My grandfather was an adventurer, successful businessman and writer. During the depression of the 1930s my grandfather owned an aviation school that was the 3^rd largest in the nation at the time.

My father remembers my grandmother going to the post office box to collect envelopes stuffed with students’ money while everyone else in the neighborhood where they lived was struggling under the weight of The Great Depression.

My father remembers my grandfather during this time buying out a bankrupt plant nursery for 1,000 dollars.The nursery had gone under because of the depression and my grandfather wanted to plant a lot of bushes in the family yard.

The men in the neighborhood looked with envy at my grandfather for having the freedom to remain at home during the day planting shrubbery while they were struggling hard just to find a day’s wages & survive.

When World War II began the reservoir for students dried up and my grandfather went to work for Ford Motor Company where he quickly rose to “Star 51”: a position just 50 individuals from “Star1”, Henry Ford.

After the Second World War my grandfather wanted to write a book about the Amazon Jungle.

To gather material for his book and to acquire first hand experience ; he put together an expedition to traverse the interior of the Amazon Basin in 1947.For his partner he chose my father who was only 17 years old at the time.

My father was too young to know what he was getting into. Just he and my father, who had barely started driving a car, made their journey into the perilous Amazon Jungle.And in those days it was called a JUNGLE ; not a rain forest.

Just the two of them in Indian hand made dug out canoes, hand made leather equipment, a manual typewriter (my father was responsible for carrying it), 38 caliber pistols, rifles, and bad luck headed into the dark jungles of the Amazon.

I say bad luck because after 6 weeks the rain season came early and because of the swollen river and currents they could no longer turn around and head back up river. A planned 6 week excursion became almost a year lost in the jungle! They essentially became lost and were given up by the authorities as deceased.

To try and find their way home they decided to follow the river to its conclusion to the sea. This sounds easy except for the fact that the Amazon River is over a mile wide in certain places and the river at almost every turn is leading into a lagoon.

They met natives who had never seen white men before. To survive they ate off the land.

This consisted of piranha, toucan birds, alligators, monkeys, basically anything they could shoot and hit with their rifles. My father's favorite rifle shot and trophy was a jungle panther.

At one point my father came close to having to amputate my grandfather's toes because of ringworm. My grandfather was healed by the herbal medicine supplied by a local “cabocla” (Portuguese: meaning half black and half Indian) woman. It sounds like an adventure AFTER the fact, but at the time it was a struggle for survival.

The title of the book published was called "Canga" by John Arthur Vaughn. Canga was a small Indian settlement they passed in the jungle at the beginning of their adventure.

Needless to say I did not inherit my grandfather's desire to seek this extreme adventure, but I did inherit my Grandfather's and my Father's desire to always think daringly and unconventionally.

I inherited their desire to always dig deep for the truth and a refusal to accept at face value what is presented in the media as "TRUTH".

I began studying the markets in September in 1997. After 3 months of intensive reading I came to the conclusion in December, 1997 that I was witnessing a stock market bubble that was at the edge of going supernova. I then began to determine what sector of the market does well in a crashing market.

I learned that when markets begin to implode investors eventually trust only in - GOLD!

I began in January 1998 to invest in gold stocks waiting in anticipation for that inevitable upswing in the gold price and for a short while was doing very well. But who could have foreseen just how far Alan Greenspan and Bill Clinton would go in devastating the gold price in their attempts to make the almighty US Dollar appear to be the strongest currency in the world?

As 1998 progressed the downturn in gold accelerated to a thunderous BANG! I watched as gold's reputation was methodically trashed on the front pages of the Money Section in USA Today Newspapers. I observed first hand how markets are manipulated. One market sector is trashed and brought low while another market sector is elevated to a position of wealth, prominence and respectability.

I watched as the technology bubble mania moved forward. I looked in wonder as the Internet Mania Stocks went to valuations of billions of dollars based on no stronger fundamental than a dream.

BUT I NEVER GAVE UP ON GOLD!

Through the darkest days of gold's demise during the latter 1990's I simply refused to give up on gold and throw in the towel. My favorite phrase is by a man called Paul who makes the comment that THE RACE OF LIFE IS NOT WON BY THE SWIFTEST RUNNER, BUT THE RACE OF LIFE IS WON BY THE INDIVIDUAL WHO PERSEVERES UNTIL THE END.

What is more important than gold?
Never forget, friends, that the most important thing in our lives second to our relationship with God is our FAMILY. Our relationship with our wife and our children are more important than gold or any measure of wealth.

Studying the gold market and gold mining industry remains a personal passion. The pursuit of hidden treasure buried deep under the earth’s surface is fascinating to me! And if I can share this sense of adventure so much the better.