I Found a $535 Gold Nugget!!! - Living the Van Life Gold Prospecting Adventure in my Truck Camper

hello my friend i hope you're having a wonderful day but boy oh boy do i have a surprise for you i found my first golden nugget it's about 8.7 grams but before i give you more details on it and show you it up close i want to talk to you about how i found it so if you've been watching my channel you know i've been gold prospecting for about a half a year now and i've really only ever found some gold flakes and really small pieces and i was like with all the information out there and the technology that exists i should be able to find some type of gold so i went online and i cross-referenced old and current mining claims and old gold mines and i looked at google earth and i also looked where old riverbeds and streams had potentially dried up and i marked a couple places and i went out and prospected them and it definitely took a long time and i just crossed each one off as i went through but eventually with a lot of patience i was able to find this baby right here and i would talk more about where the location is and show you but i don't want to tell everyone where it is yet because i'm seriously considering applying for a gold claim i'm thinking about calling it hannah's golden nugget what do you think about that if you have a better idea let me know down below but if it gets approved and the paperwork goes through then i'll do another video and show you around but for now let's take a closer look at the golden nugget and then i'm going to take you along with me on a gold prospecting adventure where hopefully we can find an even bigger nugget so let's go ahead and weigh the gold nugget so we can see exactly how much it weighs and then i'll give you a closer look because let's be honest i know all the naysayers are going to be like come on hannah we know we just spray painted a rock no this puppy is real and i'm going to show you up close but okay let's turn on the scale 8.76 grams and by my research gold is measured in troy ounces which is a little different than a normal ounce apparently it dates back to the middle ages and they measured precious metals in it don't ask me i'm just relaying the information that i found so gold was trading at 1900 today if my golden nugget is 8.76 grams that's about 535 dollars worth of gold and that sounds like a lot of money to pull out of the ground but let's not forget about how much money i spent in gas driving around all over creation like a crazy person and then all the money i've spent on supplies and gold prospecting equipment and time i understand now why those during the gold rush that made money were the ones that sold the picks and axes and not the actual gold prospectors if you're thinking about becoming a gold prospector i'd probably consider keeping your day job because i definitely didn't profit out of this but i'm thinking about making a necklace out of this i think it's really cool looking maybe i can find another piece or two for two earrings but it's still really neat to see so i'm gonna show you close up what it looks like it's going to take me a couple of hours to drive to this gold prospecting area that i want to show you and that's why i want to talk to you about today's sponsor for this video audible i spend so many hours of my life driving around in this truck traveling to new places some would consider this lost time but i use this time to learn by listening to audiobooks audible has thousands of titles in their premium library to listen to and if i get bored of listening to audiobooks they also have comedy podcasts meditation and so much more i get a lot of questions in the video comments about how i'm able to live this life traveling all the time the audiobook that laid the groundwork for everything i'm able to do now is called the four hour work week escape the nine to five it'll get you live anywhere and join the new rich by tim ferriss if you're at all interested in living a similar life that i do i would highly recommend listening to this audiobook the great thing about it is that you can get this title for free by using your first audible credit if you visit audible.com dr hannah straight or text dr hannah straight to 500 500 to start your free 30-day trial i haven't quite figured out how to only work four hours i'm still working on that but i don't think i would be where i am today if i hadn't listened to the four hour work week audiobook it really opened my eyes to what was possible and with audible you get access to so much information from so many brilliant and renowned authors right at your fingertips why not listen to everything you can and take a little bit from each one that's my philosophy i'm acquiring knowledge and experience from people that i may never be able to learn from in person and as an audible member you get one credit every month good for any title in their premium selection of best sellers and new releases as well as full access to their audibles plus catalog sometimes i'm out in the middle of nowhere with no reception but that's not a problem because i'm able to download and listen later offline so if you're ready to start feeding your brain with some new information because i know it's craving some visit audible.com dr hannah straight or text dr hannah straight to 500 500 to start your free 30-day trial okay now let's go find some more gold it's an absolutely beautiful day out i got here a little bit early and i figured it'd be the perfect time to paddleboard it's like 65 or 70. degrees and sunny and that's what's perfect about nevada it can be warm and sunny in the desert during the winter