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Not much gold in northern michigan

W

WaterHound

Member
Waterhound here, Theres really not that much gold jewelry way up here in michigan, dispite what you here on U TUBES . The swim season is only 2 to 3 months long and competition is fierce , for water hunting anyway. Ringmaster a 40 year veteran of the hobby has told me its' not like it was 10 or 20 years ago. And he's very good at it. On the average from the fellows that I know that water hunt , six to ten gold rings per season , a few pendants ,and maybe a chain. But they travel around alot to find a Goldie . This isn't Florida , but if your wanting to see some beautiful country with alot of small lakes and maybe fishing, and just have fun ,and put in some coil time , then you won't be disappointed, alot of two tracks to drive down as well on state land. Go South young man ! That's where the gold and girls are not! In the frozen north.
 
But! If you do go south to Florida on spring break , be careful ! The gold is not worth losing your marriage, your purity and your soul .
 
What about the older beach's, places that closed many years ago with no traces of a beach there now.
 
Yes old beachnut, their are places like that, and someone might find something good, but the muck and sediment and weeds in many places can get very deep, in michigan theirs not much bottom movement , only in lake michigan ,or bigger lakes the sand or muck moves in and out. So if the swim area bottom doesn't get used for years it fills in .also the swim hole can be private now. thats why lm thinking about a small boat, their are alot of resort swimming areas but the access is private ,but the water is public domain, doing this is better in the off season, before they put docks out or after summer , road ends where fire trucks have access to the lake can be good spots .also federal camp grounds with swim holes ,and private camp grounds, I'm thinking that maybe paying for a nights camp site or cabin may pay off , making sure they will let you detect their of course . Federal campgrounds . It depends on the ranger in charge. I know of a state park in mi that's been off limits for years , people flock their , it's a gold mine , but
untouchable unless your a diver and come in on the lake side under the ice . Good luck
 
Thank you control center and forum moderator ,I'll try to be more careful next time.
 
I stand corrected because trying to build a good relationship with state and federal parks is far better than causing a heat score on the forum between detectorists . That was not my intention ,but it started to go that way, on my part . So thanks to the wise moderators for cleaning up my poorly worded comments, and letting me start over. So there is gold in michigan, if you're willing to work for it and do your home work , I just recently came across a video on panning for gold in the rogue river just south of rockford mi .that fellow is finding some sizeable nuggets for michigan . Probably left by the glacier , and they are finding some along lake Superior in the upper peninsula where gold was mined years ago . But what I'm wondering would panning or sluice boxing produce more than water hunting for gold jewerly here in michigan ? . If you got lucky , just like ring hunting I guess, but I must say it would be a real joy to find raw gold nuggets panning ,that sounds like fun ! Just to experience it , because the black hills , Arizona , or many places out west seem so far away just to possibly come up empty handed , and. M ding my way all the way back to mi. My wife told me even if I go to rockford mi. To pan for gold I can take ring master , not her . Ouch ! I'm trying to make this a family fun time . YES ! There's gold in michigan , but not enough for every detectorist in america to vacation here this summer , I'm thinking the biggest treasure you find would be are natural resources, more than any gold , to be continued, waterhound
 
But ! Here are some areas l would highly recommend if a detectorist and his family were looking for nice places to vacation especially while traveling in a motor home. My first choice above all , would be along the lake michigan shore line from manistee all the way up to frankfort and empire. There are many small towns and road ends where people swim in beautiful steamy clear lake michigan. With, white sandy beaches , where you can metal detect without being hassled, lots of motels,. beautiful scenery , and friendly people that welcome tourists . Traveling past Onekama and Arcadia you will find Elberta bluffs and the mile or so long beach could keep a family M dinging and swimming all summer. It Is so step back in time beautiful. The bluffs are 3 to 5 hunderd feet high, .over looking lake michigan and frankfort's harbor, you can drive down to its beaches. And right next to Elberta is frankfort mi , just across the betsie river. Frankfort is an old lake michigan steamer port, kind of up scale vacationing yuppie coffee shop cool antique and little art shops. Of course a beautiful little harbor and boat marina and its own lovely beach. Lots of places to eat fancy or like the locals do. The town is lively in summer , but its neighborhoods are still quiet. and friendly. Lots of tourists that love to wear gold. And I haven't seen many motels with their own pools, so they're still using the lake, which is a good thing. Just north east of frankfort is crystal lake I would say one of northern Michigan's most cleanest, beauityful , sky blue lakes in northern michigan with wide white sandy beaches a definite place for a detectorist to hunt some of the lakes public beaches in the town of Beulah on its most eastern shore. FInally traveling north of frankfort along scenic M 22 it turns into the sleeping bear national lake shore, all the way to empire, glen arbor and past it. And it's totally closed to metal detecting , water and land. How ever the town of empire another old steamer town allows metal detecting on its township beach and it's a nice one packed in summer, their is a parking fee .and empire village ask if you find something from the 1800s shipping days they would appreciate it being turn in. After empire it's all sleeping bear dunes glen arbor and beyond all closed to metal detecting except a few breaks in the parks boundaries , untill you come to Leland fish town. On the lake michigan shore . Then you can detect its village beaches . This place is again a steamy vacation oriented detecting destination with beautiful beach and maple hardwoods rolling hills and tall white pines over looking lake michigan . Where it's not all about the gold. Waterhound
 
