Gary is the president of the Idaho Gold Prospector Association and a dear friend. Gary spent most of his professional career in the printing industry after joining the United States Marine Corp in 1966 and touring Vietnam for thirteen months.
He attended Pasadena City College for two years to study the printing industry and in 1973 was hired out with the Union Pacific Railroad in the Los Angles area. In 1977 he found his way to Pocatello, ID and continued to work for the railroad until he retired in 2006. Thirty-three years of riding the rails made time fly. In 2006 Gary and his wife, Shirley, moved to the Boise area to be closer to Shirly’s family and grandkids.
Trying to find something to keep him busy during his retirement years, Gary thought that gold prospecting might be for him. He joined The Gold Prospectors Association of America, out of California. Then joined the two Boise area gold clubs; Idaho Gold Prospectors Association and The Idaho GPAA. The things he likes most about prospecting are meeting all the nice friendly people, being outdoors and camping with friends, and digging up the yellow metal GOLD. He sees it as Jackpot or Las Vegas, pulling the handle on the one arm bandit – not knowing what going to come up. Each and every pan of dirt is different!
Devin DeMeyer
Before joining the Summit Mining family, Devin had recently picked up gold mining as a hobby. And although he had only found a little color at the time he was certainly intrigued by the hunt. Through his research and experience he had acquired a fair amount of knowledge and understanding of the field, including small scale mining equipment, their functions, operating theories, and procedures.
He’s a highly skilled welder and fabricator with the majority of experience in the auto-body field. He studied Collision and Refinishing technology, Custom Paint, and Street Rod and Custom Fabrication at Wyotech in Sacramento, CA. After graduating he worked at Ferrari of Beverly Hills Collision Center and then Robz Ragz Customs and Classics once he moved back to Idaho.
We’re thrilled to have both, Gary & Devin, on board! Each of their skill sets are an asset to our company and their fun, lively personalities are definitely appreciated around the shop. And the best part: having these two extra sets of hands enables us to produce more equipment for you to enjoy!
Leave a comment and introduce yourself to our newest family members!
“People have been asking me about the small trommels that we pull behind our quads those are from summit mining. They worked good for a lightweight unit to get back into the woods but also for testing and those two units I had got sold to two large miners to test there cuts to see if they had gone deep enough into the bedrock. They were very versatile and compact. Great little company of good guys.”
Are you watching the show? What are some of your favorite parts?
Our little company is growing up, can you tell? At the end of the last year we decided that it was time to move out of mom and dad’s basement and get a place of our own.
We’ve found a great place in Boise where we can manufacture and have a show room so as soon as we are settled we’ll have to have you over!
We are thrilled to announce that we will have a new and improved website launching within the next month! The improved site will let you complete purchases online, review products online, compare products side-by-side and much, much more!
Prices are going up by 8% effective Friday, March 16, 2012.
We are betting this is not what you want to hear. We get it. We don’t like paying more for things either.
So why are we raising prices?
Well, we’ve fought this for a while now. And, since our products are made with expensive materials like metal and aluminum (not cheap plastic) we’re subject to the rising prices of these materials.
We’ve also managed to keep up with demand thus far, albeit by the skin of our teeth, by building these as an immediate family. But you guys keep ordering these things! And we love it. So, in the beginning of 2012 we decided that it was time to bring a couple of employees into the Summit Mining family.
So to bottom line it for you, you have a little over one month to get any Summit Mining product at the current retail rates before they are raised by 8% to met the rising costs of materials and labor.
Rest assured though, we remain committedtocompetitivepricing and keeping the prospecting experience affordable for the small scale miner.
It really has taken us until Wednesday to recuperate from all the fun this weekend! But we’re back with another contest for you and pictures from Friday night’s premier party at the Hoffmans. Todd invited us, along with a 100 of their other closest friends – haha – to watch the Gold Rush Season 2 premier.
We had a blast, everyone was so darn nice and hospitable. It really was refreshing to know that they really are good, down-to-earth people. <— We were in no way coerced into saying that
Here are a few photos that we took:
And now …. for the contest!?! Well we were thinking about all the drama and bloopers that go on during the show….And wondering what some of your real life prospecting bloopers have been.So leave us a comment with your best gold mining blooperand then we’ll put up our favorites for a vote.What’s at stake? How about a vial of meaty gold?!Ummmm, Heck yes.
