With the amount of gold and silver taken from the ground over the last 160 years it’s no wonder the estimate is over 23,000 abandoned mine sites throughout Colorado and folks are still coming to Colorado to see if anything was missed. There is an increasing interest in gold prospecting as a hobby or recreational pursuit. Prospecting is practiced by single individuals, families and gold prospecting clubs, and this isn’t even talking about all the “search for gold” TV shows that have been produced. In 2013, the City of Wheat Ridge (a western suburb of Denver) decided to formally allow recreational gold panning in Clear Creek, so anyone can show up and try their hand at pulling gold out of the Colorado soil. The Arapahoe Bar site is on a gold bearing stretch of Clear Creek west of Denver. So why do I tell you all this; it’s my lead-in to this show. On the same day that I recorded a show on the historic assaying of ore to learn its gold content, I also listened in on a talk about modern assay methods. Mr. Richard Sweeny is a volunteer at the Western Museum of Mining & Industry in Colorado Springs and spoke on how testing is done today.

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