Gold panners digging up a new income in Mariposa County http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/1131302.html?storylink=omni_popular Gold Panning Instructions http://www.goldgold.com/panninginstructions.htm N.A. Chandler California Gold Rush Era Letters http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=/cng Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484 New Georgia Encyclopedia: Gold Rush http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-785 In these lean times, Americans have turned to a variety of income-generating schemes in order to make ends meet. One rather unusual pursuit that is gaining popularity after decades of general decline is gold panning. The price of gold is currently over $1,000 an ounce, and that has people heading for the rivers and streams of California in a way that hasn't been seen since the fabled Gold Rush of 1849. This year, almost 24,000 gold mining permits have been filed with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for California, and it would seem that there's no end in sight. Most of these nouveau prospectors have their eyes set on the Sierra streambeds that lead from Sutter Creek to Jamestown. Their numbers include one Janet Gilray, an elementary school teacher in Indianapolis, who took a long journey out to the Golden State and has had some modest success during her time spent with a pan in her hand. Local prospector and gold panning supply specialist Brent Shock says that when people ask him about how to find gold, he's glad to help, but that he also reminds prospectors that, "The merchants were the ones who really made the money in that last big gold rush of 1849, and that's a lesson to remember." The first link leads to a piece from this Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle about this mini-gold rush that has enveloped California as of late. The second link will take visitors to a piece from the Merced Sun-Star that talks about the influx of gold seekers in Mariposa County. Moving along, the third link leads to a set of detailed gold panning instructions (complete with videos) from prospector Dave McCracken. The fourth link leads to a collection of letters penned by one Newton Amos Chandler when he was living around the mining camps of California in the 1850s and 1860s. Persons bitten by the travel bug will want to click on over to the fifth link, as it leads to the homepage of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma. The last link leads to an article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia on the nation's first true gold rush, which took place in northern Georgia in 1829.