Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Newsletter

The News
v. 16, n. 7 July, 2012 Going for the Gold Visit RMPTH On The Internet At http://rmpth.com

Contents
1 2 3 6 7 10 11 14 14 15 16 18 19 About The News Meteorite Hunting Eighty Pounds Of Raw Emeralds Ashland Buried Treasure Stolen? Calendar of Events Calendars July Event Schedule Change Nugget Shooting Clinic Largest Silver Nugget Trading Post 2012 Schedule of Events Contact List
Local Legend Leads To British Treasure

Local Legend Leads To British Treasure

Sometimes patience pays off...big time. SAINT HELIER, Jersey, England --

or thirty years, amateur archaeologists Reg Mead and Richard Miles have been chasing a rumor of buried treasure on the British island of Jersey. They were just two local eccentrics with an odd hobby, until this week when they hit pay dirt, literally. "To say it's changed our lives would be an understatement," Mead says. It all began with a local legend. Back in the 1950s, so the story goes, a farmer on the island unearthed a trove of odd-looking silver coins. There were too many to carry, so he filled a potato sack, and plowed the rest back under the ground. Thus began the rumor of a vast hoard. But Mead, now 70, suspected there was more than legend here. The coins were described as having a horse on one side and an odd head on the other. He recognized those as Celtic, and Celtic coins have been turning up on Jersey for centuries. So year after year Mead and Miles swept their metal detectors over a single 20-acre field. Thirty years of patience, and this week it was rewarded. Their detector signaled an enormous amount of metal much deeper than they had been digging.
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Today, we need a nation of Minutemen. Citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. John F. Kennedy

- NOTE JULY, 2012 MEETING HAS BEEN MOVED TO WEDNESDAY JULY 11 DUE TO THE JULY 4TH HOLIDAY.

About The News

Advertising Classified advertising for topic related items is free for non-business ads. See the Trading Post section for donation pricing of camera-ready display ads. Donations for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are available on request. About RMPTH RMPTH is an independent nonprofit hobbyist social club, open to anyone interested in prospecting, detecting or treasure hunting. Its purpose is to provide an educational and social forum of mutual benefit for members. RMPTH holds a monthly meeting and conducts various field outings, as well as offers special presentations and seminars. Active participants have voting privileges. The monthly newsletter, The News, is readily available on the Internet. Persons wishing to receive the newsletter in hardcopy, mailed format are required to provide the amount of $24 per year required to print and mail. Otherwise, no annual dues are charged as the social club functions strictly by donation.

he News is the official newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Club (RMPTH): our mailing address is P.O. Box 271863, Fort Collins, CO. 80527-1863. Opinions expressed in The News are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the club or its members. Publication of information in The News constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither RMPTH, nor its coordinators, nor The News, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions

Articles, letters and short items of interest on prospecting, detecting and treasure hunting topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Submittals for publication may be made in writing or, preferably, in ASCII text format on IBM-compatible disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in The News without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to RMPTH at the above mailing address. Clubs wishing to exchange newsletters with RMPTH are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request.

In Fond Remembrance Paul Emery Lange 1950-2012

Past RMPTH President, RMPTH Member Extraordinaire And Friend To Many We Shall Meet Again
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They dug a small hole three feet down, "and as we put the hand trowel in the last couple of inches, you could hear the metal grinding against metal," Mead said. "I pulled the trowel out and there were five silver coins." "You just go numb," he said. "It's an amazing feeling." Those five coins were just the beginning. A crane was needed to lift the hoard, which weighed close to a ton. Over the centuries, the coins and the local clay have congealed into a solid mass. Archaeologists estimate it could contain as many as 50,000 coins, each worth between $200 and $300. "Whoever buried it, buried it in haste," said Olga Finch, curator of archaeology at the Jersey Heritage Museum. "They dug down as far as they could...and literally just dumped all the coins in the same pit and backfilled it." The coins are about 2,100 years old. At the time, the Roman armies of Julius Caesar were making their way north through France, pushing the local Celtic tribes toward the coast. Jersey is just a few miles off the French coast. Finch says the coins were probably the wealth of an entire village in France, somewhere near modern St. Malo. As the Romans got nearer, the villagers may have sailed across to the island of Jersey and hastily buried their wealth. The trove was found under a hedge, leading to local jokes about an ancient hedge fund. No one knows why they never got back to claim their buried treasure. Perhaps they were killed by the Romans, or sold into slavery. Or perhaps they just forgot where they put it. The hoard, "has still got its secrets and its stories to reveal, which is exciting," Finch says. The clump itself must now be laboriously picked apart. Archaeologists say it may also contain jewelry and other personal items. Legally, it is the British Crown that owns the hoard, but Mead and Miles are expecting to be rewarded for their 30 years of patience, and they plan to share their wealth with the owner of the land. So will Mead and Miles keep digging? "We've done our bit." Mead said. Once the excitement has died down, he said, he's looking forward to, "a quiet brandy and Coke."

