The idea for a Journal of the weekend came from the opening chapter of Jimmy Buffett’s new book, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty", which I just started reading on this trip. My wife could not accompany me on this prospecting trip and I hoped that by this means she could vicariously live the weekend through this Journal. This would be the greatest length of time that we had been apart in our 5 years together.
5/27/99 Thursday
3:30 pm
Finished packing up all the things I could remember that I needed to take, couldn’t find the tent.
4:00 pm
Gassed-up at the ARCO Station on Murray and T.V. Highway.
4:45 pm
Stopped at Fry’s in Willsonville to get a CD Adapter and batteries so I could listen to my new Jimmy Buffett album.
6:00 pm
Stopped in Albany to get $26.00 of groceries and Dredge gas.
8:15 pm
Arrived at camp. 132 miles from Beaverton, 29 miles off Hwy. 20 at Sweet Home. Al & Marlene W., Elton O’, and some prospectors from Albany were there ahead of me. Put Ice Cream into Al & Marlene’s fifth wheel’s refrigerator freezer. Bob E. and Clarence & Donna M. showed up soon after me. We all selected our camp sites. Backed into track next to bank above the river left by ODF&W from their road work a couple of years ago. Had a yogurt for supper, blew-up an air mattress. Clarence tried to help with the air mattress but by the time he found the right adapter it was inflated. After gathering enough wood (and a candy bar) for a campfire we gathered for a half hour or so of pleasant chatter.
10:30 pm
Listened to news on the radio and then to bed.
5/28/99 Friday
4:00 am
Birds started their morning calls. Not much sleep; every time I moved I had a new spot to warm up. Slept in long johns, T-shirt and Hooded Sweatshirt.
5:30 am
Got up momentarily, spread out a blanket over the sleeping bag then turned on radio and listened to the news. Got out my Jimmy Buffett book and read until my fingers got too cold to hold the book open, about two short chapters. Curled up and slept for another hour or so.
7:30 am
Finally got up to a fantastic morning; not a cloud in the sky. Checked out the river and log jam. There are three BIG trees in the jam that are new. There are now two trees completely crossing the river; one is about 5’ across at the big end. The river had to be about 12’ higher than it is now in order to carry these up that high. Cleaned up the Fire Pit and most of the camping area. Collected over five gallons of trash. Bob E. found a bucket with a broken bottom down by the river that we placed the trash in. Also picked up 50+ Shot Gun Shells. Collected enough firewood to last the weekend. Visited with prospectors from Albany, invited them to join our club so that "they could dredge on our claim legally." They thought they had a perpetual open invitation to dredge on our claim. We informed them that there were no such open invitations, so they moved out. 9:00 am
Fixed breakfast; 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, 2 cups of hot chocolate and a cup of yogurt. Had to borrow some cooking oil from Marlene. Checked out camping/dredge gear and discovered the tent and that I already had about three gallons of gas. 10:00 am
Checked out potential dredging spots with Clarence and Al. Found a pretty green rock with one side sparkling with pyrites. 11:45 am
Clarence and Donna went to Lebanon to replace their Camper Battery; what a time for it to die. Marlene and I had a dish of Vanilla Ice Cream with Blackberry Jelly; ‘m ‘m good! Collected some digging tools and went down to river and scrapped out a bucket and a half of gravel on the down stream side of that large outcrop at the bottom of the main trail down to the river; didn’t find much more than a few sparkles. The river is three to four feet higher than last October when Lloyd and Terry were dredging on the claim. I wimped out that weekend; it was raining too hard with no place to get dressed and it was too cold for my enthusiasm to take over.
3:00 pm
Went down the road to check out the other campsites and the river down stream. The river has been flowing so hard that there are hundreds of feet at a time where the bedrock is exposed on the bottom. The deep pool below the lower falls looks very tempting.
6:00 pm
Started supper. Mushroom soup with two pieces of toasts cut up and dunked in, 2 Oatmeal Cookies, a glass of Milk. Wrote in Journal while eating and read another couple of chapters in my book. Clarence came by and presented an invitation to join them for supper. Had some Stroganoff, String Beans, and Cottage Cheese. Life like this with your friends out in such a beautiful spot just doesn’t get much better. After supper went back to my camp and performed the necessary KP.
8:30 pm
Another gorgeous sunset and mild evening to sit around the campfire for another couple of hours of chatter with Al and Marlene, Clarence & Donna, John A. and family, Bob E. and Tracy B.
10:30 pm
Left campfire for bed again before everyone else was ready to quit.
5/29/99 Saturday
8:30 am
Slept much more comfortably but couldn’t stay in bed any longer on such a wonderful day, even it was quite chilly; besides the air mattress had gone flat. Walked around taking pictures of camping area and river. Started breakfast: 2 cups of Hot Chocolate, cut up about 2/3 of a large potato and fried it up (forgot to pick up an Onion), a glass of Milk, and a couple of Cookies. Then Packet of Vitamins remind me every morning of my sweet wife back home.
9:30 am
Bob E. and Royal got out their 2 ½" Dredges and selected spots to start dredging. Water is extremely cold, according to them.
10:30 am
Terry and Marianne C. showed up and visited for most of the day.

