PNW Photoblog

Morning on Coffenbury Lake

There seems to be very little information on the naming of Coffenbury Lake. The Fort’s graveyard is a couple of miles to the north, so the obvious macabre nom de plum is puzzling. The lake apparently has great fishing though and is heavily used for such.

Being the history buff I am, I especially love the old Fort. The remains of the original fort still stand to this day. It’s basic Civil War Era fort with dirt walls about 20 feet high and surrounded by a moat. My uneducated guess is that the wall was topped with logs to screen artillery and riflemen at the top. Either way the fort is not terribly large. A modern sized house would just barely sit snugly inside. Built in 1863 it’s purpose was to protect the Columbia River from the British in case they decided to help out the Confederacy and declare war on the United States.

Fort Stevens was upgraded in 1897 and became one of three Forts protecting the mouth of the Columbia River. Across the river were Fort Columbia and Fort Canby. All three forts received further upgrades in time for World War II. At it’s height, Fort Stevens housed 2500 men in rows of wooden barracks.

Battery William Murphy at Fort Columbia

Fort Stevens has the distinction of being the only military installation attacked by enemy action since the war of 1812. On the night of June 21st, 1942 a Japanese submarine fired at the southern emplacement, Battery Russel in an attempt to gain intelligence about the defenses there in preparation of a possible Japanese invasion. The Batteries commander declined to return fire as the submarine was out of range of his guns. After eliciting no response the submarine sailed away and was later sunk in the Pacific Ocean.

Fort Stevens remained in service until 1946 and was stripped of all guns by 1947. The US Army Corp of Engineers used it as a base for their dredging operations in the mouth of the Columbia River. IN 1975 the State of Oregon leased the Fort and began turning it into the park we enjoy today.

In addition to the State Park staff, the Friends of Old Fort Stevens help maintain the fort part of the park. During Memorial Day Weekends they put on demonstrations with Civil War and World War II reenactors. Old WWII Era US Army Deuce Trucks take visitors around the park, and enough money has even been raised to restore one of the original 6 inch guns.

Battery Meriwether with restored gun at Fort Stevens

The Old Fort can easily be reached by bicycle from the camping portion of the park, or by driving a mile and a half or so up the road. I highly suggest taking the drive out to the South Jetty and look for elk or deer in the wildlife area. Other attractions include the wreck of the Peter Iredale, and the cities of Seaside and Astoria which both have plenty to do and see.

Fort Rock is one Oregon’s geologic treasures. Created between 50,000 to 100,000 years ago from lava venting into the muddy bottom of what is now called Fort Rock Lake. The resulting steam explosion threw ash and basalt particles up into the air which rained down in a circular formation around the vent. The explosion also caused huge basalt blocks to thrust upwards. This is actually fairly common in central Oregon as about 40 of these formations exist as far north as John Day, Oregon.

The actual Fort Rock

The days of explosive lava are long over, but the area has significant historical importance. In 1936 Dr. Luther Cressman from the University of Oregon found sage brush sandals that dated back 9300 years. At the time this turned the Archeology world on it’s head as up until then humans were only thought to have been on the North American continent 5000 years ago.

Across the street is the Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead Museum. The museum was created to save several old homestead buildings from being destroyed to make way for cattle farms. Each building was taken apart, moved to the museum and restored. Most of the buildings now have mini-museums in them showing artifacts from daily life in the era. In addition to several log cabins, there is a church, a Doctor’s Office and a one room school house.

One Room School House in Fort Rock, Oregon

Unfortunately the museum itself has been closed every time I’ve been by it. This area is within a day’s drive of Portland and several nearby camp grounds provide over night opportunities. The museum and Fort Rock itself along with the famous Sandal Cave would easy take a day to explore. Nearby geological formations like South Ice Cave and Crack in the Ground would be great for a home school history/geology trip.

Today I have macro pictures of four different sunstones. These were all mined by myself nearish Plush Oregon in the gorgeous Oregon High Desert.

Oregon Sunstones are a clear feldspar created in basalt heavy lava flows, although I have seen them in non-basalt areas. By far the most common color is yellow, but orange/red tinted with schiller (tiny copper flakes as seen below)

Today I have macro pictures of four different sunstones. These were all mined by myself nearish Plush Oregon in the gorgeous Oregon High Desert.

Oregon Sunstones are a clear feldspar created in basalt heavy lava flows, although I have seen them in non-basalt areas. By far the most common color is yellow, but orange/red tinted with schiller (tiny copper flakes as seen below) is fairly rare, and green is the most coveted. Rarest of all though are blue/purples from the Ponderosa Sunstone Mine.

5.45 Carats, 12mm Round, red Oregon Sunstone

Both of these gems, plus several others are for sale. If you’re interested in them please let me know.

