PROSPECTING FOR GOLD IN CALIFORNIA RIVERS AND CREEKS

 

PROSPECTING FOR GOLD IN CALIFORNIA RIVERS AND CREEKS

Best Places To Find Gold In California

By Michael Webster

Excerpt From Prospectorsjournal.com 

Prospecting and panning for Gold is a really fun healthy thing to do (hobby) that is enjoyed by people all over the Globe. The pristine rivers, creeks, clean air, and wilderness environment makes it fun for the whole family.

Although traditionally a commercial activity placer Gold prospecting has also become a popular outdoor recreation. Although the exercise and outdoor activity experienced in prospecting are rewarding, there are few thrills comparable to finding Gold.

It isn’t just hobbyists that use a Gold pan to search for Gold. Even experienced miners with a lifetime of experience with placer mining use them to quickly sample new areas and seek out concentrations of placer Gold in creeks and rivers.

Anyone who’s wondering where to find Gold in California doesn’t have to look hard to find it that's why California it’s called “The Golden State”. The simplest technique to extract Gold from placer ore is panning. Gold prospecting and panning probably played a bigger role in the inception and growth of California than any other state in the USA. Even today, opportunities abound for amateur prospectors to sluce, pan and metal detect for Gold flaks and nuggets. You can with some luck still find Gold in rivers, creeks and streams the full lenth of California.

An area well protected from the flow of water such as rocks, turns even tree roots is a great location to find Gold. Gold is very dense and is often found in a stream beds. Many different Gold deposits are dealt with in different ways. Placer deposits attract many prospectors because their costs (overhead) are very low. There are many different places Gold could be placed, such as a residual, alluvial, and a bench deposit.

Sluice Box, if your panning produces regular signifcant color you may want to go to a Sluice box operation A modern sluice box made of metal in its base are the riffles used to catch Gold settling to the bottom. The same principle as a Gold pan except on a larger scale. Along the bottom of the slice called riffles trap the heavier Gold particles as water washes over them. This method better suits excavation by shovels or similar implements to feed ore or highgrade into the Box.

The sluice box was used extensively during the California gold rush for larger scale operations. If a larger show is justfied (Commercial) you may want to move into grizzly sluice box. The grizzly is a set of parallel bars placed at a 45 degree angle over the main sluice box, which filter out larger rocks and other material.

Here is the best known Gold producing areas of California

AMADOR COUNTY WITH PLACER CREEK

Gold was initially found by Spanish prospectors along the Colorado River between 1775 and 1780, but it was the later discovery of Gold at Sutter’s Mill in Amador County in 1848 that produced one of the most important events in the history of the western US and led to a major Gold rush that enveloped California with thousands of prospectors and merchants swarming to the Californian Gold fields.

Unlike hardrock mining, which extracts veins of precious minerals from solid rock, placer mining is the practice of separating heavily eroded minerals like Gold from sand or gravel. The word placer is thought to have come from Catalan and Spanish, meaning a shoal or sand bar.

Gold prospecting is the act of searching for new Gold deposits. Methods used vary with the type of deposit sought and the resources of the prospector.

The richest area in this county is about 1 mile wide across the west central part of the county from the south to the north. The Old Eureka Mine had the deepest shaft in America at 1,3500 feet deep and it was the largest producer in the mother lode in the early days. The Kennedy, Argonaut and Keystone Mines were also large Gold mines in the same area.

BIG INDIAN CREEK

Sizable dredging and drift operations between 1850 - 1950 produced about 100,000 ounces of placer Gold near Fiddletown along Indian Gulch which goes into Big Indian Creek. Big Indian Creek is said to contain placer Gold in large quantities. Around the Plymouth area is said to be rich.

COSUMNES RIVER

Close to the town of Plymouth, in the west central part of the county there were many placer operations that produced tens of thousands of ounces of placer Gold. The Loafer Hill mine, near Oleta, had several small gravel deposits that produced well.

JACKSON CREEK

Near the town of Jackson, you will find the Gwin Mine, it produced lode Gold in masses of crystallized arsenopyrite. These are great specimens. Jackson Creek reportedly contains placer Gold.

MIDDLE FORK OF THE MOKELUMNE RIVER

Hydraulic operations were located on this river that produced considerable placer Gold.

NORTH FORK OF THE MOKELUMNE RIVER

Hydraulic operations were located on this river that produced considerable placer Gold. Near Volcano in the west central part of the county around Jackson Gulch and Ranchero Gulch there were some very rich placer deposits.

SOUTH FORK OF THE MOKELUMNE RIVER

Hydraulic operations were located on this rivers that produced considerable placer gold.

American Middle Fork River

American North Fork River

American South Fork River

Bureau of Land Management Addresses

Bear Creek

Big Chico River

Bidwell Creek

Big Flat Free-Use Site

Boca Reservoir

Bogus Creek

Boulder Creek Gold Site (Sacramento River)

Bullards Bar Back-Country access