When I lived in Bozeman I would go out on the weekends to the Tobacco Roots and a little out in emigrant creek area too. Was still really new to the game at the time. Really miss living there. Will be back soon enough with the family
@@ChrisRalph hey its Lee Hilton again, new channel. It's lookin like we may get out there this summer just got to get the NOTABUS done. Which we're gettin closer to. Will probably be headin South to Arizona this winter, but not 100% sure yet. Definitely goin to be out of South Dakota before winter hits thou. Stay safe and stay strong out there
I live in Townsend Montana. It is difficult to to get access to good ground around here. That being said, The Missouri River has collected alot of gold over the course of time. He who is persistent will find alot of fine flower gold and some small flakes along with garnet/sapphires in the river gravel bars. Remember to pick up your trash and smooth the ground back out in publicly accessable areas folks. Don't be the guy who ruins it for everyone.
Very interesting insights. I combine gold prospecting with rock hounding and this area looks great for both. Much more research on my part is required. Thanks for the tips and in depth information this region.
Thanks for sharing. We live in Bozeman and my patents are in Ennis. I know there really isn't gold in Gallatin county, but currently looking for places outside Ennis to go where I won't get in trouble. It's challenging to find areas that are not claimed or private vs. safe and legal.
Jefferson River and Missouri river are loaded with fines and garnets. I'm in Townsend area and have easy access and lots of color in the mighty Missouri.
More great info. Horse prairie creek is actually west of Bannack and is a few hours from Confederate Gulch. It is the area where Sacagawea met up with her tribal family while guiding the Lewis and Clark expedition. The source of gold in this creek is heavily contributed to by the Jeff Davis mining area located nearby.
Living in AZ so long I'm dying to find a second home (summer of course) up north to be around streams, trees, and mountains. Western Montana is high on the list. Dry washing here is a dusty business!
That'd be great if you could, I'm struggling with research due to only access is limited to my phone, I hit Northcentral Idaho most often but I'm less than a year into this & haven't found anything other than super fine flour gold which I'm happy with anything just wanted to actually pick up a peice someday lol thanks for your quick response and all your information you're absolutely a blessing to the prospecting community god bless you good Sir 👍
Don't look for it anytime soon - when I say "one of these days" I mean it may be years. Consider joining a prospecting club and learning from the other members. See: www.idahogoldprospectors.org and also nwgoldprospectors.org Overcome limitations - buy a book or just do what you can with your phone. Google "Gold placers of Idaho" and you'll get a lot of info.
@@ChrisRalph thank you very much Sir for this great advice & I've got my eyes set on the book fist full of gold when I can. I will check out the websites you generously shared with me thanks doesn't truly express my appreciation for your time & help take care & god bless, I will be hoping to see Idaho( maybe Oregon & Washington too) possibly in a future video whenever you get to it Sir.
Hi Chris, It would be great if you always mentioned in your videos like this that people need to make sure there is ground open for them to go to. Talking about Alder Gulch and Bannack doesn't do anyone any good when there isn't any open ground available. It's either all claimed or private property or state park. Some of the other areas you mentioned also don't have open ground. Other than that I would say you pretty much covered Montana gold districts well. Keep up the great videos and thanks for all the knowledge you have given over the years especially in ICMJ.
Its in part a historical listing as a suggestion of places to prospect - and some folks may have access to well claimed areas through friends or family.
@@ChrisRalph Got it. Would hate to have any uninformed person go someplace they shouldn't and get in trouble. I know the Bannack state park is very serious about no one prospecting on the park land. And some land owners are not natives so they are very unfriendly. Everyone should check land status first. I realize right now it isn't easy with MLRS being down indefinitely because of legal issues. You are right, there is a lot of gold in Montana still. Almost no mine is ever mined out. There are legitimate reasons why the mines were abandoned. And there is very good gold in old mines. This is true of goldines in all states. Anyway, thanks a lot Chris. Got to head over to buy your book. Have a great day!
@ChrisRalph Thanks. I have 3 old mines on my property and a lot of very colorful rock/dirt, but I am having trouble pinpointing what the old miners were obviously seeing in order to justify mining these 3 spots...
