By K. Richard Douglas
“Go west young man” paraphrased the words of newspaper editor Horace Greeley from a biography about him in an issue of the New Yorker newspaper from 1838. The quote was later thought to be Greeley’s endorsement of the 1849 gold rush. He had visited Colorado and tried panning for gold himself. It’s thought that some locals planted some gold dust, in order to fool him, and when he returned to New York, he wrote of the gold to be found out west.
Even with our advanced technology, there are still those who enjoy the adventure and excitement of panning for gold the old-fashioned way.
“I had just had knee surgery and was going on medical leave for about two months. I was watching the Discovery Channel about the gold rush in 1849, and they showed how the prospector looked for gold,” recalls Terry Wells, CBET, biomedical tech specialist with Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif. “One of my old high school buddies told me he had got into prospecting and I should give it a try.”
“I would say the old adage, ‘Go West,’ still holds true today, with the drought we’ve had in California; you can get to some places to find gold that would otherwise be under water,” Wells says.
Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills
Wells started his research on the Internet, watching YouTube videos, learning about what equipment was needed and reading books about making equipment for prospecting.
The Bureau of Mines says that prospective gold miners should know where “placer deposits are located and [the miner] must have the technical knowledge to extract the gold.”
Early mining in the U.S. occurred in the southern Appalachian region during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. When the richer deposits were exhausted, attention turned to the western part of the country. A major impetus that turned enthusiasts’ attention toward California was the discovery, by James Marshall in 1848, of a major deposit on the American River in Coloma, Calif. His find started the first of the early gold rushes.
Placer or alluvial deposits of gold are those deposited by rivers or streams. Gold is heavier than other things found in water and will sink to the bottom of a collection device.
“I’ve been pretty good at building things in the past, and thought I could build everything they [gold prospectors] use. So I took other people’s ideas, and with a few scraps of things I had around the house, [and] a Home Depot right down the street from my house, [was] off to building the things I would need,” Wells says.
“I borrowed some equipment from family and friends to draw my own plans and build my own equipment. I had some old batteries and some solar panels for charging them, for my power source,” he adds.
“First I built a dry washer for separating heavy materials, like gold, from the lighter materials. Then I built a sluice box, [in] which water flows down this tray with matting in it to catch the gold and black sands,” Wells says. “Then, I pan out the gold from the black sands and dry the gold and put it in a glass bottle. I don’t sell my gold.”
“A dry washer is something you put dirt in, and this thing will use air pressure and gravity to separate light material and the heavy material; the heavy material being gold,” he says. “It’s got a motor. It uses a bellows underneath and you put your material in the top and it uses a bellows to kick the light material out and it uses an offset motor to vibrate and the heavy material is caught in a trap at the bottom.”
Wells did his research and learned, to his good luck, that one of the biggest areas for placer gold was nearly in his backyard; the Kern River Valley.
“I purchased some books from the 1960s that had old maps of the area where gold mines and gold bearing areas were located in Kern county. With these maps and Google Earth, [I] found areas that gold was found in times past,” he says.
“In February 2014, I joined the Gold Prospector Association of America to gain more access to gold bearing areas near Bakersfield,” Wells says. “Kern County has had a rich gold history, according to the old books I’ve come across. So every couple of weeks, I go to the Kern River and take a couple of test pans to see if it’s worth it, then take some pay dirt I’ve processed home and pan it down and collect my gold. I’ve been pretty successful so far; but not rich.”
Casting a Line
“I’m a trout fisherman when time permits. I’ve been going to the Owens River Valley area for the past 40 years, thanks to my dad. He took me to the Bishop area when I was young and have been going back for a long time. I would like to become a trout guide in that area when I decide to retire,” Wells says. “My largest trout to date is about 7 pounds.”
Wells also plays darts and even became a franchisee for the American Darter’s Association out of St. Louis for about six years and ran a 30-member league at five locations.
“There were only two dart leagues in Bakersfield at that time,” he remembers. “We took several members to the national finals in Las Vegas. I, myself, finished in the top five to seven in the nation on several different trips there. Those were good times.”
An HTM professional for 34 years, Wells started the apprenticeship program for the VA in Kern County in 1980.
“I got certification in 1985. I was number 2,224 in the field of CBETs. Lots more have come and gone since I started,” he says.
Wells says that he has trained, or helped train, about eight other biomeds.
“We work on just about everything here except MRIs,” he says. “No contracts on equipment here either. We fix it or call in for assistance on repairs. I have served as the interim manager for about six years before TriMedx came on board back in August 2012.”
When retirement arrives, he will be found shaking a pan or casting a line.
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