105 views on 12/11/11.
10/25/11 – Featured in the ABSTRACT NATURE’S MACRO ART Group.

October 2011 – TOP TEN WINNER in the Abstract Macros from Shallow Creeks or Rivers challenge- in the Abstract Nature’s Macro Art group.

Our family went on a tour of ghost towns in Montana, once thriving communities that died when the gold claims ran out. One of our stops was Nevada City which, along with neighboring Virginia City, thrived during the Alder Gulch gold rush.

For a moment, we thought we had struck it rich. Jimmy and Shaun went fishing in the creek that runs by the mine tailings and spotted a rich collection of sparkling minerals. I had to get the camera and photograph the beautiful mica flakes and iron pyrite crystals. The creek bed was loaded with enough of them to drive a prospector nuts. However, along with quartz, mica and pyrites are associated with gold deposits. Who knows? After over a century of this creek depositing silt from the mountains, there may be new deposits of gold there now. One of the regulations in Bannack State Park states that visitors may not pan for gold.

Photo taken September 4, 2011 in Nevada City, Montana (USA), with a Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS camera.