You really have a great learning channel . And boy do I have los to learn . Say Chris , I am in Mammoth lakes Ca . Any decent spots you might no of in this area ? Thanks again for the teaching . Peace
Hi Chris, I discovered a dike with Sapphires,since then I have returned but having now to relocate in a very steep difficult area, Iam trying to figure out the type of camera /sensors ,such as spectrography ,magnatometer , lidar, infra red, gradiometer I can mount on a drone to help rediscover? the dike is 20ft, wide and 4oo'-500'long.Thank You
So long as the size of the gold is big enough, metal detectors have no problem with hard rock. Essentially all placer comes from some hard rock source at some time in the past. Detectors that find gold will find both. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you Chris. What type of metal detector would you recommend for a beginner like me?I really enjoyed the video. Looking forward to more of you material.
Thanks for the informative video that you have shared with us. A couple of questions, if you don't mind, some of the maps you had in this video, where could I find them? Who makes a reasonably priced pulse induction metal detector? I am not really interested in finding coins and jewelry stuff. Once again thanks for sharing your video and knowledge.
All of the maps are available by searching Google. Finding about active claims is a whole other thing, you need to use the BLM website that lists claims.
I grew up in the Sierra's, above coloma and I grew up finding a lot of gold . I have thought since I've been here this isn't the Sierra's there can't be gold here. I think I'm wrong. Thinking about it, I remember that where there's copper and crystals there's gold. I live in Butte. I find crystals in my yard and there's copper in Butte. There has to be gold near by.
Sir,, can you make video about Indian geology ,, India was the part of Australia 250 millions years back ,, would you recommend me to buy detector and get in this field ?😅
Its a detector designed to find landmines. If your goal is to hunt for land mines, its a good choice. If your goal is to hunt for gold, its a terrible choice.
I was not really thinking you wanted to hunt land mines. Garrett has a version of that detector that they made for general use, including both relics and gold. That would be the Garrett ATX.
Thank you for that information I was left a gold mine the Santa Clarita gold mine by Pony in Madison County I live in Nevada and am hoping to venture to Montana soon and need all the information I can get we would love to find gold spend some time up there it was mined by Newmont mining years ago and the 3 tunnels are still there. If anyone reading this has any information, I would appreciate it...Thanks again for all that valuable info
How come you do not tell people they have to have a permit to mine in the river and streams and rivers I have checked this out personally and you do have to have a permit to do this... is not allowed at every state
I'm buying the book this friday.
Sounds great, I think you will find it helpful.
When I lived in Bozeman I would go out on the weekends to the Tobacco Roots and a little out in emigrant creek area too. Was still really new to the game at the time. Really miss living there. Will be back soon enough with the family
I was there this summer and it was beautiful. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
@@ChrisRalph hey its Lee Hilton again, new channel. It's lookin like we may get out there this summer just got to get the NOTABUS done. Which we're gettin closer to. Will probably be headin South to Arizona this winter, but not 100% sure yet. Definitely goin to be out of South Dakota before winter hits thou. Stay safe and stay strong out there
I live in Townsend Montana. It is difficult to to get access to good ground around here. That being said, The Missouri River has collected alot of gold over the course of time. He who is persistent will find alot of fine flower gold and some small flakes along with garnet/sapphires in the river gravel bars.
Remember to pick up your trash and smooth the ground back out in publicly accessable areas folks. Don't be the guy who ruins it for everyone.
Access is a problem in many places......
I like the photos from the Tech mineral museum. Always a fun place to stop by. The curator is really friendly too.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Spam bots everywhere....
Very interesting insights. I combine gold prospecting with rock hounding and this area looks great for both. Much more research on my part is required. Thanks for the tips and in depth information this region.
Oh yeah, subbed.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. We live in Bozeman and my patents are in Ennis. I know there really isn't gold in Gallatin county, but currently looking for places outside Ennis to go where I won't get in trouble. It's challenging to find areas that are not claimed or private vs. safe and legal.
Find a prospecting club in MT and they will have access to claims.
@@ChrisRalph That's a great idea!
Jefferson River and Missouri river are loaded with fines and garnets. I'm in Townsend area and have easy access and lots of color in the mighty Missouri.
Great video.
Just purchased 40 acres NW of Drummond near Bear Gulch.
good luck
Hope that you strike it big on your new property.
Amazing documentary Chris. Thanks much for all your great videos.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
More great info. Horse prairie creek is actually west of Bannack and is a few hours from Confederate Gulch. It is the area where Sacagawea met up with her tribal family while guiding the Lewis and Clark expedition. The source of gold in this creek is heavily contributed to by the Jeff Davis mining area located nearby.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Living in AZ so long I'm dying to find a second home (summer of course) up north to be around streams, trees, and mountains. Western Montana is high on the list. Dry washing here is a dusty business!
