jim mcculloch, here's a blast from the past for you!

[snakejim 33]

Jim,

I found this magazine article a few minutes ago. I remember meeting you in the Dale District about 1988.

Here's a link to a pdf file of Desert Magazine 1976. There is an article starting on page 28 that I think you would enjoy reading. Sure brings out some good memories.

http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/197602-DesertMagazine-1976-February.pdf

Best wishes to you and all the forums members.

Rattlesnake Jim

New Mexico

P.S. We found some nice nuggets thereabouts.

Edited June 2, 2015 by snakejim

[Mike Furness 1,333]

Interesting read!

[Nugget Shooter 4,259]

Thanks Jim!

[jim straight 181]

Snake Jim... Small world... I mention Dowie on pg. k in Successful Drywashing.

I hope it is okay to add more about him. I still have most of the original Desert

magazines. However some of the early issues are in terrible shape. But I have

this issue somewhere in my shed.

Dowie continued using and selling his small dry-washer for many years after this

article was published... He became a well known icon with the First Class Miners.

Although he kept well covered from the sun, he developed cancer of the lips. I believe

he was 93 when he past away and was still going out to his patch in his 90's.

My Best jim straight

[Au Seeker 2,657]

Thanks Snake Jim, that was a great read!!!

Snake Jim... Small world... I mention Dowie on pg. k in Successful Drywashing.

I hope it is okay to add more about him. I still have most of the original Desert

magazines. However some of the early issues are in terrible shape. But I have

this issue somewhere in my shed.

Dowie continued using and selling his small dry-washer for many years after this

article was published... He became a well known icon with the First Class Miners.

Although he kept well covered from the sun, he developed cancer of the lips. I believe

he was 93 when he past away and was still going out to his patch in his 90's.

My Best jim straight

Jim here's a link to Desert Magazine's Archives, it has most if not all of the issues from 1937 to 1985, just find the issue/s of interest and click on the cover page which will download the selected issue/s in PDF form to your computer.

http://mydesertmagazine.com/Desert_magazine_archive.html

[Swampstomper Al 1,336]

Thanks for posting this..

SA

[boulder dash 1,171]

I was totally fascinated by that article. What a hard worker.

[Micro Nugget 769]

Soon after I first met Bob Dunkin Dowie's name came up over and over again around our many campfires. I wish I could recall all of the Dowie stories he shared with me, but the old gourd's riffle tray just can't seem to hang on to them as well as I'd like. A big THANK YOU snakejim for posting this historical nugget!

[FlakMagnet 231]

Yup my first intro to the legend of Mr. Dowie was also from 29Prospector Bob Dunkin.

I would like to say that Jim McCulloch is right in there with the legends of the Dale and the

surrounding areas.

I called him out of the blue one day about ten or twelve years ago,

never having met him, and asked if he would be interested in meeting up

and taking a day tour of the Dale. I told him that I was a relative newcomer to

detecting in the desert but had read many of his articles and hoped he might consider spending a day in the Dale.

He immediately said yes. We met some time later and he took me zooming around the Dale

in a 2-wheel drive sedan that made all the SUV 4-wheeler's look tame.

His knowledge, generosity and whole-hearted enthusiasm for the desert immediately sparked me.

I smile to myself each time I remember that first meeting with him.

Thanks again Jim. Hope all is well and that we get to do that again some time soon.

[jim mcculloch 32]

Jim and Dave, thanks for your posts and kind words. I first met Dowie in the Dale one morning in the spring of 1981. This "tough old geezer" (I was 28 and he was 78) was hiking up a hill with probably 60 pounds of equipment. He looked like a refugee from the Foreign Legion. His drywashing partner that day was the 29 Palms dentist "DOC" Smeton. Doc introduced me to Dowie, what a guy. He was an electronic genius, founder of Crittenden Transformers. I understand that even today certain types of transfomers are known as "Crittendens." At his home Dowie pointed to his DOORSTOP, a leather pouch. It contained 42 pounds (yeah POUNDS) of gold dust. He had a 2.5 ounce nugget which had initially "grizzlied" off his drywasher. In those days many a granite-bottomed ravine in Dale was totally devoid of sand and gravel, due to Dowie's efforts. It was great to know him. HH Jim