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Geology Montana Gold Claims: Buy or Lease or Joint Venture. Explore a proven property located in Mineral County's historic Cedar Creek Mining District. Contact Marlene Affled, montanagoldclaims.com - Call: 509-389-2606 - Email: marneaffled@mac.com
“Exceptional gold-bearing geology defines Oregon Gulch—and the Montana Gold Claims placer claim. Ancient river gravels, rich placer formations, and proven deposits ideal for sustained mining development.”
Nestled within the rugged beauty of the Lolo National Forest, the Oregon Gulch Project (1,240 acres + or -) spans over 10.3 miles of Oregon Creek and its tributaries.
Oregon Creek flows through the area known as the Big Flat located in Cedar Creek Mining District, Mineral County, Montana.
Broad and relatively level, this expansive flat stands out in the rugged, mountainous topography, historically attracting gold prospectors due to its favorable conditions for placer gold deposition.
The region’s unique geological profile, combined with the hydrology of Oregon Creek—contributes to its rich placer gold potential.
Oregon Creek is a tributary of Cedar Creek and cuts through Big Flat, providing a natural flow path that has shaped the geology of the area. The creek’s moderate flow across the flat terrain promotes sediment deposition, allowing heavy materials like placer gold to settle out and concentrate in the creek bed and nearby alluvial layers.
This dynamic, combined with the unique bedrock characteristics in Oregon Creek, creates a prime prospecting environment for placer miners. In some sections, Oregon Creek has eroded down to bedrock, exposing fractures and crevices within the metamorphic rock, which consists largely of gneiss and schist.
This bedrock along Oregon Creek, commonly exposed in certain riverbanks and concealed in other parts, is essential in trapping gold. The bedrock’s fractured, layered nature—especially in metamorphic rocks like schist and gneiss—creates natural crevices and traps where heavy gold particles settle.
Oregon Creek’s flow patterns further aid this concentration by naturally depositing gold in low-energy zones, such as inside bends or sheltered areas around large rocks and riffles.
In the Big Flat, bedrock is often concealed beneath layers of alluvial gravel, clay, and sand, forming an overburden that varies in thickness. In areas where bedrock is accessible, prospectors target its cracks and pockets directly, as these serve as natural gold traps. In other parts of Big Flat, where the overburden is thicker, test holes are necessary to reach the bedrock and assess gold concentrations within its fissures.
The combination of Oregon Creek’s flow, the Big Flat’s expansive terrain, and the favorable bedrock characteristics makes this region a highly attractive site for placer gold recovery. The interaction between slow-moving creek water and fractured metamorphic bedrock allows gold to accumulate in concentrated deposits, especially within the creek bed, inside bends, and along areas where bedrock pockets and fractures provide natural resting points for gold particles. This unique environment provides promising opportunities for prospectors and is a key area within the Cedar Creek Mining District for placer gold extraction.
While the 1910 wildfire abruptly halted the initial boom, the gold-bearing gravels remained rich – as proven when mining resumed in the 1930s.
Note: The 2020 assay below of a mineralized quart sample taken from the Bonanza Gulch Placer is calculated as ounces to the ton. When converted to ounces to the cubic yard, the material grades approxiximately 7.5 ounces Au (gold) and 34.83 ounces Ag (silver).
The value of 7.5 ounces of gold (Au) and 34.83 ounces of silver (Ag) in US Dollars (USD) as of today, October 22, 2025, is approximately $32,492.20.
This calculation is based on the following estimated live spot prices (10/22/2025):
Gold (Au) Spot Price: $4,117.00 per ounce
Silver (Ag) Spot Price: $48.77 per ounce
Sample No, 1 from Bonanza Gulch
Gold Content and Purity:
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Big Flat placers is the high purity of the gold. Placer gold from Oregon Gulch is reported to be extremely fine in quality, averaging around 96%–98% pure gold (roughly 22–23 karat). In fact, some of the gold recovered from Cedar Creek/Oregon Gulch assays as high as 0.982 fine (98.2% gold content), and fineness values of 0.960–0.970 were not uncommon. This means the gold dust and nuggets contain only minor alloyed metals – mostly silver with maybe a touch of copper – giving them a rich yellow color and high bullion value. Such fineness is considered exceptional; by comparison, many placer gold areas yield 85–90% fine gold, making Big Flat’s gold notably superior in purity. Read moreThe host rock in this area is sand and gravel from the Holocene epoch 11,784 years ago to the present. The Northern Rocky Mountains physiographic province of the Rocky Mountain System characterizes the geomorphology of the surrounding area.
