No Rush

With picks and shovels, tin pans and sluice boxes, gold prospectors flocked to California mountains in 1849 with dreams of striking it rich.

Almost 150 years later, they still do.

“That’s the thing about having gold fever. You just have to come up here,” said Paul Vandenberg, 37, a prospector from Rancho Santa Margarita.

Vandenberg was one of a dozen members of the Orange County 49ers, a prospecting club, who recently hunched over a mountain tributary of the San Gabriel River above Azusa and swirled water around in his pan. The search almost always yields some gold, but never more than flecks worth a few dollars.

Still, prospecting is among the fastest-growing recreational activity in the United States. The Temecula-based Gold Prospectors Assn. of America has 20,000 members in Southern California alone, spokesman Jake Hartwick said.

Most prospectors say they enjoy the hobby primarily as an excuse to get exercise and enjoy the wilderness rather than strike it rich--although they always hope for that.

“If I happen to find a big (nugget), great,” said Tom Whiteley, 47, of Covina.

Holding a few flecks of the precious metal he has found, he smiled and added: “If I don’t, well, I’ve got more gold than you do.”