and cold and chilly in the mountains but i'm so lucky because i was able to enjoy this reservoir all by myself there's no one else here it's so peaceful but i'm gonna take a quick spin on this reservoir and then we're gonna head back in do some gold prospecting i used to live in the northeast the winters were cold and dark there with little sunlight when i moved across the u.s one thing i looked forward to was more sunshine throughout the year not only does it help your body produce vitamin d but it also releases endorphins such as serotonin and improves your mood and energy levels this is why seasonal affective disorder is a real thing sometimes all i need is a little piece quiet and sunshine welcome to the wild wild west literally i passed the side back there that said welcome to cowboy country all i need is my horse and my hat but really check out this trail behind me it goes for miles and if you follow it you'll come up to one of the most famous places in the united states for gold prospecting with a gold detector and there's a rare form of gold called chevron gold which can only be found in this area but i'd be happy to find any types of gold so let's keep heading on and let's see what i can find [Music] howdy i finally made it it's beautiful outside and i'm ready to do some gold prospecting there's quite a few areas here to do gold prospecting but so much of it has either private claims on it or it's privately owned i was able to get permission directly to use this area to prospect so i'm going to take a gander look look around a little bit see if i can find anything the reason that this area is so famous for gold prospecting with the metal detector is that everything's really flat and there's a lot of surface gold here so i'm thinking positive this area is just one of many of the small gold and silver towns that popped up during the boom of the 1860s the mill here processed up to one million dollars worth of gold and silver think i found my first target metal detecting is popular here due to the lack of water in the prospecting areas and the location of gold that is often found closer to the surface piece of metal there's your gold okay moving on well i've been here about two hours i haven't found squat not even a cool rock losing a little bit of faith i was also thinking they probably were like yeah we'll let this girl prospect here with gold detector because there's no gold to be found another piece of scrap metal so far all i found is some odd pieces of scrap metal nothing valuable oh i almost dropped it i found a tiny little piece of gold it's hard to see i'm trying to show you in the camera it's tiny and it's a little bit hard to see it definitely looks like dirt if i hadn't had the gold detector i would have gone right over it i'm gonna have to go inside later and weigh it and see how much it weighs but i'm gonna go check out or try to find this ghost town before it gets too dark the sun is setting i've gotta head to the ghost town as soon as possible and see if i can find it despite my gold excitement a local in town told me one of mark twain's old cabins was nearby i couldn't pass it up so i headed out to a tiny little town in a hidden canyon i found it behind me is allegedly one of the cabins that samuel clemens lived in when he first came west to find gold and silver and you may not know who samuel clemens is but he's more famously known as the famous author mark twain he came west to find his riches in gold and silver he lived here for a little while in the 1860s and he only found a little bit of silver it wasn't enough to keep him here so he actually moved from here to virginia city where he was going to take his job a little bit more seriously but was not successful so that's when he became a writer for the newspaper but allegedly he lived here in 1861 and it's amazing to see what's left of it come check out what i can see life here in the canyon in the 1860s i think back to some of mark twain's stories and imagine how these places brought inspiration to his writing mark twain's house is to my left and behind me is actually a bunkhouse the caretaker for this property he's lived here his whole life and his grandparents bought the place that he lives in now he allowed me to walk through here and give you a glance of what the bunk house looks like but he also gave me a little bit of history behind the bunk house so during the great depression they started the wpa program which helped provide work for men and women so that they could bring money in and so they built this bunk house into outhouses there was a men's and a women's i'll give you a quick glance too but the men and women would come into this canyon and work and this is where they would stay i spent a little more time here than i had anticipated so i didn't make it to the ghost town before dark but not to worry that adventure is coming soon so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it so i headed back for the night to enjoy the sunset if you notice this is actually the reservoir i was on earlier on my paddle board and it was 65 or 70 degrees this afternoon with full sun it was perfect but in the more shallow areas it's actually frozen it looks like a painting to be honest with you [Music] the sunset was warm and perfect i was thankful for the day's adventure and eager for a new day you

Channel: Dr. Hannah Straight

Views: 270,157

Keywords: van life, golden nugget, gold nugget, gold prospecting, female, adventure, overland, overlanding, 4x4, off road, explore, ford f250, tiny home, rv, rv life, off grid, solo female

Id: 5RagjAhSZjQ

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021