For our first adventure in the Mt. Rushmore area, we headed to Keystone to investigate the Big Thunder Gold Mine and see if we could find our own gold there.
Matt shows off his hardhat as we prepare to enter the mine with Ross, our tour guide.
Here's a shot of Rob and Matt inside the mine. The entire mine was dug out by two German immigrants. They spent 35 years on it and pulled out about 8 - 10 ounces of gold all together. Gold was approximately $20 per ounce at the time, yielding them the princely sum of approximately $200 for all of their labor. Except that they only received half of that. They were financed by another mine, in exchange for half of the gold that they pulled out. So for 35 years of work, each of them made about $50.
After the tour, we decided to try our hands at panning for gold ourselves. We received a pan, complete with rocks and sand, which they guaranteed we'd find gold in. We also received a wee bottle in which to place our gold after we'd successfully separated it from the sand and gravel. You fill this wee bottle with water and then, once you have a gold flake or nugget, you pick it up with a dry finger and it drops like a rock into the water. Matt found lots of "gold", although some of it was the kind that is meant for fools. He also liked to pick up the mica that shone like gold as well.
After a successful afternoon's panning, Matt shows off his wee bottle of gold and enjoys an ice cream cone. Rob hit just about all the troughs in his panning and has the most pure bottle. I ended up with more gold than he did but I have at least one chunk in mine that I'm pretty sure is fools gold. But it was great fun and I'm sure that if I added it all up, my gold would be worth at least $1.
For our first adventure in the Mt. Rushmore area, we headed to Keystone to investigate the Big Thunder Gold Mine and see if we could find our own gold there.
Matt shows off his hardhat as we prepare to enter the mine with Ross, our tour guide.
Here's a shot of Rob and Matt inside the mine. The entire mine was dug out by two German immigrants. They spent 35 years on it and pulled out about 8 - 10 ounces of gold all together. Gold was approximately $20 per ounce at the time, yielding them the princely sum of approximately $200 for all of their labor. Except that they only received half of that. They were financed by another mine, in exchange for half of the gold that they pulled out. So for 35 years of work, each of them made about $50.
After the tour, we decided to try our hands at panning for gold ourselves. We received a pan, complete with rocks and sand, which they guaranteed we'd find gold in. We also received a wee bottle in which to place our gold after we'd successfully separated it from the sand and gravel. You fill this wee bottle with water and then, once you have a gold flake or nugget, you pick it up with a dry finger and it drops like a rock into the water. Matt found lots of "gold", although some of it was the kind that is meant for fools. He also liked to pick up the mica that shone like gold as well. 
After a successful afternoon's panning, Matt shows off his wee bottle of gold and enjoys an ice cream cone. Rob hit just about all the troughs in his panning and has the most pure bottle. I ended up with more gold than he did but I have at least one chunk in mine that I'm pretty sure is fools gold. But it was great fun and I'm sure that if I added it all up, my gold would be worth at least $1.
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