B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 28,1984
Gold panners scour Southeastern
Pennsylvania's streams
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
GLEN ROCK - Gold. The very
word conjurs up visions of grizzled,
bearded prospectors grubbing in a
stream with an iron frying pan, a
pack-laden donkey grazing against
a background of western moun
tains.
But panning for gold in York
County? Or in Lancaster or
Chester County? Gold, in the hills
and meadows of southeastern
Pennsylvania’s rich farming
country, has apparently been one
of the best kept secrets around.
Don’t rush out to sell your pickup
and buy a donkey just yet, though.
“Gold in York County is men
tioned in passing in old mineral
records of 1832, as well as a few
other times,” according to Jen
Jones, geologist for the York
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Using the preferred dark-colored, shallow plastic pan,
novice mineral collector Brad Kohler tries his hand at going
for the gold.
Jeff, Patty. Benjamin and Carolyn Kuhn of York concentrate on the contents of their
panning equipment.
County Parks and Recreation
Board. “It was always reported
very casually, sometimes as being
around certain old quarry sites.”
Jones organized the recent
second annual Gold Panning
Seminar, hosted at the county’s
Spring Valley Park, and conducted
by members of the York Rock and
Mineral Club.
Local interest in panning for
gold, he says, can mostly be at
tributed to one mineral collector,
Don Schmerling of York.
Some years ago, Schmerling set
a personal goal to collect a sample
of every mineral known to Penn
sylvania. Gold happened to be one
of them. Since historical
references were so vague, he and
Jones pored over geological maps,
looking for clues to the puzzle.
What they sought were certain
Ken Kauffman, left, and Don Schmerling demonstrate digging out panning gravel at a
potential site. Interruptions in a stream's flow allow the heavier gold to be deposited at
natural collection spots.
types of metamorphic rock for
mations, long associated with
deposits of gold found elsewhere.
This formation, A Wickhisson or
Peters Creek type, is believed to
have been formed by volcanic
eruptions, then changed, or
metamorphisized, through later
actions of heat and pressure.
Hydrothermal fluids from deep
in the earth caused the gold to be
deposited in these certain sites,
millions of years ago. As the rock
weathered over the eons, the gold
became exposed.
Glacial action often moved the
rock deposits, and gold in the
Northeastern part of the United
States, say the geologists, likely
was deposited by glaciers that
pushed it from original locations in
Canada.
“Geologically, gold often is
related to areas of slates, and
serpentine types of rocks,” says
Schmerling.
Studies of the local geological
formations showed that a potential
gold-bearing formation begins
near Glen Rock, and more or less
follows Muddy Creek, to the
Susquehanna River. It then con
tinues on an east, northeast angle
through Lancaster County and into
Chester County, south to about
Delaware,
That formation line extends in
the opposite direction toward the
Great Falls, Maryland, section of
the Potomac River, to
Fredericksburg, Virginia, and
south into Alabama. This extension
is believed to be from the eastern
slope of the Piedmont area. Cer
tain of its rocks, including some in
the Spring Valley Park area, are
estimated at 700 million years old.
Placer gold, which is the type
found by panners working creeks,
York County Parks' geologist Jeri Jones demonstrates the
technique used in panning for stream gold.
is washed by weathering and water
from these ancient rocks, and then
becomes trapped at points in a
stream where the water velocity is
interrupted. Sites below a small
natural rock dam, at a bend, or
where a creek might suddenly
widen and slow are what a gold
panner looks for as a starting place
in his search.
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“Panning for gold in Penn
sylvania is strictly for recreation,”
both Schmerling and Jones
strongly emphasize.
Even the most avid panners
admit the volume of gold they find
is minimal. Flakes found locally
are very tiny, with a pinhead size
piece considered a credible find. A
productive day’s panning might
bring a collector just a few of the
tiny, shiny flakes, often shaped
with irregular finger-formations.
“It would take about 20,000
flakes to make an ounce of gold,”
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Schmerling estimates, adding with
a chuckle, “No one is going to gel
rich at this; it’s strictly for en
joyment.” After panning for about
five years, he estimates having
found maybe a maximum total of
one-half ounce.
“Streams don’t have to be large
to be gold-bearing,” says the
panning expert. Even small feeder
creeks, perhaps just a foot wide,
have the potential, if they are at
the right location. Creeks flowing
into the Susquehanna from
southern York and Lancaster
counties, offer promise of a few
flakes.
Property owners with creeks
flowing through their property •
and most farms seem to have at
least one might enjoy spending a
few hours, especially some hot
afternoon, digging in the creek
bed.
(Turn to Page B 4)
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