An online video gave me some ideas, and with a lot of trial and error I developed a reliable method of panning free gold particles down below 35 microns quickly and easily.

I probably swung over a few targets without noticing them. My first target came  about ten minutes later as I went over a part of the high bench in this wide section of the dry wash.

The problem is that extracting gold from hard rock is often a lot more difficult than processing placer gravels. Still, there is some very high-grade ore out there in many old mining areas.

These “people”—and I use that term loosely—worked together with others. What was happening to me was like scenes out of the old James Bond movies.

I made my way up past where I left off and the wash was going to end in about 100 feet. It was then I got a sweet signal.