| No | English text |
| 0 | A land of gold Gold panning in the Napf region Though adventurers in North America and Australia were famously obsessed with dreams of fabulous wealth, we often forget that people also searched for gold right here in the Napf region. A fascination for gold is a recurring feature of the local landscape. During the economic crisis there was the idea to use unemployed workers to search for the precious metal. In the 1970s, a geologist studied the gold content of the region’s rivers and was instrumental in reviving gold panning. Today, gold panning in the Napf region is a popular hobby and even a competitive sport! The objects shown here form part of the “Goldkammer” collection. |
| 1 | Golden contests Gold panning as a competitive sport Finnish gold panners were the first to hit on the idea of gold panning as a sporting event, and in 1974 they organised the first gold panning competition in Tankavaara in Finnish Lapland. Three years later, the Finns expanded the competition into a world championship, which they held once a year. The first world championship outside Finland was held in 1982 in Heiligenblut, Austria. Since 1984 there has also been a European championship. On the occasion of the first Swiss championship, the local gold panners founded the Swiss Gold Prospectors’ Association. In 1989 the first national championship was held in Hergiswil in the Napf region; in 1993 Willisau hosted the world championship and in 2016 Burgdorf hosted the European championship. |
| 2 | Master Panners Ruedi Steiner trained as a toolmaker, studied psychology and worked as a career counsellor. In addition, the Lucerne native is also an expert in another field: gold panning. In 1977, Steiner travelled with his father to Tankavaara for the first world gold panning championship. Ruedi Steiner was so fast that he went on to win gold and became the first world champion in the amateur category. He later qualified as an expert – and won two more world championships: in 1982 in Heiligenblut and in 1984 in Dawson City, Canada. But the career counsellor would not recommend gold panning as a profession: becoming an “expert” merely requires that it is your second time competing in a gold panning competition. Steiner remains faithful to his first profession: he designs all his own tools. The “Steiner pan” was once considered the world’s fastest gold pan! |
| 3 | Ruedi Steiner’s “expert” category Trophy in Heiligenblut in 1982. |
| 5 | Article about the World Gold Panning Championship at Heiligenblut, 1982. From Steiner’s personal collection. Original newspaper unknown. |
| 6 | Gold pan developed by Ruedi Steiner. The pan has shallower sides than is common in American pans. Steiner also added a small ledge between the base and the sides. |
| 8 | Strict regulations In gold panning, a lot depends on how lucky you are – so how do they ensure that it’s truly the best who wins? The competition is strictly regulated: all participants receive the same amount of sand mixture combined with the same number of gold flakes, the exact number of which is known only to the jury. It is then a matter of finding all the flakes as quickly as possible. The competition is divided into several phases with quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Despite the strict rules cowboy hats and rubber boots add an adventurous air to the competition! |
| 9 | Wooden competition pan. Today, flatter pans are preferred. Participants often build their own pans out of wood or plastic. |
| 10 | Participants place the gold flakes they find in phials such as these in order to show them to the jury. |
| 11 | The international competition regulations consist of 16 pages and are equally applicable to national competitions. |
| 12 | Various gold medals from different Swiss gold panning championships. |
| 13 | Gold medal from the 2003 Willisau World Championships. |
| 14 | Gold medal from the 2016 European Championships in Burgdorf. |
| 15 | Swiss Gold Prospectors’ Association pennant. It was founded with the aim of organising competitions. |
| 16 | Bottle of red wine given as a prize at the first Swiss gold panning championship in Hergiswil near Willisau, 1989. |
| 17 | A certificate of participation in the first Swiss gold panning championship. |
| 18 | Easily satisfied Gold panning for fun The gold prospectors who sparked the gold rushes in North America and Australia were fuelled by dreams of fabulous wealth. Anyone prospecting for gold in Switzerland is obliged to aim a little lower: their goal is to find gold flakes in as many different rivers as possible. Towards the end of the 20th century, gold panners found gold in many Swiss rivers that were previously not known to contain gold. The Swiss Eldorados are still to be found in the Napf region and in the Surselva near Disentis, where gold panning is a tourist attraction. |
| 19 | Like something out of a fairy tale If you had to draw a typical gold panner, he might look something like Ferdinand Bösch: long hair, big moustache, leather hat, leather belt and waistcoat, a rolled-up cigarette in his mouth and the tools of his trade in his hand. Bösch was a photographer by trade. In the 1950s he was working for famous artists such as Salvador Dalì and Christo in New York when he set out to search for gold in California. His travels took him to Finland, Taiwan, Austria – all the way back to his native Switzerland. Here he roamed the Napf region in search of gold, where his fellow prospectors sometimes discreetly followed and spied on him. Ever extravagant, Bösch had a dental crown fitted by his dentist made out of gold that he had found himself in the Napf region. In 2000, Bösch died at the age of 84. |
| 20 | Ferdinand Bösch built this small aluminium sluice box himself. He often travelled with only a backpack. |
| 21 | Bösch worked with a “Steiner pan” to which he added grooves to improve performance. |
| 22 | Ferdinand Bösch would take this leather belt and belt buckle; leather hat and wooden cup with him on his gold panning expeditions. |
| 23 | Ferdinand Bösch giving a lesson on gold panning, 1991. |
| 24 | Certificate authenticating the origin of Ferdinand Bösch’s gold dental crown |
| 25 | Charming discoveries He who seeks, finds – only not always exactly what he sought. Over the years and decades, many objects less precious than gold can accumulate in rivers. Things get lost or thrown away, damaged by time and rust… Some of what is found has little value, but these objects have their own charm. Most often, you will find nails, coins, cutlery – and horseshoes. |
| 26 | Objects found whilst panning for gold. |
| 27 | Bölsterli gets lucky In August 1997, after hundreds of hours spent panning in the river, what so many gold panners dream of came true. Peter Bölsterli from Winterthur was searching for gold in the Upper Rhine. Throwing a handful of stones away onto the riverbank, he uncovered a large nugget of pure gold. No one has ever found a larger one: Bölsterli’s nugget is 15 millimetres thick, 30 millimetres wide, 62 millimetres long and weighs 123.1 grams! |
| 28 | Living your dream How can one search for gold without a pan? In 1977 Toni Obertüfer read a newspaper article about Ruedi Steiner’s gold panning world championship win. He was eager to try panning out for himself – only he didn’t have a gold pan. The young man quickly repurposed an old hubcap and found some gold for the first time! Not content to settle for that, he soon opened his first shop in Hergiswil near Willisau, where he sold everything a gold prospector could wish for. Until his death in 2016, he brought school classes to the Napf region to search for gold. He was the first Swiss person to make gold panning a profession! |
| 29 | Toni Obertüfer’s first gold pan: a hubcap |
| 30 | Order form dating from the very beginning of Obertüfer’s gold panning shop, 1990. The range of products available was considerably expanded later on. |
| 31 | Obertüfer’s gold panning shop catalogue. |
| 32 | This certificate is proof of a “great find” during one of Toni Obertüfer’s gold panning workshops. |
| 33 | In 1995, the Federal Council took part in a workshop given by Toni Obertüfer as part of the Federal Council’s annual outing. In the picture: Federal Councillor Ruth Dreyfuss, President of the Confederation Kaspar Villiger and Vice-Chancellor Achille Casanova next to Obertüfer. |
| 34 | Needles and geology The history of Napf gold Poor people have long searched for gold in the many rivers around the Napf. They were never particularly successful, and the practice gradually died out, although some people still regularly tried their luck. Towards the end of the 19th century, a bell tower in the area was given a needle made of local gold. During the economic crisis, the Canton of Bern sent unemployed workers out to search for gold in the rivers running parallel to the Emme. In 1973, geologist Katharina Schmid defended her thesis on the gold content of the rivers in the Napf region. Even before she had finished her thesis, her research was picked up by journalists and gold panning as a hobby enjoyed a renewed surge in popularity. And gullible people are regularly fooled by stories about enormous deposits of gold. |
| 35 | From the region for the region In 1883, the Heimiswil bell tower was in need of a new spire. The parish did not want to scrimp on the cost and the spire was to be adorned with a cross covered with gold from the region. The exclusive commission was given to Johann Friedrich Neukomm. The goldsmith founded a dynasty in Burgdorf: four generations of Neukomm goldsmiths. Born in Langenthal in 1830, Johann Friedrich Neukomm spent his journeyman years in France before establishing himself as a goldsmith in Burgdorf in 1857. The spire of the bell tower in Heimiswil still gleams. Its gold comes from the “Grüene” near Sumiswald. |
