Tonight at the Old Schoolhouse Museum, you can learn everything about gold mining that you were afraid to ask. As part of the Twentynine Palms Historical Society’s ‘Fridays at The Museum,’ lecture series, the First Class Miners Club will present a program about Gold Dry-washing and a panning demonstration.
If you’re unfamiliar with the First Class Miners Club, Z107.7’s Heather Clisby followed them out on a mining expedition in the Morongo Basin. She described them as
“FCM’S beginnings can be traced to a 1992 class at Copper Mountain College (CMC) called “Desert Prospecting” taught by the late Dr. Robert “Doc” Smeton, a beloved dentist in Twentynine Palms. (Smeton passed in 2018 at age 84.) The class started with 35 students but soon shrank to 20. In March 1993, those 20 students formed the First Class Miners group -because they were among Smeton’s ‘first class’ and – much to his pride and delight – soon filed their first claim. The group now boasts 200+ members, most living in the Morongo Basin. The FCM tagline is “Gold guaranteed. Elbow grease required.”
You can learn more about the mining in the Morongo Basin, both past and present a the Old Schoolhouse Museum tonight. The program begins at 7:00 p.m., and doors open at 6:15 p.m. The Old Schoolhouse Museum is located at 6760 National Park Drive, in Twentynine Palms. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.
Previously reported:
