Treasure found...food for thought...

[Fuddyduddy1952]

It would be fun to do some research and maybe spend a couple of weekends looking... especially if you can turn it into a road trip.
I would like to spend a weekend panning for gold sometime. I wouldn't do it for the money, but it would be fun to have a vial of dust to remember the trip.

My brother even as a very young kid loved geology. At 12 yo wanted (Dana books from memory) college level books.
Grandparents took us to Arizona and brother wanted to visit a mineral collector. He said if you can name every mineral in my collection I'll give you this one ounce gold nugget. My 12yo brother did it and still has the nugget in his collection. It was worth about $35 back then.