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 […]
Yearly Archives: 2017
17 posts
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 […]
