Here at Finding Gold in Colorado, we have stepped up to create and publish the books Colorado prospectors want and need. We currently offer four books: The links above tell you more about each book and where to find each one, here’s where to find all four books in the […]
As a affiliate marketer I get fees if you buy certain products through my website. I ONLY recommend things I've used extensively and love. If you like the info here, please do buy through the links here, it's the only thing that covers the costs of building & running the […]
Here is an amazingly good article on epithermal gold deposits. Highly relevant to Colorado because it explains the vast majority of our gold deposits. Of course, we also have volcanic deposits such as in Cripple Creek and Lake City areas, but the majority of our hard rock gold occurrences in […]
121-year-old western Colorado mining flume clings to its secrets Click on the picture above to go to the article directly. Or try this Colorado mining flume clings to its secrets – The Denver Post. Just don’t click on the DP logo at the bottom of the image since that takes […]
https://findinggoldincolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ChillsAndThrills_KevinSingel-1.pdf Check out this magazine article I wrote! It was published in the Gold Prospectors Association of America’s GPAA Gold Prospector, Jan/Feb 2024 edition. Of course, I also suggest joining the GPAA at www.goldprospectors.org or at least subscribing to their magazine for 25 bucks a year. HAVE FUN going prospecting […]
Where and how to dig year-round in Colorado. Includes links to specific prospecting sites recommended for each season of the year.
Benjamin Stanley Revett was a British-born mining engineer and entrepreneur who made his fortune in the gold-dredging business in Colorado. He was known as the “Gold Dredge King” for his innovative use of dredge boats to scoop up riverbed material in search of gold for the first time in Colorado. […]
Ben Parker is justifiably one of the heroes of the Colorado gold prospecting community. He was a student at Colorado School of Mines over 60 years ago. For his dissertation, he chose to create a compilation of ALL the information he could find about gold placer deposits across the state. […]
There was recently a broadcast of a short piece about prospecting in metro Denver with long time fellow prospector and friend JJ Long and me. The local TV station, KDVR 31 runs special interest stories about cool things across the state. When they decided to talk about gold prospectors, they […]
Announcing the latest book in the FInding Gold in Colorado series: The Wandering Prospector. Available now!
The Edwin Carter Museum on the east edge of downtown Breckenridge is a charming little museum housed in the original log cabin of Edwin Carter. Carter was a multitalented guy and was in Breck for its early days. If you are exploring Breck during a visit, this is a fun […]
Hi all, the following article is from Paul Schiffer. Paul is a relatively new prospector who has taken a very intense approach to the initial learning process so I thought he would be a good person to write a guide for other new prospectors. Now here’s Paul:At some time, everyone […]
Gold prospecting in Puerto Rico dates back to at least the Spanish in the early to mid-1600’s, so it’s no surprise there’s still gold to be found today!! On a recent visit, my wife and I were able to spend some time gold panning the Mameyes River in the USFS […]
4-Wheel drive guide books to the Alpine Loop and the Animas Forks Triangle, in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.
5280 Magazine is the premier magazine in metro Denver. I was thrilled to see that when they recently wrote an article on gold panning, they chose to reference this website twice! I’m so happy my efforts to serve the prospecting community are reaching a broader audience. On top of that, […]
Was it the last hurrah of the small scale miners? Gold mining in Colorado goes back a long way of course. One of the more interesting periods after the initial gold rushes is the Great Depression era of the 1930’s. The industry went into the Great Depression in a weakened […]
One of the great mysteries which stumped The early gold rush pioneers was the gold they found in metro-Denver, and south of there, which seemed to have no upstream source. This mystery was highlighted several times in the early stages of the gold rush: – decent gold found in spring […]
We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new tool every prospector should put to work! Keeping track of where you dig will help more than you may realize. By tracking our outings and how those trips turn out, we can learn more, faster, and become better prospectors. This […]
We are very excited to announce the next book in the Finding Gold in Colorado collection! Finding Gold in Colorado: Inspiring Images takes you on a photographic journey through Colorado Gold Country. If you enjoy the Prospector’s Edition, you’ll love this new book. It includes hundreds of full color photos, […]
Think like a miner. Hmm what does that mean if you are a small scale prospector in a public access prospecting area? Well, a miner is someone working a mine. Maybe on their own claim or someone else’s. Either way, a miner thinks longer term. They know they will be […]
The southwest part of Colorado was the last area properly explored by US gold prospectors as they migrated across the state. Many towns such as Ouray, Telluride, Silverton, Durango, Rico, Dolores and Placerville owe their existence to the early prospectors. While my book (learn more about it here) and various […]
Gold Rushes in Colorado left many old ghost towns, Mills, and mines worth visiting for their history, beauty, and even their gold!
