True North is, not surprisingly, a region of Alaska that has produced an enormous amount of gold since 1912. 

It took me a time to figure out just where it was, because this docuemnt, which seems to have been prepared for the Alaska Department of Transportation is apparently missing a few pages.  Most of it is not really related to small gold prospectors, but read it until you get to the part about just how thick the original vein of gold was.

That’s probably worth the trouble of downloading it for most of you guys: alaska-mining-true-north-area

Strike It Rich!

Here’s great document for California gold prospectors: A Historic Survey of Shasta County, California Gold Mines.  Really, for this is unbeatable information for California gold prospectors.

This is another TREASURE MAP for gold prospectors and yes I do appreciate all of the nice comments I get for posting these docuements.

This document is from 1995 and 158 pages long.  It’s a general study of the area, but over twenty pages are devoted to  the locations of old gold mines.  This is literally a treasure map!

Of course, be careful about trespassing if you go out looking for these mines, but there is a lot of Federal Land in the area that is easy for gold prospectors to access.

So, check out old-shasta-county-gold-mines

Strike It Rich!

Charlie

You can’t hear it too often. Gold mining equipment has to be tough and durable, because you are usually too far out to simply run to the store if something breaks or needs replacing.

However, the one piece of basic gold mining equipment that prospectors often over look is education. Gold mining is simply too much work not to be prepared. There’s a lot of good information on line, but we also recommend the book section at Black Cat Mining.

Most basic gold mining equipment, pans, picks, shovels, and other gear for outdoor expeditions changed almost none from the earliest days of the California gold rush until the last decade or so.

However, since about 1980 there have been several advancements in basic mining equipment that are really significant.  Some of this like underwater metal detectors and suction dredges were developed specifically for gold mining, but some of the gear that can really make you more productive and more comfortable is general outdoor equipment.

We recommend Uncle Sam’s Army-Navy Outfitters for general outdoor gear, because they sell high quality, often hard to find outdoor gear at amazing prices, and they offer great customer service. A lot of their gear is made to military specs and that is the sort of toughness that can come in handy for a prospector.

Clothing:

Gold mining, at least in most of the United States, has traditionally been a brutally cold business. Remember, miners often stand in ice cold mountain streams for hours on end. Except for the summer, when going barefoot is more fun, you need a good pair of rubber boots, but if you are trying in the fall and spring a good pair of insulated socks are necessity.

If you are going to try to run your dredge until the stream freezes, you probably should consider a pair of heated sock from Uncle Sams. Heated socks are almost the only way to keep your feet warm all day in a freezing stream, because most rubber boots are not insulated. Thermal underwear are another good idea in the winter, but remember you can’t afford to get dressed so heavily that you can’t move easily.

In the summer clothing is a much simpler proposition. Outside of Canada or Alaska you probably don’t need rubber boots and electric socks, but you might want to buy a good pair of river sandals or water shoes, so you don’t cut your feet on the jagged rocks.

Gold Mining Tools:

Basic mining tools are pretty much the same as basic landscaping tools, but they need to be extremely well built and easy to pack into remote locations. Look for picks and shovels with fiberglass or steel handles. Maybe you never get fired up enough to break the handle of a shovel doing yard work, but we you hit a hot spot with a lot of color it is easy to get carried away.

Camping Gear:

Depending on just where you are going you may not need much camping gear, but in many areas you will need a full range of camping gear. You can probably find everything you need at Uncle Sam’s Army Navy Surplus Storeat prices you just can’t.

Anyone wanting to become a full-time miner should probably head north to Alaska, because there are vast areas of Alaska where prospectors with modern gold mining equipment have never set foot. In fact, one of the biggest advantages that modern Alaskan prospectors have over their Klondike Rush ancestors is that bush planes, four wheelers, and snowmobile make it much easier to transport modern gold mining equipment and other supplies to remote back country locations.  So, you can spend more time looking for gold and less time looking for food.

However, some of the best areas for modern prospectors may be in Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas on the East Coast and in Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada in the Rocky Mountain region, and Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the Pacific Northwest, because all of these areas had significant historic production, but have not been mined as intensely as the California gold country. So, if 90% of the gold has yet to be mined in California, 95% or more has probably not been mined in these states.

Also, there are a handful of states like New Hampshire, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Tennessee which have had very limited commercial production, but have never had a huge strike.

If I was betting that’s where I would bet that the best chance for a huge strike to occur, because there is gold in those states. That’s a fact, but it is probably not as accessible to primitive production as in other states.  These are mostly states with small, well-worn mountain and any large viens are probably buried deeper in the more gentle terrain.  Remember, in the West it was the erosion that made the gold there obvious.  The Appalachains just aren’t steep enough to reveal their riches so easily.

Also, it is just not as much a part of the culture, so people may actually not recognize the signs of gold.  Remember, it was the small contingent of Union soldiers from California that first discovered gold in Maryland, because the were nearly all miners.

So, if prospectors really begin to carefully work those areas with modern equipment, such as gold detectors, there is a chance to really hit something monutmental.