WHERE TO LOOK TO FIND GOLD IN CALIFORNIA GOLD REGION 6
(Note: This is one of our six California gold maps. Please see left-hand column for the others.)

Big Ten's California Gold Prospecting and Panning Map 6 shows fifteen hundred eighty (1,580) gold mines and gold prospecting and panning locations from official geological records of the State of California and the federal government. The map is done in color. The margin of the map has text that tells where to look for gold in a streambed, how to tell "fools gold" from real gold and gives step-by-step gold panning instructions. Locations for finding gold are shown within 15 miles of each of the below listed places. These gold deposit locations, which show where gold has been found in the past, are clearly marked. A good gift.

Map 6 shows places where to look to find gold near:
Alturas, Anderson, Burney, Butte Meadows, Callahan, Cecilville, Central Valley, Chester, Crescent City, Delta, Enterprise, Gold Bluff, Greenville, Hamburg, Happy Camp, Hayfork, Helena, McCloud, Mount Shasta, New Pine Creek, Old Station, Orleans, Platina, Project City, Red Bluff, Redding, Salyer, Sawyers Bar, Smith River, Somes Bar, Susanville, Taylorsville, Trinity Center, Washington Flat, Weaverville, Weed, Weitchpec, Westwood, Whiskeytown and Yreka.

GOLD MINES, PROSPECTING AND PANNING IN CALIFORNIA GOLD REGION 6

The gold mining, prospecting and panning sites in California (Mother Lode) Gold Region 5 carry right on into Region 6. California Gold Region 6 was second only to the Mother Lode in California gold production. In fact, a portion of Region 6 is considered to be a part of the California Mother Lode.

Both lode and placer gold mining have been done in this region, which is adjacent to and south of the Oregon/California state line. California Gold Region 6 has gold mining and prospecting locations ranging eastward from Crescent City on the Pacific Ocean to Modoc National Forest northeast of Alturas. The gold sites range southward from the Oregon state line to latitude 40 degrees, north, which is five miles north of Quincy, California.

Big Ten's California Gold Prospecting and Panning Map 6 shows specific gold deposit sites in these counties:

"The Klamath Mountains region in northwestern California is the second-most gold-productive province in California. The principal gold districts are in Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity Counties. Although there are several important lode-gold districts, the placer deposits have been the largest sources of gold. 

The most productive placer deposits in the Klamath Mountains have been those associated with the Klamath  and Trinity Rivers and their tributaries. Gold is found not only in the gravels in the present stream channels, but also in older terrace and bench deposits adjacent to the channels. The terrace and bench deposits often were mined by hydraulicing.

Rising in southern Oregon, the Klamath River flows west across the Klamath Mountains and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The most important tributary streams of the Klamath River are the Shasta, Scott, and Salmon Rivers, and Cottonwood, Horse, Seiad, Thompson, Indian, Clear, Dillon, and Camp Creeks. Important centers of placer mining in the Klamath River system have been at Hornbrook, Yreka, Scott Bar, Hamburg, Somesbar, Orleans, Sawyers, Forks of Salmon, Callahan, and Cecilville.

The Trinity River, which flows into the Klamath River at Weitchpec, drains the southern portion of the Klamath Mountains. The most productive placer deposits of the Trinity River are those located along its main channel. These include the deposits at Carrville, Trinity Center, Minersville, Lewiston, Weaverville, Junction City, and Salyer. The principal tributaries of the Trinity River are Coffee Creek, Stewart's Fork, East Fork, New River, Indian Creek and Hayfork Creek. 

The La Grange mine, a few miles west of Weaverville, was one of the largest hydraulic mines in California. Other sources of placer gold in the Klamath Mountains have been the Smith River region in Del Norte County and the upper Sacramento River and its tributaries, which include Backbone, Clear, Cottonwood, and Beegum Creeks.

Lode-gold deposits are found throughout the Klamath Mountains. The most productive district has been the French Gulch-Deadwood district of Shasta and Trinity Counties in the southern portion of the province. Other important sources of lode gold have been the Deadwood district of Siskiyou County (there are several Deadwood districts in California). Dillon Creek, Callahan, Oro Fino, Liberty, Sawyers Bar, Harrison Gulch, Whiskeytown, and Buckeye-Old Diggings districts. Considerable amounts of gold have been produced in the Shasta copper-zinc belt and lesser amounts in other copper deposits, such as the Copper Bluff mine at Hoopa. 

The gold nearly always occurs in native form in quartz veins, usually associated with pyrite and smaller amounts of other sulfides. The veins occur in all metamorphic rocks of Jurassic and older ages. A few lode-gold deposits are found in granitic rocks."

The rugged and beautiful countryside of this region of Northern California has always attracted tourists, adventurers, miners and gold prospectors. There are literally hundreds of places where a person may do some prospecting and find gold with a pan. 

The California gold sites start 50 miles south of Grants Pass, Oregon and 29 miles south of Medford, Oregon. Some of the gold sites southeast of Susanville are only 65 miles from Reno, Nevada.

California Gold Region 6 has a number of National Forests where prospecting, mining and panning is done. These include: Shasta, Plumas, Trinity, Six Rivers, Siskiyou, Modoc and Klamath.

Large numbers of gold sites occur southwest of Susanville in Plumas County, Lassen County and Butte County, many of them being in Plumas National Forest. The gold-rich North Fork and East Branch of the North Fork of the Feather River are in this area, as well as Rush Creek and other gold creeks.