Ever heard of the Iron Springs Divide? How about the Little Snake River? Maybe Lay Creek? These are geographic features in far northwest Colorado and are geographical highlights of a gold bearing region better known for the town of Craig, Dinosaur National Monument, and the Yampa River. The placer gold […]
Ever wonder what the gold rush era miners drank besides beer and straight whisky? Here’s a couple popular cocktails you might like to experiment with yourself:
Interested in what it was like to be a prospector before the Colorado Gold Rush? Here’s the journal of the first U.S. person to discover serious gold in Colorado and then mine it. George Andrew Jackson was a big part of making the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859 into […]
Like this website and the Finding Gold in Colorado books? Want other prospectors to know you’re in the know? Then check this out! Lots of cool gear with the official logo on it. Note: I get a small commission from each item sold on Red Bubble so…thanks for your support! […]
Many small-scale prospectors dream of owning their own mining claim but don’t want to face the challenge of locating a new one. Instead, the idea of buying an existing claim sounds more appealing. Is this you or maybe your prospecting buddy? Buying an existing mining claim on federally managed public […]
Our next-door neighbors in Utah have some beautiful lands worth exploring. This is also true for gold prospecting in Utah. While there was never a real gold rush in Utah, there are accessible placer deposits in each quadrant of the state. If you are interested in learning more, you need […]
Gold bearing placer streams in Colorado are generally many thousands of years old, sometimes millions of years old. In that much time, a stream can move around and erode much deeper into a valley. As this happens, cobble deposits containing gold can be orphaned, or left behind, by the flowing […]
When exploring old mining districts across Colorado, prospectors may run into hard rock mines with ore dumps nearby. These large piles of brocken rock from underground can contain impressive gold/rock specimens and overlooked ore. Mine-side ore dumps are often a combination of barren rock removed as the original miners followed […]
Many of the waterways of Colorado are gold bearing and carry flood gold downstream during high water seasons. As many placer gold prospectors quickly learn, flood gold accumulates in cobble bars. Studying the details of how gold accumulates in a cobble bar will dramatically increase gold production for casual prospectors. […]
Finding Gold in Colorado Book Index: The following index will be included in books published in late 10/2018 and onward. It is provided here for those who own the earlier version of the book in an effort to continue to make the book more useful to all. For those without […]
Lions Park is about as challenging a place to pan as you may ever find. Well, that may be overstating it a little bit. The Cache la Poudre River runs through the park bringing small amounts of very fine gold downstream to collect here where the river is flatter and […]
In the course of the research for my book (buy it here) and otherwise, I found quite a few online resources to be helpful. So, to give others a hand, here is my random collection of helpful web links. But first here’s a picture of some gold…because, gold. DRCOG interactive […]
This is a claim marker for a claim next to one of the spots in my book. It’s accurate and quite clear in what it is marking. Even without this, a gps will guide you in staying on the public lands where you are welcome since I provide GPS coordinates […]
To help those of you planning trips, this simple map shows you which areas of the state are covered in each chapter of the book Finding Gold in Colorado – Prospectors Edition. This image should print fairly well at 8×10 but be sure to set your printer to “best” print […]
My book on gold prospecting across Colorado is now available here and ‘in stores everywhere’. It has even been updated for 2024. Awarded recognition as the “#1 New Release” in its category on Amazon in June 2018 and an “Amazon Bestseller” in May 2021 and frequently since! Over 10,000 sold […]
The Museum of Northwest Colorado (http://www.museumnwco.org) recently added a permanent exhibit on the gold prospecting and mining history of that part of our state. This area is not well known for gold since there was no significant gold rush around these parts. The historical prospectors found gold but the lack […]
The Hidee Mine is one of the easier underground gold mine tours to do since you walk right into a flat, dry tunnel. It’s also very easy to get to from the Denver area. It’s on the Central City Parkway between I-70 and Central City. If you’ve been to Central […]
At some point, many casual prospectors get the itch to have their own claim. Then the discussion comes up about buying one vs. locating their own. Buying seems simpler to many but is rife with risks that lead to needing to do many of the same things as locating your […]
Prospectors Gold and Gems (PG&G) is an important asset in the commercial gold mining infrastructure of Colorado…available to prospectors all over. It is also more than that, it’s a one stop shop for a whole range of post-digging services small scale miners and active prospectors may desire. Back in the […]
The BLM manages what it calls the Piñon Bridge Recreational Placer Mining Area to allow casual prospecting by visitors on the San Miguel River. The land highlighted in green on the map is open to casual use but is unclaimable because it was previously private (railroad company) land and was […]
Some of my readers here are planning a visit to the Rocky Mountains as part of a family vacation, prospecting adventure or other sojourn. If you are inexperienced with real mountains, you may have some anxieties about coming. Worried about extreme weather, fast moving rivers, dangerous animals, road conditions or […]
Most people stop at Vic’s Gold Panning to learn to gold pan. No shock right? But, honestly, there are lots of places to learn to gold pan…although some are less picturesque or less convenient (“Vic’s” is on the way from Denver to Blackhawk/Central City so its an easy stop when […]
A visit to the WMMI will excite and educate anyone with an interest in gold mining in Colorado. Indeed, this museum could almost be called the Colorado Museum of Gold Mining! When I visited, I was thrilled to see their focus on gold mining while also educating on mining and […]
Your author doing some off season digging in Colorado. The trees are brown, but the gold is still yellow!