Oval Oregon Sunstone, 2.55 carats, 11x7.5mm

This last week I went real life Gold Farming in the Quartzville Creek area about 30 miles North East of Sweet Home, Oregon. This is Southwest of Mt. Hood and no doubt if you could get high enough you’d be able to see it. It’s also west of Mt. Jefferson.

Quartzville Creek is a public gold mining area, meaning anyone can drive up and pan the water or dredge as much as they want. Dredging permits are required and are available through the State of Oregon, and the Bureau of Land Management Office. I believe the limits is seven pounds of gold per a day, and a limit of 14 consecutive days camping in the Quartville area. There are also hundreds of private claims around here so be careful of claim markers which are usually a white post with a piece of silver tape around the top. The silver tape should include the name of the claim, it’s serial number and basic description such as “North East Corner.” They may also include longitude and latitude lines.

By far the quickest and easiest mining method is the Gold Dredge.

The Gold Dredge consists of a simple gasoline motor and water pump. The intake hose is submerged under water and held down to minimize it pulling air. In this case it was also inside a submerged plastic bucket that helped reduce any contaminants from entering the hose.

The suction of water through the dredge nozzle creates a vacuum effect. Running the nozzle across the bottom of the river picks up all sand, small rocks, and hopefully gold or other valuable minerals. Nozzle sizes range from one inch up to 12+ inches. In Oregon the largest size that can be used is 5 inches. Either way a lot of rock is moved in a very short amount of time. Even with unclogging the hose and nozzle from rocks that slipped in side ways, several cubic yards can be moved within a few hours.

As can be seen the sluice has multiple parts, the baffles which are the brass part laying on top. The green stuff is called “miner’s moss” and is a spongy carpet like thing. The sluice is angled so that the bigger rocks are washed out, but the smaller pieces including hopefully any gold nuggets and even gold flakes are caught in it. This duplicates the process found in nature, and is why it’s best to go on the downstream side of big rocks. Or as the pictures above, in the hollow formed between two bigger rocks.

The last step is pan the gold. This is process is exactly the same as it was 100+ years ago back in the good old days. But the pans have changed dramatically. First they are made of plastic so that they actually float in the water and are slightly less likely to get lost. They come in several colors, blue and neon green are the most common as well as traditional black. Blue and neon Green are chosen as they are not found in nature and help the gold stand out more when you’re panning for it.

The screens in the picture above are 1/2 inch screens that fit over a 5 gallon plastic bucket. Everything from the sluice is poured into the screen and shaken about until nothing is left to fall through. 1/4 inch screens are available, but most people simply pan 1/2 and smaller. Before cleaning the screen be sure to inspect it for any large gold nuggets or ANY kind of obvious mineralization. Holding it up to the sun and looking from the bottom is a good idea.

After screening everything left in the bucket is panned out. Panning is actually pretty simple but takes some real practice to get right. Slowly use the river to put water in the pan, do not worry too much as gold will almost always settle to the bottom. Swish the pan around then slowly scrape out the top layer of rocks and dirts. Repeat again and again until pretty much old sand remains. If you’re lucky you’ll find some bigger pieces of gold at this point.

Slowly and carefully pan the remaining sand. Hopefully you will be seeing mostly black sand and maybe even a few flakes of gold at this point. If so this process can be repeated until just gold is visible. If you’re impatient though, a gold wheel will actually do this process for you. But it’s only recommended if you’re coming up with a huge amount of black sand.

At this point I’d like to show you a picture of the gold I did find. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any due to a combination of equipment failure and possibly just not being in a good location despite all our searching. Keep in mind that gold is where you find it. There are many places that possibly hold gold, but not all do.

Puget Sound at Sunset, originally uploaded by hamellr.

Taken on a recent day (actually afternoon-night) trip to Seattle to see family. We needed a bathroom/ice cream break before heading home, so stopped by the waterfront. While Ice Cream was being served I ran out and took this picture. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped, but still pretty good I think.

This is a picture of Mt. Rainier from the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma Washington using my telephoto and extension tube. It’s roughly 40 miles away at this point.

Mt. Rainier is a gorgeous mountain, like many Pacific Northwest icons it’s a dormant volcano. Few other mountains in the region are as obvious about it though.

Digital Photography School posted an awesome article about reducing camera shake. This is actually very timely for me as it’s one of my biggest problems. These are more geared towards people using long lenses, but can be helpful for any photographer.

I’ve been trying to reduce camera shake but find that I seem to get a bit of blur no matter how fast the shutter speed is. Using these techniques which as a commenter on the article said are like shooting a gun, I’m sure that I can increase my stability.

In other news, I promise to actually start posting pictures again.

Space pictures are the best. Due to the lack of an atmosphere the clarity of such pictures always astounds me.

So go to boston.com and enjoy as much as I do!