Contact  Home  Links  Research Center  Stories  Expeditions  Placer Locations  Safety  Online Forum  Gold Gallery  Video_Archive  Gold and Pyrites  Rocks-Minerals-Gold  Precious Metals Prices  Getting Started  Legal Issues - Mining Law  GPS Units  Gold_Rush!  Extractive Metallurgy  Arizona Ghost Towns  Search Engine  Cool Tools  Hard Rock/Open Pit Mines  De Re Metallica  ATVs  From the Past  Recent Finds News  Forex and Gold  Extras  Equipment Dealer Review!  Old Books from the 1800's Online  1872 Mining Law  Privacy Policy  Gold Miner Game  Guide to Buying a Claim  Equipment for the Desert  Most Popular Gold Detectors  Ebay Auctions!  USGS Data  Arizona Mine and Mineral Museum  GIS  Topo Maps  Ore  Google Maps/Google Earth  NASA World Wind  Gold Macros  Aqua Regina  Newsletter  Buy me a Cold One  Custom Research  Equipment for Sale  Metal Detector Manuals  My Books  Straight Talk  Minerals List Type Database  Tucson Gem and Mineral Show  Place Names Database  Gems and Minerals  Gold Price  Mining Dictionary

 

Search for a Lost Gold Mine

I am a person in need of money and I this year I was hired to search for a lost gold mine in California. This is my story.

I know that searching for a lost gold mine, brings to mind old prospectors with long grey beards who haven't bathed in awhile, but I am a 5 feet tall 21 year old woman. The people who hired me gave me a part of a map which evidently showed how to get about 90% of the way to the gold mine. The rest had been missing for a great many years, judging from the yellowing of the paper document. I don't know much about the people who hired me, but they offered to pay me 1/2 a million dollars to find the gold mine. They had the money in certified funds in my name, guaranteed, all I had to do was come back to sign the check. With the exact location of the lost gold mine in hand, of course. How hard can following a map be? First, I was to go to a small town (population 12) in California, in the middle of the desert. I saw a what seemed to be a small shack up ahead and thought "it can't be this easy, something is wrong".

As I got closer to the shack, I saw that it was not deserted, but was the clubhouse for at least the owners of the 100 or so motorcycles that were out in front. Luckily, I started out early in the morning and everyone was asleep in the shack, so I just kept on going. Next, after driving hundreds of miles north, I came upon more and more vegetation and what is unusual in California, a rainstorm! I kept looking at my map and was on the trail which turned into a back road. I slid off of the road and couldn't see a thing. I gingerly got out of the car and made my way to what looked like a rock overhang that was airy and dry. I sat there for hours in this comfortable place just watching the rain and thinking of the gold mine, wondering if I would find it and mentally spending my earnings. The downpour did not stop until the morning and the sun started to come up, this would be the start of a pretty California day. Evidently, I had someone who agreed with me too.....

As I had been sitting under the overhang all night, lost in thought, I had a "room mate" - a bear! He/She was the biggest bear you would ever want to see. When we both discovered who we had spent the night with, the bear stood up and ran off into the rising sun. I took this as an omen of good luck. Another omen of good luck was the fact that my car started and I was able to get out of the mud without too much trouble. I didn't invite my friend to come with me.... I was coming to where the map ended and I was on my own. Up ahead, was a gentleman on a motorcycle. I stopped to ask him for directions to whatever roads were ahead and I remembered that this was one of the motorcycles that was at the shack. The man on the bike was none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger! I was dumbstruck! He got off of the motorcycle, opened my car door and swept me up into his arms. He told me that he was divorcing Maria because he wanted a wife who was a Republican. After he assured himself that I indeed was, he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I guess I found a gold mine of my own and don't need the money the gentlemen were offering to me. The adventure is only beginning!

Contributed by Susan Diaz