Short clip of me showing the basics of how a dry washer works. There's a lot of history here and some nice gold flakes can still be found here (but most of this area is claim up - if you join a gold prospecting club that owns claims here, like the GPAA, then you can mine here) Gold was first discovered in easily obtainable deposits in the Mojave Desert around 1900, and a small settlement of several hundred miners soon sprang up. Coolgardie was named after the rich western Australian mining town that became large and famous both for its wealth and rough nature. Mexican miners coming from the Gold Rush up north worked this area for a while and then it was worked again during the Great Depression. California's Coolgardie never reached the same status, although it was one of the few placer mining districts in the desert. When the gold ran out after just a few short years, there was nothing in this desolate place to entice its residents to stay. Gradually the wooden structures crumbled, and today little remains except some rusted cans and piles of lumber where buildings used to stand. Coolgardie is 19 miles north of Barstow, and it is necessary to drive along a narrow dirt road to reach it. Visitors should exercise extreme caution because many mining shafts have not been filled in and a fall would leave a victim stranded in the middle of the desert.
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