Vancouver Island Spanish
Treasure Hunt
By Jeff Bucove
Here's a modern gold story we know you'll enjoy!
Photogrammetric Map Survey
( sic: This report was filed with the BC government in summer 2001)
Mineral Titles
Elven #371592 Skysong #371590 Home#365033 Safe #371591
Legend-I #388811 Legend-II #388812 Gaia-I #389625 Gaia-II #389626:
Placer Title
Talus #371589:
Victoria Division
N48035'33'' W123050'13''
Owner, Operator, and Author of this report: Jeffrey
O. Bucove
Table of Contents
Location
Anecdotal History
Modern History and brief Assessment
Detailed Technical Data and Interpretation
Explanation of Value
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Location
On map 92B12W near Weeks Lake, the first tributary of the Leech entering from the east is known as Criss Creek. The Elven mineral group (along with the overlying Talus placer claim) reside on the north fork of this creek. They cover the ground from where Criss Creek cuts through the Survey fault line downstream to where it merges with the southern fork.
Although access is possible from the east above the fault line via the New Jarvis main off the Lazar main; the easy access is now from the lower, western end of the valley due to the recent logging activities undertaken by Munns' under contract to the land owners, Timberwest. This more reasonable access is gained by traveling to Weeks Lake and passing through the Munns' gate labeled W1000, which happens to be the first road leading east when traveling south from the lake access spur. The keys to this gate have been graciously provided to the owner/author by Munns.
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Anecdotal History
There is a tradition among the Pacheedat First nations that there was a period of extensive enslavement of their peoples by the Spanish ending in a nearly complete massacre of the band just before the hand over of these territories to the British in the late 1700's. According to legend, the Spanish had enslaved the band in their own mine which they had worked for untold generations. When they left, the Conquistadores supposedly murdered all of the survivors at the site of the addit.
There are a few other stories from the 19th century which also point to a lost site. One concerns a resident of Port Renfrew, an old man; who after displaying large and unexplained wealth for his entire life confessed on his deathbed to his friends that he had in his youth, befriended an old indian who had showed him the location of a vast treasure about one week's travel through the thick forest eastward. Another story originates from somewhere within the years 1868-70 in which a ne'r-do-well prospector came into the Leechtown Government Agent's office displaying two mason jars full of native gold attached to quartz crystals of a type not found on the west coast of either American Continent. He apparently told the G.A. of having woken up that morning under an overhang his mule had found the night before whilst he was riding asleep in a dead drunk. In the story he related to the G.A., the overhang had strange quartz crystal encrusted upon it with a great amount of native gold attached, just as the samples in his jars suggested. The G.A. encouraged him to take a set of tags back to the site, but the old drunk took two weeks off to drink all his money, and then he couldn't find it again. The unproven nature of the find together with the associated rare crystal type relegated this evidence to anecdotal status.
Documentation for the most famous legend concerning this addit used to be found in a Mineral Titles display case before it was removed from public viewing in the late 1980's. In this display, which I viewed in the mid 1980s, was a story concerning a scaler for Mac-Blo who quit his job in 1928 after finding a cave carved from bedrock with steps leading into it cut from the country rock. Inside the cave entrance he reported finding bones with leather, and deeper into the cave two stacked pyramids of gold bullion knee high and a yard long. Lining the walls of the addit were an untold number of 19 inch tall Madonnas cast from solid gold. At the rear of the cave were more skeletons, these clad in Spanish armor. In the case on display was one of the bullion ingots. Labeled as 70% Au, 10% Ag, and 20% Cu, it was about an inch thick and four inches across, round; with a Spanish stamp in the middle a little more than an inch in diameter. The story in the display case went on to relate the individual's refusal to disclose the location, even to the extent that it was recorded he had made the assertion he'd taken steps to ensure no one would ever find it again; but this is a well known story and when told amongst miners it usually ends with the fellow being murdered in Reno Nevada a decade later while trying to sell some of the ingots.
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Modern History and brief Assessment
There are only two forms of quartz crystal found naturally; these are the common singly terminated, and the more rare double terminated variety known as "Herkimer Diamonds". In May 1997 I found a bedrock source of Herkimer Diamonds right there high in the north fork of the Criss Creek drainage. I took my best example to the Gold Commissioner to get some perspective on the find, and he insisted for some time someone must have dropped it there. When I showed him other examples, he became quite agitated and strongly encouraged me to stake the area and do further research. I did so.
There is a thrust fault known as Survey after the mountain it forms, and which runs north and south between the two main slip faults that run east and west across southern Vancouver Island. It runs parallel to and just east of the Leech River. My crystal strike was to the east of this fault about 900 metres. The run off from the area immediately around the crystal bed runs west and becomes a significant source to the Leech River through Criss Creek. Downhill from the crystal strike, the creek crosses the Survey Mountain fault, which cuts across the drainage valley at right angles. The creek provides the deepest topographical access into the fault which is otherwise buried in mountain its entire length.
