The World of Henry Hicks
By Aaron Drake
The Advocate
THE ADVERTISEMENT reads: Hands On Gold Panning Nuggets guaranteed. No experience. No problem. Onsite training.
Well, that’s interesting. A good way to promote the Likely area. After all, that’s what the history of the Cariboo is about. Gold. Nuggets. Guaranteed. It all echoes a link with a colorful past, when the miners and the ranchers and the saloons that...
Wait a minute. Nuggets? Gold nuggets? Guaranteed?!
According to Henry Hicks, the self-named Lithium Man and--ahem--dowser, he will guarantee finding gold nuggets when he takes you prospecting. If you can get him out of his house and museum. Talking to Hicks, the founder of the Quesnelle Forks Museum and Historical Society is like riding a spooked horse. Hold on tight, ride it out, and eventually you will get where the ride takes you. “When I get a tourist in here, I have to work pretty fast before they want to leave,” says Hicks, in his Likely home, which also doubles as his infant museum and tourist information. “We find that about fifteen minutes and that’s it between the time they come in and the time that they want to leave.” Maybe it’s because of his Blitzkrieg speaking tactics, where he tries to tell you about Quesnelle Forks, gold-panning, dowsing, gold-hunting, airplane riding, campsite maintenance, and his museum, all in those fifteen minutes. Sit down and hold on tight. “You’ve got to be joking with people. I figure if you can’t make contact with people in four seconds, you’ve lost them.”
Proof of his four-second theory is how he tried to hand out gold nuggets at the Williams Lake Rodeo. Most gladly accepted them, but there were still some who hurried on by, who didn’t have the time to be handed nuggets of gold. Where did he get all these nuggets that he gave away? He didn’t say, but it probably had something to so with his dowsing abilities. While most dowsers (water-witches) find water, Hicks says he can find gold. Using a looped tube of nylon, he claims he can find gold with a 50 per cent accuracy.
“It’s kind of a spiritual thing, so I’m told,” says Hicks, who doesn’t know where his talent came from.
Hicks explained how, from a helicopter, he found a half-ounce of gold hidden near the airport. Initially, he was foiled by old mining equipment nearby, but after a few passes, he found the gold in a field just yards from the runway. “To me, it’s damned interesting. There’s just so much more to it than we know.” He shook his head. “The Russians are way ahead of us.”
If he can get you sitting sown, he’ll dowse how often you tell the truth, then he might dowse where the gold is hidden in the room. Dowsing is his hook. What he wants to do, though, is tell you about Quesnelle Forks and area. “Tourism is the No. 1 industry in the world,” he said. “We’ve got to get them out here.”
To this end, he took the government campsite in the area under his wing. “For years we did nothing but improve the camps. I’ve got an inverter in my truck, and I would just run it with a sprayer and paint the toilet.” The Ministry of Forests liked his ideas, and agreed to help him out. “I just asked for a whole lot of paint. Then I painted all the toilets up. Just smeared ‘em.”
But Hicks isn’t done. He wants to create a Quesnelle Forks Museum, and founded the Quesnelle Forks Museum and Historical Society for that purpose. The museum today is just the front room of his home, littered with flyers, maps and videos. He is now trying to raise enough money to make the actually museum, out of some old trailers on his property. “The main thing I need is a 60 inch screen and a Karaoke system,” said Hicks, although he didn’t say what the Karaoke would be used for. “You’ve got to get to the kids.”
Membership in the Quesnelle Forks Historical Society is free. “We accept donations, of course.”
Any donations for the museum can be sent to Box 77 Likely, BC, VOL 1NO.
As for the nuggets, either through the old-fashioned method of panning and sluiceboxes, to the new-fangled dowsing, he will help you find them. And that’s a guarantee.
Henry's Home Page