Gold nuggets are rare in Wisconsin, and fine gold exists almost everywhere that the glaciers moved.

We Wisconsin panners find that certain locations are a little better than others. What I look for is a stream that moves at a fairly quick pace. Most of the gold is deposited in areas that a lot of glacial material moved through. As the melts were taking place the heavier gold was deposited as the torrential waters receded.

Areas of good gold concentration are where the margins of the glaciers once stood. The margins that are best are where the glacier lobes touched each other.

Our Wisconsin gold came from Canada, Michigan, and Northern Wisconsin. Don't expect to find anything larger than #12 mesh with most of it being under #20 mesh; with most of the gold probably coming in under #30 mesh. The gold you find is barely visible in fact I would speculate that most of the gold is invisible.

Wisconsin itself would not be considered a gold state by many; but contrary to what most people think Wisconsin is a gold state. Wisconsin has extremely large deposits of gold, sulfide gold. These deposits and the many large deposits that existed were eroded over time, and more recently by glacier movements many centuries ago.

Wisconsin Prospectors throw away far more gold than they retrieve because the sulfide gold looks just like black sand. These sands should be saved and processed to remove the sulfide of the gold.

I don't want to discourage you from looking for bigger gold because it does exist in a few locations in the State of Wisconsin. If you find some please post your finds on this site.

Ron Smith, also known as "ausmith" October 21, 2007













.