The Nugget Man

Watch a short video of Will "The Nugget Man” Wilcox (1929-2012). Will was a longtime Lost Dutchman’s Mining Association member and author of The Nugget Man. He passed away in April at the age of 82. The Nugget Man will always be remembered for his two-pound gold nugget and by LDMA and GPAA members who were fond of listening to his tall tales.

Pyramid Pro Pan & Maverick Finish Pan

The GPAA’s Gary Sturgill tests out Fossickers Pyramid Pro Pan and Maverick Finish Pan in this short video. A Field Test is an article featured in Gold Prospectors Magazine March/April 2012. Watch the 3.5-minute how-to video.

In yet another blatant attack on the small-scale mining community, Congress passed an omniobus spending bill on Monday unleashing a huge increase in filing fees for associated mining claims. The fee hike will raise the cost of filing fees from $100 for an entire claim to $140 for every 20 acres of the claim. For example, a 160-acre claim will now cost $1,120 instead of $100 to file and renew each year under the new law.

The GPAA and LDMA are pleased to announce that Kevin Hoagland has officially joined the GPAA team as Executive Director of Development. Many of you know him from his many years in the field as “the metal detecting guy”. Kevin brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge of the small-scale mining community. Welcome aboard Kevin!

According to those interviewed within the Karuk Tribe of Happy Camp, California, Mr. Alvin “Bud” Johnson and Mr. Gary Beck were leaders in developing a relationship with the environmentalists, pursuant to which the Tribe became a political entity that could advance the environmentalists agendas with publicity and money. Karuk tribal council members and Karuk office holders helped the environmental activist groups with local knowledge of the land, timber sales in planning and the names of folks who were willing to help the obstructionists.

Four years ago, four Tucson, Ariz. residents began a battle against Forest Service fees at Mt. Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest. A ninth circuit Court of Appeals judge sided with those four residents on Feb. 9, finding certain Forest Service fees illegal based on the language of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. This act prohibits the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Mangement and Bureau of Reclamation from charging patrons a fee to park or picnic along roads or trailsides; visit undeveloped backcountry; pass through federal recreation lands without using facilities; camp in parts of the forest where no facilities or services are available or use overlooks or scenic pullouts.

Oregon’s Curry County has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the state — and people, including children, who go to bed hungry. These are the facts and they will only continue to get worse until we do something about it. The saddest part of this is that there is a way to alleviate some of these problems. The county is a rich mineral-bearing area. A short distance north of Brookings and the Chetco River on the mouth of the Rogue River is a small town named Gold Beach, so named because in the late 1800s the beach sands were so rich in gold that a miner could recover several ounces of fine gold in one day.

Will Wilcox, known as the Nugget Man, a longtime gold prospector and familiar face on the GPAA Outings and Gold & Treasure Show circuit, died yesterday in Anaheim, Calif. at the age of 82.

Born Nov. 22, 1929 in Oklahoma and later moving to Oregon and later California, Welba Phillip WIlcox was a gold prospector, GPAA and LDMA member. He was famous for his two-pound nugget and other gold nuggets which he displayed at Outings and Gold & Treasure Shows.

More than 100 county sheriffs from around the country are banded together to remember their sworn oaths to stand for the Constitution and fight back against federal agencies they say have overstepped the bounds of their authority. Sheriff Richard Mack and the County Sheriff Peace Officer Association held the first ever Constitutional Sheriffs Convention at the Tuscany Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas at the end of January. More than 100 county sheriffs representing 35 states attended the two-day event.

Constitutional purist Ron Paul may be getting his share of the limelight in the Republican primary election, but he has left a lot of miners in the dark with his policy on who would control public lands. According to campaign organizer Mike Benoit in San Diego, Paul wants to abolish five departments of the federal government — including the Internal Revenue Service — and cut more than $1 trillion out of the federal budget in the first year.