Sumpter Oregon Gold Panning! Gold Panning Lessons at Cracker Creek Mining Camp! You may have noticed the price of gold is soaring these days and now you're ready to take advantage of the booming gold market by heading out to your nearest gold mine! But, chances are you've never seen a gold pan before much less actually use one to find gold, right? Well......no need to worry if you happen to be a greenhorn, or miss out on all the fun! Don't worry, you don't have to be a seasoned prospector, or even own a Gold Mine, to find gold here in Sumpter, Oregon because our gold mining site was originally designed and intended strictly for recreational gold mining! What that means to you........is that our staff will provide the proper equipment and instruction to make gold panning fun and educational! When you visit Cracker Creek Mining Camp, you will discover people just like you learning the art of gold panning and enjoying their new hobby - in the great outdoors! Our staff will help you with the art of Gold Panning using basic and easy to understand instruction techniques. Below, you will find a quick gold panning lesson which you can put to use right now! You will need a gold pan, a wash tub, and some dirt or gravel material for this lesson.........

Gold Panning History It is believed that gold panning was invented by the Myan Indian civilization. Unfortunately the heavy metal dish made working gold, diamonds and gems a hard business. Necessity is truly the mother of invention and during the gold rush of Sumpter, Oregon and elsewhere in America, folks traveled out west seeking that elusive dream of gaining wealth without a real means to discover the gold they had heard so much about. A lack of money and tools made their early efforts at gold recovery crude at best. That is why there is so much gold still being washed down our rivers and streams from original gold strikes! Gold panning back then was a simple process that transformed the average person into a placer miner. Early placer miners were known to carve their own crude gold pans out of wood using their knives. A gold pan in those days was commonly known as a "gold dish." This tool was crude and simple and yet was so effective, we are still using the gold pan over 100 years later! No matter what size or type of gold recovery equipment you use or how large your gold operation is, be it private or commercial, most likely you will still end up using a gold pan to finalize the process! The gold pan is one of the first tools used in locating gold and is one of the last used, even in commercial mining to check the value of ore being processed. Did you know The Gold Pan is used in approximately 75% of all the countries in the world that produce gold? Most miners could only process about 1 cubic yard of material a day so they eventually turned to wooden sluices to work more material. Yet, despite the advances in gold recovery equipment, miners still had to use their old gold pan to complete the process. Stay tuned for more gold panning history coming soon!

Gold Panning Lesson Before you rush out on your gold panning adventure, it might pay to check into the gold bearing history of the area you wish to work! Keep in mind that nature continues to work the land every year so each area may change from season to season. If you plan to work a creek or river, be sure to choose the right spot! For optimum gold panning, you'll want a spot where the water is a minimum of six inches deep and flowing just fast enough to keep the muddy water from impairing the vision of your gold pan and, of course, you'll want to choose a site where you will be somewhat comfortable being stationary for a long period of time. A foldable camp chair or stool will work just fine............. Once you have chosen a place to work....fill your gold pan with sand and small gravel. Next, add water and mix thoroughly. Then rotate your pan in a fast circular motion to settle the gold. While keeping the pan level, and as you continue the circular motion, slightly tip the pan to move lighter material to the top of the pan. Remember: Don't throw larger rocks out of your pan until you wash them thoroughly! Use your thumb to scrape the lighter and larger pieces out of your gold pan. Repeat this process until only a small part of the pan is covered with concentrate. Leave just enough water in your gold pan to feather the tailings (left-overs) as you lightly swirl the material. The heavier material (gold) will be at the tail of the feather. Now you should have a small amount of finer material left in your pan so you can use a small squirt bottle with small amounts of water to continue the seperation process. At this point, it is important to be ensure none of the fine material escapes your pan because there could very well be GOLD IN YOUR PAN! The entire gold panning process, for the most part, is quite simple and inexpensive, but remember that gold panning does require a lot of practice and patience! So have fun! Good luck with your gold panning lesson and may the color of your pan always be gold! Check out our Gold Panning prices.....