Is there gold in Western North Carolina?

[justin35]

See map. I'm about to attempt to try and find some gold in far western NC. I've been reading up on where gold settles in creeks and stuff and I have zero experience in this. I've bought my pans and thats it.

Also, I cannot pan in the areas of the National Forest, can I? Thats exactly the area I'm in so I may have to to travel slightly.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[KevinInColorado]

Here is what others have shared on tnet about NC:
Anyone looking for more than flood gold in the uwharries should work the areas around the old mines. They are many mines in the forest both lode and placer still producing gold today. I have lived in the area all of my life and used to play around the old sally coggins mine as a kid which is around 1/10th of a mile s/w from the eldorado outpost. This mine is on private property and was a lode mine which also involved hydrolicking.
I have been prospecting the uwharries sense 1997 and have found quite abit of gold over the years. I also manufacture the uwharrie gold maps, stanly county gold and the sniper hand dredge in uwharrie. There is alot of easy diggings if youre looking for flood gold, it accumilates in alot of the inside bends and exposed bedrock. Most flood gold in the area is less than 6 inches deep and can be classified and run through a sluice box in a short time which is the quickest way to extract this type of fine gold. As far as prospecting at the low water bridge area, both sides of the bridge have a right of way and as long as your in the river and not on the bank your fine and can challenge anyones disagreement. Although there is gold at and around the bridge your best bet is to move up or down stream from the bridge 100 yards and is best for dredging. Also alot of prospectors are missing some of the best prospecting you can find on a weekend at and around the 109 bridge between eldorado and uwharrie. There is a couple hundred yards of really good material down stream from the bridge and is perfect for dredging and highbanking. Up stream the water level is alitte deeper and there is not as much river to work as the UNF land is closer. I have never had any problems with land owners although you should pay attention to the UNF boundary signs as this could pose a threat from the rangers if passed without notice.
/
Ignore the main river and hits the creeks: Don't worry about the river, work areas like Moccasin creek. Gold in all of the streams!

/
DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR FREE PERMIT FROM THE RANGERS STATION IN THAT AREA -- NOT SURE -- BUT I DO KNOW YOU NEED ONE FOR SUMTER NATIONAL FOREST AREA IN MCCORMICK & ABBEVILLE.

...other than that my counsel is to use google. It's amazing what you can find online

 

[KevinInColorado]

Also, the national park is a completely untouchable area, however it's likely you can casually prospect in national forests...ask your local ranger office.

 

[NaturalJWL]

Depending on where you are located. Marion area has several pay to pan places, might me a good place to start. I know there are others but that comes to mind as a place I always enjoyed when i could.

 

[ARC]

one of the largest... if not the largest nugget ever found in the U.S. was found in N.C.

 

[justin35]

Very interesting. I had no clue what "uwharrie" was and I'm assuming you mean the national forest. If I'm wrong please advise.

What I want to do now is narrow this search a bit. Does anybody have experience around the Robbinsville/Santeelah area or Thunderbird Mountain? It's basically around the Natahala National Forest. That's where I want to concentrate. Extreme western NC.

Thanks

 

[DynoGuy]

Yes Kevin means Uwharrie NF. That's where i usually go, their pretty gold mining friendly there (the rangers i mean) . Not completely should about where you are wanting to go as far as the NF is concerned. The land I'd liked to go look at (from a couple of deer hunting trips) was state land so that's not possible. I'm thinking about going out this weekend but next week I'll be at URE , wheeling on Saturday and sluicing on Sunday, if you want to go let me know. If you want i maybe persuaded to come out and give you a hand this weekend. I'll bring both of my Bazookas and my conventional riffle sluice for you to compare since your just starting out. I haven't been doing this very long but have gone to different parts of the country and panned.
Let me know, I'm right off 40 west of Statesville so it's only a couple hr drive to Ashville.
Cheers,
Mike
You can text me at 704 2309748

 

[justin35]

Yes Kevin means Uwharrie NF. That's where i usually go, their pretty gold mining friendly there (the rangers i mean) . Not completely should about where you are wanting to go as far as the NF is concerned. The land I'd liked to go look at (from a couple of deer hunting trips) was state land so that's not possible. I'm thinking about going out this weekend but next week I'll be at URE , wheeling on Saturday and sluicing on Sunday, if you want to go let me know. If you want i maybe persuaded to come out and give you a hand this weekend. I'll bring both of my Bazookas and my conventional riffle sluice for you to compare since your just starting out. I haven't been doing this very long but have gone to different parts of the country and panned.
Let me know, I'm right off 40 west of Statesville so it's only a couple hr drive to Ashville.
Cheers,
Mike
You can text me at 704 2309748

