Gold in Sacramento?

Heard me a story once about an old detectorest sneaking onto Aerojet property and collecting a lot of nuggets.
 

I was run out of Mississippi Bar a month ago. Sheriff on horseback told me no panning or detecting. Said not allowed to take anything since it is a historic site.
 

Wow, old thread. But I’m glad someone dredged it up. Very interesting to me. Wife has family in Roseville and usually I’m bored as F. Maybe I can venture out here and there and check things out.
 

I was run out of Mississippi Bar a month ago. Sheriff on horseback told me no panning or detecting. Said not allowed to take anything since it is a historic site.

And, of course, the reason it is a historic site is that people did what? Yup, panned for gold there. Their logic is mind boggling.
 

I think Mississippi Bar falls under state park jurisdiction. When the recycle place on Greenback was open the guys there would tell me of someone that worked the dredge piles at Mississippi with a rock hammer and score a specimen every now and then. As for Gold Creek it has been overrun by homeless camps the last couple of years an no trespassing signs have gone up along with a chain link gate on the access road in and more presence by Folsom Police. Here is a pic of the slumgullion in the roadcut next to the bridge.

1186D8E1-7393-40C5-A458-F1E2F878BE7D.jpeg
 

I think Mississippi Bar falls under state park jurisdiction. When the recycle place on Greenback was open the guys there would tell me of someone that worked the dredge piles at Mississippi with a rock hammer and score a specimen every now and then. As for Gold Creek it has been overrun by homeless camps the last couple of years an no trespassing signs have gone up along with a chain link gate on the access road in and more presence by Folsom Police. Here is a pic of the slumgullion in the roadcut next to the bridge.

View attachment 1701534

I don't mean to get political other than as it relates to this post, but some kind of accomodation will be made for the homeless, especially if they are here illegally. But working, tax paying Americans with a pan and trowel will be driven away.
 

No Gold around Sacto..it's all in a bank in Beverly Hills in somebody elses name:laughing7:
 

I don't mean to get political other than as it relates to this post, but some kind of accomodation will be made for the homeless, especially if they are here illegally. But working, tax paying Americans with a pan and trowel will be driven away.

ASRA going hands and pans under the guise of enforcing federal code/guidlines is what gets me into the realm of political discussion though it is mining related.
 

If you detect the tailing piles look for what was a clay balls they pick up nugs and took them out of the sluice box and drop then on the tailing piles

YES! This is what my best bud has also said! And is a real expert!The tailing piles have rattlers, so beware!
 

The only thing in Sacramento is high taxes and sanctuary sentiment.
 

* Bump *

Great Sacramento area thread.

Quick question - I need to access some tailing piles from the dragline dredges around Folsom/Aerojet/Rancho Cordova areas. I don't want to metal detect - I just want to collect black sand cons from the tailing sites.

Can anyone with access to tailings, or, who owns some property with tailings help me out? I am an industrial designer and want to test some prototypes I'm developing.

Thanks!

Peace and health,
James
 

I wanted to post something BUT it involved so-called representative's of our's and lineing thier pockets with gold before they leave BUT that's a kinda political statement and NOT allowed here as per rule's SO I WON'T POST IT !
 

* Bump *

Great Sacramento area thread.

Quick question - I need to access some tailing piles from the dragline dredges around Folsom/Aerojet/Rancho Cordova areas. I don't want to metal detect - I just want to collect black sand cons from the tailing sites.

Can anyone with access to tailings, or, who owns some property with tailings help me out? I am an industrial designer and want to test some prototypes I'm developing.

Thanks!

Peace and health,
James

Its all private. just go to the river nearby at one of the parks. Black sand is from the same source.
 

Ahhh yes - Sacramento County, where I first learned to pan. I lived in Fair Oaks from 1962 to 1972, (in Rancho Cardova 59-62) when most of the area was still "wild and wooly". My father worked for Douglas, and was deeply involved with the Apollo S-IVB testing done at the Sacto plant. I remember the old dredge that sat for years just off south Sunrise Ave (when Sunrise dead-ended at Douglas Rd. We lived next to a sheep ranch when we first moved to Fair Oaks, and a year or so later, the ranch was developed into a housing development. Between Fair Oaks and Orangevale, on Madison Ave, there was a lot of open land, and a we had the "goat man" who herded a large herd of goats in the open, undeveloped land between Madison and Sunset Aves. I get sad when I look at Google satellite photos and see how it is all built up. I lived on Illinois Ave, just off Sunset, and Illinois Ave. dead-ended at the American River at Sailor Bar. Piles and piles of dredge tailings, and the river had some pretty steep banks in some areas. It was about a mile from my house, and a short bike ride for me whenever I was out of school. I pretty much "owned" (in my mind) all the north side of the riverbank between Sailor Bar and Nimbus Dam. I worked the area for a couple of years, and found some color - just enough to keep me interested. In the two years I spent digging in that area, I "might" have accumulated a 1/2 ozt. I didn't find a glory hole there...but the north fork of the American up near Foresthill is a different story... I'm told that the Sailor Bar area is all county- or city-owned parkland, walking/bike trails, so likely nothing allowed other than "hands and pan", if even that.
 

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I look back and remember "how it was" growing up there in those time. My sister visited the "old neighborhood" about 4-5 years after we left, and even by then, the area had built up so much as to be nearly unrecognizable. The house we had lived in for 10 years had burned down, and the owner sold the 2 acres of land (for 5X what he paid us for) for developers to put up 4 condos with swimming pools.

The last couple years I lived there, I spent nearly all my spare time on the river near my house. There was not much gold to be found in my area - but enough to keep me interested, and over time, it did accumulate, and I had maybe 2 ounces of fine dust and a few tiny pickers until "that summer of '72".... My father and I loved to ride trail bikes on the trails and old mining and logging roads in the Sierras, and during the summers would take the whole family (and the neighbors) camping about once a month or so in the foothills NE of Auburn - Yankee Jims's, Mumford Bar, Iowa Hill, Forest Hill. I had made a rocker box as a school History project, and dad challenged me to "see if it was any good" on one trip. The winter had been rather mild that year, and not a heavy snow in the mountains, so the North Fork of the American River was running pretty low, and one area had a lot of bedrock exposed, including a crack about two feet wide running across the riverbed, just below a sharp bend. I set up my rocker box on the bank, and proceeded to digging out the crevice...and in two hours managed to get out about 5 ounces of good nuggets and pickers, ranging in size from peanuts to rice grains. That was my "glory hole". I worked the rest of the crevice, as deep as I could reach down, and managed to get 3-4 ounces over the next day or so. Altogether, I think my total take on that weekend was just under 10 ozt, including the cons I took home to pan out later. It was 1972, so I got about $300 for my haul that camping trip. Dad was nearly paranoid about me having so much gold, since it was still a Federal crime to "hoard" it, so he made sure I sold everything I recovered. I did keep a couple of nuggets, just for keepsakes, a 1.2 ozt and .75 ozt. That was the last camping trip we went on in California; six months after that summer, I was living in Kansas...not a real "hot spot" for precious metals...I just wish now I kept ALL of it.
 

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