MA/VT/NH Panning

[dvdtharaldson]

Hi ,

This is the first time I have posted on this website. I live in Western MA and am planning a trip during the last few days of September to Vermont to try my luck panning. I was going to try Buffalo Brook and Five Corners in the Bridgewater area. Does anybody know how far down you ordinarily have to dig to hit black sands in those areas? Any comments on whether you have to dig deep or just stay on the surface? I was thinking Irene probably deposited alot of flood gold on the surface. Does anybody know if some of the small brooks high up in the mts. north of Bridgewater contain gold? All I ever hear is Buffalo Brook and Five Corners. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you probably could tell I am new to panning for gold.

Thanks,

David

 

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[dvdtharaldson]

Well its finally above freezing and my thoughts have turned to prospecting. Just wondering who found the biggest picker/nugget/fly poop speck this past year?

I can only claim a color about the size of a grain of sugar. Guessing about a minus 40 from central Vermont.

All the rest of the colors I found were in the minus 75 to 150 category. Most from North Central Vermont, a few from central Vermont, and 3 from Massachusetts.

 

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[WesternMassGold]

By the end of next week its supposed to be in the 50's. Trying to get out Friday or Saturday.
Gonna go crevicing and trying to find new spots for sluicing. This early in the year is a good time for searching for new areas and i'm saving my gold spots for when the River gets a little lower and its a little warmer.

 

[triple d]

Found 1.7 Grams in several streams in. Maine and N.H Mostly Smaller then the smallest classifier. Which I think is a 100 Mesh. Alot of digging and sluicing. But thats gold prospecting. Finding a few specks a trip to some trips 80 -100 specks.

 

[Aufish]

^^^ thats glacial stuff; localized gold in NH is going to be not far from the host rock / lode

 

[WesternMassGold]

Well i finally did it. Got out of work at Noon , looked at the temp ( 55 degrees) and decided its time to get the season started.
Grabbed my pan and a small shovel and I figured i give it a shot at Crevicing some rocks. Since this is only my 2 nd year prospecting i havent even tried that yet.
So i go down to the River and checked out a new spot that i had found on the map . Well none of the big rocks had any cracks in it to scrape out. Go figure.
So i did the next best thing . I looked for 2 big rocks that were placed tightly together with only like a 4 inch gap between them . Looked like a nice little trap.
Put my first scoop into the pan and could not believe my eyes . 4 pieces about -50 to -100 in the first scoop. Needless to say that i think i pulled a muscle grinning from ear to ear.
Then I went on to go 15 strait pans with at least 1 or more pieces in the pan. Unreal. Anybody that pans in Massachusetts knows there is not a lot of gold here, so 1 or more pieces is a big deal around here.
long story short , I ended up with 30 pieces for the afternoon and I am really happy i started my 2nd mining season with a Bang.
Oh ya , I'm going back on Friday looking for the bigger brothers and sisters of those tiny buggers. I hope you all had a good start this year and happy hunting. ( for gold).

 

[WesternMassGold]

Dang i forgot how hard it is to take a pic of small gold. So i left the black sand in the picture for comparison purpose. My April 2 nd Massachusetts gold take below . not much but lots of fun

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hey it's MA gold, something few people even know exists! Looking forward to finding a little myself!

 

[arizau]

Run more dirt with a sluice - get more gold! Your multiple pans already proved that.

Good finds and good luck.

 

[WesternMassGold]

Run more dirt with a sluice - get more gold! Your multiple pans already proved that.

Good finds and good luck.

River was running to high and crazy to use a sluice. It actually rose a foot since yesterday because of all the snow melt in the mountains north of here.
Walked up a 100 feet from yesterdays spot and found another 38 pieces today about the same size. Cant wait to set up my sluice again but a week of rain isn't gonna help. So looks like i got the next week off from mining.

 

[vaquero44]

western massgold hey that's a good take for you folks most people don't even get that in your state from what I've heard.............keep digging!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thats a take to be proud of. Prob the best Massachusetts take ive seen! Keep em comming westmass

 

[WesternMassGold]

Well i finally got out with my new Sluice build . I made a combination Royal Backpaper Folding Sluice and Goldhog mats. I used the Razorback mat. Had my biggest clean out ever. All pieces from -50 to -150.
This mat increased my sluice take about 8-10 times. 74 pieces of fly poop .

