Does anyone do this anymore?

Wife and I panned for gold in Alaska and the Yukon in the summer of 2019. We enjoyed the heck out of it. Once my wife found a couple little flakes of gold, she really got the fever. Something we will likely do again.

Edited to add that we were just panning for fun, not trying to make money.

I sure there are plenty of hobby panners still around.
None of them are driving Ferrari's.

I will be one of these days and drive my 17 year old PU truck back loaded with it, tires all flat and frame bowed.

I do some panning at the many old mine sites here. I actually found a small nugget when I was a kid and bought a 22 rifle with the money.

so true

Panning, metal detecting, and dredging we haven't even scratched the surface on this gold country.

There's a long-abandoned hard rock gold mine on son's place.

I've seen plenty of gold diggers.

The Apple Dumpling Gang


lol

Wabigoon….paging wabigoon.

Might be a water moccasin in there!

Morewood,,,,
You climb in that sucker,has to be loaded with critters

Same thought Barry.....

Thanks for the replies, I wasn't sure if it was still something folks went out and did anymore

Frequently, lots of placer gold in Montana

Looks like a Bear den. A guy I used to work with, would go to Alaska every year with his brother. He showed me a couple of little bottles he had with gold he had found panning about a ounce and a half. Said they both enjoyed it, camped out and fished.

No water moccasins out here, rattlers yes.

It was with no small amount of trepidation when we first went in the mine. It was flooded waist high at the time so we wore waders and tied a rope around us. There's a year round spring with clear cold water coming out of that mine flavored by the bones of the Chinese miners trapped behind the cave-in about 400 foot in.

I’ve done some around home. I’m not very good at it.

I've a pan in Wabigoon!

I have. Will again.

I'm not in "gold country". But a fleck or two can turn up just about anywhere. Just not in my pan, yet.

Ever find any color in that area ??

I took my pan last trip to Ignace. But never got a chance to run any material. I suspect gold could be found in that vicinity.

No

Verylargeboots;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day behaved for you out east and you're well.

Where I'm sitting tonight in the south Okanagan valley in BC was opened up by 49'ers who were working their way north following the "easy" placer gold on the coast and into the interior plateaus.

There's a little town called Rock Creek which is an hour east of here that perhaps has a couple hundred souls there now, but in 1860 there were 15,000 miners in 3 camps over there.

We also had a fairly big gold rush on the Fraser and as the miners pushed north from there, the big Cariboo Gold Rush in 1862 happened.

Anyways all that to say that yes there's still folks who have mineral claims here - we see them all the time when we're hunting - and some weekend gold panning types do okay enough to pay for expenses. It's a bit of a thing here and going north into the old Cariboo fields - and of course it's still going in a huge way in the Yukon and northern BC.

My brother in law's dad had a placer claim in the old Cariboo gold fields which he'd work all summer, then come home with buckets of black sand which he'd pan while watching TV in the evenings. Between that and some winter drywall jobs he did alright.

All the best.

Dwayne

Big busness here in AZ, the only people making money are the equipment salesmen!

Hmpf.............

I'd have almost bet................

Friend, Nugget Creek, is a block away.

I did it for a living underground.

I pan the culverts in southern Oregon ,California, and parts of Nevada, in the spring. Usually don't find much, it gets me outside. After about five years I might have, four or five grams of small flake and dust. And five hundred dollars in gas spent!

I did when I was working in California in the early 90s.
One time on the feather River a lady down stream found a 1/4 oz nugget shaped like a shark tooth
She sold it too me for 85 dollars cash
I had it made into
A necklace funny I paid more for the gold chain
I never wear it much it’s heavy and has wore through the clasp once and I almost lost it

You would make more money panning for lead shot in the marshes

my son and i picked up 3 claims this spring, after accessing the ground on 2 adjoining claims we need to apply for permission to bring in my excavator to test dig a back channel that may never been touched or at least not for 70 years.

I always wanted to go work on one of the claims like you see on the show Gold Rush. I figured I'd be best suited to drive one of the dump trucks. Too old and broke up to do much climbing around on some of those machines. Just getting to see how the operation works and the country would make it worth while. Other than what I've seen on tv, I know nothing about any kind of mining.... except it's hard work.

There's a gold panning club in Indiana. They get almost enough flyspeck to pay for gas for the dredges.

There are hundreds of abandoned hard rock and placer gold mines nearby. I have been in most of them. I have metal detected in and around them. Never found a nugget, but have dug many interesting mining artifacts and coins. I have only toyed around with panning. It is a lot of work to do it right.

Lots of panning around here. The whole Kenai Penn is set aside for recreational gold panning (unless it has been claimed.)

Friend borrowed gear, found a big nugget, got the fever, bought gear and never found more gold to speak of.

Yes. Enjoy teaching young folk how to pan every year. Most always find color...

On USFS trail crew in late 60's, early 70's we would shovel dirt all day, then in the evenings shovel more, panning for gold in Resurrection Creek. Busman's holiday?

Found some flecks, but we were above the good stuff down toward the mouth, near Hope, first discovered in 1898 or so.

Still guys trying to find gold down there in thrice worked dredgings....

They are all gonna get rich!

About 20 years ago I went on a hunt in Canada's Mackenzie Mountains that cost me around $10K. I brought back a Dall ram, a Mountain caribou, and a Wolverine.

That same year a friend of mine (who belonged to that Gold Prospectors Club that used to have a show on the Outdoor TV channel) went on a Club prospecting trip to Alaska and he brought back a big nugget that was worth about what my hunt cost.

A lil bit:



The larger ones are 2+ ounces.

Probably easier to mine for bitcoins.