The pounding California endured over the winter has given rise to a spring touched by gold fever.
“The only people who like big floods are gold miners,” said gold hunter Terry Prebalick, who has been hunting gold for years along with his family, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The going theory is that the pounding rains and floods simulated a mining technique that used high-powered water to pry loose gold, according to The New York Times.
“Anytime you can stand next to a river, and you hear the boulders tumbling, you know the gold is moving, too,” Jim Eakin of Placerville, California, said, indicating where those seeking gold should look first.
Eakin claims he bought a Ford F-150 after finding one nugget, but is coy about where it was found.
“Somewhere north of Los Angeles, south of Seattle and west of Denver,” he said.
Tony Watley, president of the Gold Country Treasure Seekers club, is filled with enthusiasm over what the year will bring.
“It’s going to be a magnificent year. Everywhere we are seeing new erosion,” he said.
Mark Dayton, a regular at the club, said at a recent meeting, $50,000 in gold was displayed.
Will historic water movements free up more gold for prospectors?
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“We’ve had more gold in the last two meetings than I’ve seen in the last two years,” said Dayton, a former police officer and firefighter who claims he found $750 in gold this month.
Ed Allen historian of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma said he is “always looking” for gold, according to KCRA-TV.
“We just had a flood here last month and that brought down gold,” Allen said. “People are still looking for gold. We’ve only found 10-15 percent of the gold in California.”
State law bans the use of big machines to mine gold, which means digging and panning are two major ways gold is discovered.
“The more earth you move the more gold you’ll probably get. If you don’t move any earth, you don’t get any gold,” California Gold Panning employee James Holman said.
“They didn’t get all the gold and we are still on it,” Holman said.
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— PhatzNewsRoom (@RealPhatsBlog) April 24, 2023
The Times report noted that some gold-seekers are philosophical.
The report noted that James Holifield, a high school student from the Sacramento area spent the final day of his spring break panning the American River, finding four flakes after two hours.
His mother was even more pleased, noting her pleasure that for one, her son had a “low-investment” hobby and for two, it got a teenager away from a phone.
