There's No Gold In Missouri!

[Obsessive]

Awesome stuff, MidMo. Congrats and many more happy hunts to you and yours. I look forward to reading more and I hope you're compiling all your writings for your future book on Tales From Misery.

 

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[MidMoTreasure]

Bryan,
I first want to say I love your posts. I recall my childhood visits and summer vacations down in Missouri, had an Uncle near Rolla. One very unique thing that Missouri does that you could explorer are the stream culvert bridges. I don't know if you know what I am referring to or not, but these are concrete culverts that double as a bridge. The downstream side are usually washout of many of the fines which would leave the heavies behind. I remember as a kid the waters being about 10 foot deep downstream as everything was washout, great swimming hole and likely a great honey hole. Since aquiring the fever as well, I have given thought to making my way down there to test out my hunch. Would love to meet up next spring to give it a go. Best of luck, dig deep and keep the color.

Bill

Yes, I have considered that. I watched some videos a while back of folks in gold-bearing states vacuum material from the culverts and do pretty good when panning it out. I may try that in the winter when the snakes and Sasquatch are hibernating. Right now I have been working a single creek that has several miles of good bedrock and I want to keep running it and seeing what pans out. Since I have been telling folks in the area my new hobby, I have been getting some good third-hand information about gold. <Old Prospector Voice> I heered tell of a nugget been found down where that creek runs into the bigger creek. Folks been finding gold for years. <Chug cheap whiskey from a bottle and pass out>. Its really satisfying for me to know that, just by applying the prospecting knowledge that I gained from here on TNet and from reading Chuck Lassiter's book, I was able to hit on a glacial gold honey hole.

The Rolla area is very beautiful. That would be a great place to spend summers. I have done a lot of metal detecting down there, mostly looking for Civil War relics. I have found some pretty good stuff. Also, lots of smallmouth in the rivers near Rolla.

 

[Bandmenter]

Bryan,
I have not seen any bedrock where I am at. We have about 8 feet of overburden. I bought a suction nozzle to use with my high banker. I firmly believe that the deeper I go should turn up some chunky gold so I dig on. Are you allowed to suction dredge down in misery. It would be a lot more productive as well as fun. I will have to admit that I haven't had a real chance to use it, maybe a trip to Missouri is in order.

I commend you on involving your whole clan in the fun. They will remember it forever maybe even carry on in your footsteps. I took a grand nephew out prospecting this summer, taught him a little about geology on the way to where we ended up prospecting. I explained about glaciers pushing all this material south and depositing all over the place. We happened upon a very large granite boulder so I asked him if he knew where it came from. In the best answer an eleven year old could muster, he says "from a very long ways away Uncle Bill." They listen and learn so well at this age and he will always remember Uncle Bill taking him to look for gold. Oh, when ever I take a kid mining with me, I always start calling them "nugget." We always have a great time.

Best of luck, dig deep and keep the color.

 

[MidMoTreasure]

Dredges are allowed in Missouri, but only on private property with permission. You may not run a dredge on government land. That is not too big a deal as the vast majority of land in gold-bearing Missouri is privately owned. The issue would be getting permission from a landowner to dredge. In Northern Missouri, the overburden would be similar to how your area is, thick and deep. As you go south, it thins away to nothing. If you ever decide on a trip, give me a shout and I will tell you some public spots that are easy to get to where you can use a pan or a pan/sluice.

I like how you call the kids nuggets when you take them along! I am finding that the creek is a good classroom to teach my kids about nature, geology, and history. And the kids are actually retaining the information! For example, my wife and I just got back from Canada. My six-year-old asked if there was any gold up there when we went, and I said I didn't take my pan. She said she asked because she remembered me telling her that the gold we find in the creek was pushed by ice down from Canada. Makes me proud.

 

[Bandmenter]

Bryan,

That sounds cool, or should I say golden. I am hoping to get out you way sooner rather than later as I still have some vacation to use before the end of the year. I would rather play and get paid than to just get paid, they don't allow carry over to the next year, they just write you a check. I was actually thinking of getting a fluid bed sluice from Aurora Mining products. I believe that can be packed in and used on government ground. I call and ask Kevin Bell, the designer, and see what he thinks about BLM ground usage. If I do make it down there I will bring the metal detectors as well, if one doesn't pan out(pun intended), the other might.

Dig deep, keep the color.

