The famous free public panning claim on Bonanza Creek, about 15 km up Bonanza Creek Road from the Klondike Highway near Dawson City — just upstream of the Discovery Claim where the Klondike rush began in 1896. Maintained by the Klondike Visitors Association; no fee, no permit, and you keep everything you find.
Before you go
Bring your own pan and shovel (pans can be borrowed from the Dawson City Visitor Information Centre). Panning is only legal on this claim — the rest of Bonanza Creek is actively staked. Verify current status before visiting.
Marked Verified: confirmed against an official or authoritative source at the time of writing.
This guide is general information for recreational prospectors — it is not legal advice. Mining, land-access, and environmental regulations change and vary site by site. Always verify the current rules with the official sources linked above before heading out, obtain permission from private landowners and mineral-claim holders, and respect First Nations rights, settlement lands, and treaty areas — some lands require permission or are closed to panning entirely.
Conditions at Free Claim #6
Snapshot at build time · 2026-09-03
Read once, when this page was generated — not live. The gauge is the closest Environment and Climate Change Canada hydrometric station to this point. Open the live page for Free Claim #6 for the current reading, the full forecast and the map.
Indian River above the Mouth
1.58 m4.9 m³/s→ steady
Panning window: good≈ 18 km away
Station 09EB003 · observed 2026-09-02 23:45 UTC · 0% of 7-day range · build-time snapshot
Conditions look stable. Normal river safety still applies — check the gauge before wading and keep an eye upstream.
Washout risk and the panning window are heuristics — rainfall against gauge trend — not a safety assessment. Check advisories and the forecast before entering any river.
Getting there
Nearest town:Dawson City, Yukon — about 21 km S of it in a straight line. That is not driving distance: in gold country a 40 km straight line is regularly a two-hour drive on gravel.
Centre used for the links below: 63.8710, -139.3490
Bring your own pan and shovel (pans can be borrowed from the Dawson City Visitor Information Centre). Panning is only legal on this claim — the rest of Bonanza Creek is actively staked. Verify current status before visiting.
The last mile
Both map apps route to the coordinate, not to a legal access point. The final stretch to a river is routinely an unmaintained forest service road, a locked gate, private frontage or a bank you cannot get down. Check the road status before you leave, tell someone your plan, carry a paper backup — cell coverage in these valleys is patchy — and turn around rather than trespass. Water crossings and washouts are normal after rain.
Know before you dig — Yukon
checked 2026-09
Hand pan on Crown land:✅ Yes
Yukon welcomes recreational panning with hand tools — pan, shovel, bucket and classifier — on public land that is open to staking and not under a claim. The territory’s own advice: ask the nearest Mining Recorder where panning is permitted before you go.
Gold pan & hand shovel · on Crown land✅ Yes
Hand sluice box / rocker · on Crown land🪪 With a permit / licence
Highbanker / power sluice · on Crown land🪪 With a permit / licence
Metal detector · on Crown land❓ Depends — ask the authority
Suction dredge · on Crown land🪪 With a permit / licence
Recorded placer claim via the Mining Recorder (Yukon has no free miner certificate): Nothing is needed to hand-pan open ground. To use a sluice or anything mechanical you stake your own placer claim: anyone 18 or older may stake, with no residency or citizenship requirement. Confirm the ground is open… Apply / details ↗
Claims, parks and reserves are decided ground by ground. Check the registry map for the stretch you want, get the owner's or holder's permission where one exists, and acknowledge whose territory you are standing on — native-land.ca is a starting point, not an authority.
Panning-area, claims, and regulation information on LocalKarat is general information for recreational prospectors — it is not legal advice. Mining, land-access, and environmental rules change and vary site by site. Verify current rules with the official sources linked on each page, get permission from private landowners and claim holders, and respect First Nations rights, settlement lands, and treaty areas.
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