Nuggets make for the best memories and this patch was just adding to mine. In the hours of daylight I had left, I worked from that nugget to the bottom of the patch, collecting eight more nuggets.

There are currently about 170 commercial-scale placer operations in Alaska. Most of these are small operations with just a few people working; they are often family affairs that operate seasonally only during favorable weather.

What do you do when you’ve located a promising deposit of gold or gemstones, but it’s trapped in solid rock?

The red dot on the diagram points out where the gravels there were also carrying, but not as much color. The gold was sparse below the point indicated.

Don’t hunker down and just keep digging in one spot where there is very little or no gold—if you don’t find it, you’ve got to get up and move on!