Nuggets of News Blog 

A gold pan is the simplest and most basic prospecting tool and is one of the oldest types of gold concentrating equipment. Plastic pans are recommended over the steel pans used by the 49ers. Plastic is light weight, so when you add water, dirt, and gravel to your pan, your arms won't get as tired compared to using a steel pan. And they do not rust or conflict with the use of a magnet.  Size, color, and shape are really a matter of personal preference. You might want to have a couple different sizes of gold pans on hand (10 inch, 12 inch, and 14 inch are the most popular). Plastic pans generally come in green, black, and blue. The color doesn't effect performance, but green is the most common. The bright blue cone-shaped batea is the newest type of gold pan to hit the U.S. market. Gold panning kits are often the most economical way to purchase gold pans and classifiers (often called sifting pans) and other small accessories all in one convenient box.   

The point of panning is to shake the gravels, allowing the gold to settle downward and then to wash the lighter material off the top. When all the lighter material has been removed, only the heavy concentrates will remain in the bottom of the pan, including, hopefully, some gold! With a little practice, anyone can learn to pan for gold. Buying a bag of gold-bearing paydirt to use over and over again for practice in a tub is one way to  get good at panning without ever leaving home. Gold panning “how to” steps founds here.

When outdoors in a stream digging gravels, remove big pebbles and stones from your pan before you begin.  When looking for a place to pan, look for cracks and crevices in the bedrock of a stream (bedrock is a general term for the solid rock that sits under all sand and gravel) because gold can get caught and accumulate  in cracks. Gold moves during periods of flooding and can drop out of fast-moving water into crevices. Mossing for gold is another technique that is easy to do with a pan. The green moss that grows on rocks near the edge of a stream often has a surprising capacity to catch and hold fine-sized gold. It’s almost like the matting on the bottom of a sluice (often called “miner’s moss”). Gold can get caught in the tendrils and structure of the moss and while the gold recovered from moss is tiny, sometimes there is a significant amount of it. Take the moss off the rocks from a spot close to the stream and at a level where, when the stream is in flood stage, the moss will be underwater. Carefully peel the moss off the rocks, breaking it up and washing out all the sand and silt. The material recovered from the moss can then be carefully panned out.

Gold concentrations are spotty, even in known gold-bearing areas, so sample and test often. Be sure to move on with your gold pan and don’t stay in one spot less you have good results. If you find a spot with fairly large amounts of gravel that yields good gold, then it’s time to bring in a sluice box. A sluice is simple to operate and have been used all across the world for thousands of years. After you’ve mastered gold panning and are ready to increase the amount of gravel you can process, a sluice box is your next step up from hand panning. Sluices come in a variety of sizes, most with gold-catching matting in the bottom that you need to clean up at the end of the day. Other models such as the Gold Well Vortex Drop Riffle Sluice, has no matting or carpets and uses vortex technology to catch fine gold.

The basic sluice box is set in a stream and runs off the natural flow of water in the rivers. An experienced prospector might be able to pan up to a cubic yard of gravel per day, yet you can run that same cubic yard of gravel through a sluice box in less than an hour. Surface flood-type gold or gravel bars on inside bends of streams can both be very productive with just a simple sluice. It’s not too difficult to operate because it is fairly forgiving of the surges of gravel that drop in with each shovel full. To work properly, a sluice needs a good amount of water. The simple rule is just enough water flow should be going in the feed gravels to move the material through and out of the sluice in a reasonable time, allowing only a little of the heavier materials to build up behind the riffles. With too little water, the incoming material simply piles up as the rocks stop and get stuck in the sluice box. If the flow is too fast, fine gold will be blown out with the gravels. The optimum water flow is just what it takes to keep things clear in a reasonable time — no more than 20 or 30 seconds. The riffles should not become fully buried, with the entire bed of the sluice blanketed over by gravel. For maximum recovery, the flow should be a little turbulent, yet not frothy in any way. Excessive turbulence results in poor fine gold recovery.

As with the pan, the real secret of successful prospecting is not in operating the equipment, but in the skill of finding those natural gold catches. Learning to read the river or stream and recognize the places where gold might accumulate and then sampling those places to see if you are correct is the best technique. Inside bends, behind boulders or bedrock outcrops, and inches above the stream flow are all good places that you might sample, but there are plenty of other possibilities as well. The sluice and the gold pan may be among the most basic prospecting tools, but they are tried and true ways of finding some good gold!

