The Orco stream used to be called golden waters -d'Leva d'Or - . Its spring is in the Gran Paradiso mountains, its waters run through the Canavese area and join the river Po at Chivasso.
Our ancestors used to pan its sands for gold to improve the little money they earned as peasants.
In the late 30s and in the 40s, during the terrible Nazi-fascist occupation, these bits of gold proved to be very useful to the families in Feletto. Since it was dangerous for men to stay in the village during the day, they used to spend most of their time by the stream panning for gold, making their own tools. The batea - the wooden pan - was the only tool made by an artisan.
Only the people of Feletto dedicated their time to gold and during the winter they used to move to the Elvo or the Ticino rivers to pan for more.
The name of our association - Prospectors d'Leva d'Or - recalls, through the dialect, how our ancestors used to call our stream and shows the special relationship between Feletto and its stream.
The aim of the association is to locate all the prospectors left in the area and to teach this forgotten tradition to today's youth. We also try to collect old tools, documents and witnesses of gold-panning. We want to keep in touch with national and international groups to share our experiences.
Our hobby also concerns the practice of gold-panning with home-made tools, respecting the law and the preservation of the environment. This activity is also shared by other groups in various regions. The foundation of the Italian Federation of Prospectors also organises competitions, in which we usually take part.
The searching technique - as we know it - is made up of three steps:
1. 'tasting the point', that is to say looking for sites where both gold and heavier metals settle after floods;
2. sieving the findings in order to separate the pebbles from the sand, which is washed in the 'scaletta' or 'canalina ';
3. panning the remainder in the 'gave', the wooden pan, to separate gold from magnetite, granites, …
This third step is the most important one and shows the art that only some "prospectors" master.
The amount of gold found by panning cannot be compared to the mines in the Klondike. It nevertheless provides a good occasion to spend a day outside with families on the stream. Needless to say we leave the site as clean as we found it on our arrival.
(Text and photos provided by Mr Piero Schioppetti)
