Treasure Hunting in Oregon - Read or Post a Message / Question Oregon Metal Detecting Clubs - On Lost Treasure Online©!
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Beaver State
GOLD In 1852, gold was discovered in Jackson, Josephine, and Baker Counties. Since then, well over 6,000,000 troy ounces have been extracted. There is certainly much more left, and this state provides lots of opportunities for prospecting! 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! Gold has been found in the following counties: Baker, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Grant, Harney, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Union, and Wheeler. The richest areas are the southwest and the northeast parts of the state with the most important mining regions being in the northwest.
Both lode and placer gold have been found throughout the northwest. Placer gold occurs in many streams that drain the Blue and Wallowa Mountains. One of the most productive placer districts in this area is in the vicinity of Sumpter, on the upper Powder River. The Burnt River and its tributaries have yielded gold. Farther to the west, placer mining (particularly dredging) has been carried on for many years in the John Day River valley. In southwestern Oregon, tributaries of the Rogue
River and neighboring streams in the Klamath Mountains have been sources
of placer gold. Among the main producing districts in this region are the
Greenback district in Josephine County and the Applegate district in
Jackson County. You can always ask for permission to hunt on any private property, but there are also several places you can pan and metal detect in public access areas. As always, please respect other's claims. Some of the following Public Access Areas are controlled by the BLM or the National Forest Service. Contact the designated authority for more information including maps and regulations before you go out. You must also get a permit for dredging from the Oregon Dept of Environmental Quality.
GEMS The State is known for the production of various picture and scenic jaspers, agates, thundereggs (rhyolite geodes), and petrified wood. Graveyard Point, Priday, and Polka Dot are names that are familiar to most agate collectors rockhounds, and many lapidaries. These are also names that are uniquely associated with Oregon and with beautiful agates. The same is true for the relationship between the names Biggs, Deschutes, and Sucker Creek and high quality picture or scenic jasper. Oregon's State rock, the "thunderegg," may be the best known gem material from Oregon. Thundereggs were not, as believed by some people, ejected from volcanos, but formed in very soft and friable volcanic ash beds. Solutions containing silica permeated the cinders until favorable points for chalcedony deposition were achieved. Aggregations of chalcedony were deposited, but before the material could fully solidify the center of the concretion split apart, possibly because of shrinkage, permitting the later introduction of additional materials. The resulting star-shaped centers of chalcedony may be in the form of agate, jasper, or in some cases different varieties of opal. Thundereggs are used in a number of ways. One of the most common uses is to simply saw the thunderegg into two pieces, polish the sawed face of each half, and use it as a display or decorative piece; bookends are also made in this fashion. Also, the thundereggs are sawed into slabs from which calibrated and freeform cabochons are cut. Additionally, at least one firm in the United States is manufacturing gem spheres from thundereggs. The premier U.S. gem-quality feldspar is the red labradorite, known as sunstone, mined in Oregon. Large quantities of gem-quality labradorite, most of it water-clear, straw yellow, or yellow sunstone, has been produced from deposits in southeastern Oregon for many years. In sunstone, the labradorite contains millions of copper platelets that reflects the light with varying intensities resulting in a golden-red play of color known as schiller. Although the common color of Oregon sunstone is straw-yellow, it also can be pink, peach, red, salmon red-orange, red-green, and blue-green. It also can be bicolored and tricolored in combinations of yellow, red, and green, and a small percentage is di- and tri-chroic. In 1988, the availability and quality of sunstone, other than the standard yellow Oregon variety, drastically increased with the discovery of the deposit that was to become the Ponderosa Mine. The vivid-red faceted stones and velvety-red cabochons from this mine set a new world standard for beauty, not just for red sunstone, but for any sun-stone. The opening of the mine also increased the supply of peach, salmon red-orange, red-green, green, blue-green, and bicolored and tricolored in combinations of yellow, red, and green. For the first time ever, there was a continuous U.S. supply of the more desirable colors in most of the calibrated sizes up to several carats needed by the jewelry industry. The largest faceted high-quality red sunstone is over 10 carats. The supply from this and other developed deposits will continue to be adequate for many years into the future. Also in 1988, West Coast Gemstones, Inc., began mining and marketing a variety of very fine-quality opals from Opal Butte in Morrow County, OR. The varieties produced includes hyalite, rainbow, contra luz, hydrophane, crystal, fire, blue, and dendritic. Exquisite stones as large as 315 carats have been cut from contra luz rough from this deposit. The deposit at Opal Butte has been known since the late 1800's. It was of interest only to hobbyists until recently because people believed most of the opal was unstable. Stability can be a problem with the opal, crazing can occur when stresses are created from shrinkage due to water loss. West Coast has developed methods of drying the opal that greatly reduce crazing. Even with the drying procedures, the stability varies from 20% to 90% depending upon the variety. The opals are found in rhyolite geodes (thundereggs) in a perlite that has altered to a pastel colored clay. The geodes that contain gem-quality opal are only about 10% of the total geodes mined and only about 1% of the geodes contain gem- quality opal with play of color. The remaining geodes contain agate, quartz crystals, or common opal. The geodes vary greatly in size, from a few centimeters in diameter to over a meter. The deposit continues to produce a supply of very fine quality opal for cutting and carving. Currently, a company has launched an American gemstone jewelry line based on the Opal Butte's opal. Plans are to operate the mine for at least the next 5 years. RELICS, COINS, & JEWELRY Oregon has a rich history of early settlements! Here's a few ideas to get you started:
LOST TREASURE As in other areas of the US, there are
several tales of lost treasure in Oregon concerning caches buried for safety. In many of these
stories, people either died or forgot where they buried the stash.
Contributing factors include: 2. Distrust of banks during the Great Depression.
These excerpts are a sampling from American Coin Treasures and Hoards |
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Information posted is from various United States Geologic Service (USGS)
material and the Gold Prospectors Association of America ( GPAA) Mining
Guide. The GPAA is a professional, family oriented organization
that's been around for awhile and they'll treat you right. There's
many more areas to find gold than what's listed above. If you are
serious about finding gold, we recommend that you check out your local
club to learn the proper techniques and some good spots to hunt from the
pros. The only alternative is to spend a whole lot of money on gas
and wasting valuable time doing your own thing. For more
information, Click Here |
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