Bedrock Struck at 35f

Bedrock was struck in the St. George Pit on the weekend. This marks the end of a long journey down through geological history. Everything you've ever read about undergound mining in the cariboo; the blue clay, the limestone bedrock, the pay layers, the weeping groundwater, the tremendous struggle to raise the gold to the surface, the gold, the employment, the risk, is all being played out right now at our mine. We've practically held hands with miners from 150 years ago, and we're now in the place they've all dreamed of being.

It is quite a scene, with pay layers heaving across the profile of the wall, the Blue Clay layer which even fooled us for a while, imitating bedrock, and then the limestone bedrock itself. Where we've touched it, the bedrock tips steeply downward, while the blue clay ramps steeply upward. This indicates that we have plunked ourselves directly onto the old pay channel.

Gravels are showing good coarse gold in the boxes....As we dig up the floor of the pit and keep going down on the deeper side, using the bedrock as a handrail, we'll soon reveal the channel and the secrets it holds. To see the whole development of this pit to date, visit http://www.williamscreekgoldfields.ca/photos_devlin.html and watch the slide show called 35f Virgin Channel.

Gold Mining Movie Captures our work!

A small film company, http://jpsmediaworks.com/Home.html , has taken on an ambitious project. From making Tourism documentaries they were smitten by the gold bug and began to film a piece about the Gold Rush. However, through the alignment of the stars, they have come to us to and been transformed by the relationship between the early attempts to get gold and the ongoing development of mining in the Cariboo. They are doing an excellent job of putting together the pieces and showing the relationship between the drive and allure for gold that existed in the 1800's with the current situation. Frankly I thought we were immune from the kind of passionate gold fever that existed then, but when I see how they've woven the story together, I see I was wrong!

In addition to our work at 35f, they've begun to capture the reopening of the greatest treasure hunt in the Cariboo, the completion of the Heron Lead on Grouse Creek. That property has been the subject of a small 'war', owned by the most prestigous historical figures of the Cariboo goldfields and still holds the mystery of the missing section of lead, packed with nuggets, but cut off by water! We're so happy to have this development documented as there is so much more to mining than moving rock!

Just to pique our interest, the boys at jps whipped up this preliminary teaser. Although it is a work in progress, it gets to the heart of the matter in an instant. If you want to see it too, go to http://www.williamscreekgoldfields.ca/photos_devlin.html scroll to the bottom of the page and select Wilds to Riches

2010 - New Directions

This season, we've partnered with our neighbours on Crown Grant 35f to dig down onto the Williams Creek Channel directly upstream from Devlins Bench, on property that abuts our claims.

The goal is two pronged....explore the channel that the miners of the 1860s were working and see what they missed. Secondly, dig deep and reach the remaining virgin Channel of Williams creek that has never been mined due to depth and water problems.

The first goal was accomplished in the first months of the season. We uncovered drifts from the 1860's that were set down and refilled with Cobble by the original miners of the area. What a great feeling to reach into the past and pick up a rock that had so carefully been placed by a miner 150 years earlier. He was working by the light of his tallow candle, chipping away at the hardened gravels, wondering if he was going make it out of that deep dark hole, and if there was enough gold to pay his wages.....Other than the deep dark hole and substituting a giant ripping excavator for a pick axe...the problem remains the same!

Obviously, the early miners did well, because they had bothered to build their drifts three sets wide, a sure indication that they were on good paying ground. As often happens, though they were primitive in their technology, they were efficient in their methods. In one side channel, a beautifully carved gothic arch, unsupported with timbers, still had the marks on the floor from the broom!

Too see more pictures of this find visit http://www.williamscreekgoldfields.ca/photos_devlin.html

Although we got good pay from fine gold in this upper channel, we did not discover any errors in their ways, and as the big prize/mystery lay below, we concentrated our efforts there.