Hunt for gold in Missouri continues after 132 years

"The gold fields! Excitement on the increase."

This headline from an 1875 Adair County newspaper clearly was meant to attract attention. Twenty-six years after many Adair County residents left for California in the Gold Rush, miners made one last attempt to strike it rich on their own soil.

The historical aspect of gold prospecting in America dates back to the early 1800s.

Pat Ellebracht, President of the Adair County Historical Society, said events like the 1849 California Gold Rush are similar to a large jackpot in the lottery. He said some people from Kirksville headed west during the Gold Rush, much like people living anywhere else at the time. Ellebracht said the frenzy in 1875 could be compared to the frenzy of the California Gold Rush on a much smaller level.

"They all have characteristics of mass hysteria," he said. "It's something you have when you're looking for something of great value and the possibility of wealth."

Darren Thornhill, a fisheries management biologist at the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he finds it hard to believe that an article such as the one published in 1875 could be accurate based on his knowledge of the area.

"I'm highly suspect of anything that says we might have found gold in the Chariton River," he said.

However, the article is backed by published information about the area and the miners themselves. It goes on to say that several reliable citizens in both Macon and Adair counties claimed to have found amounts of gold ranging in size from specks to nuggets in the Chariton River. People with knowledge of the area doubt these discoveries had any monetary value, but the article adheres to the assertion that the miners unearthed payable quantities.

In fact, during 1875 a business owner who had taken part in the expedition called for an organization of laborers to refine the areas where they had made discoveries in order to start a profitable reservoir.

Other skeptics, like Gary Lloyd - who wrote and edited a history book of the Novinger area that surrounds part of the Chariton - said they think documentations like these most likely were scams. Lloyd said that in some cases, people would make mine claims to convince others to come to the area and so the miners could buy up the land more quickly.

"It is possible that the minor gold rush that occurred in Macon County in 1875 could have been [a] fraud scheme, but that is just my own opinion," Lloyd said. "If there was gold, it was nothing economically feasible."

Experts on the area also point out that the Chariton River contains many man-made, straightened channels that did not exist in 1875, which they said would further narrow the chance of any findings.

Some people at Truman have yet to familiarize themselves with their surroundings, let alone the geography of Kirksville. Freshman Tyler Binkley said he knows where Novinger is but did not know that there was a possibility of finding gold there.

"I would go panning for gold if I knew how to," he said. "I never would have thought there was gold here. If there was, I thought I would've known about it."

Whether the claims had truth to them or not, people continue to pan for gold in rivers or rocks north of the Missouri River. The Gold Prospectors Association of America has a Missouri chapter that sends people out daily to pan as part of an organized hobby.

Doug Foster, president of Show Me Gold in Wellington, Mo., the Missouri chapter of the GPAA, said his association has more than 220 members who participate in recreational panning in muddy rivers located in areas north of the Missouri River and as far east as the Mississippi.

"There's definitely gold in Kirksville, Mo.," Foster said. "It has been found by some of our members. Gold in Missouri is found in the glacial tilt that originated in the Canadian Shield and came down with the glaciers. We have found it in almost every county in Northern Missouri."

He said that in Elmer Gulch, a suburb of Macon County, people will tell stories - sometimes exaggerated - about finding gold. He said the key to finding gold is being able to correctly identify the rocks in the area. Foster said specks of gold are found in the glacial rocks like quartz, granite and black basalt.

Foster said that on expeditions in the rivers, they try to help the environment by removing lead and mercury they find in the river. These metals, which originate from litter and rifle shells, can harm fish and other wildlife.

"I have a half-gallon pickle bottle that's full of lead that I have taken out of the environment," Foster said. "If you dug three or four buckets and processed that material, you might find a pound of lead."

Foster said it also is important to dig in the gravel bars toward the center of shallow water instead of digging in the banks, which will cause erosion.

Kevin Shelton, chair of geological sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said that despite claims, he doubts much gold could be found in northern Missouri because he believes the area does not contain the right type of rock. However, he acknowledges many people will look, sometimes with the wrong devices.

When presented with a report stating that someone asked for a permit to use a suction dredge to look for gold, Shelton said he disliked the idea. He said a machine like this has a negative impact on the environment because it sucks up large amounts of gravel and soil and replaces it, causing small-scale erosion. Shelton said he did not think the results outweighed the trouble.

"Why should we be disturbing habitats … for something like that?" he said.

However, Foster said most of the people in the association use small tools that won't harm the environment, like hand sluices, small trowels and pans. He said he prefers using inexpensive items such as a colander and a small shovel. Although he doesn't use expensive dredges, he thinks that they yield positive results.