2nd Gold Rush

[Foofoogal]

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/NEW-CALIFORNIA-GOLD-RUSH.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush

Unreal. I surely must of got off on the wrong planet when I went to Scotland.

Maybe you California FLers could have an event and go gold digging.

 

[Michaelshane]

Have gold pan will travel.

 

[Foofoogal]

may want to go to Nevada. the article says there is more there.
I wonder if any FLers have any vintage family stories of members that came out to California during the first time and stayed.

 

[Haversack]

I'll bite. Part of my family on my mother's side came out to see the elephant before 1850. Never did much and were something of ne'er-do-wells if family lore is anything to go by. On the other hand, my father's uncle was one of the last hard rock gold miners in the Sierras. He had about three mines that he worked up until he got too old around 1970. Just like the movies. It had rails with a mine car and you had to wear a helmet with a headlamp. I got to go in one of his a couple of times. (He also showed me how to fuse and use dynamite. Great things when one is ten years old.)

Of course, in rural areas, few people do just one thing for a living. My great uncle was also a gunsmith, the town's blacksmith, and a practical hydraulic engineer.

And that sort of describes how a lot of modern informal gold miners do it. It is just one of many things that one does to put money in one's wallet. Also the number of people who go after gold goes up when gold prices are high. Back in the 1970s and '80s, it was so common in SW Oregon that in towns like Cave Junction most stores kept a scale and the daily price quote next to the cash register.

Most modern informal gold mining is not hard rock like what my great uncle did. Outside of the mining companies like Homestead, what most people do is some form of Placer mining. This is going after ore that is near the surface, usually exposed by water action, (stream beds, canyon sides, etc.), and washing the ore with water to settle out the heavy grains and flecks of gold. Panning is the simplest way of doing this and there are plenty of places up in the Gold Country here in Northern California that will sell or rent you the pan and provide you with a bit of dirt to wash. More efficient are cradles and long toms. (see http://www.sierrafoothillmagazine.com/goldmethods.html)

Some modern claim holders use scuba gear and a suction hose to vacuum up stream beds for their ore. This very efficient and often is very productive as it gets at ore that has not already been gone over. However, like the hydraulic mining of the 19th C., it is very destructive of the watershed and is becoming restricted. Hydraulic mining used huge high pressure water cannon to wash away entire hillsides into a series of long toms. This created massive erosion and the resulting downstream silt killed off the oyster industry in San Francisco Bay. Malakoff Diggings State Historic Park shows how this was done and what was left. (http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=494)

If you come out here, there are plenty of places along Hwy 49 where you can stop and learn a fair bit about the Gold Rush. (http://www.historichwy49.com/mainmap.html) A few of these towns are:

The town of Columbia, (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=552) is now a State Historic Park (a bit too much Disneyfied for my taste).

The town of Placerville, (formerly Hangtown), has a hard rock mine in the middle of a city park that you can go down inside, (http://www.goldbugpark.org/)

Sutter's Mill at Coloma is where it all started back in 1848. (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484)

Outside of the twin towns of Nevada City and Grass Valley is the Empire Mine State Park. This was the state's richest mine and provides a lot to see. Besides the actual shaft which you can go down into part ways, there is a working stamp mill to deafen and choke you and the country "cottage" and gardens of the owner. (http://www.empiremine.org/) The two nearby towns are worth wandering around in too.

A bit further afield is the ghost town of Bodie off of Hwy 395 on the eastern side of the Sierras. This is a State Historic Park which is kept in a state of arrested decay. This means that it is not restored but is prevented from deteriorating further. Block after block of abandoned buildings where people just up and left when the mines played out. The place is hard to get to. Several miles of washboard dirt road at over 8,000 above sea level. In winter, the temperature can get to -40 degrees. Similar to Potosi in the Andes, Bodie in its hay day was a wild violent place. (http://www.bodie.com/)

Now for the place where the money really came from and which built the City of San Francisco and kept the Union in silver during the Civil War, you have to hop across the border to Virginia City, Nevada. The town grew on top of the Comstock Lode and even today is thoroughly undermined by tunnels. The place is pretty much completely Disneyfied but is too significant to ignore. http://www.virginiacity-nv.org/

Now you have to remember that the California Gold Rush kicked off gold fever all over the world in the second half of the 19th C. People prospected pretty much wherever there was undeveloped land: All of the western states, up into B.C. and Alberta, Australia, the Yukon. Small strikes. Big strikes. Bonanzas. In all the western states, there are towns and the remains of towns that sprang up over night.

Growing up out here, I picked up a lot of the stories from family and in school and in scouting. Its the local history. One of the things you learn is to not go exploring in amongst old diggings. There are a lot of forgotten shafts that are only overgrown. Similarly, if there is nothing growing around that mountain stream, don't drink from it. (Run-off from upstream mines and tailings can be very toxic.) If you have any questions about the history of the place, I'll try to answer them.

Haversack.