Bill

 

[MidMoTreasure]

After two brutal, agonizing weeks of not prospecting, the opportunity finally arose for me to escape away to the creek for a few hours. My last few Saturdays have been consumed by dad and husband duties, including a wedding and a pumpkin patch. If you haven’t experienced the joy of going to a pumpkin patch yourself, allow me to briefly explain. It is a place where you go to pay a lot of money to have your kids feed other people’s animals. Once you are almost entirely broke from $2-a-cup goat feed, the kids demand you buy one or several pumpkins, all priced at a 600% markup over the perfectly good Aldi pumpkins. And there’s no booze. At this particular trip, I caught this billy goat with devil eyes trying to eat my two-year-old. I channeled my inner Ric Flair and threw that son-of-a-buck into a half-nelson until he tapped. My kids were amused, but I think the normal people’s children who watched the carnage unfold will probably need therapy. Turns out, the billy goat was just trying to munch a nibble of goat feed that had stuck to her shirt. Oh well, I guess the devil is in the details, and in the eyes of that billy goat.

I lost the other Saturday to a wedding that we were forced to attend. It was for the kid of a friend of my wife, not even a blood kin-folk! And it was south of the glacial zone, so I couldn’t take along my pans and dig up the back yard of the resort. On our way to the venue, we stopped at an old historic bridge to play around a bit. My 6-year-old found her first ever arrowhead while we were there! It was the broken base of a Rice side-notched point. Very proud of her.

Anyway, back to my creek to see if the third time is the charm. I was solo today, no wife or kids to do the digging for me. Oh how I had missed the incessant horseflies that seem to love the taste of chubby hillbilly blood, the bullfrogs and cricket frogs with their taunting croaks, and the watchful eyes of the Midwestern Sasquatch hidden in the brush on the bluffs. I am a pro this time, so I remembered the Jet Dry to keep the super floaty glacial gold from cruising right on out of my pan. I brought both the Super Sluice and the Banjo Pan. I want to build up my confidence with the Banjo Pan because I believe it will be a good way to move through a lot of material here in this “panning only” swath of Federal land.

I hop down onto the sweet bedrock of the creek, check my GPS marker on my phone, and head to the “gold hole” that I ended at last time. We really haven’t had much more than sprinkles for rain, so the spot was pretty much just as I had left it. The slab was still there too, making a comfortable panning perch. I summon my inner He-Man and move some large rocks (we’ll call them “boulders” to inflate my ego) out of the way so that I could attack the hole. I set the classifiers on the buckets and begin processing material.

The water turns to chocolate milk as I scrape the material off of the bedrock. In fact, parts of the bedrock come up with the sand and rocks. I realize that this spot contains decomposing bedrock that is littered with tiny cracks and crevices – perfect places for that elusive glacial gold to stay hidden. After what seemed like a half a day of scraping and shoveling, I finally have a 5-gallon bucket of 1/8-inch classified material. I set that aside, and then take the Super Sluice and the ½ inch classifier to sample some other spots. My thought was that I was sure there was gold in my bucket, and I wanted to see if I could find some color in other cracks and holes before I panned through the bucket.

I got to work shoveling material from other spots with the hopes of finding an area as rich as the gold hole. I scraped out a crack ten feet up from the gold hole – no gold. I scraped a drop hole a few more feet away – no gold. I scraped some more cracks a few more feet away and, you guessed it, no gold. I was beginning to think that the special gold hole was the some drunken leprechaun’s stash spot. Desperate to see something shiny in my pan, I gathered up all my lucky charms and headed back to my panning spot.

The Super Sluice tore through the 5-gallon bucket at a decent pace. I concentrated 5 gallons of material into just a few heapin’ spoonfuls of gold-bearing sands. Every few pans even had a decent-sized flake for me to suck up into the snuffer bottle. I probably spent too much time super-concentrating the last bits of material, and I realize that I could do this more efficiently at home with a finishing pan. That would shave a lot of time off and give me more time to shovel more material.

After successfully nabbing some gold from the gold hole with the Super Sluice, it was time for me to master the Banjo Pan like Earl Scruggs mastered, well, the banjo. I devised a plan to run a bucket of material through the Banjo Pan, but to catch the spoils in the Super Sluice and pan it every few loads to see if I was donating gold back to the creek. I classified the material with the ½ inch screen, even though the Banjo Pan can run unclassified material with ease. I wanted to take out the larger pieces of decomposed bedrock, and also see if I could sift out another arrowhead (I didn’t).

