We received this email at 12:30 this morning from someone called "DR"......
Would love to have some feedback. We will later e-mail them a link to this thread as our response.
Thanks for your input!

Denise

Oy! What to say?

I would tell him that there's plenty on this site telling how to find where you can dig w/o paying the membership fee. THE MAIN THING is to check with the BLM (lands open to mineral entry, and possible existing claims) and with the County Clerks (existing claims/locations). We tell you HOW TO FIND where to dig, not tell you where to dig, and no paid membership required.

We have no club owned sites like GPAA, GPOC, and others, but we do have researched areas, areas where you HAVE to do the work to re-verify that there are no new claims, where you have a good chance at finding something, but no guarantee that you will.

He did not delve very deeply, wanted a simple, quick answer (Dig here, X marks the spot, here's a shovel), and basically, wanted someone else to do the work for him, and a guarantee that he would find something. We don't do that. Sheesh!

That's exactly what I got out of his rant.
Mining and prospecting doesn't cater to the instant gratification crowd. We teach folks how to prospect legally and do their due diligence. DR seems to think it can be "answered in one question"? It can't..... more like a long series of questions as we all know.
It takes a legal skill-set to prospect and it's always been that way. Ignorance to Federal laws are certainly no excuse. We help provide guidance with clarification when needed. If the person is starting from ZERO (as this person appears to be)... it will likely require a lot of guidance and clarification. We can do that.

Speaking of where to start!

I'd say a pinned thread title How to Avoid Claim Jumping with 13,688 views would be a great place to start!

DR, there is no easy answer or quick solution. And there is no "getting rich quick" happening on either side of this equation... from the club owners nor 99% of the prospectors who'll visit this site. Is a club membership worth it. 100% hell yes it is to me! Not because of all the gold and minerals in my pocket or money in the back, but from the relationships I've developed with some great like minded folk who would give me the shirt off their back, share their claim with me, and answer my same dumb question asked 50 different ways until I understand (which they'll do for non-club members as well!)!

You make light of claim jumping, but as with doing anything right, ignorance is NOT bliss... stealing is stealing, intentional or not. No different than driving through farm country and "not knowing" if an orchard is active or not, but jumping the fence and "just taking a couple pieces of fruit." Someone put a lot of time and effort into doing proper research to find a productive area, jumping through legal hoops to stake a claim, and working it... so are they going to take it personally when someone steals from them? You bet! Are they going to start shooting? Not likely.

There are 324 topics in the member only section of the forum with 3,750 responses. There are 3,896 topics in the public area of the forum, with 34,063 replies, so 90% of the information provided on the forum is public. Many of the folks come here, ask a question, get an answer, and are never heard from again, so to jump to the conclusion that anyone is out to fleece prospective prospectors is ludicrous. If you've looked around the site and didn't find what you're looking for, you didn't look hard enough. In the time it took type up your accusation, you could have asked for help, and you would have gotten it.

Not sure what got you interested in prospecting in Colorado, but I can assure you, if you put in the time and effort to do the required research to find what you're looking for and where to look for it, you will be rewarded. The richest part of the experience may be the experience itself, but with everything to be found in this amazing state, you never know, you just might strike it rich. I wish you the best of luck, whether you join the club or not!

Hello DR.

I hope you stick with us and dig deeper into the free info that is found on these forums. It sounds like you have a genuine interest in prospecting lawfully.
95% of the info here is on the free forums. Land Status Research is the first big step but no one has said a membership is a requirement to do that. I agree a membership is "mighty handy" tool to help.

The Small Scale Mining topic is a good one. Laws may change, but the mining laws have remained relatively unchanged for over 100 years.

"How exactly does this site help anyone looking to get into prospecting?" This is a great question. My short answer is: Information and confidence in the field.
Whether you want to just go collect rocks with the kids or you want to go for big bucks and be a claim owner, Land Status Research is the first big step to knowing where you can lawfully prospect. It is a process and has a learning curve. There is no better place(my opinion) to learn this process than this wonderful Club and website.

This site has been the foundation of my education for land status research, mining law and my rights as a prospector/miner and as a claim owner. I would recommend to anyone to begin their education into prospecting legally right here.

When you learn the basics it changes from "where can I dig?" to "where do I feel like digging today?" Confidence in the field is a great feeling.

"clicks Like," aw son of a... this isn't FB, well still, Mike S. strikes again with one of the best comments.

These brought to you by,

Colin

(No longer 'that guy over there', now known as, 'Rocks yer socks off' (Ryso) - .... maybe, in a sorta way that's sorta kinda, but in no way, shape, form, is kinda sorta.

Well said, Mike!

Some great answers so far everyone, thank you. I even welcome feedback from those who frequent the site/forums but are not club members. We could have just answered DR but it might have just seemed fake to them coming from the site owners. I think this way he can hear from others.

We all know Dan and myself are very fond of this site, our members and what we do here, so our reply can appear bias as such.