Gold Jodeling in the Lukmanier Canyon
The discovery of the Desertina-Nuggets in the Rhine Medel on the 14th of June 1996. (At the time it was the Swiss Record)
The flood from the heavy rain on the 19th of May 1996 swept several tree trunks onto the rocks on the right site of the river. This lead to a natural barricade of wood and rocks. The power of the flooded river moved some very heavy stones weighing up to a ton. In the area around the natural barricade the water level was sinking up to 40cm. This new environment enabled me to access the top crevasse on the riverbed which I successfully worked on in the past.
On the first day I moved a few other heavy rocks 10 meters further down. With the shovel I moved around 2 cubic meters of gravel from the flooded river which enabled me to move the water level another 30 centimetres.
On the second day I moved some of the top layer of river gravel right across the river. At a lengths of around 4 metres I was digging along the promising cliff face till the ground. I dug three to four cubic metres of gravel and sand and discovered 4 grams of gold in addition to a nugget of 1.7 gram.
On the third day I cleaned the river bed along the cliff face. Looking down with a sight glass and a diving mask, I discovered a classical crevice with a gap measuring between 10 and 15 centimetres. In the crevice I noticed that a number of stones where stuck, the highlight of any gold prospector.
Now the hardest but most interesting part of the work began. With a dive suite but without oxygen I was working on the crevice which was up to 1.7 metres under water. The 20 kilo of weight on my belt was not really sufficient to keep me down to effectively work on the area. By coincidence my brother Martin visited my at the river. He was on his return journey from a motorbike trip to Spain. He put on my long boots and pushed my down with his feet till I run out of air. I was able to loose some of the rocks stuck in the gap of the crevice with a small metal rod. With the hand drill I was able to remove the fine sand. Using this method I first I found a 3.7 gram gold nugget and some other beautiful stones. At the deepest point in the middle of the river a dark stone which was stuck, generated a real challenge to loosen. With a unbelievable pressure he was pressed into the crevice by other stones. I had to get up again to get air but persisted and dived down again head first. I used a geologist hammer to work on the softer cliff face next to dark stone which attracted my attention. Once upright again I used a large metal rod to loosen the stone again. Piece by piece the rock loosened till after half an hour of hard work it came completely loose. Now I dived again down to lift the rock with both hands out of the river. I went down again and with my hand I moved the loose sand from the gap, when suddenly I could not breath and in the same second I got up and was trying to get air into my lungs. I could not believe it, I just was face to face with a huge gold nugget. Once I could breath again I released a huge yodel which rang through the Lukmanier canyon. I was trembling with excitement as it become obvious to me that I just discovered the largest gold nugget found in Switzerland. My brother Martin tapped me on the shoulder after a while and told me to go and get it out. Of course I followed his advice and dived under again to get the nugget and finally hold it in my hand.
On this day I continued to work till 8pm at night and got everything I could out. On that memorable day I found 96 grams of gold. Unfortunately as consequence I was sick in bed for three days due to hypothermia.
A few days later I named the nugget "Desertina-Nugget". Desertina is the original name of Disentis. The nugget weighs 48,7 Gramm and is 28 mm in diameter.
The nugget is the largest discovered in the Rhine Medel. It can be viewed int he Mineral-Museum in Disentis together with other large nuggets found by me.
Gold-Gusti