There are a few places to access Lawson's Fork Creek from public property, the creek does not cross National Forest, But it does cross some county and city property. There are four places that I have found so far. I am always looking for new public access on South Carolina waterways, so I will update this listing as I find new Locations that will work for dredgeing access.
Lawson's Fork Creek:
US 221 at Whitney - From downtown Spartanburg, drive north on US 221 to Oaktree Rd. Park in the gravel parking area. (I have not been to this location. I do not know anything about the condition of this access or if there is any gold in the location. It is published as a public canoeing access that is surrounded by private land. Lawson's Fork Creek is navigable, so in the state of South carolina the riverbed cannot be privately owned.)
Syndor Road - From downtown Spartanburg, drive north on US 29 and turn right onto Fernwood Drive. After you pass the high school, turn right onto Syndor Road. Parking is on the right just before the bridge and the access is behind the baseball field. (I have not been to this location. I do not know anything about the condition of this access or if there is any gold in the location. It is published as a public canoeing access that is surrounded by private land. Lawson's Fork Creek is navigable, so in the state of South carolina the riverbed cannot be privately owned.)
Glendale-Whitestone Road - From downtown Spartanburg, drive north on US 29 and turn right onto US 176. Drive approximately 6.5 miles and turn left onto Bethesda Road. Drive 0.1 mile and turn left again onto Glendale-Whitestone Road. Cross Lawson’s Creek and the access is on the right. ( I visited this place on 8/18/07. This spot is unsuitable for dredging, there is a dam for an old mill here, so upstream is impoundment and is legally private property (no dredging). Downstream there are high shoals that make the area TOO DANGEROUS to dredge. I did see LOTS of quartz stringers running through the bedrock of the shoals, so this place still looks good for panning or sluicing, but this is not a spot I would ever attempt to dredge. I DID NOT PAN WHILE I WAS HERE ). There is no camping here.
Goldmine Road - From downtown Spartanburg, drive north on US 29 and turn right onto US 176. Drive approximately 6.5 miles and turn left onto Bethesda Road and continue to Goldmine Road (3.3 miles). Turn left, cross Lawson’s Creek and the take-out is on the left. (I visited this spot on 8/18/07. This spot looks very promissing for dredging. The directions are a little wrong, the take out/ put in is on the right just before you get to the bridge. This is not a spot to dredge by yourself. You will have to carry the dredge 50 or 60 yards on a trail that goes downhill through the woods. I would not attempt to go here with out having a second "strong back" to help carry in and out. I did pan 3 pans from this location while I was there, I did not find any gold but did find black sands and did find heavily mineralized quartz. I will be dredging here in the near future!) There is no camping here.
UPDATE 9/22/07.....
I went to the location at Lawson's Fork and Goldmine rd. I took a sluice box with me instead of a dredge (I didn't want to do the work to haul the dredge in until I knew there was gold there for sure). We classified and ran about 1 ton of material throught the sluice box, WE FOUND GOLD!!! There wasn't a whole lot of it, but we did find about 40 specks of the -100 mesh size.... not bad for a couple of hours with a shovel and a sluice box!!! We didn't even look around for that "prime spot"... just randomly started digging as soon as we got to the creek!!! I think this spot may end up being halfway decent, once we get a chance to really explore and test it more. (The pictures above are looking up and down the creek at the access point... There is a picture of the hill you have to come down to get in here below). | 