The Banjo Pan blows my mind on how simple and fast it is to use. You can run a full load of material through it properly in less than 20 seconds. I stopped to pan the spoils after every two loads. My time usage was thus: 40 seconds through the Banjo Pan, then 5 minutes of panning. I did that through the whole bucket. Guess how many gold specks I found in the Super Sluice that escaped the sticky fingers of the Vortex matting?? Zero. Not. One. Speck. After the third panning of the spoils, my gut was saying “That Banjo Pan ain’t missing no gold!” but my brain could not believe that the duckbilled platypus of gold pans was THAT good. And on super fine glacial gold to boot.

I did a full cleanout of the Votrex matting and panned out the concentrates. Much to my delight, gold!! It astonishes me how well the darn thing works. Mike P. must be some kind of super wizard. I proceed to shovel out the remaining material and broken bedrock left in the hole and run that thought the Banjo Pan. I don’t use a safety pan for the spoils this time because there ain’t no gold getting past the Vortex mat. I run through the bucket in less than ten minutes. Super efficient, but it also is a workout with all the push-pulling required to liquefy the material. A few weeks of Banjo panning will give you Popeye arms!

I pack up my gear and my concentrates and head home to finish it up. I spent all of my time going through material from that one hole. I think when you spend your whole day at one spot, it should be considered mining instead of prospecting. The finishing pan works through the concentrates and gives me a happy sight. It is my best Missouri day yet (I know, only my third trip. But very exciting!) The next day I was sore all over, so you know I must have been doing it right. Pretty sure I exercised parts of my body that haven’t been used since my college days. I fully expect to market the Gold Panner’s Workout video series, just as soon as I can find a way to superimpose my face on The Rock’s body.

Nature's Sluice

The Gold Hole

Nice Missouri pan

Total haul

 

[KevinInColorado]

For a newbie, you sure are learning fast and getting it right!

Also, your writing is so good, I’d pay to read it! Please keep up with the fun, detailed posts!!!

PS I too have had good experience with the Banjo Pan. Mike Pung’s business partner Red Wilcox is the actual inventor. I helped Red (just a little) with prototype testing - fun times

 

[arizau]

Mom always said "clean your plate" so maybe you need to add/make one of these to/for your arsenal to get the gold you left behind. https://www.google.com/search?q=gold+sucker+pump&enablesearch=true

Nice job.

 

[MidMoTreasure]

Thanks Kevin, I am glad you enjoy my writing. I did practice in my back yard and kitchen with store-bought paydirt for a LOOOONG time before actually hitting the real outdoors. That and watching a lot of videos really helped my panning technique. I think that should be step 1 for any prospector-to-be.

Did you ever re-pan your Banjo Pan tailings when you tried it out?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks Kevin, I am glad you enjoy my writing. I did practice in my back yard and kitchen with store-bought paydirt for a LOOOONG time before actually hitting the real outdoors. That and watching a lot of videos really helped my panning technique. I think that should be step 1 for any prospector-to-be.

Did you ever re-pan your Banjo Pan tailings when you tried it out?

No, I didn’t repay tailings. I trusted Red when he said I didn’t need to! Anyway, for me the first measure is always gold produced per hour of work. In a pans only area, Banjo Pan wins!

 

[Gold4Mike]

Looks like a great place to dig! Thanks for the story!

 

[MidMoTreasure]

Mom always said "clean your plate" so maybe you need to add/make one of these to/for your arsenal to get the gold you left behind. https://www.google.com/search?q=gold+sucker+pump&enablesearch=true

Nice job.

Thank you for the link. I definitely know what I need to ask Santa for this Christmas. Those suckers are much more efficient than scraping at the crack with a brush and a screwdriver.

No, I didn’t repay tailings. I trusted Red when he said I didn’t need to! Anyway, for me the first measure is always gold produced per hour of work. In a pans only area, Banjo Pan wins!

I believe it. Though I didn't at first. But after wasting nearly an hour panning out tailings and finding nothing, I can testify that the Banjo Pan traps even the tiniest bits of glacial gold in the vortex matting.

 

[MidMoTreasure]

It has been a few weeks since I have been able to hit the creek in pursuit of the elusive Missouri glacial gold. We are elbow-deep in what is known as Fall here in Missouri, but the actual outdoor weather more resembles Winter. On this particular Saturday, it was a balmy 28 degrees outside when the two-year-old’s singing woke up everyone in the house. After finding some warm britches, stoking the fire, and chasing a naked baby around the house, I settled in to making breakfast for the family. We had just picked up our hog from the butcher last weekend, and we had an abundance of lard to use. I took this as an opportunity to teach my wife and girls how to make lard biscuits, or as we Southerners call, “biscuits.”

