Hobbies And Interests
Gold Panning
Gold panning is a popular hobby. Equipment used is often the same type of equipment that prospectors first used when they first crossed the U.S. in search of gold. Modern pans are much the same as they were during the gold rush era. Classifiers and rocker boxes are still in use and so are sluices. At the modern prospector's camp, however, it is not uncommon to see automatic gold concentrators which automatically pan collected material, shaking the gold to the bottom while dumping the excess material without the aid of the prospector. Automatic pans make life a lot easier for the serious gold panner.
Dredges
Dredges have been in use since the last decade of the 1800s; however, the mighty giants once used are no longer in operation. These machines work much like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the gravel and sand out of stream beds. They could often get material all the way to deep lying bedrock. The material sucked up by the dredge was deposited into sluices to separate the gold from the other material. Small personal sized dredges with 2 to 4-inch hoses are still popular with prospectors but even these small personal tools are illegal in some areas.
Highbankers and Hydraulic Mining
Hydraulic mining is a process of using high pressure water to wash material down from hillsides. Pipes are laid to channel material washed from the hillsides into sluices where the material is washed and separated. Many of these operations used mercury to catch the gold as it passed through pipes and sluices. This method of prospecting is extremely harmful to the environment and is no longer legal. While prospectors now need permits in many states to use highbankers, these are terrific tools for moving a lot of material very quickly. Material is loaded onto the "grizzly" or classifier and the material that falls through is washed down the sluice with water from hoppers attached to the front of the unit. Highbankers come in an assortment of sizes.
Metal Detecting
It's hard to imagine what the gold rush would have looked like if prospectors had set out with metal detectors in their packs. There are detectors for all levels of prospectors. At 2011 prices, the cheapest run only a few hundred dollars and pick up signals a foot or two under the surface. Those in the $1,000 range can detect 6 to 10 feet beneath the surface. Locators and tri-corders are available for serious commercial level prospectors. They run around the range of $25,000 and are strong enough to detect up to a mile in all directions or straight down. These devices also detect non-metal minerals.