Gold Mining California

gold|price

2009-06-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

The roaring 20 charts and statistics show a steady decline in US gold production, proceeding the Great Depression of the 30s. A similar rate of decline has now shown up once again in the 60s.

The gold price was raised and frozen in 1934 from $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce. The power to control gold, including the price, was given to the Secretary of the treasury by the gold reserve of 1934.

During World War II came the war production Board limitation order L2 08, dated October 8, 1942. The Order 08 was instigated by the assistant Secretary of the treasury, Harry Dexter White. And identified Communist and member of the Council of foreign relations, White was also one of the chief US delegate is, who engineered our country in today's sorry gold price like at the 1944 Bretton Woods monetary conference.

United Nations monetary and financial conference met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, from July 1 to July 22, 1944, at the invitation of former President F. D. Roosevelt. 44 nations participated in the work of the conference under the leadership of the then secretary of treasury, Henry Morgan Plaut Jr.

The conference was called by former President F. D. Roosevelt to formulate definite proposals for an international monetary fund (IMF) and international Bank for Reconstruction and development. Preliminary proposals for a fund or bank had been prepared in 1943 by the technical staff of the treasury. Operation with the technical staff of the State Department, the Federal Reserve system, and other departments of our government.

In 1944, the US held a 60% of the world's known gold reserve and was the dominant economic and financial power. Harry Dexter White, the identified Communist and member of the CFR, along with others, decided that there was a need for redistribution of our financial resources!

The frozen 1934 price of US gold became White's most effective tool in the redistribution of our nation's wealth. The Bretton Woods IMF articles of agreement, state in article 4 section 1. Expression of par values - a par value of the currency of each member shall be expressed in terms of gold as a common denominator or in terms of the United States dollar of the way in finance and affect on July, 1944.

Section 2. Gold purchases based on par values. The fund shall prescribe a margin above and below par value for transactions in gold by members, and no member shall buy gold at a price above par value, plus the prescribed margin, or sell gold at a price below par value minus the proscribed margin.

All we need to do is look at America's sorry gold predicament today for an example of how the above terms work. When four nations attain an excess of US dollars, making either purchase US goods or purchase US gold. Today our products are highly inflated, but our gold is still at the 1934 Depression Day Price. The world's greatest bargain!

Congress could reverse the IMF proposals of 1944, if it had the courage to assert its constitutional rights and abolish the 1934 Gold act!
by Warren D. Madison from the california mining journal feb, 1968

A newspaper article of January 15, 1967, stated the United States unqualifiedly had rejected any thought of raising the gold price. Such action was declared to be completely unacceptable. In the same article 1 of the treasury officials said the price of gold is determined by its relationships to the United States dollar, which was fixed at $35 an ounce. In 1934, and will remain there.

We suppose the statesman should be included in the so-called credibility gap. To begin with, the United States treasury, and even the Congress, has lost control of our gold price. If 13 1/2 billion or less in gold which this nation now possesses are mortgaged at least twice, and possibly three times over. Many foreign countries have gold claims against this nation, and anytime they choose to assert these claims, we would have no gold. True, the price of gold was last fixed by the United States in 1934, but in 1944. Harry Dexter White and the others in the infamous Bretton Woods monetary agreement made the dollar and the dollar only, interchangeable with gold at $35 an ounce.

Parenthetically, many United States citizens frequently asked, how come with all the money these foreign countries of the United States. They can demand payment and goal from us, while we have no corresponding right to demand gold from them and payment of their debts? The answer lies, first, in the fact that many of the debts which these foreign nations opposed to us. Our government debts, while the authority $2 billion plus in short-term liabilities, which we owe the foreign countries frequently are not government debts.

They can be almost any liability, such as a personal check, a traveler's check or an obligation of that nature. Once these short-term liabilities are turned into the central banks of various foreign countries, those banks can demand payment and gold, but we cannot demand gold from them.

The last issue of the Federal Reserve bulletin in, as reported recently in these columns, gives the total of the United States short time liabilities to foreigners as over 32 billion dollars, and again we say, any time the holders of those $32 billion in short-term liabilities, or the central banks of the countries in which the folders live, demand payment and goal from this country, they can start a run-on article which would lead it in very short order, and leave us without gold.
So the gold price, no longer is to be determined by the United States treasury, but by the foreign holders of mortgage is against that gold, and when they want to take it from us, they can do so and fix the price. If we have no gold, all of the talk by treasury officials will not affect its price or prevent a gold price increase by those who have gold.

The how and why of the gold price situation.

Whenever one nation, wishes is to purchase goods from another nation, it acquires the other nations money to pay for the goods. It wants. This is known as foreign exchange. Today, the cost of foreign exchange depends on the official exchange rate or the difference between the values of currency units. Based on goal for the US dollar and $35 per fine ounce of gold.

The dollar was handed this liability as a key currency by virtue of the Bretton Woods agreement, which was ratified by Congress in 1945, and which, would have become a worthwhile monetary arrangement had provisions been made to adjust for the de-appreciation of the US dollar in the domestic realm. However, instead, this international pact set up the dollar to act as goal and with gold at the standard values and common denominator to fix the par values of foreign currency at the given weight and fineness of gold on July 1, 1944. Without such provisions.

So the agreement simply says that gold at $35 per ounce is the final money of account and is a disciplinary authority over all money in the position of the dollar as gold must be guaranteed through an obligation of the United States. To sacrifice all for gold holdings, if necessary, to keep the value of the foreign held dollar equal to gold at a ratio of $35 to each ounce.

In plain words, it set up an exclusive gold standard for use through the conversion of American dollars into American gold.

Now, no one needs to be reminded that the rule for gold standard is the payment of gold on demand. Therefore, if the United States as a paper issuing agency pays out gold on demand through the redemption of its paper, it's gold will disappear and soulless standard of a practice of over issuing paper is followed.

