Hi Jason,

Don Greeno here, (member from California) hope this will help

the GPAA web site is the best place for help.
I suggest you look through the Forum and the many topics discussed there to help you. there are subjects on panning, dredging, dry washing, highbanking, you name it!!!

I see in your state there are over a half dozen claims and places you can go to to Cut your Teeth on prospecting.

Get yourself a gold Pan. you should have gotten one with your membership. Look up how to pan on YouTube- there are many really good panning videos that you can learn from.
that's how I learned! Tom Massie was who I watched on the OLN Gold Fever show. he gave instruction on every video he made and each one tells exactly how to do it the right way every time. "THANKS TOM!!!"

Use the mining guide and online guide to help you get to the claims. you can punch the GPS numbers directly into your Google maps and it will take you there. I save mine to my Favorite places in Google so I always have them stored.

then just get your boots on the ground on the claim, look for a starting spot and dig a shovel full or so and put it in your pan. go to your water source, stream, river, pond, puddle etc....or bring water and a small tub to pan in and you got all you need to find the Gold. REMEMBER, GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT SO PICK A SPOT AND START PANNING.

if you have any questions you can text me! 909-262-8368 anytime is ok. I will respond to your questions and share some pictures of my adventures. I know that will help. take me up on it anytime. if you text me, start your text with "Hi Don, this is Jason from the GPAA in Arkansas, here is my question"
than I know who I am talking to and can help you. YOU HAVE MANY RESOURCES AT THE GPAA! LET ME BE ONE FOR YOU!
If you love the outdoors, you will love Gold Prospecting.

if you look up California here in the site under PROPERTIES - pull up San Bernardino County and look at all the claim posts I have there with photos. Placer Pete claim, Summit Claims, Hey Buddy Claims, I have tried to get gold on them all and have done so. many of my posts tell exactly where we dug and what we saw and looked for to find the shiny!
read as many posts from others you can too and you will learn a great deal from the posts.

anyway, hope this helps you. I really want to wish you great success in finding your first gold. 23 years ago it took me 9 trips out in the field before I found my first piece of gold about 3 flakes. OMG that set me on fire with GOLD FEVER! I had it bad for well over 10 years like wild fire. Gold Fever may hit you too! it does hit us all at one point or another and the desire is unstoppable....lol

enjoy the hobby and hit me up anytime
Good luck Arkansas friend! your California Prospecting Friend and fellow GPAA member - Don Greeno

Great response Don! You’re a nice fellow and a great GPAA reviewer 🤝!!

The GPAA is a great place to meet folks of this caliber.

Don’t get discouraged Jason,, it takes time and effort. You’ve joined a great association with a great group of people. I’ve personally never been to a GPAA outing, show, or chapter meeting, but acknowledge that those are good places to meet like minded individuals if you’re inclined that way.

Gold prospecting takes patience, persistence, practice, and research. You’ll get there and be rewarded for your efforts, in more ways than just finding gold. Like Don, I strive to give information back to members and have achieved a top five reviewer status, which I am honored.

I’m from Huntsville, Texas and got started 16 years ago by visiting the public prospecting area south of Leadville, Colorado called Cache Creek. I didn’t know anything about prospecting except for a few things I had read. In fact, I hastily ‘finished’ my Dad’s homemade/dust covered sluice and headed out to Colorado with my seven year old son. Amazingly, we found good gold when we stopped at Cache Creek on the last couple of days on our vacation. I had very little gold knowledge, but learned a great deal by watching and talking to the nice prospectors in the field. One fellow even politely pointed out to me that my homemade sluice riffles were installed backwards!!! I immediately caught the fever, joined the GPAA, and began feeding my passion with knowledge wherever I could find it…GPAA, Tom Massie Gold Fever videos, books, UTube (especially the legendary Two Toes), and a lot of trial and error. After 16 years, I’m still learning and have been blessed ✝️ to now have a couple of my own great claims…the next dimension of gold prospecting happiness!

The GPAA claims handbook is a valuable resource, and the GPAA website is full of great claim information. The best way to learn is by getting your hands and feet wet. Experiment/practice panning BB’s out of a bag of sand from Home Depot. Excellent way to practice and you will be amazed at the beautiful little garnets and occasional fleck of gold that comes out of it too. Yes, I followed Tom Massie’s example and ran a bag of Home Depot sand (NOT the Play Sand) through my electric sluice setup in Huntsville, Texas and found black sand, garnets and a few flakes of gold, LOL! Their sand bags came from Atlanta, Georgia. Good luck friend!

