California Chance: Dredging the Mother Lode in Seasons of Gold (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781956823776)

CALIFORNIA CHANCE is a creative nonfiction memoir, about taking a chance in life and chasing your dreams, much as the early 49ers did chasing their dreams. The romantic history of the California Gold Rush combined with passion for gold dredging inspired this historic gold mining adventure.Michael Everett Palmer at a young age moved with his family to Southern California. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, surfing the beaches, and walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals. At the age of twenty-six, he moved his young family to Northern California and settled down in "Natures Wonderland," the small mountain town of Pollock Pines. In college he became captivated by the "Mother Lode" and the California Gold Rush, which fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years.In journal format, he describes his experiences while dredging for gold on the American River during the mining season of 1995, from the start of the season to the end of the season. It details every phase and aspect of gold dredging that takes place. Below the surface of the water, out of sight and out of mind, there is a time capsule hidden deep within the overburdened gravels resting on bedrock. It is full of artifacts lost or left behind by the Gold Rush miners who mined this ground from 1849 to 1851, and there's a fortune in gold yet to be found. The time capsule also holds within it another secret. It contains the lost souls of the early 49ers who hoped to strike it rich. When finding the personal artifacts they left behind, they create a powerful medium, a corridor, to go back in time and enter the souls of the miners who lost the artifacts while washing these gravels over 175 years ago.