This is the position we find ourselves in. We have over issued our paper and underproduced our gold, and now we are faced with the problem of finding enough gold to redeem more over issued paper.

Political action to discipline American citizens from monetary mistakes will not stop outflow of gold. It can only be done by equalizing the inflated dollar to a competitive level. So that gold can be produced and purchased by domestic dollars.

If this were done by an increase in the price of gold, the re-evaluation might be called dollar devaluation by the buyers of American gold, but not a single domestic price tag would be raised and export increases would result to solve the payments problem. This would be true even if a general reevaluation of foreign currencies followed; because the overall result would move the dollar to a more competitive position internationally.

However, there has been a continual disputes, between different factions of monetary theory, as to whether the dollar has value because of gold or whether gold has value because of the dollar. The latter puts our prognostic bet on the ability of the inflated dollar to function as a gold dollar after his conversion capability is lost.

Under the present strain on the dollar, it is apparent that this controversy will be soon resolved, either through the continuity of gold losses by the United States or by the ability of money management to stem the flow and still maintain the dollar gold lame of convertibility at $35 per ounce. At the present time, it looks as if gold will prevail. Although many stopgaps are still available by political decisions that will discipline people and the domestic economy. Rather than the money.

In an analysis of the difference between the tangible discipline of money and its intangible discipline. Manage people and paper, civilized order must be considered as it is today, not as it may be centuries from now, when intellectualism may become competent enough to end wars and eliminate jail, as well as honest enough to honor unsecured promises.

We constantly hear expressions from the advocates of magic money that gold is a barbaric relic, archaic, crude. You can't eat it, and why dig from one hole to bury another?

In this connection, we should remember that all through history such philosophy, so far, has caused paper money to be swept into the streets time and time again, not as food for the hungry because its softness allows it to be chewed, but as rubble because it was worthless. While on the other hand, during the same painful periods, those who had gold eight well and survive royally, without an urge to eat, either the gold for the worthless paper.

Last, the weakness of paper and strength of gold have created the largest international click of barbarians in history. Their belief and trust and goal has risen through the failures of paper to a tower of strength that cannot be toppled, at least, within the foreseeable future.

This has been abjectly demonstrated by the gold buying events of the past two years during which time the entire production of gold in the free world was added to the already bulging private hoards. In so far as digging out gold, from one hole to bury another; such is as silly as the talk about eating gold. The value of gold is not bested entirely within its beauty, charm and durability. The cost of digging it from the so-called hole. Also adds to its value. Without expending valuable services, time and effort in this endeavor. There could be no adornment of its charm and beauty nor commercial value, including money to its durability.

As for re-burying it, all valuables require safe keeping and holes have provided the best security from time immemorial. For this provision, are monetary managers should be grateful, because it was the burial of nearly 25 billion dollars worth of gold and a hole at Fort Knox, which enabled their prodigality dig up over $13 billion worth during the last 18 years. In order to display honor and dignity while bankrupting the nation.

by Lewis L. Huelsdonk, from the california mining journal,May 1968

Gold mining equipment

gold|mining|equipment

2009-05-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

gold|mining|equipment

The names of gold mining tools and inventions may be as numerous as gold miners themselves. These are examples taken from ads(some as early as 1964).
Below the list are images scanned from issues of california mining journal. I have a collection of issues back to 1964. C.M.J is a treasure itself with facinating history and mining tips. (Thank you publishers and writers of cmj) Here is a partial list of gold mining equipment.
Vibrating jigging sluice, table washing trommel, shaker table, black sand trap, american balanced jig, duel hydrofuge concentrator, portable jet, air float tray portable jet, air float tray, carbon absorption columns, electrowinning cells
surface vacum dredges, hand sluice, muck hog, concentrator table, gravity concentrator, metal detector, rock drills, dowsing rods, goldie digger
mercury retort, ore pulverizer, impact mill, dry concentrator table, portable rock crusher, pocket magnemometer, triple sluice dredges, dredge/high banker combinations,
power wheel carts and of course the gold pan now available in plastic. The plastic gold pan is good because one can use a metal detector with it.

Click on the images below to see them in full size to reveal an archive of gold mining equipment and some articles from the california mining journal. After the images an article about backpack gold mining equipment for fine gold.

Click on the images below to see them in full size

video showing gold prospecting equipment

backpack|gold|mining|equipment|for|fine|gold

When heading out into the wilderness looking for gold deposits one needs to travel light.

1 small gold pan
2 plastic bottle for gold(glass breaks)
3 folding army type shovel
4 crevicing tool like a screw driver for picking at cracks
5 small whisk broom for sweeping off ledges and material out of cracks into gold pan
6 small pry bar to move/pry rock

