How to stay out of trouble while looking for gold and gems in the Okanagan

Kelowna resident Remy Kesslar has been fascinated by cool rocks and precious gems since she was a kid, but for rock hounders like herself it’s not as simple as taking an interesting stone from anywhere you find it.

She said rock hounding, or rock hunting, is getting more popular and as more people are searching for diamonds in the rough it’s important for aspiring rockhounds to know how to stay out of trouble. 

“It’s just a fun activity for kids and families and anyone who likes rocks to do… but you can’t necessarily go out anywhere you want to,” Kesslar said.

She owns the store Kelowna Rocks and Gems with her dad Doug, and they’re members of the local 1120 Rock Club.

The club organizes excursions with pros who know where to find cool rocks, gems and gold. There’s also regular classes on how to cut and polish gems and rocks so they can be turned into jewelry. 

“We do a yearly trip to Mission Creek Park, which doesn’t seem to be that exciting. But what a lot of people don’t know is there’s actually gold in Mission Creek Park. So we go gold panning,” Kesslar said. “On top of that, there’s also garnets in the water.”

There are lots of restrictions on where British Columbians are allowed to collect minerals, like restrictions on gold panning in Mission Creek during fish spawning season, so the safest way to avoid problems is to go with an expert. 

The rock club even has some mineral claims of its own, but only members have access to those areas. 

“We have permission to be there. So you never have to worry that they’re overstepping or trespassing or doing something that’s against the law,” Kesslar said.

The easy way to stay out of trouble when going out alone is to check online and avoid private property.

“You have to check your government website. There’s restrictions, you can’t collect stuff in parks, like provincial parks or national parks or anything like that. And then obviously, you want to avoid private property because you’re not really supposed to go on that anyway.”

Some protected areas in B.C. like Buse Lake near Kamloops do allow people to collect rocks from the surface, but it’s generally prohibited.

There are also a lot of regulations about mineral rights and claims, and claim jumping — taking minerals that belong to someone else — can get someone a fine or prison time if found guilty. 

Kesslar said it’s easy to accidentally end up on someone else’s mineral claim, so for people who don’t want to pay the $25 annual fee to join the rock club there’s a website called Mineral Titles Online where anyone can check mineral claims around the province. 

“You can check that before you go out looking and make sure that you’re not on someone else’s mineral claim. If they catch you, you’re going to get in trouble for that,” she said.

Earlier this year a group of rockhounders in Kamloops were spotted looking for agates on a piece of land where someone else had mineral claims. 

Kesslar said that type of situation can happen, so the easiest thing to do is join the rock club and let an expert take you on a tour. 

The 1120 Rock Club Kelowna was founded in 1957, but since the pandemic it has grown from around 75 members to roughly 300. 

“It has spiked big time,” Kesslar said. “Once you get started, you kind of can’t stop.”