TRADITIONS IN THE SEARCH OF THE GOLD

In such a rich gold country like Italy, the seekers can well boast a glorious history: the seekers today's, thrilled what for hobbies and without ends of profit devote themselves in the spare time to the search of the gold, they have illustrious forerunners who for long time, have fact of the search of the gold, a profession. Already the Celti, and probably before them the Ligurian and one the Etruscan one, knew the Aurifere sands of many courses of water of the Po Valley and were exploiting. The heavy deposits between the Olobbia torrents, street and Elvo were "cultivated" in big style, using thousands of men and realizing mighty hydraulic works. It remains as testimony the "Bessa" between Ivrea and Biella, where the huge heap of stones (almost eight kilometers squared of extent, a hundred million of meters cubes of material from which at least 200 tons made of gold have been extracted ) is formed by the stones discarded, in the search of the gold wisps of straw, by the about five thousand men who were working on behalf of Romans. Like finds are on the shores of the Lavagnina Lakes in The Ovadese and along the banks of the Ticino To Golasecca. In the course of the centuries the intensive search of gold declined. Only the farmers kept on alternating the peach of the noble metal to the care of the fields. The violent floods of the rivers not still dammed by the embankments were metal "regrow" the brilliant always taking new fragments to valley. After every flood, there was a true run to the gold: the lucky one who finds out a "point" had the right to work it for three days, then he had to give the place to others. One good "point" could supply also various tens of gold-grams. Along all the '800 even in the beginning of the '900, along the bed-river of Ticino, in a few coastal countries, the tradition really wanted the bridegroom to pick up in the river, the gold destined for the wedding rings. It was any way always a tiring and precarious activity less profitable as the floods were limited give him embankments. Fifty years ago was still remunerative going over the rivers with " plate or Trula (typical tool of the Oleggesi seekers with the form of a square shovel has with three banks and the perpendicular handle ) and canalina ": while a worker was earning a hundred lire per day, with an only gold-gram, they could obtain at least eight hundreds. After the war the gold price started getting down: in '47/'48 they were paying for it 470 lire the gram and the research was abandoned, to revive in the last few years as hobby of an unusual glamour.