Gold Mining secrets #1

History of the Value of gold part 2 What You Should Know About Gold

2008-12-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

click on image to read in actual size
History of the Value of gold part 2 What You Should Know About Gold
Q. What makes gold so precious?
A. Gold is precious for many practical reasons. For one,gold is very difficult and costly to mine and bring to market. For another it is scarce. Newly mined supplies are available only in small quantities. Moreover, no other substance-not silver, not diamonds combines gold characteristics of lustrous beauty, easy workability, rarity, and virtual indestructability.
As a monetary metal it has been the much chosen way for mankind to preserve capital and the fruit of his labor and protect them from inflation and monetary uncertainty.
As an artistic metal gold has been desired as an exellent medium for the jewlers craft. The ancient Egyptians were fashioning artifacts from gold as far back as 4000 B.C., and it is the first element to be mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 2:10-12).
Q. How much gold exists?
A. Since the dawn of history, about 89,000 metric tons of gold have been mined. If you could bring all this gold together in one place, it would only make a cube 18 yards on each side. A recent estimate gives us 40,000 metric tons of the probable attainable new gold supply-wich really is not much. That amount would add about 50% to the size of that block of gold prviusly described. In other words, much of the gold known to exist has been brought to the surface. This leaves a dwindling amount to be mined that we know of.
Remember this article obout the history of the value of gold was written over twenty years ago. So these numbers and descriptions have changed.
Q. How much new gold is mined each year?
A. Very little. Consolidated Gold Fields Limited, a London-based, recocgnized authority, estimated 1979 production at 1,242 metric tons. Generally speaking one must dig out, bring up, crush and process some 3 tons of ore to yield one ounce of fine gold. Moreover, gold mining costs have been escalating sharply and effecting the history value of gold. Deeper mines and better technology forcing the mining cost up.
The history of the value of gold is a multi part project. We are collecting articles on the subject and publishing them here. If you have anything to publish about the history of the value of gold contact us.
Q. Who produces the world's gold?
A. In 1979, South Africa, the leading producer, accounted for 55% of the worlds total gold production. The Soviet union ranked second, supplying an estimated 25%. Third was Canada with about 3.8% and then the United States with 2.1%. The rest was produced in rather small amounts in a rather large number of countries around the globe.
This article is just part of a large project of the history of the value of gold part 2. Written in the 80s.
Q. Is there enough gold to meet the worlds needs?
A. At the present rate of consumption, there is enough newly mined gold and gold from official reserves to meet the demand. If demand coninues at this rate, however, and mine production remains constant, gold may indeed be in short supply in the years to come.
remember this: The history of the value of gold can help tell the future!
Q. What is gold used for?
A. The primary uses for gold are in jewelry, investment, dentistry and electronics. Worldwide usage in 1979 (when this installation of the history of the value of gold was written)was:
Karat jewelry 42%
Investments 42%
Dentistry 5%
Electronics 5%
Others decorative, medals ect. 6%
Q. What is "fine" gold?
A. "Fine" is metallurgical terminology indicating the purity of the metal. Gold wich is 0.995 fine, for example, is 995 parts (out of one thousand) gold, or maybe more understansably expressed, 99.5% pure gold. Gold .995 fine is the most common standard for the bars traded in the international markets.
Q. What is "Karat" gold?
A. "Karat" gold refers to an alloy with a relatively high gold content and is more often referred to in jewelry. In the U.S., by federal law, nothing under 10 parts in 24 or 10-karat is permitted to bear the mark "karat". Karatage, then refers to the number of parts of gold compared to pure 24 karat gold. For example, 18 karat and 14 karat are 18/24 and 14/24 pure gold respectively.
Q. Is gold money?
A. History of the value of gold -Though not officially monetized, many people today consider it as money because it has the necessary requirements of currency-it is portable, available in various denomonations, easily recognizable and generally accepted. To the worlds monetary system, it has some advantages over currency.
It cannot be inflated by printing more of it; it cannot be devaluated by government decree; and it has been trusted as money longer than any currency in the history of the world. And almost all conties of the world hold gold as part of the reserve system.
Q. Why are investors returning to a belief in gold?
A. Paper money seems to be losing one of its essential attributes, that is, the ability to act as a storehouse of value. As inflation progresses on a world-wide scale, people once again turning to the traditional medium wich has proven the best, gold.The history of the value of gold has proven there has never been a time when gold was not valuable.

Read Part one of the history of the value of goldRead Part one of the history of the value of gold part 1

The History of the Value of Gold can tell the Future

2008-12-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

The History of the Value of Gold can tell the Future

Here is a look at one of the best articles regarding the history of gold value that may provide insightful looks at future investments. This article is long but to good to hack apart. With the economy in poor shape looking at the history of golds value and the economy is worthy reading.

Fundamentals Revisited

By Barry Forst

Since recent action in the gold market has been quite volatile, I think it's important to refocus on the long term fundamentals. Many times, investors are sidetracked by dramatic price swings, reacting emotionally with either greed or fear. During the current decline we recommend that clients add to their hedge positions. The bull market is still intact and that the "fundamentals for gold" are stronger than ever.

Perspective: Gold is a commodity that has functioned throughout history as a "store of value", a refuge from depreciating money of all types. For more than 5,000 years, citizens have learned and the history of the value of gold has proven(sometimes the hard way) .

Remember This: there has never been a paper currency that has not been depreciated to the point of being virtually worthless; only gold has remained a viable store of value. And this will most likely be the future of golds value.

The beginning: The first step to converting the dollar into fiat currency was the creation of the federal reserve system in 1914. The FED was given absolute power to issue notes and create credit for its own profit without accounting to congress or the general accounting office. The FED was patterned after European central banks. Specifically, the German Reichsbank.

Until 1934, the gold standard acted as a restraint on the FED, preventing serious monetary expansion. But in 1934 Roosevelt confiscated U.S gold coins. That left the citizens holding $20 dollars in paper money for every once of gold. He then raised the gold value by 67 % to $35 an ounce, enabling the government to receive the profit that resulted. With domestic convertibility no longer a restraint, only international conversion prevented unlimited monetary expansion. In 1971 however, Nixon removed this final barrier when he "closed the gold window" as part of his anti-inflation program. The resulting currency depreciation is now part of our, unfortunate financial history.

