America's Backyard Gold

Yeah.

This is country engineering right there at its best.

When you can take a lawn mower

and use the back wheels, the clutch, and the shifter,

now that's pretty good engineering right there.

Hold on now.

The hell is that?

- It's gold there, boys. - Is that gold?

- Wow. Nice. - Is that gold sitting in that rock?

Holy cow. I've never seen a piece of gold like that before.

Right on, man.

That's my first Georgia gold.

Gold is everywhere.

My god.

There's an estimated $3 trillion

still undiscovered in america.

- Whoo. - And I wanna help you...

- Choose your weapon. - Find it.

- We got gold. - California gold, baby.

All you need is basic equipment...

You can get started with $15.

And the skill to decode the land.

That's a spot right there.

Yee-haw.

I'm Dave turin.

For the past 14 years,

I've mined millions of dollars of gold.

Yeah.

And now, I wanna show you where and how

I've seen it all now. Vacuum cleaner.

Everyday people are catching it.

That's insane.

So that you could be the next one to hit it big...

Boom, baby.

Right here in america's backyard.

Gold is the foundation of america.

And the opportunity to find it

is just as real now as it was in the 1800s.

You know, most people don't realize that there's gold out there.

Anybody that's sitting on their couch at home watching TV or something,

they can get up and go find gold.

There's a new gold rush happening around the country.

And everyday people like you are finding enough

to help pay the bills and take those big vacations.

I'm excited. I can go out here and,

you know, experience gold rush 2.0.

Gold is yours for the taking.

You just need to know where to look.

And would you be shocked to know

you can even find gold here in the deep south?

Right now, I'm in lumpkin county in the state of Georgia,

right in the town of dahlonega.

And I've already found gold.

Just 90 minutes north of Atlanta,

is the town of dahlonega.

Home of america's forgotten gold rush.

Between the rugged uplands of northeastern Alabama

and the mountainous forest of northwest Georgia,

is an expansive 100-mile-long gold-rich area

known as the dahlonega gold belt.

Since 1829, nearly $1 billion of gold

has come out of this region that few outsiders know about.

But don't worry,

there's an estimated $2 billion worth yet to be found.

I'm kind of excited. I'm in the mountains.

I'm in a brand new area.

Dahlonega was one of the first gold rushes in america.

Starting in the north, the chestatee river

flows for 32 miles right through the belt.

And I've been told even the most greenhorn of miners are scoring here.

And I wanna show you

where and how to get some southern gold of your own.

These mountains are actually quite large for Georgia.

I did not expect to have mountains like this,

and this rural forested area.

Hey, guys, what's going on?

- How we doing? - -Hey, what's going on, Dave?

First up, I've got a tip on rookie miners Aaron and Jeff,

who've secured access to 100-foot stretch of this gold-rich river.

Do you wanna see some of the gold

that I've got here in Georgia in the past?

- Let's see what we've got. - -All right.

The gold in Georgia is super tiny.

- Okay. - I mean, there is a high concentration

- of very small gold. - Yeah.

And so the skills, practicing to pan that stuff out,

- um, is a challenge. - Yeah.

But it's a challenge that seems to be paying off.

My goodness.

- How much you got, Jeff? - I've got 13 grams of gold here.

- My goodness. That is nice. - Whoo.

That's some beautiful gold.

At 23 carats, the gold here is some of the purest on the planet.

Which can mean up to $350 per ounce more than other regions.

And mining in shallow running sections of rivers like this one,

it's one of the easiest ways for you to get it.

This is actually my landlord's spot.

I live a couple of houses down the road.

Some of the best gold's actually down here.

But most of the chestatee river is considered private property.

I mean, it's kind of good we're on private property

because the rules are a lot more lax.

- Yeah. - So, here we can use a sluice box.

But if you're on public land, none of that.

Yeah.

- None of that. - It's just pans and shovels only.

You've gotta check the laws and get permission to go into the river.

The best way to do it, though, is if you find a landowner

who doesn't mind you prospecting in his land,

go for it.

So tell me what's going on here, you guys?

I see you got a bunch of rocks over here. Those are your tailings?

- Yessir. - Those are our tailings.

We've been washing some rocks today.

You see how close the bedrock is?

Heavy gold collects with gravels and sand

on the impenetrable bedrock layer.

Making it a great place to hunt.

- You guys been digging right in here? - -We'd been digging

- right about here. - -We're just looking for low spots.

Yeah, we flipped them boulders,

get down to that really good sticky Clay.

Have you gone, like, on the back side of this?

I haven't tried that yet, no.

- No. - -I think it gets kind of deep.

You see the way this is all kind of rolling over?

Yeah.

Like, if you get a lot of water,

you know, some of it is gonna go that way,

but that gold's gonna wanna find a spot to fall out.

Here. They call me digger Dave.

The way the textbook says,

check on the back side of riffle.

But, you know, from practical experience,

I look on both sides of something like this.

Dahlonega gold forms in quartz veins deep in hard rock.

As the rock erodes,

the gold is carried into rivers and streams.

In the river current, rocks create a natural vortex.

Slowing the flow down and trapping heavy gold

on the downstream side of the rock.

But in my experience,

the water also slows down on the upstream side.

Giving the gold another chance to fall.

So, when you're mining rocky spots on a river,

- dig all around. - The gold could be everywhere.

Let's dig some rock.

- Let's do it. - All right.

Hopefully, we dig up some nuggets.

- That's my hope. - That would be nice.

All right, let's see what this primo material Dave got us has got.

Yeah, even down here, it's doing well.

You're retaining some of the heavies.

It's looking good.

Aaron and Jeff are using a simple $300 river sluice.

The gold mixed with gravels and sand

is fed through the top of the sluice.

Carried by the flow of the river water,

the heavy gold naturally drops to the bottom,

where it's caught with other heavy particles in the grooved mats.

And the lighter, worthless material washes back into the river.

This sluice method has barely changed in almost 200 years.

But I think there's always room for a little improvement.

Why don't you guys put in a little pump?

You get a little more consistent water,

- you can set your sluice box. - Always wanted to.

- What you got set up, it's great... - Right.

- But you lose a little bit of control. - -Yeah.

But if you've got a pump,

you can change your pitch.

And you know exactly how much water's coming in.

With this, you're kind of hit and miss, right?

Yeah.

Like right now, you could be flushing fine gold.

All right. Here we go, boys.

Hopefully, there's some gold in here?

There it is, Dave. What do you think?

Nice. That's good-looking gold right there.

- Yessir, yes sir. - Good job, guys.

Thanks a lot.

That's 30 bucks from just a couple buckets of dirt.

Add a pump, and you could make enough to cover rent each month.

- Yessir. Yessir. Appreciate you coming. - It's been a great day.

- Yeah. - Well, thank you.

I mean, he's a great teacher.

One of the things that he really taught me

was using the outside and inside of the natural riffles.

I think it's really gonna be good to be able to use that

on a day-to-day basis.

- This is my gym. - It's great exercise.

The river is peaceful.

I might only make six dollars to $10 of gold each time,

but that's cheaper than most people's gym membership.

I actually earn money.

I really enjoy seeing young people out here doing it.

Because that's the next generation of miners.

I believe they've got enough energy,

enough knowledge, enough wisdom

that they can take it to the next level.

If they want to.