New York is certainly not the place to prospect if you would like to get rich. There is gold in New York, but according to state law, all gold and silver found in the state is the property of the state.
Even claim holders and landowners are not entitled to keep any precious metals that they find. Naturally, there is no commercial mining interests in New York, and even if you find a nugget under your front porch, it doesn’t belong to you.
Certainly prospectors in the past searched the rivers and creeks, although there are no reports of any great discoveries. Since some of the early settlers supposedly were paying for supplies with gold dust, there must have been plenty to go around, but hardly any documentation exists.
Of course gold is still being found by gold prospectors in New York. But I’m sure they are just putting all of it back, as the law requires them to do, don’t you think?
Any gold in the state will be glacial gold left by the receding glaciers that traveled down from Canada. You can find it anywhere in the state since the entire state was covered with ice 10,000 years ago. It will be scattered in a random fashion and you will want to sample locations to locate a good area.
This gold will be extremely fine textured, and it would be the rare prospector who might actually find a small nugget or a flake. It’s going to take some very careful panning to hang on to this gold.
There are some prospecting clubs that may be of help to you, and hopefully someday this silly law will be overturned. Until then just remember to put back anything you find!
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