan Hotel and having some lunch, Ed and I drove out to the old mine in the Excelsior Mountains. The drive provides breathtaking views of Hunter Lake and snow capped mountains beyond. This area is about sixty miles from the eastern gateway road to Yosemite National Park. The terrain at the mine is strewn with brilliant blue chrysacolla that caught my interest. We worked on the upper dump for a while and Ed got one specimen, but the wind was intense. We decided to move to the more sheltered lower dump, but the wind found us there as well. We scoured the steep dump hill, moving cautiously from one toehold to the next. Several times the strong winds, now approaching 40 miles per hour, almost blew me off the hill. We got a couple more specimens, including one beauty with visible gold combined with chrysacolla. The wind was so bad we quit early and drove over to see the Pamlico Gold Mine operation. After dinner I went to exercise while Ed played blackjack and Kay played the slots. Friday was a great day - sunny, mild breezes and temperatures in the low 70's. Ed and I went back to the mine and put in a very long hard working day. We found ten gold specimens, including a few real beauties. I took the opportunity of taking several pictures of the mountains and mining landscape. After a seafood buffet dinner, I played my dollar's worth of nickels (half were free) in a slot machine. Didn't get excited about it. Rather read my book!

Saturday was our last prospecting day. Ed took me to another mine in the Excelsior Mountains near Mina. The mine site was interesting with a one-room miner's cabin sunk into the hillside and covered with earth. Also found an old two-hole outhouse with only the two-hole seats still standing. Got a piece of the outhouse's weathered siding to carve later. This mine's gold has been featured in he Mineralogical Record because of its beautiful dendritic form. We worked very hard and only got one nice piece, but it was worth it. It was a half-inch beauty with lots of exposed gold. I was thrilled when Ed said I should keep it for my collection! Kay had stayed at the hotel during the day, so we picked her up and then took off for Carson City. She's way ahead of me now in reading London, but I'll have lots of reading time on the flights home. The drive to Carson City was very scenic. We drove west till we were at the base of the Sierras, then traveled north through the Carson Valley, with snow capped peaks above us. Stayed the last night in a motel near Nugget, a casino that houses an impressive gold collection that we saw.

After dinner, we had an enjoyable time dividing the gold specimens in lots once more and flipping coins for the equal lots - a great way to do it and very generous of Ed. But we all worked hard with pick, rake and detector. As I said to Ed, the whole trip has been very relaxing and satisfying. I'm so thankful I met Ed and Kay Coogan and that they were gracious and willing to take me with them on this gold prospecting adventure in Nevada.

(Cal Pierson, a MNCA member, was also President of the Baltimore Mineral Society. He has acknowledged having contracted possibly the worst case of "gold fever" ever known to man!)

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