In the course of my gemstone mining explorations during the following 18 months I became aware that some placer miners downstream in the same drainage were harvesting significant amounts of placer gold, much of it with inclusive hardrock burden, indicating proximity to a lode source. Quite by co-incidence, these fellows happened to have been bragging for some time to my ex-wife about their production. As I've been wont to do for many years, I paid little heed to her stories until the late summer of 1998 when they showed her and her third husband a crystal cluster with two ounces of native gold 'in situ', which they reportedly sold for $3000 according to her new husband.
My response to this eventful news was to check the hardrock tenures for their area. They had nothing, even though they owned the placer rights. I immediately staked all the hardrock in the area underlying and surrounding their placer claims plus the ground intervening between that and my crystal claims, which total involved eight units of 2 post tenures, each 500 metres square.
In the spring of 1999, I was on the internet reviewing the parameters of mine own and the others' respective tenures at the Ministry's web site, when I noticed something very interesting. The owner of one of the two placer claims overlying the fault line (the downstream one, no less) had let his tenure forfeit! This occurs when the annual $500 fee for ownership maintenance with the local provincial government goes unpaid. This was months after I had staked the hardrock, and even longer after they had found the gigantic crystal and native gold specimen which they had sold for 6 times that amount. I was incredulous! You see, the claim in question had gone forfeit on February 2nd 1999, and the filing for a new claim made on March 1st 1999 stated that a new claim line had been cleared on the now open ground out in the feild on February 28, starting at 8:30 AM and ending at 1:30 PM the same day. That's 1000 metres of blazing and flagging on very steep ground in five hours within the northern shadow of Survey Mountain at 750 metres above sea level in the middle of a La Nina winter during which the snow up there was over a dozen feet deep. I was so circumspect that it took me the entire summer before I satisfied myself there was no new line or posts tagged to accompany the filing that had occurred on March 1st. I then filed what is known as a "Section 40", which is a complaint form. Subsequent investigations by the government resulted in the tenure for that placer claim being awarded to myself in March of 2000.
I now own both the hardrock rights for one square kilometer surrounding the deep cut into the fault line, as well as the placer rights of about 800 metres of creek bed immediately downstream from the cut. As of this writing, I have made four trips to the creek for placer explorations at a point about 500 metres downstream from the fault line, and have extremely promising showings of very coarse placer
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Photogrammetric Survey
Due to fortunate circumstance, during this past year I have had available to me all of the necessary resources for a complete photogrammetric survey of the property. I am truly fortunate in a serendipitous accumulation of useful assets. Together with my own certified technical skills in computer science and my eldest blood brother's status as the chief pilot of a USA helicopter outfitting service, I have had the good fortune to be capable of producing a useful contiguous photogrammetric survey of the Elven properties at four different altitudes: 200, 500, 1000, and 4000 feet altitude above ground. We were in the air about three and a half hours, not including the apx. 30 minutes travel time between the site and the aviation fuel service. The helicopter, a Hughes 500, is under normal circumstance for hire in the United States at the rate of $600/hr for normal flight time, while precision aerial survey is at an additional cost for pilot time as well as special equipment. We were without the special equipment which allows for stereo imaging, but the data collected is quite useful as photogrammetric survey. If possible, I shall also be happy to submit stereo photogrammetric composites, but as of this writing the data is still being processed and I can't yet tell if this will be possible. Accompanying the filing of this work report is a CD-ROM containing the completed photogrammetric work.
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Detailed Technical Data and Interpretation
This photogrammetric survey was implemented with the intent to study the aerial views for the purposes of planning a prospecting regimen gridded accordingly to information gleaned from examination of the data. The detailed technical data and interpretation section in a work report for Talus therefor shall be completed in a yearly work report not later than 2002 (according to Mineral Act Regulations part C "Exploration and Development Assessment Work" general regulations section 9 "Prospecting Reports" part 2) using the maps presented herein as a foundation.
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Explanation of Value
Prior to the helicopter operation, a suitable camera had to be found. Although my brother had encouraged me to acquire a 250 frame camera, the only shop offering one for rent in the Victoria area (at a rate of $2200 a day) abruptly discontinued the telephone conversation when I told them I'd be hanging from a helicopter while using their equipment. In the end we settled on a very high tech 35 mm camera which replacement value was around $650. I had to travel to Saltspring Island to acquire this camera, and again later to return it to the owner, a friend of mine who was willing to trust me with his pride and joy. It was a Cannon "Rebel" EOS series computer assisted unit, very fancy. For the flight, we set it to a fixed exposure speed to de-harmonize it from the resonant cycle of the rotary wing's beat. The blades turn at 1012 rev/sec and we set the shutter speed to 512. It worked perfectly. The photos all turned out as sharp as could be asked for with the 35 mm film.
On the evening before the flight, my brother, Chief Warrant Officer of F Troop, 8th Cavalry Squadron "The Blue Angels" Michael Adrian Bucove, or "Spook" as he is known to this day by his surviving 'Naam chums, landed his machine at the gravel pit belonging to the Yuen's of Deer Trail Lodge Developments Inc. where I picked him up for dinner at my expense. We spent the evening orienting and planning the flight path, tactical logistics, and otherwise clinking glass as we hadn't seen each other in quite a while. After arranging for private security for the Hughes 500 overnight, as my brother's employers had asked that focus be brought to bear on this issue in addition to the Yuen's fine security arrangements. I put Mike up for the night in the spare room of the house I was care taking at that time.
