Monday, July 22, 2013

Black Sand on a Lake Superior Beach and more

When I went to the Lake Superior beach the other day I was amazed to see how much more black sand there is compared to a week or so ago.  Apparently, the day after I was there a few guys set up sluice boxes and were looking for gold in the black sand.  Friends of mine went to the beach and saw the gold miners.  I was curious whether or not this is legal so I just called the DNR.  The law changed in 2009 to allow individuals to set up hand-operated sluice boxes to "mine" small amounts of gold.  Prospectors must ensure that they are on state land or have permission to mine on private land, must have a permit, and can only use equipment in July and August.  These guys were using generators and larger equipment, which is not legal. 

Here are a few photos I took of the beach before the gold miners showed up.  I did not take any pictures of the gold miners.








 

 
 
Here are a couple of early morning photos I took of the bay early on Saturday morning when I was heading over to Paradise to speak at the Crisp Lighthouse Conference.



Here are some updated pictures of our garden...









My first harvest.  It was a terrific salad!

6 comments:

  1. It was nice to see a few recreatonal prospectors. At least you did not have to pay a company to deposit sand on your beach that was eroding.

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  2. best you check the ordinances- those beacch prospectors were entirely legal

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  3. Hand operated means loaded by shovel and not by machine- back breaking work for the little recovered= maybe you should try it for a day or however long you could stand it!

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  4. Those miners probably took less home with them than the agates that you took in your pockets!! People take tons of agates and Petoskey stones from the beaches, but as soon as they see prospectors looking for a gram of gold, they call the DNR because they don't think it is legal. This disgusts me.....

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    1. You formed your opinion without knowing the facts. Since they were using large pumps, generators, etc. -- they did A LOT of damage to the beach. It is not what they took, it is the damage they did to the beach and the bluff. It is not legal for them to use the automatic equipment.

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