Gold Prospecting, Treasure Hunting, Mining, Relic Hunting, and Metal Detecting in Nevada

Silver State

GOLD

In 1849, gold was first discovered at the junction of Gold Canyon and the Carson River in Lyon County. At first, miners had a hell of a time separating their gold from a really tenacious blue clay. Later, it was revealed that the blue color was due to its unusually high silver content - worth many times than that of the comparatively smaller gold content! Nevertheless, Nevada now leads the nation in gold production, and its vast placer deposits allow many excellent opportunities for today's prospector.

Placer Deposits

A placer deposit is a concentration of a natural material that has accumulated in unconsolidated sediments of a stream bed, beach, or residual deposit. Gold derived by weathering or other process from lode deposits is likely to accumulate in placer deposits because of its weight and resistance to corrosion. In addition, its characteristically sun-yellow color makes it easily and quickly recognizable even in very small quantities.

The gold pan or miner's pan is a shallow sheet-iron vessel with sloping sides and flat bottom used to wash gold-bearing gravel or other material containing heavy minerals. The process of washing material in a pan, referred to as "panning," is the simplest, most commonly used, and least expensive method for a prospector to separate gold from the silt, sand, and gravel of the stream deposits. It is a tedious, back-breaking job and only with practice does one become proficient in the operation. Thankfully, technology finally caught up with our gold fever and brought us metal detectors!

Placer deposits (with many yielding sizeable nuggets) have been found in the following counties: Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Osgood, Lander, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey, Ormsby, and White Pine.

GEMS

An alluvial deposit of almandite garnet is found along Hampton Creek Canyon in White Pine County about 3 km from the mouth of the canyon. No production history is available for the deposit. The source of the garnet is quartz-garnet-mica-staurolite schist that forms a portion of the walls of the canyon.

Spessartine garnets can be found at several locations in White Pine County. Most of the dark brown crystals are of interest only as specimen, but a few will cut very small clear stones.

Nevada is known for precious opal from Virgin Valley. The first discovery of precious opal in the Virgin Valley area was in 1905 or 1906. Since then a significant quantity of the highly prized opal has been recovered. Virgin Valley opal is comparable to any in the world for its vivid play of color and in terms of the size of material available. Individual pieces weighing over 3 kilograms have been recovered from the Virgin Valley deposits. In 1993, miners found a 100-kilogram opalized log containing precious opal. The material varies in body color from deep pure black to brown to yellowish-white to white to colorless. The play of color includes all colors common to precious opal, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, etc. The opal occurs primarily as replacement of wood, or sometimes, as replacement of conifer cones. Some opal does occur as nodules filling void spaces in clay. The wood replacement is so complete, that generally the wood grain and banding are no longer visible. The exception to this would be that often the exterior wood texture is still present as a brown or black rind.

During the summer months, at least two dig for fee mines in Virgin Valley are open to individuals. One mine is operated by the Hodson family and the other by the Wilson family. Individuals pay a daily fee to dig and keep all the opal that they find. Other mines in the area are commercial opal producers.

Two other locations in Nevada also have produced precious opal. The opal does not have as good a play of color as that from Virgin Valley. One location is south of the Virgin Valley in the Calico Mountains of Humboldt County, and the other is near Gabbs in Nye County. The three precious opal locations and many other locations around the State produce common opal and opalized wood.

Nevada has been a major producer of turquoise since the 1930's, and until the early 1980's, the State was the largest producer in the United States. It is estimated that over the years, 75 to 100 different mines/prospects produced sizable quantities of turquoise. Production varied from a few thousand dollars worth of material at some of the properties to more than a million dollars at others. To date, total production of rough turquoise is estimated to be in the range of $40 to $50 million.

Turquoise from Nevada comes in various shades of blue, blue-green, green-blue, and green. Some of the turquoise may contain iron, if it does, its color is pale green to yellow-green to yellow. The material can be solid colored or spiderwebbed with either brown or black webbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any of the different colors or shades. Some of the blue material is represented as the finest pure-blue turquoise produced. It can occur in thin veins or seams or as nodules, with single nodules reported as large as 150 pounds. The quality varies from hard solid material that takes a good polish, to soft porous material that can only be use as feed stock for treatment, enhancement, or stabilization processes.

Associated with some of the turquoise deposits are two other gem materials that can resemble certain colors and shades of turquoise, but are separate mineral species. The first is variscite, and the other is faustite. Both have been mistaken for and marketed as turquoise. Attractive gem stones can be cut from both variscite and faustite and therefore, would be note worthy as gem materials on their own.

RELICS, COINS, & JEWELRY

Nevada has a rich history of early settlements! Here's a few more ideas to get you started:

Schools and College Campuses
Parks / Playgrounds / Picnic Areas
Foundations, Wells, and Cellar Holes of Old Churches or Houses
Downtown Construction Sites
Swimming Holes, Beaches, and Natural Springs
Camp Grounds, Boy Scout Camps, WPA Camps, and Mining Camps
Sports Facilities
Ghost Towns
Rodeo Arenas, Riding Stables, and Race Tracks
Old Fair and Carnival Locations
Old Town Dumpsites

LOST TREASURE

As in other areas of the US, there are several tales of lost treasure in Nevada concerning caches buried for safety. In many of these stories, people either died or forgot where they buried the stash. Contributing factors include:

1. Federal laws making possession of gold illegal in the early 1900s

2. Distrust of banks during the Great Depression.

Lost gold from the Mormon caravan, between Cave Valley and Ash Meadows near Carp, Lincoln County, has never been located.
A miser's fortune was hidden near the old Pogue Station southeast of Eureka, White Pine County
A bank robber's treasure was hidden near Six Mile Canyon near the road from Carson City to the ghost town of Ramsey.

These excerpts are a sampling from American Coin Treasures and Hoards