Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (Tower House, Clear Creek)

About Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (Tower House, Clear Creek)

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, west of Redding, is a National Park Service area where you can still pan for gold on your own. Everyone 17 and older needs the park's gold panning permit, which is valid for a year, and every vehicle needs a park entrance pass. Both are sold at the visitor center or on Recreation.gov, and the visitor center also sells panning tools and an instruction booklet.

Clear Creek is where Shasta County's gold rush started. Pierson B. Reading found gold in the creek in 1848, and the news brought a wave of miners, many of whom camped in what is now the recreation area. Whiskeytown itself began as a mining town along Clear Creek and its tributaries. The town and much of the Clear Creek drainage inside the park now lie under Whiskeytown Lake, so today's panners work the creeks that feed it.

The park points to two places. The Tower House Historic District, about 7.5 miles west of the visitor center on Highway 299, is where Mill Creek, Crystal Creek and Clear Creek meet. A paved trail runs from the parking lot to a footbridge over Clear Creek, on the site of the toll bridge of Charles Camden, who also built the Camden House in 1852; the 2018 Carr Fire burned through much of the area, but the house was saved. The Camden Water Ditch Trail is part of the same district. The second spot is the Clear Creek Picnic Area on Trinity Mountain Road, where the rangers suggest you try your hand.

Only a metal or plastic pan and small digging tools such as a trowel or a spoon are allowed, with a blade no bigger than 4 by 8 inches. Metal detectors, suction devices, sluice boxes, rockers, dredges and other mechanical tools are prohibited, and so are snorkels, masks and wetsuits, mercury and other chemicals. You work in the water: no digging above the stream level and no undermining plants, historic features or bridge abutments. Gold you find stays in your own collection, because selling it is not allowed. One stretch is closed to panning: Clear Creek from the mouth of Paige Bar Creek to the access road bridge of the Whiskeytown Environmental School, to keep visitors away from the school's programs.

The park lists panning as a year-round activity for all ages, and leashed dogs are welcome at the panning spots. Creek banks can be steep and loose, so stick to existing paths rather than cutting new ones. On lower Clear Creek the flow can change sharply when water is released from the Clair A. Hill Whiskeytown Dam during the salmon migration and the seasonal draw-downs.

Clubs and places nearby

• Nor-Cal Gold Prospectors (GPAA Redding)Club · 23 mi
• Shasta Miners and Prospectors AssociationClub · 23 mi
• Shasta Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 23 mi
• Forks of Butte Creek Recreation Area (BLM)Free public dig · 75 mi
• Paradise Gem & Mineral ClubClub · 80 mi
• The New 49'ersClub · 88 mi

Where to buy gear nearby

• The Miner's CacheShop · 17 mi
• Chapman's Gem & Mineral Shop & MuseumShop · 80 mi
• GoldiBoxOnline shop · 81 mi
• Dogtown Trading CompanyOnline shop · 81 mi

Access

Tower House Historic District is on Highway 299, about 7.5 miles west of the Whiskeytown visitor center: follow the paved trail from the parking lot and cross the footbridge over Clear Creek. The Clear Creek Picnic Area is on Trinity Mountain Road. Buy the gold panning permit at the visitor center or on Recreation.gov (needed from age 17); vehicles also need a park entrance pass.

Technique

Metal or plastic gold pan and small digging tools such as a trowel or spoon, with a blade no larger than 4 by 8 inches. No metal detectors, suction devices, sluice boxes, rockers or dredges, no snorkel, mask or wetsuit, no mercury or other chemicals. Work only within the water: no digging above the stream level, into the banks or under plants, historic features or bridges. Panning is closed on Clear Creek from the mouth of Paige Bar Creek to the Whiskeytown Environmental School Camp bridge. Never sell what you find.

Sources

• National Park Service: gold panning at Whiskeytown
• National Park Service: Gold Panning at Whiskeytown NRA
• National Park Service: Tower House Historic District
• Recreation.gov: Whiskeytown Gold Panning Pass