RIVERS
Many streams are restricted or closed to public access.You need a lease for School and Institutional Trust lands, which the state of Utah administers, while the Division of Water Rights restricts activity on some waterways for conservation reasons. Individuals can stake claims in national forests and on Bureau of Land Management holdings, so check with the ranger district or local BLM office to determine which areas are off-limits. In Utah, you may not pan for gold on most other public lands — including state and national parks, national monuments, wildlife refuges, wilderness and recreation areas, military installations and reservations.
1 COLORADO RIVER
2 SAN JUAN RIVER . Location: Along the San Juan River from the mouth of Montezuma Creek west to the junction with the Colorado River .The gold is fine and difficult to recover, just like in the Colorado River. These are the main rivers in Utah with gold, but there is definitely some more. A lot of the better places to mine are actually in smaller, lesser known creeks. There is also a lot of gold in the desert away from water sources and drywashing is really the only effective way to prospect for it.
3 RAFT RIVER .
4 GREEN RIVER . Location: Along the Green River from Flaming Gorge Reservoir down- stream to the Horseshoe Bend. Green River south of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in northeastern Utah.
5 DOLORES RIVER .
PLACES TO PAN
Placer mining in Utah began in 1864 at Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake County. One minor deposit was reportedly found before this discovery at Gold Hill in the Deep Creek Mountains (Clifton district, Tooele County) in 1858 but Indians are said to have driven away the early prospectors here. The first permanent settlers in Utah were Mormons who, under the leadership of Brigham Young, arrived in 1847.
1 AMERICAN FORK CANYON . It is a few miles southeast of Salt Lake City in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest .
2 OQUIRRH MOUNTAINS . just west of Salt Lake City, also have proven productive.
3 IMPERIAL DISTRICT ( CRESCENT CREEK PLACER ).LOCATION :East flank of Mount Ellen in the Henry Mountains .Placers are found in .the gravels of Crescent Creek, an eastward draining tributary of North Wash, which is, in turn, a tributary to the Colorado River. Crescent Creek heads at Bromide Basin at the crest of Mount Ellen and is the only creek in the region known to contain economic concentrations of placer gold.
4 GRAND COUNTY (GRAND RIVER ) .LOCATION :Along the Colorado River from the mouth of the Dolores River ,downstream to the Amasa Back bend in the river west of Moab.The deposits occur near the mouth of the Dolores River ,near Hittle Bottom in Professor Valley , in Professor Valley near Richardson
5 LA SAL DISTRICT . LOCATION :Wilson and Bald Mesas, Miners Basin, west and south of North Mountain in the La Sal Mountains. Gold occurs in glacial deposits on the mesas southwest of North La Sal Mountain and south of Castle Valley and in Miners Basin and Placer Creek on the west flank of North La Sal Mountain at the western edge of Castle Valley.
6 HOUSE RANGE PLACERS (SAWTOOTH DISTRICT, NOTCH PEAK PLACERS) . LOCATION :Central part of the House Range in Amasa Valley and Granite Canyon.
7 BINGHAM DISTRICT . LOCATION :In the Oquirrh Mountains, in and adjacent to the Bingham open- pit copper mine.
8 BLUE MOUNTAIN DISTRICT . Location: South flank of the Abajo Mountains .
9 EMERY DISTRICT.
10 DETROIT (DRUM) DISTRICT.
11 GOLD MOUNTAIN DISTRICT. Placer gold was recovered below the outcrop of the Annie Laurie vein, which is near the head of Mill Creek on the north flank of Signal Peak in the Tushar Mountains.
12 CLIFTON (GOLD HILL) DISTRICT . Placer gold reportedly was discovered in 1858 at Gold Hill in the DeepCreek Mountains .