WH, thanks for the travel advice. I've only been to the UP and west coast once and absolutely loved it. My wife has family in central MI and we are planning on discovering the state more in the coming years. Your writeup will be a great help!
 
Thanks champ ! For your response , I'm glad it was some help , I know it sounded like a travel brocure , lol, and I should have shortened it some. After I read it again it made me think of buying a R V and packing up my wife and her doggie and leaving for the summer, that side of the state on on lake michigan is gorgeous ! And just hitting the swim holes and running would be a shame. You mentioned the upper peninsula of michigan , some time I would like to travel along lake Superior on the michigan side to copper harbor and back down to the Mackinac Bridge , the big rocks along the lake are awesome . To be continued.
 
WH, that would be a great UP trip- tons of beautiful scenery and interesting rocks. But you would miss out on the equally beautiful interior. We were there in mid May and the rivers/waterfalls were Raging. We all but had the whole outback to ourselves too. Be sure to hit the old mining spoils piles if you are so inclined. We left more ore/mineral samples than we took due to weight limitations!.


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I here you champ, years ago my family would vacation in the. U P. AND AS SOON AS WE CROSSED THE BRIDGE IT WAS LIKE A DIFFERENT COUNTRY, WILD AND FREE , I DO RECALL ALL THE WATER FALLS. AND undisturbed wilderness , we were on are way to Tahquamenon Falls , new berry , or porky pine mountains , lake of the clouds , and it was like Canada up by wawa Ontario , it was cool as a child hiking up some of the water falls , and of course visiting the bear dumps , that was scary for a kid in the back of a pick up. Lol , now you got me wanting to go up their this summer or fall, it has been 45 years since I've been up their , question ! I can tell by your equipment your serious about the hobby, did you find good places to metal detect up north. One hobbyists I know has family in Marquette mi and said he found a campground that was probably never detected before, because of all the treasure he found , very exciting ,
 
No, didnt detect as we were up there for a wedding in Marquette and it was still a bit cold for any water work. We did the rockhounding thing tho but barely scratched the surface of that even in the couple of weeks we had. I guess it was kind of like a recon trip cause I now know I can spend an entire year up there and still not see and do everything I'd like. Our route started in Holland, went up the west coast, over the Mac and then crisscrossed as much of the UP as we could get to. Copper Harbor was kinda artsy flavored (this was about 2005) but very wild right out of town. If anyone is ever in Houghton, and have the slightest interest in minerals/gems, the best display I have seen outside of the Smithsonian is in the AE Seaman Museum at Mich Tech College. My wife and I are both geologists, and told the clerk how well done the collections were, and she insisted on us meeting the curator who insisted on giving us a private tour. That's what the people up there are like- Hometown America from the 50s at its finest.

Oh, the groom told his wife that it was customary in the UP for the bride to give the groom a new rifle or shotgun for the wedding and she believed him. Since he worked at the local Cabelas(?), he got a discount and got to pick exactly what he wanted as well. She's a keeper.

Also, I don't consider myself serious about much of anything. I am just a hobbyist that detects solely for fun. All my machines are way smarter than I am.
 
Solely for fun ! I need to keep that mindset , my mx sport has more bells and whistles than I'll ever use . Smart phones , and smart detectors , even with G P S , maybe some day they will tell your heart rate . I guess I'm just a aluminum range beep and dig detectorist , quarters also , everything else I leave for others , I got the mx for its great depth and sensitivity. But usually stay in coin and jewerly , did you say home town from the 50s , my wife and I miss those days , and want the old America back. Dream on . HEY I seen this show on TV it was under water footage in lake Superior of natural undisturbed big long veins of copper ore ,that ! Was Awesome . IT looked like it was flowing at some time , the U P sounds so very interesting again. Waterhound
 
Almost forgot ! When you said concerning the fellow that got the shotgun for a wedding gift by his new bride , and you said she's a keeper , you meant his wife right , lol awhile back my precious wife said to me , am I being submissive to you enough , where's that comming from, I don't want to wear the pants in the family . Shes such a good faithful wife and mother, christian , and best friend , she's my best treasure .
 
