Jul 8

Written by:
7/8/2008 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! Things have been hot and heavy Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The weather has been sunny and eighty plus degrees leaving some of the people in camp complaining about sun burn! We did have some intermittent light breezes, but for the most part the mosquitoes were out and about! A herd of Musk Ox moved down into the willows just across the river where the camp’s old common operation used to be years ago. They stayed most of one day to have access to fresh water and to have bushes to walk through to brush the aggravating biting bugs off their hides. Binoculars from camp tracked their every move for a quite a while; and cameras with zoom lenses recorded little vignettes of family life of the Musk Ox variety. Slowly, for unless a Musk Ox is riled up or angry, that’s how these great shaggy beasts move. With a deliberate and leisurely pace, one by one they wandered off across the tundra looking for new places to eat and rest, and in a couple of hours or so, the entire herd had moved on. As a note of interest: Frighten or upset one of these magnificent creatures and they can move with astounding speed. They have razor sharp horns and sharp hooves, and their weight alone is enough to cause injury if they run into, over, or hit something. That’s why even the Grizzly Bear (called Brown Bears in Alaska) prefers not to pick a fight with these gentle giants. The Brown Bear will usually win, but will be so injured it either dies later of its injuries or it won’t be able to gain enough weight to survived winter hibernation.

Paul Schumacher from Oregonia Ohio, has been coming to the Cripple River Gold Camp for four years, one year as a participant, the next three years he has been as crew. Paul has been dowsing since he was twelve years old, when his father taught him to “witch” for water. He was successful and helped friends and neighbors find water. His sister in 1969 built a new home and the contractor couldn’t find water. Paul dowsed for it and found it. The well was sunk and the water came to within 10 feet of the top of the well. So Mr. Schumacher is quite experienced. He can use a pair of forked tree branches form any type of tree, but he feels peach works best. Paul is a member of the beach crew, and this year he had a participant who couldn’t find gold, so he asked Paul to find some for him. Paul used a small stainless plumb-bob on an eight inch chain. Holding the chain in his hand the plumb-bob will move in small circles or will move left to right, or stop moving all together. Paul talks to his plumb Bob and is able to interpret what it is saying to him with its motion. After checking the beach claim, the person had been working material five feet from the richest part of the claim. He moved to the new spot and is doing much better in the gold department now. The dowser will not be able to tell you how deep the gold is, but it will tell you where the richer areas are at. Georgia, Paul’s better half is also good at “witching” but is new at the art of dowsing as she learned it from her husband in 1953. This is her second year in camp. Georgia loves people, and her crew assignment is in the chow hall where all great smells and yummy food comes from.

Another dowser, Rodger Bartley from Tiffin Ohio, has been interested in dowsing his entire life as his grandfather was a water dowser in Kentucky also called a ‘witch’ in the old days when dowsing was called “water witching”. Just last summer he re-learned the basics and practiced---a lot. Rodger feels you must be in the right frame of mind when you are dowsing for it to work. If not just quit for a while and try it again a little later. You must talk to your dowsing rods and tell them what to find. On the beach you can’t just say, “find the gold”, as the gold is spread out pretty much everywhere, so you would say “find the black sand.” Rodger has been coming to Cripple River for three years, two years as a participant and this year on crew. He enjoys working the beach and helping people. This year, he had several people ask him to dowse their beach claims, which he did, and with good results which made everyone very happy. Does dowsing work? I really believe it does, what do you think?

Many claims on the beach are paying off quite well, but the buckets of black sand get heavier as the day goes on, or so I’ve been told! (Darn sneaky little buckets! Don’t let them get away with it. As you get tired don’t fill them up quite so full and you will have energy to work the next day too.) It has been noticed that some beach miners are checking out different areas on their claim and finding a rich area then running that material. Good thinking, as not all the claims are equally rich. Other miners just find a spot and run any and all the sand. Not as good. The gold is primarily in the black and this year some people are finding dark purple sand that is very rich. Next best to run is the red or maroon sand. The light yellow or straw colored sand has little or no gold in it and will consume your time and energy for almost no return. Work smart, not just hard! Sometimes the best pay layer may be a foot or more deep, but once you find it you follow it until it runs out, or leaves your claim. We have crew on the beach to help you, they are experienced, so ask questions, listen to what they say, and as you gain in experience you can add your own personal touches that work for you to your operation.

There are other places to prospect besides the beach, which has flour gold, and this year larger coarser gold and smaller pickers are being found (called “beach nuggets” here). Approximately 2500 acres! And several other outer camps you can stay and play at. Ketchmark Camp is about fourteen miles from Cripple River Camp and features High-bankers, good panning and sluicing, and some people metal detect there. Great animal photo opportunities usually avail here with musk ox, moose, caribou, and foxes. The scenery is stunning, the air is pure, and they have hooches and a shower. You need an ATV to get there, however. The Dredge Camp, on lower Arctic Creek, has several four inch dredges for your use on a first come basis, some wet suits, if they fit, hooches, and a shower. You can watch the eight inch dredge, one of the two pieces of equipment that makes up the common operation and gets the gold for the Friday night draw. People at the Dredge Camp are always glad to see you, and will help get you started the right way. Dredge Camp lies seven mile across country from main camp, again this is usually an ATV trip, but this year we have a gutsy young man from Alaska who is trying the trip on a mountain bike! The Trommel, on upper Arctic Creek, is a day trip only, with no overnight hooches. You go up for the day, run High-bankers, clean them up, and bring the material back to main camp to process. You can ride on the truck on truck days, or take your ATV on ATV days. You run the same material the trommel runs so you get coarse gold with a chance of pickers or nuggets.

For you adventuresome folk you can go out and about and prospect the claim for gold. There are some sluice boxes you check out at supply, shovels, buckets, gold pans, sorry no treasure maps with secret x’s that can only be read with magic decoder rings or such. You provide the prospecting skill! Many people do this, and quite a few come back with some nice gold, most forget??? where they found it, or just won’t say.

The weather really changed two days ago, our sunshine left and rain, wind and clouds pounded into camp on giant elephantine feet. And it has stayed for several days beating up our camp. A vigilante party is looking for the people who were complaining about the sun and heat, as they have a very special present for them. So if you complained about the sunshine, I suggest you hide out!!! Well, the rain has stopped, for now, and there are lots of things to do, so I think I’ll check on the flowers, and see how high Edward’s Creek is, I really feel a need to do a little sluicing, until next time, when I’ll report on an exciting trip to the Sinuk, may your life and the bottom of your pan turn golden!

Your friend, Arctic Annie