Northern California Yolo area

I have never prospected putah but I did play around in a creek just below the dam that runs into to putah and found a little color.Also on putah creek road there are a few areas where they cut into the hillside and exposed cemented gravel and I have sampled it a few times and always find a good amount of gold in it just so hard to process..::stuff is super cemented.
 

That sucks but good to know the damn prob screwed up any chance of that.
 

I have tried putah and from what I've read and experienced is that the feeder creek right below the damn on the west side that's dry at this time of year will show some super fine color but you have do work hard to find it.
 

I've always wanted to try cache creek for a few reasons, one being that there are some really nice looking exposed bedrock and aluvial channels all over along the banks, but also I've heard that clear lake which feeds cache creek is the oldest natural lake in California geologically.
 

Asmbandits, I poked around that feeder creek you're referring too. Stebbins Creek. From research, there were a couple lode claims from the 70's & 80's in the area and even a placer or two. That's about all I've established thus far.
 

Yeah I know of the claims you are referring to that's what pointed me up there from the start. I never have been up that far to check that area out but possibly one day will have to.. I have panned the area where the two rivers meet and have found color.
 

I would try Cache Creek too. Apart from the retired McLaughlin Gold Mine, there were many Mercury Mines. I guess, Cache Creek has one of the highest concentration of mercury in the state. Here's a cool geology website if you haven't already read it; www.bioregion.ucdavis.edu

By the way, what was your method on Putah Creek?
 

That's really interesting about the mercury, never thought of that but I do know that coastal range is scattered with mercury and copper mines, most of them produced more that a few different minerals while in operation. There are some very heavily mineralized areas scattered here and there, quite a few mines near Knoxville north of berryessa. Cant forget the huge open put mine up there as well (having trouble remembering the name) they pulled a lot of microscopic and sulfide gold out of there.
 

The heavy deposits you mention are fragments left over from the Farallon plate aka Isabella anomaly. The North American plate and the Pacific plate converged onto and over (subduction) the Farallon plate causing pockets to remain in parts of Centeral California, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and even Baja Mexico. McLaughlin Mine was built atop a piece of that Farallon deposit. It's said that desposits sit between 62 miles and 124 miles from surface.
 

they pulled 60,000 us 1930 dollars out of putah creek in 1930. With a bucket dredge
 

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Charlotte Panning

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