Worked on a set-up to hook a Trip Wire into my Pickup’s alarm system - it works!!! Now I can hook a fishing line to my equipment and if it is moved, my truck alarm goes off.
11:30 am
Eric, Dawn & family (with their dog Ginger) arrived and started to unload a massive amount of camping paraphernalia.
1:00 pm
After lunch and a Banana mixed up with some Ice Cream went with Clarence to check out other claims up river. Ran off three more groups of Claims Jumpers. They thought they were on the GPAA claim, "Momentary Lapse Of Reason" which was on the other side of the road from where it really is. Must have had their own "Momentary Lapse Of Reason." Checked out Clarence’s claims on a tributary to Quartzville Creek. Got back just in time for the meeting.
7:00 pm
Meeting actually started a little later than announced, but no one really complained. Ron & Sue came up just for the meeting, Gunnar M. even made an appearance. There were about 15 people in attendance.
8:30 pm
Made Top Ramen Noodles with the rest of the Potato from Breakfast, a glass of milk, and a Cookie.
10:30 pm
After another hour of relaxation and pleasant company and conversation around the fire headed for bed. Put another blanket over the one from the night before; got to cut out the drafts. Had to blow up a second air mattress, took 40 lung fulls of air.
5/30/99 Sunday
8:05 am
Rousted myself out of the sack; best night so far, cannot stay in bed any longer on such a lovely day; times-a-wasting! Had a LARGE bowel of Oatmeal, a glass of Milk, a cup of Hot Chocolate, Yogurt and Vitamins.
9:30 am
Watched Bob E. freezing his buns off again. Helped Royal bring is Dredge up out of the creek. Took some more pictures.
12:30 pm
Packed up my gear and trailer and followed Clarence up to his claims. Put in Dredge and worked a bend in the creek for about three hours. Most of dredging was in shallow, but swift water. When the dredged area got too deep to stand I put on the wetsuit hood, the weights, and hooked into the air. However, I was only able to work under water for about ten minutes. There was nothing to get a hold of to keep me in place; no boulders to hide behind or push off from. Besides, the Mask and mouth piece were making my mouth bleed. Sure will be nice to have some teeth back. It is sure is hard to hold the mouth piece in with no upper teeth. Dredged for another twenty minutes or so standing up, bent over. Finally had to give up when back started to cramp. Moved dredge around a bend and up river, with Clarence’s help, and tied it up next to his for the night. Water was actually not too cold. Being in the sun probably helped. I actually had to dunk under a couple of times because I was TOO warm. Even my feet and hands were not terribly uncomfortable. After clean-up I had about a dozen spots of color, only one really big enough to call a flake; not thrilling but at least I wasn’t skunked!
5:30 pm
Back at camp, Bob E. had found a nice crack in the bedrock about 8 inches wide and a foot or so deep. He brought up at least one nice little picker and a lot of color. Marshall T., family and a friend had been in camp most of the afternoon but couldn’t stay for potluck. Ira and Ruth C. had also come up for the day and stayed for supper. Eric F. had brought a Slow Smoker and some steaks for potluck; these were the HIT of the supper. In addition to some wonderful steak there was: Lasagna, Spaghetti, Sea Shell Pasta, Salads, Sour Dough Rolls, Chips, Salsa, Potato Chips, Brownies, Coffee Cake, and even Ice Cream. About the time the people started on dessert, the fire was lit and people rearranged their chairs around the fire pit. Even with the best efforts of John, David, Ian, and Amanda they couldn’t burn all of the wood that had been collected on our first day.
10:00 pm
Almost fell asleep in my chair at the camp fire so went to bed with a smile on my face while listening to the voices and laughter across the way from my bed in the back of the pickup.
5/31/99
8:10 am
Up again. What a wonderful relaxing weekend! Even though I’ll need to bring a better sleeping bag on the next outing, it was a most enjoyable and relaxing weekend. Fixed scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, milk, and vitamins. Everyone was packing up and getting ready to leave right after their breakfasts. A total of 29 people spent at least part of the weekend at the outing.
11:30 am
Everyone had left except Clarence and Donna and myself. Went back up stream and packed up dredges.
1:50 pm
Left for home. Clarence treated for A&W Root Beer Floats in Sweet Home; perfect ending for the weekend! Bought gas in Salem for $1.199. Went across Commercial Street to Wal-Mart to replace a Wiper blade which had broken; looked like rain closer to home. Stopped at my brother’s home and watched the last 2 minutes of a disappointing Blazer’s game. When I left for home it was raining quite heavily; it actually rained all the way to Highway 217. Got home around 7 pm. My wife and grand-daughter were outside waiting for me to drive in. What a nice homecoming to end the weekend prospecting trip.

FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ed Mitchell, retired Army officer, rocket scientist, and amateur prospector writes in Monterey County, California. He has spent over fourteen years crafting Gold Rush 2000--the first of three mystery adventures in the Gold Trilogy.

He experienced life’s challenges and honed his writing skills as he progressed through the following major life/career events: --Turn-key child sent to Juvenile Hall, later a foster child on welfare, living on adairy farm.
-- West Point graduate, Army Airbourne Ranger Infantryman; served overseas in Alaska and Korea.
-- Graduate from the Defense Department’s Program Management school, performed program management within the “Star Wars” program.
-- Selected as a RAND Fellow to work one year at the RAND Corporation.
-- Served in the U.S. Space Command before and during Desert Shield.
-- Aerospace Engineer/Manager conducting launches of National Missile Defense interceptors.

Additional information available at web site: http://www.goldrush2000.net.

Not having done a book review since High School, I am a little rusty. So I will start out with the physical Characteristics of the book, then go into the story content.

The book GOLDRUSH 2000 is a hard back book with very easy to read lettering. It is published by California Coast Publishing out of Salinas California.

The book it said to be a mystery thriller, but I found it to be much more. I found it to be an adventure novel rapped in a thrilling mystery with excitement, gore, and romance. It was pure enjoyment to read. I could not hardly wait to pick up the book again to see what was going to happen next. Ed Mitchell first book is a real winner. I do believe we have a brand new hit author.

The story has its good guys, bad guys, and even bad good guys. It is a thrilling adventure of finding a gold strike, and trying to hang onto it by outsmarting the bad guys.

Every chapter brings a new twist to the story, and what makes it a very good novel, is that I could not out guess what was going to happen. I had to read the next chapter to find out. The novel just wouldn’t let me go. I just had to finish it.

Walter specifically wrote regarding rock collecting but it translates into outdoor use for all... p As promised here is a precise methodology for reclaiming roads on BLM land and USFS administered lands. The key to remember on all dealings with the government is to be rational and factual not emotional. Be matter of fact and if the agencies don't cooperate keep precise records and copies.

