Bear River Placer County

[southfork]

Just curious I don't see many post on the bear did it run out of gold ? 3 or 4 years ago I did a little snipping near the bear river camp ground and did real good for such a busy place .

 

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[aarthrj3811]

Years ago I Dredged on that river..I understand now that a lot of it is on private property

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Years ago I Dredged on that river..I understand now that a lot of it is on private property

Agreed /\

 

[Clay Diggins]

Most of it is private property and has been for the last 100 years.

There is some BLM managed land but most of that is claimed. Look around and you will see some small unclaimed areas of the river that are not private.

Look around 15N 9E Sec 28 or 16N 10E Sec 33. It's sometimes surprising whats open if you do the research.

Heavy Pans

 

[southfork]

There's 200 Acres or more along the river at Bear River Campground and day use area at 2500 campground road Colfax Ca 95713 . Gold panning is allowed its a fee area but I have run a sluice and sniped there on occasion and did real good .

 

[Aufisher]

There is plenty of fine gold and even bigger pieces in that river

 

[MadMarshall]

Its been a few years since I put a Pan to water in the Bear.(Forsaking it for the American Rivers).. I am told that their is 2 underwater Snipers that do quite well and have for a while.(the Twins).. I have also seen some pretty decent nuggets that were said to be found on the Bear... But on the other hand I Know of quite a few men who have worked it with very little success. Also it a very popular Camping area and tends to be on the wild side. Plus also due to its easy acsess it is a common haven for what I like to call the Bottle Prospector.(Just need enough gold for that next Bottle).

 

[Reed Lukens]

Ahh, The Bear river camp ground. The Sickle Slayer's murdering hole. I copied this article for ya from here
Media Life: Sickle slayer shattered peace of summer of 1971 | Auburn Journal

Let’s set the Media Life time machine back 40 years ago to the summer of 1971 in Auburn and examine one of the most disturbing murder cases in the annals of area crime history. Looking back, summer four decades ago in Auburn was supposed to be a pleasurable time, a kind of Golden Age for some, before all those Bay Area people moved in. But peer past those misty memories and you’ll turn up a story that had many people in the foothills back then shocked and living in fear. The subject of that fear was an Auburn garbage truck driver from Weimar named Clarence Otis Smith. Smith, who it was later learned had talked about demons infesting his house, took a sickle-shaped,18-inch knife and went on a rampage at the Dog Bar campground on the banks of the Bear River, hacking and stabbing two people to death, injuring two others and then disappearing into the darkness. The attacker – described by survivors as a heavyset man about 6 feet tall with a receding hairline – left behind a bloodied pair of tinted prescription glasses. With a description and the glasses, investigators were able to search Smith’s home about two miles from the campground and found more evidence linking him to the murders – including blood-soaked clothing, the sickle-shaped knife and a .41 caliber Ruger pistol that one of the victims had fired at his attacker before being fatally stabbed in the stomach. The unprovoked, seemingly random murders at the isolated campground sent a chill through the area population. Smith was questioned by investigators but explained cuts and abrasions as the result of walking into a glass door. “An aura of terror hovered over much of Placer and Nevada counties yesterday in the wake of a maniacal attack by a slashing killer which left the weather-washed stones at Dog Bar beach on the Bear River red with the blood of its victims,” the Journal reported. On July 22, 10 days after the attack, Smith quit his job, had Auburn Placer Disposal cut him a final paycheck, and left his home without a trace. Now authorities not only had a gruesome double murder to investigate – but a suspect on the loose and possibly ready to kill again. In the summer of 1971, the sickle slayings at a rural California campground became a national story. Associated Press reported that the suspect was being called “the Mad Slasher of Bear River.” Reports were quick to point out that suspect Smith was said to have been laughing as he killed and made grunting, animal noises during the attack. “Hi there,” was his bizarre greeting to a couple inside a tent before the assaults started. An all-points bulleting was issued nationally and Smith eventually was located in Mexico. He was turned over to the FBI by Mexican authorities Aug. 6, 1971. Jailed in Brownsville, Texas before being flown back to California, Smith was unwilling or unable to admit culpability in the deaths of John Simmons, 29, of Weimar and Donna Fitzhugh, 28, of Los Angeles County. But Placer County Sheriff Bill Scott and Nevada County Sheriff Wayne Brown were confident enough to issue a joint statement advising the fearful they could put their guns “back in their cabinets.” The ensuing Nevada County court case revealed Smith to be a deeply disturbed man in the days and weeks leading up the killings. He had prayed and fasted with his wife and children to exorcize the imagined demons from his house but was alone at the time of the killings after threatening his family. They had moved to a Sacramento motel and an ordained preacher who had been living with the Smith household had returned – unbeknownst to Smith – to remove tools to sell when they ran out of money. Smith began to plan his assault at the campground and even invited an acquaintance to join him, complaining about “hippies and longhairs” who had recently stolen tools from him. Smith’s defense attorneys attempted to prove he was insane at the time of the attacks off Dog Bar Road but the jury convicted “the Dog Bar Killer” of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to a life term. Smith would die in prison in 2008 at the age of 80, a passing that went relatively unnoticed in the foothills. But for almost a month, a bizarre attack in an isolated campground near Auburn shattered the calm of the summer of 1971 and turned a nondescript garbage collector into one of the most feared men in the nation.

 

[Aufisher]

I think that happen at Dog Bar downriver from the campground. Creepy for sure. Looks like a good prospecting spot but too close to civilization for me!

 

[goldenmojo]

Reed thanks for the story from the way back machine. Now that the dude has died in prison I can breath a scythe of relief.....

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Reed thanks for the story from the way back machine. Now that the dude has died in prison I can breath a scythe of relief.....

..oh the humanity. X)

 

[bedrock bubba]

I have many memories of the Brrrr River campground. Some good, some real bad.

It used to be good for fine gold, when the Quarry was working upstream, and would regularly release gold into the river downstream. Now, that's shut down. And a lot less gold. Its so overworked now, especially at Iwo Jima Beach at the lower end of the CG. Nothing but bomb craters left. There is a gold line going down the middle of the river, if you can find it, and dig into the gooey clay muck that traps the gold. But you better have a wet suit on, the water is Brrrr COLD! The crud slime gets all over the rocks some years, and ruins sniping, a type of horrid algae that looks like toilet paper. And don't drink the tap water at the CG, a friend of mine got a bad case of Giardia cyst there one year. Boil or filter it.

An old cowboy wandered into my camp site one evening, and told me this was to be his last roundup. Yup, the next morning the ambulance hauled his carcass out! Needless to say, it put a buzz kill on my trip, as I was afraid he would take me with him!

Dopers often take over the CG, and back in '91 a guy used to have a drug route down there twice a day! That's why they took out the pay phones there, years ago. Other times the Latinos take over part of the CG, in swarm, and that happens in the CG's of the N. Fork Yuba as well. But mostly, folks won't bother you and there are decent folks that go there.

Downstream at Dog Bar crossing, they take out nice gold, but parking is so limited there, and there is a motley crew there I would rather not be around. That area has bad JuJU, in my book.

If you sluice at the Iwo Jima Beach, about all you can expect is fly poop, maybe a dwt. for six hours work. Not good at all.

Back in the day, I saw folks fill up a 2 oz. vial in just a weekend! And a dredger took out 7 oz. one day! But not at all anymore.