Gold in Maine?

The Swift River in Maine is still frozen. The ice jams are just starting to melt. When spring comes the prospectors will be out there, searching, panning for gold. It's not a new find. Panners have been swirling the Swift River sediment for years, ever since the big rush in 1901 and 1902. It wasn't a big rush like they had out in California, but some gold was found.

Most folks think river gold is found out west. The truth is gold is where you find it and some pretty rich deposits have been discovered in the East. Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Maine have all had their share of gold strikes.

Some amateur gold panners around the country claim they make a living finding little pieces of gold. Some started doing it while on vacation and never stopped. After all if you find an ounce of gold a week, and some panners say they do, its like earning sixteen hundred dollars in today’s market or whatever the going price of gold is when you finally sell it.

The Swift River Gold rush took place in the little hamlet of Houghton, Maine. The town changed its name to Goldfields after a prospector from New Hampshire struck it rich. He made up some stock certificates and sold interest in his strike. He made quite a bit of money before investors discovered it was a man-made strike.

It seems the fellow loaded shotgun shells with gold flakes and fired them into the stream bank. They caught him at it and he was convicted of fraud.

Shortly thereafter, Goldfields changed its name back to Houghton.

Sometimes things just don't pan out.