Whenever I travel somewhere, upon return when I see the Baraboo Range finally come into view I know I'm home. I love the Driftless area of Wisconsin. Full of simple beauty. Fun video - thanks.
I panned East of Everett,Washington (above Gold Bar). As a kid. Never occurred to prospect here. I live on the backside of a Morraine near Devils Lake,up in the Bluffs. Hmmmm! That is an awesome panning setup. Beats the riffle I permanently borrowed from Father,chuckle. Thank You! Cheers Walker
I always check out the layers of rock where they dug through a hill to lay down the road for Highway 151 between Dodgeville and Dubuque. There's a whole lot of history displayed in those bands of rock.
I continue to appreciate, love, your work and all that driving and prospecting. You've helped me ID a bunch of cool rocks I've picked up while prospecting. It's nice to have a name to go with them. THANX!
We see things around us all of the time and never think twice about it. Example- when you pulled up to that outcropping and explained the various rocks and why they are different colors, I found that very interesting. It's not something I would ever think about -it's just a reminder that we can always be educated. Just subbed!
Very cool. I worked in the oil field as a mud logger and geo steerer for a few years in North Dakota. Been doing the geo tech work for about 3 years now.
I'm fairly new to Wisconsin and I love rocks. Perfect! Really enjoyed your video. I've often said that I wish I had a geologist who would walk alongside me and explain the geology of every rock I pick up.
I didn't get into gold prospecting until I moved from WI to AK 20 years ago. Little did I know there was gold all around me the 40 years I lived in WI. Great video!!
I'm the reverse of you; I moved from Ak to Wi for college. If only someone had told me to bring a gold pan, it would have kept me out of a lot of trouble! I moved from Wi to Wa, where I still live, and bought a new gold pan to replace the one I left behind. It has been 42 years since I left Ak and 35 since I left Wi. for Wa and shortly after bought a gold pan where I still reside presently. If someone had told me in 1983 to bring my gold pan because there was gold in Wi, it would have kept me out of the bar life of Wi! It's amazing how much trouble a $10-$15 tool can keep a person out of trouble!
@@Ako2accountim still here! I quit drinking years ago and picked up fishing! Not a whole lot to do here unless you’re into the outdoors! I’m leaning towards grabbing a pan myself! Grew up on the bottom of glacial lake Wisconsin and im thinking there’s gold in my backyard!
Another great video. Educational, entertaining, great editing and clips added. Keep it up. As far as where to look in a stream, I've looked on the inside, outside, upside, downside, high and low locations and "@Gold is where you find it". (another good channel) Looking forward to more content.
The leading edge of the gravel bar generally has more gold than the trailing edge. Any bar present at lower water levels represents a low hydrological pressure zone in the river and the front is where you tend to see bigger boulders, cobbles, and heavier materials land. The trailing edge tends to be more blond sand, lighter cobbles, and lighter objects. This is governed by Stoke's equations, I believe. Of course, there are innumerable variations, but heavy objects tend to stick together, so look for the larger, heavier stones and black or garnet sand streaks as your best guide.
I really enjoy watching your videos. I also like that you’re right here in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa area. There is parts of the northeast Iowa that I’ve researched and would like to get up and do some field study someday but it’s just so dang far away. There are some really good spots over there. Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing your adventure in gold prospecting with the rest of us. I learn something every time I watch your videos.
I can drive from Seattle to Chicago or back in 2 1/2 days. What's so far about that? From Milwaukee, WI, to Keywest, FL, within 24 hours, and Seattle to an hour north of Los Angeles, CA, or to Las Vegas, NV, all under 24 hours! It's 5 hours to cross the state of Washington, East, or South and even North to BC, Canada, from where I live-the most monatous part of a trip! A pocket full of gas money and a credit card are almost everything you need-a little bit of enthusiasm is what propels you out the door and keeps you going!!
Kenosha, WI to Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul is 5 or maybe 8 hours, tops! I've been to Iowa, 5-6 hours from Kenosha over the Mississippi River to a nearby town in Iowa I can't remember the name of, lovely place though! And I think your biggest obstacle is your lazy boy who doesn't let you go exploring!
Do you know where I might be able to find large pure deposits of chert in minnsota? I would like to find some for flintknapping but I don’t know where to look.
@@GlacialGoldHunter I know that the natives traded for a lot of their tool stone. That is why they went through such great lengths to mine natural copper for their tools. If you haven't read about the Michigan copper mines your really need to. My friend David Pompeani (geologist) are going to explore them this summer.
I have always wondered about the driftless region of Wisconsin. We had a family farm that was in our family for 4 generations and some of the rocks "to me" looked speckled with gold. (I'll take a few photos and attach them.)
As an Chicago burbs resident, seeing this video pop up in my feed was very interesting as Im not far from that area and some light googling lead me to this area not being good for gold panning a couple years back.. Cool to see you find some and even cooler to see you read the rocks how you did..
You may remember me commenting on a previous video about vicksberg park. I just learned you are geologist in this video and just wanted to mention that park again. I've been fascinated with it for many years and visit it at least once a month to explore. The geological make up in this park is so out of place. Renville county is super flat with abundant heavy topsoil, but as you drop down into the glacial river bottom it turns into something incredible. Shear cliffs and massive boulder piles. There is also what appears to be something like a rift (I'm not an expert) that runs almost the entire length of the park. Its a pretty amazing place unlike anything else around. You wouldn't regret visiting it and I'd love to learn more about it from someone who knows what they are talking about.
