Little North Fork of Santiam River — Marion County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Mike Higbee / 49erMike). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: marion_or.shtml. State index: https://web.archive.org/web/20040830075749/http://www.tomashworth.com/goldloc.shtml Area: Little North Fork of Santiam River. Map coordinates are an approximate county centroid — not a precise claim site. Reported by: Edwin Brown I have made several trips over the years and sometimes have found abundant colors. On one trip with my cousin from Salem, we got into a shallow bar over bedrock and got lots of decent sized flakes plus several little pieces that rolled rather than slid in the pan when you tilted it enough. Nearby, this cousin with his brother found 5 small nuggets under a large boulder on bedrock that they pried out of position. One was pea-sized. I saw it and it was a pretty piece. Overall, in my experience, gold is harder to find in this stream than in the Calapooya (my favorite river) or Quartzville Creek but just wanted you to know that better than fine flakes is available here.