After hearing all about Eastern Oregon's gold mining history, Olivia was interested in trying to pan for gold. Panning for gold is something that I hadn't done either--so it sounded fun to me! Eric, growing up near California Gold Rush Territory, is pretty much an expert on the subject. We decided to give it a try.
We changed into our getting wet clothes and waded out into Grandma Ginnie's creek, thinking maybe the recent floods had washed something valuable down from Cornucopia. Armed with a flattish pan, we looked for some sandy spots and dug in.
No luck at the first spot or two that we tried. Then, when we tried panning right in front of the house, we noticed a lot of sparkly looking specks in the sand. They dropped to the bottom of the pan, just like gold is supposed to do! There was so much of it (and it was so noticeable) that after a while, it was easier to just pick the flecks out of the water by hand.
I'm not sure if what we found was truly gold, (or just something shiny), but we had a great time playing gold miners--and found some cool souvenirs to boot!
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