Good Public sites in NC ?

[Charles,Oak Island]

Any of you folks who have been gold panning or rock hunting in NC got any public access areas you are willing to share ?

 

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[New OldTimer]

Hello HoggTyed and all-
This is my 1st post, as I am a newcomer to the group (last week) and wanted to share with you
the experience my Wife Jane & I had this last Saturday(9/24/05) in New London, NC at Mt Creek
Goldmine located on Gurley Rd, just up from where Cottonpatch is located.
We found the location mentioned here on this forum and decided to go down & try either this
place or Cotton Patch & after speaking with some locals, decided upon Mt Creek. We were told by
the locals we spoke with that Cotton Patch (unverified) salts their pay per buckets, and we didn't want
that.
We found Mt Creek Goldmine easily enough, and after looking it over, decided that we would try highbanking.
Never having done that B4, Garland Bailey & Jimmy Helms who are fellow prospectors & friends with Bill Tucker
& his wife (owners) took the time to show us the ropes. Bill Tucker & wife were at a Gold Show in Gold Hill for the
day and trusted his friends to run the operation for him.
He couldn't have picked a nicer group to help him out. Garland & Jimmy went out of their way to help us, not
only in setting up the rented High Banker, but in cleanup of the Cons as well. We spent the day Highbanking and
enjoyed the companionship of Garland, his wife Becky, and Jimmy & his wife Bonnie!
We also met several others who were there for the gold as well. Fritz Steckler, from Sanford, NC, I think, about
25 miles away was there for, he said, his third trip. He found some nice color in his panning methods.
But luck was with my wife Jane & I that day. As you can see in the photo ( hope it comes thru) we did pretty fair
at the highbanking. We plan on returning either this weekend or the following. And when spring comes around,
in 2006, and income taxes are back, I will be looking to purchase a used 2 1/2 inch dredge.
Jane & I were married 12 years ago & spent our 6 week honeymoon in Dahlonega, Ga, on the Yahoola River, Panning
and dredging with folks we met there after joining the GGPA. ( A great group of people who have a lot of leases in the
Daholnega, Cleveland area)
Will be glad to share more with you as we make more outtings, if you all are interested. Thanks for being here,
and again, many thanks to the fine folk we met at Bill Tucker's Mt Creek Gold Mine in New London, NC. We drove
about 2 hours from Eden where we live, to get there, but it was worth every mile!!
New OldTimer

 

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[Hoggtyed]

I have been there and yes they are a fine bunch of people. I have also been to cotton patch, nice folks there too. I hoping to head toward the western part of NC and try either Vein Mountain or Thermal city mine this weekend.

 

[Darren in NC]

I've been to Thermal City. The guests there told me they had tried Vein Mtn, but didn't like it as much. Not as many finds 8)

 

[nebraskadad]

I believe GPAA/LDMA has a site in Marion. May be just one of the fee sites mentioned, but I believe it might be in the claim guide. I'll check tonight..

 

[placerman]

I can tell you for a fact that Cotton Patch Gold Mine does not salt their gravel.

The gravel is mostly very hard packed clay and the owner runs it through a very large cement mixer to break it up so people can pan it. Otherwise it would take you all day to go through a few pans of clay.

The owner found a pocket of quartz Saturday I think with several thousand dollars worth of gold in quartz specimens taken so far. This is out of a chunk of quartz the size of a basketball. I saw it with my own eyes. I know exactly where he got the quartz from. I have also seen him sweep up a full ounce of gold off the top of a section of clay. The gold is definitely there.

Also considering the cost to pan there is 8 dollars and the average days work there yields more than 8 dollars in gold, it doesnt sound like it would be worth it to salt it does it?

BTW the Mountain Creek mine is also a very good place to go. The best way would be to take a large 5 or 6 inch dredge and dredge in the deepest section of the creek. Last time I checked it was about 5 feet deep and the deeper you go the better the gold. To my knowledge no one has tried to do that as the water is too muddy to see anything.

 

[old gringo]

Looks like Charles, Oak Island got some good info. hope he gets to check out some of them and report back

 

[old gringo]

wounder if there are any diamonds in the uwharrie ?