There are many interesting facts about the element gold, which is listed on the periodic table as Au. Au—comes from the old Latin name for gold, aurum, which means "shining dawn" or "glow of sunrise." The word gold comes from the Germanic languages, originating from the Proto-Germanic gulþ and Proto-Indo-European ghel, meaning "yellow/green." The Aztec word for gold, "teocuitatl," translates to "excrement of the gods."  Its atomic number is 79. 

A few more fun and fascinating facts about gold include:

• Gold is the most malleable element. A single ounce of gold (about 31 grams) can be stretched into a gold thread 5 miles long and beaten into a 300-square-foot sheet. A sheet of gold can be made thin enough to be transparent. You could even scratch pure gold with a fingernail.
• A karat is a unit of purity. And the karat number will determine the amount of gold in a particular piece. It is measured on a scale from eight to 24 in increments of two, with the higher number representing greater purity. However, almost nothing is pure gold or, 24 karats, with jewelry topping out at 22 karats. That’s because typically, when crafting gold jewelry, the gold must be mixed with another metal, such as copper or silver to make it usable.
• Gold is a pure element and is the only truly yellow metal on Earth. Other metals may develop a yellowish color, but only after they have oxidized or reacted with other chemicals.
• Gold has been found on all seven continents, but the first gold discovered in the United States was in 1799. A boy, Conrad Reed, found a 17-pound nugget in Cabarrus County North Carolina and used it as a door stop! This discovery happened 50 years prior to the famous California Gold Rush of 1849.
• Nearly all the gold on Earth came from meteorites that bombarded the planet over 200 million years after it formed.

• Gold’s melting point is 1,947ºF or 1,064 °C. Gold boils at 2,850°C.  Small gold melting kilns are used by hobbyists.
• Olympic gold medals were pure gold until 1912. Currently, they're made up of 494 grams of silver and only 6 grams of gold.
• Fort Knox contains around 50% of the United States’ gold reserves. It has never been robbed. In fact, no one has even attempted carrying out such an operation. With 30,000 soldiers, a surrounding minefield, Predator drones doing routine surveillance, and 20-ton vault doors (which no single person has a combination to), it’s an impossible undertaking.
• Gold can be consumed in small quantities and is often added to luxury beverages and foods, but it has no known nutritional or taste value. It is considered biologically inert, which means that it can be digested without being absorbed or interacting with your body.
• If all of the world’s gold that has ever been mined were collected, it would fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools— each 164 x 82 feet x 6 feet deep— a combined 157,000 metric tons.
• Gold is the most popular precious metal for investments. The price of gold constantly fluctuates and is often linked to major economic events. Generally, the value of gold tends to move inversely to the value of the US dollar. For example, when the value of a dollar increases, the price of gold drops as it is relatively more expensive for those in other countries to purchase. The opposite is likewise true.
• Gold panning is fun for the whole family. You can even buy Alaskan paydirt and have it shipped to your home.
• Aurophobia is the fear of gold. And probably no one reading this has ever been diagnosed with that condition!  Gold fever, however, is another story!

As of 2020, there were about 3,891,000 mining claims filed on federal lands across open-for-mineral-entry states. If you want to join the ranks, the following will be extremely helpful. This information was published in November 2020 by Kevin Hoagland, Executive Director of Development, Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA). 

What is a Mining Claim?

A mining claim is a selected parcel of Federal land, valuable for a specific mineral deposit(s), for which you have asserted a right of possession under the General Mining Law. Your right to the claim is for the extraction of those minerals. The rights granted by a mining claim protect against a challenge by the United States and other claimants— but only after the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit.  Your claim is not protected from the government or other miners until you have a discovery of a valuable mineral, recorded in the county of location, and have filed a mining claim with the Bureau of Land Management  (BLM). There are two types of mining claims—lode and placer. In addition, mill sites and tunnel sites may be located to provide support facilities for load and placer mining claims.