Meteorite Hunting
Five Tips For Finding Space Rocks By: Natalie Wolchover Posted: 05/ 2/2012

arth is under constant bombardment by space rocks. When they crash and burn through the atmosphere, most of the debris gets lost to the oceans, while some is buried or gradually weathered away. Nonetheless, plenty of chunks of fallen meteors, or meteorites, are strewn across the accessible parts of the planet. So far, more than 40,000 meteorites have been found and catalogued, and countless more are still out there, waiting to be chanced upon. If you need further incentive for finding something that was forged at the birth of our sun and contains secrets about the nature of our solar system, there's this: Space rocks are worth as much as $1,000 per gram. The following tips will get you started on your search, but be warned: This extraterrestrial treasure hunt requires hard work and dedication. Step 1. Get permission Before you plan a meteorite hunt, make sure that if you find one, you'll be allowed to keep it. Space rocks found in national parks belong to the federal government and cannot legally be kept, said David Kring, a meteorite scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Institute. The law is ambiguous regarding ownership of meteorites found on the 264 million acres of public lands, mostly in the American West (and including many of the country's meteorite hotspots), that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). According to Bob Verish, a meteorite recovery expert who has found hundreds of meteorites, some BLM offices consider meteorites to be artifacts, and thus regard them as government property, but the vast majority of BLM offices do not. It's a pretty safe bet that any meteorites found on public lands will be yours to keep, Verish said "so just go ahead and meteorite hunt." But if you don't want to take the risk of finding something that could theoretically be confiscated in the future, you're better off searching on privately owned land. Get permission to do so. "Meteorites belong to the land owner," Kring said. "Anytime a person wants to look for meteorites, arrangements with the land owner should be made first."

The News, July 2012

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Step 2. Pick a good spot In a world full of rocks, narrowing your search is key. "Meteorites fall anywhere, but they are easiest to spot where there are few terrestrial rocks," said Alan Rubin, a geochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in characterizing newly discovered meteorites. [What If the Sky Actually Fell?] The best hunting grounds are large, barren expanses where a dark rock meteorites tend to be blackish is easy to spot. Deserts, such as Southern California's Mojave Desert, and icy regions, such as Antarctica, are ideal. "Furthermore, the dry conditions in all of these regions (even Antarctica) help preserve the specimens i.e., they are less altered by liquid water," Rubin told Life's Little Mysteries. Within the Mojave or another desert, ancient, dry lake beds are ideal places to search, because their surfaces have likely been exposed for millennia. According to O. Richard Norton and Lawrence Chitwood in their book "Field Guides to Meteors and Meteorites" (Springer, 2008), many meteorites have been found in the Mojave Desert's Rosamond, Muroc and Lucerne dry lakes, among others. You can also search in "strewn fields," or zones where meteorites from a single space rock were dispersed as it broke up during atmospheric entry. There are wellknown strewn fields located near New Mexico's Glorieta Mountain, as well as Holbrook and Franconia in Arizona. Since 1995, thousands of stony meteorites have also been recovered in what appears to be two overlapping strewn fields in Gold Basin, Ariz. Lastly, the Great Plains is an area with scant terrestrial rocks, so out-of-this-world ones come in higher proportions. "Any new rocks farmers dig up have a good chance of being meteoritic," Norton and Chitwood wrote. "Ask permission to scout the fence rows where rocks are often thrown. More than one meteorite has been found in a farmer's rock pile, or propping open a screen door." Step 3. Search for new arrivals Some space rock hunters aren't content to simply look for long-lost meteorites. For folks like Robert Ward, a professional meteorite hunter who last month found a piece of a meteor that was seen crashing through Earth's atmosphere above California the day before, the thrill is finding new arrivals. Furthermore, when a newly fallen meteorite can be matched with the trajectory of the meteor that deposited it, this enables scientists to determine both its mineral
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A LAWYER WITH A BRIEFCASE CAN STEAL MORE THAN A THOUSAND MEN WITH GUNS.
Gold Glossary
Drift - In mining, a drift is defined as a horizontal passageway that is excavated along a rich vein of ore. Hard rock mines usually use drifts to obtain the rich ore, though, some hard rock mines are open pit

