As I write this post, fall is in full swing and winter is fast approaching. Before long it will be cold weather and short days. My opportunities to get out and look for gold will be limited. This is the time of year that I like to research and prepare for the upcoming prospecting season. […]
Overview of Metal Detector Types Gold prospectors have two basic choices when metal detecting for gold. There are very-low frequency (VLF) metal detectors, and there are pulse-induction (PI) metal detectors. Both types can find gold, and each has their own place in the goldfields. (Note: The new GPZ7000 uses a completely new technology, […]
Vancouver Island is a place that holds rich history where gold mining is concerned, although many people that don’t live here don’t know it. There were many rich gold strikes made all throughout the island, but this was at a time when new discoveries were being made all throughout the US and Canada. In comparison […]
Central Idaho has lots of small, abandoned ghost town hidden deep in its wilderness. At one time there were thousands of men here scouring the hills in search of primarily gold and silver. Access was difficult, and any discovery needed to be exceptionally rich to justify being so far away from civilization. When gold was […]
Agate and jasper are two of the most common types of rock that people go rockhounding for. They can be very attractive with beautiful color, shape and structure, and both are a nice hard material. Sometimes they even form together in the same rock, which are called “jasp-agates.” These various types of rock can look […]
Most of the gold mined in California and in rivers across the United States during the height of the gold rush was placer gold. During the 1840s through 1860s gold mining in the United States focused on rivers where miners recovered lose gold nuggets from river beds using simple mining tools such as sluice boxes. […]
When most prospectors buy their first gold pan, they instinctively go to the nearest creek or river to try it out assuming that is the best place to go. It’s not a totally bad idea. We all know that some rivers are very rich with gold. In fact some rivers in places like California, Idaho, […]
Gold prospecting is such an exciting as well as rewarding venture. In past centuries, the activity has huge impact on the lives of many people throughout the world. For most of us today, we prospect for gold as a recreational activity – a way to get out into nature. Then and now, the key to […]
Any placer miner worth their salt knows the importance of finding bedrock. To find any real appreciable quantities of gold in just about any circumstance you will need to get down to bedrock. What some prospectors don’t realize is that there are sometimes situations where a dense layer of material can act as a barrier […]
Hydraulic mining became the primary way to recover large amounts of gold by the late-1800s. While normal placer mining techniques like panning and sluicing worked well in the rivers, there were many areas with ancient river gravels that were high above the current water flow. These could only be mined profitably with hydraulic mining. Water […]
The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is one of the best historical gold dredges in existence today and definitely worth a visit. The structure has been well persevered and restored to the original state meaning that you will see firsthand how the machine was in 1950. It is located just outside of the vast River of […]
As boom towns went, Bodie, California was a pretty slow starter. Gold was discovered north of Mono Lake in 1859, initially by four men who were subsequently joined by other prospectors. They only mined for a very short time until one of the miners, a W.S. Body, was killed in a surprise November blizzard. Although […]
Gold is where you find it. I have found gold way down in the desert and I have found gold high in the mountains. There are plenty of gold districts that are well above 10,000 feet in elevation. Of course in many ways gold is the same wherever you find it. However, different environments require […]
Life sometimes can be very surprising looking at how it creates opportunities that change people’s lives when they are lucky enough to see and run with one. The California Gold Rush brought fortunes to many men, but more often than not the men who came to strike their fortunes returned home with little to show […]
There are literally tens of thousands of small mines and prospects scattered around the country. Not big mines; these are small diggings – often done by one miner – that are have been abandoned for a decade. It is a common belief among some people that you need to search around a big mine to […]