Once all the steps— locate, record and file— are properly completed, then you have rights to the minerals only on the claim. You cannot live on a claim unless you have a Plan of Operations (POO) that includes project occupancy, and that will allow only limited occupancy during the duration of the project and is most likely going to be added into the required bond of the project within the POO and the Notice of Intent (NOI). If you do not have an occupancy, then you are required to follow the stay limits of 14 days in any given 28-day period.

You cannot keep other people off your claim with the exception of people trying or working to recover the valuable minerals that are on your claim. This is clearly defined as mineral trespass and is enforceable. However, if people want to use your claim for day-use recreation, or for camping or hunting at various times of the year, you cannot legally not allow them ingress to your claim unless you have an in-place POO that designates a mining area and other areas that support your efforts to recover valuable minerals. The BLM will work with a POO holder to include as much of the claim as possible to keep ingress limited for safety.

Who Can File a Mining Claim?

A person who is a citizen of the USA or has declared an intention to become a citizen with the Immigration and Naturalization Service may locate and hold a mining claim or site. A corporation organized under state law is considered a citizen and may locate and hold a mining claim or site. A corporation is held to the same standards as a citizen. There is no limit to the number of claims and sites that you may hold as a qualified claimant, as long as you meet the General Mining Law requirements of the claims filed after a valuable mineral find has been located.

Where Can You File a Mining Claim?

As of this writing, there are 19 states where you may locate mining claims or sites: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Who Maintains All of This?

The BLM manages the surface of public lands in these states and the Forest Service manages the surface of National Forest System lands. The BLM is responsible for the subsurface minerals on both its public lands and National Forest System lands. You may prospect and locate mining claims and sites only on lands open to mineral entry.  Some recreational areas are open to the public for casual prospecting (usually just for gold panning by hand); these areas would not be considered open to mineral entry, therefore, you cannot file a claim in certain recreational areas.

How to File a Mining Claim

To file a claim, you need to start by prospecting to find a valuable recoverable metal. There are a number of ways to get started in finding an area open for claiming. Using computer programs such as the BLM LR2000, you can get a much better view of what is and is not open for claiming. After you have prospected and found gold or other mineral you wish to extract, you will want to stake a claim.

Using your GPS or a topo map and compass, figure out exactly where you are. Set your Point of Discovery (POD), then find your corners. A placer claim is 20 acres— a rectangle that is 660 feet from west to east, and 1,320 feet from north to south. Situate your claim as close to the topo section lines as possible and create your location notice and draw your map.

The map must include the township (an area of 36 miles), the range (the area either east or west of the principle meridian, which is on the bottom of each topo map), and section (each section is 1 square mile; 36 sections make up a township). Within the section there are quarters and halves that are broken down to the smallest part, which is 20 acres.

TIP:  Walk the entire claim and make small rock cairns at each of the corners based on GPS to find the spots more easily when you come back to mark the corners. Knowing how far it is from the POD to the NW corner and SE corner is also helpful. You will need that info. when recording and filing your claim.

Once recorded, take your recorded document to the BLM office closest to you that accepts filings. Present your county-recorded documents and your map. The BLM will quickly review your paperwork, assign a Mining Claim (MC) number, take your money and hand you back copies of your docs with the MC number for your records and to post on the claim.

Ask both the county and the BLM what is acceptable for your markers and what is required. In some states, all that is required is the POD and not corners. But your MC paperwork at the POD MUST have the distance from the POD to a corner or distance to a Public Lands Survey (PLS) Marker. You have now recorded and filed and have an approved mining claim.  Set your corners and markers and you’re done!  Mining Claim Signs found here. 

CONGRATULATIONS and good luck getting the GOLD! 

There is truly no single “best” type of detector when it comes to gold hunting. But understanding the differences between a VLF (very low frequency) and a PI (pulse induction) detector and their coils can help you decide which detector might be the “best” to use in a particular situation.  VLF metal detectors are the most common. It is a single or multi-frequency machine that consists of a continuous sine wave. Sine waves travel down into the ground to find a metallic target, and once it does, the machine charges the target, releases an eddy current, and sends back a signal. The PI metal detector is not a continuous sine wave. Instead, it pulses on and off and on and off.  It “talks” and then “listens.” 

