Has anyone ever went to those recreational areas (U.S) where you have to pay a fee to prospect gold in the rivers and etc? I seen a television program, but can't recall the name of it that showed tourists just panning gold from the river banks and obtaining like miniscule of gold dust and some small nuggets.
The next time I go to America I would love to do this just so that I can say that I have done it. Even if the amount of gold found was almost nothing.
In those cases, it is very rare to find anything of high value. They are typically started when the land owners know there isn't much of a value to come from the gold vs. the cost of actually extracting it. So they make money a different way and charge people to get it themselves. People get the 'experience' and land owners still get paid. Win-win for all parties.
The closest pay to play area from me is over in Montana around Phillipsburg and instead of gold, they have sapphires, and for like $10.00 for a bag they guarantee you will find a sapphire, where THEY git ya is then the charge a fee to heat it up and then to set it in jewelry..... but you get a bag of rocks to look through until you actually find at least one gem.... and that is pretty nice. There is a non-pay to dig place closer, for garnets on Forest Service maintained ground, and people dig some nice stones there, they just limit ya where you can dig at on site to keep the whole forest from being dug up and left a mess with holes. One of the better ways to get gold and not visit an area is to purchase a bag of "paydirt" from one of the many sellers, while i have not gotten into that more than local sales, ive went back and forth over giving it a go, its just some folks expect the bonanza for free. I would rather a customer be happy and have fun, than complain all they found was rocks in a bag of rocks.... it is an experience, not a guarantee. Here in Idaho there are certain rivers that can not be claimed, but merely leased from the state, and since it is impossible to keep folks from the leased ground along a highway, very few leases are taken out, and there are several nice beaches where even with a pan a person can make $50.00 a day in a VERY LONG day of it. Not far from where i live, my dad's uncle averaged $20.00 a day in the early 1900's with 3 other fellas during one winter, it was hard enough work he never did it again, and went back into farming and hotels [not at the same time] I have found paystreaks that had a pennyweight of placer gold to the gallon, but the streaks are short lived and few and far between like that..... though streaks can be missed by one person by inches and the next person finds the strike! anyhow the gold is there, a person just has to be patient to get it out! William North Central Idaho
Hey, I did that panning for gold thing one time when I was younger! We didn't find a whole lot, but the thought of being able to find real gold as a kid is quite exciting. Perhaps I'll have to see if there's anything like this close to me, take my own kids out for a day of possible money making. heh. Blu3: Sapphires? Really? I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing. And 10$ for the chance to find a sapphire is a pretty fair price. And who needs it set into jewelery? I'd just wrap some wire around it and hang it on a piece of string, as a necklace. lol.
I think that this sounds like a lot of fun. It would be neat to take a family vacation to one of these places. It would be a great way to learn about panning as well.
Sapphires aren't expensive, they probably put an extra stone in every bag to make sure there is one. If you want 'em go to ebay you'll find a ton, faceted, for cheap. But i'm sure its fun to fish one out of the dirt.
I haven't done anything like that yet, but I've thought about it a time or two, and really think it'd be something my kiddo can enjoy as well. (She's heavy into metal-detecting....this would be a good distraction, if only for a day). I think it would be fun for the experience, even if nothing was found.
