Hilltop Seclusion Gold Mine
20 Acre Lode Claim Canyon District
Grant County, OregonContact Gold Rush Expeditions
Use code JRM1003 for a 10% discount.
www.goldrushexpeditions.com
Ph: 385-218-2138
Email: goldrush@goldrushexpeditions.com
This Mining Claim is considered by Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc., to be a Starter Claim. A starter claim is a mining claim that has been assessed and surveyed to have good mineral value above ground. A starter mine is a good jumping off point for the prospector who is still learning about mining, identifying minerals and working underground.
In most cases these mining claims will not require any Notice of Operation and can be worked under Casual Use Guidelines with no permitting required. (Please check with your local BLM or Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. office to verify constraints associated with Casual Use Mining.)
Starter Mining claims provide an excellent learning center while also providing access to valuable minerals.
A starter claim will not (in most cases) boast reserves or substantial historic structures. A starter claim will provide the owner a solid, Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. backed mining claim. Starter claims will be priced aggressively to allow for ease of acquisition. The claim may not have a fully documented history, or full documentation and mapping of the workings. Access may be limited or hike in.
A starter Claim will likely never turn into a commercial producer.
Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. is proud to present the Historic Hilltop Seclusion Gold Mining Claim for sale. Locally known as the Merle Brown Mine. This is a 20 acre lode mining claim for sale exclusively through Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. This previously abandoned gold mine is located just outside of John Day, Oregon and has been properly staked and marked at all corners. All Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. claims have been meticulously surveyed, mapped and researched. Field work is completed by our own experienced, well versed Mine Survey Team.
This is a very remote and rarely if ever visited claim outside of John Day, Oregon. From the claim you have amazing mountain views and views to John Day and the valleys below. This claim has been worked for nothing but gold. And gold in quantity. Prior to 1900 over 750,000 ounces of rich, native gold had been extracted from the district. It was said that while the placer operations provided enough for the small miners, the real money was in locating the lodes in the hills above. Few miners took this advice. Some of the smart ones did. Merle Brown was one of those miners. The claim is intriguing in the fact that it actually has substantial workings despite its location. The mining claim has also given up quite a bit of gold in the form of wire deposits on quartz. There is little record of the claim except for a few interview with an owner of the mine in the 1970s. He was interested in sinking a shaft to intercept more of the gold veins below. The mining claim was reportedly for sale in 1979 for $400,000. There is no record of sale. In the early 1980s the mine was reported as abandoned despite the gold values. Merle Brown obtained the claims to the Hilltop in 1981.
The adits are short, hand cut and narrow. They do have some stoping where pockets of gold were worked out. The gold ore left at the site is rough but substantially heavy. The ore bodies are largely undefined in the area regardless of the amount of gold recovered. The gold samples from the area are plentiful. The image below is reportedly from the private collection of Merle Brown.
If you are willing to work hard, this mining claim could be a real producer for you and reveal up its treasures. With as much placer gold has been recovered it stands to reason that all the gold broke off from somewhere. Getting underground and locating those veins would really be hitting the Motherlode.
History of the Mines
There is no real history of the mining claim. Limited information from a Bureau of Mines report from the 1970s discusses the owner cutting a shaft to get into the deeper veins. Owner had been living at the mining claim for an undisclosed amount of time and was said to be well equipped with top of the line technology. The claim was taken over and worked by Merle Brown, aka, Hard Rock. Known locally as a legitimate gold miner. He passed in 2011.
Sept. 7, 1924 Sept. 12, 2011
Merle Raymond Brown, 87, of Canyon City, died Monday, Sept. 12, 2011, at the Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles.
He was born in Newport on Sept. 7, 1924 to Raymond and Bertha (Harland) Brown. He graduated from Philomath High School.
He served in the U.S. Navy and was an aviation mechanic during World War II. After his discharge from the Navy in December 1945, he lived in Philomath and worked in the U.S. Postal Service and the timber industry until 1965, when he moved to Canyon City. He worked as a lumber grader for DR Johnson Lumber Company for many years.
When he retired, he pursued his passion for gold mining full time, when he picked up the name Hard Rock. He was active in the Eastern Oregon Miners Association, National Rifle Association, We The People, and recently retired from the Grant County Planning Commission and the Grant County Public Forest Commission.
Asking Price: $3,500
Contact: Gold Rush Expeditions
Use code JRM1003 for a 10% discount.
www.goldrushexpeditions.com
Ph: 385-218-2138
Email: goldrush@goldrushexpeditions.com
