Hi Everybody. My name is Ed, and I've been into gold prospecting for the past 3 years. It all started from my interest in gold when I moved to Virginia in 2000 and found out our property is right in the middle of the Gold Belt of Virginia. Within a 2 mile radius, there are listed 18 old mines. I also happen to have a nice creek that starts up at one of the old mines and runs through my property. I've gone down a few times and tried panning in the creek, with no luck yet. We also have tons of red clay and HUGE quartz (size of some cars) and lots of smaller bolder size quartz strewn throughout the property.  My dream is to find a streak or lode somewhere on my land, but we all know that is a crapshoot.

I live near Goldvein, Virginia, which is also home to the Fauquier County Gold Mining Camp Museum at Monroe Park.

http://www.fauquiercounty...d-mining-camp-museum

About 3 years ago, after watching many of the popular TV shows, I did more research and decided to order my first gold panning kit, and some paydirt from ebay and amazon. I spent the entire winter panning everything I could find. I tried dirt from every region I could find. After watching various how-to videos, I tried making some of my own equipment, and experiment with "free" or close to free options to capture gold. In the spring I attended a local gold gold club monthly meetings and heard about Marion, NC. We've been going back every year since. This year I plan to be up at the LDMA Vein Mountain claim, I hope to meet some of ya'll there. It's become our family's fathers day tradition to gold prospecting/panning. I also plan to attend this years Loud Mine outing in GA.

Happy Digging,

Ed