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Central Valley Prospectors (GPAA Fresno)

Fresno's GPAA chapter, teaching the Gold Rush since 2004

Founded
August 2004
Meets
Third Tuesday of each month, 6:30 PM
Where
The Worship Centre, 16357 E. Trimmer Springs Rd., Sanger
Membership
Free; fill out the application
Outings
Monthly; lately at Broken Bridge, meeting at Friant Cove on Millerton Road
Claims
On public land, including the one at the BLM's Fresno River Recreation Area
Schools
Gold Rush lessons at six elementary schools in spring 2026
Organization
Fresno chapter of the GPAA, nonprofit 501(c)(3)

Club with mining claims for members

Based in Sanger, California.

The club's claims are for members only: contact the club to join.

cvprospectors.org ↗facebook.com ↗

Email:

Prospect on your own near Sanger

47 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.

Open the gold map around Sanger →

Prospecting and collecting rules in California →

About Central Valley Prospectors (GPAA Fresno)

Central Valley Prospectors became a club in August 2004 and is the Fresno chapter of the GPAA. It calls itself a not-for-profit gold club, and its stated goal is to teach members and the public three things: the history of the California Gold Rush, how to mine for gold, and how to use the different kinds of equipment that get gold out of the ground. The home page adds metal detecting and relic and treasure hunting, always with the stress on ethics, safety and technique. Joining costs nothing: you fill out the application, and anyone who is not yet a member, guests and spouses included, signs a waiver before taking part in an outing.

Classrooms are one of the club's main jobs. Members take the Gold Rush to Fresno-area fourth and fifth graders who are studying it, and the club calendar for spring 2026 shows educational visits at six elementary schools between late February and late April, in Fresno, Sanger, Prather, Madera and Easton.

Every month members go out to put their skills to work on the club's claims and in the area. Lately the usual spot has been Broken Bridge, with the meeting point at Friant Cove on Millerton Road; the calendar also shows a trip to the Ace of Spades near Johannesburg in November 2025 and one to Flapjack Flats in January 2026. For a day out the club suggests hiking boots and waders or rubber boots, a hat, gloves, sunblock and bug spray, plus a metal detector, a sluice or recirculating sluice, buckets, shovels and picks, a tub for panning, pans and classifiers. Weekend outings usually end with a potluck.

The claims are on public land, and the club's rules say so plainly: campers and picnickers may be there as long as they are not prospecting, and if they arrived first, members prospect a fair distance away, downstream if possible. Dogs stay home, nobody drinks until the outing is over for the day, parents keep children in sight near the water, and every hole gets filled, whoever dug it.

General meetings are on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 PM at The Worship Centre, 16357 E. Trimmer Springs Road in Sanger, where the club also held its birthday party on July 25, 2026; the meeting on December 15, 2026 is the annual dessert potluck. The BLM names the club on its page for the Fresno River Recreation Area, off County Road 600 just north of Oakhurst in the old Grub Gulch Mining District: Central Valley Prospectors holds the active mining claim there, and gold panning on the site needs the club's permission.

Other clubs and places nearby

Where to buy gear nearby

Sources