Gold Fever...

"Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold." William Shakespeare.

I often look at the landscape around my town, the old gold workings, a century or more old. (Gold was first discovered here in the 1850's) I ponder the times when "gold fever" brought men from every nation to this fledgling town in the hopes of making their fortune. Huge amounts of the precious metal was recovered from the creeks, gullies and shafts that literally litter the area. I have met modern day prospectors in town that guard their own secret "claims" jealously, so I know gold is still "out there somewhere".

When I first arrived in town I went as far as buying a gold panning dish. It was not the traditional metal variety but a black plastic model with raised ripples around the interior to catch the heavier gold as the water washed away the sand and gravel from the dish. The color of the dish was to highlight the yellow metal so as to allow for easy identification. I did in fact try it out a few times in the creek and found a few specks for my efforts, but I think the old timers had definitely been over my selected area many, many times in the 150 years previous.

Surfing gold prospecting sites today I learned much about the modern detectors available today that claimed to re-discover lodes left behind by my historical prospectors. My area is a government approved fossicking area. I think I may have gold fever but whether I am prepared to fork out the "gold ransom" required for one of these high tech detectors is another matter. Upon retrospection of the day I think my gold obsession is more closely linked with my mental illness than anything else, but who knows...