If they could see us now...

An email from Joel prompted this blog… what would the old timers think?

He was talking about the “gold hog” matting recently released for retail sales. He said, “Tested gold hog mats with SD material, quite impressed.” He then speculated, “If the old timers had some of the new stuff, it’s hard to say what they would have defined as wages on a placer.”
I replied, “I am thinking about those old timers looking into the future with our sluices, 4-wheelers, a metal detector... they would certainly call us a bunch of pansies!

So I envisioned the traditional prospector from gold rush era. There was usually a mule loaded with a pick-axe, gold pan and a shovel. Anything else they needed they used local resources to make. There’s still a few remnants of old sluices here and there in the Hills. They look to me, a lightweight, to need at least two men to transport them. I suppose that’s why the remnants are still visible… they’d just build a new one when they moved on. By the way, they started with felling a tree, not buying wood at the hardware store!

Some of them would take their metal pans and bang riffles into them… I can almost hear it echoing around the campfire!

And what a solitary existence… our prospecting is a family and friends outing! If the old timers got a pouch of dust and nuggets, they had to be pretty careful to not only guard their gold but not let anyone know the source. No wonder they trusted only their mule!

Gold Bug Nelson as portrayed
in "Gold Pans and Broken Picks" by
Christopher Hills.

We take a lot of things for granted. We load up our prospecting supplies in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, stop at the local convenience store, gas up and grab some drinks and sandwiches and drive to our claim. We set up our lawn chairs, unload prospecting supplies and get digging.

If we camp at the claim it’s in a camper with a stovetop to make our morning coffee. I love campfire coffee, but it’s sure nice to have an instant flame! The frig is stocked with whatever we want to eat and there’s a heater if the evening gets too chilly. The camper is also great refuge from storms.

So maybe that has more to do with modern-day recovery methods than anything… I don’t want to work real hard, a good cup of coffee is more important than the weather because shelter is right there.

Now with all the conveniences we enjoy so much, you’d think we would recover a lot more gold. But to recover gold you’ve got to put in those back-breaking hours, no matter what. I’ll just about guarantee that the old timers did a lot more digging and recovered a lot more gold in a day’s time!