Prospectors lined the banks of the creek. Working with buckets and shovels, they scooped sandy gravel from the creek bed into their gold pans.

Adding a little water to the pans, the prospectors begin to swirl the mixture, suspending the lighter particles so they can be discarded when the water is gently poured back into the creek.

With any luck, the heavier particles that remain will glitter golden in the sun.

The scene, reminiscent of West Coast history, could have transpired in California, where in 1849 a wave of gold seekers flocked to find their fortune.

Or perhaps it stemmed from the Klondike region, which drew another generation of dreamers in 1897.

Or maybe gold fever has struck more recently - as nearby as Western Pennsylvania.

Near a wooded stream just west of Greenville, the Allegheny Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America gathers monthly to pan for gold.After beginning the day with a potluck meal, chapter president Neil Baney begins to call out ticket numbers for the group's monthly raffle.Some of the members, mostly men with their wives, sit in lawn chairs under a picnic pavilion the group has constructed on its 30-acre meeting site.Because a few steadfast seekers have already scattered along the creek, Baney's voice bellows through the brush - alerting winners who emerge to claim gold pans, prospecting tools and even a few gold flakes gathered in Alaska."You find three kinds of rock when you're panning," said Baney, who lives in Jefferson Township."Leaverite, meaning leave 'er right where you found it; optimite: rock you keep today that you hope is worth something tomorrow; and pessimite: rock you threw away yesterday that you're sure is worth something today.""Usually in a day you can find enough gold to buy a postage stamp," he laughed.Although Western Pennsylvania is not among regions rich in gold, Baney said his prospecting trips usually yield some "color" in the pan."I always find what we call color, which is real fine flour gold. Occasionally you'll find what we call a picker or a small nugget," he said of the particles at least large enough to pick up between your thumb and finger.The chapter, in existence for nearly a decade, consists of about 140 members who hail from as near as Butler to as far away as Youngstown, Ohio.Although many of the club members use gold pans, Mark Headings of Sharon uses a rocker box - a wooden sifting device popular in the California gold rush - to increase the amount of gravel he can comb through in a day.As Headings and the other GPAA members dig through the gravel, another small group, many of them children, scour the woods with metal detectors, looking for a gold coin that was planted as part of a contest that day."It's so good to come here with your kids," said Meryle Kaufman of Westmoreland County, whose husband, Harold, has belonged to the club for six years.The Kaufmans are among many who say the social aspect is valued as much as the gold."I try to make as many meetings as I can," Harold Kaufman said. "A lot of us have become good friends.""It's a great club to be in. The people are nice," agreed Headings, who serves as chapter vice president.Although Jim Gray and his uncle, Howard Gray, both of Center Township, have been prospecting together for awhile, the two attended their first club gathering this month after being introduced to the idea by Val Binder of Beaver County."It's more or less a hobby and an excuse to get outside," said Jim Gray, ranking prospecting along with hunting and fishing."This is just another thing we get to do together," he added, explaining how the outings unite families."(Howard) takes his granddaughter, Samantha. I take my daughter, Lauren. They want to go as much as we do. It's contagious. It's gold fever," he quipped.

Although gold unites the hobbyists in friendship, most of them are not likely to find much more than that, said Charles Shultz of Boyers, a volcanic geologist who taught at Slippery Rock University for 33 years.Shultz also edited The Geology of Pennsylvania, an 888-page reference guide published in 1999 by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey and the Pittsburgh Geological Society."Everyone needs to understand the rocks around here - the bedrock under our soils - was deposited in giant swamps and in big floodplains and deltas," he said of the sedimentary bedrock in this region."Those kinds of environments would not contain gold that you could see," he said. Shultz also said any gold prospectors did find in Butler County would likely be concentrated in glacial deposits in the county's northwest corner.Shultz said the gold in Pennsylvania, categorized as placer or secondary-type gold, is found loose in gravel instead of in large amounts embedded in rock, as would be the case in regions where the gold originated.The gold in Pennsylvania was transported to the region from the Canadian Shield, an area covering eastern and central Canada and a small part of the northern United States.The small amounts of loose gold found in Pennsylvania were transported here from the Canadian Shield by glaciers, Shultz said."If you're going to try to pan for gold you would have to be out where there are glacial deposits, but the chances of finding anything (significant) would be extremely remote," Shultz added.Since some glacial deposits are found on public land, including Moraine State Park, park manager Obie Derr noted most mining activity is not permitted under park policy.Tools such as rocker boxes, shovels and hydraulic jacks are not allowed, Derr said - and people interested in small-scale recreational panning should get clearance at park offices before going out.

Despite the odds against finding sizeable caches of gold, many prospectors aren't deterred."I've been a rock hound and a prospector most of my life, searching for gemstones. I have a horrible desire to know more about geology," said Andre LaStrapes of Armstrong County.Retired from Allegheny Ludlum in Brackenridge, LaStrapes said he spends about three months each summer doing prospecting of various types.Many of the members say they simply enjoy the thrill of the search - knowing there is a remote possibility they will stumble on something of value. "It's like going to flea markets," said Jim Gray. "It's a chance to get something for nothing."With interest as deep-seated as the gold itself, Baney attributed his dedication to a curiosity that began in boyhood."I was home sick from school, watching Merv Griffin on TV," Baney said. "This guy came out - just started talking about if you worked hard, you could work your way across the country by finding gold. It piqued my interest immediately.""As it turns out, when I moved to Butler, I couldn't get any TV reception at all, so I bought a big satellite dish. And one morning at 2:30 I couldn't sleep. I kicked on the satellite dish, and there was that same guy."The man is George Massie, founder of the GPAA and of The Outdoor Channel. Currently, Massie hosts one of three prospecting shows aired on the channel.In addition to maintaining multiple mining claims for members to use across the country, the GPAA hosts group trips and escorts members to mining camps on Alaska's Seward Peninsula.Traveling to the established claims provides a unique vacation while allowing the hobbyists to prospect in richer locales, members say."I have gold from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia and Maine," Kaufman said. "It's just nice to know you've been to all those places."Baney said prospecting is just another way to recreate outdoors. "If you like to go hunting, if you like to go fishing, it's another good excuse to go out in the woods."I've caught trout, shot squirrels and found gold all in an afternoon in Pennsylvania … a big triple play," he said."It's something you don't have to prepare a lot for," agreed Jim Gray, explaining how a bow hunting trip could take a year's worth of practice and preparation."You just have a couple of hours, you just go out and do it. You don't need special tools or equipment. It's exciting to get a few flakes of gold.""I don't expect to find much, but it's like going fishing," he added. "You never know if you're going to get anything - but you might."