"My Gold"

Photographs and stories of men who, today, live in the mountains and hunt for gold.

In the California wilderness, both north and south of the famous Sutter's Mill, there are adventurers and abandoners, novices and lifers, recession victims and nostalgists, Missourians and Welshmen, all bonded by the pursuit and glory of a glint of metal hidden in the dirt—gold.

For four years, photographer Sarina Finkelstein sought them out. Some were wary of being misunderstood as homeless ("I don't need to do this, I want to do it," one told her), while another of her subjects recounted suffering through near-hypothermia one night, having come back from a day of prospecting to find that his wallet, his tent, his sleeping bags—everything—had been stolen, and how he was "mining for [his] food."

Finkelstein stayed with them from 2009 into 2013, as the price of gold climbed, peaked, and plateaued. Since, though, its value has precipitously dropped. An ounce is worth $1,300 today—$500 less than it did just a couple years ago. But still, Finkelstein says, these gold hunters remain out there, looking.

Here, photos and stories Finkelstein's new book,

The New Forty-Niners.

—Nate Hopper

"I retired as a master carpenter builder. I did stuff all over. I worked ranches, I worked on homes for Flea and Hunter S. Thompson. I did it for 30 years, and—let me tell you—we know how to improvise. We know how to make do. That's the beauty of this

"I haven't been down the mountain in six months. When I need supplies, I just send people down to sell my gold and buy groceries. It's all about the digging the work, the search." —Martin

"I panned up and down this river on an inner tube, I just got in the river with two inner tubes—one with a cooler and all my gear, and me in the other tube—and I'd go down and see a spot and I'd pan. I'd see a spot and I'd pan—just on the river bank

"I got on the internet and I thought,

"There are very few other activities like it. I go down to the bottom of that river, I go to a place where nobody has been before. That's what I gotta find—that place nobody else dared go. That's the

These and other photos from Sarina Finkelstein's book will be on display at the Rayko Photo Centerin San Francisco through June 21.

Nate Hopper

Associate editor

Nate Hopper is an associate editor for Esquire magazine.