Where does the gold "start"?

[TintedSnow]

So I have access to several claims at the end of a river. The thought just popped into my head. If I'm at the river and gold flows downriver....wouldn't there be more near the start of the river? Where does the gold "start"? Hypothetically, would there be more gold near the start of the river than the end of the river? I just pulled this random river off of Google Earth. Where do you think there would be more gold? Near the highway in the upper left? or near the beginning of the river in the lower right? Just a curiosity thing. My particular claim, I can get to the beginning (There's a small lake that starts the river I'm on), so if there is more gold there, I'm staking a claim near the start!

 

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[Maitland]

You could, theoretically, be at the middle of the river and not find a speck of gold, then walk downstream 30 feet and find nuggets hand-over-fist. It all depends on many different factors, which probably sounds cliché, but is your placer gold being deposited by a nearby lode source? If so, you're only going to find the gold eroded from it downstream of the lode, unless there's been some crazy geological activity or land disturbance. Is the gold coming from an old paleoplacer or ancient river gravels? In that case, you may want to study the topography a little more or see if you can find some information on the hydrological history of your area (most states, I believe, should have a boatload of information available as far as local hydrology is concerned). I guess I would suggest to start researching your area's past (particularly historical reports on mining activity), read up on some basic geology and look at some geological maps of your area (MyLandMatters.org has some), and then go out in the field and see what you can find! Prepare to be skunked, but don't give up because of it. Who knows, you could find a new source of gold that the history books and geological maps might not otherwise suggest is there.

 

[goldenmojo]

Here is some basic theory. I have not studied the glacial movement of gold in Alaska nor the lodes if any but you can get a good idea whats going on from this,

https://www.ntc.blm.gov/krc/uploads/463/Wells.pdf

 

[goldog]

It starts at the lode. It may be near, far or nonexistent. A lot of times the original source is long gone or far away. In other areas it may be very close by. The character of the gold can tell you something.

I believe much of my area was ancient riverbed. Much of that gold even if rough came from those old channels.

 

[Ragnor]

Yeah , it depends on where the gold came from. Originally there was a 'vien' somewhere. It could be on a mountain above the river. It could be in the next state. Or maybe that mountain does not even exist anymore. Commonly you start low and work up stream noting how much yah find in each test location. Then once you run out of gold or out of stream yah head back down to the best spot you test panned and set up shop. There is a whole lot more to it than that, but that's the basics.

Something I learned recently that Ive been racking my brain on. Sometimes a gold bearing river channel gets covered in a lava flow then the area gets uplifted and the sides of the river erode away but the lava does not. Now you have placer gold in gravel under a lava flow at the top of a mountain. Tell me that aint crazy! The best you can do is just study the mining reports from your area and learn all the geology you can. The more you learn the more you find out what you don't know. The more you don;t know, the more you can learn. Cause it's crazy like that. Good Luck!

 

[63bkpkr]

By the way, those historical rivers that have been covered over, then get lifted can be small or really huge! What is huge, lets try 100's of feet wide and 100's of feet deep. Where I've been known to "play", there is a ~ 7000' mountain ridge road that is very narrow and back "in the day" the miners came close to Washing the ridge road out of existence as they were moving this Historical river bed to pull the gold from it. I hiked down the hill and the depth of the old placer deposit was still way under my feet with a 60' to 80' tall cliff of it above my head, rounded boulders cemented in place by mineral deposits seeping down from above................63bkpkr

 

[Ragnor]

I'm gonna mention one more thing. Just to give you an idea how tough all this can be to figure out. My favorite spot, where I get the best material. According to geological reports it started out as an under sea volcano 150 west of the pacific coast line. It's now on a ridge top 75 miles inland. The whole top of the deposit is missing not a clue where it is. But I sure would like to find it.

 

[TerryC]

By the way, those historical rivers that have been covered over, then get lifted can be small or really huge! What is huge, lets try 100's of feet wide and 100's of feet deep. Where I've been known to "play", there is a ~ 7000' mountain ridge road that is very narrow and back "in the day" the miners came close to Washing the ridge road out of existence as they were moving this Historical river bed to pull the gold from it. I hiked down the hill and the depth of the old placer deposit was still way under my feet with a 60' to 80' tall cliff of it above my head, rounded boulders cemented in place by mineral deposits seeping down from above................63bkpkr

The old rivers you are talking about are called "tertiary" rivers. Or ancient rivers. One theory is that the Columbia river in WA may have been one that used to flow south across CA. The Sierras rose to cut it off and as a results, most CA rivers flow across the old ancient river going down to the ocean. Ok, I'm being over simplistic. The old timers learned that if they could find the cobbles and river rock left over and now visible, they would do good. Several spots around Angels Camp, Murphys, San Andreas and other places around the Mother Load have those kind of places. TTC

 

[TintedSnow]

Thanks for all the replies! Awesome info! I'm in Alaska, so mylandmatters.com doesn't really have much info for me...and good hints on where to find geological maps of how the land used to be?


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[russau]

Where does gold start?? Do your research during off season and then its boots on the ground and Sample , sample , sample the stream and follow its course to its source . Plot all findings and mark all your sample bags and amounts to retrace your work. And then KEEP A TIGHT LIP OF WHAT YOU FOUND or others will clean it out for you and NOT THANKYOU for your work! Good luck on your adventure!

 

[Jeff95531]

Yeah , it depends on where the gold came from. Originally there was a 'vien' somewhere. It could be on a mountain above the river. It could be in the next state. Or maybe that mountain does not even exist anymore. Commonly you start low and work up stream noting how much yah find in each test location. Then once you run out of gold or out of stream yah head back down to the best spot you test panned and set up shop. There is a whole lot more to it than that, but that's the basics.

Something I learned recently that Ive been racking my brain on. Sometimes a gold bearing river channel gets covered in a lava flow then the area gets uplifted and the sides of the river erode away but the lava does not. Now you have placer gold in gravel under a lava flow at the top of a mountain. Tell me that aint crazy! The best you can do is just study the mining reports from your area and learn all the geology you can. The more you learn the more you find out what you don't know. The more you don;t know, the more you can learn. Cause it's crazy like that. Good Luck!

You got a LOL outta me Ragnor...not an easy thing to do lately so