This blog is dedicated to my pursuit of GOLD!

A couple of weeks ago I started to look online for places to pan gold and found many listed in the metro DC area. Mclean VA had seen some the most productive placer deposits and that's where I headed.  Out I went Thursday, first to a hobby store in Chantilly VA to buy a panning set and then off to the Great Falls area. 

Valentines Day brought some much needed fun. I set up in a spot near a creek and started to pan, hoping I was doing it right and after about 15 minutes I did. However, attempting to separate the black sand from the fine gold was too much for me and I gave up. Only doing so because I saw a machine online that I'll be buying soon to take care of this problem. Thank God for modern technology.

I will admit I'd rather had gone home with a vast fortune of Gold, but made it back before dark with a satisfied feeling of having learned something new that gave me pleasure.

Here are some recorded sites in Mclean VA. You can input this into Google Earth to find their locations.

link for google earth download: http://earth.google.com/

1. scott run occurrence: lat 38.958710 lon -77.205864
2. bull neck run mine: lat 38.965321 lon -77.215935

link for some mines in Virginia: http://www.au-prospecting.com/goldmine/index.php?&MMN_position=1:1

Here is a picture from a survey done in MD very near that area, also with many recorded locations of gold panning performed from the late 1800's to the present found at: http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/brochures/gold.html