Gold!
Copyright© 2026 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 1
I was nine when I started panning for gold. Daddy thought I was ... bored ... crazy ... or 9.
“Bethanne,” he said, “If you’re bored, I can find things for you to do.”
“No, Daddy,” I said. “My chore list is way longer than the boy’s list already.” I have bothers ... err ... brothers. Older ... wiser ... smartalec ... brothers. If you have brothers ... you know ... if you don’t, there’s no explaining. Older brothers ... ick.
“So,” Daddy commented, “Do I need to contact Mental Health?”
“They have enought to do with the boys.”
“Hmmm.”
“And mom.”
“Bethann!”
Giggle
I displayed the tiny nugget.
“Oh.”
It was too big to be a flake and too small to be much of a much. Just a smidgeon of rough gold.
“Where?”
“The crick.”
“Our crick?”
Our crick needs explaning. Bare with me ... it’s complicated; Our crick is tributary to Columbus Crick, and we used to own Columbus Creek and all it’s tributaries ... until the Big Horn Forest Service got ‘upity.’ (Great grand dad’s word) They claimed our claim was ‘superseded’ by the National Interest. Our claim (purchased from the resident indians during the ‘internal conflict’ removing obstacles against the national interest preceeding (prior to) and post (after) the national conflict [War Between the States] in the mid 19th century... 1840 to 1900 is close enough) was invalid. Invalid because the United States of America declared it to be so.
The invalidity of our claim is interesting. The United States picks and chooses how, exactly, they view ‘foreign’ deeds ... fishing rights in the Great Lakes are valid. Land rights are not ... mostly. If a parcel of treaty land can be ‘profitable’ the white courts side with the whiteman.
We had money ... oodles and oodles. And multiple copies of assorted ‘indian deeds’ ... great grand daddy bought the land from several tribes ... We were in court a bunch. Win a few ... lose a few. The court generally decided with the country ... as long as they paid our lawyers.