Check out the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. The story is that a huge glacial lake formed in the lower Wisconsin river valley. At a certain point, the waters broke through there and formed a giant waterfall that emptied for years. Geologists say the sediments where that plunge pool formed go down 700 feet or more. Before that event, pretty much all the water draining north of there flowed east towards the great lakes. Afterwards, the direction changed to New Orleans.
Thanks for the lesson! I just got 100 mesh & a blue bowl yesterday. I've found that I spend too much time looking at the fine material with a magnifying glass😊. Lots of purple and red looking quartz with different colors all the way to completely clear. It's mesmerizing, lol. I should get a telescope too, my eyes aren't what they used to be. Thanks again!!
The first location visited on the Mississippi River was in Potosi Wisconsin, and the second was in Cassville Wisconsin. Next time you are in Cassville you should climb down into brewery Creek under the bridge on Bluff Street. There was a lead smelter there since the 1820s.
I grew up in Monroe, Wi. That is part of the driftless zone, but somehow I’ve never heard of it until today. They are known for having a cheese festival every two years that has the best curds in the history of mankind. Aight den. Deuces. •fart noise•
Thanks. I have wondered about the driftless area for gold, because it is different. This was very educational. I know somewhere where I saw lots of black looking sand associated with water. I might check it out for gold!
Stumbled across your channel this morning, fun fact my grandfather was a big part of creating that walking trail in the beginning of your video. I rent boats in McGregor Iowa and see one gentleman go out panning, he actually came back to return the boat and had a few gold flakes, crazy. I recommend yellow river or Turkey river in Iowa.
Nugget Lake county park in Pierce county permits gold panning with restrictions to preserve the stream. The area was hit with a meteor about 4 million years ago and caused uplifts. Some clubs go there regularly.
I know a bunch of creeks in the driftless with a lot of black sand. I have tried panning in some of them but don't know what I am doing. I have a small playlist of places that I have tried. I have found creeks with agate-looking material and some loaded with quartz.
Could be a load of sulfides. Chert can form in bands and look like agate. I mean an agate is chert chemically. Quarts can form a number of ways. Only some of them are conducive for gold precipitation though. J
Panning for gold in trout streams.......never thunk it, lol. Cool video, and close to home- normally the "gold" I'm looking for swims in many of the locations you were at.
If you ever get south of Platteville you should check out the fever river. It runs through the main lead country. Outside the town of lead mine there is a big horseshoe bend. There's another public access outside of Newdiggings. It turns into the Galena River when it hits Illinois. Runs all the way to the Mississippi River without being damned. A lot of the river on the Wisconsin side is public access for fishing. You might be able to find a big chunk of Galena or a something cool. Thanks for taking us along on another adventure.
I live in Taylor County Wisconsin where the Ice Age Trail trail runs through. Many gravel pits around from glacial deposits. In the creeks I see deposits of shiny material (natural riffeling ?) think its copper but a guy I met said he'd gotten gold beneath a waterfall where was once an Indian settlement . The fields around here produce tons of various stones where a company turns to "gold" sliced and used in architecture huge piles of field stone all around here in the fields.
Good spots are along turkey and volga rivers in iowa that flow in from outside driftless zone, bring in deposits from glacier impacted areas. Nice work
Interesting video, I like what you got going on here. You should make a trip down to Pearl city Illinois, on the north side of town is gold mine Road, running east/west. This is in the driftless area and maybe you could discover the origins of the road’s name.
It depends on the maps you look at where the driftless boundary is. Nugget lake has glacial till all over so it was definitely glaciated but it is on the edge of the boundary.
@ I would classify it as driftless based on the topography having lived and worked in the area for my entire life. I know the maps don’t necessarily reflect that always. It isn’t deep driftless like the dells and surrounding areas
There's Gneiss basement rock underlying the precambrian sandstone that has veins of quartz. There were some failed commercial mining attempts in the 19th century, mostly looking for silver in this rock, but also some gold. They weren't productive enough to be economical, but they did find some Silver and a little gold. The basement rock comes the surface in several of the region's rivers and forms rapids and falls.
Great video again and a few specks of gold. Sounds like you have a very interesting job. Wish I knew more about geology. Just started learning things a few years ago.
My wife was from the driftless zone. Her grandfather was part owner of the Dark Horse lead mine in Linden Wisconsin. I know the park you stopped at in Platteville. Katie's Garden. Her daughter lives in Platteville.
Another great video! I'm sorry I found you so late. We just moved off our hobby farm with a large gravel bed creek flowing through it. It would have been fun to see if I could have found some gold in my own back yard.
I live in galena il and i have been thinking of trying on the edge of the glacial drift hoping the glaciers melted amd the gold flowed into the valleys of the driftless area. I have never tried before though.
I'm just inside the driftless zone in MN and can attest it goes from nothing to decent amounts of till/AU over a very short distance. Like you say, some of the moraines along the edges could be loaded and gradually spread into the driftless through alluvial action. The Straight River in Faribault as a really good example of this, where you can find gold in every pan, but once you get downstream into the Cannon river, practically nothing.
It’s a theory that the lead in the driftless zone was originally radioactive. It decayed down to lead eventually. There was so much heat from the radioactivity that it melted the glaciers. According to my grandfather, who has passed on and mined lead on a small scale in the 1930’s, the seams of lead run in one direction. East-West or North-South I forget which way.
