Gold Seekers find riches in rocks, friends. By Gary Weiand

Sunday, December 26, 2004 8:24 PM MST

Walking the great outdoors, meeting new friends and searching for sudden wealth are the drawing cards that attract members to one of Lake Havasu City’s most popular clubs – Havasu Gold Seekers – according to one of one of the active members.

The club numbers, some 300 plus families united in their desire to pull gold out of the surrounding hills.

Treasure hunting is so popular here, Kingman and Bullhead City, that despite the seemingly high membership, most metal-detector hunters remain entirely independent.

“For every member there are probably 10 who don’t want to join. “Membership is $100 the first year, $40 a year after that.” But Gold Seekers enjoy many benefits, like exclusive access to the club’s gold fields. The fields won’t run out because each rain washes away surface dirt and brings the heavier gold closer to the surface.

The Havasu Gold Seekers have eight square miles of claims where you can hunt for gold and keep whatever you find – it takes about an hour to get there from Lake Havasu City. “The club has field trips, campouts, potlucks, and once a year, a treasure hunt. “We take stuff and bury it, you have an hour to find it. In 2003 the top prize was a free metal detector.

New member Jeri Markinson said she hit the jackpot on her first try, finding two “clinkers” (pieces of gold large enough to rattle around in a can). “I joined Gold Seekers to meet people and go outside,” she said. “I had a metal detector, and I looked for less than an hour before I found them. It was a wash area, and I hit an old hole and checked it out to see if there might be something left – the two were buried side by side,”said Jeri “There’s no way to explain what it’s like to find something and know the last person who touched it had it 2,000 years ago,”

This artical has been edited (for 2006) by the founder of HGS, webmaster Captain Dan McCarty.