The FED functions today as a governmental body that issues fiat money and influences the level of consumer credit through the manipulation of bank reserves. The FED, therefore, creates "elasticity" which allows our government the flexibility of printing worthless pieces of paper to cover its own debt obligations. In the absence of any restraint, our government continues to depreciate the dollar. We need to get gold back into the monetary system. But our current FED chairman, Paul Volcker, is strongly opposed to any monetary role for gold. We strongly disagree with Mr. Volcker and think that John Exter ( Formally of New York City and Bank and the Federal Reserve System) has a much better grasp of the current situation. See if you don't agree with Exter: (remember this section of the history of the value of gold was written in 1980)

"Paper money expansionism will not work, but even highly sophisticated monetary authorities go on for years accepting evermore worthless paper instead of demanding gold. But the time has come at last when people, including even foreign central bankers, no longer want to hold more and more and evermore worthless currencies. Confidence in a currency can erode rapidly once it becomes inconvertible, for only convertibility enables it to maintain its store of value function indefinitely. Without convertibility, history shows that a currency will ultimately become worthless and disappear."(this is the future and the value of gold is rising)This discussion of the FED and the government's attempt to expand money and credit leads us logically to the discussion of inflation. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Prices rise whenever th quantity of money is increased rapidly in ralation to real productive output. Between 1971 and 1976, the output of goods and services rose by 18%. But during the same period there was a 78% increase in the money supply and a 50% increase in consumer prices. This article is part one of a series about the history regarding the value of gold. This is one of the best for factual historic events and content.

The real course of inflation is printing too much money, and the only source of printing that money is the Federal Government. They have formed a monopoly -- the Federal Reserve Board -- and they alone have the power to manipulate, govern and otherwise determine the total supply of checkbook dollars issued by the banking system. Therefore, the government has complete control over the amount of money in circulation, and because of its desire to benefit certain interest groups, the FED keeps pumping new money into the economy. More articles about the history of golds value and gold mining visit Gold Mining California. The future of golds value could already be history.

Inflation affects everybody, but its negative effects do not fall on people in proportion to their income or wealth, or in any other way that could be considered equitable. Inflation hurts creditors (those who loan money) while it benefits debtors (people who've borrowed money). It benefits debtors because they're able to repay creditors in dollars that are worth less than the dollars they originally borrowed. The biggest creditors are people on fixed incomes, those on pensions, social security and the like. In a sense, they loaned money to their employers, unions or government at the time they paid into the programs, hoping, of course, to be paid back with profit from interest that would accumulate up to their retirement. But inflation has destroyed those hopes. For example, at 7% inflation, a retired person would see his $500-a month payment decline in purchasing power to $250 in just ten years... at 10% inflation only $175 in purchasing power would remain after ten years. While again the history of the value of gold holds strong despite and maybe because of the follies of the federal government.

Debtors benefit from inflation, and the government is the biggest single debtor. Currently, the deficit is running at more than 1 billion dollars a week and the accumulation debt siphons off an additional $1 billion in interest payment. In addition to the benefit of paying off its debt in "cheaper" dollars, the government benefits from inflation due to the graduated income tax which constantly pushes people into higher tax brackets even though there has been no real increase in their income. (The whole time this is happening the history of the value of gold has shown golds price to rise as the dollar dwindles. One of the reasons being that people know gold is something that will withstand the hardships of the paper moneys slow demise)

The government will continue to increase the money supply so long as the public continues to demand: more jobs, increased welfare payments, a national health plan, farm subsidies and other "free" services and programs. We have a situation in which more and more new programs are created, and the old programs continue to expand beyond all reason. The problem is that the cost of these programs exceeds current Federal tax receipts, and thus Congress asks the Treasury to issue debt instruments so they don't have to raise taxes. The debt instruments are then floated to the public in the form of Treasury bonds and bills, which are then bought by private citizens, institutions, foreign governments and OPEC countries. If there remain unpurchased bonds, the FED will print new money in that amount.

It is with the above process that the government creates inflation. They do it because it is politically expedient to do so. Congress can win the support of special interests by funding their programs without having to increase taxes.

To date there has been no major change either in Congress or the vast bureaucracy which suggests an end to irresponsible government spending, so it appears that inflation will continue to be a problem for quite some time. And as has always been in Case throughout history, citizens will continue to employ gold to protect their assets from inflation and monetary turmoil. Almost every monetary crisis, military conflict, or OPEC price increase triggers new price rises in gold, as the demand for a reliable, portable store of value grows.

When compared to basic goods and services, gold has maintained its value. If one compares the price of gold with actual of clothing, rent, food, etc., during various periods in the 20th century, one discovers that ... in relation to gold . . . prices of these items have remained virtually constant. What has actually happened is the the dollar has decreased in value, thus it requires more dollars (higher prices) to buy the same amount of goods and services.

When the depreciation of any currency reaches the point where the citizens begin to reject it, the government tries to force acceptance through the use of legal tender laws. But the only "law" that ends up working is Gresham's Law; bad money drives out good (good money hoarded -- Ed.) What's meant by this is that, when real money and legal tender circulate in the economy side by side, people will always choose the greater value, in this case gold and silver.

Why do people always choose "real money"? Gold is more rare than paper money and cannot be generated as can paper. Gold is more durable than paper. It's divisible into various and convenient size units and is therefore extremely easy to exchange. Gold also has a relatively high unit value; a half-million dollars will fit easily into a standard safety deposit box. For these very good reasons, gold has evolved into a universally desirable medium of exchange that inspires confidence throughout the world because it is beyond any government's whim. Gold provides citizens with monetary independence, with freedom from the destructive effects of government caused currency debasement.

Read the Second article in the History of the Value of Gold The history tells the future of the value of gold|history value of gold| value of gold|future value of gold

The History of the Value of Gold can tell the Future

2008-12-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Article from 1967 Could give up some GOLD SECRETS OF CALIFORNIA

2008-12-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

Here is an article from 1967 that may be of interest regarding prospecting for gold in southern california. I have included a link to a google map of the area. We will be publishing old articles once a week that may give clues to finding gold in california.

Perris-A 70 year old retired brick layer claims he has made a rich gold srtike in the Gavilan Hills. The area is just east of the old good hope mine, where more than a $ million in california gold bullion was extracted in the late 1800s.

