Originally the Indian Peace medals were made for the British Kings starting in the pre-revolutionary times, then progressed to having one for each of the US presidents until the late 1860s. They come in 2 main types -- a normal, round coin shape that everyone is familiar with, and an engraved, oval type medal.
Since these medals were originally given to the various Indian tribes as a show of friendship, this is where it starts to get exciting for the treasure hunter.
The main reason is to think like this: Say you were given a nice shiny medal from a US government agent declaring their love of peace. Then, a few weeks later, sitting in your teepee minding your own business, that same government agent who gave you the medal comes in again and tells you they are relocating you and your family to the middle of nowhere. Well my first instinct would be to get rid of any thing that reminds me of the government as soon as possible.
Now most treasure hunters and metal detector users know that 90 percent of these medals that were lost or thrown away will be worthless due to where they ended up and what they were originally made of. We will concentrate on the ones that are not. Gold is really not affected by much, and did I mention the ones made of gold have sold at auction for around $100,000.00? Not bad for one swing of a detector!
So where do we start looking? Well, since the entire US was at one time inhabited by at least one Indian tribe, that covers the general question of "where do I look?" I have always concentrated in areas of Pennsylvania where arrow heads were found. Researching these places will narrow down your initial search area. Try contacting a club or a private collector in your area that will be willing to share more information. Reading everything you can about your local history will also help.
We now have a new dimension to add to our treasure hunting arsenal. As with any thing you may discover, be careful how you treat the items you've found and recovered until you know the value of your find. And it goes with out saying that you also need to be careful and considerate of the property you are hunting on.
One final thought... No matter what your treasure passion is, it all comes down to research and planning. If you fail to do these 2 things your chances of success will be slim. So do the research, have fun and good luck in all you do.
Obtained from the History of Mount Carmel Pennsylvania website:
On June 17, 1948 a four-engine United Air Lines DC-6 crashes on a sparsely wooded hillside three miles northeast of town, killing all 43 aboard. Missing Midvalley Colliery No. 2 by only 100 yards, the airliner hit a high-tension power line and burst into flame. All but one of Mount Carmel's fire engines were attending a fire convention and parade in Sunbury, 30 miles away. One report says that the plane was carrying $250,000, and that prior to the crash, a passenger threw the money out the plane. So if you live in that area it might be worth a look. If you have any more information on this treasure please let me know. Not sure what condition the money would be in, but the US government will exchange old damaged money for new currency.
I thought I would take some time to reflect on my first gold dredge and how it came to be mine. After years of looking around and going to every manufacturer out there, it soon became apparent it was going to be a costly matter. Living in Southwestern PA, the dredge season is short and options on where to find gold are limited to at least a 2 hour drive one way; so spending a few thousand dollars on a Gold Dredge was out of the question.
Why I needed the dredge was the first issue. We all start out with the number 8 backhoe (that’s a shovel) a bucket to carry the material in and a gold pan. This all quickly escalates into more and more equipment. We are always looking for better quicker ways to do things. Like adding more classifiers and other toys.
The main reason was... I wanted one.
So the dredge quest began. I ended up choosing eBay as my hunting ground. It became really clear that 90 percent of the people out there selling the equipment did not really care about gold and wanted to just get rid of it. They could not answerer even simple questions about the gold dredge and could not be bothered with shipping it. Driving to CA to pick it up was not on my
to do list.
So after tracking 25 auctions and talking to the sellers, I hit pay dirt! I found the most fantastic person in the world residing in Oregon. The gentleman answered all my questions, made special arrangements for shipping and unknown to me added some bonuses to the shipment. He was getting out of the gold business for health reasons and wanted the dredge to go to someone who would appreciate it.
The auction ended and I probably paid more for it because I wanted the dredge and wanted to help out a person I had only met through email. Payment sent and email exchanged and I was like a kid at Christmas waiting for the mailman.
I happened to be out when the delivery came, I know this because I had to move the mountain of boxes to get in the door. The only thing I was thinking at this point was,
I will never get this thing back together again! I was wrong. The reason for all the boxes was that every separate piece had its own custom made box with a wood frame and custom padding. I have never received any thing packed this good from any manufacturer out there, and this was from a private seller!
So the unpacking began; there was a gold dredge, a fine gold separator, wet suits, gold pans and anything else you could think of. The seller later told me he wanted everything to go to someone who could use it not sell it at his estate sale.
Then the biggest surprise of all was a
laminated booklet showing step by step instructions -- complete with pictures -- of how to put the dredge together and how to operate it. I have never dealt with some one willing to go the extra 100 miles like he did!
So that was my gold dredge buying experience, hope it entertained you and helps restore your faith that there are fantastic people out there in the world. I still look at the manual he sent just to remind me! And as a surprise to him, he received a vial of the first PA glacial gold recovered with his former dredge sent to him the next season as a thank you for being a great person!
Internet marketing and treasure hunting... I don’t get it?!
One of my new ebook customers asked a great question that got me thinking about the people just getting started in Internet Marketing and how I could take the experiences of getting into
Lost Treasure Hunting and
Internet Marketing and show how doing either something you love or something that will give you the time to explore the things you have always dreamed about should be approached the same.
The customer's questions were something I just took for granted, but this would be a good time to expand on them for others who may be wondering the same things.