TREASURE HUNTERS CODE OF ETHICS

I WILL respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner's permission. I WILL fill all excavations. I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property. I WILL use thoughtfulness, consideration, and courtesy at all times. I WILL build fires in designated or safe places only. I WILL leave gates as found. I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find. I WILL NOT litter. I WILL NOT destroy property, buildings, or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures. I WILL NOT tamper with signs, structural facilities, or equipment.

The News, July 2012

Mineral Specimen Identification

Here is some big gold recovered with detector several years ago from the Yuba River in California.

As part of their community outreach, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Dep. of Earth & Atmospheric Science, Professional Services Division offers FREE MINERAL SPECIMEN IDENTIFICATION. Participants will aid in the education of future Geoscientists! Details and specimen submittal forms with instructions can be downloaded from: SPECIAL OFFER FREE MINERAL SPECIMEN http://college.earthscienceeducation.net/MINPET/ MINID.pdf

Refreshment Volunteers
JulyRick Mattingly August Rick Mattingly SeptemberDick & Sharon French OctoberJohnny & Jeanne Berndsen November Barb Schuldt

Property Wanted For Detector Hunt

RMPTH is looking for private property on which to hold an organized club detector hunt. Obviously, it would be most ideal if this property is known to have seen some past historical activity. If you have such property or know of someone who does, please contact Rick Mattingly to plan a club field outing event.

The News, July 2012

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Eighty Pounds Of Raw Emeralds

Peorian hopes that lifetime effort of treasure hunting may lead to jackpot. By MICHAEL SMOTHERS GateHouse News Service Posted Jun 04, 2012 Last update Jun 04, 2012 PEORIA

That experience became an asset that Jay Miscovich an amateur hunter equipped only with scuba gear, a boat, a map he bought cheap and a metal detector decided he needed. Miscovich didn't know what to do after he dived in January 2010 on a faint alert from his detector off the Florida Keys - it was a discarded beer can - and found the first of about $600 million worth of emeralds strewn across the sandy ocean floor. "He needed help and went to people he trusted," Heimdal said. Now, Heimdal and ORRV await the ruling by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King on whether any or all of the jewels drifted some 40 miles over the centuries from a famously discovered wreck, the Atocha, to Miscovich's site. Evidence showing that happened - or that some of the emeralds may have been stolen from the Atocha wreck area - must convince King there is merit to further litigate the claims filed by the Atocha's discoverers. If the judge finds it doesn't, no further claims block Miscovich's company from courting buyers for the gems that experts have concluded came from 16th century Colombian mines. ORRV would collect about 5 percent of the profits from the sales. That will be the return for what Heimdal estimated was $25,000 worth of "expenses, travel, an advisory role" that his company provided Miscovich, who invested in Heimdal's first company, RSOPS Inc., in 2004. Heimdal's group would continue profiting on "whatever else comes up" from Miscovich's site, Towery said. Many area residents will recall Heimdal as the young adventurer who was kidnapped by Colombian guerillas in 1990 while he worked for a gold-mining venture. He was held for 60 days. Schoolchildren in Peoria collected coins to help his parents raise the money that set him free. Heimdal donated the $40,000 remaining after the ransom was paid to the Peoria Area Community Foundation. Even without the Florida Keys windfall, ORRV is in position to launch new wreck searches as soon as this summer, he said. The company is now dealing with two nations - in Europe and again in South America on projects that he said could provide finds as rich as Miscovich's emeralds. Evidence showing that happened - or that some of the emeralds may have been stolen from the Atocha wreck area - must convince King there is merit to further litiThe News, July 2012