 

[muddyknees]

Charles, Dennis here from Holden beach used to live in lincon county just out side of town is a little place called Iorn station lots of old smelters there from the civil war peroid Reels MINE JUST AN OLD FARM with lots of smoky quartz and cant spell its but amyest and rutile after rains you can pick them off of the ground whereother people have dug. use to dig there alot in the 1980s there have been pieces that was muesum quality out of this place in the next town over gastonia the shields museum has stuff from this place. good luck.
Dennis

 

[old gringo]

I can tell you for a fact that Cotton Patch Gold Mine does not salt their gravel.

The gravel is mostly very hard packed clay and the owner runs it through a very large cement mixer to break it up so people can pan it. Otherwise it would take you all day to go through a few pans of clay.

The owner found a pocket of quartz Saturday I think with several thousand dollars worth of gold in quartz specimens taken so far. This is out of a chunk of quartz the size of a basketball. I saw it with my own eyes. I know exactly where he got the quartz from. I have also seen him sweep up a full ounce of gold off the top of a section of clay. The gold is definitely there.

Also considering the cost to pan there is 8 dollars and the average days work there yields more than 8 dollars in gold, it doesnt sound like it would be worth it to salt it does it?

BTW the Mountain Creek mine is also a very good place to go. The best way would be to take a large 5 or 6 inch dredge and dredge in the deepest section of the creek. Last time I checked it was about 5 feet deep and the deeper you go the better the gold. To my knowledge no one has tried to do that as the water is too muddy to see anything.

Sounds like Mountain Creek might be a good place to take some dive gear.

 

[Charles,Oak Island]

Hey Charles Ive been to Stanly county the uwarrie forest areas i do a lot of deer huntting down there.This year I took my Pan and found a goodly amount of gold and an awesome quarts vein lots of facings, crystals.Called a game warden just to see if i could get in with a dredge but he will not let me.But that creek passes privet land also I'm going to drive back and ask for permmission haven't had anyone tell me know yet.But in case theres a know i have found out that you can get in at the 109 bridge in Stanly county as Long as you enter from the right of way lots of bed rock slate type bed rock that looks just like the riffels in a sluice box just a wait en.Just got a new 4" with air used a few times but the waters been to cold so i plan to hit the creeks hard this summer i have NC atlas and going from creek to creek and getting permission now so that all i have to do when spring comes is just go dredging.If you or anyone else would like to do some gold digging let me know id rather have some company to talk to.I live right close to the Rowan county iredell county line according to the GPA book there is a vein? on the line and Ive been getting lots of permission so far just waiting on warmer water.

So anything new for the Uwharrie area ? How is the deer hunting ? Hope to be living in the UNF by spring time.

 

[jrbirdman]

The catawba river just south of the lake wylie dam is a good place to dredge. a public boat landing just below the dam provides access. Water dept varies from angle dept to about 12 ft in the deeper areas. a john boat and motor is helpful to get about a half mile down stream. This area is very rocky and when the wheels on the dam are opened can be dangerous to someone not comfortable in the water. The power plant has four wheels.Very seldom are all 4 wheels open at one time. The current is so strong that dredgeing with more than 2 wheels open is very difficult except in the deeper water. I've been using a Dahlke 4" xd dredge. Its 10 ft long and 5 ft wide and handles the swift water very well. I'm still looking for a sweet hole . Most of the gold is very fine with a few pickers . Most days you can recover a min of 2 grams if you get a half mile or so below the dam.
This area is just south of charlotte.

The broad river just south of Gafney off I85 below the 99er dam also has apublic boat landing. again you need to get a little downstream as the area close to the landing has been worked heavily. good luck.

 

[abearzzz]

jbirdman,
do you ever let anybody tag along with you? i just bought a 3" keene ultra dredge and i would like to go
with somebody else so i can get an idea of how i need to set up my dredge.
i live in charlotte and am free to go almost any weekend. i have a place on walker creek about 4 miles down
creek from the gpa claim that i can dredge at any time i want but i want to make sure i know what im doing.

 

[Charles,Oak Island]

Re: Good Public sites in NC ?Tell Congress our National Forests are NOT FOR SALE

There will be no good or even bad public places if we don't do something to stop this insanity in Washington DC. Take the 2 or 3 minutes it requires to write/email or call your congressman and senator and tell them NO to the selling of our National Forests.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/664381213?ltl=1141746165

 

[jimfnc]

have located a couple old mines (worked in 1800's up to the 1920's?) in the south Greensboro area, but have posted no trespass. Has anyone here ever tried to get permission from the owners? i hate to do all the research just to get a big fat no!
Not looking to go into the mines, but work the tailings with a detector. At least one mine was open pit.

