Origins “Our Golden Journey”

   All the way out west, in the Monterey Bay of Central California, a surfer lived. His name was John A. Marsh. He had surfed for decades, eventually making a progression of his own surfboards. He owned a series of sustenance fishing boats over the years. Whether it was tube riding on surfboards or navigating various ocean conditions in his boats, he gained an intuitive knowledge of waves. He began working as a carpenter and eventually became a professional sheet metal mechanic, where In 2009, a co-worker and friend introduced him to gold prospecting and the concept of treasure…

The mountain adventures with their rugged beauty captivated him. The camaraderie was excellent. Each outing was an odyssey similar to launching a sea going vessel. Prospecting quickly became a passion of his. As a working family man, he had many time constraints restricting his new hobby. His wife would allow him time for prospecting but did not approve of a “panning party” the next day. John found It was therapeutic screening and screening soapy concentrates and chasing specks of gold with his snuffer bottle all day. His wife complained that it was a messy waste of time.

At the river, John had learned how to dig up and process material in a traditional sluice. The sluicing process was tedious, slow, and fraught with hazards that could cause losses. John was always concerned about his capture rates. His other concern was staying on the gold pay streak. Doing a clean up to check progress was complicated, lengthy, and required down time to pan those cons in the field. He felt that he was working “blind” most of the time and could only see his gold after a several hours long panning party. Not being satisfied, Mr. Marsh began to search for ways to speed up the sluicing process. His Idea of creating a new type of riffle that would cause a more rapid separation of gold was met with wide spread and aggressive skepticism. John felt that his mechanical skills and wave knowledge should be applied to these problems anyways.

At the time, John senior was still with us (RIP). Senior had taken an interest in a gated underflow technique that he wanted to play with. John had built a aluminum test rail for this purpose. It was a two inch wide recirculating system that was built from scrap aluminum and powered by a live bait well from his fishing boat.

John then had a vision in the night sky. He could never explain all of the things he saw in those few seconds. What he saw that impressed him most, was the virtue of achieving balance and order in any one place. He could never explain to himself how, instantly, he became completely convinced that there would be some enormous benefit to having balance and order at the point of gold separation. He went to the garage the next morning and super glued small aluminum parts into the two inch test rail. The idea was to gently encourage a fast, smooth wave in a flow, and then split the bottom section of that flow (and all the heavies) down, into a trap. The first days attempt failed, modifications were made. The second days attempt was much closer. The third day showed success. The fine gold and black sand were being rapidly separated in the riffle, it was a first! John just needed a good nugget trap to complete the system. While tuning the nugget trap with flowing water, something unusual happened in the flow. The flow began to accelerate in one place. The accelerating flow appeared to be moving unusually fast, orderly, and balanced in form. He added material to this flow and the new action caused a rapid gold separation even better than his original riffle design. That nugget trap is now known as the Patented Kreeger Riffle. His wife happily noticed that he hasn’t had a “panning Party” since. He could now bring his cons home in a small pill bottle.

Kreeger is a family surname, it means warrior. Aqua is Italian for water. Both words reflect some of Johns heritage. Kreeger-Aqua translates to Water Warrior in English. The Kreeger project comes from a love of water, a passion for prospecting, and a desire to help our fellow prospectors and miners get their gold faster.

The water warrior will capture and protect your gold!
Thank you for your support and good Luck out there!