Well uranium 238 will decay into lead 206 but that would be incredibly trace amounts. Not enough for an ore body to develop. So he is right in that lead can come from a radio active source, but the main source of the ore would be the hydrothermal activity.
No idea if you can truly find gold in the Driftless Area, but another loophole is prospecting along the edge of the Driftless where the glaciers likely deposited along the edges. People like the Black Earth Creek in Cross Plains and around where it meets the Wisconsin River.
Awesome! I lived in Wisconsin when I went to college. I wish someone would have told me to bring a gold pan; it would have kept me out of a lot of bars!
Bars are pretty common in Wisconsin. That’s one reason I’ve never had a drop of alcohol. Didn’t ever want it to be an issue so I drew a hard line and never crossed it.
In northern Minnesota there used to be lake Agassiz which was formed by a glacier. It has dried up millions of years ago and has left very fertile farmland. Would there be gold on the sand banks of that lake?
@GlacialGoldHunter so you have here to look for gold? There are blue rocks here that are from a volcano that used to be in Northeast Canada. Would those contain or have brought down gold or precious stones?
According to the late 1800’s early 1900’s almanacs for NE Iowa, there were two places in Iowa where people could successfully pan for gold. One was a small river in NE Iowa where a days worth of panning could result in enough gold to be equal to a days wages of doing other work.
Now seeing and understanding from your explanations of the rocks, I remember as a kid finding a bunch of quartz in the cannon river in northfield and that’s right on the edge of the driftless zone. Maybe I’ll check it out
We have really cool Iron oxide concretions here in Green county, just into Dane where the glacier melted I have found cool rocks in the streams near there indicating glacial deposits
There was a gold mine by Wausau, Wisconsin. Three components used in gunpowder: saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. Google: Midwest Karst-The Herald-Times The preferred wood for charcoal for gunpowder, black willow wood. Sulfur from galena and saltpeter from bat poop in the karst caves. The early French fur traders in the 1600's made gunpowder and traded gunpowder to the Indians for beaver pelts.
Check - no gold in the drift-less zone. 6 trillion other square miles to verify. 😂. Test, test and test some more. Fun to see your videos and can’t wait for the next one. ⚡️⚒⚡️
Hey there, I’m diggin’ your vids! I grew up in Wisconsin/ Iowa (potosi & the rural quad cities) I’ve been in California for over 30 years. I’m a rock & gold enthusiast… just a suggestion is to check out goldhog panning, “how to” vids.. helped me w/ panning when I first started. But yeah, Good Work man!!
New subscriber here, I really enjoy your content. I live in Fillmore county down by Spring Valley. If you do your homework you will find there was alot of iron ore mining in that area years ago. There are places where the iron ore deposits cross streams and that is where you can actually find decent gold. Yes even pickers and occasionally wire gold. Are you going to get rich, probably not unless you could set up a wash plant for mining sand. Remember the old saying, gold rides an iron horse. I look forward for more great content. I especially like your satire. Haha the reporter hit in the face by a fish!!
I'm also in Fillmore. I've looked around my place but the streambed is almost exclusively limestone. This video gets me amped up to do a little more prospecting around here just to be sure. Very educational content.
@turbobre You need.to actually quit looking at the limestone that has been washed in after thousands of years. Like I said, Gold rides an Iron Horse. Remember Gold is where you find it... I learned that many years ago from Tom Massey and his Father the Old Buzzard. There are MANY hot spots around Spring Valley that people will never find until they put boots in the water. Keep your Head up Son.. someday you will find the placers that really pay off. I've been there and still doing it. Remember it's all a numbers game. Tons of sand, material vs all the headache of hundreds of hours and actually a permit from the State and dont forget the County just to have a sand washing plant. Until then, you will never make a dime om it. Hopefully you understand that.
I trout fish streams just north of red wing and I heard that that area was the edge of the drift zone. one stream that I found very suitable for gold is bell creek that flows into the cannon River just south of Welch village, have you ever panned them rivers in the Welch village area? I think it may be very good to try..
Ha. I just looked at my map. I commonly will look at topo maps and flag places that look good to prospect. And I have a flag there I that creek. I just haven’t been there yet.
@GlacialGoldHunter well the upper part of bell creek near Vasa has some beautiful bedrock sheer cliffs along side of bell creek.. and I heard that bell creek was the edge of the glacial flow where it actually ended.. good luck I love your videos..
Mr Gold Hunter, do a show about the Flambeau mine south of Ladysmith WI. It's is crazy interesting how much gold got pulled out of it, possibly the most gold ever on earth for the size of mine. Im only 30+ miles away in Barron county and we only have frack sand.
@@ultramagaman4304 that was a copper mine but yes it did have gold in the sulfides. I plan on doing a video there next year. Do people still cry foul about that mine? I know there were a lot of law suits.
Yes copper mine but they got 334,000 ounces of gold and 3+ million ounces of silver. Any mine that close gets people nervous what will happen next with reclaim process.
@@GlacialGoldHunter yes sir it is! I bet some gold got dropped off that glacier in near by areas also but I have never heard of anything. So possibly, there's a bunch of gold just laying under a few feet of ground near by ( maybe 35 miles away in my back 40 creek). Fingers crossed 🤞. Thanks for your show and happy New Year
I’m close to Platteville. My aunt has a big creek/Stream runs her land completely rock bottom n sand areas. Making me wonder …it’s pry 20-30’ at the widest in spots
Anybody find/known of any gold anywhere in Polk County WI? Balsalm Lake area? I was panning at the cabin this past summer and found large amounts of black sand and a few specs of Au. I wasn’t strategic about where I was shoveling, so thought it was interesting
It would be great to hear more about the geology of Wisconsin and Minnesota.. (if that's where you are located?) not only the gold hunting. Given lemons, make lemonade!
