With the treasure hunt to rediscover what Tiny's friend found years ago, I've been roaming all over the mountains, taking samples with the GPS.  It's a hard job because unlike using a gold pan, which is made of plastic and very light, I have to climb with a sledge hammer and a variety of chisels.  My hand sledge is an 8 pound hammer and the chisels are cold chisels, very thick and somewhat heavy too.  Combining my food, water, rain gear, gun, and other necessary items, my beginning pack is at least 20 pounds.  When I add rock samples coming down the mountain, my pack can easily weigh 40 to 50 pounds.  It makes for a good leg work out, but can be hard on the back and shoulders at times. 

When I sample and label everything, I have to note the difference between rocks that are float from load.  Basically, the difference is a float rock is sitting on the top of the surface.  Float rocks could have traveled from anywhere above or around the general area, traveling on a rock slide, snow slide, or even in a heavy rain storm.  Load samples are taken from the mountain with a hammer and chisel, so I know EXACTLY where the source is located. 

The above video is of a load sample my husband and I retrieved from the side of the mountain over 4,000 feet high.  It's a beautiful example of gold, pyrite, and copper in a white quartz base.  I found this exactly location by praying to God and following the leading of the Holy Spirit as my son and I tracked another green rock I found on the riverbed.  The rock in the video is part of a vein that extends approximately 1 mile on our claim to where the peacock ore is located. 

This claim as Tiny's mining friend from the 1940's believed has high copper deposits on the surface, showing about 8 ounces per ton.  Additionally, which he probably never knew, the fire assays are showing the vein we located is a high-grade gold ore.  Yet, as my husband always says, it takes years to get rich overnight.  Prospecting is just one small part of the entire process from rock to money in your pocket.  Granted, it is probably the hardest part of the process.  Now, we have to partner with other people to obtain the right equipment and support necessary to harvest the minerals without destroying or harming the environment.  Nothing is every easy... but to those willing to seek, you will eventually find.

I plan to turn the experiences I've learned in the mountains into an Alaskan devotional series in the future.  I think it will give practical advice and insight not only to understanding traveling in the mountains but to applying scriptural principles to all aspects of our lives.  

After finding the peacock ore, which I described in part 1, I knew the copper staining rock had not been on the creek bed long.  There wasn't enough of the rock showing for that zone to have been exposed long.  I asked Stella about the general area, since she'd grown up in there.  She informed me much of the area used to be under small glaciers or snow year round, but over the past 40 years the higher altitudes had been clear of snow all summer long.  Now it made more sense to me.  The primary reason no one had thought to claim there area is few people would have seen the copper staining on the rocks below and understood enough to climb up and search for what it meant.  Also, not many people in general hike in that area, and those that go up this valley are usually higher on the green slopes hunting for sheep not rocks.  

As we were talking, Stella remembered an old story Uncle Tiny had told her about in the 1960's, which she had forgotten until that moment.  Memories are funny that way sometimes.  They can't be triggered until the right word or event brings them back.  Stella wondered if perhaps the claim we found and were now on was related to the story.  She said, Uncle Tiny who was born and raised in Alaska had a friend in the 1940s who had staked a very large claim.  His friend believed he'd found the largest copper mine since Kennecott Mine.  Of course, the miner hoped to find gold too, but then World War II broke out.  The miner, like so many other men, were drafted and sent off to war.  Most of the mines in Alaska closed during the war and never reopened.  Around that time, the Glenn Highway was put in to facilitate military transportation.  Sadly, the miner who went off to war, died there.  His claim was never reestablished.  Most people believe nothing can be found so close the the highway system that has not previously been discovered and mined.  Ironically, this man's claim had been known, then it became essentially lost.

As I started traversing the section lines to place our claim markers, I began finding old 4x4 wooden posts.  These posts were not dimensional lumber.  They had to have been made off an old sawmill.  There were occasionally rusty square nails found within the posts, not today's galvanized nails.  Michael, a carpenter by trade, explained these types of nails hadn't been made since the 1950's.  The posts were also exactly where they should have been for an old claim to be staked.  Then we started finding more pieces of old wood ranging from 3x4 posts, to slat material, to  thin old crate material or box tops.  We've also found pieces from two different tobacco tins, proving we stumbled across Uncle Tiny's friend's old copper claim.

As you notice from my titles listed on the right hand side of the page, I'm an Alaskan prospector.  It's a hobby I've been doing ever since I met my husband, Michael, in 1996.  Together with our partners, one of which is my best friend, Stella, we have spent over 22 years in the Talkeetna Mountains exploring.  Michael, Warren, and Stella had spent another 10 years or so involved in this hobby before I joined them.  While we often use a gold pan in our prospecting adventures, the gold pan is not our primary tool.  We are hard rock prospectors, not prospectors looking for placer gold in a creek.  If gold were easily found in a creek, it's usually already claimed.  Therefore, our treasure hunt takes us higher.

We usually have to start looking about the 4,000 foot level to find anything of value.  Those who have been to Independence Mine Historical park, are probably aware that all the gold mines in Hatcher's Pass are located high in the mountains, way above treeline.  Over the years, we have searched many miles looking for the right signs in the rocks.  Then about 5 years ago, something changed... or should I say, we changed.  On an unction and after much prayer, we decided to give up our knowledge and plans and simply start asking God where to look.  Our current mining claim, the one I'm sitting on in the above video is a result of listening to the Holy Spirit.

The story starts when Stella asked me to go on a hike to find more malachite for her jewelry intentions.  She'd located a small pocket in a particular spot, but it was difficult for her now to get up that high.  She's almost 70, so I decided to go along to be the pack mule just in case we found more than she could carry.  That day as we hiked, she pointed to where we needed to go, but I felt the Holy Spirit pulling me further up stream.  I said to her, "Stella, I know you want to go over there, but I really feel the Holy Spirit saying keep going here."  Stella, a true believer in Jesus, replied, "then on we go."  We walked about another 500 feet when I spotted some blue and green rock on the ground.  Not malachite but definitely of the copper crystal base.  So, we tracked it upstream for about another 300-400 feet then the stone abruptly stopped.  After searching both sides of the creek, one obvious conclusion remained.  The rock had fallen from up above.  I did the craziest and most logical thing, I climbed up the side of the rock face.  It was steep, incredibly steep, and I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was worth it.  At the top of the cliff were 4 outcroppings that were covered with copper staining from the backside.  You couldn't see any of this from the creek floor or valley below.  Only at the right angle could you view this incredible find.  I traveled along the slide upstream, looking for a different route down the mountain, a safer route.  Then I saw it.  Not only did I see the safe route down, but I saw the last outcropping had a vein of pyrite showing.

That vein of pyrite was mixed peacock ore, also known as bornite.  It was beautiful, with all the colors of a rainbow!  Most importantly, it's a great copper ore.  After taking samples and hauling them down the mountain, we returned home with joy to show our partners.  Next, we legally staked our claim.