He was on the hunt 22 years ago when a militant gang kidnapped him in the jungles of Ecuador and ransomed him for the $60,000 his hometown folk helped collect. Ten years ago he formed a company that found but lost riches when a South American government broke a contract. When big overseas investments grew scarce, the hopes Heimdal had raised with his core of Peoriabased partners and investors began to sink. Eighty pounds of raw emeralds now safe in U.S. storage, however, have a way of floating hopes again: a federal judge in Florida will rule as soon as June 18 on a claim to the gems. Without commenting on details, Heimdal's group thinks its case is strong. If they're right, they can expect roughly $30 million as their share. The strides and stumbles that Heimdal, 49, and his partners have taken are "a Peoria story," said Terry Towery, spokesman for Heimdal's company, Oceanic Research and Recovery Inc. (ORRV). Heimdal said he heard advice more than once "to call the investors and say it's over." Now, said Towery, "it's about to pay off, if the judge rules the way most people think he will." The discovery of emeralds two years ago was the subject of an April feature on CBS' "60 Minutes." The role Heimdal's company played in it came to public light only after the feature aired. While Heimdal didn't find the gems, over the past eight years he's earned a reputation of experience and trust in the murky business of seeking immense riches left in Spanish galleons wrecked four centuries ago.
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cott Heimdal of Peoria has spent decades searching for sunken treasure.

gate the claims filed by the Atocha's discoverers. If the judge finds it doesn't, no further claims block Miscovich's company from courting buyers for the gems that experts have concluded came from 16th century Colombian mines. ORRV would collect about 5 percent of the profits from the sales. That will be the return for what Heimdal estimated was $25,000 worth of "expenses, travel, an advisory role" that his company provided Miscovich, who invested in Heimdal's first company, RSOPS Inc., in 2004. Heimdal's group would continue profiting on "whatever else comes up" from Miscovich's site, Towery said. Many area residents will recall Heimdal as the young adventurer who was kidnapped by Colombian guerillas in 1990 while he worked for a gold-mining venture. He was held for 60 days. Schoolchildren in Peoria collected coins to help his parents raise the money that set him free. Heimdal donated the $40,000 remaining after the ransom was paid to the Peoria Area Community Foundation. Even without the Florida Keys windfall, ORRV is in position to launch new wreck searches as soon as this summer, he said. The company is now dealing with two nations - in Europe and again in South America on projects that he said could provide finds as rich as Miscovich's emeralds.

Ashland Buried Treasure Stolen?

16, 2012 11:13 p.m. By MANDY VALENCIA Mail Tribune n Ashland, Oregon woman says she buried a safe containing $262,000 in gold Krugerrands in her backyard two years ago. But when she went to dig it up earlier this year, it was gone. On March 15, the woman reported to police that the safe was missing, but since then police have exhausted all leads and the case is dormant, said Ashland police Sgt. Jim Alderman. Police will not release the victim's name, because of the high dollar amount involved. The case was complicated by the woman's refusal to let anyone conduct an extensive search of her property. "She refuses to have her backyard excavated or allow anyone to search with a metal detector," said Alderman. The woman told police she began buying gold in 2006. She said when she returned to dig up the safe, she found other containers of money and precious metals that she had buried, but not the safe. According to investigators, there was no evidence of fresh digging on the property. They theorize that if the safe were stolen it could have happened shortly after it was buried in 2010. The woman was able to provide police with receipts for the gold, proving that it was at one time in her possession. Tracking the coins is difficult because there are no serial numbers, said Alderman. There also are several local places where thieves could cash in precious metals without tipping off police.

Scott Heimdal of Peoria studies a conglomerate artifact, a ships tool melded over centuries with other metals, pulled from a Spanish galleon off the coast of Ecuador. Heimdal, 49, has spent the past decade building a company that seeks sunken treasure, and which could soon see a $30 million profit. Photo provided / Terry Towery, ORRV inc.

Gold dealers are required to file a federal tax form only if someone turns in 25 or more Krugerrands or Canadian maple leaf coins at a time, according to Michael Cotta, owner of Rogue Valley Coin and Jewelry.
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The News, July 2012

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The News, July 2012

Warning - if you don't go detecting or panning within the next 5 minutes, your belly button will unscrew and your butt will fall off.