Hello and Good Morning, Have you tried looking in old river channels near the current course? I have been on a couple of creeks where theres no gold in the stream but there is in the old benches. Thanks for the Lesson I really enjoy your videos even though we are in different regions. Maybe you can take a look at my Montana claim if you are in the area.
Also, and I could be wrong, but I believe those that study the Driftless Area say that the only true Driftless is in Wisconsin. Even though parts of surrounding states have similar features, they were “drifted” by glaciers at least once. Only a specific area of Wisconsin was never drifted across ice ages.
I was in South Carolina for Christmas and I received a gold miner's kit from my wife's husband (That Me). I went to a dry creek bed found a low pressure spot during runoff season scraped away all the leaves and found a nice gravel bed with glay and with each scoop of this material you could see gold flakes lots and lots of gold flakes. Is it gold I don't think so however this area in SC is known for gold. But I can't separate it from the sand it's so flat it seems a light as the sand pebbles. Got any ideas
Gold always wins. If everything else s the same size you can always separate the light material from the gold because gold is so much more dense. Make sure the material is classified to the same size. Flats shiny flakes that move around easily could be mica. If you can’t get it to separate it might not be gold. Sometimes people get bags of pay dirt just so they know what gold looks like and how it moves in the pan.
Whenever I travel somewhere, upon return when I see the Baraboo Range finally come into view I know I'm home. I love the Driftless area of Wisconsin. Full of simple beauty.
Fun video - thanks.
This is been by far my favorite of yours, despite the lack of gold finding. Informational, educational, windicational, fundicational!
Thank you!
I agree and approve of your comment!
I panned East of Everett,Washington (above Gold Bar). As a kid. Never occurred to prospect here. I live on the backside of a Morraine near Devils Lake,up in the Bluffs. Hmmmm! That is an awesome panning setup. Beats the riffle I permanently borrowed from Father,chuckle. Thank You! Cheers Walker
On today's videos I learned why Galena, IL is called that. Finally connected the mining history to the name in my brain.
Haha yeah. There are a number of cities named galena for that reason.
Good job!
Went to school in Platteville. This video was super cool seeing someone so excited about my second home.
I always check out the layers of rock where they dug through a hill to lay down the road for Highway 151 between Dodgeville and Dubuque. There's a whole lot of history displayed in those bands of rock.
Awesome video - talking about the different rocks/minerals and what you are looking for was great!
I continue to appreciate, love, your work and all that driving and prospecting. You've helped me ID a bunch of cool rocks I've picked up while prospecting. It's nice to have a name to go with them. THANX!
We see things around us all of the time and never think twice about it. Example- when you pulled up to that outcropping and explained the various rocks and why they are different colors, I found that very interesting. It's not something I would ever think about -it's just a reminder that we can always be educated.
Just subbed!
That’s why geology is so cool. Everywhere you go there is geology.
Good job!
I did the same geotechnical work as you for 35 years after 10 years in the oil industry. Fun stuff, like your video, stay blessed.
Very cool. I worked in the oil field as a mud logger and geo steerer for a few years in North Dakota. Been doing the geo tech work for about 3 years now.
I'm fairly new to Wisconsin and I love rocks. Perfect!
Really enjoyed your video. I've often said that I wish I had a geologist who would walk alongside me and explain the geology of every rock I pick up.
I didn't get into gold prospecting until I moved from WI to AK 20 years ago.
Little did I know there was gold all around me the 40 years I lived in WI.
Great video!!
I bed there is a lot more to be seen where you are.
I'm the reverse of you; I moved from Ak to Wi for college. If only someone had told me to bring a gold pan, it would have kept me out of a lot of trouble! I moved from Wi to Wa, where I still live, and bought a new gold pan to replace the one I left behind. It has been 42 years since I left Ak and 35 since I left Wi. for Wa and shortly after bought a gold pan where I still reside presently. If someone had told me in 1983 to bring my gold pan because there was gold in Wi, it would have kept me out of the bar life of Wi! It's amazing how much trouble a $10-$15 tool can keep a person out of trouble!
@@dirkfrazier9779
We, too, graduated from WI and we both lost a lot of brain cells on State St during our edumacation. 🤣
@@GlacialGoldHunter
Oh, yeah. Gold is a lot chunkier up here.
👍
@@Ako2accountim still here! I quit drinking years ago and picked up fishing! Not a whole lot to do here unless you’re into the outdoors! I’m leaning towards grabbing a pan myself! Grew up on the bottom of glacial lake Wisconsin and im thinking there’s gold in my backyard!
Another great video. Educational, entertaining, great editing and clips added. Keep it up. As far as where to look in a stream, I've looked on the inside, outside, upside, downside, high and low locations and "@Gold is where you find it". (another good channel) Looking forward to more content.
Bedrock, It can't crawl down any deeper!
Glaciation is that even a word. lol I love your channel. It’s so informational. Thank you for spending the time out there doing this.
Thanks for watching!
The leading edge of the gravel bar generally has more gold than the trailing edge. Any bar present at lower water levels represents a low hydrological pressure zone in the river and the front is where you tend to see bigger boulders, cobbles, and heavier materials land. The trailing edge tends to be more blond sand, lighter cobbles, and lighter objects. This is governed by Stoke's equations, I believe. Of course, there are innumerable variations, but heavy objects tend to stick together, so look for the larger, heavier stones and black or garnet sand streaks as your best guide.
