Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Page A-9
Winter has gold in his blood
By Dan Mancuso
IVN Staff
Egbert “Bud” Winter placed a gold
nugget down on a chair in the Illinois
Valley News office. Next, using a special
rod with gold in the tip, Winter held the
rod in both hands. Slowly the rod started
to rock back and forth in the direction of
the gold nugget. Gold witching is similar
to water witching. “If you have the right
kind of electricity in your body you can
make it work. I only know of one other
person that can do it,” Winter said.
Winter got his start in mining in
1930 when the Humphreys Mining
Company came to Spearfish, South
Dakota to drill a creek bed. “They
needed someone to do the pan and I
had some experience with it so I said,
‘I’ll work for ya.’” At the time Winter
was getting an $18 a week paycheck
and “that’s pretty good for back then,”
Winter added.
When asked why he liked to chase
gold, Winter didn’t have a good answer,
but he did say he liked the color.
In addition to gold, Winter was also
was fond of Waunetta Cunningham,
who he met and married in Shoshone,
Wyoming in 1947. In April 2016,
Waunetta Winter died at the age of 90,
a few months before their 69th wedding
anniversary.
Winter, a Sheridan, Ore. native, was
born in 1914, had a knack for mining
gold. Winter would travel the western
states to help set up mining operations.
Winter also designed a cone that is still
used today to separate tailings.
After a full life of chasing gold,
trucking in Wyoming and the Dakotas,
to bootlegging whiskey from Chicago
and finally ending up in the Bay area,
Winter came to the Valley in 1973 to
relax after retiring as a heavy equipment
operator.
Over the years, plenty has changed
according to Winter, “Back in the day
we never had any trouble with the
environmental types. We would fix
things. We just did what they wanted us
to do.” And he added, “You have to get
along with people.”
There is still plenty of gold in the
area. Winter said there is a lot of the
gold still in the ground but it is too
expensive to retrieve. “You will go
broke trying to get it out.”
For recreational gold panners,
Winter suggested going to Josephine or
Patrick creeks as a place to take children
to learn how to pan gold.
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Winter has started a new chapter in
his life. Recently, Winter sold his land
on Holland Loop and moved to Crescent
City to live with his daughter. The
spry 103-year-old is more than capable
of living alone but the recent loss of
Waunetta has him wanting different
scenery. “I need a change, I see her
everywhere I look and I miss her,” a
teary-eyed Winter said.
(Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley News)
On Friday, Feb. 3 at the Illinois Valley News office, Bud Winter (left) along with
Tarry Frank, shows a gold nugget he found in the Illinois Valley during his gold
panning days.
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