 

[Mrs. Merl]

This made me chuckle. Just a couple weeks ago, when we were visiting my husband's father (in California), he was a excited that he and a friend had decided to start gold panning (though they have a box too) - because...gold is worth so much!!! I also chuckled at him at the time too. It is especially funny to me, having grown up in the Colorado Mountains. Where mining is still very much alive. Though admittedly not quite in the same way it was back in the boom days. The information Haversack provided is very much like the situation here too. Though 8,000 ft. would be awful low for a Colorado Mining town.

I live just around the hill from one of Colorado's most famous gold producers Cripple Creek. (In fact, I have to drive all the way there if I get called for jury duty - not very convenient.) Though if you want to mine there - you probably work for the mine, because we still pull gold out of that ground big business style. Our history is rich in mining and everywhere you go, there were prospectors, boom towns and broken dreams. Almost all of our towns were related to gold in one way or another. And there are still numerous working mines across the state, though gold is not always the main objective anymore. You should come out here , Haversack, our towns are definitely not Disneyfied (in fact, if you have a Jeep you could see some stuff that will simply continue to rot back into earth, but was definitely impressive a little over a hundred years ago.)

Still, I chuckle. A new gold rush.

 

[Foofoogal]

This is fascinating. I had seen on History channel or something of different places like gold and diamond mines where families go but thought of it more like a fluke.
How would anyone know what to look for would be my ?
I guess they watch a video or something.

Great things when one is ten years old.)

This is hilarious Haversack. I bet he was a character.
If I ever get settled maybe my family can go on a dig.

This would be interesting to see the fight between the environmentalist and the gold diggers. Hmm....

 

[Mrs. Merl]

Actually, the basics of prospecting are really simple. However, what seems like a sure place to "mine" often does not play out. It would be pretty easy to learn what you needed and what to look for (especially with the internet.) I know loads of people out here who actually have little claims all over the mountains. A lot of them are looking for gem stones. It still makes me laugh - because of all the gazillion people who crawled this state back in the boom days. I doubt any "easy pickin'" would be left.

 

[Haversack]

That's why erosion is the prospector's friend. Just like the Old Man in Treasure of the Sierra Madre pointed out: If you are finding of gold in the creek bed, look upstream for where it washed into the creek. Landslides, avalanches, or just a heavy rainstorm can uncover a hitherto unknown seam. Prospectors live on optimism.

Haversack

 

[Mrs. Merl]

That would require water...something we have not seen much of for a very long time here. But yes, changes in the landscape (big ones) are the only chance in a picked over place like here.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Actually, it doesn't always require water, water is nice though especially for placer mining. Wind and time are also good friends to the prospector. Thats why I do alot of prospecting in the desert not only because its in my locale but because at one time that entire away was once a river, or a lake or some type of body of water and with that over time came gold that deposits. Gold is where you find it, even when you don't find it the first time.


Any CA prospectors in here?

 

[FinalVestige79]

That would require water...something we have not seen much of for a very long time here. But yes, changes in the landscape (big ones) are the only chance in a picked over place like here.

Even when you say its been picked over, that is proof there is gold there, and I can guarantee there is still a sizable amount of gold in the location its nearly impossible to get it all especially with the equipment they used then and the equipment we use today.

 

[The Good]

Actually, it doesn't always require water, water is nice though especially for placer mining. Wind and time are also good friends to the prospector. Thats why I do alot of prospecting in the desert not only because its in my locale but because at one time that entire away was once a river, or a lake or some type of body of water and with that over time came gold that deposits. Gold is where you find it, even when you don't find it the first time.


Any CA prospectors in here?

Well, I live in southern California, and have done some basic prospecting, panning to be precise, more as a leisurely pursuit than for an actual economic gain. I never did find much, but there were a few sizable flakes. By no means am experienced, but I have considered serious prospecting some time ago. I'll have to try it.

 

[FinalVestige79]

For me, its one of the healthiest hobbies you can get into, I mean once you have the equipment its basically free except for gas and food. And you are guaranteed a dividend for your trouble and if you do your research well enough you can cover your equipment plus gas and food and whatever else in one trip. Friends of mine are still able to pull out 7 oz out of what people say are worked out, dried up old diggings.

I've done prospecting allover the state, from the motherload, the down here. And every time I go I find something...nicest find this year was a 1/2 nugget found in a pocket in a dried up creek up in the mountains. Along with about 2 oz of flour and coarse gold. The location of which I am taking to my grave!

 

[4and1]

Prospecting in CA is not a 'casual hobby' kind of thing. Most of the placer gold bearing areas are claimed. If the claimholder catches you digging...he WILL be VERY angry!...Just so you know...

That said... GPAA has claims to be worked by it's members and there are some free recreational mining areas (middle fork American River, etc.)

 

[FinalVestige79]

very well aware...which is why you always look for visible claim markers in the vicinity and they have to have highly visible claim markers. Those are the rules the claim owners have to go by. I am a member of the GPAA, as well as another prospecting org up here in the High Desert. There are many other places to prospect especially in So Cal that have no claims at all. Motherload area like you mention is lousy with claims