The Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA) was looking to expand the number of chapters in the country and sent out a letter to new members in the hinterlands. The main office did a mailing and we had about 75 people show up and from them we formed the "CLUB". By posting on Yahoo!, we brought in about as many non GPAA members. The first meetings were at Rick Heitke's farm place, the Library at Princeton and finally we were able to get a meeting room at the American Legion in Big Lake as it was central with a main hwy (HWY 10) for access. We eventually split up into two groups North (near Duluth) and South (near Rochester) to be shorter travel for the members that attended regularly.  Later, a Central group was formed. So as it developed, the Minnesota Gold Prospectors Club (MNGP) was formed by 8-11 people in 1998. They were: Leroy Bremer; Jerry Davis; Tom DuChamp; Dan Fosdick; Rick Heitke; David Kryzer; Greg Tamillo; John Wilkus and three more to be named later. The club was formed to have fun prospecting and chasing gold with others that shared the same hobby. Good Fellowship follows as a by product of people working (playing) with a common goal.  We all appreciate and respect the outdoors and want to preserve the right to pursue our hobby of recreational prospecting on public and (with permission) private lands. Since Minnesota is such a large state, the club is now organized into 3 separate groups South, Central and North, each have their own meetings and local outings and participate with the other Minnesota groups whenever it is beneficial to do so.   We hope you enjoy our Website.  It has been put together to help keep our members up to date with the happenings of the MNGP.  As time goes on the membership and visitors alike will shape the website with their suggestions, ideas and contributions.  We also have a Yahoo! Groups Forum  at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minnesotagoldprospectors/ you may want to visit also. This is a beautiful country that we live in, help keep it that way and pick the trash others leave behind and be sure to fill in your holes.