California's record snowpack leading to a 'Gold Rush 2.0'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With every beep and whirring sound, expert metal detector Mark Dayton is acutely tuned into what his device is telling him after detecting for 35 years. And like every good metal detector, it's gold he pines for the most.

For Dayton and other avid detectors, this year is turning into a special one for finding the rare metal.

"It's the pinnacle of my metal detecting career," Dayton said. "It's just something I’ve never seen in my lifetime. Maybe very close to what we had in 2017-2018 when we had similar floods like this, but it's already crazier than that was in the late summer. And we’re not even in summer months yet."

As Dayton mentioned, thanks to the huge amounts of water received this year and the record snowpack that's sending millions of gallons of water tumbling down the rivers, gold fever is once again gripping the same areas it did back in the late 1840s.

"As that snow's melting, it's rolling down in torrents and carving new waterways as it goes," Dayton said. "And when it does that, it brings in all that fresh new material into the waterways and just spreads it out."

Dayton said around 90% of the gold in the mountains around El Dorado County has yet to found or extracted.

In only four days, he said he found an ounce of gold worth around $2,000, and he's even been able to return to sites multiple times because the water is constantly bringing down new material.

He also said because there are large areas with wildfire scars, it's easier for the water to pull and wash away the landscape.

But it's not just the experts making their way to the mountains.

One Placerville hardware store has been selling gold mining tools since the gold rush in 1852, and third-generation store owner Albert Fausel said people have been ringing and coming to his store from all over the country — trying to strike it lucky.

"People are kind of getting the bug before they even get over here," Fausel said. "They’re planning their trips, they’re kind of going should I use this money I’ve saved to get out there? Will I make enough money to get back? Should I put my employee through school or should I come out here on vacation?"

Fausel said for amateur miners to remember to read up on the rules about how much you can take and where you can mine gold.

He has struck it lucky, finding an ounce already this year.

"Every time I hop in [a stream/riverbed] I’m like here's a whole new uncovered bedrock spot that nobody's got to look through," Fausel said. "Because it had 5 feet of overburden, now it's just down bare ground and a couple of boulders."

Both Fausel and Dayton said the biggest and best gold nuggets haven't even been revealed yet.

"At some point we’re going to want to go up a little bit when the water starts to recede and we can get into the rivers and creeks at the higher altitudes to get the big bang for the buck," Dayton said.

And when that does happen, Dayton and Fausel said they’ll be ready with detectors in hand, to find that nugget of a lifetime.