Surface Geology
The surface geology of the area was created byGlacial Lake Missoula about 15,000 years ago. The entire flow of the Clark Fork River backed up behind an ice dam, and the glacial lake reached an elevation of about 4350 feet.
When the ice dam failed, Glacial Lake Missoula emptied through the Clark Fork Valley in just a few days, releasing the greatest flood of known geologic record.
This process occurred repeatedly, each time resulting in colossal floods. Exposed bedrock and sedimentary deposits provide evidence of the lake in the Missoula Valley, as do layers of lakebed deposits alternating with river sediments exposed just west of Missoula (Alt and Hyndman 1986). Read Article Glacial Lake Missoula
Stream banks are firm and stable, composed of:
Sand - less than 1⁄4 inch Gravel - 1/4 inch to 3 inches
Small cobbles - 3 inches to 6 inches
Large Cobbles - 6 inches to 12 inches
Rocks - 12 inches to 24 inches
Boulders - greater than 24 inches - Bank heights vary from 2-to-12 feet or more.
METALLIC ORE DEPOSITS OF MONTANA
Study by Robin Mc Cullough and Bruce Cox
From the early gold discovery in Oregon Gulch, up until about 2015, several of the steep, and deep ravines of tributaries feeding Oregon Creek were buried in heavy snow pack. These “mini” glaciers did not melt all season. Only a few remain. Today, each season global warming melts these glacial “treasure vaults” revealing virgin ground.
Read: Metallic Ore Deposits of Montana Study by Robin McCullough Bruce Cox and Christopher Gammin (Metalic Ore Report).
Bank vegetation includes native grasses, wildflowers, native brush, shrubs, and trees. Many of the northward-facing slopes have a thick stand of pines, firs, and other conifers, whereas the southward-facing slopes are commonly grass and brush covered and more sparsely timbered. Timber includes litter and understory with brush from two to five feet. The area contains sub alpine fir and mixed conifer with significant standing dead and downed trees. depths and types of soils.
Extent of Glacial Lake Missoula (dark purple), with ice sheet to north (white) and floods to southwest (bluish); from the Montana Natural History Center. Date is uncalibrated radiocarbon years.
Flood Facts
The ice dam was over 2000 feet tall.
Glacial Lake Missoula was as big as Lakes Erie and Ontario combined.
The flood waters ran with the force equal to 60 Amazon Rivers.
Car-sized boulders embedded in ice floated some 500 miles; they can still be seen today!
There is no evidence of fish in the glacial lake, but there may have been in the tributaries
No human relics have been found but native oral history suggests people may have witnessed the floods.
The Great Missoula Floods, among the most colossal and transformative geological events in North American history, dramatically reshaped the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, including Mineral County, Montana.
These cataclysmic floods, occurring between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch, were the result of repeated failures of a massive ice dam formed by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.
The ensuing deluges not only sculpted vast terrains but also deposited extensive sediments, profoundly influencing the region’s geology and mineral distribution.
Formation of Glacial Lake Missoula
As the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced southward into present-day northern Idaho, it obstructed the Clark Fork River near the area of modern-day Sandpoint. This glacial blockade led to the accumulation of water, forming Glacial Lake Missoula.
At its zenith, the lake stretched over 3,000 square miles, reaching depths of up to 2,000 feet and holding approximately 500 cubic miles of water. The immense pressure exerted by this vast water body eventually compromised the integrity of the ice dam.
When the dam failed, the pent-up waters surged westward at speeds approaching 65 miles per hour, unleashing floods that scoured the landscape en route to the Pacific Ocean .
Repeated Cataclysms and Their Impact
This cycle of lake formation and catastrophic flooding didn’t occur just once. Over a span of approximately 2,500 years, it’s estimated that Glacial Lake Missoula filled and emptied dozens of times.
Each flood released volumes of water comparable to the combined flow of all the world’s rivers, dramatically reshaping the terrain.
The floods carved out deep canyons, scablands, and transported massive boulders—known as glacial erratics—across vast distances. These events left indelible marks on the landscape, many of which are still evident today
Effects on Mineral County
Mineral County, situated downstream of Glacial Lake Missoula, bore the brunt of these monumental floods. The deluges deposited thick layers of sediments, including sand, gravel, and silt, across the valleys.
These deposits significantly altered the region’s topography and influenced the distribution of mineral resources. The layering of sediments from successive floods created complex stratigraphic sequences, which have been studied to understand the frequency and magnitude of these ancient events .
