california gold panning

Miner Gary was experienced, prepared, and knowledgeable. The other reviews that say this is the real deal are spot on! My son, 7, wanted to pan for gold over any other attraction in California - we are from the East Coast. It was the best day of our trip. It rained buckets, but we didn't care and Gary had extra boots and supplies to keep us dry. He was willing to work at our pace and answered our every question with enthusiasm. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

We visited California Gold Panning on a cold dreary December day, but by the time we were there, it didn't matter. Miner Gary had a tent set up along with all equipment. He showed us exactly where to dig and what to look for and even helped with several shovel fulls. We had gloves and wading boots provided to us. My husband mucked around in the stream mud happily for an hour and a half. Gary came and checked on us periodically with little tidbits of information. My husband had a blast and at the end we ended up with two little vials of specks of gold, which hubby now treasures. We loved it and wouldn't hesitate to go back. It is a little bit tricky to find, so follow Gary's directions exactly. We enjoyed ourselves.

Our kids enjoyed fishing for gold in the local water bins. Strolling around the town of Columbia is fun too. There is a blacksmith shop with fun puzzles to try out; they are made of iron.

This is the real deal. Miner Gary actually pans for gold at this site and as a sideline introduces novices like us to the reality of real gold panning. Miner Gary was great. At each stage of the process he showed us what to do, how to operate the machinery and then left us to have fun and do the job. The site is in a shady riverbed and it was very pleasant work even on a hot day.You start by digging bucket loads of silt from the riverbed, then you use a sluice to get rid of the pebbles and finally you pan the remainder to get your gold. We each found a little gold; not a lot, but it is our gold and very proud of it we are.It was a great experience and I would thoroughly recommend it.

My husband and I, our 2 kids (10 and 12) and my parents showed up a bit early for our gold panning adventure. Miner Gary was there waiting for us and got us started right away. It was 102 that day, but we thoroughly enjoyed digging and panning for gold. Miner Gary was extremely helpful, attentive and also gave us some great history about the region. Gary showed us where to dig and explained why we should dig where he instructed. Overall it was a great experience and we loved finding the gold in the pans! We also enjoyed talking with Gary as well as the authentic nature of this adventure!

Our family took the family package for my husband's birthday. Our daughter is 8yo so I allowed her to meander between helping and catching critters (crayfish, water striders, bullfrog tadpole, tiny frog!) The point was for us all to have fun and I didn't want a struggle to make her help if she didn't want to. My husband and I dived right in and shoveled mud and sand and rock into a bin to be sluiced. Most of the time was spent doing this. Another group was there as well. We got the sluice first and shoveled our pile in. Our daughter enjoyed clearing the rocks out of the sluice - pretty rocks. :). From there, we panned the "concentrates.". And we found gold!! It was pretty exciting! All of us learned a lot. My husband got two small bottles - one with larger chunks and the other with the tiny bits (plus a little sand.). We also got our own pan! One suggestion, if you have a kid, either bring or ask for an extra small bottle. Our daughter wished she had one for herself for the gold she panned. (We'll see if my husband will let her take his gold to school! Lol!)

Panning for gold is an art. If you want to go back in time and see how they panned for gold this is the place to do it.My husband and his brother spent 2 hours playing in the mud like little school boys and both found so gold, but not enough to pay the tab. They totally enjoyed themselves, created a new memory. Two hours was more then enough time !

Minor John was very helpful and funny. He helped and showed us exactly what we were to do to find some gold. We went 2 times cause my husband always had this on his bucket list to do and he loves the old movie" Treasure of the Sierra Madras". John helped my husband with some of the digging on day 2 because I decided once was enough for me. We found John very pleasant knowledgeable about all aspects of gold mining. I would recommend to anyone that wants to learn and have fun gold mining.

