By Paighten Harkins
The Oklahhoman
In the back room of a Midwest City home seemingly filled with more buckets of dirt than furniture, Mike Pung stands over a water trough demonstrating the basics of gold panning.
Mike Pung, president of the Gold Prospectors of OKC, points to gold and black sands panned from concentrates in his home in Midwest City. Holding a Frisbee-sized green pan, he sloshes water and dirt around to separate the heavy pieces — the gold — from the soil and other metals.
After repeating the rhythmic process of sloshing and draining, he raps the bowl with his hand, and small flecks of gold snap into formation at the edge.
“Now, here’s the fun part. Do you know where this sand came from?” he asks.
“No,” comes the response.
“Ace Hardware in the concrete section,” he says as he points to the edge of the pan. “And that’s where that gold came from.”