Alluvial gold—how to find the source?

[StoryWriter85]

Hi all! My name’s Ryan and I’m new to this forum. I’m a beginner who knows little about prospecting, and am here to learn. I’m writing a novel set in 1870 about gold prospectors, and want to describe the process accurately—from tracing and digging methods to geology. I’ll probably ask many questions.

My first one is this: when panning yields alluvial deposits, what are typical ways to trace them to their source? For example, I know one way is to search hill slopes alongside the stream for eluvial gold…but how is this done? One source I found says to pan the dirt on the slope, while another says to dig holes. Could somebody explain why a person would dig rather than pan the dirt, or vice versa?

If the gold isn’t sourced at these slopes, how does one find it? Keep panning up river?

 

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[StoryWriter85]

The gold you are referring to that would be located on the slopes below an ore deposit is sometimes now referred to as “residual placer”. Gold from the source that has not been deposited/concentrated by gravity via. flowing water.

However, I would check out Google Books and read some literature written back during that period.

Folks now get all wrapped up in terminology that most prospectors back then would have no knowledge of since most of them might not have been able to read or write very well, Remember that during the early gold rush days, most miners were farmers or laborers cutting their teeth on mining.

On the west coast, the river placer mining came first because it was the most profitable. The load deposits were mostly discovered and mined later after things had been settled a bit.

Thanks for the insight, I appreciate it!

 

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[OwenT]

In theory, you pan in the creek at the likely spots where gold might be found and continue to move upstream until you stop finding it. Then, you take dirt from a little up the hill on either side and pan that to find out which side it’s coming from. You might try panning first from the surface and also digging down several inches at a time and panning that dirt to make sure you don’t miss anything. Assuming you find something then you keep going up the hill doing the same and sampling left and right until the gold disappears and the highest up point on the hill where you find it should be near or at the source. When people are saying to dig they mean dig and then pan. You will never just dig through the first and expect to see gold. The idea is that if there is gold, there will probably be a fair amount of very fine gold that will more or less evenly distribute itself through the dirt/gravel on its way down to the bottom of the creek. This is what makes it possible to pick up the trace. Even if there are nuggets, you are unlikely to stumble upon one.

At this point you need to be keeping your eye out for expose outcrops of rock that looks like it might be gold-bearing and try to visually locate the source. If it’s completely buried then you have to keep zeroing in using the pan sampling method.

Have you read All gold canyon yet by Jack London? This describes the process as well but it’s also idealized.

In the real world, I don’t know how people have been successful with this method because there are so many variables that can throw you off. You will only be able to find the last gold source on the creek so you better start far up at the head practically. Unless there’s one vein in the area that is throwing off significantly more than any other, it will confuse your samples because you will be looking for very small amounts of gold in your pan. Creeks concentrate and strip gold in different areas and small creeks can be very random in this way so you may not find gold in a pan when you are still below the source. The same goes for on the hillside. You don’t know how well the gold will be distributed and at what layer in the soil it might be present. Vegetation and the shape of the hill will also affect how it moves. It might be more productive to just look for rocks that are likely breaking off a vein and follow those up. Depending on the steepness of the hill and the climate there might be none to several feet of first covering the bedrock where the gold is eroding from. Gold often is coming off a vein and not a point source and you may not know what direction the vein is running or if it is in the bottom of the creek itself. These are all just some thoughts but if you make some assumptions then you can come up with a decent story.

The last thing I would mention is that if this is to take place in the Dakotas most of those states would have practically 0 chance of having an original source of gold because it’s all just sedimentary rock and eroded soil. Any gold present would be randomly distributed through the sediment but it probably came from Canada or somewhere else long ago moved by glaciers or rivers. In the black hills and other mountains, the gold is found in the rock because there was essentially some volcanic activity underground that deposited minerals along with the rock.

 

[russau]

Very good report ! Thankyou !!

 

[Tesorodeoro]

You get urself a forked willow branch and walk around carrying it in front of you feeling for dips while thinking of gold. Once you get a hit, hang a nugget tied to a string and watch the spin..it will start to sway back and forth. Careful watch which direction it sways. If it’s spinning clockwise while swaying the source is to the right, counterclockwise it’s to the left.

