Gold panning kit

We ran across what must be the coolest outdoor gift for 2009: a gold panning set from Cabela’s.

The well-known retailer (and partner with WildIndiana.com) offers several starter kits for the gold-panning neophyte, some under $30.  They also offer other items such as sluice boxes for when you get seriously hooked on the sport.

You’re probably asking, “Why is he talking about gold panning???”

A little known fact: most streams in Indiana contain small amounts of “flake” gold that can be panned from promising areas.  In fact, there were some limited commercial gold panning operations in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s in Brown County.

The reason we can find gold is because most of northern and central Indiana is underlain by great beds of gravel that was deposited by the prehistoric glaciers that shaped so much of our landscape.  While all the the bedrock of Canada and the northern U.S. was being ground into pebbles and pushed towards the Hoosier state, some amounts of gold went along for the ride.  A few million years later, those tiny flakes of gold have eroded out of stream beds and collected in a few spots just waiting the treasure hunter.

In southern Indiana, where bedrock reaches the surface, a few small veins of  actual nuggets have been found, though not in commercially-feasible amounts.

Indiana (as most states) has a small but active group of gold-hunting enthusiasts.  We know a gentleman who lives nearby and got bitten so hard by the gold bug that he bought a commercial-grade floating pump and sluice.  Most avid gold hunters barely find enough “color” to pay for the gasoline to travel to favorite prospecting areas, but getting rich isn’t the primary motivation for most treasure hunters.  Of course, not too many deer hunters or fisherman can harbor the hope, infinitesimally small but still theoretically possible, of finding the Mother Lode.

So, if you’re looking for a really unusual gift for the outdoors enthusiast in your life, check out Cabelas.com and search for “gold panning.”

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