Harry Ellis, 70, of Meadowbrook could produce 1000 ozs of gold and 39 ozs of silver per ton, if the preliminary assays hold up.
"We have excavated down to 60 feet and the deeper we go, the better the grade," he said.

Ellis has been prospecting since 1960, when he had to retire because of a serious injury. He has named his find the convalesent mine.The Gavilan Hills area around Perris have yielded gold before the 1849 strike in california.

These old articles cold prove to be gold themselves to the investigative type of gold miner.
GOOD LUCK!
Read about DRY WASHERS

Gold Mining with a Dry Washer

2008-11-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Mining for gold with a dry washer

Dry washing, or, the recovery of gold from gravel by dry seperation, is a very popular method in southern california. A dry washer can also be called a dry jig. A dry washer processes dry gold-bearing gravel by intermittent pulsations of air, wich seperates the heavy minerals from the light ones. The light minerals pass through the machine to a waste pile; heavy minerals such as gold and black sand stay behind in the riffles.
A dry washer consists of a screened hopper at the top, with a feed box and a cloth bottomed, inclined riffled tray. Bellows are below the tray. The bellows push air up through the cloth lined tray thus seperating the light minerals from the heavy. Gravel fed through the hopper descends to the riffles by the machines agitation.
Some people pour a little mercury behind the riffles to catch flour gold as the machine can loose some smaller flakes with the lighter material.In one day a dry washer can process two cubic yards of gravel. When the riffles are full of concentrates, the tray is removed and the material panned.
The electrostatic dry washer is an advanced machine wich seperates the light material from heavy minerals by static electricity. It is an expensive machine but its recovery of flower gold is 85% wich is excellent. Compared to a normal machine that catches an average of 20% of smaller gold.
For a dry washer to work the gravel must be dry to the point of dusty. damp gravel will not pass through the riffles as well and gold sticks to damp gravel. In many dry placer drift mines, the machine can be operated underground.
As for the gravels to be worked, the best places are bedrock, crevices, ledges, cracks and natural riffles. Stay with the lowest, deepest parts of washes because the gold was concentrated by erosion. The dumps below underground dry placer workings are great spots. Remember, the top of the dump came from the bottom of the shaft. Good luck!

Gold found on surface in northern california

Gold in quartz found on surface.

2008-06-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

In 1990 I met a man at bar in northern Cal. He was of thin build and hairy face,wild eyes and a dirty baseball hat. We happened to be pushed close together in a crowded room that was normally nearly empty, due to a batch of bad beer that had to be disposed of properly. As we drank he asked me if I had ever seen gold in quartz before. I had not but said yes. He then asked me if I had ever found any, again I lied. After another hour of drinking and drooling over the local women I ran into him again.

I asked him if he has ever found gold in quartz. He said he would take me to a place with his metal detector and we would find gold in quartz. The conditions were that we split anything over 400 dollars worth and that I don't tell anyone.
So away we go with a gold master 2, two small rakes and a back pack. After a brutal 2-3 mile hike we arrive at a slide of what appears to be tailings. He tells me to dig through and make a pile of white rocks and he will be back later.

After an hour I have about 4 wheelbarrows full in a pile, teetering on the small ledge that is my work platform. The man kneels besides me and flips his goldmaster upside down and begins passing the baseball size and smaller pieces of dirty and partially crystallized quartz over the loop. Most get tossed down the steep hill, some that beep get put in a backpack. One piece about the size and shape of a large carrot makes the gold master howl and is accidental tossed.After retrieving it I notice that it is almost a full crystal.

Cleaning up the rock in a small creek on the way out reveals that the loud piece is a broken crystal with a slug like a 12 gauge in the center with gold strands spidering through it. The other pieces are nice and we had them cut into slabs and sold them to jewelers or used them for Christmas gifts. As for the carrot-like piece, it disappeared! So much for the 50-50 deal but this should be encouraging for California prospectors. Places like this are real and its a shame I was to drunk to find it again.

The effects gold mining had (has)

Geology

2008-05-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Scientists believe that global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years resulted in the large concentration of gold in California . Only gold that is concentrated can be economically recovered. Some 400 million years ago, California lay at the bottom of a large sea; underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals (including gold) onto the sea floor. Beginning about 200 million years ago, tectonic pressure forced the sea floor beneath the American continental mass. As it sank, or subducted, below today's California, the sea floor melted into very large molten masses (magma). This hot magma forced its way upward under what is now California, cooling as it rose, and as it solidified, veins of gold formed within fields of quartz. These minerals and rocks came to the surface of the Sierra Nevada, and eroded. The exposed gold was carried downstream by water and gathered in quiet gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams. The forty-niners first focused their efforts on these deposits of gold, which had been gathered in the gravel beds by hundreds of millions of years of geologic action.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EFFECTS

2008-05-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Immediate effects

A forty-niner peers into his gold pan on the banks of the American riverThe arrival of hundreds of thousands of new people within a few years, compared to a population of some 15,000 Europeans and Californios beforehand, had many dramatic effects.

First, the human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans became the victims of disease, starvation and genocidal attacks; the Native American population, estimated at 150,000 in 1845, was less than 30,000 by 1870. It is estimated that some 4,500 Native Americans suffered violent deaths between 1849 and 1870. Explicitly racist attacks and laws sought to drive out Chinese and Latin American immigrants. The toll on the American immigrants could be severe as well: one in twelve forty-niners perished, as the death and crime rates during the Gold Rush were extraordinarily high, and the resulting vigilantism also took its toll. In addition, the environment suffered as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats.

