Shock: a golden tour leader

Brent Shock owns and operates Gold Prospecting Adventures on Woods Creek in Jamestown. Amy Alonzo Rozak/Union Democrat

Brent Shock’s gold-hunting site at the creek was filled Wednesday with tourists looking to make some quick cash, or at least gather a gold fleck or two to take back home. They worked gold pans and sluice boxes while Shock waded through the creek shouting instructions and cracking an occasional joke.

“I may be going fast, but my eyes are looking all around,” Shock told the crowd as he swirled a pan with the flick of his wrist. “You got to have a good eye.”

The crowd of about 10 hailed from Reno, Bakersfield, Detroit and Florida.

For around $100, the participants got three hours in the creek and Shock’s expert advice.

One member of the group, Mary Ward, of Bakersfield, paid for part of her session with Shock through a precious find.

She held up a small chunk of gold in her pan that Shock estimated was worth $70 to $80.

“You could make a tooth out of that,” she said.

“Always hold everything over the pan,” Shock warned the anxious teenager, lest she drop the nugget into the creek.

Shock claims he lived off of his gold profits for years as a prospector, until a car crash in 2001 left his body unable to handle the work.

“Am I rich? Absolutely not,” he said. “But I have been able to do something I love.”

Originally from San Mateo, he lived off and on in Tuolumne County starting in the 1970s, learning from the “old timers.” He admitted they didn’t have the patience he now displays for his clients.

“They didn’t teach, they screamed at you — for a long time,” he said.

Today, Shock relies on the money his business, Gold Prospecting Adventures, started by his late father, brings in. And business is booming, thanks largely to the renewed interest in gold and the high prices it’s fetching due to the down economy.

At Shock’s outfit, just off of Shaw’s Flat Road, a collection of dozens of rubber waders in various sizes attest to his business success.

“We can take 200 school kids at a time,” he said.

Shock’s business is helped by the fact that he’s a good marketer, though his looks belie that skill. The 60-year-old is stiff from the crash that nearly killed him and spending much of his life hunched over a gold pan. He’s got holes in his waders and he’s quick to change the subject when asked where the gold is.

In short, he looks and acts as though he just crawled out of a mine shaft. 

Gold is everywhere in Tuolumne County if you know what to look for, according to Shock. A lot of factors come into play, he said: the angle of nearby mountain ridges, speed of the creek, the level of spring runoff, the amount of overhanging vegetation, etc. The 49ers didn’t find everything, Shock stressed. The gold’s still moving from higher elevations to lower elevations.

“Tuolumne County doesn’t know what it’s sitting on,” he said. “We’re standing on some of the richest areas in the world.”

Shock’s most important piece of advice to would-be prospectors is “have patience.”

“It’s hard work,” he said. “People want to put a shovel in the ground and be rich 15 minutes later.”

Shock claimed he’s been interviewed by 23 print and TV reporters over the past year. His wallet, over an inch thick, is packed with business cards from various media outlets.

County Film Commissioner Jerry Day backed Shock’s claim of fame.

Day recalled Shock being interviewed by CNBC, TV Tokyo, BBC and The Wall Street Journal over the past two years.

Shock was also the subject of an April 7 New York Times column by Maureen Dowd. And one of his clients Wednesday, Mary Beth Loy, of Reno, heard about Shock’s operation on a program she saw two years ago on the Travel Channel.

“It’s pretty amazing how much international attention he’s given to Jamestown and the area,” Day said. “He’s a character, but he pulls them in.”

Day surmised that Shock’s appearance has likely helped him garner attention.

“If you’re looking for a grizzled, old miner, he’s it,” Day said.