Anyone pan in the Black Hills?

[Nate in Ga]

I just moved into lead Sd and I was wondering if anyone has ever spent any time in spearfish canyon or anywhere around deadwood lead. Im not looking for anyone to give up there private spots just having trouble finding any information on gold prospecting in the canyon.

 

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[B H Prospector]

Hi Nate,
Welcome to the Net and the Black Hills.
A few years back I heard of a fella getting an ounce a day out of the canyon. Where I do not know. Most of the canyon is private or claimed by Homestake. The same is pretty much true around Lead and Deadwood. Either Homestake owns it or it is claimed by others. If you are a GPAA member they have claims in the Hills. One is in boulder canyon about 5 miles from Sturgis. There is also the Black Hills Prospecting Club. They have several claims in the Hills also.Hope this helped you some. If you have any questions let me know.

Good Luck!

B H Prospector

 

[Nate in Ga]

Hi Nate,
Welcome to the Net and the Black Hills.
A few years back I heard of a fella getting an ounce a day out of the canyon. Where I do not know. Most of the canyon is private or claimed by Homestake. The same is pretty much true around Lead and Deadwood. Either Homestake owns it or it is claimed by others. If you are a GPAA member they have claims in the Hills. One is in boulder canyon about 5 miles from Sturgis. There is also the Black Hills Prospecting Club. They have several claims in the Hills also.Hope this helped you some. If you have any questions let me know.

Good Luck!

B H Prospector

Is it about imposible to just go on a hike with a pan in spearfish canyon and just pan some in the creek, I have been fishing a lot up there and have not seen any signs for claims. If I am on black hills national forest land and there is no posting in like a public area can i just mess around in the creek, or with my metal detector?

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

I went to a couple of claims listed in hte GPAA Mining Guide a couple of years ago. 1 claim was no longer GPAA owned. I went to another spot in the National Forest and found a couple of claims that were taken, but further down teh creek there was a place where people panned. I will say this. i spent ALL DAY and didn't find much much less black sands in the creek with all the slate rock all in the creek bed. Pretty hard to dig around in it. Some peices of slate was from small size pick up with your hands to 3-4ft big peices. I also went to a place 5 miles from Sturgis and really couldn't find it hence the reason I went into the National Forest.

Of course all I had was pans, buckets, and a shovel!

I am sure if one spends enough time there they should find some stuff, but my experience with the creeks there, A LOT OF SLATE!!!!!

 

[B H Prospector]

Nate,
The problem with the canyon is there is alot of FS land and private. Homestake has thousands of acres claimed all over the hills even though they are not activly mining right now. Your chance of running across a claim sign is pretty slim. Homestakes claims cover hundreds of acres on one claim and may only have corners marked and thy may be miles apart. A company I use to work for did work for Homestake and I was all over the hills working on their claims and I only saw one or two claim markers. If you are on a FS picnic area you could dig around or MD. Chances are that isn't part of a homestake claim. You are better off joining a club though. GPAA has four claims and BHPC has seven or more. GPAA is 80 some bucks start up and a little less a year after that, BHPC is 150 to start and 50 a year after that. Both include the whole family.


BH Prospector