The News, July 2012

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Calendar of Events
July Meeting Wednesday, July 11. We will meet at the Pulliam Building in downtown Loveland at 7:00PM. Refer to the adjoining map for directions. Meeting Agenda 6:00 - 7:00 Planning & Social Hour 7:00 - 7:30 Business, Announcements & Find of the Month Program 7:30 - 7:45 Break 7:45 - 9:00 "Spanish Treasure Trails by RMPTH member Bud Yoder.

RMPTH DUES
RMPTH is an unincorporated Social Club with no income generated. All expenses are covered by donation. Members are requested to consider donating a minimum of $1.00 at each monthly meeting to cover club expenses.

MAP TO THE MEETING PLACE Pulliam Community Building 545 Cleveland Avenue, Loveland, Colorado

Directions: The Pulliam Community Building is situated on the west side of Cleveland Avenue in Loveland, Colorado. Park at the rear of the building (west side). Entry to the meeting room is from the doorway on the south side of the building (not the main entrance on Cleveland Avenue!).
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July 2012
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 8 15 22 29

2 9 16 23 30

3 10 17 24 31

4
Independence Day

5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21
Nugget Shooting Clinic at Lions Park 9:00-12:00

11
RMPTH Planning Session 6:00P RMPTH Meeting 7:00P

18 25

28

August 2012
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1
RMPTH Planning Session 6:00P RMPTH Meeting 7:00P

2 9 16 23 30

3 10 17 24 31

4
Ames Monument Tour and Vedauwoo Detector Outing

5 12 19 26
The News, July 2012

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

8 15 22 29

11 18
Vics Gold Panning Outing

25
Lucite Hills Gem Outing

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RMPTH Field Outing Statement

NOTE: The Coordinators and participants stay in touch and continue to review and plan upcoming presentations and outings for the year on a monthly basis. Our editor Rick Mattingly needs timely event information for each issue of The News. Please get information about any particular event to him by the 15th of the month to meet the printing deadline for the next issue. Planned trips, outings, activities, and meeting programs are in the newsletter and on line at the clubs website. Planning is a work in progress and additional outings and activities are added and sometimes deleted on an ongoing basis. Events planned in the upcoming month are emphasized to the attendees at the monthly meetings. Contact the Presentations Coordinators or Editor if you have any suggestions or ideas throughout the year for fieldtrips, outings, and programs. The best made plans may change at the last minute due to the illness of the Trail Boss, weather, land access, vehicles breaking down, wrong meeting sites, etc. Please be understanding of extenuating circumstances and contact the coordinator or Trail Boss of a specific event if there is any question of an event being cancelled or changed at the last minute.

content and what part of space it originated from. In the same vein as sending a space probe to an asteroid or comet and collecting a sample but infinitely cheaper finding a meteorite whose incoming trajectory is known can reveal fresh information about the structure and composition of a distant region of the solar system. So, when a new fireball is spotted screeching toward Earth's surface, how do you go about finding the meteorites it deposited along its path? Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said you need to identify the ground below an incoming meteor's "dark flight" the part of its trajectory after it slows below 3 or 4 kilometers per second, at which point it no longer burns and produces light. "If an accurate trajectory is available, dark flight calculations are performed to figure out where pieces of various sizes may strike the ground. These calculations are posted on the Internet, usually on the meteorobs or meteorites list," Cooke wrote in an email. Recently, Marc Fries of the Carnegie Institute of Washington developed a technique to locate falls without the need for a precise trajectory or dark flight. Fries uses Doppler weather radar to detect a "rain" of meteoritic particles falling to the ground, permitting rapid location of meteorite fall zones. It was this technique that defined the fall area for the California meteorite and led to Ward's find. Fries' blog, Radar Obs of Meteor Events, is "perhaps THE URL for a meteorite hunter to check," Cooke wrote. Step 4. Harness the power of magnetism When preparing for your desert hunting trip, Verish recommends packing plenty of water, snake guards and sunglasses; he also warns against going it alone, and advises meteorite hunters to ride out in two vehicles in case one breaks down. Also, don't forget your metal detector. "Most meteorites contain at least some metallic iron-nickel and so will be at least somewhat magnetic and set off metal detectors," Rubin wrote in an email. However, Verish said the best meteorite hunters "find them by eye." Not only can you cover more ground if you're not blindly waving a wand back and forth, but some of the more elusive and thus more remarkable types of meteorites do not contain metal, and can be discovered only by carefully scouring the ground for oddlooking rocks. "These are lunar meteorites, Martian meteorites and igneous meteorites (achondrites) derived from asteroids (essentially basalts)," Rubin wrote.

