California Chance. This item is unavailable.California Chance

CALIFORNIA CHANCE is a creative nonfiction memoir, about taking a chance in life and chasing your dreams, much as the early 49ers did chasing their dreams. The romantic history of the California Gold Rush combined with passion for gold dredging inspired this historic gold mining adventure.

Michael Everett Palmer at a young age moved with his family to Southern California. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, surfing the beaches, and walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals. At the age of twenty-six, he moved his young family to Northern California and settled down in “Natures Wonderland,” the small mountain town of Pollock Pines. In college he became captivated by the “Mother Lode” and the California Gold Rush, which fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years.

In journal format, he describes his experiences while dredging for gold on the American River during the mining season of 1995, from the start of the season to the end of the season. It details every phase and aspect of gold dredging that takes place. Below the surface of the water, out of sight and out of mind, there is a time capsule hidden deep within the overburdened gravels resting on bedrock. It is full of artifacts lost or left behind by the Gold Rush miners who mined this ground from 1849 to 1851, and there’s a fortune in gold yet to be found. The time capsule also holds within it another secret. It contains the lost souls of the early 49ers who hoped to strike it rich. When finding the personal artifacts they left behind, they create a powerful medium, a corridor, to go back in time and enter the souls of the miners who lost the artifacts while washing these gravels over 175 years ago.

Michael Everett Palmer was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and at a young age moved with his family to Southern California.His early years were chock full of outdoor adventures in the wilderness of Southern California. At the age of eight, his father signed him up in the Cub Scouts to try and fill his burning desire for adventure. Scouting allowed him to learn the skills he needed, to be confident in life, as well as in the outdoors. Boy Scouts followed him into his high school years, where he became an Eagle Scout in 1967. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, and surfing the beaches of Southern California, as well as walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals for his collection.As a young adult, he needed more space than Southern California could offer him and his young family. In 1979 at the age of 26, he moved to Northern California and settled down in "Natures Wonderland," the small mountain town of Pollock Pines, California.While in college he became captivated by the "Mother Lode" and the California Gold Rush. Classes like Geology 1 and 2 and the Mining History of the Mother Lode, among many others, fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. In 1980 he picked up a gold pan for the first time, and on that day, "the winds of change" blew in his direction. Little did he know that gold pan, would in time, take him around the world.His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years. He operated his business under the name of "California Chance Mining." Twenty plus years of that were spent as a professional gold dredger, dredging in the rivers of El Dorado County and Placer Counties. He also worked in Ghana, West Africa, as an explorer, working on both gold and diamond concessions. He also owned and operated a sand and gravel quarry/gold mine in El Dorado County for twelve years.When he retired in 2019, he began to tell his story, five years later the manuscript of Seasons of Gold was complete and ready for publication.The romantic history of the California Gold Rush, combined with his passion for gold dredging have inspired him to write this historic gold mining adventure, California Chance: Dredging the Mother Lode in Seasons of Gold.