| 36 | The bell tower of Heimiswil with its golden spire. |
| 37 | Heinrich Rottensweiler: Johann Friedrich Neukomm (1830-1891), goldsmith and filigree maker. Colour drawing, 1859. |
| 38 | Journeyman’s book by Johann Friedrich Neukomm. Journeymen would write the stages of their apprenticeship down in such books. |
| 39 | Silver spoon and traditional brooch by Johann Friedrich Neukomm. As a goldsmith, Neukomm made silver spoons and gold rings inset with hair. To make the brooch, he would have needed training as a filigree maker. |
| 40 | Wedding ring containing the bridegroom’s hair by Johann Friedrich Neukomm. |
| 41 | No treasure In 1975, six Aargau natives heard from a reliable source that gold could be found at a certain spot, at a depth of 9 metres. They founded the “Einfache Gesellschaft für Goldprospektion am Goldbach” and began to build a mine shaft. 400 people supported the venture. Did they themselves believe they would strike gold? In any case, they didn’t find any – as you might have guessed. Gold mining is pointless in the Napf region: conglomerate rocks do not contain gold veins, and pirates burying treasure are rather rare in this region. |
| 42 | Brooches commemorating the 20th anniversary of the adventure. |
| 43 | Gold washing station and gold miners’ gallery in Goldbach, 1970s. |
| 44 | Employment Program Gold panning was never really profitable in the Napf region, but when the New York Stock Exchange crashed and triggered a global economic crisis in 1929, the situation changed. Labour became cheap with so many unemployed – it was money that was lacking. At least that’s what Christian Killias thought, and so he had a suggestion: let’s make the unemployed search for gold! The Bernese Council of State was willing to consider the idea and arranged to try it out in Trubschachen. The local newspapers were hopeful about the project. The unemployed worked under Killias’ direction, using a device of his own invention. In three weeks they found six grams of gold, which brought in 30 francs, while expenses amounted to 200 francs. The Council of State terminated the experiment, Killias disappeared – and the manager of the bistro at Trubschachen station was left with an unpaid bill. |
| 45 | Christian Killias with an unemployed man and his gold washing device. |
| 46 | Using wooden boots such as these, the unemployed waded in the river. |
| 47 | Unemployed man panning for gold in the Chrümpelgraben, 1930s. |
| 50 | The re-discovery of old gold There was a resurgence of interest in gold panning around 1970. In the Napf region, the pastry chef Robert Maag (1922-2019) was the first to start panning, after he read an article in the news about new research on the gold content of the local rivers. In 1972 he found gold in the Grosse Fontanne, a river parallel to the Kleine Emme in the Entlebuch. He invented a portable washing station suited to the difficult terrain and used the aluminium pastry dish from his bakery as a gold pan. Maag found enough gold to make a pendant for his wife and several gold ducats. He also conducts research into the history of gold panning in Switzerland and has published several articles. |
| 51 | Robert Maag’s gold panning sluice, 1973. Maag combined the sluice groove with a removable sieve. |
| 52 | Robert Maag searching for gold in the Grosse Fontanne, 1972. |
| 53 | 1973 Langenthal carnival poster. Robert Maag’s work inspired a carnival rhyme. |
| 54 | Robert Maag searching for gold in the Grosse Fontanne with the sluice that he made, 1973. |
| 55 | Gold ducat in Napf gold, by Robert Maag, 1980. 3,5 grams; fineness : 96,5 %. Refining and manufacture: Cendres et Métaux. Coinage: Franchioni. |
| 56 | Coinage tool for the creation of Robert Maag’s gold ducat in Napf gold, 1980. Produced by Franchioni. |
| 57 | New edition of gold ducat in Napf gold, by Robert Maag, 1980. 3,5 grams; fineness : 98,3 %. Refining and manufacture: Cendres et Métaux. Coinage: Hidber. |
| 58 | 4 grams of gold straw from the Napf region. This is the quantity needed to strike a 3.5-gram ducat. Fineness : 96,3 % |
| 59 | Alluvial gold deposits have been found in the following rivers: 1 Hämelbach, Napf region, Canton of Bern 2 Chrümpelgraben, Napf region, Canton of Bern 3 Feistergrabe, Canton of Bern 4 Mülibach to Lobsigen, Bernese Seeland 5 Aare towards Kiesen, Thun region, Canton of Bern 6 Diessbach, Thun region, Canton of Bern 7 Zulg, Thun region, Canton of Bern 8 Rotache, Thun region, Canton of Bern 9 Tscharbach, Surselva, Canton of Grisons 10 Kemptner Tobel, Canton of Zurich 11 Gravel pit near Geneva 12 Gravel pit near Zell, Napf region, Canton of Lucerne |