Makes sense. Stokes equation and Reynolds’s numbers are all a distant memory to me. That was the part of sed strat that I didn’t enjoy.
I really enjoy watching your videos. I also like that you’re right here in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa area. There is parts of the northeast Iowa that I’ve researched and would like to get up and do some field study someday but it’s just so dang far away. There are some really good spots over there. Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing your adventure in gold prospecting with the rest of us. I learn something every time I watch your videos.
States are so big! It’s hard to get everywhere you want.
I can drive from Seattle to Chicago or back in 2 1/2 days. What's so far about that? From Milwaukee, WI, to Keywest, FL, within 24 hours, and Seattle to an hour north of Los Angeles, CA, or to Las Vegas, NV, all under 24 hours! It's 5 hours to cross the state of Washington, East, or South and even North to BC, Canada, from where I live-the most monatous part of a trip! A pocket full of gas money and a credit card are almost everything you need-a little bit of enthusiasm is what propels you out the door and keeps you going!!
Kenosha, WI to Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul is 5 or maybe 8 hours, tops! I've been to Iowa, 5-6 hours from Kenosha over the Mississippi River to a nearby town in Iowa I can't remember the name of, lovely place though! And I think your biggest obstacle is your lazy boy who doesn't let you go exploring!
Do you know where I might be able to find large pure deposits of chert in minnsota? I would like to find some for flintknapping but I don’t know where to look.
No. The chert that I know of is scattered here and there. You just have to keep an eye out and get lucky. I’m not sure where the natives got it.
@@GlacialGoldHunter I know that the natives traded for a lot of their tool stone. That is why they went through such great lengths to mine natural copper for their tools. If you haven't read about the Michigan copper mines your really need to. My friend David Pompeani (geologist) are going to explore them this summer.
looked like some nice trout to me, and thats food Gold! the weather was not your friend on this trip. thanks for the share! stay awesome!
Sometimes the only times I could prospect was when we got rained out.
I have always wondered about the driftless region of Wisconsin. We had a family farm that was in our family for 4 generations and some of the rocks "to me" looked speckled with gold. (I'll take a few photos and attach them.)
As a Platteville native I'm always happy to hear about my town :D
As an Chicago burbs resident, seeing this video pop up in my feed was very interesting as Im not far from that area and some light googling lead me to this area not being good for gold panning a couple years back.. Cool to see you find some and even cooler to see you read the rocks how you did..
You may remember me commenting on a previous video about vicksberg park. I just learned you are geologist in this video and just wanted to mention that park again. I've been fascinated with it for many years and visit it at least once a month to explore. The geological make up in this park is so out of place. Renville county is super flat with abundant heavy topsoil, but as you drop down into the glacial river bottom it turns into something incredible. Shear cliffs and massive boulder piles. There is also what appears to be something like a rift (I'm not an expert) that runs almost the entire length of the park. Its a pretty amazing place unlike anything else around. You wouldn't regret visiting it and I'd love to learn more about it from someone who knows what they are talking about.
*A little update* the gold mine can be found under the name of Delhi prospect
One of your best videos man! Beautiful area and cool learning about the geologic contrast between the driftless and surrounding areas. SKOL
Thank you for the support!
Prospecting is Applied Geology' I really enjoy the geology lessons given along with the prospecting here
I’m not a professor but I do my best.
Check out the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. The story is that a huge glacial lake formed in the lower Wisconsin river valley. At a certain point, the waters broke through there and formed a giant waterfall that emptied for years. Geologists say the sediments where that plunge pool formed go down 700 feet or more. Before that event, pretty much all the water draining north of there flowed east towards the great lakes. Afterwards, the direction changed to New Orleans.
Thanks for the lesson! I just got 100 mesh & a blue bowl yesterday. I've found that I spend too much time looking at the fine material with a magnifying glass😊. Lots of purple and red looking quartz with different colors all the way to completely clear. It's mesmerizing, lol. I should get a telescope too, my eyes aren't what they used to be. Thanks again!!
Microscopes are amazing. I should get a better one.
I have a blue bowl, but I don't have a microscope yet. It looks like we both need one more investment!
This guy is informative and fun . Like his commentary .
The first location visited on the Mississippi River was in Potosi Wisconsin, and the second was in Cassville Wisconsin. Next time you are in Cassville you should climb down into brewery Creek under the bridge on Bluff Street. There was a lead smelter there since the 1820s.
Nice Au indeed fam. Great times. Keep on having fun and living the dream. Gold Squad Out 🤠
I grew up in Monroe, Wi. That is part of the driftless zone, but somehow I’ve never heard of it until today. They are known for having a cheese festival every two years that has the best curds in the history of mankind. Aight den. Deuces. •fart noise•
Thanks. I have wondered about the driftless area for gold, because it is different. This was very educational.
I know somewhere where I saw lots of black looking sand associated with water. I might check it out for gold!
Stumbled across your channel this morning, fun fact my grandfather was a big part of creating that walking trail in the beginning of your video. I rent boats in McGregor Iowa and see one gentleman go out panning, he actually came back to return the boat and had a few gold flakes, crazy. I recommend yellow river or Turkey river in Iowa.
Thanks for the tip!
Nugget Lake county park in Pierce county permits gold panning with restrictions to preserve the stream. The area was hit with a meteor about 4 million years ago and caused uplifts. Some clubs go there regularly.
