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Open Ground · Open ground

The Napf

Alpine gold country, Napf hills, Emmental, Entlebuch, Switzerland
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

The Napf: still unexplained.

Some of the purest natural gold on earth, up to 23 karat

The law of this ground: Open panning by local custom in much of the Napf; guided experiences from ~CHF 35, finds are yours.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Some of the purest natural gold on earth, up to 23 karat
The account

Between Bern and Lucerne rises a knot of green hills where the streams run cold and carry gold of almost absurd purity, Napf flakes assay higher than nearly any natural gold known. The Romans washed these brooks. The locals never entirely stopped. Guided pans work the gravel all season, and what glitters at the bottom is, as it has always been, the finder's.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Some of the purest natural gold on earth, up to 23 karat. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Napf hills, Emmental, Entlebuch, Switzerland. Open panning by local custom in much of the Napf; guided experiences from ~CHF 35, finds are yours.
  • 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: Some of the purest natural gold on earth, up to 23 karat. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Napf hills, Emmental, Entlebuch, Switzerland. Open panning by local custom in much of the Napf; guided experiences from ~CHF 35, finds are yours.
  • 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 47.000°, 7.940° (approx.) View on the Map