If it doesn’t move at all - you’re directly over the deposit. Dig until you hit the source. This method is so powerful that it could possible be up to 50 feet below, so don’t give up too early. You could be inches from a great bonanza discovery.

 

[N-Lionberger]

You get urself a forked willow branch and walk around carrying it in front of you feeling for dips while thinking of gold. Once you get a hit, hang a nugget tied to a string and watch the spin..it will start to sway back and forth. Careful watch which direction it sways. If it’s spinning clockwise while swaying the source is to the right, counterclockwise it’s to the left.

If it doesn’t move at all - you’re directly over the deposit. Dig until you hit the source. This method is so powerful that it could possible be up to 50 feet below, so don’t give up too early. You could be inches from a great bonanza discovery.

That’s batshit crazy. The hunting of gold via dowsing is dependent on where the sun is in relation to where you are hunting.

 

[southfork]

I walk around with a plastic bucket until the spirits tell me to stop. Then fill the bucket with rocks for the crusher sometimes they lie.

 

[StoryWriter85]

In theory, you pan in the creek at the likely spots where gold might be found and continue to move upstream until you stop finding it. Then, you take dirt from a little up the hill on either side and pan that to find out which side it’s coming from. You might try panning first from the surface and also digging down several inches at a time and panning that dirt to make sure you don’t miss anything. Assuming you find something then you keep going up the hill doing the same and sampling left and right until the gold disappears and the highest up point on the hill where you find it should be near or at the source. When people are saying to dig they mean dig and then pan. You will never just dig through the first and expect to see gold. The idea is that if there is gold, there will probably be a fair amount of very fine gold that will more or less evenly distribute itself through the dirt/gravel on its way down to the bottom of the creek. This is what makes it possible to pick up the trace. Even if there are nuggets, you are unlikely to stumble upon one.

At this point you need to be keeping your eye out for expose outcrops of rock that looks like it might be gold-bearing and try to visually locate the source. If it’s completely buried then you have to keep zeroing in using the pan sampling method.

Have you read All gold canyon yet by Jack London? This describes the process as well but it’s also idealized.

In the real world, I don’t know how people have been successful with this method because there are so many variables that can throw you off. You will only be able to find the last gold source on the creek so you better start far up at the head practically. Unless there’s one vein in the area that is throwing off significantly more than any other, it will confuse your samples because you will be looking for very small amounts of gold in your pan. Creeks concentrate and strip gold in different areas and small creeks can be very random in this way so you may not find gold in a pan when you are still below the source. The same goes for on the hillside. You don’t know how well the gold will be distributed and at what layer in the soil it might be present. Vegetation and the shape of the hill will also affect how it moves. It might be more productive to just look for rocks that are likely breaking off a vein and follow those up. Depending on the steepness of the hill and the climate there might be none to several feet of first covering the bedrock where the gold is eroding from. Gold often is coming off a vein and not a point source and you may not know what direction the vein is running or if it is in the bottom of the creek itself. These are all just some thoughts but if you make some assumptions then you can come up with a decent story.

The last thing I would mention is that if this is to take place in the Dakotas most of those states would have practically 0 chance of having an original source of gold because it’s all just sedimentary rock and eroded soil. Any gold present would be randomly distributed through the sediment but it probably came from Canada or somewhere else long ago moved by glaciers or rivers. In the black hills and other mountains, the gold is found in the rock because there was essentially some volcanic activity underground that deposited minerals along with the rock.

This was incredibly helpful, thank you! As for gold in the Dakotas, I am realizing this. For various reasons the story has to be set in South Dakota. So I have to take a huge artistic license with the geology, and hope that most readers simply will not care.

 

[Assembler]

This was incredibly helpful, thank you! As for gold in the Dakotas, I am realizing this. For various reasons the story has to be set in South Dakota. So I have to take a huge artistic license with the geology, and hope that most readers simply will not care.

You can take a artistic approach with the pan as well. Just take good notes as you jump around with the pan. Perhaps some photos along the way will help you to remember the better panning spots. The idea is to see if you can get better and courser colors as you go along to the point where there is some pickers if the source holds them.