Lots of glacial material can be found there.
Strange brew is such a good flick. Love your videos!!!
Very underrated movie 😆
I know a bunch of creeks in the driftless with a lot of black sand. I have tried panning in some of them but don't know what I am doing. I have a small playlist of places that I have tried. I have found creeks with agate-looking material and some loaded with quartz.
Could be a load of sulfides. Chert can form in bands and look like agate. I mean an agate is chert chemically. Quarts can form a number of ways. Only some of them are conducive for gold precipitation though. J
Yep, your videos make exploring fun. 🙂
Glad you like them!
Panning for gold in trout streams.......never thunk it, lol. Cool video, and close to home- normally the "gold" I'm looking for swims in many of the locations you were at.
If you ever get south of Platteville you should check out the fever river. It runs through the main lead country. Outside the town of lead mine there is a big horseshoe bend. There's another public access outside of Newdiggings. It turns into the Galena River when it hits Illinois. Runs all the way to the Mississippi River without being damned. A lot of the river on the Wisconsin side is public access for fishing. You might be able to find a big chunk of Galena or a something cool. Thanks for taking us along on another adventure.
Good to know! Thanks!
Lived around lacrosse most of my life…beautiful place
I live in Taylor County Wisconsin where the Ice Age Trail trail runs through. Many gravel pits around from glacial deposits. In the creeks I see deposits of shiny material (natural riffeling ?) think its copper but a guy I met said he'd gotten gold beneath a waterfall where was once an Indian settlement . The fields around here produce tons of various stones where a company turns to "gold" sliced and used in architecture huge piles of field stone all around here in the fields.
Interesting I’ll keep that in mind when I visit Lady Smith.
Good spots are along turkey and volga rivers in iowa that flow in from outside driftless zone, bring in deposits from glacier impacted areas. Nice work
The "Mighty Mississippi" was wild ... nice video!
Dude im really enjoying your videos Lots of great information and great content Thanks for sharing your gold adventures and your gold information
Interesting video, I like what you got going on here. You should make a trip down to Pearl city Illinois, on the north side of town is gold mine Road, running east/west. This is in the driftless area and maybe you could discover the origins of the road’s name.
Another great video! Keeping it real and not going to the same place over and over again 😮
I try to mix it up.
Nugget lake used to be an active gold mine in WI and it is in the drift less area. From what I’ve read the source of the gold was never located
It depends on the maps you look at where the driftless boundary is. Nugget lake has glacial till all over so it was definitely glaciated but it is on the edge of the boundary.
@ I would classify it as driftless based on the topography having lived and worked in the area for my entire life. I know the maps don’t necessarily reflect that always. It isn’t deep driftless like the dells and surrounding areas
There's Gneiss basement rock underlying the precambrian sandstone that has veins of quartz. There were some failed commercial mining attempts in the 19th century, mostly looking for silver in this rock, but also some gold. They weren't productive enough to be economical, but they did find some Silver and a little gold. The basement rock comes the surface in several of the region's rivers and forms rapids and falls.
gneiss
Great video again and a few specks of gold. Sounds like you have a very interesting job. Wish I knew more about geology. Just started learning things a few years ago.
You never stop learning. There is a lot to learn.
What a great video! I get so excited to see a new one posted. I want to try some places here in Scott county this year just for fun
You never know what you might find.
My wife was from the driftless zone. Her grandfather was part owner of the Dark Horse lead mine in Linden Wisconsin. I know the park you stopped at in Platteville. Katie's Garden. Her daughter lives in Platteville.
That would be super interesting to see a working mine in the area.
Look into Mineral point (youll drive thru it to get to linden from platville) lots of mines in the area. @@GlacialGoldHunter
head up north to the fraser river .. or hit the upper skykomish near index and up .. head up to the mountains, there's gold in them thar hills!
I live in Grant county, was wondering if the black sand I find on the Mississippi.
Where there is gold there is black sand but where there is black sand there isn’t always gold. Only way to know is to go prospecting.
Another great video! I'm sorry I found you so late. We just moved off our hobby farm with a large gravel bed creek flowing through it. It would have been fun to see if I could have found some gold in my own back yard.
There are always new places to look. But backyard gold would sure be cool.
I live in galena il and i have been thinking of trying on the edge of the glacial drift hoping the glaciers melted amd the gold flowed into the valleys of the driftless area. I have never tried before though.
It’s always worth a try!
@GlacialGoldHunter apple river park has a good stream of solid rock all the way threw it so I figured I would start there.
I'm just inside the driftless zone in MN and can attest it goes from nothing to decent amounts of till/AU over a very short distance. Like you say, some of the moraines along the edges could be loaded and gradually spread into the driftless through alluvial action. The Straight River in Faribault as a really good example of this, where you can find gold in every pan, but once you get downstream into the Cannon river, practically nothing.
@@EMFMiner cool! That’s very interesting
I only live 15 minutes from a section of the driftless here in Iowa grew up fishing it
There might be some gold there!
It’s a theory that the lead in the driftless zone was originally radioactive. It decayed down to lead eventually. There was so much heat from the radioactivity that it melted the glaciers. According to my grandfather, who has passed on and mined lead on a small scale in the 1930’s, the seams of lead run in one direction. East-West or North-South I forget which way.
Well uranium 238 will decay into lead 206 but that would be incredibly trace amounts. Not enough for an ore body to develop. So he is right in that lead can come from a radio active source, but the main source of the ore would be the hydrothermal activity.
