Montana's gulches built three territorial capitals in a row. The gravels that built them did not all leave.
Alder Gulch below Virginia City was the richest placer gulch ever worked, Grasshopper Creek below Bannack started the whole Montana rush in 1862, and Last Chance Gulch runs under the streets of Helena. The country around all three is thick with documented placers, and the club model scored honey holes from Grasshopper Creek to the Vermilion.
The Libby Creek Recreational Gold Panning Area in the Kootenai country is set aside for exactly this, and Montana adds what almost no other state can: sapphires. The Missouri River bars east of Helena and the Rock Creek district have produced them for a century, and several fee-dig operations let you wash gravel for both.
Montana's stream access law is generous: below the ordinary high-water mark, the public can use most rivers, but the streambed minerals still belong to the underlying owner or claimholder, so access to walk is not license to mine. Read ownership and claims on the map, use the set-aside panning areas freely, and ask before touching private gravels.
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