Remember leave a comment below with your best gold mining blooper.
Don’t have any bloopers?…. Then perhaps you’ll share your secrets!
How would you like to spend your summers gold prospecting in Alaska?
Looking for that yeller metal in your own glory hole….Yours would actually have gold in it, of course.
We must admit, it was pretty hard for us not to stow away with the Gold Rush crew when they were packing up the equipment this summer.
We met the Hoffmans in April at the Salem GPAA Gold and Treasure Show. They were really interested in getting a 10″ trommel for Todd’s sons Hunter and Hudson to work on the side and a 14″ for Jack to use for sampling.
Then in May, we headed to the Sandy River Airport to deliver their machines!
Here we are showing Todd Hoffman’s son, Hunter, how to use the Pro Gold Trommel before his trip up to Alaska.
And later that day they loaded up the machines to head north to Porcupine Creek and begin filming, Gold Rush Alaska!
Watch the first ten seconds of this video – careful, don’t blink or you’ll miss it(!) – those are our babies being taken to Alaska. <sigh> We are just so proud… I mean, just look at our babies all grown up and getting lives of their own!
We sponsored a giveaway and only had to post one clue before Roy Campbell guessed right! I guess our clue was just too easy, but that porcupine picture was too cute to resist!
So, Roy wins a bag of pay dirt!
Did you guys have fun playing? I think we’ll have to do this again soon!
Below is a picture of something that we are REALLY excited to share with you. The first person to guess what we are doing correctly, will win!
Win what, you say?
A bag of PAY dirt loaded with $75 worth of GOLD by the legendary Miss Quilla of Gold Bar Mining Co. in Idaho City.
Think of all the fun that you can have panning this winter!
So leave a comment with what you think we’re doing below, make sure to include your email address in the comment form so we can contact you if you win.
Good luck!
P.S. We’ll leave clues throughout the week so guess as many times as you’d like!
P.P.S. First time you’ve seen this machine? Wondering what it is? It’s our Pro Gold Trommel.
“Last Saturday I participated in a demo presented by Dan. The demo was great and I really appreciated the opportunity to learn more about this industry.
I'm a rookie to gold prospecting, and have only had my first gold pan for two weeks. I understand the principle now and it looks very promising.”
— Michael Dawson, Idaho
“I want to thank you again for the Pro Inline Screen. I just got it today! Wow, talk about fast delivery! I will be showing all my friends and club members. We have been long overdue for an inline filter. We put the end line in a bucket, then into the water and it still sucked up roots and debris."
This will make things move much faster.”
— Mitch Andersen, Idaho
“I just wanted to tell you how impressed we were with the trommels. We were up at the IGPA Outing on Memorial Day and also the Nampa GPAA outing June 12th. We had a lot of fun running the trommels and everyone there was impressed with Danny’s great demonstration.” — Keith and Vicky Anderson, Members of IGPA and Nampa Chapter GPAA
"The Summit trommel is the best trommel I've ever used for recreational gold prospecting. I can process over 1 1/2 tons of material per day by myself. If you want to run more material and ultimately find more gold, you need to have a trommel. The Summit trommel is the best quality for the money that I've seen on the market. It's extremely well-made and user-friendly. I would strongly recommend it to any prospector who wants to increase his gold recovery capabilities.” — Tony Olson, Vice President, Idaho Gold Prospectors Association
“I took the opportunity to go up to the Miss Lucy/Paymaster claims for Summit Mining's Trommel Demo day last month. I was not disappointed! Danny and Daniel explained the operation of their machines and allowed me to process about a dozen buckets of material. It was wet and muddy but exhilarating and refreshing at the same time (I hate to miss a chance to play in the dirt!).
After a final cleanup of the machine, the result was a very decent amount of gold in a small phial, which they allowed me to keep. Unbelievable! It was a great time. I was very impressed with their trommel products and their hospitality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who is thinking of upping their prospecting game to check out Summit Mining & Equipment Inc.
You'll be glad you did!” — Bud Gudmundson, Idaho
“I bought a trommel from Danny this spring and think it is great. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to move more material and capture more gold. It far outperforms a highbanker and the smaller unit is easier to move around. I love it.” — Kirk Redlin, Idaho
Photo Credit: 
