So to introduce myself, my husband and I just moved to the central valley from the southern coast of California. In our search for things to do we've started gold panning and recently sluicing. Have talked to the guys in Jamestown and have gone out on fee based trips, watched lots of youtube, to get the hang of things and seem to be doing ok at it.... so thought we'd join this and see what else we can learn.
We have kids and were looking into purchasing land to "relax" on and not necessarily ever build a house but then I was reading about getting a claim and thought maybe that would be the way to go. If someone has information on the best way to go about this it would be greatly appreciated.
(I do understand there's supposedly lots of bogus companies trying to sell claims and I know you need to inspect it and make sure there's reason for potential etc.)
My biggest question though is in the properties listing on this site, I'm a little confused because say for instance the Lucky claim in Mariposa is on BLM land but if it is a claim and is posted as others have said how can others be allowed to claim the minerals from it?

Thanks again for helping me resolve my ignorance in all of this and I look forward to learning,
Andrea