Panning in South Dakota

[NebHunter]

I am taking my frist trip to S.D. next week. Anyone know of a good place to go panning in the black hills?

Thanks in advance.

Nebhunter

 

[el_gral]

Hey Nebhunter! Im going over to SD next week also for 4th of july weekend, im going to the black hills & badlands area. Ive done a little bit of googling but so far just stuff on panning courses for kids, hopefully someone will give us a few hints on panning in SD.

Have fun cuz i know I will!!!

 

[NebHunter]

I did find through some research there is still good gold available near Rochford(sp?). The only problem I have is to determine is whether it is private or public land.

Good luck to ya

 

[jkuk]

how was your trip to the black hills? i know aliitle bit about rochford and the area . my inlaws own some property close too there. i farm and ranch close to the badlands. i`m new but very inerested the metal detecting ,tresure hunting ect..
joe

 

[NebHunter]

My trip was great, we (my daughter and I) found some gold on rapid creek near Rochford. Unfortunately it is not enough to retire on, well, even to pay for the gas to get there. It was alot of fun. As soon as I figure out how to post a pic I will do that.

Nebhunter

 

[Itgobang]

Are you going back I am a GPAA/LDMA member and in the Black Hills Club. Maybe this spring, we can meet up?

 

[Oroblanco]

HOLA amigos,

Most every creek draining the Black Hills has a little gold in it, and much of the hills are National Forest land so is open to prospecting - so long as you are not claim jumping. Fortunately most mining claims are staked/marked. One good place to hit is pretty much ALL private land - Rockerville. It is an alluvial placer set on a high bench so you would have to carry water to pan, and be SURE to get permission before going digging on someone's property but this covers several square miles and at least 80% of the gold-bearing gravels have NEVER BEEN TOUCHED. The paydirt here has a lot of hard clay in it, so soaking your dirt before trying to work it through a rockerbox may help. There was at least one "pay to pan" place there until recently, which may still be in business.

They USED to allow gold-panning in Custer Park (French Creek which flows for miles through the park still produces colors) but I am not sure today, and here is the rule on metal detectors:
"Metal detectors are only allowed on public beaches and their use must have the written approval of the park superintendent."
You can apply for a permit here
http://www.sdgfp.info/Parks/General/appMetalDetect.htm
contact Ron.Tietsort@state.sd.us
<from http://www.sdgfp.info/Parks/Regions/Custer/rulescsp.htm>
I suspect that panning for gold (only pans, no sluices or dredges, highbankers etc) IS still allowed since they still give gold panning demonstrations.

The GPAA (Gold Prospectors Association of America) did have at least one claim you could pan on up near Rochford, don't have their handbook handy but you can contact them.

BLACK HILLS SOUTH DAKOTA The principal gold deposits of the Black Hills1 are in pre Cam brian schists which like the ore bodies are cut by Tertiary intru sives Since the Cambrian conglomerates contain placer gold 2 some of the ores must have been deposited in pre Cambrian time The most important deposits are comprised in the Homestake belt about 3 miles long and 2,000 feet wide The principal minerals are quartz dolomite calcite pyrite arsenopyrite pyrrhotite 3 and gold with which are associated the minerals of the schist quartz ortho clase hornblende biotite garnet cummingtonite actinolite titanite and graphite 4 Pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite increase greatly with depth where pyrite decreases The ores though uniformly of low grade are very profitable Some of the ores at the surface were below the average tenor while other surface ores were two or three times as rich as the average The valuable minerals extend downward as far us exploration has gone and are fairly uniform to depths about 2,000 feet below the surface In general according to SF Emmons 5 enrichment by surface leaching has relatively small importance MOTHER LODE DISTRICT CALIFORNIA GOLD 327 <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=QF...27&ci=89,47,863,668&source=bookclip">Bulletin - United States Geological Survey By Geological Survey (U.S.)</a>
<from US Geological Survey Bulletin 625, 1917>


If you do a bit of research you will find a good deal of info on the Black Hills gold deposits, good luck and good hunting I hope you find LOTS of Black Hills Gold!
Oroblanco

 

[NebHunter]

I am planning another trip to S.D. this spring. I will be visiting two of the GPAA claims up there. Hopefully all you with the fever in S.D. have left some gold for the rest of us.

 

[Oroblanco]

Nebhunter wrote

Hopefully all you with the fever in S.D. have left some gold for the rest of us.

You will find gold amigo, Rapid creek alone has at least 120 MILLION cubic yards of gold-bearing gravels that have never been touched! Much is high bank gravels, so be prepared to either haul gravel or haul water, and you WILL find gold. The trick is finding a rich pocket!

I hope you will keep us posted, thank you in advance...
Oroblanco

 

[Oroblanco]

WELCOME TO TREASURENET sdaupanner! Thanks for the info!
Oroblanco

 

[Maitland]

I'm not a GPAA member, and so, I have heard this thirdhand: but supposedly the best claim the GPAA has in South Dakota is the one down the Camp 5 Rd on 14A northeast of Deadwood.

