With the record rainfall over the winter and wildfires of recent years, treasure hunters are again combing the loosened rocks and soil of California for gold, according to reports.
The original Gold Rush occurred about 175 years ago, but hopeful prospectors see the recent weather as a fortunate circumstance that may help pan out their search for gold around Sacramento and Placerville.
As massive snowpack built up during the winter storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains begin to melt with the warmer weather, the rushing water pushes gold in the mountains down into the rivers, The New York Times reported Saturday.
“Anytime you can stand next to a river, and you hear the boulders tumbling, you know the gold is moving, too,” Jim Eakin, owner of a firewood business in Placerville and amateur gold seeker, told the newspaper.
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Several treasure seekers told the outlets that they have come across gold nuggets and flakes during their treasure hunts. (David Paul Morris/Getty Images)
Ed Allen, historian of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma, told KCRA in February that he is always keeping an eye out for gold, especially since the record rain and snowfall this winter.
Melting snow floods down the mountains and carries gold into the rivers. (Peter Summers/Getty Images)
“We just had a flood here last month and that brought down gold,” Ed Allen said at the time. “People are still looking for gold. We’ve only found 10-15% of the gold in California.”
One gold seeker told the Times that he found a nugget worth enough in cash to buy himself a pickup truck. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Several gold seekers recounted stories of treasure hunting to the outlets, from discovering a gold nugget worth enough cash to buy a pickup truck to panning less than 2 grams of gold worth $80.
Some gold seekers told the Times that they predict more gold will be found as the river levels recede, allowing better access to the rocks and sandbars.
