Goldrush Originals (gold panning tours, Angels Camp)
Art, gifts, gold and grub, and a guide to the creeks
- Where
- 1227 S. Main Street, downtown Angels Camp
- Tours
- Three- to four-hour gold panning tours, all-day trips and overnight adventures
- Guide
- Mike Darby
- Gear
- Provided
- The gold
- You keep what you find
- Book
- At the shop, or ahead by phone, (209) 736-0044, or email
- Wear
- Waterproof shoes: you may wade in a stream
- Tour spot
- Chosen by the guide and not published
Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: By appointment.
Make a weekend of it
532 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 Goldrush Originals (gold panning tours, Angels Camp)
Goldrush Originals is a shop on South Main Street in downtown Angels Camp, "art, gifts, gold & grub" in its own words, and it runs guided gold panning tours in Calaveras County. The regular tours last three to four hours, and there are all-day trips and overnight adventures too. The gold is natural stream gold, and you keep what you find.
The guide is Mike Darby, whom the Calaveras Visitors Bureau calls part artist, musician, historian, raconteur, author and gold panning expert; the shop's website also shows his paintings. He takes you and your group to one of the outfit's favorite spots, provides all the equipment, and teaches you where gold tends to settle in a stream and how to pan it properly, with the history of the Gold Rush in Angels Camp told along the way.
The spot is the guide's choice and is not published, which is why the Eureka pin is on the shop, where tours are booked. In 2016 Sactown Magazine described the three-hour tour going down to nearby streams like Greenhorn Creek and Six Mile Creek, with pans, pickaxes and rubber boots supplied, to spot flakes in the wild. Among the photos on the shop's site is gold found by a customer on one of the three-hour tours.
Book ahead, in person at the shop or by phone or email. Wear comfortable hiking boots or sneakers, and waterproof shoes are better, since you may have to wade. Summers here are hot while the rivers stay cold, so bring water, a hat and sunscreen.
Angels Camp was founded in 1849 by George Angel, who set up a mining camp and trading store on a rich gravel mining area that was also one of the richest quartz mining sections of the Mother Lode. The town is the setting of Mark Twain's story of the jumping frog of Calaveras County, and Sactown calls it Frogtown. A few miles south, at Carson Hill, the largest gold nugget ever found in California, 195 troy pounds, was found in November 1854.
Clubs and places nearby
- Calaveras Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 4 mi
- California Gold Panning (guided digs on Woods Creek, Jamestown)Pay-to-dig · 11 mi
- Roaring Camp Mining Company (Mokelumne River)Pay-to-dig · 22 mi
- Mother Lode Mineral Society of CaliforniaClub · 38 mi
- Stockton Lapidary & Mineral ClubClub · 39 mi
- Lodi Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 40 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Stories in StonesShop · 0 mi
- 49er Detector SalesShop · 25 mi
- Proline Mining EquipmentOnline shop · 31 mi
- Valley Detector SalesShop · 36 mi
Access
The shop is at 1227 S. Main Street, downtown Angels Camp. Stop by the shop or get in touch through the website to book a tour ahead of time.
Technique
Pans and gear are supplied, and the guide shows you where gold is most likely to settle and how to pan it. Wear waterproof shoes, since you may wade in a stream or river, and bring water and sun protection in summer.