There ain't no Gold left!

I was asked to repost this story by a couple of fellow prospectors. Hell I didn't know anyone read these. From 2002

There ain't no Gold left!
I went out to Swing one of my detector in an area that had been beat to death for years. I can't even say it is a patch, just an open area that people work. This area has given up some very nice nuggets over the years, but not much in the last few years. I ran into a nugget hunter walking out of the area after swinging the same machine I was. When our paths crossed he looked over his shoulder and stated “There ain't no more gold to be found out there.” I smiled, and asked if he meant this area or the world in general? Those of you that know me know I will stop whatever I am doing to help anyone look for Gold. We began to talk. Everything he was doing was fine until he got to his mind set. He felt like he had made a big mistake in spending the money for a GP. That was all it took, I knew why he had not found a thing with a great detector. I later found out he had never found anything other than trash with any detector.
It was time to hit him right between the ears. I handed him back his machine looked him in the eyes and agreed, “Your right you never will find Gold.” You can only guess what that did. I had already invited him to come along with me so I wasn’t worried about him walking away as I wondered off. He followed and watched me swing in the same area he had worked and after some time I popped a little 8 grain nugget. Shocked he asked, “what did you do different,” Simple question, simple answer. “I don’t look for Gold;” “I look for where gold might be.” I got the response I expected, half way between a Deer in the headlights and the possibility of assault charge.I shared with him this story. After I had bought my first real Nugget Detector I went out to an old area where I had found Gold Drywashing. In my first detector outing to this spot I found nothing. Not in the least bit discouraged I came back 3 more times still finding nothing “What was going on here?” I was doing everything right. I started to think I had wasted my money and was now wasting my time. On my fifth day out I cut my leg open on a rock. Now those of you that have prospected with me in the past know that I carry a complete field medical kit with me at all time. It might be a little much but who knows when you might need to patch a Coyote or something up in the field. So I patched myself up and kept hunting. I was thinking about my leg really starting to hurt when I heard a very faint signal in my headphones. I dug about 6 inches and there it was, my first Nugget with a detector. Looking around I realized I had just hunted the very same spot less than an hour ago. There was a covered dig hole about a foot away where I had pulled up a lead nugget (22.Bullet) or bugget as I call them now.
What was different? I wasn’t over thinking about finding Gold when I found gold.
From that day on I have never really hunted for Gold. I go to an area where Gold should be, could be, or has been found before, set up whatever detector I am using and think about what is was like a hundred years ago. I look around for the signs of the Old Timers I read the ground or I just sing or recite the poet Blake in my head. All this time swinging the detector and digging targets.This guy watched, listened and did. A few hours later as we walked away from the spot both a couple of Nuggets richer, he smiled, looked over his “I’m coming back to this spot, there’s good Gold here.” I asked him if he ever reads Blake.