A VLF machine can have an advantage on shallow and very small targets, on and off of bedrock— as long as you can keep it stabilized, ground balanced, and the sensitivity set properly.  PI detectors generally do better at greater depths than VLF machines, especially in highly mineralized soils.

Mono coils are designed for PI detectors. There is a single winding inside the coil that puts a concentric pattern into the ground. You will always get more depth with a mono coil, but it is more susceptible to ground mineralization noise and it will be affected by the ground mineralization itself.

Double D coils work for both PI and VLF detectors. Double D coils have two back-to-back D shaped windings inside the coil. At all times the coils are transmitting and receiving across the plane of the coil. The Double D design is like a knife blade that goes into the ground down the center of the coil. These coils are great at handling mineralization where it essentially takes the ground mineralization and distributes it all the way across the blade, lessening its effects.

Concentric coils work with VLF detectors by using two separate windings inside the coil— one sends and one receives.

When it comes to a round versus elliptical coil, there is really no difference in the size, only shape. Coils are measured off of a round coil configuration.  For example, a 14 x 10 inch coil will have the same attributes as a 12-inch coil. The key difference is that elliptical shapes work extremely well in difficult areas.

Although each metal detector has its pros and cons, you can’t go wrong by wearing the best headphones possible, no matter which brand or model you choose. Many gold nuggets you will find are only slight whispers in the detector’s threshold, so you want to always wear high quality headphones. Plastic scoops and a digging tool with a wide blade should also be in your accessory bag. When hunting, limit the amount of metal on your body, which includes wearing non-magnetic boots and belts. Put your car keys in your back pocket. Keep your cell phone in your back pocket, too, and make sure it’s off to avoid any interference.

Shop for VLF metal detectors here.

With gold prices on the rise, you might be wondering if now is a good time to sell some of the gold you’ve found over the years.  And if you decide it is, you might also wonder how to best sell that gold and to whom. The type of gold any buyer is interested in varies, and will largely depend on what form of gold you have.

Gold dust consists of flour, fines and flakes. This is the stuff most prospectors find as a result of panning, sluicing and dredging. This form of gold is probably the lowest value because it will have the most impurities. Small nuggets start at about 1 gram  and are a step up from gold dust  in value. Medium nuggets, on average, weigh up to 31 grams or 1 troy ounce. Large nuggets are defined as weighing 1 troy ounce or more. Larger nuggets usually command higher prices, and could be considered museum quality. Gold in quartz is usually a collector’s item or a museum piece, therefore, prices widely vary.

Keep in mind, though, that even nuggets that appear to be pure gold are not. They will have impurities embedded and blended into the matrix. There is no such thing as 100% pure gold from nature.  In fact, in North America, the average purity for prospected and mined gold averages 60% - 85%. The impurities in natural gold consist of metals such as silver and copper and other minerals that have combined with gold on a molecular level. Tests, referred to as an “assay” must be performed to accurately measure the purity of gold. Some jewelers and pawn shops can analyze your gold to determine purity with an XRF gun (X-Ray Fluorescence); expect to pay a charge for that service.

The majority of gold bought and sold from small-scale prospectors include: private buyers  (some advertise on eBay, Craigslist, and other online sites) pawn shops, independently owned jewelry stores that craft and repair their own jewelry, museums looking for unusual specimens or rare nuggets, and refiners. Most refiners are contracted by large gold mining operations, but some smaller refiners will purchase gold from prospectors in any form or mesh size. An internet search will reveal refiners that will buy from individuals.

If you want to sell your fine gold or nuggets, there are a few things to do first. You may not get a totally accurate assessment of your gold’s value, but you’ll at least have a ballpark estimate. Do NOT melt your gold. Keep it in its original form.

• Clean up your placer gold dust. Be sure it is completely dry and then use a neodymium magnet to remove any black sand. After using the magnet, do a final rinse to remove any sand or grit that is not magnetic. Let the gold dry.

• Clean your nuggets with ammonia or any type of cola. Put the gold and soda in a small plastic container with a lid and vigorously shake. Rinse and repeat a few times. Don’t scrub with a brush or abrasive material.

• Weigh only your gold (not the container) in grams using an electronic digital scale. There are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce, which is the unit of measure for precious metals (a troy ounce is heavier than a regular ounce which equals 28.3 grams). Gold is also measured by pennyweights or grains. 1 troy ounce equals 20 pennyweight (or dwt). 1 pennyweight is 1.55 grams.

