Colorado GPAA Gold Prospecting Show & Swap Meet!

January 14th Colorado Denver Chapter GPAA Gold Prospecting Show and Swap Meet!

You are invited, bring the entire family!

January-14-2012, 10:00 am

The Denver Metro chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America will be having a Gold Prospecting show and demonstrations of all types of prospecting and gem collecting techniques, lots of opportunities to learn and share as well as pick up a golden deal on some gold panning equipment!

Help support responsible prospecting!

Come show/swap/sell your stuff , it’s FREE to vend and FREE to attend!

FREE demonstrations of prospecting equipment and a FREE Prospecting Equipment swap meet at the Bennett VFW Post 8449 the 14th of January 2012. Come take a look at new prospecting gear and bring your old Sluice boxes, Metal detectors, High Bankers, Dredges and Dry washers to barter or sell.

Goldstrike Adventures will be on hand to offer specials on our guided gold adventures and will also have our popular Goldstrike historic paydirt 3lb bags available along with demonstrating the new GOLD CUBE and Gold N Sand Hand Dredging systems.

P.O.C. is Joe Wolter at Gywolter@comcast.net or 303-644-4025

No Admission fee.

Tri Valley VFW Post 8449 is located at 115 Palmer Ave, Bennett, Co. 80102

Snow/Alternate date: 1-21-12

Two New Products From Goldstrike Adventures

The Goldstrike BAG 'O THE MONTH Club starts at just $17.99.mo. You'll receive a 3lb bag of Goldstrike Paydirt each month from a different location and other surprizes along the way!

The new GOLDSTRIKE cap from Panther has multiple led lighting built into the bill of this great looking adjustable cap, perfect for seeing all the gold in your pan no matter the lighting conditions!

Visit http://www.goldstrikepaydirt.com/ for details!

How to Make Money Panning Paydirt at Home !

One question I get asked a lot regarding our Goldstrike paydirt is "...will I get my money's worth?".

While I won't go into the long drawn out details of my answer to this rather obvious question, I did meet someone who has made thousands from buying paydirt, panning out the gold and then selling it.

This guy... we'll call him "Jimmy", started buying paydirt by mailorder back in 1981 or so when gold was about $300-$400/oz, to pan out after he retired from his office job. He bought over 450lbs during a 15 year period and saved it all until he retired in the late 1990's. He began panning when gold had nearly tripled in value compared to when he had purchased the paydirt. Eureka!

"I remember when Felix Paydirt put over 2 grams of gold in a $12 bag, now the cheapest bag is nearly $150 and averages about a gram of gold in it."

Jimmy began selling it a little bit at a time here and there after it reached $1600/ounce.

He has acquired nearly enough to pay cash for a brand new loaded 2012 Chevy Tahoe.... and he still has over 40lbs yet to be panned!

So, yes... you can get your money's worth buying paydirt online and panning out the gold, providing you are as smart as Jimmy is.

GU Hosting TU For "Prospecting Day" Gold Experience

Gold Unlimited will be hosting a "Hands-on Gold Experience Day"for Colorado Trout Unlimited State Directors as well as management from Jeffco Open Space, Adams County Open Space and other municipalities and government agencies. The tentative date is Saturday December 17th 11:00am -3pm at an undisclosed location.

TU and invited guests will be able to experience the full spectrum of recreational gold prospecting first hand beginning with learning how to "read" a stream, panning techniques, where and how to dig and classify material, prospectors code of ethics, basic sluice-box setup and operation, battery powered highbanking, gas powered motorized highbanking, how to operate a motorized floating 2" suction dredge and even final cleanup of concentrates to reveal the gold from the day!

In addition, we will be removing all of the trash, lead, metal, glass and other debris that we find, from the river.

Our belief is that through education and first-hand experience comes perspective and eventually perhaps a change of perception.

Natural Water Pollution in Colorado More Widespread than Expected

"It turns out that mining is not responsible for for much of the water contamination issues here in Colorado, nor should cleanup of streams include making the water cleaner than is started out in the first place."

Listen to this great interview which may change the way you think about those orange stained rocks, water quality, fish and yes... gold mining.

Colorado Public Radio Audio

-With thanks to 'Red'

DREDGING IS GOOD FOR FISH HABITAT AND OTHER LIVING THINGS

GU Meets With TU, Launches New Relationship

Anglers and prospectors don't have much of a reputation for working together, in fact they have been more at odds and in competition with each other than cooperative in the past.

Emphasis on "the past".

