Prospecting North Eastern Oregon (Blue Mountains)

[rcb187]

Good Morning

Am planning a trip to the area. For now researching the land via Landmatters / BLM / LIDAR and some geologic maps.
I have been reading some old books from there area written early 1900s. Any other great resources to check from?
I am targeting areas around other claims that arent claimed or private. I have never been to the area.
Plan is to take a pan / classifier and some jugs of water to test for samples as I explore.

I will be taking my AT Max ( cant afford a gold detector right now ) as well and am curious about searching tailings from old mines. I see people on youtube going through old tailings piles and doing decent.
I am curious about limitations on old mines. Are there many ghost mines or lost mines in the area? As long as its BLM/National Forest and not private I can prospect it? Is there a limit how much I can dig on these lands?
Anything else I should be aware of before heading out?

Thanks for reading

 

[rcb187]

im very new to prospecting gold. i took these with the microscope i found an accumulation of .3 grams on my outing. would you say these are close to the source?

 

[DizzyDigger]

They do look a bit water worn. Did you find these detecting, or panning
a creek, or river?

 

[rcb187]

cleaned overburden that was probably around 1-2 foot thick to bedrock that was just a couple of feet away from the little creek. plan is to keep going upstream til i dont find it. im not seeing much bedrock upstream though. hopefully its not too far down. do i need to hit bedrock to sample correctly?

 

[russau]

You will never know untill you do ! Good luck to your adventure !