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Gold Panning in Siskiyou County
Siskiyou County's traditional gold-rush rivers...the Klamath, the Salmon and the Scott.
The history of Siskiyou County is rich in gold. Present day visitors can take a step back into the days of mining and panning through recreational gold mining on the Wild and Scenic Klamath River.
 The resources on this page will help you make the most of Siskiyou County's historic gold legacy, including guides and businesses, Siskiyou County events, attractions and activities for the traveler.
FEATURED SERVICES
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Full service motel with comfy Queen Beds, Cable TV, Microwave and Frig in every room. Great rates! Great location. Fishing and rafting shuttle services available.
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We provide recreational and small-scale gold mining opportunities to individuals and families who want to enjoy the great outdoors while searching for mothernature's golden treasures. Keep all the gold you find!
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Try your hand at gold panning yourself! The Gold Prospectors Association of
America estimates that 85 percent of the earth's gold is still loose on the planet, waiting to be found. You probably won't strike it rich. But you'll enjoy yourself immensely on a shady river bank, listening to the splashing waters of Siskiyou County's traditional gold-rush rivers...the Klamath, the Salmon and the Scott.
There is no use panning for gold in a stream where there is no gold, so go to a stream where people have found gold before. Ask for directions to public river access points at a local rock shop or a ranger station, and respect private property. The basic principle is simple: gold is much heavier than water (about 19 times heavier), so gold stays on the bottom of a river and gets caught in the sand in slow moving areas around bends of the stream and along the shore. It also tends to get stuck in small crevices in rocks and wedged in pieces of wood. Try to find places like this along the stream.
Gold-panning itself is easy! You'll need a shovel, a gold pan (check at a hobby store), tweezers or a paintbrush for capturing gold flakes and a tiny jar to hold any treasure you find. Panning techniques vary, but here's a simple beginner's technique. Put about 4 handfulls of gravel, sand and sediment from the riverbank into your gold pan, then top it off with stream water. Keeping the pan partially submerged, swirl it in a slow, circular motion so that the lighter materials will be carried away in the water. Keep doing this until almost all of the material in the gold pan is gone.
Now is the moment of truth! Push aside any rocks remaining, and examine the sand left in the bottom of the pan. Look for material with a shiny yellow sheen, not stuff that twinkles like a crystal (probably just fool's gold). It takes practice, patience, and a little luck to find gold, but keep trying. There's nothing like a gold flake or even a tiny nugget in the bottom of your gold pan!
Once you try gold panning, you'll be hooked, and eager for more instruction! The community of Happy Camp is the home of The New 49'ers Recreational Gold Mining Program. Introductory and training programs are
available to help create better recreational mining opportunities for people who visit Siskiyou County, and help more people become successful gold miners on all scales. They have 50 miles of proven gold-rich mining property for people to look for gold. The New 49'ers mining properties are located principally on the Klamath River and on creek tributaries in Happy Camp. It has been said that because The New 49'ers have so much mining property, the surface of their gold reserves has barely been scratched.
Come and join them for a great gold mining adventure and the great
outdoors.
For more information about The New 49ers, visit their website.
Find details on the history of gold mining on the Gold Mining of Siskiyou County web pages.
Just think...if you get incredibly lucky, a one ounce gold nugget will bring $2,000 to $4,000 on the collectors market!
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