Dan Rouse spent 19 years managing a Walgreens. Now the 49-year-old runs the only brick-and-mortar gold prospecting shop in the Portland metro area, and for the first time, it's making money.
Prospector's Treasure Trove, at 11572 S.W. Pacific Highway, relocated from Beaverton to Tigard in April 2025.
The high-traffic location turned the business profitable after three years of scraping by, Rouse told Tigard Life in a profile published Saturday, August 1.
"I feel like I've been tending to this flower for a long time, and now it's finally blossoming," Rouse said.
In one recent half-hour stretch, he rang up $809 in gear sales to three customers in 20 minutes.
The store stocks metal detectors, sluice boxes, gold pans, highbankers, classifiers, hand tools, and books. Its signature product: "Prescription Pay Dirt," bags and medicine bottles of gold-bearing soil Rouse ships nationwide. The label, a nod to his pharmacy-adjacent career, warns that "Gold Fever is potentially fatal if not promptly treated."
Rouse's own gold fever started on a family camping trip to Wade's Mill in Hill City, South Dakota, where he first panned for gold. Before that, he was an Iowa teenager digging for agates and fossils.
His biggest personal find is a 10-gram nugget from No Name Creek in southern Oregon. He has kept every piece of gold he has ever panned, with one exception: the ring his wife wears, made from gold he found himself.
The store draws hobbyists from across the region. Andy Fatheree, 51, a military retiree from Forest Grove, drove to Tigard specifically after spotting gold flakes in the Rogue River this spring.
He and his wife now use an illuminated magnifier and tweezers to cull gold particles from pay dirt, working toward a long-term goal: melting their collected gold into a ring for her.
Gold traded at roughly $4,076 per troy ounce on Friday, July 31, down from a record above $5,000 in late 2025 but more than double the $1,800-to-$2,000 range of a few years prior. That surge has fueled interest in recreational prospecting.
Beyond retail, Rouse serves as president of the Portland Gold Prospectors, the Portland-area affiliate of the Gold Prospectors Association of America. The club meets every third Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Sunnyside Grange, 13130 S.E. Sunnyside Road in Clackamas.
The store itself hosts monthly prospecting courses and a monthly open house called "Pros and Cons," where newcomers learn to separate gold from concentrates. An attached classroom and clean-up area has multiple pieces of equipment set up and ready to use. Rouse, an Eagle Scout involved with Boy Scout Troops 870 and 5870 in Beaverton, also hosts patrol meetings and merit badge classes at the shop.
Prospector's Treasure Trove is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call or text Dan Rouse at 971-708-8699.
Upcoming community events:
- Portland Gold Prospectors club meeting: Third Sunday of each month, 1:30 p.m., Sunnyside Grange, 13130 S.E. Sunnyside Road, Clackamas
- Pros and Cons open house: Monthly at Prospector's Treasure Trove, 11572 S.W. Pacific Highway, Tigard (call store for next date)