However, the Gold Rush propelled California from a sleepy, little-known backwater to a center of the global imagination and the destination of hundreds of thousands of people. The new immigrants often showed remarkable inventiveness and civic-mindedness. For example, in the midst of the Gold Rush , towns and cities were chartered, a state constitutional convention was convened, a state constitution written, elections held, and representatives sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate the admission of California as a state. Large-scale agriculture (California's second "Gold Rush") began during this time. Roads, schools, churches, and civic organizations quickly came into existence. The vast majority of the immigrants were Americans. Pressure grew for better communications and political connections to the rest of the United States, leading to statehood for California on September 9, 1850, in the Compromise of 1850 as the 31st state of the United States.

Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000. The Gold Rush wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and the East Coast. The Panama Railway, spanning the Isthmus of Panama, was finished in 1855. Steamships, including those owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, began regular service from San Francisco to Panama, where passengers, goods and mail would take the train across the Isthmus and board steamships headed to the East Coast. One ill-fated journey, that of the S.S. Central America, ended in disaster as the ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas in 1857, with an estimated three tons of California gold aboard.

Within a few years after the end of the Gold Rush, in 1863, the groundbreaking ceremony for the western leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad was held in Sacramento. The line's completion, some six years later, financed in part with Gold Rush money, united California with the central and eastern United States. Travel that had taken weeks or even months could now be accomplished in days.

The Gold Rush stimulated economies around the world as well. Farmers in Chile, Australia, and Hawaii found a huge new market for their food; British manufactured goods were in high demand; clothing and even pre-fabricated houses arrived from China. The return of large amounts of California gold to pay for these goods raised prices and stimulated investment and the creation of jobs around the world. Australian prospector, Edward Hargraves, noting similarities between the geography of California and his home, returned to Australia to discover gold and spark the Australian gold rushes.

Long-term effects
California's name became indelibly connected with the Gold Rush, and as a result, was connected with what became known as the "California Dream." California was perceived as a place of new beginnings, where great wealth could reward hard work and good luck. Historian H. W. Brands noted that in the years after the Gold Rush, the California Dream spread to the rest of the United States and became part of the new "American Dream."

Miners operate a hydraulic sluice in San Francisquito Canyon, Los Angeles County. The placer mine machine consists of adobe columns, pulleys, ropes, and wood boxes. Donkeys are loaded with ore bags.“ "The old American Dream . . . was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard . . . of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a little at a time, year by year by year. The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, won in a twinkling by audacity and good luck. [This] golden dream . . . became a prominent part of the American psyche only after [Sutter's Mill]." ”

Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream. California farmers, oil drillers, movie makers, airplane builders, and "dot-com" entrepreneurs have each had their boom times in the decades after the Gold Rush.

Seal of CaliforniaIncluded among the modern legacies of the California Gold Rush are the California state motto, "Eureka" ("I have found it"), Gold Rush images on the California State Seal, and the state nickname, "The Golden State," as well as place names, such as Placer County, Rough and Ready, Placerville (formerly named "Dry Diggings" and then "Hangtown" during rush time), Whiskeytown, Drytown, Angels Camp, Happy Camp, and Sawyer's Bar. The San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and the similarly named athletic teams of California State University, Long Beach, are named for the prospectors of the California Gold Rush. The literary history of the Gold Rush is reflected in the works of Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County), Bret Harte (A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready), Joaquin Miller (Life Amongst the Modocs), and many others.

Today, aptly-named State Route 49 travels through the Sierra Nevada foothills, connecting many Gold Rush-era towns such as Placerville, Auburn, Grass Valley, Nevada City, Coloma, Jackson, and Sonora. This state highway also passes very near Columbia State Historic Park, a protected area encompassing the historic business district of the town of Columbia; the park has preserved many Gold Rush-era buildings, which are presently occupied by tourist-oriented businesses.

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Path of Gold

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Portsmouth Square, San Francisco: 1851 daguerrotype. Once the gold was recovered, there were many paths the gold itself took. First, much of the gold was used locally to purchase food, supplies and lodging for the miners. It also went towards entertainment, which consisted of anything from a traveling theater to alcohol and gambling to prostitutes.These transactions often took place using the recently recovered gold, carefully weighed out. These merchants and vendors, in turn, used the gold to purchase supplies from ship captains or packers bringing goods to California. The gold then left California aboard ships or mules to go to the makers of the goods from around the world. A second path was the Argonauts themselves who, having personally acquired a sufficient amount, sent the gold home, or returned home taking with them their hard-earned "diggings." For example, one estimate is that some US$80 million worth of California gold was sent to France by French prospectors and merchants. As the Gold Rush progressed, local banks and gold dealers issued "banknotes" or "drafts"—locally accepted paper currency—in exchange for gold, and private mints created private gold coins. With the building of the San Francisco Mint in 1854, gold bullion was turned into official United States gold coins for circulation. The gold was also later sent by California banks to U.S. national banks in exchange for national paper currency to be used in the booming California economy.

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PROFITS

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Although the conventional wisdom is that merchants made more money than miners during the Gold Rush , the reality is perhaps more complex. There were certainly merchants who profited handsomely. The wealthiest man in California during the early years of the Gold Rush was Samuel Brannan, the tireless self-promoter, shopkeeper and newspaper publisher. Brannan alertly opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots in the gold fields. Just as the Gold Rush began, he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit. However, substantial money was made by gold-seekers as well. For example, within a few months, one small group of prospectors, working on the Feather River in 1848, retrieved a sum of gold worth more than $1.5 million by 2006 prices.

On average, many early gold-seekers did perhaps make a modest profit, after all expenses were taken into account. Most, however, especially those arriving later, made little or wound up losing money. Similarly, many unlucky merchants set up in settlements that disappeared, or were wiped out in one of the calamitous fires that swept the towns springing up. Other businessmen, through good fortune and hard work, reaped great rewards in retail, shipping, entertainment, lodging, or transportation. Boardinghouses, food preparation, sewing, and laundry were highly profitable businesses often run by women (married, single, or widowed) who realized men would pay well for a service done by a woman. Brothels also brought in large profits, especially when combined with saloons/gaming houses.

