Resources for the gold prospector on the web and in the literature. Additional
references on specific topics such as prospecting equipment or gold history can
be found on pages dealing with these topics. The date new
links are added will be noted in red. Not all of the links
seem to be currently active. If you know the current address of a broken link, please
send me an e-mail (address at bottom of page) with the correct URL (web address).
Known broken links are currently highlighted in green.
- Sept 2002, the The Gold Ledge - Mining and
History Pages has historical documents, museum trips, feature stories,
historical stories, maps of many gold areas (even some in Arizona) and places of
Gold Rush days.
- Aug 2002, the Alaska Recreational Gold
Prospecting Site is chock full of information on gold prospecting in Alaska
along with some interesting stories.
- Jan 2002, the Tankavaara Gold
Prospector Museum in Finland has interesting pictures and articles about gold.
All the pages are in English except the Golden Pictures.
- Apr 2001,
Arizona Roadrunner Prospector's Club, the big boys out of Phoenix with over
200 mining claims. One of the biggest clubs in the U.S.
- Mar 2001, Gallery of Gold
by Mr. Steve Walsh has spectacular gold specimen pictures.
- Feb 2001, Sahara Meteorite Prospecting
by Richard and Roland Pelisson has great pictures and identification infomation.
- Jan 2001, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee,
especially the "what's new" page.
- Dec 2000, Topozone for all the USGS
topographic maps in the continental United States and Puerto Rico.
- Nov 2000, The Treasure Hunter and
Metal Detectorist Newsletter at http://adeptweb.com/treasure/index.htm.
Note that this site seems to be gone as of 7 Feb 02.
- Oct 2000, The International California Mining Journal has many interesting articles.
See Mining Articles for a list of local articles of interest from their past issues.
- Sep 2000, Gold Prospecting at the Colorado River in El Dorado Canyon, Nevada has some good info on a site near Las Vegas.
- Aug 2000, Delos Toole's "Where to Find" prospecting books: "Arizona's Placer Gold," "Gold in California," "Gold in Oregon," "Gold Nugget-Teering in Nevada," and "Yankee Placer Gold".
- July 2000, Gold'n Gem Grubbin' is a commercial gold placer mine in Northern Georgia which is also a vacation destination and allows visitors to pan or dredge for gold, camp, and fish on the property.
- June 2000, Gold Lust for info on a fictional mystery thriller called "Gold Rush" by Ed Mitchell. It is about a West Coast family that discovered the eastern branch of the motherlode in modern times.
- Apr 2000, Grubstake at http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/trails/2047/gshome.html
is a free site dedicated to teach others the art and hobby of recreational gold
prospecting. Note that this site seems to be gone as of 7 Feb 02.
- Mar 2000, Sixteen to One Gold Mine is a modern day gold mine that utilizes metal detectors to locate highgrade ore. Spectacular specimens and rich history.
- Feb 2000, The Ghost Town of the Month by Mike Mogan, is a list of all the ghost towns in Arizona and premiers a Ghost Town of the Month.
- Jan 2000, Colorado Nuggets by Steve and Beverly Rice. Shows spectacular gold nuggets from Siberia, Alaska, Colorado, California and Bolivia.
- The Miners' Story Project preserves
the history and heritage of mining through interviews of miners and families
to document stories of the early mining days and prospecting. If you missed
the DGD September monthly meeting, or want more information about the
presentation, check out the web site. (10/01/08)
- Detectors Unlimited is
a metal detecting club in Tucson that holds monthly meetings with information
on metal detecting, types of detectors, using detectors, where to search and
what you might find. Topics may include metal detecting in parks, playgrounds,
old buildings, vacant lots and talks on military history, mining, railroading,
meteorites, map reading or cleaning of coins. Some of the outings include
detecting in gold areas.