• Determine the spot price, which is usually based on a troy ounce. Multiply or divide the weight of your gold by the daily spot price.

When you make contact with potential buyers who specialize in raw and natural gold, be sure to ask about and understand their procedures and policies and payments. Ask how your gold will be assayed and how the purity is determined. If you are shipping your gold to a buyer, understand their requirements for packaging and shipping, insurance, and other safeguards. Some buyers pay for the testing and shipping, others pass along the costs to the seller. Remember that buyers have costs and will not pay 100% of the spot price. The exception to this would be if you have museum specimens or very large nuggets. In those instances, buyers will pay more than the spot price.

Be patient and shop around to not only get the best price, but to find a buyer who you can work with now and in the future. Get recommendations from fellow prospectors, or clubs such as GPAA (Gold Prospectors Association of America). If possible, make your first transaction with a new buyer a small one to assess your experience and satisfaction with the overall sales process. When you feel you have had a successful first transaction, you’ll feel confident you can continue that relationship in the future.

If you've not yet found your first gold, get Alaska paydirt here.

The use of water for grinding and milling has been in practice for thousands of years.  From simple water wheels to inventors such as Archimedes of Ancient Greece and Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician and physicist in the 1700s whose principles appear on modern day dredge nozzles, science has always advanced the use of water in our everyday lives. But have you considered just how much the dynamics of water can affect gold recovery?

Water Flow. The easiest example of how water dynamics affect gold is the classic inside bend in a waterway. When stream flow is straight and velocities are at their highest, gold will be suspended in the flow. As a bend in the stream causes flow to begin slowing down, the heaviest gold begins to drop out because the water no longer has enough velocity to suspend the material. The stream continues to lose power as the bend length increases and smaller and smaller gold continues to be deposited until there is no longer any in suspension, or the remaining water flow and speed cannot carry it farther downstream.

Water velocity and flow affect attempts at recovery in all capture devices in exactly the same way. Each piece of gold in classified material requires a certain flow and length of time to separate, drop out, and be captured based solely on its relative size and weight. If the velocity and flow are too great, the gold will remain suspended and will exit the machine regardless of machine length or method of recovery. This is why some miners are lured into a false sense of security just by using longer sluices.

Improper water depth in the sluice can create additional problems in recovery. Methods of material collection have much less effect if the gold is suspended in the upper part of the water flow. Most sluices provide little or no material agitation to break up the classified material and provide the necessary change in flow that facilitates gold separation. Lack of agitation allows smaller pieces to be carried through the equipment.

Classification. There is a direct relationship between material classification and water speed, which is often overlooked. It is common to classify for ease and speed of filling buckets rather than size of gold being targeted. Larger classification requires increased water speed to push the material through most recovery systems. The trade-off is forfeiting recovery of finer gold by increasing the length of drop time. This reduces the number of gold capture attempts and even machine effectiveness by having concentrations of larger material wedging into riffles, drops, etc.

Running dry material requires the sluice to liquefy the material while it is passing through. Gold particles will suspend in the dry material, reducing the chance of capture. Many miners use a scoop and drop their material into the machine in large clumps. This also allows particles to suspend instead of being processed. Material should always be wet prior to processing, and material should be cast (sprinkled) side to side across the machine when using a scoop.

Riffles. Some riffle designs are actually not that ideal for gold recovery. Some sluice riffles are evenly spaced, making them too far apart to impart the “vortex” or reverse underflow. What actually happens is an up-and-down wave motion as the water travels down the sluice. The only “action” imparted is the same negative flow that happens when water flows over a rock or some other obstacle in a stream. Material suspended at the bottom of the flow is deposited as the water climbs over the riffle and slows. Material that is heavy enough and can no longer be suspended drops. The rest of the material remains in the flow and continues to be carried down (and possibly out of) the sluice.

Flare. Most modern riffle sluices (standard and drop designs) are susceptible to improper setup angle, which can either clog the machine with material or blow it out completely. Either problem results in the loss of gold. Another big mistake in sluice design and operation is the “V” fallacy. The idea that channeling your water towards the center of the sluice using a wide-angle flare will increase its effectiveness and therefore increase gold recovery is false. On top of that, miners drop material into the center of the slick plate. This forces material into the center of the sluice, which is quickly overloaded by the volume of material and will cause the first series of riffles to lose their effectiveness.

