Text 8784, 36 rader
Skriven 2009-01-15 06:36:00 av Dave Drum (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Gaylen Hintz
Ärende: Pay to Play
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-=> Gaylen Hintz wrote to Dave Drum <=-

 DD> mining. However, a prospector still finds the occasional
 DD> "glory hole" and does quite well with it. Which assures that
 DD> there will always be some optimists doing "hobby" prospecting.
 DD> Just as there are those who sort gravel in North Carolina
 DD> streams the find gemstones.

 GH> Or Montana for that as well. I can well remember being up in
 GH> Montana when I was working for a mobile home manufacturer doing
 GH> warranty repairs and there were a few places where , for a small fee,
 GH> you could buy a bucket of sand/gravel and search for different gem
 GH> stones which they would buy back from you.  It really was quite a
 GH> deal for them and a lot of people would go out and try it. :)

Or Arkansas and their diamond fields at Crate of Diamonds State Park. Of course
they publicise the heck out of "big" finds ... just like Atlantic City has
billboards all up and down the right coast trumpeting "Our Slots Paid Out Over
125 Million Dollars (pick a figure) Last Month!" of course they don't tell you
how much was lost in the slots ... just the payout.

In the early 60s I was living in Californica, partnered with a crusty ol' guy
named Walt in some placer gold ventures. A gold buyer (back in those days the
official gold price was U$35/oz and you had to sell to a Gummint Gold Buyer)
not from the gummint would come around and buy our gold dust and small nuggets
- at U$140/oz. Since it was not refined but just as found in the pan it was
considered "souvenir" gold and fell through a loophole in the law. The buyer
worked for Knott's Berry Farm - who maintained an old west style theme park
down in Orange County. They used it to "salt" their flume where the touristers
would pay a fee for a pan and a spot at the waterside. And since the sands in
the captive stream were so rich - everyone managed to get a bit of gold. Maybe
a dollar's worth from their five dollar panning session.   Bv)=

... "A rather barbaric period in your American history." Spock
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