The New 49'ers
Membership claims on the Klamath since 1986
- Founded
- 1986, in Happy Camp
- Headquarters
- 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, next to the post office
- Type
- For-profit membership organization; members do not vote
- Claims
- About 60 miles on the Klamath, Scott and Salmon Rivers and creeks; more in Arizona
- Memberships
- Associate (one week of your choice, May to September) or Full (all year)
- 2026
- Saturday evening potlucks every other week
- Store
- Pro-Mack Mining Supplies, at the headquarters
Club with mining claims for members
Based in Happy Camp, California.
The club's claims are for members only: contact the club to join.
Email:
Prospect on your own near Happy Camp
1049 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.
About The New 49'ers
The New 49'ers is the gold prospecting association that Dave McCracken, a former Navy UDT/SEAL diver who had turned to gold dredging, founded in Happy Camp in 1986. The association's history page tells the road there: his first book, Advanced Dredging Techniques, came out through Keene Engineering in 1981; in 1983 he researched claims on the Klamath River and worked them the next season with two dredges; and in the winter of 1985 he took a booth at the big show in Quartzsite, Arizona, to promote the new group. The first members signed up the night he spoke to a gathering of LDMA members there.
It is not a member-run club. The New 49'ers is incorporated as a for-profit, private membership organization, and members have no voting rights. What they buy is access: roughly 60 linear miles of mining properties near Happy Camp, split roughly evenly between the main rivers (the Klamath, Salmon and Scott) and side creeks, Elk, Indian and Thompson Creek among them, plus gold properties in Arizona.
There are two kinds of membership. An Associate member, with spouse and children under 18, gets one week of their choice between May 1 and September 30 to camp, prospect and keep the gold, plus free entry to the weekend group projects. A Full member may prospect all year, can bring guests to work alongside for a week, and may sell the membership later. Full members pay yearly dues on top, billed in August, when the property taxes and the filing fees owed to the county and the BLM come due. Anyone who only wants a taste can use the free one-day guest pass in summer, which has its own page on Eureka.
Members who are actively prospecting may camp on or near many of the properties for as long as they like during the season, past the usual 14-day Forest Service limit, under the association's program with the Klamath National Forest; its long-term camps are open to two-wheel-drive cars and RVs. Social life runs on potlucks: in 2026 they moved to every other Saturday evening, and the August 2026 newsletter said quite a few members had visited Happy Camp and the claims during the season. The weekend group projects of past years are on hold, and the schedule page says none are planned until further notice. On the rivers, California's ban on suction dredges and motorized stream gear applies to members as to everyone else.
At the same address, Pro-Mack Mining Supplies has sold gear alongside the association for three decades: gold pans, classifier screens and panning kits, sluice boxes, crevicing tools, crack hammers, picks and pry bars, diving gear, back issues of Gold & Treasure Hunter magazine, and the founder's books and videos, with an online store too.
Other clubs and places nearby
- The New 49'ers Guest Pass (Klamath, Scott and Salmon River claims)Free public dig · 0 mi
- Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (Tower House, Clear Creek)Free public dig · 88 mi
- Nor-Cal Gold Prospectors (GPAA Redding)Club · 109 mi
- Shasta Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 109 mi
- Shasta Miners and Prospectors AssociationClub · 109 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Chapman's Gem & Mineral Shop & MuseumShop · 97 mi
- The Miner's CacheShop · 101 mi