Nov

18

With gold around $1400 per oz. I took the opportunity while in Alabama last week to head to the Alabama Gold Camp (AGC) near Cragford  to learn how to pan for gold. It was a pleasant 2-hour drive from Montgomery through bright fall colors to get to the site.

Once at the AGC "country store" it became readily apparent to the proprietress (an extremely helpful and nice husband and wife team run the facility for the landowner) that I was a pure greenhorn lacking the proper equipment and skills needed for the job (no need to mention the geology degree here for sure).

Although it was mentioned that a high banker dredge/sluice system could be rented for about $35 for several hours that would do the work of several panning prospectors, I passed on the labor saving device and insisted on the purist pursuit of gold panning proficiency.

Quickly the proprietress assessed my needs and outfitted me with a $10 shovel; a green plastic, riffled, gold pan; a sieve; 5-gallon bucket; squirt bottle; a plastic "pipette" to suck up flakes of gold; a Brillo pad, and several small glass bottles to store my "sure to be found" gold. Total investment cost around $70 with the daily permit.

The AGC store, to be sure, was extremely well equipped and organized with all manner of gold sluices, dredgers and tools for sale that easily could have brought the bill into the hundreds of dollars. That there is money to be made in providing picks and shovels, food, cabins and camping facilities to prospectors is indisputable. The husband of the husband-wife AGC team, with an electrical background, noted that he intends to bring in power to run rental high bankers in the near future and replace the current gasoline fed units. The entrepreneurial spirit was quite evident at this well-run facility. (examples of the type of equipment available now for the small time prospector )

The camp proprietress then gave me a very instructive lesson in how to pan and took me to the front of the store to a water trough full of gold- bearing sand and gravel. She pointed out it was necessary to "classify" the material first, which basically meant sieving out the larger gravel and leaving orange-colored sand. Wonderful specimens of gold-laden quarz gravel were on display to emphasize and underscore the need to look carefully through the sieved gravel before tossing it aside. The gravel also was laden with small rounded garnets. If one was lucky a good size, semi-precious garnet might be found and cut into a fine ring.

After transferring some the sieved silt and sand into the gold pan, my instructor carefully washed it back and forth with water at the proper angle to prevent the unwanted loss of the finer dark auriferous sand that soon separated out into the riffles of the pan. It was readily apparent that panning takes skill and practice. The washing angle and agitation level have to be carefully undertaken. A sharp and attentive eye is needed.

Soon enough shiny material began to appear in the washed sands in my instructor's pan, but alas it was tiny flakes of muscovite (mica), that pesky phyllosilicate that mimics the flash of gold. After a few more washings, however, using the squirt bottle, my patient teacher had one speck of gold that could be distinguished from the mica. Excitedly I reached with my finger to pick the gold from the pan but was admonished and told that the tiny gold flake might pick up the oil from my skin and float out of the pan. No this gold must be "pipetted" or sucked up with the small plastic tube. It was interesting to note that the Brillo pad was needed to condition/triple-wash the new green plastic gold pan bought in the store for the same reason–oil used in the plastic forms to make the pan had to be removed before it could be used to pan for gold.

With the gold panning lesson completed, I was assigned my location on the nearby creek and told to pan material that had been removed by a track hoe and left on the banks of the creek. It turned out that a white-bearded, grizzled prospector in coveralls and boots and an old van with Alaska plates (8 years in that state as it turned out) had already set up a portable power sluice (i.e. http://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/poposl.html) in the same location. He was a friendly fellow though and not too territorial and told me that I would have good luck if I took a few shovel loads from his pile.

But after 2 hours of hard shoveling, sieving, panning and such, my arms ached, my tennis-shoe covered feet were cold from cool creek water and my greenhorn gold panning efforts had produced only black sand (possibly magnetite or reduced iron pyrite), mica, and a plethora of small garnets washed out from schist. No gold and the lowering sun, low light levels, and cooler temperatures told me it was time to pack it up and head for home. Meanwhile the undaunted, veteran prospectors prepared to camp out by the busy railroad tracks and wait for the next day.

Before I left the site, the AGC proprietor stopped by on a 4-wheeler and gave further panning instruction and noted that while the gold found might be small in amount, it was for him the excitement of finding something never before seen and 100s of millions of years old. He stated that one gained respect for the pre-1849ers in Alabama and Georgia who went out in the field back then with heavy gold pans, panning for endless hours with "Popeye-developed" forearms, in hopes of finding a few, gold flakes.

Gold fever reached a top in Alabama in the 1840s when a German immigrant discovered gold while digging a wine cellar near Hillabee Creek, north of present Alexander City—the find became the "Dutch Bend Mine". In fact nearby Goldville, AL had over 5000 prospectors in the early 1840s and hyperbolically handled quantities of mail rivaling New York City (perhaps enticements for investors and gold seekers?) Soon after though the prospectors headed for the more lucrative California gold fields. With WWI graphite production from Clay County became the target mineral of interest in the 1920s.

Yes, panning for gold is a fun hobby for the entire family for which there is always the potential to find a nice nugget to pay for dinner. The exercise, focused concentration on the task, and fresh country air is invigorating and conducive to a good night's sleep. And the $3 BBQ sandwich at the end of the day hits the spot.


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