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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[Gohot229]

Well the weathers starting to change and the NC. folks are getting antsy. It's April 19 and last week I went ahead and took a ride up to Troy NC. in the heart of Uwharrie National Forest territory. I stoped at the Troy forestry station and spoke with a charming Ranger Lady, (sorry I forgot Her name) but asked Her about Panning there in the Uwharrie. She looked through the fileing cabinet and quickly brought out some copys of their boundaries. The first was the general areas as in a topographical map of the checkerboard of sites as the park is not one continuous park but rather many squares that form a whole. The second sheets She gave me were of a more refined maping with streams and creeks. Armed with both printed maps, I could see that a Rand McNally topo map would be nessessary, the kind you get at magazine racks. Armed with all this, one could then start locating a bunch of viable locations, as the creeks were for the most part running with good volumes of water runnoff, pluss the recent torrential rains of late March, which caused some damage to the state in the Piedmont areas, along with surrounding areas, all the better for washing gold around here and there . It promices to be an interesting season for prospecting as I saw zero prospectors about, meaning it shouldnt be too crowded for the person out panning and hand-pump dredging. Keep in mind however, metal detecting is NOT allowed, and you will be just fine. Good luck all.

 

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[enamel7]

First, why bring back a post from 3 years ago. Now onto the rest. Hand dredges aren't allowed in Uwharrie forest either. shovel and pan, that's all.
HH
enamel7

 

[SCBUZZ]

Correction to the above here is part of the text from there web site.

"Recreational panning for gold is allowed on most of the Uwharrie National Forest. Stream-bed (placer) gold, in most cases, does not exist in sufficient quantities to constitute economically recoverable deposits. No fee or permit is required as long as only shovel and pan techniques are used and no significant stream disturbance results, but one should check with the Uwharrie Ranger Station. Sluice or "shaker" boxes are allowed, but no mechanized or motorized equipment, such as suction dredges are allowed."


Key part

Sluice or "shaker" boxes are allowed, but no mechanized or motorized equipment, such as suction dredges are allowed." Not just pan and shovel.

 

[enamel7]

You're correct. I forgot to mention sluices. But hand dredges aren't allowed. They are considered mechanical.