Nick Martinez loves prospecting for gold because it's a fun way to get his dogs outside and he never knows what he will find.

Contrary to what most people assume, the gold rush didn’t end in the 1800s. Across the U.S., people still pull real gold from rivers, streams, and old mining sites simply with a shovel and a gold pan.

After the discovery of a 17-pound nugget in Little Meadow Creek, North Carolina, the state became a major hotbed of gold mining as a part of the first American gold rush in 1799. Early discoveries ...