Michael Everett PalmerMichael Everett Palmer was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and at a young age moved with his family to Southern California.His early years were chock full of outdoor adventures in the wilderness of Southern California. At the age of eight, his fathr signed him up in the Cub Scouts to try and fill his burning desire for adventure. Scouting allowed him to learn the skills he needed, to be confident in life, as well as in the outdoors. Boy Scouts followed him into his high school years, where he became an Eagle Scout in 1967. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, and surfing the beaches of Southern California, as well as walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals for his collection.As a young adult, he needed more space than Southern California could offer him and his young family. In 1979 at the age of 26, he moved to Northern California and settled down in "Natures Wonderland," the small mountain town of Pollock Pines, California.While in college he became captivated by the "Mother Lode" and the California Gold Rush. Classes like Geology 1 and 2 and the Mining History of the Mother Lode, among many others, fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. In 1980 he picked up a gold pan for the first time, and on that day, "the winds of change" blew in his direction. Little did he know that gold pan, would in time, take him around the world.His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years. He operated his business under the name of "California Chance Mining." Twenty plus years of that were spent as a professional gold dredger, dredging in the rivers of El Dorado County and Placer Counties. He also worked in Ghana, West Africa, as an explorer, working on both gold and diamond concessions. He also owned and operated a sand and gravel quarry/gold mine in El Dorado County for twelve years.When he retired in 2019, he began to tell his story, five years later the manuscript of Seasons of Gold was complete and ready for publication.The romantic history of the California Gold Rush, combined with his passion for gold dredging have inspired him to write this historic gold mining adventure, California Chance: Dredging the Mother Lode in Seasons of Gold. Read More Read Less