Gold Mining Techniques
The pictures linked below are from Mrs. Atkinson-Adams Intro. to U.S. History class at Logan High school.
Panning for gold meant miners scooped up some sand and pebbles from the river bed and swished the sand out of the pan leaving the heavier gold at the bottom of the pan. Miners were in cold water all day with tired backs from all the bending over to scoop up bits from the river bed.
A rocker was a wooden box about three feet long. There were screens to separate the dirt form the gold. One man would shovel dirt, another poured in the water and a third rocked the box.
A Long Tom was a bigger box with sieved and screens that was set in a stream of running water and the dirt was shoveled in. Larger rocks were removed and as the sand and dirt washed through the heavier gold particle were caught in ridges in the bottom of the box. It took several people to operate a Long Tom.
Dry Digging was when dirt was sifted though sieves to find the gold.
Hard rock mining is when veins of gold found are in rocks. A pick ax is used to break the rock apart and get the gold. The most common rock gold was found in was quartz. Later large companies dug deep tunnels into the land looking for gold
Hydraulic -After the 1850's much of the surface gold was mined. Hydraulic mining began. Large hoses were aimed at the hills and entire hillsides were washed away as men searched for the gold inside them.
Experts believe that only 10% of the gold in California has been discovered. People still mine for gold today. A common way for a miner to look for gold is to use a dredger. A dredger is a kind of a big vacuum cleaner on a raft that floats in the river and sucks up the water and dirt and traps the gold particles.