Private Land Permissions, Mineral Rights?

[tvanwho]

I need to get on some private properties to look for placer gold and was wondering what tips you guys might have?

Is it better to meet the owner in person, send email, send a snail mail,use the phone, ask a friend of the owner?

I got turned down a few weeks ago, but only cause the owner said he had relatives who want to look for gold in his creek.

Another party I need to contact, the only contact info i could find was a Facebook mention. Not sure how to handle this approach

Since they don't have a clue who I am unless they accept my friend request and see my profile.

 Also, need to know how to find who owns the mineral rights on private property and how to acquire them , for Indiana and Illinois in particular )?  This could be a problem in a smaller town where everybody knows everybody and I want to keep my inquiry inconspicuous. Sure would be nice to have a few acres on a gold bearing creek and a shack to camp in/ land to putz around on/ retire to in my old age.

[californiagold]

I like to go see the owners in person. its easier to say no on the phone. they dont know anything about you. if you go in person, they can see you are a good person not some tweaker or serial killer. Believe it or not, 8 out of 10 usually say yes. I also usually only ask to try for 1 day or a few hours. then after that I can discuss with them about more time. I would never ask to bring a bunch of people beyond your partner if you have a regular partner for prospecting. I usually tell them that thru research that I believe gold could be found on their property.  Which is true. and I always offer them a split of the finds with whatever percentage that they think is fair. to this day, I only had one owner that we did a split with. the rest didnt care. as a detectorist I also assure them that we dig little holes to recover the targets, but immediately refill the hole and dress up the immediate impacted area to look as natural as possible. we do live in an environmental world nowdays, especially in California.  I also offer the landowner the chance to go with us and supply them  a detector for the trip, but most arent interested. 

If you know about a property that you want to get in on. if you cant find the owners name or contact, just get the parcel number and go by the county court house and give them the parcel number. they can atleast get you the address of the land owner. then go do your thing and see if you can get permission.  Nowdays private props pretty much have the best near virgin areas to find good stuff. so getting in on these places with permission is the way to go these days. If that dont work; tell them you know Steve H. and that should get the leverage you need.haha