Could you please sign this petition? It protests the shutting down of the Auburn State Recreation Area to rockhounding and prospecting.
The Auburn RSA is located about forty miles northeast of Sacramento. Over many years, I’ve found gold in quartz, gold flakes, gold dust, and even beautiful quartz crystals. All of that activity is now illegal except for “hands and pans’ mining. That’s where you get to work a single gold pan without the help of any tool, not even a small shovel. Metal detectors are now strictly outlawed.
Here’s where to sign the petition. No registration or password required.
https://www.change.org/p/jn-perlot-stop-government-over-reach-in-auburn-state-recreational-area
Please help keep the area open to rockhounds. To give you an idea of the area’s beauty and what everyone is being shut out of, here’s a mini-article. I can’t write up this story for Rock&Gem Magazine because people can no longer prospect. This particular area I visited a few years ago is just one of many where you can find gold. Read my captions below.
This is the middle fork of the American River. The middle fork and the north fork of the American come together near Auburn at what is called the confluence.
Plenty of areas to explore, especially at the end of the season with low water levels.
This is crevice work, where you dig out sand, rocks, and gravel between boulders, screen it down, then pan the fines.
Pioneer Mining Supply in Auburn (external link) sells specialty crevice tools like this or you can use old screwdrivers and the like. Don’t worry about disturbing anything; winter rains will wash new material back into the cracks. One hopes, with a little gold.
Here is the rough material gathered from the crevice. The large rocks are discarded and water flushes the fine material through the screen and into the pan. Then you pan out what remains.
And if you are lucky you will find some gold. All of what I have just described is now illegal. Please sign the petition if you would like to restore wonderful activities like this.
https://www.change.org/p/jn-perlot-stop-government-over-reach-in-auburn-state-recreational-area
