Where to Pan for Gold in the United States

Free public panning areas by state.

California: the American River in Auburn State Recreation Area, near where the 1848 Gold Rush began, allows panning with hand tools. Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park at Coloma teaches panning.

Colorado: Cache Creek near Granite and Twin Lakes is a BLM area kept open for recreational panning with hand tools.

Alaska: the Chugach National Forest on the Kenai Peninsula sets aside recreational gold panning areas on creeks such as Resurrection, Sixmile, Crescent and Quartz creeks.

Montana: the Kootenai National Forest runs the Libby Creek Recreational Gold Panning Area.

Arizona: the Prescott National Forest keeps part of Lynx Creek open for recreational panning. Around Wickenburg and Morristown, northwest of Phoenix, private pay-to-pan outfits sell gold-bearing dirt.

Nevada: the Rye Patch area near Lovelock is known for nuggets, mostly found by metal detecting and dry-washing because water is scarce.

Pay-to-pan and historic gold mines.

Reed Gold Mine in Midland, North Carolina is the site of the first documented gold find in the United States, in 1799, and offers seasonal panning. Dahlonega, Georgia, the centre of the 1829 Georgia gold rush, has commercial mines with panning. Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone, South Dakota offers panning in the Black Hills. Pay-to-pan sites charge a fee but the dirt usually holds some gold.

How to pick a creek yourself.

Gold in a creek comes from gold-bearing rock upstream. Choose creeks that drain historic mining districts, then look where the water slows: inside bends, behind boulders, and in cracks in exposed bedrock. USGS stream-sediment samples show which drainages actually carried gold when they were tested.

Before you dig, check the BLM mining claim records: panning on someone else's active claim is not allowed. National Parks prohibit it entirely. State parks and forests set their own tool limits, often pans and hand tools only.

How PinPoint Treasure helps.

Open the free Map Explorer, zoom into any creek and turn on USGS stream samples to see where lab tests detected gold, with active mining claims and old mines on the same map. Ask PinPoint Treasure about a specific place or story and it researches the records for you: newspapers, land and mining records, old maps, LiDAR and land status, with the source behind every claim.

Where can I pan for gold for free in the USA? Public recreational panning areas include the American River at Auburn State Recreation Area in California, Cache Creek in Colorado, the Chugach National Forest panning creeks in Alaska, Libby Creek in Montana and Lynx Creek in Arizona. Much other BLM and national forest land allows casual panning outside active claims.

What is the easiest state to find gold in? California, Alaska, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado have the most placer gold country open to the public. Easiest depends on access: California and Alaska have many free panning creeks, while Nevada and Arizona favour metal detecting and dry-washing.

Do all creeks have gold? No. Only creeks that drain gold-bearing rock carry gold. Historic mining districts, USGS mine records and stream-sediment samples show which ones do.

Is it legal to pan for gold? Casual panning is legal on much BLM and national forest land and in some state parks, but not on active mining claims without the claimant's permission, not in National Parks, and not on private land without the owner's permission.

Where can I pan for gold near Phoenix? The closest areas are northwest of Phoenix: pay-to-pan sites around Morristown and Wickenburg, the Hassayampa River country, and Lynx Creek near Prescott.