My experience with Oregon Gold Prospecting

I grew up in Jacksonville, Oregon. Oregon gold prospecting was just something my family did. My uncle had a mining claim up the Little Applegate River. For several years we lived in a house beside a creek. During the long summer vacations I would entertain myself sometimes by taking our gold pan down to the creek and trying to find some gold. I usually found at least some flakes but it was hard work and I seldom perservered for long. Gold was there. I knew it was there.

It was on this property that my father and uncle mined during one year of the Great Depression. They took out enough gold, and the price of gold was not that high at that time, to pay the bills during a time when they were both jobless.