Alaskan Gold Rush Mining Techniques And Tools
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Written by: oscarplatikus
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Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 |
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The first gold rush in America began when the twelve year old son of John Reed, a resident of North Carolina, found a gold nugget in the creek on his father's property that weighed in at seventeen pounds. The rush was on because everyone knew that if there was one there should be more. Many of the farmers in the community around this same creek became involved in gold mining making it a major industry in the area.
Gold mining expanded to other areas of the country, and as news spread when a vein was located, it contributed to the expansion of the nation. Men would leave home to go out West to make their fortune, even though there was also gold to be found further East. The cold climes of Alaska were eventually weathered as more and more reports came in about the fortunes that are being made there. One has to remember that not every man or woman who went to Alaska came home wealthy. As a matter of fact, many lost their lives in the mines they so desperately wanted to extract its treasures from.
Following the same impetus for gold mining in California during 1949, Valdez, Alaska became another site along the Gold Rush trail during the Klondike Gold rush of 1898.
Steamships carried prospectors from San Francisco and Seattle during a rigorous voyage that normally took two weeks. These prospectors were greeted by a city of tents where they took on supplies and headed out to the Valdez Glacier and the Klondike Gold fields.
Others prospectors were making their way over the Chilkoot Pass on their way to Dyea and Skagway, Alaska. There were incidences where Mounties turned these people back when they got to the Canadian border.
The tools of the trade for many gold miners consisted of sluice boxes and dredges where water ran over shovels full of soil as it washed away the lighter stuff and allowed the gold to sink. As the soil was washed away, gold would begin to peek through and at last if at all miners would receive their reward for all their hard work.
Another device used to bring gold to the surface was a simple pan. This pan was used to dip into the mud in running creeks and then sloshed around while it washed the mud away and sometimes revealed the miners gold.
All of these tools are still in use today, and they are used in a lot of different locations throughout the world. You may have seen images of these types of mining techniques while watching old movies or Discovery Channels "Gold Rush Alaska."
While some might like to think they should be able to just go dig in the ground and locate a wonderful vein of gold that could simply be extracted and taken to sell, this is not the most usual method for the average miner. It is the getting down in the mud and rolling up the sleeves that makes mining for gold a glamorous activity.
My obsession with gold mining started when I was kid in Colorado. My grandparents had a cabin up in Central City, and we used to summer there. In the hills behind our cabin there were all types of abandoned gold mines I used to explore. I travel a lot now, and whenever I go anywhere I find out about gold mining history in that location. Recently on a cruise to Alaska, I found a great Skagway Gold Panning attraction for my kids. Located right in the historic Town of Skagway, the place is called the Gold Digger Mine and Dine.
Source: Alaskan Gold Rush Mining Techniques And Tools
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