gold claim

How do you think I bought my Newell...:)

No, but I found a gold tooth at a campground!

If being a golddigger counts, then yes; at least according to certain of my Husband's relatives. :)

All of the gold I mine comes from jewelry stores and my DW wears it.

Seriously, though, I knew a workamper at Amazon during October-December 2011. Told me he works his "claim" other times. So yes, there are full-time RVers who work gold (or other mineral) claims. I also know of folks in Colorado who "gather" small amounts of gemstones from areas in the Rockies, and make money selling same to dealers and/or at gem shows

My husband and I used to do rockhounding as a hobby, gave most everything to Charlie's son after he passed away. Just not into it anymore, but we did have fun looking for gems and stones.

I have a friend who enjoys metal detecting and gold mining (working claims). It's hobby money for him, couldn't live off it even if he ate only Rahmen noodles.

If you are talking about real gold mining, that is a job, not a part-time workamping gig. Miners work long, hard hours in very harsh conditions. Not a job for the faint of heart. You need either a skill (heavy equipment operator) or the ability to do a whole bunch of grunt work (heavy, dirty lifting and many hours on the business end of a shovel comes to mind).
As for staking a claim and working your own mother lode, just ask yourself what do you know or what can you do that 10,000 people before you hadn't tried? Most successful mining operations just plain overwhelm the obstacles to get gold. They move thousands of tons of dirt to get ounces of gold. They use dangerous chemicals to leach the gold out of hard rock. The blast away entire sides of mountains. The successful companies employ armies of geologists and use high tech equipment costing millions of dollars to just narrow down where to dig. You don't just walk up to any anonymous mountain stream and pan out a few pounds of nuggets. Any stream that had that kind of treasure was found and worked over a hundred years ago.
Not saying it wouldn't be an interesting career choice, but unless you have 30 years of heavy equipment experience and want to take on one more challenge, don't see gold mining as something you do on a whim.

If you want to spend about a $1000. to get started
in finding gold (Maybe ) it is hard work.

Metal Dectector ( good one ) $500.
Dirt wash machine $400.
Misc. $100.

Traveling to states with gold, Ariz., Calif, New Mexico,
N./S, Carolina, Alaska, a few.

It can be very expensive for what little you will find.

Lease claim in Ariz. for 2 wks found maybe 1/2 oz gold,
trip cost over value of gold was expensive even as member
of Lost Dutchman club.

Good Luck !!

I have been planning trips to lost dutchman, GPAA claims and Happy Camp in CA. I am not thinking of this as a get rich thing. I want to camp at BLM areas, why not at least try an find out if there has been history of gold there too? Some claims that were mined have not been mined since with newer equipment.