Dave McCracken

Former Navy SEAL, Dave McCracken is considered by many to be the world's foremost authority on small-scale hobby and commercial suction dredging and surface mining for gold. He has prospected for gold extensively in Northern California as well as South and Central America, Africa, Madagascar, Borneo, West Sumatra, Canada, India, Viet Nam & Cambodia and other locations in Asia. His ground-breaking first book, Gold Dredgers Handbook continues to be the world’s best-selling book on prospecting after over 30 years! Every subsequent book has duplicated the first on the best-seller list and been joined by several very popular How-to Videos. The popularity of Dave's books and videos is easy to understand. In vivid detail, with many descriptive illustrations and pictures, and an engaging first person writing style, he shares the secrets and techniques that have brought him enormous success as an underwater miner, year after year, decade after decade, all over the world. Dave shows you exactly how to do what he has done, including how to maximize your return by quickly locating high-grade pay-streaks that can lead to multiple ounces of gold recovery in a single day! The gold is still out there. Dave shows you exactly what you need to do to go get it. Dave realized early on that one of the greatest obstacles to anyone desiring to conduct hobby and small commercial gold mining was in finding a location to mine. One that was a proven producer and not off-limits due to private property, private mining claims or government mineral withdrawals. After accumulating over 60 miles of gold mining property along the gold-rich Klamath River in Northern California, Dave opened all of his claims to members of the newly formed New 49er Gold Prospectors Association in late 1985, with members getting to keep all of the gold they found! The claims proved so rich that many members became full-time, prosperous gold miners dredging the high-grade deposits. In subsequent years, Dave has expanded New 49er property holdings into Southern Oregon, and the organization boasts the most active group of small-scale miners in America. Summers still find Dave personally managing New 49er Group Mining Projects in Northern California and Southern Oregon. The rest of the year he directs team-mining projects in countries all over the world. Wherever he is, whether in books, videos, television shows or in person, Dave will be found sharing his passion of helping you also to find gold.