Flooding May Have Gold Lining Amateur Prospectors Believe Erosion May Have Uncovered Hidden Gold

A century ago, Idaho miners trained water jets on hillsides, blasting away soil to reveal gold.

The devastation of “hydraulic mining” was so severe that it led to some of America’s first environmental protection laws.

In recent months, however, Mother Nature has done some hydraulic mining of her own, sending floodwaters ripping through streams and canyons.

And where some people see devastation, amateur prospectors see gleaming gold.

In Murray, Idaho, a former gold-mining boom town, people are running metal detectors over creek banks. Others shovel sand out of roadway culverts, hunting for the precious metal.

“This recent flood moved a lot (of ground),” said Bob Lowe, a Rathdrum, Idaho, land surveyor and amateur miner. “It’s a whole new ballgame this year.”

Experts agree.

“If I was up there, that’s exactly what I’d be doing. The big rush came through and cleaned everything out again,” said Roger Monson, Idaho claims director for the Gold Prospectors Association of America.

“It certainly makes sense,” said Washington State University geology professor Larry Meinert. The miners are seeking “placer gold” - grains that have washed loose from a vein on a hillside, he said.

So far, nobody’s struck it rich. After a tempting early thaw, the soil has frozen again, streams are high and snow has returned to the mountainous gold country. But Lowe, Monson and other amateur prospectors are champing at the bit, eager to sift through fresh ground. And they’re not alone.

In January, Lowe called a meeting in Coeur d’Alene to form a local recreational mining club. He expected about a dozen people. Forty-five showed up.

The resulting club - Northwest Gold Prospectors - includes members from Spokane to Wallace, from Bayview to St. Joe city. It meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at the Log Cabin restaurant in Coeur d’Alene. Dues are $1 per meeting.

Interest in prospecting is being spurred, of course, by the fact that gold has climbed to its highest price in five years. It recently traded as high as $413 an ounce.

“It’s strange. Gold can stay at $380 an ounce forever, but as soon as it goes up $20, everybody gets all excited,” said Lowe.

Some people become prospectors because they enjoy the exercise. Others want a taste of the old West. But mostly, Lowe said, it’s the strange intoxication in a flash of gold at the bottom of a gold pan.

“You never know what the next shovel’s going to bring,” he said. “It’s kind of like playing the lottery.”

Much of the amateur mining in the Inland Northwest is done on public land.

Clubs such as Lowe’s or Monson’s typically acquire old mining claims, then let their members camp there and mine. Other amateurs work friends’ claims or plunk down $135 to file their own claim on public land. Some national forests designate recreational mining areas.

The Bureau of Land Management, which manages mining on public land, has information available.

Recreational mining is typically a low-cost, low-technology affair. Tools of the trade remain much the same as they were in the 1880s: a shovel and gold pan. Miners scoop riverbed gravel and sand into pans, then swirl water to flush out everything but the black sand that carries gold.

“That’s the moment of truth,” said Lowe.

Many buy metal detectors, but Lowe says they aren’t useful for gold buried more than a few inches.

More dedicated miners shovel gold-bearing sand into sluice boxes, which are set in a river and catch bits of gold on screens, washing away lighter stones, gravel and sand.

Serious amateurs set up dredges, which vacuum up gravel and sand from river bottoms. A few people tunnel into hillsides, following a vein of gold.

The more complicated the equipment, the higher the cost - and the more complex the environmental regulations.

“If you’re just going to use a pan, nobody really says anything at all,” Lowe said.

Typically, miners using a shovel and pan don’t need a permit, said Ken Knoblock of the Idaho Department of Water Resources. Dredgers need special permits and a bond to pay for environmental restoration. Mining is banned in some rivers, such as Idaho’s St. Joe and its forks.

“As a bunch of people, they (prospectors) are pretty conscientious,” Knoblock said.

“Recreational mining” is a bit of a misnomer. The miners contend with cold water, leaky boots, muck and mud. The best places to find gold are typically the hardest to get to: under large rocks, in deposits high on mountainsides or in the bottom of a stream bed.

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it,” said Lowe.

“And it (gold) wouldn’t be worth anything,” added his friend, Bob Weaver.

Weaver, a 65-year-old retired commercial diver, is a hard-core recreational miner. Last summer, he went on vacation in Alaska, taking rain gear, a bedroll and boots to mine 120 miles north of Fairbanks. He paid $120 a day to shovel and sift muck, returning after two weeks with a small handful of gold bits.

In four decades of gold prospecting, Weaver said, the biggest nugget he’s found was a quartz-studded piece “the size of a small pickle.” Lowe’s biggest find was the size of his thumbnail.

Lowe said few amateurs sell their gold, preferring to keep the flakes as curiosities. Many have nuggets made into jewelry for gifts.

“When you work really hard all year and get 1 ounce, it’s tough to sell,” said Weaver. “It’s much nicer to take it out and show people.”

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