By 1855, the economic climate had changed dramatically. Gold could be retrieved profitably from the goldfields only by medium to large groups of workers, either in partnerships or as employees. By the mid-1850s, it was the owners of these gold-mining companies who made the money. Also, the population and economy of California had become large and diverse enough that money could be made in a wide variety of conventional businesses.

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Development of Gold Recovery Techniques

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Because the gold in the California gravel beds was so richly concentrated, the early forty-niners simply panned for gold in California's rivers and streams, a form of placer mining. However, panning cannot be done on a large scale, and industrious miners and groups of miners graduated to placer mining "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms" to process larger volumes of gravel. In the most complex placer mining, groups of prospectors would divert the water from an entire river into a sluice alongside the river, and then dig for gold in the newly-exposed river bottom. Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth approximately US$7 billion at November 2006 prices).

Gold miners excavate a gold-bearing bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in Dutch Flat, California sometime between 1857 and 1870.In the next stage, by 1853, hydraulic mining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds that were on hillsides and bluffs in the gold fields. In a modern style of hydraulic mining first developed in California, a high-pressure hose directs a powerful stream or jet of water at gold-bearing gravel beds. The loosened gravel and gold would then pass over sluices, with the gold settling to the bottom where it is collected. By the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been recovered via "hydraulicking." This style of hydraulic mining later spread around the world.

A byproduct of this method of extraction was that large amounts of gravel and silt, in addition to heavy metals and other pollutants, went into streams and rivers. Many areas still bear the scars of hydraulic mining since the resulting exposed earth and downstream gravel deposits are unable to support plant life.

Quartz Stamp Mill in Grass Valley crushes the quartz before the gold is washed out.After the Gold Rush had concluded, gold recovery operations continued. The final stage to recover loose gold was to prospect for gold that had slowly washed down into the flat river bottoms and sandbars of California's Central Valley and other gold-bearing areas of California (such as Scott Valley in Siskiyou County). By the late 1890s, dredging technology (which was also invented in California) had become economical, and it is estimated that more than 20 million ounces (620 t) were recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices).

Both during the Gold Rush and in the decades that followed, gold-seekers also engaged in "hard-rock" mining, that is, extracting the gold directly from the rock that contained it (typically quartz), usually by digging and blasting to follow and remove veins of the gold-bearing quartz. Once the gold-bearing rocks were brought to the surface, the rocks were crushed, and the gold was separated out (using moving water), or leached out, typically by using arsenic or mercury (another source of environmental contamination). Eventually, hard-rock mining wound up being the single largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.

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LEGAL RIGHTS

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When the Gold Rush began, California was a peculiarly lawless place. On the day when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California was still technically part of Mexico, under American military occupation as the result of the Mexican-American War. With the signing of the treaty ending the war on February 2, 1848, California became a possession of the United States, but it was not a formal "territory" and did not become a state until September 9, 1850. California existed in the unusual condition of a region under military control. There was no civil legislature, executive or judicial body for the entire region. Local residents operated under a confusing and changing mixture of Mexican rules, American principles, and personal dictates.

While the treaty ending the Mexican-American War obliged the United States to honor Mexican land grants, almost all of the goldfields were outside those grants. Instead, the goldfields were primarily on "public land," meaning land formally owned by the United States government. However, there were no legal rules yet in place, and no practical enforcement mechanisms.

Gold miners excavate a river bed after the water has been diverted into a sluice alongside the river.The benefit to the forty-niners was that the gold was simply "free for the taking" at first. In the goldfields, there was no private property, no licensing fees, and no taxes until a government formed. The forty-niners resorted to making up their own codes and setting up their own local enforcement. The miners essentially adopted Mexican mining law existing in California. For example, the rules attempted to balance the rights of early arrivers at a site with later arrivers; a "claim" could be "staked" by a prospector, but that claim was valid only as long as it was being actively worked. Miners worked at a claim only long enough to determine its potential. If a claim was deemed as low-value—as most were—miners would abandon the site in search for legendary bonanza sites. In the case where a claim was abandoned or not worked upon, other miners would "claim-jump" the land. "Claim-jumping" means that a miner began work on a previously claimed site. Disputes were sometimes handled personally and violently, and were sometimes addressed by groups of prospectors acting as arbitrators. This often led to heightened ethnic tensions.

The rules of mining claims adopted by the forty-niners spread with each new mining rush throughout the western United States. The U.S. Congress finally legalized the practice in the "Chaffee laws" of 1866.

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FORTY NINERS

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The first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California themselves—primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in Northern California, along with Native Americans and some Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians). These first miners tended to be families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all races were often found panning next to the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases, the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold.

Word of the Gold Rush spread slowly at first. The earliest gold-seekers to arrive in California during 1848 were people who lived near California, or people who heard the news from ships on the fastest sailing routes from California. The first large group of Americans to arrive were several thousand Oregonians who came down the Siskiyou Trail. Next came people from Hawaii, by ship, and several thousand Latin Americans, including people from Mexico, from Peru and from as far away as Chile, both by ship and overland. By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California. Only a small number (probably fewer than 500) traveled overland from the United States that year. Some of these "forty-eighters," as these very earliest gold-seekers were also sometimes called, were able to collect large amounts of easily accessible gold—in some cases, thousands of dollars worth each day. Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth ten to fifteen times the daily wage of a laborer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the goldfields and find the equivalent of six years' wages back home, which attracted people of all types and ethnicities including single men and women, families, and married men. Some hoped to get rich quick and return home, and others wished to start businesses in California.