Remove the flare from your sluice to eliminate the center concentration and create an even flow across the machine. You can create a V-shaped wing dam with a short straight section in front of your sluice if you need increased water flow or speed. Casting your material across the width of the sluice will eliminate overloading of the riffles.

Understanding how water height and speed changes your recovery can also make all the difference in boosting gold returns:  

Water height. Begin with the water flowing just above the riffles or drops. Run small amounts of material and watch as the dirt passes through the sluice. Notice how the material enters the riffles or droops. Be sure to use the correct method of casting material evenly from side to side. Gradually increase the water height until processing suffers. This will determine the minimum and maximum water height for your sluice or highbanker.

Water velocity (speed). Set your sluice water height for max processing and a fairly fast flow, then gradually reduce water speed as you process small amounts of material. You may have to adjust your sluice to maintain proper water height through this process. Note how changes in water speed decrease the quality of material processing.

Spend some time exploring water dynamics. Introduce only one variable at a time, and verify how your gold recovery is affected before moving on. No doubt, with a little more understanding and experimentation, you’ll recover more gold with your sluice!

Are you excited about finding gold — ANY size gold?  Most of us are, but if you want to sound like an old pro when referring to a specific piece you find, check out the most common terminology:

Flour Gold: Gold particles that are barely visible to the naked eye. It’s so powdery, like flour, that it sometimes floats instead of sinks like heavier gold pieces.

Flake Gold: A piece of gold that is large enough to easily spot, but is difficult to pick up with your fingers. Use tweezers.

Fines: Particles of gold too small to pick up with your fingers. Combination of flake and flour gold.

Picker: A piece of visible gold large enough to easily pick up with your fingers.

Gold Nugget: Larger than a picker. A naturally formed lump of gold that is big enough to put in a poke and likely won't fit in a typical small vial, depending on its shape.

Specimen: A naturally formed large gold nugget or gold-laced quartz specimen.

Paydirt: Refers to dirt that has enough gold in it to be worth extracting. The term originated in the mid-1800 during the California Gold Rush. Today, you can even buy Alaska paydirt through the US Mail!

Concentrates: All the gold-bearing material left in your sluice or trommel, etc. after using your gold recovery equipment - usually black sand mixed with fine gold.

Fool’s Gold: The bane of any prospector’s existence! Iron or copper pyrites and mica can be mistaken for gold. The quickest and simplest test is to examine your sample in the shade, not in the sunlight. Real gold retains its yellow sheen even in shadow, whereas fool's gold does not. Real gold is soft and malleable; it can be cut with a knife and won't splinter. You can even "dent" it with a pin. Fool's gold, though, is hard and flaky. A drop of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid will tell you for sure. Real gold will not be affected, but if you see a slight foaming action and the sample begins to dissolve, you know it's not real gold.

Color: Slang for any amount or size of visible gold that you find in your gold pan.

Au: Gold is element 79 and its symbol is Au on the periodic table. As a pure metal, gold is extremely heavy with a specific gravity of 19.3, which means pure gold weighs 19 times more than an equal amount of water.

No matter what size or by what name, finding REAL GOLD is exciting! And there are many ways to go about it— start with your basic gold pan. Highbanking along a waterway is warmer and dryer than suction dredging. Drywashing out in the desert surrounded by sunshine and solitude definitely has appeal. And so does uncovering buried treasure and nuggets while metal detecting. Just keep in mind that once you do it a time or two, you’ll likely get gold fever! So what are you waiting for…. get out there and get your share of the GOLD!

Has Covid-19 put the kibosh on local haunted houses, trick-or-treating, and Halloween parties this year? Not to worry, you can still find some socially distant ghostly fun this season— visit a gold mining ghost town!  About 3,800 ghost towns are still standing across the USA, mostly out West. Some of the buildings are in great condition, others are quite literally falling down. Some towns have become well-known, easy-to-reach roadside attractions, others are quite remote. Each town has its own boom-to-bust story that makes a visit both interesting and educational. Whether you’re a ghost hunter or a history buff, please leave everything as you find it. Take lots of photos, but no souvenirs.