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"If it's less than 25, then we don't have to do it," said Cotta. Alderman said it's not uncommon for people to find valuables hidden on their property. "People that buy old homes in Ashland once in a while will find silver and gold in the walls or under the house," said Cotta, "because people didn't used to trust banks, and it's sort of happening again." At current gold prices, a Krugerrand is valued at about $1,700, according to goldprice.org. The woman said that two years ago she hired a man to dig several big holes in her yard, which is within Ashland city limits, and then later she buried the gold and other valuables in the holes. Police have interviewed the man who dug the holes, as well as other possible suspects or witnesses, with no results. This story originally appeared in Medford Mail Tribune.

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How to Kill Mosquitoes

I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing water nearby. During the summer, I don't leave home without it. Pass it on.

The News, July 2012

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JULY EVENT SCHEDULE CHANGE

DUE TO FOREST FIRES, ROAD CLOSURES, AND PERSONELL SCHEDULE CONFLICTS THE EVENT SCHEDULE FOR JULY HAS BEEN ALTERED. WE WILL ATTEMPT TO RESCHEDULE ORIGINALLY PLANNED EVENTS TO A LATER DATE. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL BE HOLDING A NUGGET SHOOTING CLINIC AT LIONS PARK IN LAPORT, COLORADO ON SATURDAY, JULY 21 FROM 9:00 12:00. BRING YOUR OWN DETECTORS IF YOU DESIRE TO CHECK THEM AGAINST REAL LIVE GOLD NUGGETS. ATTEND THIS EVENT TO LEARN WHAT EQUIPMENT TO USE AND WHERE TO SEARCH FOR RAW GOLD WITH DETECTOR. SEE YOU AT LIONS PARK!

Recently found rotted coin purse full of silver 10-12" deep under a stone walkway in Pennsylvania! 40 Standing Liberty quarters, 23 Walking halves and one Peace dollar. Thanks to JDinPa
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Largest Silver Nugget

Gold Glossary
Drywasher - A common desert mining tool. The drywasher is like a highbanker but lacks the need for water. A drywasher operates by the use of wind. The light junk material is blown off the top of the sluice in the drywasher and the gold stays on the bottom. The sluice riffles in a drywasher are backwards for better recovery.

he largest silver nugget ever recovered in the United States came from the Smuggler Mine in Aspen, Colorado in 1894. This massive nugget of pure silver weighed a whopping 1,840 pounds and, selling at seventy-one cents an ounce, netted nearly $21,000 for the Smuggler mine. At today's silver prices this nugget would be worth $618,240. A chunk of this silver nugget weighing in at 12 1/2 pounds is on display at the Denver Museum of Natural History.

Gold Facts
Symbol: AU Atomic Number: 79 Atomic Weight: 196.967 Melting Point: 1063 (1945 F) Specific Gravity: 19.2 MOHs Scale of Hardness: 2.5 - 3 Karat 24K = 100% Pure Gold 18K = 75% Pure Gold 14K = 58% Pure Gold 10K = 42% Pure Gold
Monster silver nugget loaded in wagon, along with several other big ones. The Smuggler Mine at Aspen, Colorado

Troy Weights 1 grain = 0.0648 grams 24 grains = 1 penny weight (DWT) = 1.552 grams 20 DWT = 1 ounce = 480 grains = 31.10 grams

Owners Put Historic Mine On The Market

Posted by: Thomas Hendrick, New Media Producer
POSTED: 9:34 am MDT June 13, 2012 UPDATED: 10:01 am MDT June 13, 2012

ASPEN, Colo. -- Aspen's historic Smuggler Mine, which produced millions of dollars of high-grade silver ore and put Aspen on the map, is up for sale. Owners are asking $9.5 million. The property includes access to more ore and two developable lots with expansive views of the town and Aspen Mountain. According to the Aspen Times, a group of seven partners is hoping that a buyer will embrace the mine's historic significance and allow its longtime guides to continue offering Smuggler tours to schoolchildren and the public.

