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To find gold mines in Montgomery County, follow the pioneers of the 1800s and head west.

Damascus resident Jeff Nagy, a member of the Gem, Lapidary, and Mineral Society of Montgomery County, Md., has spent the last four years searching for gold, silver and other mines to update the book, "Minerals of the Washington, D.C., Area," by Lawrence Bernstein and published in 1980.

"There were dozens of gold mines in Montgomery County. They're mostly between Poolesville and Washington, D.C. along the Potomac River," Nagy said. "When they closed them down there were some that still had some gold left in them."

But not enough to make a significant bank deposit.

"It wasn't much and no one got rich off of it, but it was here," said Dale Shelton, a spokesman for the Maryland Geological Survey in Baltimore. "People would be mining for copper or zinc and run across gold in those mines."

Nagy talked about the mineral mines he has found in the last four years at a meeting of the Germantown Historical Society at the Historical Old Germantown Bank last week.

Nagy, an amateur geologist, detailed a copper mine that operated near Rachel Carson Elementary School in Gaithersburg from 1744 to 1780. Nagy displayed old land grants, letters, maps and detailed drawings of the Fountain Club Copper Mine.

"This is all new information to us," said Susan Soderberg, president of the historical society. "It just adds to our knowledge of this area."

Soderberg had no idea the ground in Montgomery County was so rich in minerals, copper, silver and gold.

"We thought the only resource we had back then was tobacco," Soderberg said. She said she had no idea that miners traveled to the county looking for metals to make pots, pans and other items. She suggested contacting county staff to erect markers on the sites.

Nagy, a master electrician for Amtrak, has spent hundreds of hours hiking the county's hills and woods searching for old mines. He has found dozens of copper mines between Rockville and Bethesda, Nagy said, and one in the Kentlands.

Looking for minerals is something Nagy has always had an interest in, he said.

"My mother used to always get after me when I was younger," Nagy said. "She would wash my pants and find different rocks in my pockets."

Mining with a chisel and a hammer with little technology "is quite interesting," said Michael Hulley of Boyds.

"They thought big in those days," Hulley joked. He is glad Nagy has unearthed "this piece of Montgomery County history."