In the United States nature was extremely generous. Thirty-two states have recorded significant commercial gold production. The highest yielding areas are located within the western states, California, Colorado, Alaska, Nevada and South Dakota. Other abundant locations for prospecting include Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Washington, New Mexico, Wyoming, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan, Vermont and New Hampshire. The recreational gold prospector can find gold in his pan in practically every state of the union.

Gold is an ideal media for craftsmen. It is a metal that can be deformed by pounding without breaking or crumbling. Gold, in its pure form is the most malleable or workable of all metals. One single ounce of gold can be drawn and stretched into an ultra fine wire over 50 miles in length without breaking or pounded to the amazing thinness of one hundred thousandth of an inch without disintegrating. Gold is easily carved, readily buffs to a gleaming polish, can be heated repeatedly without discoloration and joins to itself or other metals by soldering without the need for a bonding flux.

For more than 6000 years gold has been considered symbolic of wealth, power and status. In 1350 B.C. the Egyptian boy king, Tutankhem, was interred in a coffin elaborately cast from 242 pounds of solid gold. Throughout history men and women have adorned their bodies with brilliant, gleaming gold. The ancient custom of exchanging gold during marriage ceremonies continues today. The nobility of Medieval Europe liberally sprinkled gold in the form of dust, flake or leaves on their food to demonstrate the host’s great wealth. Today gold is still often used in food and has the E Number 175. However, since metallic gold is inert to all body chemistry, it adds no taste nor has any other nutritional effect and leaves the body unaltered.

Primitive man believed gold contained a hidden, internal fire, a gift from the Gods with mysterious healing and magical powers. Numerous cultures of sun-worshippers revered gold as the tangible essence of their God; solid sunshine. In modern day Japan believers seek gold’s medicinal magic by immersion in a bathtub designed in the form of a phoenix crafted from 400 pounds of pure gold. Health and gold have long been entwined in the wondrous belief that something so rare and beautiful could not be anything but healing and healthy.

Today modern esotericists and forms of alternative medicine embrace the healing properties of gold. Some gold salts have anti-inflammatory properties and are used as pharmaceuticals in the treatment of arthritis and other similar conditions. However, only salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, as elemental or metallic gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters within the body.

Gold is a "storehouse of value", the natural way for man to preserve capital and protect against financial uncertainty or monetary collapse. In modern times gold has served as a hedge against the threat of inflation and as a secure and safe way to secret away assets. The "hoarding" of gold occurs most frequently during times of war, adverse world conditions and international fears of economic instability. Gold has often defeated the attempts of governments to inflate the currency of their country as well as circumventing the aims of those holding political power to direct the economy of other nations.

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