OROVILLE – Alan Fisk has been chasing gold on the Similkameen River for nearly two decades, now he wants to help people learn to find gold themselves – not necessarily to get rich, but as an adventure.
“Most of my life was around King County. Nineteen years ago I came here to chase gold. I loved it and stayed, eventually getting my dream property on the Similkameen River,” said Fisk.
Lucky Duck is a retail store for prospecting, mining and Hookah dive gear. It is geared toward the underwater gold dredger. The store offers dive masks, including full face, air hoses, weight belts, pump seals, gold scales, hookah air regulators, gold vials and pans, screens, misc. hand tools, ropes, etc.
The store, which is located in a vintage Spartan trailer on his property at 2684 Loomis-Oroville Rd., opened for business on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. For now he says his tentative hours will be 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
“Between those hours I will be in the river dredging. I will be open Monday through Saturday,” he said.
Fisk also offers dredge repairs, welding and cutting, fabrication, special orders, training, eventually classes. He has a shaker table to let people clean out the gold from “concentrates.”
“I can equip and train anyone to find and recover placer gold,” he said. ” The first goal is to make sure that I can provide miners any dive or mining equipment they may need. In the gold dredging business time is critical. The second goal is to be able to offer the public the opportunity to dredge underwater in shallow water.
“The moment I saw Shanker’s Bend in the Similkameen I knew I wanted to do this, in the right time. The business idea is 19-years-old. For most of those years I kept a low profile and waited for the right time, which is now.
Because of the increase in the price of gold, more and more miners are coming to Oroville to chase their luck in the “Gold River.” If the miners know they can supply here, they are more apt to come here. Except for a few items the local stores carry, I have the only place they can get what they need now.
While Fisk calls the Oroville area home, he has two daughters that live near Seattle and five grandkids.
“I live with my wife Candy, and our dog Rolly. I am retired and doing this for fun,” he said.
