How Modern Technology Is Reshaping The Search For Gold In Historic Wyoming Mines

How Modern Technology Is Reshaping The Search For Gold In Historic Wyoming Mines

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/20/modern-miners-betting-big-on-finding-more-gold-in-historic-wyoming-mines/

Publish Date: 2026-06-20 13:56:00

Source Domain: cowboystatedaily.com

Some of Wyoming’s 1860s prospectors would be rolling over in their graves if they knew just how narrowly they might have missed striking it rich in South Pass City and other 19th-century gold hotspots.

Gold was there in those arid hills. All those poor pioneers really needed to find it was a helicopter and some artificial intelligence.

Not to mention modern geological science, which has led Relevant Gold founder and CEO Rob Bergmann down a multi-billion-year-old channel called the Abitibi Belt, to what he believes is a hidden gold belt underneath Wyoming.

“We can’t promise anything,” Bergmann told Cowboy State Daily. “But we do believe that all of the data indicates there’s a lot of opportunity that has really just never been tested in Wyoming — especially along these Archean belts that were once connected to the Abitibi.”

The hypothesis that those were once connected is the geological theory that’s brought Bergmann to Wyoming. 

The Archean belts arc from the CK Gold Project in southeast Wyoming, sweep through South Pass near Lander, and continue on to Bradley Peak near Rawlins. 

All three areas once drew gold seekers when the West was still untamed, from about 1867 to 1881. Each fizzled long before living up to their hype — even at the comparatively successful Carissa Mine in South Pass City, where tourists can still pan for gold every year during Gold Rush Days.

• South Pass City, Wyoming, was a short-lived gold town in the late 1800s. In 1867, the richest mine in the mining district was discovered by a gambler and hard drinking miner by the name of Frank McGovern. He spent time in South Pass and was considered a terror although his pockets were lined with gold. In 1870, he murdered another miner at South Pass and was sent away to prison. He visited his old stomping grounds for the last time in 1883 before heading to the gold fields in Rock Springs. (Courtesy Friends of South Pass City)
• South Pass City State Historic Park, Wyoming. (Getty…

Source