Panning for Gold in California

[UncleVinnys]

Pictures from the Bear River in California.
A local newspaper did an article on it, and dozens of people
showed up at the river.

 

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[Cynangyl]

Very cool! Wish I was out there too! I heard ya say in another thread they are only finding some flakes there? Flakes are better than what we are doing right now....weather is still pretty icky! Got a hailstorm during our garage sale yesterday and had to pull everything inside! lol Thanks for sharing the pics with us!

 

[godisnum1]

Great pic's!!
I really hope to be able to go out to California or somewhere and pan for gold someday...
Just one of my little dreams.

Bran <><

 

[UncleVinnys]

Yes, there were about a dozen folks there - there had been an
article in the Sacramento Bee newspaper about panning
and where to go, so lots of Newbies went.

ALL of them said they were finding flakes.
Some of the old timers there said the river is pretty well
picked over for nuggets, but every time there is a heavy
rain or flood, more flakes and a very few nuggets will show up.

More photos:

 

[WilliamBoyd]

Were you working anywhere near Dutch Flat, Alta, or Baxter?

 

[Red_desert]

I'd like to be there too! That looks like fun...I'll bet there are deep pockets still have nuggets. I remember when Charles Garret took a bunch of treasure hunters along to Mexico, to that river with silver nuggets hoping to make a good video of river detecting. He had a large crew wading the river with detectors in prospecting mode. The idea was to locate the pockets of magnetite black sand to dig out for panning. The nuggets were too deep to detect, but digging out a pocket produced some nice silver nuggets. Seems like it ought to work for gold also.

 

[UncleVinnys]

That was the FIRST time I've been anywhere near a gold prospecting site,
so no, not been to the other places mentioned.
Others tell me there is a similar site on the North fork of the American River,
less than 5 miles from this site.

There were about a dozen folks there, some newbies, and some old timers.
One of the old timers told me the place has been hunted a lot, so
not too much of a chance of finding a nugget laying right out there
on top. But EVERYONE there was finding flakes and specks from
panning. One fellow had a sluice and he was getting flakes too.

The old timer (and boy, these fellas are NICE - was expecting a less than
friendly reception) told me you would have to wait til after a flood or
big storm, where the river cuts new paths - and that might expose
some nuggets, but the river has been worked over pretty well over the
years, so nothing right on top just waiting for a guy like me, with
the MXT. Well, next time will bring the panning equipment.

The "regulars" who go there bring shovels and sieves to screen out the
larger rocks. Some even had the old rocker boxes. They were shoveling
out of trenches - you can see some of the holes in the photos.
I've head too, some just pan out the concentrate, then bring buckets
of that back home for the final sifting and picking out of the flakes.

Anyway - startin' to get "The Fever!!"
Nice views too.

 

[gnewt]

Those pictures are causing me to run a fever, I think. Want to turnover those rocks
and get a few flakes, about an 8 hour dose of that would make me feel better.
I sure would like to be there next time you're there so you can get my picture
dancing with a nugget, dream on. Gnewt

 

[Lookn4Seated]

Those are some amazing views! Wish we had something like this in the Midwest. HH

 

[UncleVinnys]

Yeah, it was fun just to be there.
They say gold veins occur in quartz rock, and all the way driving
up there I was seeing just the classic Sierra basalt, which I think
they call dolomite. When you get down to the river level though,
there's lots of white quartz. You might be able to see some of it
in the photos - white and orange color rocks, and they make up
about half the stones there. There is one photo of a rock in the
middle of the river - at first I thought it was bedrock, but it
might just be a large eroded boulder. Anyway, the seasoned
veterans will scrape out the crevices as the gold sinks to the
lowest places.

 

[fossis]

Those are some amazing views! Wish we had something like this in the Midwest. HH

Actually you do, the Southern part of Indiana comes to mind, check the Gpaa brochures, they list all the states where they have mining rights.
Thanks Uncle Vinny's for sharing.

Fossis............

 

[VanGone]

Excellent post,sure would be fun trying that.
Van

 

[bedpanmoneyman]

How fun.....someday I'm going back to California and pan for gold again.

 

[rmptr]

THAT'S a LOT of rocks!
(Likely spot to sprain an ankle!)

Best think to do in a fun place like that is to go on an outing with a group of people...

Set up a long sluice and have everyone shovel to buckets and then feed the sluice during the course of the day.

Clean out the sluice into a bucket at the end of the day.

Pan off the concentrates at home in a washtub, put Au in a sample vial and pass it around among the participants.

Never know when you might stumble across a nugget!

HH
rmptr