Albert Fausel often spends his entire day at his family’s hardware store, sorting through boxes of bolts and walking back and forth across the creaky old floorboards to greet his loyal customers. However, on a recent sunny afternoon, he donned a wetsuit and snorkel mask, then plunged into the shallow creek near his home to search for treasure following a recent heavy rain.
As an amateur gold seeker, Mr. Fausel uses only his hands to sift sand and gravel from the creek bed, and then, still underwater, he lets out a sound audible through his snorkel: “Woooo-hoo -hoooo!”
He emerged with what gold seekers call treasure—not quite a nugget, but large enough to pinch between your fingers—and he presented the shiny find to his gold mining buddy, Fuzzy. In just 20 minutes of rummaging through the creek bed, Mr. Fausel found gold worth about $100.
Rushing waters are separating and carrying gold deposits to the people.
A gold rush in California has emerged in recent days—a type of frenzy that occurs when nature reveals a cache of sparkling metals. The heavy winter rains in California have caused water to flow through rivers and mountain streams. As warmer weather melts the massive snowbanks, rushing waters are separating and bringing gold deposits to the people. Intense wildfires in recent years have also loosened the soil, helping to wash down what some locals refer to as flood gold.
This form of gold mining is currently heavily restricted in California; however, gold seekers say that recent consecutive winter storms have created an unstoppable effect. It’s as if Mother Nature has aimed a pressure washer at the hills, revealing valuable minerals still embedded in rocks and dirt.
Jim Eakin, the owner of a local firewood business who discovered a very large nugget, stated: “Whenever you can stand next to a river and hear the sound of stones rolling, you know gold is moving, too.” He found a nugget so large that four years ago he bought a brand new Ford F-150 pickup truck with the money he made from that nugget. Like many of his fellow gold seekers, Mr. Eakin, who often wears a nugget around his neck, is cautious when asked exactly where he unearthed the nugget that he just loaded onto his truck.
With gold prices nearing the all-time high of $2,000 per ounce, Mr. Eakin considers himself part of a group of gold seekers who can “read” the situation and profit from the weather conditions.
Mr. Dayton, a former police officer and firefighter, now makes a living as a gold hunter. In just a few outings in April, he found gold worth $750. Gold seekers like him predict that the biggest gold finds are yet to come, as river levels recede and accessible rocks and sandbars become prime hunting grounds.