No idea if you can truly find gold in the Driftless Area, but another loophole is prospecting along the edge of the Driftless where the glaciers likely deposited along the edges. People like the Black Earth Creek in Cross Plains and around where it meets the Wisconsin River.
Have tried the apple river I have found a few flecks of gold there are a couple of spots I want to check out hopefully this summer
I haven’t tried that river yet.
Enjoyed your video.would like to know if there is gold in the counties north, !one in Taylor County.
There is a good chance there is some there. You just need to start prospecting!
Awesome! I lived in Wisconsin when I went to college. I wish someone would have told me to bring a gold pan; it would have kept me out of a lot of bars!
Bars are pretty common in Wisconsin. That’s one reason I’ve never had a drop of alcohol. Didn’t ever want it to be an issue so I drew a hard line and never crossed it.
Ive done some panning in the Maquoketa river and have gotten a very small amount of black sands.
In northern Minnesota there used to be lake Agassiz which was formed by a glacier. It has dried up millions of years ago and has left very fertile farmland. Would there be gold on the sand banks of that lake?
It’s possible but I didn’t find any when I looked. Doesn’t mean there isn’t some in places I didn’t look though.
@GlacialGoldHunter so you have here to look for gold? There are blue rocks here that are from a volcano that used to be in Northeast Canada. Would those contain or have brought down gold or precious stones?
According to the late 1800’s early 1900’s almanacs for NE Iowa, there were two places in Iowa where people could successfully pan for gold. One was a small river in NE Iowa where a days worth of panning could result in enough gold to be equal to a days wages of doing other work.
Sounds like it’s worth it to do some more prospecting!
Turkey river, by Clermont, also lots of agates
Now seeing and understanding from your explanations of the rocks, I remember as a kid finding a bunch of quartz in the cannon river in northfield and that’s right on the edge of the driftless zone. Maybe I’ll check it out
Not all quartz has gold but that sounds like an excellent place to look!
We have really cool Iron oxide concretions here in Green county, just into Dane where the glacier melted I have found cool rocks in the streams near there indicating glacial deposits
Would the Kettle Morraines be a spot to check?
Moraines are good places to look.
There was a gold mine by Wausau, Wisconsin. Three components used in gunpowder: saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. Google: Midwest Karst-The Herald-Times The preferred wood for charcoal for gunpowder, black willow wood. Sulfur from galena and saltpeter from bat poop in the karst caves. The early French fur traders in the 1600's made gunpowder and traded gunpowder to the Indians for beaver pelts.
I don’t think that gold mine was ever opened up there by Wausau. Not the one I’m thinking of anyway.
At 13:44 in the video, there appears in the background to be a small feeder stream running through gravels, which might be a good spot to sample pan.
Could be!
at 5:22 what are those black squares with white rings around them? chicken wire?
I’m not sure what you are looking at?
I live near the edge where the ice sheet melted near Green county. We have amazing rocks and Iron Oxide formations
Sounds like a good place to prospect.
There was a big goldmine near ladysmith Wisconsin! I've never tried panning in that area. It could be another great place for adventure!
That was a sulfide copper mine. There were small amounts of gold in the sulfides but they were more of a byproduct. Nothing you could pan for.
@GlacialGoldHunter oh got ya! When I was a kid, they all called it the gold mine.
That was a lot of fun! Great adventure!
Just found your channel.
Been up there a couple times for that red druzy near Viola Wi in the creeks.
Subscribed ✌️
Check - no gold in the drift-less zone. 6 trillion other square miles to verify. 😂. Test, test and test some more. Fun to see your videos and can’t wait for the next one. ⚡️⚒⚡️
So i watch vogus prospecting and he does an amazing job of explaining how and where to look for gold deposits in rivers and creeks
I wonder how he would approach the driftless zone.
I panned outside of Kendallville IA, found some black sand, but no gold. It was a very rocky stream/river.
Sad. Gold always has black sand but black sand doesn’t always have gold.
Hey there, I’m diggin’ your vids! I grew up in Wisconsin/ Iowa (potosi & the rural quad cities) I’ve been in California for over 30 years. I’m a rock & gold enthusiast… just a suggestion is to check out goldhog panning, “how to” vids.. helped me w/ panning when I first started. But yeah, Good Work man!!
Have you thought about checking Fillmore County, MN; it ounce had active iron ore mines and is driftless. Good show, I enjoy it very much.
I haven’t heard of those mines. I’ll have to look into it.
@@GlacialGoldHunter The mining company I once worked for, on the Range, ran a strip mine there.
New subscriber here, I really enjoy your content. I live in Fillmore county down by Spring Valley. If you do your homework you will find there was alot of iron ore mining in that area years ago. There are places where the iron ore deposits cross streams and that is where you can actually find decent gold. Yes even pickers and occasionally wire gold. Are you going to get rich, probably not unless you could set up a wash plant for mining sand. Remember the old saying, gold rides an iron horse. I look forward for more great content. I especially like your satire. Haha the reporter hit in the face by a fish!!
That’s pretty cool. I haven’t looked around there.
I'm also in Fillmore. I've looked around my place but the streambed is almost exclusively limestone. This video gets me amped up to do a little more prospecting around here just to be sure. Very educational content.
@turbobre You need.to actually quit looking at the limestone that has been washed in after thousands of years. Like I said, Gold rides an Iron Horse. Remember Gold is where you find it...
