ANTELOPE VALLEY COLLEGE : Gold Fever Hits the Classroom

The echo of prospectors and their burros searching for the high desert mother lode still rings in the ears of some Antelope Valley College students.

In their case, “gold fever” is an acceptable excuse for playing hooky--but only if accompanied by instructor Rich Balogh, who teaches the course “Geology for Prospectors.”

Balogh, 38, has taught geography, geology and astronomy at the college since 1977. He began teaching prospecting after going on sabbatical to the University of Arizona at Tucson in 1986 and spending time there with local miners.

Besides telling his 22 students how to find gold placer deposits and extract the precious mineral, Balogh gives them ample opportunity to try their luck. Fifty-four hours each semester are spent prospecting outdoors, which traditionally include two weekend trips.

But Balogh cautions his students that the course is not a shortcut to riches. “I’ll bet some of the students think this course is like going to Las Vegas,” he said, likening the chances of finding gold to gambling.

And while he said there is probably more gold in the earth than has ever been taken out, Balogh added that “the gold that’s left, is harder to get. The easy gold was already picked up in the last century.”

“However, when you’re prospecting, you could be six feet from $6 million, or more likely, six million feet from $6,” he said. “There’s that element of chance.”

“Geology for Prospectors” according to Balogh, attracts the non-traditional student--in this case, older people who want to spend their leisure time doing something other than the ordinary.

Jeanne Davis, 43, an earth science teacher at Parkview Intermediate School in Lancaster, said she plans to continue prospecting long after she completes the course.

“I don’t expect to get rich, I’m only doing it for fun,” Davis said.

Another student, Leslie Underwood, 47, is a computer graphic artist.

“I wanted to do something different, and this is very different,” she said. “I don’t even pan, I just go out on the field trips for the sun, the silence and the space.”

Balogh said the course even includes people walking right in off the desert.

“They’ve been prospecting for years and years and just wanted to hear some more about it,” he said.

Richard Anderson, 62 and retired, fits that description. “I’m learning a lot here that I didn’t know,” he said, adding that in the 25 years he’s been prospecting he has found only 1 1/4 ounces of gold.

If you don’t know what to do, certainly you’re not going to find anything,” Balogh said. “Having a little bit of knowledge that this course gives . . . . at least you’ll be looking in the right places.”

Two places that Balogh knows there is gold are Leona Valley and just about any place off the Antelope Valley Freeway.

“One former student found gold in Leona Valley,” he said. “It’s on private land. If we can get permission, the class is going to go there.”

More accessible, Balogh said, are the traces of gold that can be found off the Antelope Valley Freeway from Acton to the Golden State Freeway. In the near future, Balogh says he plans to survey the drainages that cut under the highway. When completed, he says he’ll create an educational display at the college showing the most promising sites.