Anyone here pan for gold?

[amelia]

Is it just a hobby, or does the effort pay off?

[Outlaw9]

I have wanted to try it for a while. There is a good show that comes on the outdoor channel I think its called Gold Fever. Its shows some techniques and stuff on panning and sluicing.

[MELOC]

i think i have seen that show or some like it. it was ery interesting and sure gives you the bug, lol. i was a bit disappointed that the shows i have seen were a bit like infomercials.

[Outlaw9]

Originally Posted by MELOC

i think i have seen that show or some like it. it was ery interesting and sure gives you the bug, lol. i was a bit disappointed that the shows i have seen were a bit like infomercials.

Yeah I think there are two different shows that come on. I believe its brothers that do em. I don't have outdoor channel anymore but it seems like the last few I saw was like a infomercial to. I believe for the gold prospector association or something. Still some pretty interesting stuff.

[Sherrynboo]

We have a gold mining camp about an hour away from me that I went to about a month ago. I had no luck but I am not one to patiently pan for hours on end either. Some people were finding dust, others were finding small nuggets. The ones finding the nuggets had some kind of rig set up to do most of the work.

Sherry in Ga

[Ravenlost]

My mom and her sister do. That TV show is her favorite! I don't think it's very lucrative though...just a hobby.

[Freeholder]

We used to do a lot of panning, and had a sluice box also. It was a fun thing to do with the children on hot days, since you spend most of your time in the water. We found a little gold, enough to show in the bottom of a gold vial, LOL! But those were very pleasant summer days. We used to pack a picnic, and drive from where we lived, near Albany, OR, up to Green Peter Creek, and find a place where we could get down to the creek with the girls (who were still fairly small, and the youngest had to be carried, as she's autistic and wouldn't walk through brush and over the stream). We'd cross the creek to a gravel bar, set up our picnic, and spend the rest of the day playing in the water. Since my husband was, at that time, in the Air Force and barely making enough for us to live on, we collected bottles and cans along the way to turn in for the deposits, and usually made enough money to pay for our gas that way.

Great fun, but don't expect to get rich!

Kathleen

[Cygnet]

My grandfather made a living in the 60's as a "prospector" though not directly from gold. He had claims for a few minerals that made him some money, butwhat I understand most of the $$ he made was as an outfitter for OTHER people with gold fever. Some of them were quite kooky, according to family legends ... he had a string of pack and saddle mules and took folks into the Superstitions looking for the Lost Dutchman, among other things.

As far as panning for gold goes -- I've found enough to pay for gas a time or two, but that was only because I managed to pan out fairly sizable nuggets and then sold them to a friend who was a jeweler. He made them into earrings and pendents.

[Spinner]

I haven't tried it, but I know a guy that spent a summer bumin' around in Colorado. He said he found enough to survive on, and he said no one will ever get rich that way.

[Tarot Farm]

Depends on where you are doing the panning. I lived in Alaska and Canada, where most streams contain some amount of gold. I found 'flour gold' in most of the streams; it is a very fine 'as flour' gold dust. It takes a special place to find the nuggets that you read about in the Old West magazines, on tv, etc. Thos places are carefully guarded and there whereabouts usually 'go to the grave' with those who know of them.

The average panner will get some color, but nothing to get rich on. You need a strong back and a good eye to pan gold. Also, if you spend too much time in the water...you need lots of althelete's foot medications! Invest in a good pan, which makes it a lot easier...thos plastic pans will work, but not as good as the ribbed ones that are made of metal and are larger...more expensive too.

I have some books on gold panning that I will be listing in Barter Board soon. I am cleaning out the 'house' and selling what I do not plan on using. I am keeping the 'gold pan' that I used...you never know...that FEVER might hit again some day....

[Freeholder]

Well, we have done some panning in Alaska, too, and other than the water being colder (and therefore less fun) the results were the same -- a few glints in the bottom of a vial.

One of my brothers, and one of my cousins, bought a really good patented gold claim in Alaska. Unfortunately for them, the claim, although patented, lay within a National Park, and the Park Service was absolutely anal about allowing them to do any kind of work there. I think they finally gave up and let the Park Service buy them out, since they didn't have enough money to keep fighting them. It's too bad, as it was one of the best placer claims in the state.

Kathleen

[SFM in KY]

My father fed himself during the last part of the depression while living in western Montana and panning/ sluicing for gold. It wasn't a good living but it kept him fed. He'd worked as a miner in SD at some of the big hardrock gold mines and later worked at some of the gold mines in western Montana as well.

After he retired as a rancher, he went back to panning for gold in some of the more isolated places in western Montana ... and when they went south for the winter in Arizona and New Mexico. He taught me how to pan as well and several times I went with him, the last time in the area of western Montana where he'd lived during the depression. We got tired, pulled muscles, wet, cold and mosquito bit ... and a wonderful time ... and found some gold. I still have 2 or 3 small nuggets that we got on that trip.

Wonderful memories ... but I don't think there are many areas that you could actually make much money doing it now.

[Christiaan]

It is "common" knowledge that almost any river coming out of the Cascade Mtns is gold bearing. Well, there are a lot of caveats there. I remember some years ago meeting a guy who was panning in a large creek near hear. He asked me if it had flooded recently because he wasn't finding any color. I pointed out that the creek came out of a lake about six miles from where he was panning. Like real estate, panning for gold is all about Location Location Location!

[beowoulf90]

Panning can be fun and relaxing. I've found flour gold in the creek on my property. I'll never get rich from it but it is a fun hobby. Also GPAA does have property thru out the US that members can use for little or no cost. Learning to pan is fun and it's a thrill finding "color" in the bottom of the pan. I know GPAA has a website, but don't know what it is off hand.

[beowoulf90]

Here's the website,
http://www.goldprospectors.org/