Iowa Gold Locations

The places listed below are user submitted gold prospecting locations. Things change over time - these places may or may not still be open. Be sure to fill your holes, pick up your trash and don't trespass. We are losing good spots all the time.

We really need more info on this state! If you know of any other prospecting locations in this or surrounding areas, please fill out this form. What we need here are fairly specific places like "downstream from where Highway 20 crosses Dry Creek". There are lots of books that say something like "The gold belt runs through ABC & XYZ Counties" or "Gold has been found in ABC River and some of its tributaries". That really doesn't say much about where YOU can find gold, private property issues or Forest Circus rules etc. Please use this form only for suggesting fairly specific places to be added to this page where new prospectors or folks visiting from other areas have a good chance of finding gold. Thank you

Name: Email:

State:County: 

Fairly specfic place where folks can find gold:

From Randall J Walker
There are no known lode deposits of gold in the state of Iowa. There are glacial deposits of gold (flour gold) in the Volga river in Fayette county in North East Iowa. There is no way of finding enough gold in a day of panning to pay for the efforts but there is enough black sand and traces of gold to practice with in order to perfect your skills.

From No Name
All of the land around the area is certainly private, there are some access locations along county roads, under bridges and there is a public acces area just 4 miles west of the town of Wadena, Iowa. The roads are gravel and the terrain is very hilly but a passenger vehicle is sufficient.

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