The Story: In 1861 during the Civil War, Private McCleary of the 71st Pennsylvania Regiment was encamped in the vicinity of Great Falls. It is reported that the gold was found while washing skillets in a stream near McCleary's hilltop camp overlooking the old Anglers Club. After the Civil War McCleary returned and bought several local farms. Rumors and dreams of gold spread and By 1867 the first shaft was sunk near the site of the Maryland Mine.
Gold is found in rocks of the Piedmont Plateau, a belt of metamorphic rocks extending from New York to South Carolina. The metal occurs as grains, wires or sheets in quartz veins and along mineralized fault zones in the surrounding metamorphic rocks. The distribution of gold in the quartz veins is sporadic and the concentration ranges from 0.1 to 5 ppm (Reed and Reed, 1969). Sulfides sometimes found with the gold are pyrite, sphalerite, and galena. In the copper districts of Maryland, gold has often been noted as a minor accessory mineral.
Gold mining:Gold has been mined, panned or prospected intermittently since that date. Active mining ended prior to World War II in 1940 and the last recorded production from prospecting was 21 ounces found between 1950-51. The accompanying graph shows gold production in Maryland from 1868 to 1940. Prospecting continues even today. There is a surge of gold panning interest every few years, especially following an increase in the price of gold. No great fortunes were made by Maryland gold miners. In 1890, Emmons stated that there was little likelihood of any new ventures that would result in sure riches for the operator.
Panning for gold: Not all gold was obtained as ore from mine shafts; much was found by prospecting with trenches, or panning in local streams. The area around Great Falls has yielded most of the gold found in Maryland. Individuals hoping to find gold in Maryland are still looking in this area. Gold recovered by panning is mostly very fine grained but can range up to coarse sand size. Rarely, nuggets were found, some weighing as much as 4 ounces.
The ideal spot for panning is downslope from a vein quartz outcrop along the first curve in the stream. The gold, freed from the rock by weathering, washes downhill from the outcrop and settles to the bottom of the stream. Since gold is heavier than sand, it will remain on the bottom of a pan full of swirling water and sediment and can thus be easily separated. There are still reports of gold being found in Maryland's streams.
Note: Maryland has strict property right laws. Mining, panning and prospecting must be done with permission from the property owner; otherwise, you are trespassing. Collecting of rocks is prohibited on State owned lands unless permission is obtained from the Maryland Forest and Park Service. On Federal Park property, site of many of the old gold mines, permission must be obtained from the Superintendent of the Parks prior to any panning operations. One other caution is that it is extremely dangerous to enter any of the old mine shafts or openings.
USGS Gold Study
