Challenging Spots for Gold Panning - "Cherry Creek"

From the Colorado Geological Survey, Department of Natural Resources, Denver, CO 2009

Challenging Spots for Gold Prospecting and Panning in Colorado

The Cherry Creek Divide Area
Araphahoe, Denver, Douglas and Elbert Counti

This area boasts the locations of the significant gold strikes of 1858 by William Greeneberry Russell and his party, which led to the "Pikes Peak or Bust" gold rush of the following year.

The first worthwhile goldstrike was on the South Platte River, in Denver County, near Overland Park between 8th Ave and Jewell. The most productive deposits found were on Big Dry Creek, Newlin and Russellville Gulches in the Cherry Creek drainage in Douglas County and on Ronk (now called Gold Creek) and Gold Run gulches to the east of Russellville gulch in Elbert County.

These placers were abandoned by the end of 1859, as the miners left for the richer goldstrikes at higher elevations such as Idaho Springs, Central City and elsewhere that same year.

However there has been both gulch and drift mining in the Cherry Creek drainage from time to time since, especially individual and small-scale operations during the depression and at other times as well.

The gulches in which the placers lie drain the Cherry Creek Divide, which is capped by the Oligocene Castle Rock conglomerate. This formation forms "Castle Rock" overlooking the town of the same name. To the NE of Castle Rock town the conglomerate has been eroded by streams and now is represented only by remnants capping buttes along the divide. Many hillslopes have residual pebbles and cobbles on them derived from the erosion of the conglomerate.

These are terraces or benches at many places along the streams. Along the S Platte the terraces are 40 feet above the level of the river. These benches extend into Cherry Creek and its tributaries, their height diminishing upstream.

Gold has been found in the terraces and in the stream beds. Testing has shown that gold in the bench placers lies on or near bedrock but gold in the stream beds is nearer the surface.

The Castle Rock conglomerate contains gold at numerous locations in this area.

In upper Newlin gulch near the forks, the lens shaped beds of gravel were found to contain up to one ounce of gold per ton in individual samples. These lens shaped deposits were 5-40 feet above modern stream levels, near the base of the Castle Rock formation itself.

The gold in the Castle Rock formation/Cherry Creek drainage placers was typically fine-grained - 10 to 50 colors per milligram. Miners described it as almost flour gold and complained of the difficulty of its recovery from the clayey gravel matrix. Even so, colors up to one-sixteenth inch diameter were found. The Castle Rock formation gold is among the purest placer gold on earth, characteristically about .990 fine!

The source of the stream and terrace placer gold is the Castle Rock conglomerate and fossil stream placers in it. That the source is fossil stream channels explains the erratic distribution of gold among the gulches and also the erratic distribution within each of the gulches.

Access is difficult because of the extensive development in the area. There is little water and the gravels must be packed out.

Remember to always get permission before entering any property, backfill all holes and leave your site cleaner than you found it.

The State Capitol Dome

(updated 08-16-2011 see bottom of post for update) - RD

The beautiful Colorado State Capitol building in downtown Denver in many ways symbolizes the lack of awareness and complete disrespect for Colorado's gold mining heritage.

From the state of Colorado website:
"Rising 272 feet, the distinctive gold dome has become an eternal symbol of our state's rich heritage. Originally the dome was covered in copper. Since copper was not a native alloy or resilient to the elements, the dome soon became tarnished and many citizens became displeased. The persistent Otto Mears convinced the Colorado Mining Association to donate 200 ounces of 24-karat leaf toward the gold dome project, and soon his dream became a reality. The Board of Capitol Managers spent $14,680 for the project and hired the company of F.T. Adam & George Murphy to gild the copper dome in 1908.

By 1948 the gold on the dome had begun to wear thin, and reporter Bert Hanna pushed the Colorado citizens to stand behind their symbolic monument. By 1949 the Colorado Mining Association was able to donate the gold needed, and the state paid the $25,000 necessary to restore the dome to its previous luster. The dome was also regilded in 1980 and 1991."

What the government website fails to mention is that it is now 'guilded' with not one flake of Colorado gold but instead with Italian Florentine gold.... SAY WHAT?

That's right, not Colorado gold or California gold or even Alaska gold... fine imported Corinthian leather... err gold.

Ask the average person in Colorado on what and why the state was founded and the most likely reply will be "uh tourism?"

So I guess it should be no surprise that the gold on top of the Capitol building of a state founded on gold is imported from a country that produced a fraction of the gold Colorado has.

I read somewhere that during the great depression, folks panned underneath the rain gutters around the Capitol building for enough money to eat.

I would like to call on all recreational prospectors and gold prospecting clubs in Colorado to join together with us here at Gold Strike and plan a state-wide gold collecting day where we all go to our favorite spot and collect gold for an entire day and donate it to the state treasurer for the expressed purpose of replacing that cheap imported gold for the real thing, as it was originally intended by the states founding fathers.

We might even convince some of the larger operations such as ARGO and Phoenix and even Cripple Creek to donate enough to get it done.

C'mon Colorado ..... imported gold on the state capitol, I mean really.... how embarrassing.

Contact us here if you are interested in such a combined effort to impact our state in a positive way.

UPDATE: 08/16/2011 - I just spoke with the project manager for the re-guilding of the dome for the State of Colorado. Ashante Mining Company (CC & V) Cripple Creek/Victor CO has donated the 60+ ounces of Colorado Gold to re-guild the dome with genuine Colorado gold.