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Comstock Gold Prospectors

Reno-area gold club since 1981, with its own claims in northern Nevada and California

Meets
4th Tuesday, 7:30 pm, January to November; Christmas party in December
Where
Masonic Wadsworth Lodge #25, 2425 Pyramid Hwy, Sparks
Claims
24, owned or leased: 18 wet claims in northern California, 6 dry claims in northern Nevada
Members
462 (September 2026), living in ten states
Who can join
Anyone 18 or older; family memberships cover children under 18
Newsletter
The Gold Pan, monthly
Big event
Downieville Gold Rush Days, Sierra County, California (presented by the club in September 2026)
Outreach
Free panning lessons with real gold at schools, camps and fairs

Club with mining claims for members

Based in Sparks, Nevada.

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

cgpgold.org ↗

Prospect on your own near Sparks

250 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.

Open the gold map around Sparks →

Prospecting and collecting rules in the US →

About Comstock Gold Prospectors

Comstock Gold Prospectors is a nonprofit gold club based in Reno and Sparks. It started in 1981 as a chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America, left to become its own organization in 1986 and was incorporated as a Nevada nonprofit in 1990. A cartoon prospector called Jackass Charlie has been on its logo for many years.

The club's stated aim is to teach recreational prospecting that does not upset the balance of nature. Members go out to schools, camps and company outings to show people how to pan. Those sessions are free, the gold in the pans is real, and whoever finds it keeps it. The panning station also travels to community events in Truckee, California, such as Windows into History and Truckee Railroad Days, and in October 2026 it was set up at a Scouting community hike at Bartley Ranch in Reno.

Its biggest public event is Downieville Gold Rush Days, in the old mining town of Downieville in California's Sierra County, a festival that has run on and off for more than 30 years. In 2026 the club presented it together with Discover Downieville and HWY 49 Adventures, from 18 to 20 September: panning along the riverfront with lessons on the first day, talks at the Yuba Theatre, gunfighters on Main Street and a tour of the county's historic gallows, with Sierra City and the Kentucky Mine added to the program. Speakers covered mining claims, gold detectors and how to trace the history of old claims through the Nevada Division of Minerals. At earlier editions, run by other organizers, visitors were allowed to pan the Downie and North Yuba rivers in town because the club holds claims there. The 2026 weekend pushed membership to a record: 462 in September, up from 421 a month before.

Claims are the main reason people join. The September 2026 meeting report lists 24 club claims, owned or leased: 18 wet claims on streams in northern California and 6 dry claims in the northern Nevada desert, two of them limited to pan and shovel. A claims committee meets on the second Monday of every month to keep the filings in order, and for 2027 it is running workshops that teach members how claims are filed and maintained. Claim maps and details sit in the members' area of the club website, which also has forums for the claims, for prospecting talk and for buying and selling gear.

Meetings are on the fourth Tuesday at 7:30 pm at the Masonic Wadsworth Lodge #25 on Pyramid Highway in Sparks, from January to November; December has a club Christmas party instead. Many meetings bring in a guest speaker: in August 2026 a minerals geoscientist talked about critical minerals and Nevada's standing in lithium, and the autumn program included a talk on Nevada ghost towns and a primer on mining claims. Meetings usually end with a drawing for a silver round among the members.

Members live in Nevada and nine other states, from Washington to Florida. Anyone 18 or older can join, and a family membership covers a spouse or partner and their children under 18; in September 2026 the 462 members were spread over 180 individual and 141 family memberships.

Other clubs and places nearby

Sources