Dry washing is a very dusty project, no doubt about it.
Do you have a video on finding gold in Idaho?
Not yet - maybe one of these days.
That'd be great if you could, I'm struggling with research due to only access is limited to my phone, I hit Northcentral Idaho most often but I'm less than a year into this & haven't found anything other than super fine flour gold which I'm happy with anything just wanted to actually pick up a peice someday lol thanks for your quick response and all your information you're absolutely a blessing to the prospecting community god bless you good Sir 👍
Don't look for it anytime soon - when I say "one of these days" I mean it may be years.
Consider joining a prospecting club and learning from the other members. See: www.idahogoldprospectors.org
and also nwgoldprospectors.org
Overcome limitations - buy a book or just do what you can with your phone. Google "Gold placers of Idaho" and you'll get a lot of info.
@@ChrisRalph thank you very much Sir for this great advice & I've got my eyes set on the book fist full of gold when I can. I will check out the websites you generously shared with me thanks doesn't truly express my appreciation for your time & help take care & god bless, I will be hoping to see Idaho( maybe Oregon & Washington too) possibly in a future video whenever you get to it Sir.
My Great Great Grandfather had a Silver and Gold mine in the Sula Montana area
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Hi Chris,
It would be great if you always mentioned in your videos like this that people need to make sure there is ground open for them to go to. Talking about Alder Gulch and Bannack doesn't do anyone any good when there isn't any open ground available. It's either all claimed or private property or state park. Some of the other areas you mentioned also don't have open ground.
Other than that I would say you pretty much covered Montana gold districts well.
Keep up the great videos and thanks for all the knowledge you have given over the years especially in ICMJ.
Its in part a historical listing as a suggestion of places to prospect - and some folks may have access to well claimed areas through friends or family.
@@ChrisRalph Got it. Would hate to have any uninformed person go someplace they shouldn't and get in trouble. I know the Bannack state park is very serious about no one prospecting on the park land. And some land owners are not natives so they are very unfriendly. Everyone should check land status first. I realize right now it isn't easy with MLRS being down indefinitely because of legal issues.
You are right, there is a lot of gold in Montana still. Almost no mine is ever mined out. There are legitimate reasons why the mines were abandoned. And there is very good gold in old mines. This is true of goldines in all states.
Anyway, thanks a lot Chris. Got to head over to buy your book. Have a great day!
No problem - I do answer all my comments. The book is available on Amazon.
Great video. I am from Helena and spend a lot of weekends looking for gold!!
Sounds like fun - Best of luck to you!
@ChrisRalph Thanks. I have 3 old mines on my property and a lot of very colorful rock/dirt, but I am having trouble pinpointing what the old miners were obviously seeing in order to justify mining these 3 spots...
@ChrisRalph going to buy your book and hopefully increase my understanding of the process
Exactly the video I needed, Montana's where I live lol.
Glad you enjoyed it
Not sure how I missed this one. Montana is one of my target areas.
Montana has a lot of gold.
@@ChrisRalph it does. And rather unexplored in places.
You really have a great learning channel . And boy do I have los to learn . Say Chris , I am in Mammoth lakes Ca . Any decent spots you might no of in this area ? Thanks again for the teaching . Peace
Dogtown. Glad you enjoyed the video!
@@ChrisRalph Thanks Chris
Hi Chris, I discovered a dike with Sapphires,since then I have returned but having now to relocate in a very steep difficult area, Iam trying to figure out the type of camera /sensors ,such as spectrography ,magnatometer , lidar, infra red, gradiometer I can mount on a drone to help rediscover? the dike is 20ft, wide and 4oo'-500'long.Thank You
Regular camera drones are effective in areas with minimal grown cover growth. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Got it nice And Clear In Maine, Big John. Send Moore
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Hard rock gold...is this as easy to find as placer gold with a detector? What dectectors would find both?
So long as the size of the gold is big enough, metal detectors have no problem with hard rock. Essentially all placer comes from some hard rock source at some time in the past. Detectors that find gold will find both. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you Chris. What type of metal detector would you recommend for a beginner like me?I really enjoyed the video. Looking forward to more of you material.
What is the best detector for you is my most recent video - see: ruclips.net/video/SqwkpH9LZIM/видео.html
Thanks for the informative video that you have shared with us. A couple of questions, if you don't mind, some of the maps you had in this video, where could I find them? Who makes a reasonably priced pulse induction metal detector? I am not really interested in finding coins and jewelry stuff. Once again thanks for sharing your video and knowledge.
