Recreational Gold Panning and Rockhounding
There is still gold in them thar hills! The lure of gold is what brought the miners to Alaska over 100 years ago and is still attracting folks searching for that elusive nugget today. Gold panning and prospecting, if not lucrative can be a fun outdoor entertainment for almost every age.
As you drive through Alaska, you may notice many signs of past mining activities - tailing piles, abandoned dredges and equipment, scars from hydraulic mining, and old mining camps. Even simple hand tools can scar and destroy resources. Before you take your pan in hand, consider the impacts recreational gold panning can have:
- Sluicing gravels can cause silt to wash into the streams and destroy fish spawning beds. Use back eddies and side pools to reduce the amount of dirt and silt entering the main stream channel.
- Do not dig into or near bridge abutments.
- Work only in the stream channels or on unvegetated gravel bars to protect bank stability and prevent erosion.
It is important that you know who the land owner is when you plan your gold panning activity. Prospecting on BLM managed lands is limited to hand tools and light equipment, such as gold pans, rocker boxes, sluice boxes, or picks and shovels. Use of motorized equipment, such as backhoes, bulldozers and suction dredges, are not allowed without a permit. It is important that you know who the land owner is when you plan your gold panning activity. For more information on mining visit the BLM-Alaska Mining home page.
Northern Alaska
Panning is allowed on any federal stream segment along the Dalton Highway south of Atigun Pass (MP 244), with the following exceptions: no panning in the pipeline right-of-way (27 feet or 8.2 m on either side of the pipeline) and no panning on federal mining claims without permission.
- Dalton Highway Mineral Collection brochure
Interior Alaska
The Nome Creek Valley offers a four-mile area set aside for recreational gold panning. The Nome Creek valley turnoff is at milepost 57 on the Steese Highway, northeast of Fairbanks. There is also a public goldpanning area on Jack Wade Creek from one quarter mile(.4km) upstream of the Walker Fork Campground to the mining claims near mile post 85. Panning is not allowed on adjacent mining claims.
- Jack Wade Creek
- Nome Creek Valley
South Central Alaska
There are many areas available for recreational gold panning just outside of Anchorage on the beautiful scenic Kenai Peninsula.
- USDA Forest Service/BLM Gold Panning: The guide to recreational gold panning on the Kenai Peninsula booklet