Finding Gold on
Kaufman Creek
Kaufman Creek
A photo of a vial of gold from Kaufman Creek. This is to show you what your looking for the gold not the two cabochons. The cabochon on the left is Sonoran Sunrise the right one is a variety of Feldspar - only the gold was found on Kaufman Creek...
Gravel Mountain west of Grand Lake Colorado
This mountain has a lot of gold on it, you can find this elusive mineral in all of the drainages on the mountain, Gold Run, Denver Creek, Bronco Creek, Kaufman Creek, Stillwater Creek also gravel deposits all over the mountain away from the drainages contains gold.
My opinion on this formation is that the gravels were deposited by a glacier that picked the gold up from the area around Battle Mountain Wyoming, containing the gold in the ice, the glacier carried the gold bearing gravels towards the south and deposited the gravels on top of the mountain.
I have several reasons supporting this idea, one is that I can not tell any difference between the gold I have found in the Battle Mountain, and Independance mountain areas and the gold that I found on Gravel Mountain, normally you can see a difference in the color and the texture of gold found in different locations. The gold I have found in this area is very smooth indicating that it has travels a long ways which also explains way the gold is so small.
I did a lot of prospecting in this area over the years and found that any where I found iron stained gravels I found gold. I have found any nuggets, but a few pieces 1/8" in size, most of what I found was flour gold.
This mountain has a lot of gold on it, you can find this elusive mineral in all of the drainages on the mountain, Gold Run, Denver Creek, Bronco Creek, Kaufman Creek, Stillwater Creek also gravel deposits all over the mountain away from the drainages contains gold.
My opinion on this formation is that the gravels were deposited by a glacier that picked the gold up from the area around Battle Mountain Wyoming, containing the gold in the ice, the glacier carried the gold bearing gravels towards the south and deposited the gravels on top of the mountain.
I have several reasons supporting this idea, one is that I can not tell any difference between the gold I have found in the Battle Mountain, and Independance mountain areas and the gold that I found on Gravel Mountain, normally you can see a difference in the color and the texture of gold found in different locations. The gold I have found in this area is very smooth indicating that it has travels a long ways which also explains way the gold is so small.
I did a lot of prospecting in this area over the years and found that any where I found iron stained gravels I found gold. I have found any nuggets, but a few pieces 1/8" in size, most of what I found was flour gold.
Kaufman Creek is one of the drainages that I concentrated on, mainly because I liked the area, a good camping spot, and dependable source of water. There is a sign along highway 125 pointing your way to Kaufman Creek
My camping spot is by the drainage from the south shown near the bottom center of this picture.
Near this site is the remains of a placer mine, there is a old ditch that was used to get water to the higher ground between the road and the creek.
Near this site is the remains of a placer mine, there is a old ditch that was used to get water to the higher ground between the road and the creek.
In the area outline in the above picture I dug 150 test holes. I found that there is a layer of gold bearing gravel which is found around 12" deep below the 'top soil', this layer varies in thickness between 6" to 20". The gold bearing gravel is quite evident - it is reddish - iron stained gravel. My test panning - averaging 6 pound of gravel per pan - averaged 23 'colors' ( small pieces of gold ) per pan.
It would be hard to make wages panning in this area. But if you had a market for >3/4 gravel, permits for a gravel quarry, you could run the gravel through a trommel and separate out the gold, then sell the gravel....
Other than this plan of operation, I still enjoy spending time in this area. I always find gold and I like exploring the area. I have found some nice jasper....
It would be hard to make wages panning in this area. But if you had a market for >3/4 gravel, permits for a gravel quarry, you could run the gravel through a trommel and separate out the gold, then sell the gravel....
Other than this plan of operation, I still enjoy spending time in this area. I always find gold and I like exploring the area. I have found some nice jasper....