By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. The largest group of forty-niners in 1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes (the name "forty-niner" was derived from the year 1849). Australians and New Zealanders picked up the news from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with "gold fever," boarded ships for California. Forty-niners came from Latin America, particularly from the Mexican mining districts near Sonora. Gold-seekers and merchants from Asia, primarily from China, began arriving in 1849, at first in modest numbers to "Gold Mountain," the name given to California in Chinese. The first immigrants from Europe, reeling from the effects of the Revolutions of 1848 and with a longer distance to travel, began arriving in late 1849, mostly from France, with some Germans, Italians, and Britons.

It is estimated that almost 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849—about half by land and half by sea. Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries. By 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world. The largest group continued to be Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, French, and Latin Americans, together with many smaller groups of miners, such as Filipinos, Basques and Turks. A modest number of miners of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000) had come from the Southern States, the Caribbean and Brazil.

There were also many women in the Gold Rush. They held various roles including prostitutes, single entrepreneurs, married women, poor and wealthy women and were of various ethnicities including white, Hispanic, native, Chinese, and European. The reasons they came varied: some came with their husbands, refusing to be left behind to fend for themselves, some came because their husbands sent for them, and others came (singles and widows) for the adventure and economic opportunities. On the trail many people died from accidents, cholera, fever, and myriad other causes, and many women became widows before even setting eyes on California. While in California, women were also widowed quite frequently due to mining accidents, disease, or mining disputes. While it was not an easy place for anyone, life in the west did offer many opportunities for women to break from their typical work.

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OVERVIEW-(Part 2)

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Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day Siskiyou, Shasta and Trinity Counties. Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day Yreka in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers up the Siskiyou Trail and throughout California's northern counties. Settlements of the Gold Rush era, such as Portuguese Flat on the Sacramento River, sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of Weaverville on the Trinity River today retains the oldest continuously-used Taoist temple in California, a legacy of Chinese miners who came. While there are not many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the well-preserved remains of the once-bustling town of Shasta is a California State Historic Park in Northern California.

Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold, at Rancho San Francisco in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles, had been in 1842, six years before Marshall's discovery, while California was still part of Mexico. However, these first deposits, and later discoveries in Southern California mountains, attracted little notice and were of limited consequence economically.

By 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to extracting gold from more difficult locations. Faced with gold increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the most accessible gold that remained. The new California State Legislature passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month, and American prospectors began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly Latin Americans and Chinese. In addition, the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often slaughtered. Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet Joaquin Miller vividly captured one such attack in his semi-autobiographical work, Life Amongst the Modocs.

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OVERVIEW-(Part 1)

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The Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma. In January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter, along the American River. Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold. However, rumors soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. The most famous quote of the California Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he had hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" With the news of gold, many families trying their luck at Californian farming decided to go for the gold, becoming some of California’s first miners.

On August 19 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report that there was a gold rush in California; on December 5, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress. Soon, waves of immigrants from around the world, later called the "forty-niners," invaded the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode." As Sutter had feared, he was ruined; his workers left in search of gold, and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

San Francisco had been a tiny settlement before the rush began. When residents learned of the discovery, it at first became a ghost town of abandoned ships and businesses whose owners joined the Gold Rush, but then boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco exploded from perhaps 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850. As with many boomtowns, the sudden influx of people strained the infrastructure of San Francisco and other towns near the goldfields. People lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships.

In what has been referred to as the "first world-class gold rush," there was no easy way to get to California; forty-niners faced hardship and often death on the way. At first, most Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months, and cover some 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km). An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, to take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle, and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship sailing for San Francisco. There was also a route across Mexico starting at Veracruz. Eventually, most gold-seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail. Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever and cholera.

To meet the demands of the arrivals, ships bearing goods from around the world—porcelain and silk from China, ale from Scotland- poured into San Francisco as well. Upon reaching San Francisco, ship captains found that their crews deserted and went to the gold fields. The wharves and docks of San Francisco became a forest of masts, as hundreds of ships were abandoned. Enterprising San Franciscans turned the abandoned ships into warehouses, stores, taverns, hotels, and one into a jail. Many of these ships were later destroyed and used for landfill to create more buildable land in the boomtown.

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CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

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The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.

These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing ship and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly-arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia and Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning, and later developed more sophisticated methods of gold recovery that were adopted around the world. Gold, worth billions of today's dollars was recovered, leading to great wealth for a few; many, however, returned home with little more than they started with.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet of tents to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850. A unique social structure evolved. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. Agriculture, California's first big attraction, developed on a wide scale throughout the state as gold mines produced less. However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional lands, race and ethnic tensions formed, and gold mining caused environmental harm.

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CHANGES

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As the gold became more difficult to extract, profound changes in California took root. By the early 1850s, a single miner could no longer work his claim alone. He needed help and he needed technology.

At first, miners banded together in informal companies to dam the rivers, reroute the water and expose the gold underneath. But soon even more capital-intensive measures were needed to extract the gold and the loose knit groups of miners were replaced by corporations. By the mid 1850s, most of the miners who remained were employees, a way of life they found distasteful but necessary.

The new mining corporations developed extraction techniques that were frighteningly efficient-- techniques that destroyed the rivers and caused California's first environmental disasters. Massive derricks lifted rock and sand--obliterating the formerly pristine rivers.

The worst of the large scale mining techniques came in 1853: hydraulic mining. Huge jets of water tore apart the walls of the riverbeds--jets so powerful, they could kill a man two-hundred feet away. By the 1860s it was clear that hydraulic mining was destroying the landscape, but little was done to stop it. Californians still had an attitude of exploitation--an attitude the miners had from the beginning.

It took over thirty years to ban hydraulic mining--thirty years to change California's attitude of exploitation. The rivers of northern California would never return to their pristine state. But then no part of California would be the same after the gold rush.