Gold mining is in Merv Harlan's blood
Jola Casey
Saturday, June 7, 2008
MADISON — He doesn’t expect to strike it rich but it sure would be nice.
Merv Harlan has an unusual hobby in his retirement but one that is starting to grow in popularity.
Recreational gold mining, which includes panning, has been around for hundreds of years, and has intrigued Harlan most of his life so when he retired last September after 34 years as a conductor with Santa Fe, he decided that it would be a great way to spend his days.
Last summer Harlan spent a good deal of time panning and mining on the Klamath River in Northern California and then six weeks in Arizona.
Gold mining is in Merv’s blood. His Great-Great Uncle John Harlan discovered a gold mine in Prescott, Arizona. He also said he gets his desire to dig honestly. His parents, Merle and Opal Harlan, were rock hounds who were often searching for fossils and minerals. As a matter of fact, Merv’s father Merle discovered one of the biggest dinosaur bones in the area when he and his brother found a Mastodon tusk on the Cottonwood River west of Emporia back in the 70’s. Merv’s family also found a pterodactyl wing while fossil hunting in the early 80s south of Quinter, Kansas. Both of these artifacts are on display at Emporia state University.
Merv said that he was bound and determined to mine for gold at some point in his life.
He belongs to four different gold mining clubs that buy claims. He pays for lifetime memberships in the clubs and pays dues. He then has permission to mine and pan for gold on those claims using his equipment. Lifetime memberships can be as much as $1500 and dues vary from $25 for $50 per year.
“Years ago, I joined the Gold Prospector’s Association of America and they sent me an instructional video about how to pan for gold,” Harlan said. “That was extremely important.”
Harlan said that learning the basics of panning is vital to the hobby.
“Once you get the experience, gold does specific things in the pan, it behaves in a certain way in the pan. It becomes easy to recognize once you see it.”
Harlan said he uses a variety of equipment from suction dredges in the river, “high bankers” (machines that sift out the gold particles) picks, pans and dry vacuums.
So far in his prospecting he has collected about an 1.5 ounces of gold. Harlan said he hasn’t sold any of his my gold yet. Currently, gold is worth about $900 an ounce.
“It’s a learning experience,” he said. “It’s challenging.”
Harlan said he recently learned about two friends in one of his mining clubs that prospected 13 ounces of gold on a claim northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. So...with California and Arizona behind him, he’ll soon be heading north to Alaska.
“I don’t plan on getting rich, but if it happens….”
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