Gold in Indiana?

[jfelly65]

I have read and been told that there is gold in various streams throughout the state of Indiana. I was wondering if anyone has prospected in Indiana and if you have used metal detectors or if its more productive to use a pan.
Thanks

 

[jkasta]

Gold and diamonds did not form in Indiana, but were transported south from Canada by the glaciers. Rich gold deposits are found in Canada and these were scraped off by the glacial ice and moved to the end of the glacier. There the gold, while ground quite fine by the glacier, accumulated and is found today in streams and river beds that drain these deposits. Diamonds were believed to have come from Canadian deposits in much the same way, but until recent discoveries confirmed that diamond pipes actually exist in Canada, the source was unknown. source: Indiana Geol Survey

Sluice panning most likely needed for recovery and MD'ing for identifying promising sluice locations. Overall probability of finding nuggets or any gold in any amount is very low as source rocks are not present - Sorry.

 

[tvanwho]

Go to Chuck Lassiters website at www.midwestprospector.com Chuck is probably the best prospector in Indiana and he built all his mining machines on his own to boot including a 5 inch dredge. Metal detecting for nuggets is kinda hard in the creeks tho, too much lead shot to deal with from my own detecting efforts with Tesoro Lobo and 3 x 7 coil, you will find copper nuggets more so than gold nuggets, however. especially near limestone quarries.. Much easier to dredge altho new dredging rules will take effect sometime this year so hold off for now.The Indiana DNR has been ordered to work with our GPAA chapter on the new rules and we are no longer being lumped in with gravel mining companies that remove large volumes of gravel from the rivers in the state as they were about to do to us. Also, check out www.geocities.com/indianagold/ for our club newsletter and events for 2008. We even have the DNR boys coming to our next club outing to learn how to use a gold dredge and see that its a family affair and not harmful to the environment as they have been led to believe by the greenies.! THis is will be afirst and I gotta be there to photograph it even with gas at 4 bucks a gallon and a 500 mile round trip drive for me. The event will be at Gatesville,Indiana, a crossroads of a townnear Nashville,Indiana and about 20 miles west of i65, on rt 46, west of Columbus,Indiana ( 40 miles south of Indy on i65),date is June 7 and 8th.

-Tom V.

 

[jfelly65]

Thanks for the info Tom. Couple of questions, could you repost the link for the newsletter, the forum has censored it out, maybe put a dash or two in and let me know where to remove them. Second, with copper nuggets, would it be in the same process as gold to pan these and what exactly do they look like? Are they bright like clean copper and would there be any located in the Northern part of Indiana?
Thanks, Josh

 

[tvanwho]

Copper nuggets are mostly a dull light/dirty green straight out of the ground.They will NOT turn shiny red unless you give them a bath in muriatic acid for a day or more.They are from the northern Michigan area and were brought down by glaciers,same as the gold, and can be found about anywhere, mostly by chance. If you are finding glacial gold ,be on the lookout for copper nuggets and garnets too.
My friend in Madison ,Wisconsin found a softball size copper nugget almost 2 feet down while detecting up near Madison in a farm field. My friend in Logansport ,Indiana has one about 10 pounds and you can see the striations , where the glacier moved this chunk of metal against the ground and scratched the nugget, its pretty unique.It was found on top of a limestone quarry.The quarry owners move the glacial till, red dirt, off the limestone, so they can blast out the limestone itself and make cement.That red dirt they push off is loaded with copper nuggets and sometimes gold nuggets too. And after the dirt is pushed off the limestone, there are deep crevices exposed that can have gold in as well as copper nuggets.BUT, quarries can be rather dangerous places so be extra careful and getting permission can be tough.
Club URL is w w w. g e o c i t i e s. c o m/ i n d i a n a g o l d/ Remove all the spaces or just do a search on the internet for gold in Indiana.Central Indiana GPAA chapter.
Next outing is Sat, July 12 at Adams Mill, east of Lafayette, Indiana.Its an old water powered grain mill and covered bridge from 1850. The better gold seems to be below the dam area, nice place for a picnic too. Wildcat Creek is good for inner tubing, NOT good if its flooding,almost took out the mill 2 years ago. The DeLorme Atlas for Indiana shows Adams Mill there east of rt 75 and north of 26. Club meeting at 5pm that Sat. I am the only one from Illinois, driving a brown Chevy Astro van.
Hope to have my 2.5 inch dredge ready by then?

-Tom