My wife grew up believing that biscuits come from a can. Like somewhere in the magical kingdom of Pillsbury there is this wizard dough boy that stuffs perfectly shaped biscuits-to-be in the long tubes and FedExes them to your neighborhood supermarket. You buy said tubes, take them home, and POP! Aside – The pop from a biscuit can will always make you jump. It’s like a slightly-less creepy jack-in-the-box. – End Aside. In an effort to show my family where the best biscuits really come from, we all gathered around in the kitchen and I showed them the simple steps on how to make the most delicious biscuits ever. We made a total of 18 and guess how many were left over... Yep, none. We have problems. Tasty problems.

Pleasantly fortified with flaky, lardy goodness, we donned our rubber boots and cold weather gear and motored off to the creek. I figured the kids would last a maximum of two hours in the cold, so my strategy was to classify material with the ½ inch and then pan like mad with the Banjo Pan. I had marked a sand and gravel bar with a depth to bedrock of around a foot on my GPS from my last visit because it had yielded a few flakes of gold from my sample panning. This was my target for the day in that it was close to the road, had some gold, and had enough dry area for the kids to build a fire.

The temperature had soared to 36 degrees by the time we arrived. I packed light with the gear this time, and we arrived at the gravel bar in a matter of minutes. I plopped my buckets and pans down by some large boulders and determined that would be my digging spot. The girls immediately got to work finding firewood while I channeled my Eagle Scout skills and lit a small fire. Once the girls brought in the bigger sticks, the fire grew to a nice, warm mini-inferno. The kids got settled around the fire and/or hunted a few fossils while I commenced to shoveling material through the classifier. By the time I had a bucket nearly full, the girls had cut marshmallow sticks and were already sticky.

I took out the Banjo Pan and primed the vortex matting to get it in super gold grabbing mode. I plunged my trusty scoop into the classified material and went to town. Shake shake shake shake pour went the Banjo Pan and I locked into a rhythm like I was doing a Cuban dance on a cruise ship after tequila shots. In no time flat I had run through that entire bucket of material. I used a second bucket of water to rinse the vortex matting into after each panful just like Mike P. demonstrates in one of his videos. It took me less time to run the material than it did to classify into the bucket. On top of that, I was working so fast that I had broken into a sweat! In the 36-degree weather no less! Not too surprising, I suppose – I do tend to sweat like a furry fat man. I took off my hat and the steam billowed off of my bald, beautiful head like it was on fire.

My shovel plunged back into the hole and I began classifying more material. I filled the bucket to about ¾ full, and then decided I needed a break to cool down. I took off my trapper gloves, unzipped my sweater, and plopped down on a boulder beside my daughter near the fire. The girls decided that I needed marshmallows too, and I wasn’t about to argue with that. We brought the good ones too, the super mega jumbo marshmallows that resemble chubby albino hamsters in size and shape. I toasted one and scarfed it down, and then ate two more straight from the bag. I felt my spirits lift and my motivation return. I guess every prospector needs to stop and take a marshmallow break every now and then.

After washing the sticky off of my hands in the frigid creek water, I put my trapper gloves back on and commenced to running through more material. Once again, the Banjo Pan made short work of the bucket-o-material. I began scraping my shovel along the bedrock to gather up more material for classifying when my wife told me it was time to go. My 6-year old (now 7) was having a friend sleep over for her birthday and we had to pick her up at six. I had a half of a bucket of material, so I quickly ran it through, grabbed my gear and concentrates, and loaded up the family. I had managed to stay relatively dry and warm during my two hours of panning in near-freezing temperatures, and I avoided pouring creek water down my boot (a very real hazard of using the Banjo Pan).

Once home, I contemplated the day’s trip over some bourbon by the wood stove while the girls got to work giggling, dancing, and tearing up the house. I had run about two-and-a-half buckets of classified material through the Banjo pan, and had roughly one-sixth of a bucket of concentrates to pan. I let the tailings pile up in the creek, and left them there. I learned from last time that nothing was getting past that vortex matting. Trust your abilities, trust your equipment. I decided to put off the finishing until the next morning as the crackling fire and delicious bourbon prevented me from leaving my recliner.