A couple of weeks ago that all changed when State Director David Nickum and other high ranking members of Trout Unlimited met with Gold Unlimited a newly formed non-profit founded by a group of prospectors including myself and Steve "Red" Wilcox.

Yes, there were some disagreements and yes there were some preconceived prejudices, but the result was that the two groups are moving forward to work together for the same purpose which is the preservation of our waterways for recreational purposes.

Our next meeting will actually be on the creek for a day learning all about prospecting hosted by Gold Unlimited. Trout Unlimited members along with Jeffco Open Space and Adams County Open Space management will be among the guests.

Stay tuned for more on this powerful alliance that is sure to impact future prospecting sites and access to existing locations.

-Don

Launch of Goldstrike Paydirt dot com !

WWW.GOLDSTRIKEPAYDIRT.COM




We have finally opened our new online store for our Goldstrike Paydirt which is selling like... gold hotcakes on ebay.

Now you can order all 10 historic Goldstrike Paydirt locations plus our Nugget in Every bag special AND our new Goldstrike Santa's Nuggets Paydirt loaded with gold and genuine placer gold nuggets!







Plan your Thanksgiving and Christmas parties around gold panning this year and you'll be the hit of the holidays!

Vic's Gold Panning PAYDIRT Now Available from Goldstrike

Photo used with permission from Jesse Peterson

If you have ever panned for gold in Colorado, the chances are you have panned at Vic's Gold Panning on HWY 119 just below BlackHawk at some point.

However, unless you went up the canyon to Vic's place, you couldn't get the gold from there. Right?

Until now.

We are proud to announce that Goldstrike is the exclusive outlet for genuine authentic Vic's Gold Panning Paydirt.

I spent the day with Jesse Peterson who owns Vic's Gold Panning and got quite a history lesson along with some great coffee and conversation. The old mine shaft behind his modest home goes back into the mountain some 2/3rds of a mile and Jesse also showed me how he recovered over $60,000.00 worth of gold from one hole... and that was well before gold was worth what it is today.

Jesse has managed to hang on to his property and his business in spite of constant pressure from a variety of sources to do otherwise for several decades. He is a throwback to another time and way of life, but at the same time a model for hard work and dedication.

At one point after I had shown him some gold I had found down on the flatlands, he took out a small bag that once was white but now more of a golden brown color and removed a nugget which was about 2 inches by 3 inches by a half inch thick and must have weighed at least 6 ounces or more and handed it to me.... I gasped and without thinking said the one thing you can't ask a miner... "Jesse, WHERE did you get THIS?" Jesse smiled without even blinking and said softly.... "outta' that little white bag".

You can go up to visit Jesse at Vic's Gold Panning and take his upcoming new tour, then pan for gold for only $8 per bucket or so, or you can take one of our Goldstrike X-Stream adventures up to Vic's and use our highbankers and/or dredge or now you can order Paydirt from Jesse's secret honey hole to pan out in the comfort of your home, only from Goldstrike Adventures.

Is that a Skunk I Smell?

Well today we got skunked, as in shut-out, struck out... got no gold.

Anyone who thinks it's easy to just go up there in the mountains where all the gold is, and actually get gold, has another think coming. It's not easy.

We went up with our friend "Red" of Gold N Sand fame to test a couple of new spots. While I won't disclose where we were, the pic is from earlier scouting trips when the water was much to high to access.

Both spots look great and undoubtedly have gold there, but this one we have been waiting since spring to get back in there because it has a beautiful looking ancient alluvial gravel deposit along the opposite shoreline on an inside bend in the stream. The gravel deposits appear to be quite old and are very hard packed and difficult to chip away much less dig. The color of the material was that orange rust color dirt that usually means good gold, it also had streaks of very black dense sand along it.

After crossing a smaller tributary stream and then climbing a steep incline tying a rope off to a handy tree, then repelling down a snow covered steep incline to the ledge in the pic above. I slowly chipped out 4 buckets of nothing from there by tying another smaller rope to the handle on the bucket (with a lid on it) and throwing it out in the river for Ryan and Red to "reel" in and test. I pulled one more bucket from behind a large boulder at the edge of the stream in the same spot before retreating back to the car to warm up and get some lunch at a nearby eatery.

With our tails tucked, we decided to make a last minute quick stop at the confluence of the S Platte River and Clear Creek on the way home and ran another 4 buckets through the Gold Cube and ... eureka - gold!

When we take guests out on gold adventures up in the mountains, they always find gold... good gold, sometimes nuggets from our proven spots. However, finding new proven spots is never easy I guess, but darnit I sure don't like to get skunked!