The next morning, Mike took the helicopter to Helijet's heliport in James Bay for fuel. This took about 45 minutes including the refueling time. My brother paid for this expense from his own pocket due to international treaties concerning the labour rights of pilots. I wish to make this point explicit for the record. No compensation was paid to my brother or his company in any way by anyone for the service provided by him and his machine in the course of this photogrammetric survey. This of course does not in any way diminish the value of the service provided.
Upon returning from the fuel run, my brother fashioned a safety harness for the photographer which provided for a suspension of the body in such a way as not to cause bone inducted vibration from the helicopter to be transmitted to the camera. Thusly the photographer was suspended from the flying machine with only his legs in braced in bone contact with the airframe. Flight time to and from the Elven group was about 15 minutes each way. The photographer (myself) was able to return to the safety of the machine for the swapping of film. The frame advance was of course mechanized. A 3600 bubble level was attached to the back of the camera to assist in keeping to assist in maintaining the camera in an absolutely level position during shooting. Nine rolls of ASA160 Kodak film were shot at various altitudes ranging from 200 to 4000 feet. All photographs were shot with a sixty percent or more overlap to allow for stereoscopic viewing if the pilot and camera managed to attain a synchronization tight enough to permit this level of utility in the data. We have high hopes of achieving this state of affairs, which would be a great bonus.
We spent about three and a half hours flying the photogrammetric survey. There was quite a cross wind for many of the shots. My brother had to reverse the orientation of the flying machine on at least one occasion to maintain an absolutely stationary position over the ground at the fixed altitudes used for the survey photography. His work was very impressive, as gusts would burst around us with absolutely no visual cues as to their direction and force yet he was able to adjust the controls in real time seemingly before the buffets occurred. It was uncanny. Yet his skill is such that he can not only do this stuff, he can quantify exactly what he is doing and teach others the same skills. He has taught workshops of US Military instructor pilots on the finer points of forest fire fighting. I had the comfort and luxury of absolute confidence in my pilot while reveling in the adrenaline which coursed through me as I hung from the aircraft. Make no mistake sir, I had the thrill of my life doing this work. The only thrill I can think of 'twould outshine it would be to find the mother load of the Leech River gold rush.
After bidding my brother a fond farewell that evening I took the film to One Hour Photo in Sooke to get the nine rolls of negatives developed. This cost me about $85 or so. Following Mike's advice, I had gotten a single roll developed first to make sure they wouldn't hatch the precious stuff; but they did a fine job and got my money. Then came the hard part.
After acquiring the negatives, I got permission from the web site designer for Deer Trail Developments, pacificakim@home.com, to use her PIII graphics workstation during her off time for the purposes of digitizing all of the negatives at 600 DPI (which resolution was determined by total storage space available in Kim's' machine for my purposes divided by the number of negatives) The total size for the data was 490 Mb, consisting of 336 photos averaging around 1.4Mb each. This effort took me (wearing a graphics engineer hat, worth about $25/hr) about four days of full time effort (7hr/day) and almost completely consumed Kim's scanner which I am due to replace at some point before its final collapse at a cost of about $250.
I still have to return to the field to acquire fix points referential to the aerial photos for scaling and locating the photogrammetry. This will require at least three days in the field to hoof about from visual landmark to visual landmark taking GPS fixes. The hang-up here as of this writing has been the Timberwest fire shutdown restricting access to the privately held E&N crown land-grant this summer. This should be ending shortly because rain has finally begun to fall.
As of this writing, I have transferred all of this data over a Shaw@home ICQ connection to the Kutting Edge recording studio where the author has considerable sweat equity gained as a digital recording technician. This process came at such a bad time for PacificaKim that I popped her a $50 just for helping me get the data off her computer to the recording studio where I could burn it off onto CD-ROM. Studio time for this process is about $80. I still have a considerable amount of work to perform in photoshop to conclude the production of the photogrammetric survey. Yet all shall be completed well within the deadlines as explained to me by the Victoria Gold Commissioner. Perhaps even before labour day.
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Look Up titles by Claim Number, or
Owner Name.
The Map
Place
Choose the Mineral Titles Map
Zoom in on Southern Vancouver Island.
Add overlays entitled "MINERAL TITLES solid" and "PLACER TITLES
solid"
Observe a continuous chain of red "Placer" titles tending in a NW/SE
line. This is the Leech River system; where even today, considerable contention
over placer usage exists. Note the complete coverage of river system where gold
is being found.
Zoom in on the source of this drainage at the NW
end of the chain.
All the downstream alluvial gold originates in run off from these claims.
Double-Click on them to acquire recording details.
Experiment with other overlays. May I suggest:
DEM image hillshade
Rivers 1:20K
Lakes 1:20K
Contacts, or Faults
Mineral Titles, Outline