A handful of outfitters in town run hands-on panning sessions on Woods Creek and other nearby tributaries — typically a 1–2 hour introduction, with pans, snifters and instruction included. Gold Prospecting Adventures on Main Street has run these trips since the 1980s and is the most established operator; book ahead in summer.
You will almost certainly find a few visible flakes. It is more a lesson in how the gold-rush economy actually worked — back-breaking, repetitive, surprisingly meditative — than a path to riches, but it is one of the few places in California where you can do it on a legitimate historic claim with someone who knows what they are doing.