Rhyolite, Nevada. Winding throughout the rich and colorful Silver State, Nevada’s highways and byways are ideal for discovering America’s history. Route 374 is a prime example and leads to the much-photographed ghost town of Rhyolite. As far as boomtowns go, Rhyolite is a “newer” ghost town, having been born and busted between 1904 and 1920. What’s also special is that its crumbling yet photogenic buildings are mostly made of concrete, not wood. Since lumber was scarce in the desert, one creative miner even built his home out of mud and 30,000 assorted liquor bottles! But perhaps what is most unusual here is that you are guaranteed to see ghosts as you head into Rhyolite— yes, even in broad daylight! That’s because on the same gravel road heading toward Rhyolite, you’ll find a 15-acre outdoor sculpture park— Goldwell Open Air Museum. Among the unusual pieces of art are life-size ghosts, a 25-foot high pink woman made of cinder blocks, a 24-foot high steel prospector posing with a penguin, and much more.  

Bodie State Historic Park, California. When a little girl writes in her diary “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie” you know her destination isn’t a pleasant one— not in the 1880s anyway when she penned that entry. The child’s name is unknown, but her words have became famous throughout the West to describe her family’s move to Bodie, California— once known as the Wildest Mining Camp in the West.  From about 1877 through the 1880s, this gold mining town was booming and bustling. The population of miners, merchants, gamblers, entrepreneurs, and their families exceeded 10,000. Some people got rich. From the onset of mining through about 1941, the 30 different mining companies that operated in the Bodie Mining District produced close to $100 million in gold and silver (gold was then about $20 an ounce; silver was less than a dollar an ounce). The Standard Mine was the most profitable, yielding nearly $15 million over 25 years. It was actually this mine’s success that caused the 1878 rush to Bodie. Today, the lawlessness is long gone. Now a State Historic Park, Bodie is the nation's biggest unreconstructed ghost town, and provides an authentic look back into California’s mining history. What's left of Bodie—about 170 buildings and the Standard Mill— represents just five percent of what was standing in its heydey. There are no re-creations or restorations here. Everything is officially in a state of "arrested decay," meaning only minimal repairs are made on the remaining structures. 

Oatman, Arizona. If you’re out to get some kicks on historic Route 66, stop in the ghost town of Oatman, Arizona. Born as a tent camp for gold miners in 1906, the town boomed, then busted in the 1940s, and has since come alive again. Over half a million tourists visit Oatman each year, greeted by friendly resident burros looking for a carrot snack! Although there are gift shops, staged gunfights, and costumed entertainers strolling the streets, Oatman takes pride in keeping the flavor of the town as authentic as possible. You won’t find newly renovated buildings here—Oatman’s historic buildings are definitely from a bygone era. As you stroll through town, watch for signs and painted murals. One particular interesting sign shares the history of the Oatman name. It was originally named Vivian, after the Vivian Mining Company. It was later renamed Oatman in honor of Olive Oatman, a woman kidnapped by Indians in the 1850s, and released five years later for a ransom of one horse, four blankets, and some beads. Signs also tell you that the town appeared in several movies such as How The West Was Won, Foxfire and Edge of Eternity.

Bannack State Park, Montana. Although the old-time prospectors are long gone, many mining relics and over 60 buildings remain at Montana’s Bannack State Park. Most are so well preserved that you can actually go inside them— a rare treat when it comes to ghost gowns. Bannack’s rich history began 150 years ago with John White’s discovery of placer gold along the banks of Grasshopper Creek. In July 1862, Mr. White filed one of the first recorded mining claims in what was later to become the state of Montana. Good news traveled fast and by fall of that year, “Grasshoper Diggins” was home to 400 prospectors. By the following spring, the population had swelled to 3,000 — the Gold Rush was definitely on!  On the southeast end of Bannack, the Bessette House is believed to be haunted by the children who died here during an epidemic of scarlet fever. The site is nicknamed the Crying Baby House because of the sounds some visitors have reported hearing.

