Quartzsite is only 20 miles from Blythe, California, where we go on our big food runs to Albertsons. Every time we pass this one gully on the north side of the freeway and about 5 miles west of Quartzsite, we have seen cars and trucks parked in the dirt and people with buckets wandering about.
I thought maybe they were digging for agate, which is pretty so I loaded the car with gloves, a bucket and shovel with sinister plans of putting Donna to work gathering some stones. We parked and immediately met Wayne, who stated that everyone was mining for small gold flakes.
Wayne was part of a local club that mines the old gully. He explained it had been mined years earlier and he tries to get beneath all the overburden that past miners had deposited.
Wayne uses a vibrating bed with a leaf blower rigged up to supply the air he needed to make the whole system work. When he gets a certain amount of sediment in the tray he will dump it in the bucket and start shaking for more. Once the bucket is full, it's off to home where he will have access to water so he can sit and pan for the gold flakes.
Wayne is pointing out to Donna the other areas he has explored. Wayne also said that it is just his hobby, because he spends more on gas getting to the claim than he will make from gold...well that's just what he says.
Wayne said we could try our luck right here, just go gets yourself a medal detector in town. I thought this might be fun because if I got a good one, I could use it at the beach too. Donna and I went to the local mining supply company and had "sticker shock"! Detectors started $200 and went to $2200! Well, that's not going to be my new hobby, better look elsewhere. I still think it would of been fun but bird watching is cheaper.
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