Canyon City – Oregon Gold Locations

Canyon City has a wonderful history behind it, and better than that it has gold! Gold was first discovered on June 7, 1862 on a stream near the John Day River. An estimate of twenty six million dollars worth of oregon gold was taken from the area. Please keep in mind that these were not based on the present price of gold. In 1862, gold sold for just around twenty dollars an ounce and held pretty steady for two hundred and seventeen years at that price.

Whiskey Gulch and Canyon Creek was estimated to be one of the most concentrated places of gold in one place within the whole State of Oregon. At it’s peak, the area produced five million dollars worth of gold per year. Humbolt drive, the area between the present day town’s of John Day and Canyon City was once priced at five hundred dollars a square yard. It is said that a single pan could hold as much as seven ounces of gold. Much more history can be found at the current day museum located at Canyon City.

Many other mining towns sprang up around the area and this is a good area to start looking for that Oregon Gold.

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Oregon Small Scale Prospecting Permit

Do not be fooled. The Department of Environmental Quality has no rights to issue any permits for suction dredging. Although they will still try to charge you $25 for a yearly fraudulent permit that is useless.

The only way to acquire a permit is through the Department of State Lands and it’s free.

What type of mining do you plan?
Do you intend to do “prospecting” or “recreational and small scale placer mining?” You may not need an authorization from DSL. Under DSL’s administrative rules (OAR 141-089-0040):
“Prospecting” is defined as “searching or exploring for samples of gold, silver or other precious metals using non-motorized methods from among small quantities of aggregate. Prospecting is limited to the removal from or fill of less than one cubic yard of material at any one individual site and, cumulatively, not more than five cubic yards of material within a designated Essential Indigenous Anadromous Salmonid Habitat segment or State Scenic Waterway in a single year.”
“Recreational and Small Scale Placer Mining” includes, but is not limited to, the use of non-motorized equipment and motorized surface dredges having an intake nozzle with an inside diameter not exceeding four inches, and a muffler meeting or exceeding factory-installed noise reduction standards.”

Note: Prospecting is permitted within State Scenic Waterways without a permit from DSL.

Where do you want to look for placer deposits?
Be sure that you can legally pan, dredge or sluice on the land adjacent to or under the stream where you want to look for placer deposits. Check with the owner to be sure that it is all right for you to be there, even if the land is publicly-owned land. Remember that it is illegal to cross privately-owned land to get to a stream without first obtaining the owner’s permission.

Helpful Hint: You can find information about which of Oregon’s waterways are owned by the State of Oregon and available for prospecting and recreational and small scale placer mining activities at: http://www.oregon.gov/DSL/NAV/navigintro.shtml or request publications on navigability from DSL. You may also want to contact federal landowning agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service for information concerning the availability of streams that run through the land they manage. Parts or all of some streams have been designated to be Essential Salmon Habitat or a State Scenic Waterway, or have been closed to recreational mining. You will need to obtain an authorization from DSL if you plan to look for placer deposits in that part of a stream that has been classified as Essential Salmon Habitat regardless of the amount of material you plan to move. Additionally, it is important for you to know which streams are classified as Essential Salmon Habitat because you will be required to report the amount of material you moved from these streams after you have completed your work.You will find information at the following websites:

What time of the year do you plan to look for placer minerals?
Many of Oregon’s waterways are closed each year for certain time periods to protect spawning fish and their eggs. During those times, you may not be allowed to conduct recreational and small scale placer mining activities in those streams. State Scenic Waterways are closed to recreational and small scale placeer mining. Some waterways have been closed to recreational mining by the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. Others are closed or use is limited by the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) due to water quality problems.

You will find closure or restriction information at the following:

Note: DSL cannot issue an ESH general authorization for work in any closed area or where DEQ will not issue a water quality permit.

What equipment will you be using?
The type of authorization you may need to obtain will depend
primarily on the size and type of equipment you use.

This information is important because:

To qualify for a General Authorization from DSL as a recreational and small scale placer miner, the maximum inside diameter of your dredge’s intake nozzle cannot exceed 4 inches. If it does:

You will not qualify as a recreational and small scale miner for a General Authorization and will have to obtain an Individual Removal-Fill Permit, andYou may need a 700-PM General Permit from the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission. Please see http://www.deq.state.or.us/wq/wqpermit/ssmining/smallscalemining.htmNOTE from oregongold.net:  At this time of this posting DEQ permits are invalid. This may change in the future, so keep your ears and eyes open. For those who want to go ahead and purchase the permit, it is said that if a new legal permit is issued that it will be transferrable. This issue is in the court of appeals, and the court has already deemed the issuing of permits invalid. As long as no ruling has been made, no 700-PM  permit is legally needed.

How much material do you plan to move?
It may not be possible for you to know how much material you will move prior to visiting each location. However, before starting to look for placer minerals, you need to be aware how the amount of material you move can impact the type of authorization you require.

