‘I could pay my bills off the gold’: Californians say the Gold Rush never ended — and treasure is still turning up

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It’s been much than 170 years since California’s Gold Rush — but locals are erstwhile again uncovering golden dust, flakes and adjacent nuggets glittering successful the state’s rivers.

“Gold’s each around,” said Manny Goza, a prospector sifting done the Bear River arsenic helium was being interviewed by FOX40 News (1).

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For Goza, a builder by trade, panning for golden has paid off.

“I did it each day. I’ve been present since 2005, bought a location successful 2010 due to the fact that I could wage my bills disconnected the gold,” helium said. “When I’m not contracting, I’m present digging gold.”

With golden prices up by astir 75% successful the 12 months starring to February 2026 (2), you tin hardly blasted him and others for trying. The precious metallic is drafting renewed attraction from California locals looking for accidental successful their ain backyard.

Goza said an “amateur” treasure huntsman tin expect to marque astir $50 a day, portion a much superior prospector mightiness bring successful “anywhere from $100 to $15,000.”

However, conscionable similar the archetypal Gold Rush astir 2 centuries ago, striking it large often comes down to dumb luck. One prospector recalled a infinitesimal erstwhile a aureate nugget “just rolled retired — it was wholly circular similar a shot and it was fractional gold.”

And it’s not conscionable successful the United States. Angus James, a treasure huntsman based successful Victoria, Australia, uncovered a mid-19th-century Japanese coin earlier successful January 2026 (3). Elsewhere, successful Poland, a metallic detectorist radical called Denar Kalisz unearthed an 1,800 twelvemonth aged Roman golden necklace, among different treasures, successful the summertime of 2025 (4).

Still, hunting for treasure is often grueling. As different prospector enactment it, golden “doesn’t leap into the pan.”

And payday is ne'er a definite thing.

“It’s emotional, immoderate days you find $15,000, immoderate days you don’t find anything,” Goza said.

Of course, not everyone has the clip — oregon the backmost muscles — to excavation for golden successful a riverbed. But you don’t request a cookware to get successful connected the action. Gold has agelong been prized arsenic a store of worth — and immoderate of the biggest names successful concern are urging investors to marque country for it successful their portfolios.