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Rye Patch, the Majuba Placers

Placer gold · discovered 1938, West of Rye Patch Reservoir, Pershing County, NV
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Rye Patch, the Majuba Placers: still unexplained.

Chevron gold, crystalline nuggets found almost nowhere else on earth

The law of this ground: BLM public land, panning and detecting lawful on unclaimed ground; check active claim maps (BLM MLRS) and respect posted claims and private parcels.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Chevron gold, crystalline nuggets found almost nowhere else on earth
The account

The desert kept this one quiet until 1938, when Charles Dice pulled several hundred ounces from ground everyone had walked past. The gold here grows in chevrons, angled crystal ridges like sergeant's stripes, and detectorists have hammered these flats for decades without emptying them. The nuggets still come up. They always have.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Chevron gold, crystalline nuggets found almost nowhere else on earth. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: West of Rye Patch Reservoir, Pershing County, NV. BLM public land, panning and detecting lawful on unclaimed ground; check active claim maps (BLM MLRS) and respect posted claims and private parcels.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Chevron gold, crystalline nuggets found almost nowhere else on earth. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: West of Rye Patch Reservoir, Pershing County, NV. BLM public land, panning and detecting lawful on unclaimed ground; check active claim maps (BLM MLRS) and respect posted claims and private parcels.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 40.470°, -118.360° (approx.) View on the Map