Next morning I woke up and stumbled through the maze of children in sleeping bags on the living room floor to make my way to my concentrates bucket and finishing pan. I got out the Jet Dry and noticed someone had been using it! Apparently my wife decided that MY Jet Dry should be used in the dishwasher. I told her that it was for gold panning only, and tried to put her in time-out. That didn’t go over so well. At least there were enough drops to do my finishing. I got to work reducing the material to heavies and sucking up the tiny flakes of Missouri glacial gold. By the time I was done, I had a decent haul considering I only ran 2.5 buckets of material through the Banjo Pan! I made a mental note to revisit the spot and run some more of that gravel bar and see how much more Missouri gold is hiding out there.

Some observations – I took home more concentrates than usual because I did not pan them down further at the creek like I did the last time. Had I done so, I would have had only a pint or so of material to finish out at home. I noticed a lot of light sands in there because I didn’t use quite enough water on my second flush through the Banjo Pan. The ability of the Banjo Pan to nab super fine glacial gold in the vortex matting is simply incredible. I am so glad I pulled the trigger and bought it! I am also thankful for trapper gloves, which keep my hands warm and dry in the cold. Finally, I am thankful for marshmallows for being fluffy, comforting, and delicious. Heavy pans, y’all.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Awesome video!!! I love marshmallow breaks too and it's nice to see your daughters have their priorities straight haha!
Sometimes a fire on the bank really takes the edge off and I do the same thing when it's cold.

 

[Johnrh9653]

Missouri was was under sea level years ago. The highest point is Tauk Sauk mountain, it was a huge active volcano. If your lucky enough and know what your looking for, you can find gold around it or the St. Francois mountains, in volcano rock. During its last eruption 1.5 billion years ago, it formed the mountain range and land scape in a wide area of south east Missouri. Also a lot of state parks around, Missouri has laws on taking minerals and other various things from state parks. Make your your on MDC land and not DNR. May get lucky enough to find a diamon.

 

[Asmbandits]

Awesome video, good job getting the Missouri gold!

 

[Bandmenter]

Bryan,

I was in the Wal-Mart's the other day and I spotted a Sasquach so I snapped a picture of it for you. Been out scratching out any gravels or has it been like my neck of the woods just too cold. Just haven't seen anything from you in a while, thought I'd drop you a line.

Bill

Dig deep,Keep the color.

 

[uglymailman]

Bryan, you are going to have to up your game if you intend to make enough to put those kids through collage. Have you thought of silver mining? I've read old stories of silver deposits near Warsaw in Benton Co. and south of Osceola in St. Clair Co.. The MO. Dept. of Nat. Recourse says there are no silver deposits in the area but who are those edumacated experts compared to those from 150 yrs ago. Aren't there also some Lost Silver Mines in southern MO.? Good luck.

 

[Ol' Kentuck]

It has been a few weeks since I have been able to hit the creek in pursuit of the elusive Missouri glacial gold. We are elbow-deep in what is known as Fall here in Missouri, but the actual outdoor weather more resembles Winter. On this particular Saturday, it was a balmy 28 degrees outside when the two-year-old’s singing woke up everyone in the house. After finding some warm britches, stoking the fire, and chasing a naked baby around the house, I settled in to making breakfast for the family. We had just picked up our hog from the butcher last weekend, and we had an abundance of lard to use. I took this as an opportunity to teach my wife and girls how to make lard biscuits, or as we Southerners call, “biscuits.”

My wife grew up believing that biscuits come from a can. Like somewhere in the magical kingdom of Pillsbury there is this wizard dough boy that stuffs perfectly shaped biscuits-to-be in the long tubes and FedExes them to your neighborhood supermarket. You buy said tubes, take them home, and POP! Aside – The pop from a biscuit can will always make you jump. It’s like a slightly-less creepy jack-in-the-box. – End Aside. In an effort to show my family where the best biscuits really come from, we all gathered around in the kitchen and I showed them the simple steps on how to make the most delicious biscuits ever. We made a total of 18 and guess how many were left over... Yep, none. We have problems. Tasty problems.

Pleasantly fortified with flaky, lardy goodness, we donned our rubber boots and cold weather gear and motored off to the creek. I figured the kids would last a maximum of two hours in the cold, so my strategy was to classify material with the ½ inch and then pan like mad with the Banjo Pan. I had marked a sand and gravel bar with a depth to bedrock of around a foot on my GPS from my last visit because it had yielded a few flakes of gold from my sample panning. This was my target for the day in that it was close to the road, had some gold, and had enough dry area for the kids to build a fire.

