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Westend Prospectors (West End Prospectors Club)

Inland Empire gold club with desert, mountain and river claims, worked by the season

Founded
1982, according to the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies
Meets
First Tuesday of each month, 7:30 PM; the CFMS lists no meeting in July, September and December
Where
Circle City Center, 365 N. Main Street, Corona
Claims
Nine: three in Holcomb Valley, one at Coolgardie, two in the Rand district, one each on the Klamath and Yuba Rivers and in the Chuckwalla Mountains
Outings
Monthly: mountain and river claims in spring and summer, desert claims in fall and winter
Dues
Due every July 1

Club with mining claims for members

Based in Corona, California.

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

wepcgold.com ↗

Prospect on your own near Corona

63 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 Westend Prospectors (West End Prospectors Club)

West End Prospectors, listed by the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies as Westend Prospectors and founded in 1982 by the federation's count, is a family organization of gold seekers based in Corona. Its pitch is simple: spend your time finding gold instead of hunting for a place to prospect, and keep all the gold you find. The club adds potluck dinners, games, programs, a monthly newsletter and a members' library.

The club holds nine claims: three in Holcomb Valley near Big Bear, a 160-acre claim at Coolgardie near Barstow, two in the Rand mining area near Randsburg, one on the Klamath River, one on the Yuba River and one in the Chuckwalla Mountains near Desert Center. The club calls them proven producers for dry washing and metal detecting, and says the river claims suit highbanking. Members may stay on a claim for up to three weeks at a time, but not live there. Yellow Gopher, the Coolgardie claim, lies on BLM land 12 miles north of Barstow, 18 by road: flat and sandy, easy for two-wheel drive, with mostly fine gold, pickers and nuggets of several grams. Potato-size hematite makes detecting there a challenge, shafts tunnel under the caliche, and in summer bees go for the water in the panning tubs. Cholla, also 160 acres, is the opposite, a dry claim in the Chuckwalla foothills so remote that it needs four-wheel drive and has seen little mining.

Outings follow the weather, with mountain and river claims from spring through summer and desert claims through fall and winter. In 2025 they went to Cholla in January, to Rands Promise near Randsburg and Yellow Gopher in spring and fall, and to Buckshot in Holcomb Valley from June to Labor Day, where open campfires are banned but propane barbecues are allowed with a permit and the Labor Day trip also needed a Forest Service permit for Polique Canyon Road. On the desert claims, Saturday night potlucks end around a campfire, with a permit. The 2026 calendar opened with a January outing at Cholla and an April one at North Cholla.

General meetings, open to all, are held on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM at the Circle City Center in Corona, where members bring their finds, gold or other treasure, and stay for the raffles. Applications go to the club by mail and the Board reviews each one at its next meeting. On the claims, any equipment is allowed as long as it is fed by hand with a shovel, every hole is filled and restored, engines carry a spark arrestor with a fire extinguisher at hand, and prospectors keep a 25-foot buffer from one another.

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