Gold in California — the public record, read

Everything below comes straight from the federal record (USGS MRDS) — every documented gold occurrence, prospect and producer in California, mapped and readable for free. Not the famous names retold: the actual filed records, including the quiet ground between the famous districts.

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California by the numbers

22,759recorded gold occurrences

9,573past & active gold producers

4,853recorded as placer ground

42,772mineral records of all kinds

Principal recorded commodities: Gold (22,759) · Silver (2,631) · Copper (2,623) · Sand and Gravel, Construction (2,480) · Chromium (2,220) · Manganese (1,579).

Where to find gold in California — county by county

The counties with the most recorded gold occurrences — each links to its own page and into the live map of that ground (claims, creeks, roads and geology on):

County	Gold records	Producers
Calaveras County map →	2,498	1,044
El Dorado County map →	2,377	522
Nevada County map →	2,005	946
Siskiyou County map →	1,862	924
San Bernardino County map →	1,592	509
Mariposa County map →	1,263	631
Placer County map →	1,159	537
Sierra County map →	1,028	599
Tuolumne County map →	1,017	418
Trinity County map →	979	477

Recorded medium & large producers

Sites the federal record lists with medium or large production — proven ground worth a careful, legal look at the country around it:

Site	County	Status	Recorded size
Atolia District	Kern, San Bernardino	Past Producer	Large
Black Bear	Siskiyou	Past Producer	Large
Brown	Calaveras	Past Producer	Large
Brown Bear Mine	Trinity	Past Producer	Large
Carson Hill Gold Mining Co.	Calaveras	Past Producer	Large
Castle Mountain Mine	San Bernardino	Producer	Large
Champion Con Qtz	Nevada	Past Producer	Large
Empire Mines Co.	Nevada	Past Producer	Large

What this can — and can't — tell you

The public record shows where gold was documented, claimed and produced. It cannot tell you what's left, whether a specific creek still carries color, or that any spot will pay. What it CAN do is stack the odds: known sources upslope, the creeks that drain them, what's already claimed, and the bedrock — read together. Always verify claim status with BLM and land rules before you dig. Information, not advice.

The free map shows every dot above. Membership opens the layers that turn dots into a plan — favorability at working zoom, active claims, land ownership, geology and the creeks that drain the known sources. The first 7 days are free.

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Learn the method

The dots are the record. The method is how you read them:

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