Gold digging in American Fork — What you need to know about looking for gold in Utah

AMERICAN FORK, Utah (ABC4) — It’s only fitting that centuries after the legendary gold rush of the 1880s, Utahns are still searching for gold. Experts from the Utah Gold Prospecting Club are digging for gold in American Fork Canyon.

“Once you see it in the pan, you’re hooked. It’s literally gold fever,” Utah Gold Prospecting Club membership officer Dustin Johnson said.

The Utah Geological survey, along with Johnson, say to pack non-mechanized equipment such as a pan, sluice box, or pick and shovel to look for gold.

“A pick and a shovel and a gold pan. That’s enough to get anybody to start finding gold,” Johnson said.

Johnson has been gold prospecting for six years now. He says American Fork Canyon is one of several spots where you can find gold in Utah.

The Utah Geological Survey lists the following spots to go looking:

1. Abajo Mountains — Along Johnson and Recapture Creeks.
2. Oquirrh Mountains, Bingham Canyon — Was the largest gold placer in Utah. The original topography was altered by the open-pit mining operations.
3. Colorado River — From the mouth of the Dolores River south to the Amasa Back Bend west of Moab. Most placers were from the Dirty Devil River south to the Utah-Arizona border and are now under Lake Powell.
4. Green River — From Flaming Gorge Reservoir down to Horseshoe Bend.
5. Henry Mountains — On the east flanks of Mt. Ellen in Crescent Creek and Mt. Pennell along Straight Creek.
6. House Range — In Amasa Valley and Miller Canyon.
7. La Sal Mountains — In glacial deposits and streams of Miners Basin, Wilson Mesa, Bald Mesa, and around North Mountain.
8. San Juan River — From the mouth of Montezuma Creek west to Lake Powell.
9. Tushar Mountains — In Mill Creek on the north flank of Signal Peak and near the mouth of Pine Gulch Creek in Bullion Canyon.

“What have here, unlike any other state, where almost all of our gold is very fine. We call it flower gold because it’s about the consistency of pouring out flour in your pan. It’s extremely fine,” Johnson said.

“Utah’s placers are usually associated with areas of igneous rocks,” the Utah Geological Survey website reads. It goes on to explain that gold is deposited within surrounding rock formations, known as primary deposits, and as those rocks are eroded, the free gold is deposited and concentrated into placer (or secondary) deposits.

“Finding gold is possible in any stream or river that crosses a gold-mineralized area,” the website continues, though it cautions that known placer deposits in Utah have been worked for over 100 years, and because of that, it’s very rare to find large concentrations of gold in Utah’s streams.

However, just because you most likely won’t find a large amount of gold at once, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

“It is plentiful. There’s a lot of gold still here in Utah that is undiscovered,” Johnson said.