The BLM reacquired the land and river south of Norwood Bridge after it had been in private ownership. This unclaimable land along the San Miguel River is now available for your non-motorized prospecting. The gold here is pretty good! You get to this area by taking highway 145 easterly and […]
WARNING: This site may be closed at times due to environmental concerns. Contact the BLM office in Montrose or in Grand Junction before making plans to visit this location. Rattlesnake Gulch is a historic area north of Delta off Highway 50. It was private (railroad) land which the BLM reacquired […]
I think most of us have climbed around on old tailings piles, or walked a creek bed, while picking up interesting stones. As gold prospectors we are attracted to rocks that aren’t just pretty, they provide intriguing clues pointing us toward gold. Of course, you need to know what mineral […]
The next time you are in the Leadville area, consider walking or biking the Mineral Belt National Recreation Trail to see cool gold rush artifacts and mining sites. My wife and I drove due east from Leadville on 7th Street for a mile or so until we crossed the trail. […]
In the fall of 2016 I was driving by a construction site in our little town of Silverthorne. The site is a block west of the main highway through town and therefore about three blocks from the Blue River. The construction was for a new microbrewery and I noticed a […]
The Gold Cube is absolutely a standout product for us small scale gold prospectors in Colorado. Our beautiful state is known for having fine gold that prospectors back in the gold rush found frustrating. This makes the Cube an ideal tool for the serious prospectors who want to move up […]
That little scatter of gold above Ike’s forehead is a good reminder to bring your concentrates home no matter what! Why you ask? Well this gold comes from an outing to the BLM lands just north of Joshua Tree National Park in early December 2016. It’s dry land so I […]
Cherry Creek was one of the first places early prospectors found gold in Colorado. In 1858 William “Green” Russell and his party even briefly set up the gold camp “town” of Russellville south of the modern town of Parker on Cherry Creek. They moved on toward Denver fairly quickly looking […]
Point Barr is unclaimable land on the Arkansas River where you can drive right to the riverside and get to digging! The gold here is the typical fine Arkansas River material. This means fairly consistent in size – small! This means it would be the ideal place to run a […]
Learning about gold placer mining includes everything from panning (which we all do) to sluicing, dredging and, at the large industrial scale, hydraulic mining which is also called hydrauliking. Maybe you’ve seen modern hydraulic mining on TV. The Gold Rush TV show included this technique when the Hoffman team was […]
There are quite a few places around here to buy prospecting supplies. When you need gear, please shop via my links or support your local shop. There’s nothing like looking at your choices in person to get what you need and getting expert advice as part of the bargain. If […]
I’m sitting at my computer, looking out the window at yet another winter storm (we’ve had almost 6 feet of snow this month (12/2016) here in Summit County!) and satisfying my gold fever with a little winter reading. I thought you might like to see some of the best of […]
A must-visit for any casual prospector spending time in the Colorado mountains, Cache Creek was a commercial operation that was shut down in the midst of productive operations. Of all the places open to casual prospecting in Colorado, this is the one to hit if you dream of finding a […]
If you are reading this “now”, you missed the grand opening, but the overlook is open 24/7/365. Call the Victor Lowell Thomas Museum about scheduled tours of the whole historic mining area. The tours are organized through the museum in Victor; learn more here. …to read more about this site […]
The Lomax Placer site gives you a chance to see and touch placer hydrauliking equipment at a site where it was actually used. You can also see a fully equipped gold assay office, small museum and learn to gold pan. As you drive up Gold Run Road from Highway 9 […]
The chunk of Clear Creek in north-central Denver from Broadway to Washington St. has some really good gold. This stretch of river also has quite a few bridges over it which does two good things: provides some shade for summer digging Means there’s bigger gold in the top gravels that […]
