GPAA Las Vegas Chapter
Southern Nevada's GPAA chapter, prospecting around Las Vegas since 2001
- Meets
- Last Monday of the month, 6:00 pm
- Where
- Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie #1213, 1601 E Washington Ave, Las Vegas
- Meetings
- Free and open to everyone
- Outings
- Monthly, within about two hours of Las Vegas; non-members welcome
- Size
- Over 300 local members and guests
- Active since
- 2001
- Newsletter
- Free, by email, with outing news
Club with mining claims for members
Based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The club's claims are for members only: contact the club to join.
Prospect on your own near Las Vegas
36 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 GPAA Las Vegas Chapter
The Las Vegas Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America, known as LVGPAA, has been active in southern Nevada since 2001 and counts itself among the largest GPAA chapters in the United States, with more than 300 local members and guests, some of whom come from abroad for its meetings and outings. Its members range from people who have prospected for decades to people who have never held a gold pan, and the chapter says the old hands are glad to help beginners learn how to find gold.
General meetings usually fall on the last Monday of the month at 6:00 pm at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie #1213, on Washington Avenue at the corner of Bruce Street, near Cashman Field. Entry is free and nobody has to be a member. The chapter sells them as the place to find out where its people go for gold and how the equipment works, from spotting gold-bearing ground to processing what comes out of it. The Eagles lodge has been home for a long time: Nevada Magazine's 2013 prospecting feature already sent readers there, at the same hour but on fourth Mondays.
Outings run every month and are open even to people without a GPAA membership. According to the chapter, there is plenty of prospecting ground within a two-hour drive of Las Vegas, and on outing Saturdays the chapter usually puts on a light lunch. Bigger events that members attend as a group are announced at the meetings, and outing dates go out through a free email newsletter rather than the website, whose calendar is often blank: anyone curious is better off turning up on a meeting night or signing up for the newsletter.
In that 2013 article the chapter's president of the day said the greatest treasure was not the gold but the outings and the friends made along the way. The magazine also noted that people with special needs were welcome at every meeting and outing, and that one member who used a wheelchair took part in all of them and had become an expert with a gold pan.
For newcomers the website keeps a glossary of prospecting terms, handy for decoding words like drywasher, classifier and black sand before a first trip into the desert, along with a photo gallery of past outings.
Other clubs and places nearby
- Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 0 mi
- Gold Searchers of Southern NevadaClub · 13 mi
- Ore Car Mining Claim (SNGMS)Free public dig · 24 mi
- Mohave Prospectors AssociationClub · 88 mi
- Mohave County GemstonersClub · 90 mi
- Flattop Mountain Rock Collecting AreaFree public dig · 95 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Bear's Archery, Guns and ProspectingShop · 124 mi
- Havasu RocksShop · 124 mi