Lost and Undiscovered gold mines of the East: Why you need to do research!

I’m sure everyone has heard of various lost gold mines from out west from the Lost Dutchman’s Mine in Arizona to the Lost Blue Bucket Mine of Oregon.  These mine are legendary in many ways and so many people seek them on a regular basis.  But what of lost gold mines back east where the first gold rushes in the US occurred.  While there are plenty of stories of Lost confederate or Union gold one does not hear much about lost gold mines on the east coast.  Maybe we all assume since the east is so heavily populated that it is near impossible to have a lost gold mine back east.  Maybe it’s just a case of they are not lost but have become forgotten due to lack of any documentation at the beginnings of the east coast gold rushes.  

Regardless there are many many lost or undocumented gold mines on the east coast.  And the best way for you to find them is to research but more importantly thoroughly read those documents that you find researching.  Many are loaded with little tidbits of info that mention rich prospects and test pits that then for some reason never made it onto an actual map.  These little bits of info then require further work on your part to locate the actual location, and this can be the most difficult part.  Generally the location information given in the old paper is very vague and references locations that no longer exist on current maps.  This is where putting on your detective hat and playing Sherlock Holmes is key.  

One such occurrence that I located with 95% surety is described below.  Near this area I had also heard reports from two separate sources that ounce nuggets were found in this area at one time.  This little bit of info from the old report then also led credence to the two separate reports that I had heard.  

From the info in the paper I set about on a mission of locating this prospect via remote means, as I did not have any access to properties in that area and the nearby river was super remote and hard to access.  So before I would think about actually prospecting the river near here I wanted to get a bearing on where the prospect pit was and from there run an approximate vein trace.  After multiple attempts at mapping out the area from the description which all hinged on if I could place the location of the house that no longer exists correctly, I finally located the house foundation on LIDAR maps and was able to get the numbers given in the descriptio to fit with what I saw on the map.  Below is a picture of what I finally came up with and I believe that it is probably 95% accurate.  

Even with LIDAR it was extremely difficult to locate the small prospect pit.  In the pic below is a zoomed in picture of the prospect area.  It is barely visible but there are two small pits at the ridge of the hill and a small trench leading up to them.  Which is pretty typical for prospecting methodology back in the day.  However without LIDAR the closest you could come to locating this exact spot would be something along the lines of within about a half mile or so.  This really shows the potential of LIDAR for putting together these puzzles.  

I’ve used this same basic methodology on a number of other “lost” prospects and have managed to locate most of them.  Each one is different and requires different approaches based on the information that you have on hand.   

One of the most difficult ones I managed to locate referred to a bridge that no longer exists.  It took multiple in field excursions and countless hours reading and re-reading the info as well as studying old maps and lidar maps of the area.  The breakthrough finally came when I noticed that a road alignment on an old map matched the alignment of an abandoned road/trail on the lidar map.  When overlain it was a very close match and the other clues from the old paper all seemed to line up correctly with this location.  Something that had not happened with many other plausible locations.  

With this location I was also able to go into the field and vet it as well.  And upon panning around the location I found what looked to be hand thrown cobble piles along the creek.  When i panned around the cobble piles the pans came up with lots of mercury and dirty gold, a sure indicator of old mining.  I’ve panned this large creek in many different areas and this was the only area that had ever produced mercury.  The feeling of actually tracking down a location that you have read about and searched for, for a few years is indescribable.  

Some of the lost locations that I’ve found using LIDAR were by accident as the prospect or mine that I found had no literature written about it.  I merely was rendering LIDAR for large areas and workings showed up in locations that never had a documented mine or prospect.  

Not all lost mines or prospects that I’ve searched for have ended in success stories.  One such one is in North Carolina on a larger river that is not really known for gold but had a placer mine mentioned in a random paper, but not much other location info was given other than the river name.  I believe that I rendered LIDAR for almost the entire length of the river but to no avail.  Nothing popped up that looked anything like placer mining.  I have a few theories on why is was not locatable.  First among those being that any evidence of mining was destroyed by development that had occurred along the river.  The second most likely theory is that since it was a larger river it had filled in any of the workings with silt and clay over the past 100 years or so during major floods.  

So to wrap things up, there are many lost, forgotten, and undiscovered mines and prospects left on the east coast.  The best way to learn about them and start the discovery process is to read, read, read, read and read some more.  I will say that for probably every hour I spend in the field prospecting I have spent close to 10 or more hours researching and reading.  And while most people like to buy fancy new matting or equipment to increase their gold take, I would bet that reading and researching new locations would prove to be a far better way to increase your overall gold take.  

Thanks for reading!