Contrary to what most people assume, the gold rush didn’t end in the 1800s. Across the U.S., people still pull real gold from rivers, streams, and old mining sites simply with a shovel and a gold pan.

In the classic 1948 Humphrey Bogart movie, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” an old gold prospector opines that the precious metal is valuable because an ounce represents the sweat and heartbreak of ...

Recreational gold mining is a pastime for many people these days, and for good reason: the largest nugget ever found in California was discovered by an amateur.