Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Mining Season Has Arrived, And Wyoming Is Calling For Mike Schepker
While Mike's Greenhouse in Kimball has hit the end of the season for selling tomatoes, peppers and other starter plants, Mike Schepker looks forward to his real adventure, his true love, mining for gold.
Wyoming Game and Fish has set July 1 to Sept. 10 as the Wyoming mining season. The season was set up as a window between the spawning seasons of trout in the spring and fall.
Mike packs up his RV and heads west to Snowy Range to mine for gold and other precious gems. "It is a lot of hard work, but it is a lot of fun," he said.
For the past 23 years, Mike Schepker has been heading to Snowy Range to placer mine; it is sifting alluvial gravels for gold and precious gems.
Mike's interest in mining came from watching gold mining shows, mainly outdoor channel GPAA Gold Prospectors Association of America. "I got hooked on watching those shows."
Once he discovered Cheyenne had a chapter, Mike joined it and picked up his shovel and ax.
The real fun is the camaraderie during the mining season.
Mike brags on the Cheyenne Chapter GPAA, saying, "The greatest batch of people you ever want to meet, they would give you the shirt off their back. If something breaks, you will have 14 people jumping in to try to help. Loyal to a fault, yet fierce adversaries."
Mike's shovel and ax lasted a short time, and then Mike progressed to a sluice box, then a suction dredge, to mine for the precious gems. A suction dredge has a pump and a motor and pulls all gravel up and drops it out, and washes it down into a sluice box. The whole unit floats
"We work underwater, sucking up all the gravel off the bottom," Mike explained.
He starts up his dredge first thing in the morning and works all day long in water temperatures of about 50 degrees. Mike said "it's a job," but he thoroughly enjoys the natural setting and the people.
The reward comes at the end of the day when they clean up and hope to have captured some gold.
No license or certification is necessary. It is considered "recreational mining."
Schepker began mining on the Cheyenne club claim, but over time, he has inherited his own claims and works on several claims. A claim is a claim on mineral rights. He said most claims are for sale "like real estate."
Schepker sells his gold and other precious gems by the gram to jewelers in Cheyenne, Denver and Fort Collins, and occasionally online.
