For those who like to pursue the "yaller stuff", here are some useful gold finding tips worthy of attention. The first thing to keep in mind, obviously, is to look for gold where it was been found before. It is unlikely that you will stumble across a new place never before discovered. So check your history: what rivers, mountain ranges, desert
spots have seen gold mining in the past? Do some research, then pick a (public) place that sounds good to you, and try it out.
Secondly, once you arrive at that historic gold area, it is unlikely that gold will leap out of the ground or water into your outstretched gold pan. You will need to learn to "read" the ground/river to know where gold might have taken up residence.
Your job will be to ferret it out, and release it to your advantage. So ... where does gold like to hide out?
One fact to keep in mind is that gravity is your friend, and gold's undoing. Gold, being just about the heaviest thing in the ground or water, will always seek a low spot to hang out. Generally speaking, that is, unless the gold has been flung up higher by some force of nature, like a flood.
Big chunks of gold, known as nuggets, will normally be found in places like cracks in bedrock and at the bottom of the deeper holes in creeks and rivers. Usually they will be buried under layers of gravel, sometimes many feet thick.
One exception might be on bedrock that has a shallow overlay of sand and gravel.
Such places will put gold within easy reach of the casual miner. Crevising, the process of cleaning out cracks in such bedrock, is an exciting adventure that may yield not only flakes but also the occasional "picker" nugget.
Shallow bedrock may contain potholes where heavier objects, like bullets, lead fishing weights, even coins, will settle. Gold is sometimes a resident of such hideaways, and can be recovered with the right gold tools.
Hand tools, easily carried in a bucket or tool belt, can be purchased or gathered cheaply at places like garage sales or even fabricated by the prospector himself.
Things like small and large spoons, scoops, old paint brushes, rock hammers, cold chisels for opening up cracks, small and large buckets, shovels - all have their part to play in capturing the elusive gold.
And, of course, the most essential gold finding tool of all - the gold pan. The modern pans, built of sturdy plastic with built-in riffles, are a delight to use and are very good at capturing even the smallest specks of gold. And they are economical.
Practice makes perfect, but panning is not a difficult skill to acquire. You will start out slow at first, but with time you will be able to handle the pan like a pro, and will have that little vial of gold to show for it.
One of my favorite places to find gold is where nature herself has taken a hand and captured the gold for you.
Grass roots. Clumps of grass growing on stream banks or in shallow water have the tendency to reach out and grab the small gold that goes by when the stream is running at high water. The waving tenticles of grass filter the water and the small gold particles settle into the heart of the grass clump, and even into the roots, just waiting for you to come along and release them during the low water of summer.
Sometimes a grass clump, strategically situated in the creek, can gather up hundreds of gold "colors", a small bonanza to delight the heart of the gold seeker.
But one word of caution. Be selective, and don't just dig up every grass clump you can find. Even a single clump can be partially harvested, and the remainder left to grow back
The respectful recreational gold prospector will fill in his holes when he is done, and will never leave trash of any sort behind. That way, he helps to preserve the good name of miners like himself and to create an image of good conservation for all recreational gold seekers.
