Welcome to Arizona Gold Prospectors

Another 1/4 ounce gold nugget found with a metal detector, read about the gold hunt here.

Learn how to find gold in reverse

Learn to understand gold and pyrites, a visual for new prospectors.

Check out the USGS Data Search Engine for Arizona over 7,000 records

The new gold prospecting Apex Talon pick has been reviewed.

Here is some gold ore recovered from and old gold mine tailings pile. This same pile still contains gold from the gold rush days when miners with only crude hand tools, lanterns and candles mined deep into the earth hoping the vein would become a true motherlode.

Below is some of the gold I have found. Click the pictures to enlarge them.

Don't forget to be safe when out nugget hunting. Even the most seasoned outdoorsmen make mistakes under some circumstances, read more.

Arizona Gold Prospecting

Prospecting for gold in Arizona is what this website focuses on.

Welcome to ArizonaGoldProspectors.com. My name is Rod Fitzhugh and I created this website to share information about gold prospecting in general, off road travel and adventure and metal detecting for gold nuggets. I have spent over 15 years either drywashing, crevicing, panning, detecting and dredging for gold in Arizona. I have also been a gold prospecting and off road guide to ghost towns in Central Arizona for private parties, newspapers, and professional photographers.

I started out gold prospecting about 1984 - 85 in and around the Bradshaw Mountains. My buddies and I were just high school kids at the time and had a few pans and a lot of ambition. Our first gold came while camping out on Cow Creek near the Columbia turn off. Just a few flakes but it set off "gold fever".

No I don't have pounds of gold just laying around my house, maybe a nugget or two only for testing purposes. My gold is kept safely in a bank box. Yes I am employed and work in the internet industry for a Fortune 250 Company. If I was getting rich off gold I would not be working for someone else. Gold prospecting is a lucrative hobby for me.

Most of the gold I find is "retirement padding" and I hunt gold not only for the thrill of the hunt and the joy of finding gold but also friendship with other prospectors and a love of the outdoors and adventure.

This site is non-commercial. I have no equipment to sell you. Only things to share. Zero hype. I may sell some software I make from time to time, research data, some of my gold or media I create.

Everyone is welcome to post messages on Arizona Gold Prospectors forum.

Be sure to to check out our new Cool Tools section

Here is my wife gold prospecting in Cow Creek using the White's GMT.

If you are looking for public place to find placer gold in Arizona be sure to check out the Lynx Creek Drainage Area.

Do you know where the photo below was taken? It's a self portrait.

Click the picture to see some of the gold that came out of this spot.

Remember the key to successful gold prospecting is research and time spent in the field.

Other recent articles on prospecting

• What the Old Miners Left Behind

• The Modern Prospector

• Placer Gold Prospecting

• 1872 Mining Law

• Snake Chaps and Gaiters

• 1905 Maps of the Bradshaw Mountains

• Hydropacks

• Metal Detecting Boots

• Do it yourself gold prospecting equipment

• Pulse Devil Nemesis

• Gold Placer Deposits of the Desert 

• Nugget Hunting

• Hard rock gold sample techniques

• When to buy a new metal detector

• Whites GMT

• Desert Trumpet Plant (Eriogonum Inflatum)

• Gold Prospecting Picks

• Gold and Pyrites a Visual Education