I grew up in that are and know it like the back of my hand. If the winters weren't so long and cold I'd still be there. One of the few places left that I know of where you can get completely away from people.
Tim, I did a little research on the gold in the Montello area the deposit is associated I believe with the Carlin Trend to the North West of your location. This is one of the largest gold deposits and is a fairly new discovery as gold discoveries go, its been prospected for years but it took a really sharp geologist to figure out the mystery as the area had good indications for gold but commercially profitable deposits were never located, eventually it was discovered the gold value while abundant is microscopic and only recoverable through chemical leaching, having something to do with the large red tailings piles you see from google earth. Not to say you won’t find gold you can see and pick up with enough time prospecting and or luck I think you could get lucky in that if a deposit did exist in the form of a vein or pocket you’d have a shot at it not being found before but because of the history of the gold in the area the odds are low of finding detectable gold or gold you could find by panning.
