During the Ice Age, vast continental glaciers brought minute quantities of gold, diamonds, and other precious minerals into Indiana from Canada. These minerals were deposited from the melting ice along with incalculable tons of rock and other materials carried by the glaciers. Meltwater streams washed and sorted the glacial drift, concentrating some of the coarser, harder, and more durable mate-rials in sand and gravel deposits along sluiceways and streambeds.

Since its first reprinting in 1963, Willis S. Blatch-ley’s original 1905 manuscript Gold and Dia-monds in Indiana has been a bestseller of the Indiana Geological Survey. Much of the appeal of Blatchley’s report derives from the novelty of its topic. Most people do not think of the Mid-west as a place where either gold or diamonds are found. Indiana gold, although not plentiful, has been found as small flakes, mostly along streams in Morgan and Brown Counties. These small dis-coveries have kept the interest in searching for the yellow metal alive for more than 135 years.

Gold and Diamonds in Indiana

GN006

bar (gold)

bar (gold)

ri�e

gold

goldgold

gold

boulder

pool (lookhere)

tree,rock,etc.

tree orshrub roots

(gold)

GEONotes

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