Send all correspondence return receipt so that you have an agency staffers signature. This will keep everyone honest. The Methodology Note:

I would assume that rockhounds don't need every road reopened but rather only those that are required and have previously been used to gain reasonable access.

RS2477 Right of Way
1) Acquire topographic maps and aerial photographs showing a clear sign of a road. You may need to acquire and older copy of the topo map since the USGS has kindly been eliminating many roads from maps since the 1980s. You will need one or both of these to establish a physical presence.
2) Prepare a statement that indicates that the said road(s) have been used and maintained in accordance with the Hodel Policy. Under this policy a road may be maintained by vehicle traffic, obstacle removal or filling of holes to allow passage. These are all simple but legally acceptable methods of maintaining the road.
3) Go to the BLM or USFS depending on whose property the road lies. Walk into the office and tell them that you want an application for RS2477 Right of Way Grant to reopen an unlawfully closed road in compliance with the Hodel Policy and FLPMA (Federal Lands Policy Management Act). Get the name of the staffer and transcribe your conversation. They will likely hem and haw and deny its existence. If they refuse to provide you with the necessary forms go to the County Board of Supervisors and present the evidence.
4) Send registered letters to your senator, representatives and governor with the same information as presented to the Board or BLM or USFS. Include petitions with signatures of as many rockhounds or other land users that you can assemble in a legally correct manner.
5) If no action is taken keep hammering away. Use your right to an audience at the County Board and request that RS2477 be made an agenda item. Get as many rational people together as possible and be well represented at the meeting.
6) If there is still no action organize the clubs and land users and contact the news media. There is nothing that makes a politician more nervous than press indicating that they are not listening to their constituents. Its bad for votes.
Wilderness Areas
Note:
I would assume that rockhounds don't need every wilderness area reopened but rather only those that have previously been accessible.
1) Cite the Wilderness Inventory Handbook and request a copy from the agencies of GPO.
2) One of the basic tenets of the Wilderness Act is that agencies can't legally close roads simply to create wilderness areas. This is specifically prescribed in the Wilderness Inventory Handbook guidelines used by both the USFS and BLM. 3) A road is also defined therein and can be a trail, cowpath, mine access road, etc....

Again remember that the odds are that there is NO property in the 33 western states affected by land use laws that would qualify under the guideline criteria. A wilderness area must be roadless. If your aerial photos show a road then it is not a wilderness area. Petition the responsible agency for removal of the wilderness status. Again cover your bases with registered letters and the like.

PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE STARTING>>>THERE ARE HINTS WHICH MAKE THINGS GO EASIER.

Directions:
1. Purchase the AMPROBE from Graingers (on the web)..or a local store.
2. Familiarize yourself with its operations ---you may wish to use it as -is.
3. If you wish to modify it.., heres how.
4. Remove battery.
5. Unscrew case cover (one screw is hidden under the logo sticker)(No screw in the LOWES probe)
6. You will find a small printed circuit board wired to a ferrite antenna.
7. Remove screw holding circuit board in place.
8. Gently lift out circuit board and antenna
9. Antenna will have a small seperate phenolic board lightly glued to it, remove the board with a gentle prying with a screwdriver (This phenolic board is the VOLTAGE detector)
10. The phenolic board will have a single insulated wire soldered to it. Remove the single wire (cut) and discard. Now discard the tiny phenolic board, it is not needed. If you are using the LOWES probe, there is no phenolic board...just clip off the black wire on the "Voltage" end.
11. You will see that the ferrite antenna is attached to the large circuit board with 4 annealed copper wires we must lengthen the wires
12. Notice where the 4 wires are soldered to the circuit board...there is a number on the board at each of the 4 points...using masking tape, label the 4 wires with the proper number.
13. Now you may unsolder the 4 copper wires from the board.
14. Using your solder iron, "lengthen" each of the 4 wires, using a 15" piece of #22 (approx) of insulated wire, Re-label your wires at the new ends.
15. Now set the antenna assembly aside to cool.
16. Now get your 12" piece of PVC.
17. You will need to drill 2 holes in the PVC- for your bolts
18. Place the PVC caps on the pipe..DO NOT GLUE YET
19. Hold the pipe up against the AMPROBE body as shown in the picture to determine about where to drill your bolt mounting holes thru the pipe I drilled my holes in the pipe about 2" and 4" from the end of Pipe cap
20. Mark and drill your holes...to match your bolt diameters...thru the centerline of the pipe in on side and out the other (2 walls).
21. Test your bolts to fit.

