Nugget Shooter

March 19, 2008 3:10 PM

Looking for a new outdoor hobby? There's always recreational gold prospecting. If you live in Washington State, check out Bedrock Prospectors. If not, no worries, there's gold all over the United States and Australia. Probably elsewhere too, it's widely distributed. You can really get into it, but some practitioners say you probably won't make money at it.

Tangentially.

posted by owhydididoit (17 comments total)

My grandfather's had gold fever since the fifties. If he had all the money now that he's spent on claims, shakers, sluice boxes, etc., he'd be comfortable in his retirement.

Bah, who am I kidding? If he had all that money he'd waste it gambling on the horses. At least with gold fever you get to see some pretty scenery.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:13 PM on March 19, 2008

I learned how to pan for gold in the Georgia Tech ORGT program. Loads of fun, though I never found more than a fleck or two.

http://www.crc.gatech.edu/orgt/
posted by kjs3 at 3:17 PM on March 19, 2008

When I was a kid we took an interstate vacation "Out West." I bought a spiffy gold pan and panned for gold in every stream I could convince my folks to have a picnic near. I never found anything until we came back home, panned in the mighty Muskegon and found a few flakes of actual gold! Kept me going all the rest of that summer.
posted by Floydd at 3:25 PM on March 19, 2008

I was by Klondyke, Arizona and panned for gold a little this weekend. Didn't find anything but some flecks, mabye.
posted by Mr_Zero at 4:07 PM on March 19, 2008

Standing in a pristine stretch of river and getting skunked still beats working, whether you get skunked prospecting or fishing. It's one of the most peaceful and idyllic places to find oneself.
posted by caddis at 4:07 PM on March 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Man, I've been panning ever since my folks took me to Knotts Berry Farm in the '70s. That was all touristy of course, but it hooked me anyway. Now if I can just talk my wife into getting a bitchen metal detector!
posted by snsranch at 4:13 PM on March 19, 2008

I understand Heather Mills is a gold digger.
posted by Tube at 4:19 PM on March 19, 2008

Question:

Will I be allowed to spit tobacco juice down the front of my biballs and possibly onto the floor/near your boots?
posted by Divine_Wino at 4:22 PM on March 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Florida is one of the, if not the only, state not listed on the gold-digging site, since we've been under water a lot. However, treasure-hunters love our state! They just have to go off-shore to look for sunken treasures instead of gold. This guy, for instance, has his museum near my home.
posted by misha at 4:29 PM on March 19, 2008

Will I be allowed to spit tobacco juice down the front of my biballs and possibly onto the floor/near your boots?

Hell I'm doing that right now.
posted by nola at 5:04 PM on March 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

I went gold panning last year in the Swift River up in Byron, Maine. Found me some nice bits of mica. I'll probably go back this summer. There are worse things to do than stand in a stream and play in the water in the summer.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:20 PM on March 19, 2008

I panned for gold at Legoland when I was little. I found enough gold to melt into a cool medallion. (On reflection: there's a slight chance that it wasn't real gold.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:25 PM on March 19, 2008

With the economy in a tailspin, everyone's into digging for treasures. And sometimes cash. Here's a TV show dedicated to that pursuit.
posted by debris at 6:20 PM on March 19, 2008

Florida is one of the, if not the only, state not listed on the gold-digging site

Well apart from Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, New Jersey, North Dakota and Rhode Island. It's sad really when you think of it...
posted by ob at 7:00 PM on March 19, 2008

There are beaches here in Malaysia that are pretty rich in gold. Between the high price of gold and the low wages for unskilled labor, it can be profitable to spend a day panning, more profitable than husking coconuts or shrimping or what have you. There was a special on TV about it just a few months ago. This guy relates people making around 100RM a day, which is about 35USD and easily triple what a village laborer would normally make in a day. There are buyers who show up at the beach every afternoon with a scale and pay out cash on the spot. Didn't seem a bad way to spend a weekend, knee-high in the surf.
posted by BinGregory at 12:08 AM on March 20, 2008

Georgia is listed on the site, and in Lincoln county you can still find piles of stones left by prospectors. Unfortunately, the gold rush in Georgia turned out particularly bad for some people.
posted by TedW at 6:20 AM on March 20, 2008

Now if I can just talk my wife into getting a bitchen metal detector!

While you're at it, talk her into a geiger counter. Goldpanning works because gold is a heavy metal, the pan gets rid of anything that isn't heavy, and then you can pick out the gold from what is left by its colour.
I'm under the impression that goldpanning can also work for some radioactive elements due to their weight, but you'd need an instrument instead of your eyes to pick out which flecks are what.

But of course, I reserve the right to be wrong.
posted by -harlequin- at 4:52 PM on March 20, 2008