We met an old gold miner here in Yuma that makes his money by teaching folks how to prospect and gold pan. His name is Old Stony and he was quite a character. We decided to take him up on his proposal to teach us how to run a dry washer to find gold. He took us a little north of Yuma onto some BLM land (public land) where you can prospect for gold. He showed us where some tailings (old diggings) from an old mine were and showed us how to set up a dry washer by them. The picture shows the dry washer on top of the pile of dirt that we ran through it. The motor sat on top of a bucket with a hose running to the dry washer. The hose blows air through the dry washer and also makes the whole thing vibrate. The air and vibration push the dirt that you shovel into it down over the riffles -- kind of like a washboard -- and the gold catches in the riffles. We shoveled dirt into the machine for about a half an hour. You can see the gold in the pan that we found. A little bit but it was sure pretty.
Old Stony also went over some pointers on using metal detectors the proper way so that you don't get tired out using it. He also explained about other metals that you can find and are worth more than gold -- especially meteorites.-- Another find that he told us about is called a fulgerite. Its where lightening has struck the ground where its sandy and turned the sand into glass. You have to dig down carefully and what you will find is a formation of obsidian (black glass) that has limbs like a tree. Some fulgerites that have many limbs and look more tree like can be worth thousands of dollars. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun and would recommend Old Stony as a good teacher.
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