"I ask myself why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest particles, - why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold WITHIN ME, and work THAT mine . . . Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the TRUE lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful. Is not our native soil auriferous? Does not a stream from the golden mountains flow through our native valley? And has not this for more than geologic ages been bringing down the shining particles and forming the nuggets for us? Yet, strange to tell, if a digger steal away, prospecting for this true gold, into the unexplored solitudes around us, there is no danger that any will dog his steps, and endeavor to supplant him. He may claim and undermine the whole valley even, his whole life long in peace, for no one will ever dispute his claim . . . He is not confined to a claim twelve feet square, but may mine anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in his tom."
Henry David Thoreau, 1863
Photo: Golden Cottonwood leaves with Greyrock in the distance, Larimer County, CO; November 2, 2012
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