panning

[Planet1mars]

has anyone tried gold panning this year? im thinking if im still disabled next year im going to try my hands at gold panning in some of the rivers

 

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[SaginawIan]

there is a river in birmingham that I'm told has given up gold in the past. There was a guy that was planning to go gold panning there this summer but I can't remember who it was.

Ian

 

[Planet1mars]

i willl research that. if there was gold than should still be more..

 

[goldie1959]

my brother was tellig me that 68 of the counties in mich has had gold discovered where he got this info i don't know. i believe he said mainly rivers.

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Disabled

 

[lonesomebob]

Gravel pits can be panned too,bring your own water. a neighbor brings a small dump cart home every week, pans it out hauls it back and gets more. says that there is gold but very mum.

 

[oneeye]

Not yet, but I have made a vow to give it a try this year.
Dan

 

[Michiganne]

I have only tried panning once and found nothing. My understanding of gold in MI is that, due to the glaciers, we mainly have "placer" gold which is the fine, dust variety. You won't be finding sizeable nuggets and you have to move a lot of soil to make it worthwhile. My neighbor prospects and has shown me some nice flakes of gold but I would guess certain rivers are better than others.

HH

 

[Planet1mars]

i did hear that one river in oakland county has produced a few flakes, im going to check that out and basicly im going to pan just to try it and see what happens..

 

[Scott (Mich)]

I have a friend that works for the county and a few years back he used to be the one that tested the gravel used for the roads. He would have to travel to the local pits and take samples. One time while talking to the guys at the pit across the road from my house they told him that they came across two small pockets of gold during the dredging. The gravel company uses a type of machine that takes out gravel below the waterline and somewhere on this machine is a place where the heavier stuff will collect - kind of like when you pan, only on a much larger scale. He said it is really rare to ever come across gold, but I bet it made someone's day when it happened.

HH,

Scott (MI)

 

[mlayers]

There is a few place here in MI where you can find gold. And yes it is glacier gold. Real fine gold. And yes you have to go thru a lot of dirt to fine a little. So don't be disappointed when you pan you don't fine much It may take you 15 to 20 pans to fine a few specs. But you have to in joy this kind of thing to do it. If you want to pan for gold so you can say you did it. Why don't you but some concentrate that already been worked down. this way you can get some gold that you will have....Matt

 

[Tomas Frijole]

Just think back 20,000 years and you will find some spots. Really!

There is an old wildcat gravel pit/dump on the end of my road along a river that was a bank on a branch of the Ausable about 5000BC when the Lake Huron shoreline was almost at West Branch. In the 60's I dug some out and panned it. I got a few specs of flour gold every few pans. Figured 60 - 80 hours would give about 1/2 a gram. If you get lucky you may find a pocket.

The Ausable used to be a delta of branches that spread from alpena to standish. All the smaller rivers around it now in that area were branches. What are now hills between them were sandbars, islands and high banks on a ripping river system from melting glacers sitting above the roscommon area. Same thing happened to the west, Manistee, Pere Marquete and the Muskegon where pretty much channels then branches of 1 super river.

Most college libraries have reference geo books that map the river systems and lake shores back to the glacier age. For instance when your on I-75 in north Bay County or the thumb you see these sand ridges/treelines in the fields, some being used as sand pits, that were shoreline sanddunes 250 - 500 years ago. Some have been plowed under and are just a sandy smear in the middle of the field. We used to hunt them for arrowheads when I was a teen.

If you look north of the smiley face water tower when passing west branch you will see a huge sand bluff on the north horizon that was a monster shoreline sand dune, comparable to sleeping bear dunes.

There is a guy on ebay that sells bags of panning concentrate from the UP gold area starting at $10.00. You can pick your river but he may be out until spring. Never tried his stuff but until recently it looked almost cheaper that driving there.

 

[Urban Grund]

I have several pans & other items for prospecting. I just need to get out & do it!

 

[xdanthemanx]

you dont want to go panning in the biggest river that runs thru oakland county for sure all the sewage gets dumped into it and youl be wading in psswater among other things

dan

 

[Urban Grund]

you dont want to go panning in the biggest river that runs thru oakland county for sure all the sewage gets dumped into it and youl be wading in psswater among other things

dan

Red Run?

 

[Planet1mars]

the one thing i was taught about survival is that fast moving water cleans a lot of pollutions like urine or fecal matter.. if you had to drink water from a source it was better to drink from a fast moving creek or river instead of standing water... the sand and other minerals in the ground clean the water... im not saying things like oil or othet pollutions.. just bacteria and other viruses, still need to boil water... i have no fear panning in a river,but i wont pan in the rouge river my middle leg may hit the rocks LOL... i heard the grand river had gold in it...Im waiting for a phone call from a guy who found a small nugget up north, he said he would take me there this summer, and e-mail me a picture with proof of this nugget with a local sign to prove it. when he does ill post the pictures...

 

[camperlee]

mike me and my brother was up where the two hearted dumps in to lake superior didn't get any gold but
sure had fun metal detecting. Lee