The News, July 2012

Heres Your Chance Dig Out That Checkbook!

YOUR ADVERTISEMENT COULD BE HERE! Call Rick Mattingly at 970-613-8968 or rickmatt@q.com

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Trading Post
FOR SALE: 23-foot Forest River Sierra bumper pull travel trailer with slide out. Has all the comforts of home. Great condition and not used enough - Need to sell ASAP! Price $7995. If you have any questions please call Jennifer Lange at 970-980-5776. FOR SALE: Minelab SD2200 Gold Nugget Metal Detector: 10-1/2" Mono Super Coil, 10-1/2" SD Series Super Coil, two batteries w/wall & car charger, headphones, backpack, waist battery pack, signal enhancer, extra lower stem, instruction booklet & video, carry case. Ready to go for the gold: $1900. Contact Paul at (970) 482-7846. WANTED: 12 Gauge Home Security Shotgun. Mossberg, Winchester or Remington. 40 cal & 45 cal Auto Pistol. Ruger, S&W, SIG, Glock. Guns must be in excellent working condition. Call (970) 222-2323 or leave message with make, model & asking price. I will return your call. WANTED: Used lapidary equipment. Call Kathie 970221-1623 WANTED: Federal or state duck stamps; mint or used. Contact John Hart at (307) 778-3993. YELLOWSTONE FAREWELL Wyoming adventure novel. Diamonds, Gold, Volcanic activity, Prospecting. Factual geology; Fictional story. $18.00 + $4.00 S&H. Spur Ridge Enterprises, POB 1719, Laramie, WY 82073. Internet: http://yellowstonefarewell.com/
About Trading Post The News runs classified ads in Trading Post for three consecutive issues. Trading Post ads for topic related items up to 10 lines (or 70 words) long are free. To place an ad in Trading Post contact Rick Mattingly at (970) 613-8968 evenings or e-mail at: rickmatt@q.com Commercial Advertising Specifications (Monthly Donation Rate) Full Page (8 1/2" X 7") Half Page (3 1/4" X 7") One Third Page (3" X 4") Business Card (2 3/4" X 1 1/2") $30 $20 $15 $ 5

Ads must be received by the 15th of the preceding month. Contact Rick Mattingly for information on this service at (970) 613-6968 evenings or e-mail at: rickmatt@q.com.

All mistakes and misspellings were intentionally made so that you could have the pleasure of finding them.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
The News, July 2012

NOTE: Purchase arrangements are between the buyer and seller only and involves no financial benefit to RMPTH.

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WEEKEND & SMALL-SCALE MINERS CODE OF ETHICS

I WILL respect other prospectors claims and not work those claims without the owners permission I WILL have on-site all necessary permits and licenses I WILL build fires in designated or safe places only, and in accordance with current State and Federal guidelines I WILL be careful with fuels and motor oils and be cognizant of their potential destructive effect on the environment I WILL remove and properly dispose of all trash and debris that I find - I will not litter I WILL be thoughtful, considerate and courteous to those around me at all time I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, fisheries and private property, and respect all laws or ordinances governing prospecting and mining I WILL NOT remove stream bank material, destroy natural vegetation or woody debris dams, nor discharge excess silt into the waterways I WILL NOT refuel motorized equipment in the stream I WILL NOT allow oil from motorized equipment to drip onto the ground or into the water I WILL NOT prospect in areas closed to prospecting and mining

(Continued from page 12)