"All persons who want to go to Quartzville will meet at the courthouse, armed and equipped, at 3 o'clock this (Thursday)evening. Everyman must furnish his own rations (say for 4 days) horse, and other necessaries gratis."

Editor Clarke, it should be noted, was an early stockholder in the "White BUM" lode during the Santiam River gold rush.

Oregon's most famous gold rush came, of course, in the early 1850s when, by some reports, virtually all of the state's able-bodied men hurried off to seek their fortunes in the gold fields in California.

Two areas in the state, Southern Oregon's Josephine County in the mid-1850s and Eastern Oregon's Powder River-Auburn-Canyon City domain in the 1860s, remain famous their short4ived, overpopulated and often riotous mining industries.

Others, from time to time, sparked similar activity, Quartzville among them.

Gold was first found in mountainous eastern Linn County in 1849, according to a 1960 account in The Oregonian of events there written by longtime Salem newspaperman and historian Ben Maxwell. But those who turned their hands to it earned only about $4 a day, "small pickings" to those with dreams of fortunes to be scooped up in California.

The area didn't really start to bubble until after 1860, when the Oregon Statesman newspaper in Salem reported miners pulling $2 in gold from each pan, and a display went up in Bill Griswold's general store purporting, to show ore specimens [ that would yield $5,200 a ton.

Not long after, I.R. Moores hauled in a sample of gold-bearing quartz he claimed would assay at $100,000 a ton.

The Santiam gold rush was on.

The Oregonian for July 9, 1864, reported a proposed to the santiam mines and Quartzville at the base of Gold Mountain through Oregon City south to Sublimity, across Potter's Ferry on the North Santiam and east through Fox Prairies and Meadows. By that time, 400 to 500 claims were being worked.

The town of Quartzville was laid out in 1865, although Maxwell reported later that searches of Linn County records failed to turn up any trace of an official plat. By that time, he wrote, "this El Dorado had a population of panners, prospectors and panhandlers estimated to number at least 1,000."

Few if any took away much to show for their labor, and by late 1865 Santiam gold stocks were "regarded as little more than waste paper." A visitor in 1871 found "the place to be in decay, a ghost town where bats and owls roosted in vacant buildings and where gaping, exhausted tunnels had the appearance of hideous bores."

Efforts to revive the mines began in 1889. In 1894, W.B. Lawler announced plans for a20-mile road from the rail head at Gates to Quartzville, .which he renamed Anidem - Medina spelled backward, for reasons,unknown except to Lawler who left no explanation where he'd install facilities for 1,000 miners. His company, backed by New York and European capitalists, invested $100,000, recouped its costs in the first year, then faded and finally folded in 1897.

The discontented miners in Ani-dem nee Quartzville turned their attention to greener, or whiter, pastures- the Klondike. The Anidem post office closed on June 16, 1902.

There was some activity during the Depression by unemployed men who built shacks, lived off the land and hoped to pull a little profit from their gold pans.

The site today, on federal land northeast of Green Peter Reservoir on the Middle Fork of the Santiam, is mostly memory, the only real remnant being namesake Quartz-ville Creek.

Amateur prospectors and rock-hounds still find it the source of satisfaction, if not riches.

Questions, comments or suggestions about a bit of Oregon history you'd like us to explore? Call Inside Line, 225-5555, and enter 4815. Or send e-mail to johnterry@nes.oregon.com