I learned that many years ago from Tom Massey and his Father the Old Buzzard. There are MANY hot spots around Spring Valley that people will never find until they put boots in the water. Keep your Head up Son.. someday you will find the placers that really pay off. I've been there and still doing it. Remember it's all a numbers game. Tons of sand, material vs all the headache of hundreds of hours and actually a permit from the State and dont forget the County just to have a sand washing plant. Until then, you will never make a dime om it. Hopefully you understand that.
I trout fish streams just north of red wing and I heard that that area was the edge of the drift zone. one stream that I found very suitable for gold is bell creek that flows into the cannon River just south of Welch village, have you ever panned them rivers in the Welch village area? I think it may be very good to try..
Sounds like a good spot to do some testing. I’ve never tried there.
Ha. I just looked at my map. I commonly will look at topo maps and flag places that look good to prospect. And I have a flag there I that creek. I just haven’t been there yet.
@GlacialGoldHunter well the upper part of bell creek near Vasa has some beautiful bedrock sheer cliffs along side of bell creek.. and I heard that bell creek was the edge of the glacial flow where it actually ended.. good luck I love your videos..
Been in the driftless area my entire life. I'm surprised you didn't find old beer pull tabs in the mud.
I probably just missed them.
Great content, super fun and educational!
Really educational video! Love it! 😊
You should come up to Baraboo. Devils lake is all quartzite and there are areas I’ve found black sand and very little specs of gold.
There wouldn’t be any gold in the quartzite. Quartzite is a metamorphosed sandstone. But there would still be a good chance for glacial gold.
There have been glaciers in that area, but just not from the recent Ice ages.
I found no sign of them.
Mr Gold Hunter, do a show about the Flambeau mine south of Ladysmith WI. It's is crazy interesting how much gold got pulled out of it, possibly the most gold ever on earth for the size of mine. Im only 30+ miles away in Barron county and we only have frack sand.
@@ultramagaman4304 that was a copper mine but yes it did have gold in the sulfides. I plan on doing a video there next year. Do people still cry foul about that mine? I know there were a lot of law suits.
Yes copper mine but they got 334,000 ounces of gold and 3+ million ounces of silver. Any mine that close gets people nervous what will happen next with reclaim process.
@ that’s a lot of gold.
@@GlacialGoldHunter yes sir it is! I bet some gold got dropped off that glacier in near by areas also but I have never heard of anything. So possibly, there's a bunch of gold just laying under a few feet of ground near by ( maybe 35 miles away in my back 40 creek). Fingers crossed 🤞. Thanks for your show and happy New Year
I’m close to Platteville. My aunt has a big creek/Stream runs her land completely rock bottom n sand areas. Making me wonder …it’s pry 20-30’ at the widest in spots
My aunts is 20 mins from platteville. I grew up about 20 mins away.
You never know what you might dig up.
Try the Kickapoo river over in Viola wis great ccanoeing
Anybody find/known of any gold anywhere in Polk County WI? Balsalm Lake area? I was panning at the cabin this past summer and found large amounts of black sand and a few specs of Au. I wasn’t strategic about where I was shoveling, so thought it was interesting
It would be great to hear more about the geology of Wisconsin and Minnesota.. (if that's where you are located?) not only the gold hunting. Given lemons, make lemonade!
I show the geology through gold hunting. There will be more.
Hello and Good Morning, Have you tried looking in old river channels near the current course? I have been on a couple of creeks where theres no gold in the stream but there is in the old benches. Thanks for the Lesson I really enjoy your videos even though we are in different regions. Maybe you can take a look at my Montana claim if you are in the area.
That can happen around here but most of the time when I see that it’s an oxbow which are usually just full of mud.
Those fish were acting up that was hilarious i have never seen that before then the reporter gets hit with a fish im dying laughing 😂😆🤣🤣
The fish were having a romantic moment together before bumping uglies!
@dirkfrazier9779 right lmao 🤣
I found this fascinating. Thanks
Great video. Thanks for sharing
I grew up there, nice place for all seasons
Also, and I could be wrong, but I believe those that study the Driftless Area say that the only true Driftless is in Wisconsin. Even though parts of surrounding states have similar features, they were “drifted” by glaciers at least once. Only a specific area of Wisconsin was never drifted across ice ages.
Maybe but I didn’t find any sign of glacial deposits where I was.
Good Morning ✨☕✨, Happy New Year to you and your family ✨2025✨
Happy new year! 🎆
I was in South Carolina for Christmas and I received a gold miner's kit from my wife's husband (That Me). I went to a dry creek bed found a low pressure spot during runoff season scraped away all the leaves and found a nice gravel bed with glay and with each scoop of this material you could see gold flakes lots and lots of gold flakes. Is it gold I don't think so however this area in SC is known for gold. But I can't separate it from the sand it's so flat it seems a light as the sand pebbles. Got any ideas
Gold always wins. If everything else s the same size you can always separate the light material from the gold because gold is so much more dense. Make sure the material is classified to the same size. Flats shiny flakes that move around easily could be mica. If you can’t get it to separate it might not be gold.
Sometimes people get bags of pay dirt just so they know what gold looks like and how it moves in the pan.
@GlacialGoldHunter thank you for your reply I really enjoy your channel. If I ever find any gold in my river up north I will invite you up north!
@ find me on instagram and you can send me pictures of your finds.
@@GlacialGoldHunter can I send you a sample of my paydirt I bought back a five gallon pail from SC
You’ll have to come back to Iowa! 😊