Roaring Camp Mining Company (Mokelumne River)
Fee dig: pay to search the ground on site
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: May to September
Old forty-niner camp at Clinton Bar in the Mokelumne River canyon, where the forks of the river come together. The place was so hard to reach that much of the gold is said to still be there. The owners run an operating placer mine and let guests pan, sluice, metal detect and dry wash for natural gold, with guided all-day tours and weekly cabin and tent stays in season. You keep what you find.
Make a weekend of it
618 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.
Clubs and places nearby
- Calaveras Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 19 mi
- El Dorado County Mineral & Gem SocietyClub · 25 mi
- Gold Country Treasure Seekers (Placerville)Club · 27 mi
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic ParkFree public dig · 33 mi
- South Fork American River at Greenwood Creek (BLM)Free public dig · 36 mi
- Sacramento Mineral SocietyClub · 41 mi
Access
The pin is on the camp at Clinton Bar, in the Mokelumne River canyon south of Pine Grove, Amador County (position of the Clinton Bar placer from the USGS records). Do not drive down on your own: book ahead by phone or through the website and check in at the company office on Tabeaud Road near Pine Grove; the camp lies at the bottom of a long, steep canyon road.
Technique
Everything happens in natural river gravel: gold pan, sluice box, metal detector and dry washer. Ask the guides where the gold is running this season, and bring water shoes for the river.