Newest Location

Libby Creek - Kootenai National Forest, MT

 From their website:

The history of gold prospecting along the Libby goes back to the early 1860s. By 1867 there were between 500-600 miners working on Libby Creek in a mining camp names "Libbysville". Mining activity was short-lived, and by 1876 only one miner was reported to be working the creek. Placer mining activity ended in the mid-1880s.

In 1885 a second rush began in the area of Libby, Poorman and Bear Creek when miners filed claims on Libby Creek and hundreds of miners worked the area. A tent camp was established in the Libby Creek Mining District by 1886 and named "Lake City" or "Oldtown". A store in the mining camp was supplied by a packstring that brought supplies in via a trail from Thompson Falls. Mining on the Creek hit its peak from 1889 to 1909.

Mining activity and claims were located in the vicinity of the Gold Panning Area through the late 1880s and early 1890s, but no major mining development took place. The mineral claims in the gold panning area were surveyed in 1901 and ground sluicing began in the early 1900s. Hydraulic mining operations began in around 1909. The claims were sold in the 1930s to the Libby Placer Mining Company which installed hydraulic mining equipment and flumes on their claims on Howard and Libby Creek. There were 15 men employed to work the operation. 

Books and maps on finding Gold & Gems in Montana: 

Montana Gold & Gems Maps From: BlackCatMining.com

Rockhounding Montana From: BlackCatMining.com

About me...

Hi, my name is Dan. I live in Southern California with my wife Michelle and my two daughters, Alex and Olivia.

I've been interested in prospecting since I was a kid with my dad. Unfortunately we never went out prospecting when I was a kid. Not until I was in the California National Guard did I get my first taste of prospecting. It was during one of the musters that I saw one of my platoon sergeants, SGT. Hennesy (Hey Mike, drop me a line if you read this), reading a prospecting magazine. I asked him about it and he offered to take me up to the mountains to do a little panning afterwards. Well, we went up to Follows Camp on the East Fork and I panned my first pan. I remember that we only got a few flakes, but I've been hooked as soon as I saw that first color!

It didn't take my dad and I long to get our own sluice and pans. We did it on and off for the past 14 years or so. With no experience and what little knowledge we got from books and online we've found only a few flakes here and there. So I decided to join the GPAA and really take Prospecting on as a hobby. While talking to my dad about it, he mentioned that he would really like to take one of those all inclusive Prospecting Vacations that he had read about some years ago. This site came about because of that request. While doing research for a prospecting vacation for us to take, I realized that many (not all) of the locations out there had either very little or no information, or they where hard to find online. And I have to tell you, finding some of these locations was not easy. I'm sure I have missed many more.

Unfortunately, my father passed away before we could plan a prospecting vacation of our own. I hope to visit as many of these locations as possible and pass the joy of this hobby on to my own girls. Like many things, prospecting is becoming a lost skill. I encourage everyone to try it at least once. Just beware of gold fever, it's very contagious.

If you know of or own a Prospecting site that you think people might like to visit send the information to me. I will try to update the site regularly.