Step 5. Share with science If you spot what you think might be a specimen from space, ask yourself these questions: Is the rock black or brown? Is it solid, without pores, and dense compared to most other rocks in the area? If a corner of the sample is ground slightly, is the interior metallic silver? (If there is no grinding, don't grind it). Is the sample magnetic? If you answered yes to all of these questions, you probably have a genuine, 4.5-billion-year-old piece of the cosmos. Go ahead and put it on your mantle, but please take a moment to share news of your find with scientists. Though thousands of meteorites have been catalogued already, each new one is a fresh data point, and could contain a key to one of the many unanswered questions about the solar system's formation and evolution. "Hunters can send samples in to meteorite researchers for them to be classified properly," Rubin wrote. "But there is a price for this service: researchers generally demand 20 grams or 20 percent of the total amount of a specimen (whichever is the lesser amount) for their university or museum collections in return for analysis." Huffington Post Published: 05/01/2012 04:39 PM EDT on Lifes Little Mysteries Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

A chrondite meteorite in situ in Rub' al Khali, Saudi Arabia.

Offer Your Assistance To Any Of Our Program Coordinators

The News, July 2012 Page 17

Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Club 2012 Schedule of Events
Month
January

Meeting Program
East Coast Silver Treasure Find Berkely Lake Detecting
Gold Wheel Recovery Systems Presentation By Darrell Koleber

Trip/Activity
No Trip/Activity Scheduled

February

No Trip/Activity Scheduled

March

Historic Gold Scale Presentation

GPS, Compass & Map Clinic

April

Found Explosives Safety Presentation

Prospecting, Detecting & More Clinic at Lions Park Advertised and Open to the Public Berkely Lake Detector Outing Lets Go Gold Panning On The Arkansas Event Clear Creek Gold Outing Keota Ghost Town Outing

May

Gold and Platinum in Wyoming By Wayne Sutherland, WGS

June

Detecting Presentation By Tom Warne & Rick Mattingly

Eldora Ski Resort Detector Outing

July

Spanish Treasure Trails Presentation

Teller City Ghost Town Tour North Park Sand Dunes Tour Eldora Ski Resort Detector Outing Ames Monument Tour and Vedauwoo Detector Outing Lucite Hills Gem Outing Vics Gold Panning Outing Annual Coin & Prize Hunt Colorado Mineral & Fossil ShowDenver Off-Road Detector Outing

August

Gold Refining Presentation By David Emslie

September

Cripple Creek Historic Video By Johnny Berndsen

October

Railhead Camp Presentation By Rick Mattingly

Off-Road Detector Outing

November

Annual Show & Tell & Silent Auction Annual Find of the Year Awards & Christmas Party

Local Detector Outing

December

Flatirons Mineral Club & Model Train Show

Good Hunting in 2012!

Page 18 The News, July 2012

Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Contact List

RMPTH Coordinators Home E-Mail Coordinator Coordinator Coordinator Robert Crain Bryan Morgan Rick Mattingly 1-970-484-6488 1-970-416-0608 1-970-613-8968 brymorg@frii.com rickmatt@q.com

The News Staff Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Rick Mattingly Dick French 1-970-613-8968 1-970-482-2110

rickmatt@q.com
dickyf99@comcast.net

Internet Web Site Web Master Volunteers/Coordinators Find of the Month Joe Johnston Betsy Emond Paul Mayhak Paul Lange Johnny Berndsen Peggy Stumpf Joe Johnston Bryan Morgan Darrell Koleber Volunteer Needed! Tom Warne Jacob Wootton Johnny Berndsen 1-303-696-6950 1-970-218-0290 1-970-482-7846 1-970-663-5776 1-970-667-1006 1-307-632-9945 1-303-696-6950 1-970-416-0608 1-970-669-2599 1-970-635-0773 1-970-980-6016 1-970-667-1006 cjoej1@peoplepc.com pjmcolo@q.com plange50@msn.com johnnyberndsen.com circlestar@yahoo.com cjoej1@peoplepc.com brymorg@frii.com gutshot1016@yahoo.com goldigger48@msn.com jacob-wootton@yahoo.com Rick Mattingly 1-970-613-8968

rickmatt@q.com

Presentations Club Historian Club Librarian Panning Demos Setup & Refreshments Door Prize

General Information Contact: Rick Mattingly at 1-970-613-8968

Visit RMPTH on the Internet at: http://rmpth.com

Lets Go For The Gold !

The News, July 2012 Page 19

The News
Rocky Mountain Prospectors & Treasure Hunters Club P.O. Box 271863 Fort Collins, CO. 80527-1863

JULY, 2012 ISSUE