GOLDEN, Colo. (KDVR) — The Colorado gold rush may be long gone, but that hasn’t stopped members of the gold-seeking club Gold Prospectors of the Rockies from splashing in creeks and rivers in search of the yellow treasure.

In the 1800s, this little stretch of Clear Creak was a “pretty fer piece” from the state Capitol. Today, it is about a fifteen-minute drive by automobile from Interstate 70, which spans the creek, forever looming overhead.

The gold rush may be long gone, but its fever is alive and well.

“Well it’s not fatal, but it does cause you to get a little crazy,” said JJ Long, a member of Gold Prospectors of the Rockies.

Kevin Singel is another member in good standing with the group. He contracted gold fever when he was just a boy.

“When I was 6 years old, my dad read me a National Geographic article about people gold prospecting here in Colorado in the modern day and I was jazzed by that. Went out in the front yard the next morning and dug a gold mine,” said Singel.

He did not find any gold that day, but he did discover a passion for panning.

“Gold prospectors are optimists. They’re always thinking, ‘The next spot I dig is going to be the good one.’ And when you get to a spot that starts to show good gold, that’s when the fever kicks in,“ said Singel.

Singel and Long are just two of the 100-plus members that comprise Gold Prospectors of the Rockies. The club was founded in ‘97. That is 1997, not 1897. But what are 100 years?

“Gold prospecting is not really a hobby. We are small-scale prospecting,“ said Long.

So the question is, is there a cure for gold fever?

“There is no cure for gold fever, except for passing away, I think,“ said Singel.

Which we hope is a “fer piece” downriver.