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California Gold Panning (guided digs on Woods Creek, Jamestown)

Three generations of prospectors, a sluice box and a Mother Lode creek

Where
17712 Harvard Mine Road, Jamestown, Tuolumne County
What you do
Shovel gravel from the creek bed, run it through a sluice in the current, pan it down
Digs
From a one-hour panning lesson to full-day, two-day and three-day digs
Gear
Boots and gear provided on the timed digs
The gold
Woods Creek's own, and you keep what you find
Open
Year-round, by reservation, rain or shine
Run by
The Prebalick family, three generations of local prospectors

Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site

Native material: you search the natural ground on site.

Season: Year-round.

gold-panning-california.com ↗

Make a weekend of it

533 gold spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.

There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.

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About California Gold Panning (guided digs on Woods Creek, Jamestown)

California Gold Panning takes you gold digging in Woods Creek itself, on a claim just outside Jamestown in Tuolumne County, year-round and by reservation, rain or shine. You shovel gravel from the creek bed into buckets, run it through a sluice box set in the creek's current and pan down what the riffles keep. The shortest outing is a one-hour panning lesson; the longest are two- and three-day digs that add high banking and crevicing, and teach where gold deposits form and why.

It is a family business three generations deep. Terry Prebalick, "Prospector Terry" on the website, came to California from Minnesota in 1979 while running a printing press for a newspaper, and caught the fever in Sonora when he watched an old-timer pull a nugget out of Sonora Creek. His son, "Nugget Nick", grew up mining beside him, and Nick's son Nate now works the claim too, guiding the hundreds of students, eco-tourists and families who come each year. A news report of February 2023, reprinted on the company's site, says the family leases a 500-yard claim along the creek.

The guides say they have sampled the ground to find the likeliest spots for you to dig: they find where the gold should be, and you dig it out and keep what you earn. After the January 2023 storms the San Francisco Chronicle found grandfather, father and son ankle-deep in Woods Creek, letting the natural rush of the water carry the light sediment out of their sluices; the floods had ripped open channels of dirt the family would otherwise have had to dig. Gold on the claim comes both rough and sharp-edged and smooth and rounded, some of it from the hard rock mine just up the creek, and jasper, agate, petrified wood, chalcedony and quartz crystals turn up in the gravel as well.

Book online or by phone. On the timed digs boots and gear are provided; bring water and a snack, and clothes you can ruin, because you will get wet and muddy. Coming through Jamestown, turn right onto Harvard Mine Road at the gas station and cross the concrete bridge; the parking area is on the left after a quarter mile, with nothing on it but a portable toilet and a storage container, and the creek a short walk below. Call as you get close so a guide can meet you there. School groups, companies and parties can book their own time at the claim, and bags of Woods Creek pay dirt are sold online to ship home.

Across the creek from the claim stands the historic Harvard Mine, where more than 200 pounds of crystalline gold were found; a 43-pound chunk of it, found in 1989, is on display at the Ironstone Heritage Museum in Murphys. The creek is named for James Woods, who made the first gold discovery in Tuolumne County on it, west of present-day Jamestown, shortly before Colonel George James founded the town on August 8, 1848.

Clubs and places nearby

Where to buy gear nearby

Access

By reservation, online or by phone. The address is 17712 Harvard Mine Road, Jamestown: coming through Jamestown, turn right onto Harvard Mine Road at the gas station, cross the concrete bridge, and the parking area is on the left after about a quarter mile, with the creek a short walk below. The guides meet you at the parking area.

Technique

Shovel, buckets, sluice box and gold pan; on the timed digs boots and gear are provided. Expect to get wet and muddy, and bring water and a snack. The business also sells bags of Woods Creek pay dirt online, but the digs are in the creek itself.

Sources