Portis Gold Mine is the only public gold mine in the state. When we went there, we thought it would be less prospecting and more museum, so when we rolled down the snow-covered dirt driveway that January morning, I'm sure the site manager was just as surprised to see us as we were him as we were to see his massive but friendly Presa Canario hound. He was kind enough to show us around the site and tell us a bit about their operations, history, and their future plans.

Not long after that, we were in Weldon, where we read about the story of Jonathan Jackson, who claimed to have nearly caught a massive, 198" and 4,000 lb rockfish shortly before his death in 1904.