Looking for gold in a shallow creek.

[1jss1]

So I have worked a creek 3 times now, about 5 hours each day out. I have been test panning, yet having trouble finding anything. I know there has been placer gold found in the creek before, I know this from a local book I read about prospecting in the area. There was a underground gold mine up stream about a mile, and the vein ran across the creek. There is no exposed bedrock in the creek, I have dug down about 4 ft. and found nothing but more material. The composition is mostly sandy, with very little rocks, but i have checked banks for gold, and found some gravel bars. Although sampling those resulted in nothing. What am i doing wrong? am i just not digging down far enough?

 

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[Goodyguy]

Could it be the creek has changed course and you are digging in the new course
Seems odd that bedrock is so deep. I know that back in the day prospectors would sometimes divert a creek to make it easier to dig.

I suppose flooding could have brought in a lot of material and covered up the original creek bottom and slow flow in the creek has not been able to erode the material back down closer to bedrock.

Very possible you just need to go deeper.
Perhaps further upstream there is a natural trap where the gold didn't get past and there is a large pocket of gold just waiting to be discovered.

If all else fails you may want to go to a more productive location in a different stream where it's known that the gold is easier to get to.


Good luck
GG~

 

[Reed Lukens]

It sounds like you're in the wrong spot on the river. Any gold to be found in quantity will be on or close to bedrock, so you need to either go deeper or move. Look at a map or Google earth and really scope out the river, both upstream and down. Look for some exposed bedrock and then head there and test. If you can make videos or post some pictures, there's lots of help to be had here

 

[1jss1]

Thanks for the help guys, I will definately upload some videos later on, but im going to go out with a few shovels and guys next time and see how deep we can dig.

 

[Buckshotnc]

My brother made me a Brass rod about 1/2" in diameter maybe 4'-5' long with handles so I can push the rod down into the ground or a stream and you can tell the difference between dirt, sand & gravel. As someone mentioned before on this thread try different places in the stream till you hear the sweet sound of gravel or bedrock, so you'll know how much overburden you have to deal with.