They all came off the internet. I they are from geology reports I found with google. Do some searching for the area you are interested in.
@@ChrisRalph Yes, I am thinking to head up that way May/June time and will be checking that area out. Thanks for the information.
Heading to SW Montana for a month. Where would you spend your time if you were me?
Probably someplace around Helena.
How do you get the maps you shared in the video and how can you find out if there's an active claim in an area that you want to explore?
All of the maps are available by searching Google. Finding about active claims is a whole other thing, you need to use the BLM website that lists claims.
Hi we are near to here, do u know where can we buy gold minding tools
Do a search with Google for more local info.
Being a 3rd generation Montanan I shudder to think of the placer gold I've fished over for 30+ years of chashin trouts.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Too bad its already gotten so snowy and cold here so early in the season.
The snow chased me back home! Glad you enjoyed the video!
@@ChrisRalph the snow is clearing up fast! Wont be long ‘till im out every free day looking for gold and rocks.
If you are ever near Helena and have some time, Eva and I would like to say hi.
Keith Bowen
Keith - I would love to do that. Right now I have no plans to visit Montana but I want to go back. When something gets scheduled I will let you know.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you. That would be great. Eva would love to meet you.
You can find gold in Valley County. The majority is fine glacial drift gold but you can find enough to make it pay.
Interesting.
I grew up in the Sierra's, above coloma and I grew up finding a lot of gold . I have thought since I've been here this isn't the Sierra's there can't be gold here. I think I'm wrong. Thinking about it, I remember that where there's copper and crystals there's gold. I live in Butte. I find crystals in my yard and there's copper in Butte. There has to be gold near by.
The first miners in Butte dug nuggets. However the town and the Berkeley Pit sit where the nuggets were dug. There is a lot of gold in the area.
I don't know about my metal detector but I have everything else I need.
Sir,, can you make video about Indian geology ,, India was the part of Australia 250 millions years back ,, would you recommend me to buy detector and get in this field ?😅
I will do a video on the Gold deposits of India. But it will be a while before it gets done. Glad you enjoyed the video!
@@ChrisRalph yes please sir i can wait 😊💐
There regulations aren’t bad have you ever prospected or heard of anyone in Wyoming back country finding much?
Yes there is gold and I do know of some guys who have done well.
Chris, what do you think about a Garrett Recon Pro detector? I have a friend who has one for sale? Thanks...
Its a detector designed to find landmines. If your goal is to hunt for land mines, its a good choice. If your goal is to hunt for gold, its a terrible choice.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks for your speedy reply. No I am not into hunting landmines, but they were saying it is good for finding gold. Thanks again.
I was not really thinking you wanted to hunt land mines. Garrett has a version of that detector that they made for general use, including both relics and gold. That would be the Garrett ATX.
Thank you for that information I was left a gold mine the Santa Clarita gold mine by Pony in Madison County I live in Nevada and am hoping to venture to Montana soon and need all the information I can get we would love to find gold spend some time up there it was mined by Newmont mining years ago and the 3 tunnels are still there. If anyone reading this has any information, I would appreciate it...Thanks again for all that valuable info
I don’t have any information on it but I live about an hour away if you wanted me to go check it out for ya!
Best of luck in your research.
Hi Chris .....First Like for ya .....Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Thanks. Glad you are enjoying the video!
I'm watchin the Vid.......Don't bug me unless you got the Popcorn . HeHeHeHe
Can you prospect on fed land? How do you find out where other peoples claims are so you dont tresspass on their claim?
Check out my two videos on staking your own claims. These videos answer your questions.
How come you do not tell people they have to have a permit to mine in the river and streams and rivers I have checked this out personally and you do have to have a permit to do this... is not allowed at every state
Not every state and every country have the same rules. There is no permit in Montana to pan or sluice for gold.
I am Indian is there any place for mining ⛏️?
Yes, there are places for mining.
Explained “ claims” in Montana?
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Where are good places to prospect in Wyoming
Yes there is gold in WY, but it's not been as productive as most western states. Do some research to find those places for yourself.
We're in wyoming are you?
Dave Branburry I’m coming out for a month thinking about the wind range
Where are you in wyoming?
@@UriahKiser would you like to go get fenn treasure chest for me, I will give you 49%