Gold in Them Hills predicts where buried Wild West valuables — silver dollars, gold coins, strongboxes — would most likely have migrated over time due to erosion, gravity, and water movement.
It combines terrain physics, historical weather (NOAA flood records), topographic analysis, and 90+ documented crimes, missing caches, and confirmed finds from 1840–1910.
Open the .html file in any modern browser — no install needed.
Search for a location in the Jump to Location box at the top of the left panel.
Pan and zoom to the specific hillside, canyon, or terrain you want.
Pick a terrain type from the dropdown that matches what you see.
Click Run Terrain Analysis. Zones appear. Crime & Loot sidebar auto-populates.
Toggle Old Mines, Ghost Towns, or Water Path overlays for more context.
The Jump to Location box finds any US city, town, mountain, canyon, or landmark. Results drop as you type. Use ↑ ↓ to navigate, Enter to select, Esc to close.
To use Google Maps coordinates, right-click any spot in Google Maps — coordinates appear at the top of the context menu. Paste them into the Lat/Lng fields in the left panel.
Run Terrain Analysis always uses your current map view center. Pan and zoom to your area first, then click. The radius is auto-calculated from your zoom level.
After running, the Analysis Factors panel shows weighted scores for gravity, water, sediment, and erosion driving the zone predictions.
The most important choice — changes zone positions, probability scores, displacement rates, and water path shape.
| Type | Key physics | Displacement |
|---|---|---|
| Canyon/Ravine | Walls channel to the floor. Flash floods move objects 50+ ft | Very high |
| Mountain Slope | Gravity dominant. 15–40 ft downhill per decade. Snowmelt adds lateral drift | High |
| Ridge/Bluff | Dual-direction flow. Thin soil keeps objects relatively close | Moderate |
| Desert Wash | Flash floods through arroyos. Sand drift buries rapidly between floods | Very high |
| Forested Hillside | Root systems slow movement. Leaf litter buries fastest of all types | Low–moderate |
| River Bank | Meander shift 5–40 ft/decade. Original site may now be underwater | Extreme |
Colored circles show where objects most likely migrated. Click any circle for a popup explanation.
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gold | High probability — primary catch basin. Search here first. |
| Rust | Medium — secondary drainage or lateral runoff zone. |
| Slate | Lower — dispersal zone. Check if higher zones come up empty. |
| Navy dashed | Shell zone — frequent firearm use, high metal detector noise. |
| Sage green | Stash drift — migration path from a placed money sack to today. |
Toggle Historical Water Path in Map Overlays after running analysis. Blue dashed lines show estimated seasonal water flow. Water is the primary driver of buried object displacement — the gold zone almost always sits at the path's terminus.
▼ triangles show flow direction. Click any line for a terrain-specific explanation.
Enter a label and year buried in the Place a Stash panel.
Click Place on Map. A red banner appears at the top.
Click anywhere on the map to drop the sack at that location.
A 💰 icon marks placement. A green arrow shows drift path. A green circle marks estimated location today.
Click ✕ on the chip below the button to remove a sack. Max 2 at a time.
The right panel holds 90+ historical records matched by proximity to your analysis center. Opens automatically after analysis. Click any card to fly the map to that crime's location. Each card has Wikipedia and Library of Congress photo links.
Use the panel icon button in the header to show/hide the panel.
Toggle Old Mines ⛏ and Ghost Towns 🏚 in Map Overlays. Both appear within 200 miles of your last analysis center. 30 mines and 35 ghost towns are included, each with popups containing history and research links (Wikipedia, LOC photos).
Save downloads a .json file with your coordinates, terrain, stashes, and field notes. Load restores any saved session and rebuilds the map. Use the Field Notes area at the bottom of the left panel — it saves with every session.
Zoom in as close as possible before running — tighter zoom = smaller radius = more precise zones.
Run analysis multiple times — center on the high point, then the suspected burial area — compare zones.
Click a crime card to fly there, then run analysis at that location to see what terrain predicts.
Place a stash at a robbery location with the robbery year to model where that loot sits today.
Compare the water path overlay to satellite view — a matching dry wash validates the model.
The app is a single self-contained .html file. Email it, AirDrop it, Dropbox it — anyone can open it in a browser with no install. Only the map tiles and city search need internet. All analysis, zones, crime data, mines, and ghost towns work offline.