The Senior Class Council presented Tony Nalepa (Geophysics ’01) with a scholarship award of $500 for best exemplifying the passionate spirit of the Gold Pan legend.

This semester, a record 89 seniors contributed to the scholarship fund and placed their names in the gold pan ledger in the student center.

The Gold Pan legend illustrates the uncommon courage and kindness of the widow of a Lucas, Colorado miner who had perished while trying to save a friend from death in a river near the old Edgar Mine in the 1800s.

Though it is not known why she decided to stay in Lucas, the woman now called Ms. Amour offered her services as a teacher to the community children.

Since little respect was given to the idea at the time, the town would only allow her to use an abandoned tool shed on the outskirts of the ragged town.

Despite the conditions, Ms. Amour taught with passion and kindness, inspiring students to share her passions, as well as go searching for their own.

The miners soon felt threatened by her outstanding success with the children, and raided her battered shed of all her provisions.

Undaunted by the cruelty, Ms. Amour replaced her lost items. To protect from future raids, she began digging a hole under the shed to hide her possessions. After days of work picking and shoveling, she discovered a nugget of gold. Upon careful inspection she found an entire vein of gold running beneath the shed.

Months passed and Ms. Amour secretly mined the shed at night and taught during the day.

She soon accumulated more gold than had been found by the whole town population. Years passed, and students moved through her classes and onward.

Ms. Amour kept her rich find a secret. Ms. Amour became weak with age in time and before being confined to bed, she sought out her past students and gave them each an equal portion of her wealth. Soon after distributing her entire treasure, Ms. Amour passed away.

Several years later at the turn of the century, Ms. Amour’s students went to what used to be their old schoolhouse in the remains of the town.

There they buried a golden pan made out of a small portion of their gold in memory of their kind teacher. The pan was inscribed, "By Showing Others the Strength of Your Courage and the Will of Your Passion, Your Spirit Will Live On."

Senior Class President Tyler Erickson (Electrical Engineering ’98) started the Gold Pan Society in the fall of 1997.

The intent is to unite the Colorado School of Mines students and alumni in a common goal to strive for and encourage others to let the passion and kindness that Ms. Amour so wonderfully exemplified live on through generations at CSM.

From Philanthropy Impact
Summer 2000