Gold Panning

Rules on public land

The rules below are our summary, last checked 2026-11-02. Read the Black Hills National Forest panning page before you go, or call the Forest Supervisor's Office at (605) 673-9200.

Black Hills National Forest

• No permit for hand panning: hand panning and non-motorized sluicing usually need no Forest Service permit or bond, as long as they don't significantly disturb the ground.
• Notice of Intent: motorized equipment, suction dredges, removing vegetation, or significant ground disturbance require filing one with the district office.
• Closed areas: wilderness areas, Acquired Mineral Lands, and Mineral Withdrawal Areas. The page doesn't list them by name, so ask a district office.
• Mining claims: most easy-to-find deposits are already claimed, and prospecting on a claim without permission is treated as trespassing. Check county records and claim markers, and search claims with the BLM's MLRS tool. BLM Montana-Dakotas handles South Dakota claims: (406) 896-5004.
• Private land: many private tracts sit inside the forest and are off-limits without the owner's permission. Forest visitor maps show them.

The Forest Service names no recommended public panning spots, so neither do we.

State parks and state land

• Custer State Park and other state park land: state rules bar disturbing earth, rocks, or minerals on department land without written permission. The rule doesn't mention panning by name, so treat it as not allowed unless Game, Fish and Parks gives you written permission. Some websites say otherwise, but we found no official source for that.
• Mickelson Trail: the state's trail page doesn't address panning, and parts of the trail cross private land. Don't treat the trail as a way in to pan.

Whitewood Creek

Don't pan here. The EPA says mining sent millions of tons of tailings into this creek, contaminating soil and water with heavy metals. The site came off the federal cleanup list in 1996, but the EPA gives no guidance on panning, so we'd stay clear.

How to pan

At an attraction, staff teach you and the gear is supplied. If you're heading out on your own, bring a gold pan, a classifier, a small hand scoop, tweezers, and a vial.

1. Check the land first: whose it is, whether it is open, and whether it is claimed.
2. Screen your gravel through a classifier into the pan, looking over the big rocks before you toss them.
3. Fill the pan about half full and put it fully underwater.
4. Hold it level underwater and shake, so the heavy material sinks to the bottom.
5. Tilt the pan now and then, letting light sand wash over the edge. Repeat the shake and tilt.
6. Stop when mostly dark, heavy sand remains, then look through it for gold.
7. Lift any flakes out with tweezers or a wet finger and put them in a small vial of water.

What to expect: the U.S. Geological Survey calls panning the simplest and cheapest method, and also tedious work that takes practice. At Big Thunder, you keep what you find in your pan.

With kids: start at an attraction, where it's guided and there are no land questions. Big Thunder calls its on-site panning family-friendly. No business we checked states a minimum age, so call about very young children.

When to go

The attractions set the calendar: Broken Boot runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and Big Thunder runs from March through October, with reservations only in winter. Claim sessions depend on the weather.

The history

• The U.S. 7th Cavalry Black Hills Expedition ran July 2 to August 30, 1874, and found gold in French Creek. Source
• Word of Custer's gold discovery brought miners and entrepreneurs into the Black Hills in violation of the 1868 treaty, and the U.S. later took the Hills without compensation to the Lakota. Source
• The Gordon Party built an illegal log fort on the bank of French Creek after the 1874 find. The Black Hills were inside the Great Sioux Reservation, and within five months the cavalry removed them. Source
• A small party of prospectors found gold in Deadwood Gulch in fall 1875, and seven mining camps had formed in the gulch by spring 1876. Source
• Placer gold came from the Deadwood area and from French Creek near Custer, though USGS calls South Dakota's placer production minor. The Lead district is listed among famous gold-quartz lode districts. Source
• Homestake was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, per the Sanford Lab. Over about 125 years, from 1876 to 2001, it produced about 41 million ounces of gold and 9 million ounces of silver. Source
• A group of California miners bought the Golden Star and Homestake claims, about ten acres, for $70,000, with operations beginning in 1877. It became an 8,000-foot-deep underground mine. Source
• Homestake announced in 2000 that it would permanently close at the end of 2001. Source

Read more in The Gold Rush and Homestake Mining, or see the timeline.

Fun facts

• Gold has grown so valuable that it changed the tourist experience: Broken Boot now offers gem panning "due to the price of gold," and the Black Hills Mining Museum has suspended gold panning over "steep gold price increases." Source
• Big Thunder Gold Mine dates to 1892, when two German immigrant miners, W.B. Krupp and J.A. Engle, found it. Mining there ended in 1914. Source
• Gold panning works because gold is much heavier than ordinary gravel, so shaking the pan drives it to the bottom. Source
• Homestake's old 4850 Level now hosts the deepest underground science lab in the United States. Source

Make a trip of it

Big Thunder is in Keystone, close to Mount Rushmore, and the Mining Museum is in Lead, minutes from Deadwood. Build a trip with panning in it.