The temperature had soared to 36 degrees by the time we arrived. I packed light with the gear this time, and we arrived at the gravel bar in a matter of minutes. I plopped my buckets and pans down by some large boulders and determined that would be my digging spot. The girls immediately got to work finding firewood while I channeled my Eagle Scout skills and lit a small fire. Once the girls brought in the bigger sticks, the fire grew to a nice, warm mini-inferno. The kids got settled around the fire and/or hunted a few fossils while I commenced to shoveling material through the classifier. By the time I had a bucket nearly full, the girls had cut marshmallow sticks and were already sticky.

I took out the Banjo Pan and primed the vortex matting to get it in super gold grabbing mode. I plunged my trusty scoop into the classified material and went to town. Shake shake shake shake pour went the Banjo Pan and I locked into a rhythm like I was doing a Cuban dance on a cruise ship after tequila shots. In no time flat I had run through that entire bucket of material. I used a second bucket of water to rinse the vortex matting into after each panful just like Mike P. demonstrates in one of his videos. It took me less time to run the material than it did to classify into the bucket. On top of that, I was working so fast that I had broken into a sweat! In the 36-degree weather no less! Not too surprising, I suppose – I do tend to sweat like a furry fat man. I took off my hat and the steam billowed off of my bald, beautiful head like it was on fire.

My shovel plunged back into the hole and I began classifying more material. I filled the bucket to about ¾ full, and then decided I needed a break to cool down. I took off my trapper gloves, unzipped my sweater, and plopped down on a boulder beside my daughter near the fire. The girls decided that I needed marshmallows too, and I wasn’t about to argue with that. We brought the good ones too, the super mega jumbo marshmallows that resemble chubby albino hamsters in size and shape. I toasted one and scarfed it down, and then ate two more straight from the bag. I felt my spirits lift and my motivation return. I guess every prospector needs to stop and take a marshmallow break every now and then.

After washing the sticky off of my hands in the frigid creek water, I put my trapper gloves back on and commenced to running through more material. Once again, the Banjo Pan made short work of the bucket-o-material. I began scraping my shovel along the bedrock to gather up more material for classifying when my wife told me it was time to go. My 6-year old (now 7) was having a friend sleep over for her birthday and we had to pick her up at six. I had a half of a bucket of material, so I quickly ran it through, grabbed my gear and concentrates, and loaded up the family. I had managed to stay relatively dry and warm during my two hours of panning in near-freezing temperatures, and I avoided pouring creek water down my boot (a very real hazard of using the Banjo Pan).

Once home, I contemplated the day’s trip over some bourbon by the wood stove while the girls got to work giggling, dancing, and tearing up the house. I had run about two-and-a-half buckets of classified material through the Banjo pan, and had roughly one-sixth of a bucket of concentrates to pan. I let the tailings pile up in the creek, and left them there. I learned from last time that nothing was getting past that vortex matting. Trust your abilities, trust your equipment. I decided to put off the finishing until the next morning as the crackling fire and delicious bourbon prevented me from leaving my recliner.

Next morning I woke up and stumbled through the maze of children in sleeping bags on the living room floor to make my way to my concentrates bucket and finishing pan. I got out the Jet Dry and noticed someone had been using it! Apparently my wife decided that MY Jet Dry should be used in the dishwasher. I told her that it was for gold panning only, and tried to put her in time-out. That didn’t go over so well. At least there were enough drops to do my finishing. I got to work reducing the material to heavies and sucking up the tiny flakes of Missouri glacial gold. By the time I was done, I had a decent haul considering I only ran 2.5 buckets of material through the Banjo Pan! I made a mental note to revisit the spot and run some more of that gravel bar and see how much more Missouri gold is hiding out there.

Some observations – I took home more concentrates than usual because I did not pan them down further at the creek like I did the last time. Had I done so, I would have had only a pint or so of material to finish out at home. I noticed a lot of light sands in there because I didn’t use quite enough water on my second flush through the Banjo Pan. The ability of the Banjo Pan to nab super fine glacial gold in the vortex matting is simply incredible. I am so glad I pulled the trigger and bought it! I am also thankful for trapper gloves, which keep my hands warm and dry in the cold. Finally, I am thankful for marshmallows for being fluffy, comforting, and delicious. Heavy pans, y’all.



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Awesome story and excellent writing.

You are a rich man indeed.