Recession and High Gold Prices Spark New California Gold Rush
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 
COLOMA, Calif. — There's still gold in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, and a new rush is under way to find it.
Not since the Great Depression have so many hard-luck people been lured by prospecting, hoping to find their fortune tumbling down a mountain stream. The recession and high gold prices are helping to fuel the latest gold craze, especially among workers who have lost jobs.
"I guess there's always hope. At home, I don't have any right now," said Steve Biorck, a concrete finisher who headed west because construction work dried up in Tennessee. Now he spends days standing knee-deep in an icy creek coaxing gold flakes from a swirling pan of gravel.
Miners who locate an unclaimed area can pay a $170 fee to the federal government for access to the public land. Most claims are along the 120 miles of steep granite outcrops and rushing riverbeds that are part of California's Mother Lode, a narrow band of gold-rich terrain.