Legacy and Geological Significance
The Great Missoula Floods have provided invaluable insights into the dynamics of glacial lake outburst floods and their capacity to reshape vast landscapes. The evidence left behind—from giant ripple marks to vast sediment deposits—serves as a testament to the sheer power of natural forces.
For geologists and researchers, these floods offer a window into Earth’s climatic past and the processes that have shaped its surface.
Geology and Mineral
Deposits of the
St. Regis-Superior Area
Mineral County, Montana
https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1027m/report.pdf
http://thebigsky.net/MineralChamber/1910Fire.htm
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Campbell, A.B. (1960). Geology and Mineral Deposits of the St. Regis–Superior Area, Mineral County, Montana (USGS Bulletin 1082-I). PDF: https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1082i/report.pdf
Area report covering the St. Regis–Superior region in Mineral County; foundational context for stratigraphy, structure, and metallic mineralization. USGS landing page: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b1082I
Wallace, R.E., & Hosterman, J.W. (1956). Reconnaissance Geology of Western Mineral County, Montana (USGS Bulletin 1027-M). PDF: https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1027m/report.pdf
Reconnaissance mapping and mineral occurrences across western Mineral County (incl. St. Regis drainage). USGS record: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b1027M
Frishman, D., Elliott, I.E., Foord, E.E., Pearson, R.C., & Raymond, W.H. (1992). Map Showing the Location of Productive Lode and Placer Gold Mines in Montana (USGS MR-96). Pamphlet PDF: https://pubs.usgs.gov/mr/96/report.pdf
County/district-keyed list and map of productive gold sites statewide (includes Mineral County districts).
Harrison, J.E., Griggs, A.B., & Wells, J.D. (1986). Geologic and Structure Maps of the Wallace 1×2° Quadrangle, Montana and Idaho (USGS I-1509-A). Reference entry: https://deq.mt.gov/Portals/112/Water/WPB/NRISReports/MT0062357.pdf
Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology (MBMG)
Lyden, C.J. (1948; reprinted 1987). Gold Placers of Montana (MBMG Memoir 26; Reprint Series 6). Catalog pages:
• 1948 Memoir 26: https://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/mbmgcat/public/ListCitation.asp?pub_id=10597
• 1987 Reprint
https://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/mbmgcat/public/ListCitation.asp?pub_id=11597
Notes: Classic statewide placer survey covering the Cedar Creek district and Oregon Gulch/Oregon Creek area in Mineral County. (District summaries used widely by USGS & MBMG compendia.)
MBMG Abandoned & Inactive Mines (AIM) Database — Oregon Creek District results page: https://data.mbmg.mtech.edu/3D/DataViewer.asp?
Interactive MBMG records for the Oregon Creek district (site summaries, locations, historical notes).
“OREGON CREEK PLACER” https://data.mbmg.mtech.edu/3D/DataViewer.asp?
County-wide AIM list (includes Oregon Gulch entries): https://data.mbmg.mtech.edu/3D/DataViewer.asp?
Vuke, S.M., Porter, K.W., Lonn, J.D., & Lopez, D.A. (2007). Geologic Map of Montana (MBMG GM 62). NGMDB record: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_81651.html
State geologic synthesis; useful for regional bedrock/structure context around Mineral County.
Gammons, C.H., Korzeb, S.L., & Hargrave, P.A. (2020). Metallic Ore Deposits of Montana, in MBMG Special Publication 122: Geology of Montana, v.2 (Special Topics). : https://mbmg.mtech.edu/pdf/geologyvolume/Gammons_OreDepositsFinal.pdf
Modern overview of Montana metallic deposit types and districts (context for styles of mineralization in Mineral County).
MBMG Publications Catalog (for additional Mineral County bulletins, maps, and open-files): https://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/mbmgcat/catmain.asp
Additional authoritative references & indices
USGS catalog record for Campbell (1960) with DOI & plates: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b1082I
UNT Digital Library mirrors (stable access) for Campbell (1960): https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc304308/ and Wallace & Hosterman (1956): https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc304283/
Items that explicitly reference or document Oregon Creek / Oregon Gulch (Mineral County)
Lyden (1948/1987) — Gold Placers of Montana: Includes Cedar Creek district write-up with Oregon Gulch / Oregon Creek placer history and production notes. Catalog entries above.
MBMG AIM Database – Oregon Creek District: Dedicated district page and multiple site records (e.g., Upper Oregon Gulch Placer).
USGS MR-96 (Frishman et al., 1992): County/district tables and map showing productive placer sites in Mineral County (Cedar Creek/Oregon area).