 

[SCV-MIKE]

Hi Yall I live in Maryland and I do most of my gold prospecting in Western NC at Thermal City. But that's one heck of a ride and pulling a travel trailor at these gas prices it's nuts. My wifes parents live in Wilson NC, and I was wondering if there is on places to pan close to Wilson? Thanks MIKE

 

[Darren in NC]

Pretty close to Wilson, Mike...

http://www.49ermike.com/nash_nc.shtml

 

[mikeandwife91]

Hello everyone. My wife and I got back a few weeks ago from North Carolina. We spent 7 days there and went from Marion to the Uwharrie National Forest. We spent a few days at Thermal City. To work the trommel now costs $50, and we certainly didn't get a half ounce from it. We ended up with a little over one pennyweight. I still have the concentrates to pan, but we ran everything thru a green bowl first, so all of the big stuff is gone. We had a blast though, and yes, the folks are still friendly and helpful as can be. I forgot to buy a bag of concentrates to bring home this time, but at $20 a bag, that may be the best bargain there. I bought one last year and was pleasantly surprised at the gold in it. I'm pretty sure I could have bought two bags and gotten the same amount, or more gold than what we got at the trommel. I will say this though, if you've never worked a trommel, although it is hard work, that was a lot of fun and I'm glad we did it.
We spent a day next door at the Carolina Emerald mine working the creek with a sluice box. Found a few flakes, but nothing to talk about. We went to the Uwharrie National Forest for a day. We used a home made gold sucker in one of the creeks a found four little flakes. Went to the Pisgah National Forest and had a really tough time finding a place to pan because everything was private property. If you're up that way though, definitely make Grandfather Mountain one of your stops.
We did 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the scenery was fantastic. On the way back to Ohio we stopped at the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia and panned at a campground there. I couldn't even find any black sand around there, so we didn't stick around long. Sorry for the long post, but we covered a lot of ground. If anyone would like more information, email me and I'll share more details. [email protected]

 

[SCV-MIKE]

I'm glad you had a good time. Was any one dredging at thermal city? How cold is the water? I think they should at least let you do one clean up on the trommel. That's a lot of material to run and not to do at least one clean up. It fills up with black sand pretty quick. Last summer I slowed down some because they wouldn't let me do a clean up and they gave me some lip and said you don't lose any gold if you don't do any clean ups. I'm sorry I feel that's BS and they really pissed me off. I would slow up to let some water clear some of the sand and top layer off but I wasn't fast enough for them. Some of them are nice but a couple of them really think they know everything about prospecting. At the Emerald camp, is that the one down the road that Don use to run? MIKE

 

[mikeandwife91]

Hi Mike, as far as I know, Don is still the owner. He has someone running it for him. Not much activity at that camp compared to the other camps in the area. The Lucky Strike was easily the busiest of all of them. At Thermal City, my wife and I were the only ones that worked the creek the three days we were there. No dredging at all going on. We walked the creek edges with my MXT to see if we could find anything big, but no luck there. The water was a perfect temperature, but a little high. No cleanups for us, they said they want people to take no more than 2 1/2 to 3 hrs to clean the whole thing. It took us 3 1/2 hrs and I thought we moved pretty good. I was curious about the tank that is at the bottom of the trommel that all the excess runs into before hitting the ground. There was a lot of sand in there, and it was a great place to trap the gold that blew past the carpet but they said there was too much grease and oil mixed in to be able to separate the gold if any was there, and we couldn't mess with it. That sounded pretty fishy to me, but I wasn't going to question it. We'll go there again, but it will only be for a day, then head toward Cotton Patch and the surrounding area.

 

[SCV-MIKE]

I liked Don and I have sad news for you... But Don Died some years ago of cancer in his back. His son that who had nothing to do with him until he was dead, took over his place and that's why I haven't went back to there. I was there when Don was taken to the hospital when he found out he was at the end with cancer. He was treating it with IBU's for the pain. MIKE