Start with a creek that has gold upstream
Placer gold comes from somewhere. Creeks that drain old lode mines, past producers or known placer districts are the best bet. In GoldScout™, filter the map to gold and look for past producers upstream of your creek.
Look for where the water slows
Gold settles where the current loses energy: the inside of bends, the downstream end of big boulders, the head of gravel bars, below waterfalls and riffles, and just below the junction of two streams. The River Gold Tracker finds these places automatically by reading the creek’s LiDAR elevation profile.
Get down to bedrock
Most placer gold works its way down through the gravel until it hits bedrock or a hard clay layer. Cracks and crevices in exposed bedrock are natural riffles. Scrape them out and pan the material.
Sample before you dig
Pan a few test samples from each spot and count the colors. Log each sample in Detect & Log so you can see on the map where the gold is getting richer.
Check the land first
Turn on the Mining claims and Land status layers. Stay off active claims and private land unless you have permission, and follow state rules on suction dredging and equipment.
Everything in GoldScout™
9 topo and satellite maps (USGS Topo, OpenTopoMap, Esri, USGS Imagery, Sentinel-2) with geology, fault lines and LiDAR, plus a land status overlay that shows BLM, Forest Service and park land and active BLM mining claims, so you know where you can prospect.
Allows users to tap any creek or river to trace its flow. It follows the real channel, reads the LiDAR elevation profile and pins the slope breaks, inside bends and junctions where gold drops out.
Local county and state GIS on the map: property lines in 28 states with owner names in 18, historic USGS topo maps, and satellite and aerial photos of your spot from the oldest available to the newest.
Tap the location button to see your exact spot as a blue dot with its accuracy ring. It follows you as you walk and draws your trail, so you can find your way back to a good spot.
Log every pan with your number of colors, plus metal detector hits, gold finds and rock samples, with GPS and notes. Filter, revisit and export to CSV.
Shiny copper dowsing rods over satellite imagery of where you stand. For fun: GPS, compass and USGS gold records swing the rods toward the richest recorded ground nearby.
AI reads the colors of the satellite image for iron staining, bleached rock, gravel bars and old diggings, weighs nearby USGS gold records, and pins the best places to look.
Every gold record in the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (304,632 mine records in all) on one map, filterable by producer, past producer and prospect.
Bare-earth LiDAR hillshade and slope, down to 1 meter, reveal tailing piles, ditches, benches and old workings under the trees.
Geologic maps worldwide, USGS Quaternary fault lines and Nevada drill-hole project data.
Shafts, adits, prospect pits and placer workings traced from historic USGS topo maps.
Parcel boundaries for 28 states, with the owner name, parcel ID, acres and address on tap in 18 of them, from free county and state GIS. Know whose land you are on before you dig. Not a survey.
Slide through aerial and satellite photos of the spot you are looking at, from the oldest available (back to 1993 in North Carolina and the mid-1900s in Montana) to the newest, to find old diggings, tailings and stream changes.
Today’s satellite, topo, LiDAR, geology, claims and parcel layers alongside historic USGS topo maps, mine records going back to the 1800s and decades of aerial photos.
Lay your phone in your sluice. A level and angle gauge set the drop (about an inch per foot) and level it side to side.
Type any town, creek, county or mine name anywhere in the world.
Live radar and an hourly forecast for the spot you are headed to.
Learn to read a creek on a practice map: pick your spots, run samples and plan a route.
Easy on the eyes at camp, readable in bright sun.
Pricing
Free for 6 days. You won’t be charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel anytime. Optional add-ons: River Gold Tracker +$5/month and AI Dowsing Rod +$3/month, both free on the first day of your trial.
Questions
Where does gold settle in a creek?
On the inside of bends, behind boulders, at the head of gravel bars, below riffles and waterfalls, below tributary junctions, and on or in cracks in bedrock.
Can you find gold in any creek?
Only in creeks that drain gold-bearing rock. Look for creeks downstream of known gold mines and prospects, which GoldScout™ shows on the map.