- The Pima County
Coalition for Multiple Use (PCCMU) is a coalition of several organizations,
businesses and individuals with a broad range of interests related to property
rights and uses on private, public and state lands. These interests range
from zoning and property taxation to Agricultural, industrial and recreational
in nature. They hold regular meetings and the public is invited to attend.
Note that this site seems to be gone as of 1 Aug 05.
- The Arizona Department of Mines
& Mineral Resources has statewide mining information. Their page on
Arizona Earth Science Clubs
lists our club as well as other related clubs in Arizona.
- The ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center
is close to Tucson and is one of the few places in the country where you can
learn first hand about modern day mining by visiting a working copper mine.
Copper is one of our most important and most useful metals and it is to
everyone's benefit to learn more about its uses and how it is obtained. Most
of us have only read about mining so this is a great opportunity to actually
get a close-up look at modern large scale mining.
- Infozona of Arizona, the largest Arizona
specific search engine in the state. Has links to over 13,000 Arizona clubs,
organizations and businesses.
- The Arizona Geological Survey has a lot of
information online, including bulletins, maps, reports, etc. They have a page on
Gold Prospecting with
downloadable publications in PDF format. Lots of good info. Thanks to
Carter Thoenes for this link. (added 11/01/09)
This a list of groups that are working to support our rights to prospecting and
other related uses of our public lands. These groups should be supported by all of
us. If anyone has links of similar organizations, please send them to the webmaster.
It is important for all of us interested in outdoor recreation to monitor
new and proposed changes in federal regulations. To this end the links given
here should be monitored by members and important news brought to the attention
of the club. In this same vein, let's not forget private sector activities that
affect us as well, such as the road closure across private land in the Greaterville
area or the possibility of development on private lands within the national
forests. If anyone has any links that might be helpful in this regard, please
send them to the webmaster.
- Bedrock Dreams is a
blog that now has over 100 posts/articles on all aspects of placer
gold mining. There is interesting informaton on this web site. (10/01/08)
- The Prospecting Channel
has a prospecting video online and mentions more to come. The site was
founded by Joey Wilson with the following purpose. "I founded this
site to continue providing prospecting related programming to people
who enjoyed watching the shows I produced for The Outdoor Channel
and GPAA." Check it out. (11/24/07)
- Basement
Chemistry For The Prospector by A.K. Williams contains topics such as
"Cyanide Leaching", "All About Mercury", "Assaying and Smelting", "Melting
and Smelting" and many more. This is information that I have not see
elsewhere. Thanks to Gordon Harnack for this link. (5/10/05)
- How to Mine and
Prospect for Placer Gold by J.M. West., U.S. Bureau of Mines publication,
Information Circular 8517. Note that the U.S. Bureau of Mines was abolished in
January 1996 and their programs and publications are now handled by other agencies.
- Learn
About Maps and Geographic Data is an interesting site on maps by the EPA.
For instance there is Glossary of Mapping Terms and a good explanation of
large scale versus small scale maps. This page has been removed
from the EPA Web site and is no longer available. (8/1/05)
- TerraServer USA contains 3.3
tera-bytes of high resolution USGS aerial imagery and USGS topographic maps.
You can locate imagery by clicking on a map, entering a city or town
name or entering a U.S. street address. In Advanced Find, images can be
specified by Place Name, State/Province and Country or by
longitude and latitude using degrees, minutes, and seconds or by using
a floating point or decimal digit string, e.g. -121.453, 37.4.
- USAPhotoMaps by JDMCox Software. Thanks to Doug
Marshall for this link. According to Doug: "This is a free program that accesses
the terraserver site and puts together aerial photos as well as topo maps. I
use it to put together maps for every claim site I visit." (2/12/06)
- The Graphical Locater Home
Page is a handy reference for determining which 7.5' topo maps cover an
area of interest, with a lot of location data and nearby places of interest.
There is also a direct link to TerraServer centered on the selected point.
(10/1/03)
- Minin' Gold The Recreational
Gold Prospecting and Mining Page by Bill Westcott. There are tips and
information on equipment with building plans and a wealth of good info.
- Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache Metal
Detector and Prospecting Page has a nice page on several different forums
for communicating with special interest groups on mining related topics.
- Lost Treasure OnLine The web site for
Lost Treasure Magazine. Interesting features are "Today's Treasure Tale" and
"Tip of the Day" from back issues of Lost Treasure Magazine as well as an
article from the current issue. Visit their
Newsletter
page to subscibe to their free newsletter or view past issues.
- The Gold Miner's Headquarters, dedicated
to the small scale & recreational gold miner. This has an online presentation of
Basic Dredging: "Understanding the Modern Gold Dredge," by Bruce Harris. Also
a Gold Mining Dictionary; An extensive glossary of gold mining related terms.
- MinersMall From
their Mission Statement: Our vision is to become the "Motherlode" of the Internet
for prospecting, treasure hunting, rock & gem hunting, outfitters, and outdoor
gear resources. To help promote various types of clubs and events so we may all
enjoy and learn from each other.
Note that this site seems to be gone as of 1 Aug 05.
- Metal Detecting for Placer & Lode Gold
Deposits is the web site for Rob's Detector Sales out of Phoenix. He has many
interesting topics such as: "How Detectors Work?", "Understanding Geology",
"Gold Info. & Tips", "Gold Forums" and others. He is in the process of adding
to his pages but the site is already well worth a visit. It has gotten better and
now has lots of great info (3/3/02). One of the best on the web. Unfortunately
under construction (1/14/03) at the moment but hopefully will be back soon.
- Nuggetshooter home page by Bill Southern
has lots of articles and links as well as a store. As Bill says "This site is dedicated to the
electronic prospector and at this site you will find information for expert and
newbie alike." Since Bill lives in Southern Arizona, this is an especially pertinent
web site. (1/14/03)
- Home Page of The New 49'ers is a club
started by Dave McCracken and the site has plenty of information and stories.
One should special attention to the How-To Story on sampling. This club has many
miles of claims in northern California, mostly along the Klamath and Salmon Rivers.
They also have several claims near Quartzsite, Arizona. Dave is full of good
information and his site is well worth exploring. (2/8/03)
- Arizona Outback A new site dedicated
entirely to electronic prospecting, hosted by Chris Gholson. Nugget hunting
information, mouth watering photos and more with emphasis on Arizona and
Australia. (1/14/03)
- TheImage.com HomePage has a lot of great
information on minerals and gemstones. There are photos and property data on
minerals and gemstones as well as information on digial photography and faceting.
Thanks to Carter Thoenes for pointing out this great resource.
(added 11/06/02)
- For metal detectorists, the Friendship
International Detecting Society is an interesting site with stories from
around the world. (added 12/4/02).
- Maps of the Past is a good
resource for those looking for old maps. (6/25/05)
- National Treasures
Online has a lot of information and links. An interesting feature is the
News Around the World, though not all the links work. Many news sites only
keep informaton for a limited time. (6/25/05)
- For a different sort of web site vist Jamie Girard's
Home Page where you will
hints on home made equipment and desert recipes, with a liberal dose of tongue
in cheek. Some interesting links thrown in for good measure. Jamie made and
contributed the clip art for our Prospecting
Equipment web pages.
- The Goldmaster web site of
John B. has some very nice pictures of gold, meteorites and relics that he has
found, mostly local and many on the club claims. If you need a bit of incentive
to get off the couch and out to the claims, just visit this site.
- Jim Pipkin is a singer & songwriter with
an extensive mining background. Jim’s ballads are about Arizona history, bandits,
mining and gold. You can hear 2 minutes of each song at
CD Baby, just enter "Jim Pipkin" in the search
box. He is a fellow prospector and also a good writer so browse his site.
Thanks to Gordon Harnack for an interesting link. (2/8/06)
Please send any comments and suggestions on these pages to the
DGD Webmaster
Home Page
This page was last updated on 2 November 2009.