I called Miner John on a Friday and asked about coming out on Sunday. He said that would be fine and he would meet me there at 9am. I show up Sunday a few minutes early and John was waiting on me. We went down to the creek where he had a place picked out for me to run a highbanker. He set everything up for me, so all I had to do was start digging. I've done quite a bit of prospecting in the past, but I had forgotten how much work it was. He came back about an hour later and helped me do a clean-up to see how it was looking. Found several nice flakes in the first pan. I ran for about another two hours when he came back down to check on me, and I told him I had all I could handle for the day so we did our last clean-up. The second pan yielded some more nice flakes with a nice picker, and one smaller picker. He called it a nugglet. :)I was a little rusty (Slow) on my panning so John gave me a refresher on panning and was very knowledgeable. John's a super nice guy and I won't hesitate to go back if I'm in the area again.Thanks, John. I had a great time.

My husband and I and our three kids (ages 9, 8 and 4) had an incredible time at Jamestown Gold Panning. In just two hours, we learned so much - John and his team showed us where and how to dig the dirt (harder work than we expected but wonderful that we got to do it ourselves and lots of fun), fill the sluice, empty it, and pan for gold (we needed some help with this last step!). The kids were thrilled to walk away with real gold - as well as with great memories and a much greater understanding of the gold mining process and gold rush history.

I explained to you that the person with me had lost her wallet and why I was not there every second of the trip. I did explain to you a few times why and how and stopped you when you were doing the panning incorrectly. There is a reason why I ask what part you dont understand and if you just tell me "everything" then I can not focus on the part you do not understand and yes I did become impatient because I asked you to walk me thru what I had tried to teach you and you just kept telling me to start all over again. Some people do not understand the mechanics of panning and that is just how it is. Maybe next time you can ask specific questions of what you do not understand and then your guide can concentrate on your weak spots. You can only show someone how to do things so many times, if they dont ask questions then nothing gets accomplished. I am a gold miner and teach people how to mine, I do not hang over you the whole trip becuase people dont typically like to have someone watching over them every second of their trip. This is how mining is done, hard work and practical application. If you need someone to hold your hand every second of the trip then you might want to go to a theme park. Hope your Yoga business does well and hope you never have a customer who will not explain what part of the instruction they do not get because you may just get a bad review from someone.

Spent 5 hours with Preacher John and a sluice box. Loved it so much I came back a few weeks later and dug for 4 more days. The 4th day Miner John took me to his personal claim!! Great time, learned a lot! I have been prospecting ever since! Miner John has been a great help to me ever since he showed me the ropes. I have since staked a couple of my own claims and am finding good gold on my own!

I looked at the email you sent and you were scheduled for 10am. When I called you back you said you had gone with someone else. I said that was fine. What more did you want me to say? You were early, I answered the phone before your appointment and you went elsewhere. When people make an appointment I write it down and check my messages close to the time they are to arrive. Sometimes I am working somewhere else mining or running errands and cant answer the phone while driving. You had the appointment in writing in your email. Please read your responses from me in your email. There is no need to write a bad review for your mistake.

While on the road about 2 hours away we started looking for a place to go gold panning. We found Jamestown Gold Panning on Yelp and decided to give them a call. We called and Miner John answered and after checking the schedule he said he could squeeze us in that day - no problem. So we were excited to check it out.We ended up running about 20-30 minutes behind. When I called to let John know, he was super accommodating and understanding. Then when we finally got there we couldn't find the exact location so I called again. Again John was very patient and guided us into the dirt parking lot.After getting boots and shovels for our whole family (he even got boots for our toddler, who wasn't really going to pan) we headed down the dirt road. Since we'd never experienced gold panning (other than watching Goldrush) we didn't really know what to expect. John brought us down to a creek where about 2-3 other groups were already panning.John showed us a section of the creek and told us to start digging and putting the dirt/rocks into the small agitating machine. We spent the next hour or so doing some pretty strenuous digging in knee-high water. We had a 10 and 7 year old so we thought that was a good run.Once we dug as much as we could, the other John (Pastor John), came and helped us clean out the agitator and collect our dirt. He then went on to show us how to pan the dirt and low and behold... GOLD! We came away with three little containers with multiple flakes of real gold. John also shared some history of gold in California.Bottom line - we wanted an authentic experience while in Gold Country and that's what we got. Highly recommended and we'd do it again! It seems funny to pay to spend an afternoon digging in a creek, but it was totally worth it.

Preacher John did a great job of explaining and demonstrating what it takes to find gold. It was a busy weekend for panning but he spent a good amount of time with us. We walked away with some gold - now I can't wait to go again!