"Everyone says they always wanted to go and try to prospect for gold," said Kaczor, 69, of Fairview Park. "You would think that they would think that I'm a nut. But they don't. They say, 'I would like to try that.' "
Kaczor's prospecting adventures have taken him to Alaska, Australia and across Ohio.
Yes, Ohio.
"There's actually gold here," Kaczor said. "There's not get-rich quantities. It was pushed down during the glacial period... And when it pulled back, it left a whole bunch of gold."
On a cold, rainy Saturday in May, Kaczor and dozens of weekend gold prospectors gathered at a campsite next to the Clear Fork river in Richland County.
Members of the Buckeye Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America dumped buckets of dirt and rock from the river bed into the hopper of a sluice box at a claim site on leased farm property.
The science and tools used to find gold are simple.
Gold is a heavy metal. It's 19 times heavier than water by volume. In separating and screening soil and rocks using water, gravity pulls gold down into catches and carpet lining the bottom of the sluice box tray.
After a few hours work, the prospectors found about two grams of gold, worth close to $80.
"I've been coming here for about five years," said prospector Steve Staggs of the Richland County site. "And over the course of those five years working, sometimes with a dredge, sometimes with just a shovel and a pan, I've gathered up 3/4 of an ounce of gold."
Bellville, which is about 90 miles southwest of Cleveland, has a long history of gold mining.
"We were one of the first gold areas in Ohio," said Bellville mayor Darrell Banks. "They started mining here in 1848.
"Then in 1900, the biggest, most successful mine - they got $40 worth of gold," said Banks. "And those were experienced gold miners from the '49ers out of California that came back here and tried that."
"Normally, the gold here is quite small," said Kaczor. "Most of it is like grains of salt or flour sometimes."
Kaczor is the claims director in Ohio for the Gold Prospectors Association of America.
"What we do is we look for a stream that concentrates the gold," said Kaczor. "We have very specific rules about how we can go about (prospecting) so that we don't hurt the environment.
"We have a ban of the edge of a stream of 20 feet where we cannot dig," he said. "And the biggest dredge we can use in Ohio has a 4-inch intake hose. And that will not move any more than three cubic yards of material in a day."
Kaczor said the Gold Prospectors Association leases property for their members so that they can prospect for gold legally in Ohio.
"You're not going to get rich," Kaczor said about the prospects of finding a lot of gold in Ohio. "No, there's no money in this."
But about 10 years ago, Kaczor recalled that a pair of brothers hit it big in Richland County.
"An actual $9,000 chunk was found just down the stream," Kaczor said. "It was a piece of quartz...just full of gold.
"They were offered $9,000 by two different entities," he said. "And that's when gold was $300 an ounce."
Kaczor and other prospectors say the adrenaline rush they feel when finding a little bit of gold keeps them digging.
"It's a good family activity," Kaczor said. "Get outside, enjoy the beautiful state of Ohio and find a little color."
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