Keep the old timers in mind as you stroll through these or any other gold mining ghost town. It will give you a new appreciation for modern gold mining equipment and metal detectors that makes gold recovery so much quicker and easier. It really puts into perspective yesteryear’s impact on the gold mining we do today. Find more information on ghost towns, gold mine tours, and travel articles on historic sites here.

The most basic piece of prospecting equipment is the gold pan. Size, color, and shape are really a matter of personal preference. Plastic pans generally come in green, black, and blue. The color doesn't effect performance, but green is the most common. Plastic is light weight, so when you add water, dirt, and gravel to your pan, your arms won't get as tired compared to using a steel pan. It's good to have a couple different sizes of gold pans on hand (10 inch, 12 inch, and 14 inch are the most popular).  

Before you add a new pan to your collection, be sure to “condition” or “season” it for best results. The goal is to remove some of the oils that were used in the plastic mold when the pan was produced. These oils will make your pan too slick, and without some friction you may wash out the gold with the waste material. You’ll want to rough up the bottom and sides of the pan a little to get that all-important friction.  

To season a new gold pan in three easy steps, you will need some dish soap that cuts through grease (i.e., Dawn), a scrubby pad, sand, and some water.

1. Add a squirt of dish soap and water to the new pan. Scrub the pan with the scrubbing pad— get all the ridges and every inch of the bottom and sides.

2. Dump a scoop of sand into the pan. You just need enough to scratch up the pan a bit. Again, scrub the sand over the ridges and entire bottom and sides of the pan back in forth in different directions.

3. Rinse your pan, dry it, and have a look. If you see any shiny or glossy areas, repeat the steps from above.

Now you’re ready to use your new pan!  If you’re just getting started, try these gold panning techniques:

1. Fill pan about half full of gravel, small rocks, and sand collected from the stream bed
2. Put the pan under the water's surface, break up large lumps of clay or dirt, and remove stones
3. Continue to hold the pan level under the water with your hands on opposite sides, and tilt the pan forward, away from your body, and down slightly. Rotate and shake it side to side to let gravel and sand dribble out the front. Pick out the rocks.
4. Repeat step 3 several times until most of the material is removed, leaving  less than a cup of fine-grained dark material overlain with a thin layer of light material at the bottom of your pan.
5. Rotate the pan in a circular motion. Notice how the water separates lighter material from heavier.
6. Stop rotating and hopefully you'll see a flash in the dark material remaining in the bottom of your pan! Use tweezers to retrieve the gold and place in a vial for safe-keeping.

Practice makes perfect, and hopefully before long you’ll be yelling EUREKA when you spot the shiny stuff in your new pan!  Gold pans and gold panning kits found here.

Mining claimants who wish to retain their mining claims on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands through the 2021 assessment year must pay a maintenance fee or file a maintenance fee waiver certificate on or before September 1, 2020, to prevent the mining claim from being forfeited.

The maintenance fee for an existing lode claim, tunnel site, or mill site will increase to $165 on September 1, 2020. For placer mining claims only, the fees will be $165 for every 20 acres of land or portion thereof. Miners who file a Small Miner’s Waiver on or before September 1 will be required to file an Affidavit of Assessment Work Form on or before December 30, 2020, including the $15 processing fee per claim.

Each payment must be accompanied by a written list of the claim names and BLM serial numbers for which the maintenance fee is being paid. You can find your state BLM office at www.blm.gov.

Please note that new mining claims filed on or after September 1, 2020, will be subject to the new fee schedule. 

It's highly recommended that you send your documents by registered mail or hand deliver them while retaining copies for your records.

Claimants in all states except Alaska may pay their annual maintenance fee online through the Mining Claim Maintenance Fee Payment Portal found at  https://payp.blm.gov/eppcore/home. You can pay your fees with an ACH checking or savings account. There is no dollar limit per transaction, except by the funds available in the account. You can also pay claims for multiple customers within a BLM Administrative State in one transaction. Simply search for claims using different customer names, and add all desired claims to an order until you are ready to pay.

When you get to the claim search page, select the state where your claims are located and enter either the last name of the claimant, the claim serial number, or the lead serial number to search for your claim.

Claimants who file on paper must include a document listing the claim/site name(s) and the BLM serial number(s) assigned to each claim for which the fees are being paid.

Do not forget to file new claim forms or affidavits of assessment with your county recorder as well.