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.
No comments:
Post a Comment