Wow…I just got another one of those calls…
“Howdy, I saw this TV show about gold mining and me and my brother thought we would come check it out. We want to take a look at some land up there; do you have any land with a lot of gold?”
HA!
First, if there is a parcel of land that has been proven to have gold in the dirt, then guess what? The Pomrenke’s or the Anderson’s own it! Just kidding, we have many miners here, but my point is that if someone KNOWS where the gold is, they are getting it out of the ground NOW!
I do have patented mining claims for sale, which means you are free to LOOK for the gold, but you never know what you will find.
The television shows we have seen lately were pretty unrealistic; and there are more shows coming with the lower 48’s facination with all things Alaskan. Which means an increase in population, which should excite a Realor, huh?
It doesn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I love miners. The saying goes “Some people come to Nome to mine for gold, and some people mine the miners!” However often the miners have no clue what they are doing.
A lot of these new miners are dredging on the coast; this means they are out in the Bering Sea on these dredges, generally little boats that suck the sand (and hopefully some gold) from the ocean floor. Every year some inexperienced miner ends up capsized without proper safety equipment.
So if you come to Nome, call me to buy your placer mine dirt, but unless you have experience dredging in the ocean, stay in Texas (or OK, AR, NY, or where ever you are coming from!) unless you have a local miner sponsoring you (ie making you work for little profit until you know what you are doing!!!)
Be safe!