This is the question we, Dutch, are often asked when we are at the championship all over Europe. We always had to say we don’t know, and it bothered us.

So, the only way to find out was to search for gold, within the borders of the Netherlands. This, however, sounds easier than it is, because what is the best location to search for gold? We do not have mountains, almost all our streams and rivers are canalized and there has never been a prosperous metallic mineral mining of any kind in the Netherlands (the only mining activities in the Netherlands have been coal, gas, sand marl and salt). All of them are not associated with gold.

The only thing we did know is that gold can be found in the Ardennes (in Belgium). In addition, gold has been found in the upper (German) part of the Rhine river. We decided to search for gold in the streams of Zuid-Limburg, which is closest to the Ardennes. A group of 5 persons (Dirk Swager, Frenk Hink, Walter van der Poel, Marcel Berkhout and Ruurd van Wijhe) went to the beautiful city of Valkenburg and stayed in the hotel called “De Goudsberg” (meaning: “The golden mountain”). Zuid-Limburg is the southernmost part of the Netherlands and the highest mountain is situated in this area (an astonishing 321 m above sealevel). There are a few streams that looked promising. And we decided to search in two streams (“de Geul” and “de Gulp”) at the point where they flow across the Dutch-Belgian border.

So first:”De Geul”. After a quick scan we found a nice spot (although there was a warning for the presence of algae) and started. Because gold panning is relatively an unknown activity in the Netherland, different people stopped and asked why we were standing in the middle of a river. After two hours of panning and sluicing (with 5 persons) we decided to try to find our luck elsewhere, because no gold was found at this spot.

Next stop: “De Gulp”. Again a quick scan of the area was needed in order to reach the actual stream, but a nice spot(s) (with extremely curious cows) was found, and after a refreshing lunch we started to wash and sluice with increasing enthusiasm. After another two hours the sluices were cleaned and …

ONE IMMENSE PIECE OF GOLD!

Frenk and Dirk found a piece of gold so small that a magnifying glass is needed to see it. But it was unmistakably gold. The location of the discovery can be seen in the picture together with the five hard workers that found it.

So now the question “Is there gold in the Netherlands” can be answered with a positive: “YES”.

And although we only found a small piece, all of us returned home with a satisfied feeling.

Ruurd van Wijhe (Golden Times, 2003), Foto's: Manuela Swager