Thanks for the offer. I'm actually in KY and will be down in that area around xmas visiting family. The area they live in is Lake Santeetlah, near Robbinsville. I'd like to stay as close to that area as possible. Right now, I'd be happy just finding a few colors of gold in the pan. After that, I may upgrade to a portable sluice. The forest in question is Natahala National Forest. If anyone has experience of this area please chime in as well.

In the future, especially after I get a truck, I'd love to go out to some sites you suggest, but that may be next summer.

Thanks for the input.

 

[shinjak]

It's funny you mentioned Lake Santeetlah because I was doing some research on the area last week. There is a road called "Gold Mine" road on the NW side of the lake. I think this is adjacent to some National Forest property. Check the Nantahala NF page to verify this, but I'm pretty sure NF are pan and small hand tools only. This area was referenced in a NF study on mineral resources including gold. Have fun!

 

[justin35]

It's funny you mentioned Lake Santeetlah because I was doing some research on the area last week. There is a road called "Gold Mine" road on the NW side of the lake. I think this is adjacent to some National Forest property. Check the Nantahala NF page to verify this, but I'm pretty sure NF are pan and small hand tools only. This area was referenced in a NF study on mineral resources including gold. Have fun!

Excellent info. I;m going to check this out.

You are more than welcome to join us ( I'm 34, my cousin and I are going) 26, 27th of Dec!

 

[shinjak]

Thanks for the kind offer. I live about 4 hours+ east of there and my wife would kill me if I left home "that" weekend. I do visit the Cherokee area often though and may hit up some areas around Franklin & Bryson City next summer. So if you are in that neck of the woods then let me know.

 

[justin35]

Thanks for the kind offer. I live about 4 hours+ east of there and my wife would kill me if I left home "that" weekend. I do visit the Cherokee area often though and may hit up some areas around Franklin & Bryson City next summer. So if you are in that neck of the woods then let me know.

Will do. Thanks

 

[justin35]

Bumping this thread in hopes of hearing peoples' experiences with gold in Western NC. We are specifically interested in the Graham County area.

 

[enamel7]

My trusty gold map says only down near Cherokee county. I still think it wouldn't hurt to check some of the streams.

 

[SurgTech57]

I had heard in passing someone say that the largest gold nugget was found in NC. Does anyone know it's size? I'm just curious.

 

[huntsman53]

There is Gold in the Valley River flowing through Cherokee County and probably has Gold in most of it's stretches from it's head near Topton all the way down to Murphy. The Nantahala River just North of there in Graham County has Gold as well as many other streams and rivers in these areas. There is also quite a bit of Gems that can be found in the rivers and streams while Gold prospecting and even cuttable stones have been found. One has to be very careful where you prospect, don't venture onto someone's (probably unmarked) Claim or private property and it is advised to have a partner or two to watch your' back as there have been quite a few people shot in these areas that were prospecting for Gold. I read in one of the earlier posts about Gold Mine Road near Lake Santeelah. I believe that this road is off Hwy 129/115 on the North side and on Great Smoky Mountains National Park lands. According to what I have read, there are still some old buildings and equipment still there from the long defunct Gold mine which mined both Gold and Copper. I have read that a fairly large Mineralization Zone lies directly on a line from the old Gold Mine to Copperhill, Tennessee, so it is possible to find Gold along that line South of Hwy 129/115 but most of the lands in Tennessee and North Carolina lie in protected Wildernesses. The link below also provides a wealth of information as well as links to other valuable information.

http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/lr/gold-in-nc


Frank

 

[enamel7]

No claims in NC.

 

[huntsman53]

No claims in NC.

Well if there are no Claims, then some folks just believe that some specific stretches of some rivers actually belongs to them. A gentleman that ran a dredge on the Valley River for many years, decided to try his hand dredging on the Nantahala River. Sadly, he was found floating face down in the river there from being shot in the back.


Frank

 

[GoldpannerDave]

28 pounds; the Reed nugget was 28 pounds

 

[enamel7]

Yeah, it's just private property Frank.