Arizona gold prospector Mike talks about one of his greatest finds, a real piece of gold prospecting history! An arrastra drag stone!
This is really something that you would expect to see in a museum
I find it fascinating to see the ingenuity and creativity of the old-time gold prospectors. (more…)
Very good video of the history of California Gold Mining in Kern county’s Sierra Nevada!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
At the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of “staking claims” was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. Although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service. By 1869, railroads were built from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners. Gold worth tens of billions of today’s US dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few, though many who participated in the California Gold Rush earned little more than they had started with. (more…)