Steve Herschbach and Moor Creek was on TV

[Silicon John]

Hi Steve

Wow, now you are a TV star too. Good show. I saw you on the program "Cash and Treasure" on the Travel Channel just tonight. For those who did not see the program, it started with the lady host of the show panning at Hope Creek, Alaska. Then they met Steve at his store in Anchorage. Next the crew flew to McGrath, where Mike the bush pilot flew the crew to Moor Creek.

At Moor Creek Steve met the plane. He then showed everyone how to look for gold "swing them low and slow" and they were off looking for gold. Steve did not plant any gold for the host lady, I forget names, and she never found anything and hunted two days. I was wondering about that. She hunts for other treasure and always finds something good. Good going Steve, you showed it like it is. Then the camera men for the TV crew got a chance to use metal detectors and found two nuggetts.

The show then took them back to Anchorage, Alaska where she sold the gold. They talked about $600 per oz so this was taped a few months ago, last summer I guess. All and all it was a great show and Steve acted real natural. He can go into the movies.

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi John,

They said they wanted the real deal, and we gave it to them. I told them the odds of finding gold on an overnight trip was slim, and that's the truth. She only detected maybe 2-3 hours total, and most of that is more with an eye to the camera then serious detecting.

True story is I'm glad she did not get freaking lucky and dig up a bunch of gold. It might have given the wrong impression. Nugget detecting takes skill and hard work. But luck counts, and the first camera guy literally dug a nugget as his first target. The the other camera guys fires up a detector, and I think it was about his third target that ends up being a nice nugget. So go figure. It was kind of fun because the crew never gets any air time, so for once they get their moment of fame! They were all real nice folks and it was a pleasure having them visit the mine.

It is Moore Creek, by the way.

Steve Herschbach

 

[KDBone]

My wife and I watch this show all of the time, ( It's Tivoed ). We allways look at each other and wonder why there is never anywhere
near Iowa that we can go find "Cash & Treasure" instead of pigs and corn.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I saw the program. It was great to see the reality of nugget hunting. Maybe she should have used a GB II. Have you used the X-Terra 70 with the 10" DD coil at Moore cr yet? Good luck with your future mining at Moore cr.

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi Steve,

Well, it was a bit of a fluke, getting all those nails. I dozed a new area off where we had got lots of nuggets before, but turns out under the top gold layer was a deeper layer full of nails. Most of Moore Creek is relatively trash free compared to Ganes Creek.

The ground is chock full of magnetic basalt hot rocks, so all in all a big Minelab is the way to go. But the Gold Bug 2, Tesoro Lobo, and X-Terra 70 all do well there on shallower gold. I'll be using my X-Terra 70 a lot there next summer, purposely going after the trashier sites.

Steve Herschbach
www.moorecreek.com

 

[Alan]

Hope the show makes it down here.

I find with old workings the ground has basically been turned upside down.The bottom gold bearing layer is now on the top.
That's why you can get good gold on the surface with your beeper but when you bulldoze into it you are going through the original overburden, complete with old timer rubbish.The gold on the surface tells you you are in the right spot but you have to get back to the bottom {or original layer} to get what the old guys left. Hopefully its not too deep.
Alan

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi Alan,

Actually, it is old strippings that had a foot of tailings pushed over it. This was all mining with bulldozers and draglines. Most of the piles were created by a dragline scooping below the sluice, and so the gold can be in any layer in the pile. They did not run overburden through the sluice but pushed it up into piles with the dozer. Most of the oiles are composed of paydirt and are kind of like onions, with some layers rich in gold and others lean, just depending on how good the pay was at the moment. I've go one huge pile near camp that we've slowly mowed about 10 feet off the top, a foot at a time, and got new gold with every push. That was where the two cameramen scored.

These old timers did not leave any gold on the bottom. They took about two feet of bedrock up (it is decomposed shale) and you can't find a speck in the old cuts. But they did lose a lot into the tailing piles. One pile was reprocessed by the prior owner and produced 400 oz. And we are finding gold from the tailings from that second run!

Steve Herschbach
www.moorecreek.com

 

[Alan]

Steve
Your 'old timers' are a bit younger than mine. Also they had water.
I've done quite a bit of dozing here in WA but its been going through pick and shovel dryblowings before machinery days.
Those guys did leave good gold in the cement bottom at times.
Good luck
Alan