esrosedotblog

IT DIDN'T PAN OUT

Where Dams Once Stood, Prospectors Spur Anger

This is a western issue.

When we came to California over a decade ago, we drove and across the country and tried to stay off the interstates as much as we could.

A frequent sight were, usually, individual people down in a gorge, along a creek, with pans in their hands, working through the water. Panning for gold.

I had never seen this.

There were more panners than fisherman and, of course, that is the point of this article. Where there is panning there are probably no fish.

And so on.

I guess some of the panning gets pretty elaborate. We didn't really see that.

Of course, it doesn't happen here. No streams to pan and when there is water, it is going by so fast you wouldn't get to hold a pan in the torrent.

Panning. Get rich quick. Maybe this is also a hard-times thing. But probably not. Times weren't hard when we drove here.

Labels: environment, nature