"Panning Gold: Where the Heck is "Where You Find It" Located?"

"Panning Gold: Where the Heck is "Where You Find It" Located?",  Anyone even thinking about taking up prospecting has heard that one.
  Where the heck exactly is "where you find it" located and why do people keep telling you that?

While that answer is a bit frustrating for the beginner there is a lot of truth in it.
  Sometimes it has been sprinkled through areas by ancient glaciers or waterways.
  Trains and carts being wrecked while hauling gold to smelters have spilled loads of ore which might be found later in the streams downhill.
  It's really not as mysterious as it has been made to sound.
  Your main concern is that you are not hunting on someone else's property or claim.


The best place for the beginner to start is where you know that there are mines or claims uphill and upstream from your chosen location.
  If you can find a spot where a stream flowing downhill from known gold localities converges with  the stream you are going to hunt, this is a terrific place to start.
  It can be carried by a rapid current, but when the current slows down, the gold will drop to the creek bed.
 Look for spots in the creek where fast moving water is impeded or slows down.
 Bends of the creek where water rushes in the middle but slows along the shore of the bend are another good area.
  I know a man that swept a year's living expense worth of gold from an old corrugated pipe that ran under a road where a creek passed through.


When panning, you will want to dig a bit rather than just scoop from the top dirt.
  The smaller the grain or the more recently it has been dropped, the closer to the surface  you might  find it.
  Cracks and crevices in rock are also a great place to find grains of gold, but you may  need special suction equipment to get it out.


Just as there are the right places to look for gold, there are also the right times of year.
  A good plan is to go look the creek over during it's high season and take notes of the currents when the water is high.


Through practice you will soon become able to size up good spots on a creek to pan.


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