Go for a Dam Walk and Try Gold Panning
By 1857 gold had been discovered at several locations in the interior of BC including at Tranquille (possibly by a Scottish sailor named James Houston) causing miners to flock to what was once known as Tranquille River. Many of the original miners were natives including Jean Baptiste Lolo "St. Paul", who had left the H.B.C. some years before, quickly established himself at the mouth of Tranquille Creek, staking off claims with a group of men from the Indian village and setting up a small trade with other
miners.
miners.
Tranquille Creek is a great place for recreational Gold Panning
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Panning and prospecting for gold has become one of the most popular recreational hobbies today allowing people to get out and enjoy natures while potentially striking it rich. A simple pan is one of the most effective techniques in discovering and recovering small amounts of gold from a streambed. Most people will only find flakes although nuggets are occasionally found. However, panning for gold can be used to locate the larger parent veins of gold that most placer deposits originate from.
Gold panning is a very simple process. Just scoop some gravel into a pan, then gently agitated it in water allowing the gold to sink to the bottom of the pan. Materials with a low specific gravity are allowed to spill out of the pan, whereas materials with a high specific gravity sink to the bottom and remain in the pan for collection by the gold panner.
Gold Panning Tips Before you begin, tie 2-3 feet of fishing line to 4 lead weights small in size, next tie balloons to the line. Let the line go downriver and keep an eye on where the small weights settle in the river. This is always a good place to begin panning for gold. Also kook for sandbars on the inside bends of streams as a giveaway that gold may be near. |
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Fast Facts
A one-ounce gold nugget is harder to find than a five-carat diamond. The amount of gold nuggets being found in the world is less than one percent. Even though gold is rare, it is far easier to find than winning a major statelottery. Because of its rarity, a gold nugget can be worth three to four times the value of the gold it contains. Gold is so heavy that one cubic foot of it weighs half a ton. The largest gold nugget found in the U.S. weighed 195 pounds; it came fromCalifornia Gold can be hammered so thin that sunlight can shine through it COONEY BAY
At the foot of Tranquille Creek where it empties into Kamloops Lake is a scenic area called Cooney Bay. An artist has recently turned the bay into a wonderful play to play chess with his hand carved chessboard stump. The artist also left a magnificent carving of an Indian Head. A trail takes you from the parking lot to the mouth of the creek where there is tons of driftwwod to wonder through. You can also head the other direction into the field and you will come across the Cooney family graveyard. UPDATE - Due to flooding this summer, the chess board and Indian head are no longer gracing the beach. The head is flipped on it's front and needs to be lifted back into place and I don't know where the chess board ended up. 
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HOW TO GET THERE – To get to Tranquille Creek, drive down Tranquille road past the Kamloops Airport then turn right onto Tranquille-Criss Creek (Red Lake) Road and drive 1.3 kilometres. The parking area is just past the gravel pit on your right. A 30-minute walk along the creek will take you to an old water intake dam and past some hoodoos. The walk is particularly nice in the fall when the leaves have changed color.
COONEY BAY - To get to Cooney Bay, rather than turn right onto Tranquille-Criss Creek Road, continue down Tranquille Road for 2.0 kilometers. Just past the new Tranquillle on the Creek Development is the parking lot for Cooney Bay. |
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