Gold Prospecting: For Better or Worse
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Golden Memories
March 2022 by Dan Stanton
One time, while I was camping at Forks of Butte in Northern California with the family, I found a nice nugget, some chunky flakes and pickers while I was sniping. I told my beautiful daughter Romie that I was going to give her the nugget as a gift to keep for memories of all of us camping there.
Well, while we were packing up, my wife called for me to help her with something, so I set the pan containing the gold down, off to the side of the parking area. I helped her out, we finished packing and I drove off... leaving the gold there like a dope! I didn’t realize my blunder until many hours later when we arrived home.
I was so ticked off that I paid my worker to watch my shop the next day, which was on a Monday, just so I could drive all the way back up north to get that gold. I finally arrived there hours later, only to find that someone had found the gold and happily took it with them.
I did all the work—they got all the gold.
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Bumbling Through A Gold Bonanza
On about the fifth time across one of these slopes, and down near the little wash...bam! I found a nice chunk of rock, laced through with gold. Wow! How had I missed this?
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Never Go Alone
Well, the last time I headed out, I decided to go alone. Big mistake. Since I first started my prospecting adventures, I have had both knees and one hip replaced…
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Cold Gold
Because waiting for spring seemed to be taking forever, my 15-year-old granddaughter Grace and I decided to pan for gold sooner. The thought was…even if we did not find any gold, we would set a new record for absurdity—gold panning in the coldest weather!
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Coyote Poop Gold
Australians have told me that emus, being very curious, will pick up and swallow anything shiny or unusual. They say aborigines will kick and pick apart any emu poop they see to check them out for nuggets.
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Tangling With A Desert Monster
It all occurred when Gus and I returned to a remote placer gold area where we had previously found really good gold. The problem was that it would take about an hour to walk through the desert to get to it.
Gold Prospecting: For Better or Worse
We all love to see that first glimmer of gold when it peeks out from under the black sand in our pan, or feel the weight of a nugget in our scoop when we dig a good target. But sometimes things don’t go quite so smoothly.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Ask The Experts - My detector only finds bullets
• Ask The Experts - Any tips on finding gold in Colorado?
• Ask The Experts - Should I be seeing black sands in the tailings of my sluice box?
• Ask The Experts - How do I sell my gold?
• Ask The Experts - Is Welsh gold more valuable?
• Finding Gold With A Simple Sluice Box
• Detecting A Trashy Area
• Winter Prospecting
• Are You Being Followed?
• Critical Minerals Update
• Overcoming Repeated Skunks
• Butte County: Another Mother Lode Favorite
• Welcome to Nothing
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Crisson Gold Mine Robbed At Gunpoint