Chapter 6 Today’s Prospectors Have Advantages That the 1849’ers Couldn’t Dream Of!
Figure 20 The author’s car high up in gold country during a weekend prospecting trip
Today’s modern prospector can get up in the morning and drive his personal vehicle 30 or 40 miles to his prospecting location (Figure 20). At the end of a long day, the prospector can drive to a nearby town, sleep in a hotel, eat at a restaurant, and then do it all over again the next day. Or he can stay in his tent/camper for days at a time with his food iced down in a cooler or small portable refrigerator, or eat canned food and energy bars. A trip to a prospecting location that might have taken an 1850’s prospector a month now only takes one or two days by car.
1800’s era prospectors had to work hard to get good information on prospecting technology, geology, mineralogy, and all the other related topics necessary to find, remove, process, and market gold ore. With reference books on these technical subjects few and far between, and the number of educated people who could understand them even rarer, prospecting was not an efficient way to earn a living 150 years ago. But with today’s access to the internet, huge public libraries full of an enormous variety of research materials, and modern technology like: 1.) Metal detectors, 2.) Physical mineral separators and even 3.) Plastic gold pans, the efficiency advantages of the modern prospector over the previous era’s prospectors are enormous!
The tremendous advancements in physical comfort and personal security made in the last 150 years makes it possible to focus much more energy on the objective of systematically searching and locating gold. The United States is a much more secure and safe place in which to work and play in the 21st Century. Maps, free satellite photos, and other products are available on the internet to aid the wise planning of an outing. Safety products for outdoor adventurers are reasonably priced and can be shipped directly to your door within a few days of being ordered. And while a traveler still has to be cognizant of his personal safety, security and medical assistance is often just a cell phone call away.
The actual cost in time and money for today’s prospector has dropped tremendously. A person can drive 5 hours and be prospecting at a location hundreds of miles away from their home for the cost of a tank of gas. If they sleep in a tent near their prospecting location, the additional cost of the trip will only be the gas they used to get there. The cost of food, prospecting tools, and other necessities are a fraction of what they would have cost in the 1800’s (if they were even available!). So the new millennium is a GREAT time for prospecting if an individual is willing to make the small effort necessary to learn the basics of the activity.