Hello,

     For those of you who don't know me, my name is Brian Higgins and I am originally from Kansas City Missouri.  I lived in Missouri for 19 years before I ran off and joined the Air Force after trying a year of college.  I have been stationed all over the U.S. to include Alaska and overseas.  I separated from the Air Force in 1999 after being enlisted for 7 1/2 years to finish a college degree at Valdosta State University and return back to service.  Now, my wife Jill and I live in Valdosta, Georgia and I am stationed at Moody AFB as a Logistics Readiness Officer.   

     I discovered prospecting just over 6 years by going to a local sportmans show in Valdosta GA where I met a soon to be good friend by the name of Steve Martin.  Steve, showed me around his GPAA booth, gave me a copy of the recent magizine and we talked about prospecting for a few minutes and exchanged phone numbers.  After several phone calls and lots of planning Steve decided to plan a trip to Buchanan GA to teach me how to locate gold, pan for gold and how to run a 4" dredge.  Steve took the time to show me how to assemble the myriad of dredge parts and explained how each part of the dredge interacted to process the creek materials and seperate the light and heavy materials and recover the gold.  After several trips to the rear of the dredge to punch out the plug-ups I quickly learned how to run the nozzle and why it was so important not to plug it up.  Before I knew it we had been running for about three hours and it was time for our first clean-up.  My lips were blue and my fingers half numb (Did I mention this trip took place the 1st day of January in north GA were the nights were extremely cool and the water was even colder) but when Steve panned down the concentrates and I saw the first flakes of gold appear out the black sand I was set on fire and could not wait to pull the starter rope and get back to running. 

     The rest from there on out is history as they say.  I have been lucky enough to gold prospect in Alaska, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina in my short time.  I have met numerous outstanding folks who have bent over backwards to help this Missouri native out and be gracious enough to let me prospect with them.  I will mention everyone as time goes on and you will read about them in upcoming stories.

Brian