The question was in a few parts - first, why combine the treasure site with an internet marketing site? Why not just keep them separate like everyone else on the net? And second, why the ebook on Google Adsense and not on Treasure Hunting or some related subject? Finally, will this ebook be the only thing needed for an Internet Marketing business?
I will answer each part separately.
The product in question is a great ebook on Google Adsense with a bonus ebook and a half price discount for the people who find it through the treasure site (kind of like a treasure hunt). This product turned into a complete site covering every subject. To take a look at what it has become, visit:
http://internetmarketingonline.losttreasurehunting.com/Will this be the only thing I need to buy to get successful in internet marketing:This made me think about getting involved in my Treasure Hunting hobby and then thinking about how I got involved in Internet Marketing. And realized I started going about them both the same. My original thoughts were to just do it, and not actually what it would cost to
do it right. This whole hobby started with a 10 dollar Radio Shack metal detector decades ago. Could I do treasure hunting with just that? Yes. Would I be as successful as I am with all the other toys I have now? Probably not!
My
toys include, but are not limited to, the $2,000 invested in detectors, a $1,000 in just basic gold dredging equipment, books, magazines and tapes - $3 (I lied here in case my wife reads this - for real number add 4 zeros!) and over a $1000 in good diving gear. And if you add in the Excursion and Fleetwood pull trailer, I have more invested in lost treasure hunting than most people use to start a brick and mortar business. So asking if
this is all you will need will be the same. Yes, you can do it with just the basics; but you will find there are a lot of things you need to do it right!
Why the ebook on Google and not treasure:I think it is more of an issue of being specific. With Adsense it covers a specific topic, with the treasure and gold there are so many ways to go, with so much info, I just haven’t found the subjects I want to put in book form. Do I go state by state, or general subject? Any ideas out there, let me know! I did promise him a free copy of my first treasure related ebook and a chance to write a review for me and the opportunity to be my first affiliate for it as thanks for getting me going again on the site.
Why combine a treasure related and Internet Marketing site:Well, good question. I believe there are a few reasons. One is to reach the people out there like me, who have a passion for doing something and are looking for a way to take the job thing out of the picture and improve their quality of life. And second, treasure hunters are the most patient people in the world. Sometime, you're tracking down info that is hundreds of years old and changed each time the story was retold; so most of the people getting this do not live there life by instant gratification only. They understand working on something for an extended period of time and getting all the information available to enable them to do something right not just quick!
Well I hope this answers the original question that was asked. Till next time good hunting...
For every gold prospector out there that has been doing it for more than 3 hours, you have a ready supply of concentrates that are full off black sand. Your plan is to take it home because you know there is more fine gold in there than you were able to get out of the pan and into a bottle while you were at you favorite spot.
Well, after doing this a few times and when it gets to be
buckets of gold laden concentrates full of black sand, you need to do something to make the buckets go away and the fine gold find its way into a nice bottle! You also know you have a problem and need to do something when you have to sweep up the basement floor and run the dirt back through your dredge before you can throw it out.
There are many ways to deal with this and lots of products out there, from the spiral wheels to the GPAA marketed mini sluices, which are real similar to what I ended up using . The set up is basically a 2 foot house rain gutter with black miner's mat and some aluminum mesh over the mat. To see what it looks like, just go to eBay and search
Mini Sluice For Concentrates. Make sure to click the
search titles and description box.
The water is powered by a small 12 volt bilge pump that sits in the recovery tub. There are also hose feed models, but I prefer the self contained units.
So we will now assume you have taken the first steps and screened out all the rocks and any big things that will deter you from getting to the fine gold. There are many commercial products out there for classifying as well as using basic household colanders and screens to accomplish this. I prefer and recommend the commercial ones designed to fit into the gold pans and into each other.
Next we will use a gold magnet to start the black sand removal from the fine concentrates. Since you are starting with dry concentrates this is relativity easy -- pass the gold magnet over the concentrates to separate the black sand from the gold bearing sands. I take the black sand and put it into a rock tumbler with some different size white quartz rocks that I know every one has laying around. After running the tumbler for a few days this black sand is ready to go through the mini sluice for the first time.
While the dry black sand is running in the tumbler, we will now run the sandy concentrates that were left through the mini sluice and remove more black sand. I have a smaller gold magnet for this purpose, a gold magnet lets you engage and release the magnet and put the black sand where ever you want it -- not where
it wants to go. You never want to use a regular magnet with out putting some type of easily removable cover between the sand and the magnet; you will ruin the magnet because you will never get all the sand off the magnet.
With a steady flow of water running through the mini sluice, feed the concentrates or tumbled black sand into the sluice. Add a small amount (like a tablespoon at a time) and let the water and gravity do their job. While this process is ongoing, you should be using your smaller magnet to remove the black sand from the sluice and place it in a gold pan or other non magnetic container to dry. Then repeat process .
This process will continue until you stop getting gold you can recover. There are ways to remove the ultra fine micro gold that you cannot see, but this involves using chemicals and other processes. My advice is to find some one who does this and if you like them give them the black sand when you are done - if not sell it to them.
I hope this information helps you to continue enjoying and profiting from your gold hunting adventures. And I hope every shovel of dirt you turn over or every dredge hole you dig is full of gold!
