Newsletter
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
President's Message:January 2026
Is it at least 50 degrees outside yet?
1. The season is colder. Grab your concentrators and let’s go because gold is $4497/oz
2. Our December Christmas meeting went off without a hitch. Excitement filled the air amongst the scents of potluck dinner as we had about 25 members show for the fun and excitement. The vote for steals was authorized this year and there was some amazing action going on with no casualties. Thank you to all those that participated. Much was abuzz as the club purchased some great gear this year for all of our prospectors. My thanks to all for the rock crusher I was gifted.
3. Our January meeting will begin with at Board Meeting at 0900. General Meeting at 1000 will be to discuss the new Washington State Secure Access Washington (SAW) portal by which we go to apply now for HPAs. Discussion of HPA procedures and formations of your HPA will be discussed. Initial looks can be found here: https://secureaccess.wa.gov/myAccess/saw/select.do Discussion will also include a forward look at the February 28th outing with the Boy Scouts.
4. The January 17th outing will be a get together potluck party at Karla and Rodger Benson’s home. We will be focusing on preparing your HPA for Cape Disappointment beach mining. Bring your laptop or tablet to access and work on. Meeting to start with a potluck breakfast at 0900. No food for you…come anyways. The Benson’s home is located at 2216 NE Enetai Beach Rd. Bremerton, Wa 98310. Parking is limited, so please be ready to double park.
5. The February outing looking forward will be actually on Saturday Feb 28th at Camp Parsons. We will be setting up to help teach The Scouts about gold mining During their “Klondike Gold Rush Camporee” at Camp Parsons in Brinnon, Wa. Lunch will be available and if you would like to camp you can schedule to camp there with the scouts for the weekend. If so, please contact Don Parson 360-535-3964.
6, Our 2026 Calendar is out. Please review it and make plans for a fun year.
7. Please see our Membership Coordinator to update your 2026 waiver and receive your 2026 dashboard pass.
8. The newest version of the Gold and Fish book is on WDFW’s web site for download here: https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02150
9. Reminder to all the claims are still open and turn your claims work forms into our claims manager. Happy diggings.
As always we are small scale miners.
Stay healthy
Eric
WE ARE SMALL SCALE MINERS
Membership
You don’t have to be a member of GPAA to be a member of our chapter. You are welcome to mine on the claims that the chapter owns, provided you adhere to mining policies, rules and procedures. No dues are collected. Chapter funds are raised through bake sales, raffles and various other activities. Meeting minutes and By-Laws available for review at chapter meetings.
Please note: Only GPAA members can become chapter officers. Also, non-GPAA members must be with a GPAA member to use GPAA claims.
Claim Passes & Chapter Emergency Contact Info. Rodger and Karla Benson have the 2026 year claims passes available and will have them at meeting upon review of your emergency contact information.
If you no longer want to receive email notifications or to be a member of WWGPAA please notify Rodger or Karla at the meeting. Thanks.
The new version of the Gold and Fish book is on WDFW’s web site for download here: https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02150 . All the claims are still open and turn your claims work forms into our claims manager. Happy diggings.