Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I hate to throw cold creek water on your plans, but they aren't going to pan out. You could hardly be more wrong about panning rights. There is nothing public about waterways unless they are "navigable" waterways or flow on public lands. Non-navigable waterways on private land are just as private as the land on either side, and with current gold prices panning on private land could get you shot. By definition, any waterway you could walk up is non-navigable. In addition, even in public waterways, the mineral rights belong to the government entity that owns the land over which the water flows, or in the case of navigable waterways, the state or the feds. Panning in navigable waters would constitute dredging and would be subject to enough regulations to make your head spin. Panning on non-navigable public lands and their waterways is usually permitted - with permits. Recreational and "amateur" panning is actually encouraged on some rivers and streams, and permits are easy to obtain. You would have to figure out which public agency has jurisdiction over the waterway you want to pan on and then ask them what their permitting requirements are. Most likely in California you would either be on National Park, U.S. Forest Service, or BLM land. I'm not sure if panning is OK in state parks, but it might be.

Joe, I suggest you take a look at this Web site:

http://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/gopainsoandn.html

....which explains some of the property-access issues. Creeks and rivers can be private property, especially smaller ones, and furthermore, some already are locked up with other parties' mining claims. You don't want to be a trespasser or a claim jumper, nor do you want to accidentally find yourself in the middle of a "guarded" marijuana plantation.

The sense I get is that panning for gold is an important hobby or recreation for lots of Californians and visitors, and you may find yourself shoulder-to-shoulder with others at the publicly-accessible sites.

You need to remember that if something is "public property" that means all people have equal access to the land or property [in some cases, such as sensitive forest lands, equal access means everyone equally can not enter], but no one is allowed to take any part of the property away. No one objects if it is sand in your shoe from a public beach, but the fines are very high for petrified wood chips in a park.