Brian Williams

Aww Brian!

YOU ROCK!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT TO MY REPLY AND TO JASON OUR FELLOW MEMBERA.

Brian from Texas - so good to meet you. keep my number if you ever come to Southern California to prospect and join me one day out on a claim. I will put you on some gold here in California.

I too have never been to chapter meeting but I did do an outing at Duisenberg last year and it was SUPER FUN AND THE FOLKS WERE AMAZING! Peggy the caretaker was just wonderful. a great gal and a knowledgeable prospector to point you in the right direction or set you up with a pile of gold bearing material to run through your dry washer. a great adventure for sure.

have a great time finding the gold and always give thanks to the Lord above.

Don

Yea I got Fd too. All the sites listed are pay to dig chuckee cheese bs. Not one claim to work unless u meet up with some douche named Kevin. WTF have I done.

Awww!

Joshua,

no need to call Kevin names or to speak profanities on this site. BE BETTER THAN THAT! the world needs good people.
spread God's kindness to others. it is far more rewarding. trust an old guy like me.

no one....I mean no one at the GPAA F$@#ed anyone.

the GPAA is a the BEST CLUB in AMERICA for prospecting Gold. Period! Everyone in the organization encourages, INTEGRITY, KINDNESS, SHAREING, WILLINESS TO LEARN FROM OTHERS, A GIVING ATTITUDE, HUMBLE, GRATEFUL PEOPLE. if you reach out to anyone in the club you will be met with kindness as I and other members have received.

a truly EXCELLENT ORGANIZATION made up of some INCREDIBLE AMERICANS.

YOU DO NOT NEED A LOCAL CHAPTER OR CLAIM to enjoy your membership. The GPAA is Nation Wide and well over 300 claims in the US for you or any club member to enjoy and prospect for Gold on.

I am here in California - I am inviting you to come visit California AND IF YOU DO look me up!!! I will show you what the GPAA is all about. I will take you to a claim(s), teach you how to prospect for real California Gold, not only show you but I WILL HELP YOU DIG AND FIND IT. I promise a experience of a lifetime if you take me up on it. if you go to any other state, post it on the GPAA site before hand and ask for help. Many members will respond and offer you a good experience. they will recommend claims to visit and share their experiences - the claims guide on line has reviews on all claims.

if you have NO plans of coming to California, I would recommend you make a trip to ANY OF THE LOST DUTCHMAN patented claims across the country and stay the night or a few days, camping is very cheep and the care takers of the claims will show you how, when, where to dig and help you get some shiny of your own!!
if you go to a Lost Dutchman's camp you WILL MEET SOME OF THE FINEST AMERICANS YOU CAN EVER MEET- You will meet Mom's and Dad's enjoying family and making memories to last a lifetime, novice and beginner prospectors looking to learn from the old farts like me...lol AND you will find the experts too! you bet we have Experts!

the BEST EXPERT WE HAVE IS A GUY YOU CALLED A horrible name...omg! HIS NAME IS KEVIN HOGELAND- if you have an opportunity to meet him , when you do and see what a great guy he is and how he would offer YOU THE SHIRT OFF HIS BACK TO HELP YOU FIND GOLD, YOU WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY APOLOGIZE FOR THE POOR REMARK. I mean you do not know him but called him names on a site he is held in very high regards and as a leader in our community, he is a great teacher and SHARES WITH EVERYONE WHAT HE KNOWS- that is PRICELESS INFORMATION as you will come to learn if you stick to Gold Prospecting and the GPAA.

he is also on TV - Gold Trails- you should watch it and then you maybe would not think of him as a (whatever you called him) bad word.

Kevin is a true Miner! he is the real deal! WE ALL, NO MATTER WHAT EXPERIENCE LEVEL, can learn from him AND EACH OTHER. that is what the GPAA is all about! "I GUARANTEE IT!!"

Joshua, use the GPAA to make new friendships, create new lasting relationships with others who like the same things you like and then build on that to make a great experience.

if you have not heard this yet, "GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT!" SO START LOOKING in places no one has looked before or not looking now. you know, YOU COULD FIND A GOLD DEPOSIT OF YOUR OWN UNDISCOVERED PRIOR? but you will NOT find that VIRGIN GROUND on a GPAA claim as many of us have already taken our share from that ground. don't get me wrong there is always some left for others but you can find your own too in new and exciting places. If you find a good new virgin spot you can add your claim to the club- just speak to the office if you get a claim to share.

getting rich off of piles of gold HAS NEVER BEEN THE MISSION OF THE GPAA OR ITS MEMBERS. it is FINDING THE GOLD, LOOKING FOR IT IN PLACES IT SHOULD NOT BE, AND MAKING FRIENDS AND MEMORIES THAT NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY FRON YOU....EVER!

