Our club was founded in 1981
by five intrepid California prospectors.
That's more than 40 years of providing a home for small scale gold miners and prospectors. West End Prospectors Club, is a non-profit made up of gold-digging enthusiasts who’ve been scouring California landscape for decades. Hearkening back to the days of the Old West, our group offers members a real-life treasure hunt: follow a map with a set of remote coordinates, find the parcel of land and start digging. When and if they find buried treasure, we collect the pieces of gold, and then either keep them, turn them into jewelry or even sell them.
Gold Rushes Just Keep Recurring
Every generation finds its own reason to head for the hills. The forty-niners came for the easy placer gold. The dredge boats and hydraulic outfits worked the same ground for what the pans had missed. In the 1930s, dry washers in the desert washes fed families through the Depression. When gold jumped in 1977, and again after 2008, a new crowd arrived with metal detectors and highbankers.
The gold never left. Only the tools and the prices change. West End Prospectors keeps claims open on that same ground so that today's rush has somewhere to dig.
Gold Mining in California
As of May 2024, California is estimated to have produced 118 million troy ounces (3,700 tons) of gold, which is the second largest amount of gold produced by any state in the United States. California's gold production peaked in 1852 during the California Gold Rush, when miners extracted 3.9 million troy ounces (121 tons). However, production quickly declined after that due to the exhaustion of early placer deposits.
1849 Gold Rush
The Gold Rush began after James Marshall discovered gold at Sutters Mill in present-day Coloma in 1849. The news attracted thousands of prospectors, known as "forty-niners" after the year they arrived, who flocked to California in search of gold. In 1849 alone, California produced more gold than the United States had produced cumulatively from 1792 to 1847. Between 1848 and 1857, California's annual gold production averaged 76 tons, which was worth around $550 million and accounted for about 1.8% of the U.S. GDP.
Where We Dig
The club holds mining claims on public land in two kinds of country: the desert washes of the Rand mining district around Randsburg and the Mojave near Barstow, and the historic Holcomb Valley above Big Bear Lake, where southern California's biggest gold rush played out in the 1860s. Members work that ground with dry washers, detectors, sluices and highbankers, depending on the season and how much water the year has left us.
Claim names, maps and directions are for members only. They are in the members' section once your application is approved.
How the Club Works
We meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30 pm at the Circle City Center in Corona, and most months there is an outing to one of the claims, with a potluck or two thrown in each year. Beginners are welcome: someone will show you how to run a dry washer before you have finished your coffee.
Membership is open to anyone. Apply online, pay your dues through PayPal, and once the Board approves your application at its next meeting you get the claim maps, the members' calendar, the forums and the photo archive. Renewals run automatically each July, so nobody loses a season to a forgotten envelope.
Acres under claim
Our club is working to provide places on our public lands where you can actually find gold.
Club members
And counting. Any how want to contribute to preserving the rights of small scale miners in California and the history of mining in here are encouraged to join. All are welcome.