 

[sdaupanner]

HOLA amigos, One good place to hit is pretty much ALL private land - Rockerville. This is kind of a real guess but I will say that the whole of the Rockerville Gulch is claimed. As to claim markers we have put them up on several occasions and had them removed with in a week so we just gave up. The USFS has closed off the entrance that we were using off Gondola Road and we have since then been given a key to the gate that allows us in the back way. Any one who is interested in trying your hand at panning it will set you back 25.00 per day or 45.00 for two people a small price to pay for 2 grams per day with a little work. Drop me an e-mail or post on this forum. sdaupanner@msn.com

It seems to have been a few years since this post was put up and now a few years later I will redo the post to include new info: The price of gold seems to increase about every day when this post was put up to start with it was not like it is now 1300+ dollars to the ounce. The places that were charging 25.00 dollars no longer exist they offer to let you dig in a pile of placer material with out the real chance of finding anything. The Rockerville area is now about all claimed up like it was in 09 we still hold 125 acres down the middle of the gulch and for those that want for a fee panning is still to be had there but it will set you back 75.00 to 125.00 a day. I live in the Rochford Area and there is gold to be had but only if you are a GGPA Member seeing how they have the better ground and what they don't hold any other is claimed up by private members or private land. Now for the Flush Card I offer to anyone who wants a chance to find nice gold it is not salted it has been there since the beginning of time you can dig old tailing piles and if you want you may dig virgin dirt and gravel the choice is yours. No way you say well I will let you in on a secret and this secret can be had at the cost of 75.00 a day .... you say that is a lot? Well I say that you will only pay me for one day and in full before we depart and you will have my services for that one day there are no guarantees but I have yet to be skunked and if you feel like staying a week it is still only 75.00 you only pay for the first day and that is it .... When I was working it I was getting as much as 2 to 4 grams by my self a day and I am sure that it is still there for those that want to work for it. Bring the wife the better half the kids what ever you want they can swim in pools in the creek,one may enjoy rock climbing, or rock collecting how about looking for old miner relics they may be had at this location. So do as you want but here you have most of all that you may want plus there is a place to set up a few tents right on the edge of the creek and fall asleep with the sound of the night birds and the gurgling creek right at your feet .... sound to me like a pretty inexpensive vacation if this is the fit for the pocket and the time of your life drop me a line and lets get together. May the bottom of your pan turn golden!!!!! sdaupanner@msn.com

This is the report for the season ..... no body went away empty handed and a few got as much as a few grams of gold so the out look for next year is just as good if not better than this year. So if this is something that interests you please get in on the early season gold panning before the water runs out from the 2014 -15 winter early spring is best. The price will be the same as this year 75.00 per person with me supplying all of the equipment to include a Pan and sluice, shovels and a buckets and classifiers, and a vial to put your gold in pretty much every thing but the food and drinks. So Set up a date for us to get together and lets play in the dirt of a day or what ever time you can spend. I have 36 years of prospecting and will share what I know with anyone that asks the questions so see you soon while you are on VACATION in The Black Hills of South Dakota.

[email]sdaupanner@msn.com

[/EMAIL]

 

[Peyton Manning]

any update on current laws?
I read that panning is allowed on federal land ( of course not parks)

 

[Peyton Manning]

someone must be current on SD laws, I'm coming this summer ( ladies be warned)

 

[Maitland]

Nothing has changed as far as laws go, jeff-gordon. You can pan anywhere in the Black Hills Nat'l Forest on Forest Service or BLM land as long as it isn't shut down to mineral withdrawal or already claimed by someone else - just be observant and respectful of signage indicating these areas. Of course, most of the historically-proven areas are actively being worked and are already claimed, but there is still a good amount of open and unclaimed land in the Black Hills for you to prospect on. You're allowed to use a sluice and any kind of non-motorized tools in the Black Hills. I have heard rumors that the Forest Service "doesn't care" if you use a highbanker or recirculating sluice if the pump is less than a certain number of gallons per hour, or if you recirculate the same water over and over and don't pull any out of the creek, etc. Officially, however, the way the law of the land reads in South Dakota is that motorized equipment to be used for prospecting is illegal without a permit on public lands. It's a decades-old state law, not a federal one. I know there was a small party of out-of-state guys using a dredge without a permit in the Black Hills a year or two back. Several locals called to inform the local division of the Forest Service of the illegal activity taking place on Nat'l Forest land, but the FS didn't seem to care and didn't do anything about it. That being said, let your conscious be your guide.

 

[Peyton Manning]

I'm just going to pan and use my detector ( which I understand is legal on federal land as well)
also I read that it is ok to collect petrified wood?

 

[Maitland]

The Forest Service states that metal detecting in the Black Hills Nat'l Forest is legal as long as you don't dig holes. It's quite a paradox. I'm not sure about the petrified wood. There is a federal law that prohibits the collecting of fossils on public lands, but I'm not sure if they consider petrified wood a fossil or not (my guess would be that they do). There aren't a lot of places where you'll find petrified wood, but I do seem to recall that there's a spot around Piedmont that is well-known for it.

 

[Peyton Manning]

I'm not really interested in the wood, but was surprised they let you take so much!

 

[HOOAHEXTREME]

I just visited the Ranger station in Rapid City today to get some concrete law answers and of course they could not give me exact legal proof. They gave me a name and number of the man to talk to in Hill City, so I will get with him soon. They did however give me some info sheets that they are told to hand out with layman terms and guidelines to follow. " Metal detecting-- Legal. Does not require permit. Digging with a pocket knife is the only tool that can be used without permit. This requirement is to protect natural resources and features. Do not collect prehistoric or historic heritage (man-made) artifacts or paleontological specimens. These must be left in place and reported to the Forest Service. " This brings up questions that I will call this other guy about -- define pocket knife, why not screw driver, or skinny piece of plastic, etc, how big of hole. For panning and sluicing I can dig a big hole with a shovel. Our Government works in mysterious ways. Happy treasure hunting.

 

[Maitland]

Keep us updated, HOOAH. It is always interesting hearing the latest from the government's rumor mill.