I want to encourage you to experience the GPAA in the manner it was designed - to bring Miners together. George "The Buzzard" Massie used to say "Miners helping Miners!" that's what we are all about! helping others learn about prospecting and spreading love and kindness with family values.

join us here at the GPAA, get involved, share your experiences, TEXT ME...LOL and I will text you back my number is in the thread in prior message.
share your experiences win or loss. We have all been there and we are all still learning. Heck, I learn something each time I prospect with new folks. we never know it all.

I hope reading this you feel my hand reaching out to you in the most encouraging way - Join us at the GPAA - build some skill and memories and don't forget to share your experiences with all of us here in the club. No matter if I am in your state or across the country I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES - SHARE, LOVE AND BE KIND

your new Friend and Prospecting club member - Don Greeno - CA

Don,
I must say, no truer words have ever been spoken by anyone, very well said. I couldn't believe anyone would say anything against Kevin H., he's the best & so helpful, GPAA is very lucky to have someone like him, I put him up there w/ Gary "Two Toes" Hoonan & also someone like you Don, speaking up for GPAA & Kevin, good to hear you are in California. I have nothing but good experiences w/ GPAA, staff is always friendly & helpful, I defend them & support them & recomend being or staying a member, i've won two nuggets with their SeptMember give aways, an extra bonus. I've learned a lot in the 4 years i have been mining by watching You-Tube vids & getting out there & learning, it's the thrill of learning & figuring it out, to me it's kind of like fishing, reading the river & figuring it out. I don't get too big of gold, but I can almost always find it now, gold in every pan. Because I still work & live in the Bay Area, I can't get out as much as I would want to, so I mainly go to the American river, No. fork, nobody out there mining & lots of places to dig & lots of flood gold & plenty of bedrock & crevices. Don, where do usually go mining in California? It would be cool to meet you sometime out there.
Thanks for the good words,
Take care,
Serg

Hi Sergio,

So good to hear from you! thank you for the support to my message on this forum.

currently I am raked #1 in the USA for Gold Prospecting reviews here at the GPAA - I share all my adventures and information with the GPAA members on this website.

I mainly prospect and write reviews for the
San Bernardino County - CA Claims
Placer Pete's is one of my favorite claims
Hey buddy 1,8, 9, and 10
Big bear claims in the upper mountains -HOLCOMB GOLD
Lytle creek claim -SB ABLE 30L
Cajon Pass claims - Cajon Summit Group AKA, CRYSTAL, OT IAFKAS 1, OT IAFKAS 2, BILLY GRUFF, HARD DIGGING

I have found gold on ALL including a few claims that are no longer in the mining guide but were at one time club claims of the past.
Avalon
two Quarts
Hey buddy 7
Stratton 3/4

check out my reviews and the gold I get. I too mainly get fine gold. I would say I am an expert on fine gold recovery now........BUT BIGGER GOLD IS MORE THAN WELCOME IN MY PAN. lol just seem to get the super fine stuff all day long here in Southern California

I liken Prospecting also to fishing. they are one in the same in the aspect of searching, using your skills and knowledge and reading the ground (like the river) you said it perfectly. the pay off is like catching a big fish....only a nugget in it's place. Picture worthy and all bragging rights combined! Good stuff!

I guess it will come as no big surprise that when you cannot find me out in the gold fields you will find me out on the Pacific Ocean chasing Bluefin Tuna or local rock fish and Halibut or on my favorite lakes Bass or Trout fishing. Did I mention I always carry a Gold Pan with me when on a Lake or at the ocean? Gold is where you find it and it would surprise you where it can be found. Lake shores have it sometime but almost all water ways in this beautiful state ( California is the Golden State) that you could dip a gold pan in carry SOME SPECKS OF gold. it is called the Golden state for a reason and it is NOT because of the sunshine...lol "It's the GOLD BABY!" LOL Don't forget about the Gem Stones you find in creeks and streams. Love those!
Hope that makes you smile - even the thought of it make me smile.

