\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNearly 200 years after the Gold Rush, prospectors like Julie Hanson are still searching for gold in California, drawn by the thrill of the hunt and the hope of finding treasure. The Stanislaus National Forest spans nearly 900,000 acres, and for some, its most valuable treasures are hidden beneath the surface. \u201cBack in the 1850s, they were walking around picking the nuggets up off the ground,\u201d Hanson said. Gold can still be found at the Lost Dutchman Italian Bar camp, where Hanson hopes her dreams will materialize. \u201cOh, I\u2019m always excited. You never know when you are going to pull out your biggest piece. You never, never know,\u201d Hanson said. Hanson makes the two-and-a-half-hour drive from her El Dorado County home almost every week. \u201cIt\u2019s the thrill of the hunt,\u201d she said. \u201cDid I tell you it\u2019s a great workout too?\u201d Hanson caught the gold bug by chance in 2018. \u201cI was driving past Coloma one day,\u201d she said. \u201cWalked across the street and saw Marshall Gold and was hooked. Went back, bought a pan, and started hands and pans.\u201d Coloma, located 90 miles from Italian Bar in Placer County, is the site of one of the greatest discoveries in American history, made by James Marshall. \u201cMarshall says, \u2018I found the gold 35-40 years downstream from the sawmill. The sawmill was over there, so that puts us right in this area,\u2019\u201d historian Ed Allen said. In 1848, Marshall was in Coloma building a sawmill\u2014a project that would never be completed. Allen said there were an estimated 14,000 non-native people in California when gold was discovered. Two years later, the population boomed to around 220,000. Gold was abundant. The historian said it seemed like every river was full of gold. Mostly young men, averaging 22 years old, came from all over, many leaving home for the first time. \u201cThese guys never had a dime in their pockets, and now they are going to get rich. Unfortunately, we figure only about 5% of them got rich,\u201d Allen said. Today, prospectors like Hanson are still searching for gold. While the hope remains to strike it rich, Hanson acknowledges the reality. \u201cThe hope is always to get rich. The dream is to get rich, to find that 28-pound nugget somewhere with your metal detector. But what\u2019s the reality? The reality is that it is fun, but you\u2019re not going to get rich,\u201d she said. For Hanson, wealth isn\u2019t just about money. \u201cI just love it. I love being out here. It\u2019s great for stress; it\u2019s great to be out in nature, and then for you to find gold \u2014 there\u2019s nothing there not to love,\u201d she said.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Nearly 200 years after the Gold Rush, prospectors like Julie Hanson are still searching for gold in California, drawn by the thrill of the hunt and the hope of finding treasure. <\/p>\n
The Stanislaus National Forest spans nearly 900,000 acres, and for some, its most valuable treasures are hidden beneath the surface. <\/p>\n
\u201cBack in the 1850s, they were walking around picking the nuggets up off the ground,\u201d Hanson said. <\/p>\n
Gold can still be found at the Lost Dutchman Italian Bar camp, where Hanson hopes her dreams will materialize. <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I\u2019m always excited. You never know when you are going to pull out your biggest piece. You never, never know,\u201d Hanson said. <\/p>\n
Hanson makes the two-and-a-half-hour drive from her El Dorado County home almost every week. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the thrill of the hunt,\u201d she said. \u201cDid I tell you it\u2019s a great workout too?\u201d <\/p>\n
Hanson caught the gold bug by chance in 2018. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was driving past Coloma one day,\u201d she said. \u201cWalked across the street and saw Marshall Gold and was hooked. Went back, bought a pan, and started hands and pans.\u201d <\/p>\n
Coloma, located 90 miles from Italian Bar in Placer County, is the site of one of the greatest discoveries in American history, made by James Marshall. <\/p>\n
\u201cMarshall says, \u2018I found the gold 35-40 years downstream from the sawmill. The sawmill was over there, so that puts us right in this area,\u2019\u201d historian Ed Allen said. <\/p>\n
In 1848, Marshall was in Coloma building a sawmill\u2014a project that would never be completed. Allen said there were an estimated 14,000 non-native people in California when gold was discovered. Two years later, the population boomed to around 220,000. <\/p>\n
Gold was abundant. The historian said it seemed like every river was full of gold. <\/p>\n
Mostly young men, averaging 22 years old, came from all over, many leaving home for the first time. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys never had a dime in their pockets, and now they are going to get rich. Unfortunately, we figure only about 5% of them got rich,\u201d Allen said. <\/p>\n
Today, prospectors like Hanson are still searching for gold. While the hope remains to strike it rich, Hanson acknowledges the reality. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe hope is always to get rich. The dream is to get rich, to find that 28-pound nugget somewhere with your metal detector. But what\u2019s the reality? The reality is that it is fun, but you\u2019re not going to get rich,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
For Hanson, wealth isn\u2019t just about money. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just love it. I love being out here. It\u2019s great for stress; it\u2019s great to be out in nature, and then for you to find gold \u2014 there\u2019s nothing there not to love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 200 years after the Gold Rush, prospectors like Julie Hanson are still searching for gold in California,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[117905,7,9,8,142820,142817,17650,6203,5178,24823,70453,142815,142818,3657,142816,4269,142821,87851,142819,72],"class_list":["post-348953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-america-250","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-site","tag-coloma","tag-gold","tag-gold-rush","tag-hope","tag-hunt","tag-james-marshall","tag-julie-hanson","tag-marshall-gold","tag-pan","tag-prospector","tag-reality","tag-sawmill","tag-thrill","tag-treasure-ambition","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}