In that part of a stream classified as Essential Salmon Habitat:
What you can remove: Up to 25 cubic yards per year under a DSL General Authorization.

Be aware that the 25 cubic yard amount is the total amount of material you are allowed to remove, alter or fill each year along each stream. For example, you may remove, alter or fill 5 cubic yards from 5 locations, or 1 cubic yard from 25 locations on each stream classified as Essential Salmon Habitat. If you remove more than 25 cubic yards, you will have to obtain an Individual Removal-Fill Permit from DSL.

You can not remove more than 25 cubic yards from a stream segment or more than 5 cubic yards per site within any stream designated as Essential Salmon Habitat.

Current state law does not permit recreational placer mining* within a State Scenic Waterway; however, you may prospect** within a State Scenic Waterway without a permit.

In all other streams or parts of streams NOT classified as Essential Salmon Habitat:

What you can remove: Up to 50 cubic yards annually without a DSL authorization.

If you remove more than 50 cubic yards, you will have to obtain an Individual Removal-Fill Permit from DSL.

?Fill Out Application Online

My issued permit

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Grant County Oregon Gold

In northeastern Oregon in the southwest of the Blue Mountains is the Grant County gold belt. This area was prospected after the big strikes in Baker County. There were some rich discoveries along Canyon Creek, Granite, Greenhorn, North Fork, Quartzburg and Susanville. There was a million ounces of gold or more recovered from Grant County.

Bates

Northwest of Bates by 18 miles, down the middle fork of the John Day River, is the Susanville District. This district produced over 50,000 ounces of Oregon gold.

The Middle Fork of the John Day River

Along Elk Creek and north of the middle fork of the John Day River, there was some extensive placer operations which were the main source of gold in the district. On the south side of Elk Creek, about 2 miles above its junction with the middle fork, in township 20S range 33E and section 7 on the S1/2, is the Badger Mine. The Badger Mine was the principal lode producer in the district. Other mines in the area include the Chattanooga in Sections 5 and 6. The Daisy Mine in Section 5, the Golden Gate (Poorman) in Sections 7 and 8 east of Badger Mine and north of Elk Creek.

Canyon City

The Canyon City District produced over 900,000 ounces of gold to date. Along the John Day River and all its tributaries contain rich placer deposits. There was numerous area lode mines. The Golden West mine is located in T14S R31E Section 12. The Great Northern Mine is located  in T14S R32E Section 7. The Great Northern Mine was a rich pocket gold mine that produced free gold. The Haight Mine, near the Great Northern Mine, was also a good producer. The Miller Mountain Mine is located on the northeast slope of Miller Mountain and it was also a very rich producer. Near the Marysville School you will find the Prairie Diggings, this mine consisted of shallow surface cuts into a mineralized belt.

The Golden West Mine on Little Canyon Mountian circa 1935 -Photo courtesy of Nick Sheedy, John Day, Oregon. "The man in the center of that 1935 photo is Isaac "Ike" Gucker, who was a well-known miner who found the Great Northern Mine and mined gold on Little Canyon Mountain for 50 years. Ike Gucker was my great-great-great-uncle, and my family still owns the great Northern & Golden West."--Nick Sheedy

Granite

Along Granite Creek and its tributaries Bull Run Creek and Clear Creek was some very rich placer ground. the John Day River is also rich in this area. Desolation Creek was also a very good producer as well. Every creek and gultch in this area should be checked for placer gold.

Prairie City

Dixie Creek produced over 20,000 ounces of placer gold and all of the creeks around Prairie City contain placer gold to some extent.

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Nez Perce County Idaho Gold

In the Lewiston area, all the regional streams, benches and terraces contain placer gold, but the best place to prospect would be the Clearwater River upstream from town for the next 100 miles.

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The Quartzville Gold Mining Con Man