if you come down south lets meet up one day. dig some dirt together. I have a digging partner and fellow member Joe and we would love to have you along anytime. I would love to share my knowledge of any and all the claims I frequent. you WILL FIND GOLD I always do. now that I am familiar with the claims I know where to go and not go. I post all the time the information as I share everything I know like Kevin does.

so great to have members like you Serg! thanks for speaking up and making a new friend down south.

your new Prospecting friend Don Greeno - Southern California GPAA member 909-262-8368 share your adventures with me anytime. I will do the same. If you text me just identify yourself as Sergio from the Bay and the GPAA - and we can share adventure and information- good to know you prospect the American River. I may need a few tips as I have been wanting to get up north but don't know my way around well enough but with some local tips maybe worth a shot.

cheers my friend!
Don

Very nice Don, yeah, i've seen your name many times, I think we communicated awhile back via GPAA. I've sent in some questions & also some tips from what I have learned. Too bad you are in So Cal., not sure when I would be able to make it down there but would love to go to that metal detecting outing that Kevin host down there, I think it's him. Yeah, fishing is a blast, but now gold mining gets in the way, before it was fishing that got in the way of starting gold mining. 2 weeks ago I went to my favorite camping spot, Fraser Flats off hwy 108, the so. fork of the Stanislaus river, where I meet my friend & camp, fish for trout & gold mine, don't get as much gold as the American river, but I was able to figure that river out & got a quite a bit of it. This year I went to the Nugget Hunt at the no. Yuba river that Tim from Blue Lead Gold production puts on, he lets all go to his claim & has give aways after, I won a paydirt bag from Dirty Paws, 1.5 gm. If you go to YouTube & look up the 2023 Nugget hunt by Tim, you'll see me, I was one of the first interview after he crosses the river he did on that vid. I got to meet a lot of the great miners, Two Toes, Jeff Smith & Mountaineer Matt, & others, great guys.
I also won a 1.66 gm nugget from GPAA SeptMember this year, which I posted on their Facebook sight, & last year won a 4 gm nugget, lots of fun. About finding gold at the beach, I have been watching this guy in Oregon on YouTube where he mines the beaches there & gets a lot of gold, I want to try that here in California beaches. My wife can't believe, every time we go hiking near a river in the mountains, I will pull out a small pan & hand trowel out of my pack, she looks at me funny, but knows my passion for this & everything involving the wilds & lets me do it, while she watches or reads a book.
If you ever come up north here I can meet you at the American River & do some mining together, I wish I had more time to do more exploring, maybe when I retire in a few years. So, I go to the Auburn State rec. park, on the no. fork on the trail that goes to Lake Clemintine, past the high, big Hwy bridge(which is Forest Hill road that goes over the river & before the lake, there's a few rough trails that go down to the river, lots of bedrock & crevices. I will text you to show you the gold I found in July this year, about 4 hours of digging & gold in every pan, there's lots of flood gold there & in the few times I've been there I've only seen one miner & that was close to the parking area. So what I do is dig, classify & pan, so I pan out all the lights until I get to just the black sand & gold, then I will put that into a freezer bag to take home to work it on my home made deep well, low flow Miller table, I have a 3 foot table, half Miller & half small V mat to catch the rolly-polly gold, but the Miller table catches most of the gold, I think this is the best way to work the black sand, I fine tuned it w/ Nome beach pay dirt, which is very fine & hard to work. I think trying to separate the gold from the black sand in a pan at the sight where you mine takes upon too much of your precious mining time, anyway I could go on & on. I'll send you some pics & vids, Thanks. It's really nice communicating with you & good to have a friend down south, take care. Sergio Ramirez 650-483-8360

Sergio,

thank you for reaching out. I have stored you cell number and we have connected off line.

this is what the GPAA is all about. finding Gold, making memories and forging new and exciting friendships/relationships that may last a lifetime.

thank you for living up to our "SHARED PURPOSE" here on the GPAA.

I look forward to the adventures ahead!

Don Greeno

Hi Jason. I live a little south of Fort Smith. I started prospecting for gold in elementary school and will be turning 65 next month. The Claims Guide will show you a spot near Mount Magazine that has gold. I've been there and checked it out. The Arkansas River should have some gold also. It will be fine and challenging to collect. The GPAA is about miners helping miners. You can contact me at mernshepherd@yahoo.com and I'll be glad to offer any help I can. If at all possible attend an outing with the GPAA and LDMA. There is nothing like hands on experience with folks who enjoy what they are doing. I've attended 2 at the Athens Michigan claim. Learned a lot and met new friends from all over the country. I look forward to hearing from you.