Adventures in gold panning and dredging in Maine. Experienced prospectors tell their secrets. How and where to find your own Maine Gold. Great family adventure! That first sliver of gold on the black sand in a gold pan - it's a thrill one never forgets. For those who enjoy adventure, and who want to know about gold prospecting in Maine, there are simple and easy to follow instructions on how to pan and sluice, tips on dredging, and a list of the better streams and locations in Maine where gold can be traced. The material is illustrated with a selection of old and rare photographs. Three interviews with experienced gold hunters are included, and the controversy over a mother lode of gold is approached from different points of view. A look at the table of contents, and the reader discovers a wealth of material that is rich and varied.Best are the people one meets in this book: some are strong-willed eccentrics, others are gentle souls, but all are caught in the spell - that search for gold. Excerpt Table of Contents: Gold in Maine; Byron; Perley Whitney; The Oxford Mining Company; Buckskin Sam and Napoleon Bonaparte Jackson; Will Arris, Indian Joe and Dominic; Byron the the Nineteen Thirties; Carl Shilling; The Summer of Yellow Rocks; Today, A Hundred Pieces of Gold; Two Kinds of Fever; Maine's Mining Boom and Bust; The Quoddy Hoax; Other Diggings and Drillings; The Keith, Glines and Winthrop Mines; Coastal Surprises; Dowsing with Lambert and Longley; The Perils of a Dredger; An Interview with Bill Garrett; Sandy River, Oberton and Perham Streams; Tincook, Nile Brook and Sidney Harden; Gold: West, North and East of Rangeley; The Chaudiere River, Jackman and Gold Brook; How to pan for Gold; Sluices and Gear; Different Kinds of Luck; A Conversation with Charlie Damery; Glaciers and the Mother Lode; Swift river Gold; An Interview with Harvey Packard; Dowsing for Metals and Minerals; An Incident Downriver; Some People on the River; Permits; Reading the River.

Professional Reviews
The Next Bend in the River
"Stevens captures the drama with a polished and perceptive writing style. The result is a window in the world of mining in Maine."



















Douglas Watts, Maine Times

Reader Reviews for "The Next Bend in the River - Gold Mining in Maine"

Reviewed by Leland Waldrip	10/24/2004
R. Leland Waldrip Book Review The Next Bend In The River, Gold Mining In Maine — by C. J. Stevens John Wade, Publisher, Phillips, Maine ISBN 0-9623934-1-X Paperback 181 pages 5.5” X 8.5” Gold Fever! All the characters in this riveting and remarkably detailed outing of the gold mining scene in Maine have it — including author C. J. and wife Stella. It even comes through the printed page right into the mind of the reader, like some live thing that gets into the blood. One gets the urge to grab a frying pan and hip waders and head for the East branch of the Swift River without stopping for lunch. Who thought there was gold at the bottom of those fast-flowing rivers and streams that meander out of the cold hills of our second most northern state? Apparently a sizeable chunk of the population in the northeast quadrant of the U.S., at least that’s how it seems when you read this fascinating history and commentary. The author’s penchant for exhaustively researching his subject is flawlessly exemplified by the full-flavored golden nuggets of unearthed characters he’s dug from Maine’s hidden past. They tumble across the graveled pages of the book like precious metal from his beloved streams. There are the gentle souls whose vision extends only as far as the bottom of a gold pan, and the sophisticated, talented, inventive miners who think of little other than finding the “Mother Lode,” ferreting through every pocket in the river. Then there are those who would rather invent schemes to find gold already in the pockets of their fellow man. The stories of their efforts to separate successful miners and investors from their booty provide a truly fascinating study of the gullibility that a gold haze induces in so many people. It reminds one of Mark Twain’s definition — Gold mine: a hole in the ground ringed with liars. Read “The Next Bend In The River.” If you don’t get gold fever, at least you will get the flavor of those hardy Maine folk who have been hell-bent to find the yellow metal for a century and a half. And if you do get the fever, author Stevens gives you a blueprint for how to scratch that itch. A highly recommended read. (This review is also posted as an article.)

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