In 2002 and 2003, I spent several months exploring the area around Quartzville, in Linn County. At the time I was looking for new quartz deposits that might be hiding up there in the mountains. During that time I did some metal detecting in the area, including the old Quartzville town property. You could clearly see the layout of the roads from the difference in the size of the trees, and if you looked hard enough the outlines of old foundations and some old timbers. The area of my exploration was north of the old town site.I did not have any good finds that day. I have heard of people finding nuggets there, but I usually just pass it off as “mythology”. Anyways regardless of what people or lack of what people have found there, does not affect this story about one of the greatest gold mining scams in Oregon history.
When I returned in the summer of 2005 I noticed a “No Trespassing” sign, blocking all access to where I wanted to go, which was on up the forest service road that cuts through the townsite. I did however notice many changes in the area, including the land looked like it was ripped up from one end to the other and changes were apparent. The area was obviously bulldozed and some harvesting of some of the tree’s had been done in the area. I did not venture too far because of the No trespassing sign, but I could see some of the changes from the road.
David Ross Nonnemaker
The Gold Mining Con Man is now known as David Ross Nonnemaker, who ran under the business names of “Western Sand and Gravel” and “Western Mining”. People who have met him says he is a fast and very smooth talking man. This obviously wasn’t his first scheme. Nonnemaker had allegedly obtained money from investors to develop mining operations and harvest timber in the Quartzville area, but had no authority to harvest or mine there. He was a claim jumper in other words.
He apparently came up with this scheme and planned it all from prison, collecting information from the internet. He found that the owners of the old townsite were “Absentee” owners. Victims included people from Nevada, Missouri, California, New York, Oregon, Alaska and as far away as Germany. Not only did he try to mine the area, he also sold off the timber from the site, making as much as $1,000,000 from timber sales from Weyerhaeuser, who did not connect the dots. Other timber companies also bought from him. He definitely made more from timber sales, than what he ever found in gold.
He had what appeared at first, to be proper documents and permits, but eventually his over-jealous and ambitious scheme got the best of him, as his operation drew the attention of law enforcement and of the USFS. Once the so-called permits and paperwork were checked up on, the truth was known and the arrest was made.
The amount of money collected from investors was enough to buy the large equipment he needed for the operation. The impact that he had on the people he came in contact with is the sad side of the story…the people he stole from. He was convicted to five years in prison. He was ordered to pay restitution of over $300,000 to people caught up in the scam and $900,000 to two victims in theft cases. The whole scheme was a very ambitious operation and will go down as one of, if not thee most infamous gold mining schemes in Oregon history.

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Imperial County California Gold

Gold occurs throughout Imperial County in its arid mountain ranges. Here is where the classic pick, pan, shovel and burro prospector of the nineteenth century crisscrossed the desert between water holes. A minimum estimate of 235,000 ounces of lode and placer gold have come from this county.

Cargo Muchacho District

Northwest of Yuma, Arizona, in the southeast part of the county you will find Ogilby site of the Cargo Muchacho district, it had many old mines worked since Mexican times with a total production about 193,000 ounces. Gold can be found in all regional arroyo bottoms, benches, terraces. This is dry wash placers with abundant gold. There are many abandoned area lode mines that produced gold. Most of the gold is fine, grain, wire, nuggets, often with copper.

On the Colorado River due north of Yuma, Arizona you will find Picacho Camp in the extreme southeast corner of the county. The Chocolate Mountains area placer and lode claims produce considerable gold. In the southwest you will find the Picacho Mountains that had many gold bearing veins in gneisses and schist’s overlain by lava’s, tufts, and conglomerates. The Paymaster district, minor lode gold production to the South by 5 miles the Picacho Mine, Bluejacket Mine, and others produced some lode gold. A ghost town named Tumco was also a good producer from several area mines.

Picacho Mine

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Skagit County Washington Gold

The area along the Skagit River, almost entire length through Skagit County in Washington State, in stream and gravel bars and adjacent benches and terraces contain placer gold. Near the head waters of Ruby Creek, is the Ruby Creek Placer, which was the first gold discovery west of the Cascades.

Anacortes

In the city limits of Anacortes, T35N R1E N 1/2 of section 25, is the Stephens (Fidalgo) Mine. The Stephens Mine was a copper-silver mine with a by product of gold. In the area bench black sand deposits are the Anacortes placers. Southwest of town 3.5 miles from town center is the Anacopper Mine, which also produced a by product of gold from a copper-silver operation. Out of town 4.5 miles, in T34N R1E sections 1 and 2 is the Fidalgo Island Mine which also was a by product mine. Southwest of town 6 miles is the Matrix Mine which also produced gold from a by product of its copper ores.

Fidalgo Island

Along the area beaches on the entire shoreline you can find placer gold in black sand deposits.

Lyman

The area of Day Creek is where the Day Creek placers were located. They are said to be very rich.

Marblemount

In the Marblemount area of Johnsburg, on the south side of the North Fork of the Cascade River, in the W 1/2 of Section 25 and the E 1/2 of section 26 of T35N R13E, is the Midas Mine. The Midas Mine consist of 5 claims with minor gold, lead, silver and zinc ores. Southeast of the Midas Mine, in the SE 1/4 section 25 and NW 1/4 section 36, is the Soldier Boy Mine, 5 claims for lode gold with copper, silver, zinc.

Mt. Vernon

Southeast of Mt. Vernon on Devils Mountain, in S 1/2 section 4 T33N R4E, is the Mt. Vernon (Devils Mt. Pacific) Mine. This mine consisted of 2,100 acres overlapping into adjoining sections. They are producing free gold in nickel-chromite ores. East of Mt. Vernon, near the summit of Bald Mountain, in Section 17 T34N R6E, is the Bald Mt. Mine. The Bald Mt. Mine was a copper mine that produced a by product of gold.

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