Waterhound your wife sounds like a keeper, I'm glad you appreciate her, keep up the good work .
 
I have found gold in every lake I have been in in Michigan, From down south to Jackson, west to Holland and as far up as lake Cadillac. Weeds? No problem. Use a smaller coil and push them over. Patience and going where others do not give me the most finds. There are 11 thousand and three lakes here in this state. Nobody has got it all!
 
You must be very proud of yourself scuba detector ! of all the stuff you've found in every lake you have hunted in michigan ! I don't think I said someone has gotten it all , I just said theirs not that much gold compared to Florida or places like that . I think you misunderstood some of the things I said . Your comment about a small coil is a good idea in the weeds but it's not going to work if there's a foot of mud as well, but ! Your the one that knows there are 11 thousand and 3 lakes in Michigan so I respect your knowledge . I was talking about Northern Michigan past Cadillac and manistee , a area that I metal detect with others as well , and of course yes someone could come behind us with a little coil and find more things , I never believe a place is fully hunted out just thinned out until the next drops . I guess if someone is scuba detecting they could float above the sediment covering a old swimming hole , but my point was by my experience if I'm wading a old swim hole and theirs a bottom build up of mud , leaves , dead grass and see weed , over 8 inches deep it's very hard for me to walk in and force my coil down to the hard surface bottom and then move the coil back and forth in the mud , no mater how small the coil is ,and to try shake out leaves and lime mud and rotten vegetation Out of my scoop That's what I meant by old swim holes filling up with sediment and growing over with weeds I do believe if it's only weeds maybe a little settlement you could push your way through It like you do ,but as we know each lake is different and detectorist need to adjust to the bottom Conditions . When I started my post I was talking generally about finding alot of gold in mi , and from my experience and others that have been M dinging over 30 years gold seems to be getting harder to find in northern michigan , less people swimming the old sites , we have AC in are cars and homes and businesses, to get cooled off with and many resorts have nice clean heated pools right on the beaches , and people are wearing cheaper wedding bands even fake zarconian diamonds , of course we're still finding lots of jewelry silver stainless steel and every thing else but theirs no reason to start a gold rush up here yet ! And lm glad your still very successful. I wonder if pool cleaning would have extra dividends . Waterhound.
 
You are right, I have a BIG advantage. I can hover above the silt, muck, weeds, and leaves and push my machine down deep in them. I could never wade where I sink 2 foot in the muck. However I can pull gold and silver out of the muck with no problem while diving.

I find the old overgrown swim areas that have been taken over by weeds and muck and I am very successful. If I had to rely on finding new gold I would be in trouble. If you go to my website at http://scubadetector.com you will see I find a lot of the older stuff.

I have been in the Detroit River the last two years really having a blast at a very old unused swim area. You can't wade where I hunt mostly.

The problems with finding new drops are many. First you are right air conditioners have taken over. Second, people are scared to swim over their heads mostly, third, all the new metals, SS, tungsten carbide and titanium as you stated.

I don't do pool cleaning. I have an underwater recovery business that keeps me a little busy. I haven't hunted any lake north of Cadillac yet. A couple are in my sights. I plan on hitting every lake I can here.

I have a CZ-20 with a 10" coil and a CZ-21 with a 10" coil. I also have a CZ-21 with an 8" coil that I can use in the weeds. I also have two Tesoro Tiger Sharks, one with an 8" and the other with a 10" coil. If you have sand under your weeds you have a great chance of finding things others won't look for. But if you have a foot of muck I understand you cannot wade there.
 
If water levels keeps going up with all the flooding I might need to pick up scuba detecting , that must open up so many areas , I will tippy toe out in the deepest water I can go at about my chin and start to find more targets and often wondered what treasure is even deeper , I can believe your style of metal detecting is very productive and gives you access to areas never hunted before like we all dream of , I will be considering picking up a smaller coil for weed beds thanks . If you ever come to grand traverse bay area in traverse city michigan let me know how you do , it would be very interesting to see what was lost years ago .
 
The U.P. of Michigan is a Great place to go if you are trying to detox your kids from their cell phones! Very limited cell coverage, its great, they eventually put down their phones and enjoy nature. I highly recommend Pictured Rocks in Munising!

Nothing to see or detect in S.W. Michigan though...just keep driving North
 
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