Gold Prospecting Charters (The Owl, Red Mountain)
A 1921 desert cafe turned mining museum, and a miner to take you out
- Booked at
- The Owl, 701 Highway 395, Red Mountain, San Bernardino County
- Trip
- About three hours with a professional miner
- Gear
- The outfit's own equipment
- The gold
- Yours to keep, placed in a vial
- Dig spot
- Not published
- Shop
- Drywashers, metal detectors, picks, prospecting books and California gold
- Book
- Ahead, by phone or email, both on their website
Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Make a weekend of it
207 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 Gold Prospecting Charters (The Owl, Red Mountain)
Gold Prospecting Charters are guided gold trips in the historic Rand Mining District, booked at The Owl on Highway 395 in Red Mountain. A professional miner takes you out for about three hours with the outfit's own equipment and walks you through every step, and whatever gold you find is yours, placed in a vial to show family and friends. Where the trip goes is up to the miner and is not posted online, so the map marker sits on The Owl.
The Owl Cafe was built in 1921 and is now a small mining museum and prospecting shop, with its original bar still inside. The museum shows gold samples from historic spots around the district and some from the Mother Lode in Northern California. The shop sells drywashers, metal detectors, picks and prospecting books, and real California gold. There is a replica of the Mojave Nugget, the largest known nugget found in Southern California, located with a metal detector in 1977 in the Stringer District nearby; the original is in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In front stands a monument to The Owl and the area's mining history, put up by the Billy Holcomb Chapter of E Clampus Vitus.
Gold made this district. The Yellow Aster, or Rand, mine was discovered in April 1895; Randsburg grew up around it and Johannesburg followed in 1896 as its supply town, both named after the Rand gold district of South Africa. In 1896 Eugene Garlock built a stamp mill to crush the Yellow Aster's ore. Tungsten was found at Atolia in 1907 and went into steel alloy in World War I, and in 1919 a silver strike gave Red Mountain the California Rand Silver Mine, also known as the Kelly.
The same outfit also runs a driving tour of the district. It starts at the foot of the El Paso Mountains, where miners first dry washed for gold, goes on to Randsburg and Johannesburg, crosses the Stringer District and Atolia, and ends in Red Mountain at the Kelly Silver Mine.
Book a charter ahead by phone or email, both listed on their website. At The Owl there are snacks, sodas and ice cream, and the coffee is free. Next door, the old Owl Hotel is on private property.
Clubs and places nearby
- Indian Wells Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 19 mi
- Mojave Desert Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 46 mi
- Tehachapi Valley Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 49 mi
- Antelope Valley Prospectors (GPAA Lancaster)Club · 52 mi
- Keysville Recreation Area (Kern River)Free public dig · 53 mi
- Antelope Valley Gem & Mineral ClubClub · 57 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Minerals UnlimitedShop · 19 mi
- Diamond Pacific Tool CorpOnline shop · 46 mi
- Lone Pine Rocks & GiftsShop · 90 mi
- Amateur GeologistOnline shop · 90 mi
Access
Book ahead by phone or email, both on their website. The Owl is at 701 Highway 395 in Red Mountain, San Bernardino County, on the highway through town.
Technique
The equipment is provided. The Owl's museum shows gold samples from historic places around the district and from the Mother Lode, and the shop sells prospecting supplies.