Newmont North America runs the huge open pit Cresson gold mine near Cripple Creek, a small town in the Colorado Rockies. The folks running the largest gold mine in Colorado today have done a lot to support the local community from sponsoring local sports leagues to donating the gold to […]
If you make it to Denver, this is a must stop! The Hall of minerals has lots of gorgeous crystals, mineral samples and lots of gold, especially Colorado gold. Here’s the entry area on the ground floor of the museum: They are even encouraging everyone to “be a prospector”!! Here’s […]
Dudley’s bar is upstream from Big Bend (see my other post on Big Bend) a bit. This part of the South Platte is just down stream of the confluence with Clear Creek and due to some quirks of river flows during high water events, there’s GOOD gold on the west […]
For a couple years, the Jefferson County Open Space website had a page on their rules for prospecting in the park and guess who they picked as a model for doing it right? In the pic, I’m dressed for cold weather because it was December! That’s a Gold Cube with […]
Digging in the city means participating in recreational gold prospecting as a guest of a local government, parks & rec district or similar organization. While the tools of prospecting are the same (shovel, pan and sluice, maybe an electric highbanker like the Gold Cube), the process of finding a spot […]
A while back, I had a friend from China and her husband come visit. They wanted to spend a day as gold prospectors, so we visited Arapahoe Bar to dig (see my post about that site here). We dug the bottom of an existing hole and did very well, so […]
Goldstrike Park is an Arvada City park at the confluence of Ralston Creek and Clear Creek…both of which are gold bearing and open to non-motorized prospecting. On Ralston Creek, you can find fine gold just about anywhere in the stream bed. A large cobble bar has developed under the 56th […]
The gold in metro Denver is in almost every waterway big enough to have a name. In the early days of the gold rush this was confusing and frustrating for the first American prospectors. They found gold way out southeast in Elbert County, due south of what’s now Denver in […]
A friend of mine has done his own blogging about places to go digging in metro Denver and he has some great spots to tell you about. Red Wilcox is the co-inventor/owner of the Gold Cube, Banjo Pan and the inventor of the Gold-n-Sand hand pump/dredge. (Note: I have an […]
Exit 210C off of northbound I-25 in downtown Denver drops you right into Crescent Park on the east side of the highway. Driving a few yards south, you’ll see parking next to the South Platte River. Walk straight to the river and you’ll find yourself on the cobble bar. From […]
This is a bad news, good news story. But first, a little background. Grant-Frontier Park is on the South Platte River just South of Evans Ave (and west of Santa Fe) in central Denver. This has been a popular gold prospecting location since the very beginning of US citizens coming […]
This site is just west of Broadway on the south side of 70th Ave. That’s right, it’s plop in the middle of north metro Denver. There’s a nice sign you’ll see from 70th Avenue and there are 32 parking spots here, plenty of room to bring your friends! It’s a […]
This is a spot you have to see to believe! Big Bend has good gold and lots of it! It’s officially called Steele Street Open Space Park and is part of the Adams County Open Space parks. You arrive at a parking lot on the east side of Steele Street […]
Arapahoe Bar is a Prospecting Park in west metro Denver (in Wheat Ridge specifically…thanks Wheat Ridge and Jefferson County!) which welcomes prospectors for free on a gold bearing stretch of Clear Creek. As you can see in the photo, this site has an important part in the history of Colorado. […]
Prospector Jack does a great job showing where to prospect…much better than just “telling” right? You have located a prospect. So now what. This is what I look for. I look for what I call the gold line, and that is the path that gold will most often travel. There […]
Prospectors often ask each other when they got ‘the fever’. For me it came when I was a six-year-old kid. My dad used to read National Geographic magazine to my little brother and I after dinner. We had fun with the stories about gold prospecting in Australia, Africa, etc. In […]
People have been “finding gold in Colorado” since well before there was a place called Colorado and are still actively doing it today. From American Indian residents of this area and early Spanish and French explorers finding gold in the streams and using it in trade, to modern residents digging in […]
