Gold Mining Experience

We arrived at Happy Camp Friday afternoon. We got supplies at the 49ers headquarters and set off on our own to find some gold with a metal detector and other equipment. We found a couple snips of tin and some horseshoe nails that looked to be plenty old, but no gold. Saturday morning we all went to a three hour lecture on gold prospecting. The Zees stayed alert much better than anticipated. In the afternoon, we panned for about 4 hours. In my very last pan, I found a flake that probably weighed a milligram. None of the Zees found any, but Karen had about ten times as much as me. She also had about 10 guys helping her and probably seeding her sand with flakes.
Sunday we went out as a group of about 70 and worked as a team. We had 4 highbankers working, which are machines that basically pan for you, so the work was mostly moving boulders and shoveling up the most likely dirt and screening out the cobbles and pebbles. We used a #4 screen to throw out anything bigger than a quarter inch.
After 6 hours of 70 people and equipment working, we ending up with not quite two-thirds of an ounce of gold, which was split equally among the 70. If you ignore costs like equipment, travel, etc., that comes to a little under $2.00/hour.

I don't think I could have scripted a better "Stay in School" message.
Here's the gang waiting for their split:



Monday, we again went out on our own, using our new-found experience and knowledge. Karen found a likely looking spot on a map, and we camped nearby. The road was closed, so we had to bike about a mile to the location with all the equipment in backpacks. Then we had to wade across a fast moving stream with our hands together to keep from falling. Zack, Zeo and I each slipped once, but none of the girls did. This is where we found the scorpions, which diminished my enthusiasm for digging under rocks. We got skunked again. When we got back to where we could get an internet signal, it turned out that we missed the spot Karen wanted to go by about a quarter mile. Karen wanted to go back and try again, but she was outvoted 5-1. She sulked for about a half a day.