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I finally got out to do a little prospecting yesterday. I haven't been out since last August do to a lingering back injury. It really felt good to get back in the woods, even if it was just for a short time, even if it was in Mass.

I was prospecting a brook I used to fish in as a kid. I didn't find any colors but the brook looks promising. I saw a lot of schistose material, rocks with inclusions, and a few quartz pebbles. My sluice repeatedly filled up with Garnet which proved to be problematic. After thinking about it for awhile I realized that I probably didn't do enough clean outs to keep it working properly. I surmise that even if there were small specks of color present they wouldn't have enough mass to displace the tightly packed garnet in the riffles.

On the way home I decided to do some exploring and found an area full of pure white quartz. Some of the boulders I saw were very large at least 3'x4'x3' and as pure white as snow. I have never seen quartz that big. At some point in time this year I intend to make it back there and do some more prospecting.

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

I'm hoping to prove that there is gold down here on the SE part of Massachusetts. I have some hopeful spots picked out but have been out exactly once this year with no success. I conveniently have my neighbor who is a geologist for the power company giving me some good information. I also have a vacation up to Maine in a few weeks to see my mom. While that is going to be a mostly metal detecting trip (I have an incredible site planned that I hope to diary on here), I have every intention of heading to The County with my new Bazooka.

Then, it's off to Denver later in the year for much of the same!

Good luck all and heavy pans.

-Jay

 

[vaquero44]

well if your heading to the county on that side of the state the ST. Croix river is your best bet

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I'm hoping to prove that there is gold down here on the SE part of Massachusetts. I have some hopeful spots picked out but have been out exactly once this year with no success. I conveniently have my neighbor who is a geologist for the power company giving me some good information. I also have a vacation up to Maine in a few weeks to see my mom. While that is going to be a mostly metal detecting trip (I have an incredible site planned that I hope to diary on here), I have every intention of heading to The County with my new Bazooka.

Then, it's off to Denver later in the year for much of the same!

Good luck all and heavy pans.

-Jay

Jay
First let me say that there was gold found in Wrentham at the turn of the 1900's, actually was a mine that went belly up. It is where the Big Apple Farm currently is. I would be interested to see what you discover and be happy to help within my means. I have a Garret 2500 and love to metal detect but the last few years with my bad knees and problem with balance and bending over since my stroke I haven't been out at all.

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

well if your heading to the county on that side of the state the ST. Croix river is your best bet

I don't particularly want to go that far north this trip but that is what I've read. There are actually some places in Androscoggin county that a friend of my gal has been finding gold in. He had posted some videos on facebook and sure enough, decent looking pans.

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

Jay
First let me say that there was gold found in Wrentham at the turn of the 1900's, actually was a mine that went belly up. It is where the Big Apple Farm currently is. I would be interested to see what you discover and be happy to help within my means. I have a Garret 2500 and love to metal detect but the last few years with my bad knees and problem with balance and bending over since my stroke I haven't been out at all.

I certainly hope your health improves so you can feed this beast that is treasure hunting. Thank you for the info about Wrentham. One more on the list to check out!

I am new to this site and don't post much but I've already met cmaracing through here and we are planning hunts together. Whenever you are feeling up to it, the more people swinging the better!

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Jay,
Thanks for posting on this thread. Even though this is a thread for gold panning I would be interested in hearing about your exploits in metal detecting as well. I have posted things on trout fishing as well as mushroom identification. I welcome all posts having to do with anything natural or treasure related. Don't be afraid to post failures as well as successes.

As an aside to anybody who is interested the wild onions or ramps as they are called are up in the hill towns of Mass. In my opinion they are the best wild edible that grows in the woods. No fiddleheads or morels yet though. Hopefully with rains.

Best Colors to All,
David

 

[vaquero44]

I don't particularly want to go that far north this trip but that is what I've read. There are actually some places in Androscoggin county that a friend of my gal has been finding gold in. He had posted some videos on facebook and sure enough, decent looking pans.

Well being in oxford county I've been sampling just about everywhere finally got some some color in a stream today not far from me here what the stream looks like noticed too getting a lot of clear, smokey and white qaurtz