How to strike gold while doing your own mining in the Sacramento area
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Can you still find gold in California? Inside a 21st century hunt for riches
How to strike gold while doing your own mining in the Sacramento area
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Gold was discovered in 1848 in the American River near Coloma, about an hour away from Sacramento, igniting the Gold Rush. And even though hundreds of thousands of pounds were extracted from California during the rush, some modern-day gold hunters are still finding glimmering yellow flakes.
If you want to do some recreational gold panning, you can go to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, Auburn State Recreational Area or South Yuba River State Park. At state parks, gold seekers can only use their hands and shallow pans.
Cory Dykstra, a prospector from Dixon with 10 years of mining experience on his belt, also recommends Bear River or the American River for gold hunting.
Before heading out with your pans, call ahead to know park rules about panning for gold. It’s helpful to be aware of environmental laws that may prohibit some forms of mining at California rivers and streams. For example, suction dredging, which is the use of a motorized tool to remove minerals near or in a body of water, is prohibited in the state.
“Environmental impacts of gold panning on a small scale are probably minimal,” said Charles Alpers, a research chemist at the California Water Science Center.
Genevieve Sparks, a geologist and lecturer at the California State University, Sacramento, said environmental effects depend on the season, amount of water in the stream, how many people are panning, prospecting methods and pre-existing conditions of the river.
Some dedicated gold hunters today are also purchasing claims to have the right to extract gold and other minerals on a parcel of land. This means only those who own the claim can pan and prospect on the land, and others must have permission before doing so.
Rich Dvoracek, geologist and gold mining historian said he recommends first-time prospectors join local groups, such as the Mother Lode Goldhound in Auburn or the Sacramento Valley Detecting Buffs.
“Those places, they really know what they’re doing and they can take people out to the different sites that they have permission to work at and then people can learn,” Dvoracek said.
Many of today’s gold hunters take part in responsible mining.
Responsible mining simply means that when we’re done mining, we’re going to leave behind no clues that we were there, said Dvoracek, who also works at Placerville’s Gold Bug Mine, This means not silting, or clogging up rivers and streams, and filling up dug up holes so no one falls or hurts themselves, he said.
What do you wonder? Submit your questions about the Sacramento region to “Bee Curious” at beecurious@sacbee.com or online at sacbee.com/bee-curious.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.