Gold Mining in America

Mining Gold - Page 3

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The ditches were usually the property of companies, of which, there were at one time 400 in the State, owning a total length of 6,000 miles of canals and flumes. The largest of these, called the Eureka, in Nevada County, had 205 miles of ditches, constructed at a cost of $900,000; and their receipts at one time from the sale of water, were $6,000 per day. Unfortunately, these mining canals, though more numerous, more extensive, and bolder in design, than the aqueducts of Rome, were less durable; and most were abandoned, and allowed to go to ruin, so that scarcely a trace of their existence remains, save in the heaps of gravel from which the clay and loam were washed in search for gold.

As the placers in many districts were gradually exhausted, the demand for water, and the profits of the ditch companies decreased; and the more expensive flumes, when blown down by severe storms, carried away by floods, or destroyed by the decay of the wood, were not repaired.

Ten mile long flume, Twin Springs, Idaho, W.E. Pierce and Co.,

real estate dealers, 1898

The construction of hundreds of ditches within three or four years after the successful experiment at Coyote Hill created a fresh impulse to placer mining, and greatly modified its character. New inventions, though of the rudest description, were multiplied to facilitate the process of gathering the yellow metal. Among others was the introduction of an implement which had been previously used in Georgia, called by the short and unclassic name of " tom." This was a great improvement upon the rocker; yet it was soon superseded by a still greater, -- the sluice, which is a broad trough from 100-1000 feet long, with transverse cleats at the lower end to catch the gold. With a descent of one foot in twenty, the water rushes through it like a torrent, bearing down large stones, and tearing the lumps of clay to pieces. The miners, of whom a dozen may work at one sluice, have little to do save to throw in the dirt and take out the gold.

Occasionally, it may be necessary to throw out some stones, or to shovel the dirt along, to prevent the sluice from choking; but these attentions cost relatively very little time. The sluice is the best device heretofore used for washing gold, and is supposed to be unsurpassable. It has been used in California more extensively than elsewhere; although it has been introduced by American miners into Australia, New Zealand, British Columbia, Transylvania, and many other countries.

The sluice, though an original invention here, had been previously used in Brazil; but it was never brought to much excellence there, nor used extensively ; and no such implement was known in 1849 in the industry of gold-mining.

The shovel could not bring earth to the sluice fast enough, and the wages of a dozen workmen must be saved, if possible. So, in 1852, Edward E. Mattison, a native of Connecticut, invented the process of hydraulic mining, in which a stream of water was directed under a heavy pressure against a bank or hillside containing placer gold, and the earth was torn down by the fluid, and carried into the sluice to be washed; and thus the expense of shoveling was entirely saved.

The man with the rocker might wash one cubic yard of earth in a day; with the tom, he might average twice that quantity; with the sluice, four yards; and with the hydraulic and sluice together, fifty or even a hundred yards. The difference was immense. The force of a stream of water rushing through a two-inch pipe, under a pressure of two hundred feet perpendicular, is tremendous; and the everlasting hills themselves crumble down before it as if they were but piles of cloud blown away by a breath of wind, or dissipated by a glance of the sun.

And yet, even this terrific power has not sufficed. When the hills have been dried by months of constant heat and drought, the clay becomes so hard, that the hydraulic stream, with all its momentum, did not steadily dissolve it; and often the water ran off clearly as ever through the sluice, and consequently was wasted.

Like a sluice box, the rocker box has riffles in it to trap the gold. It was designed to be used in areas with less water than a sluice box. The

process involves pouring water out of a small cup and then rocking the

small sluice box like a cradle, thus the name rocker box or cradle.

Illustration by Henry Sandham, 1883.

The sluice could wash more dirt than the hydraulic stream furnished when the clay was hard and dry; and, to prevent this loss, the miner would often cut a tunnel into the heart of his claim, and blast the clay loose with powder, so that it would yield more readily to the action of water. Two tons of powder were been used at a single blast in some of these operations.

With the introduction of the sluice, the ditch, and the hydraulic process, the hiring of laborers began. The pan and the rocker required of every man to be his own master; but these new processes led to other modes of employment.

There was an abundance of rocker claims in 1849; but three years later, there were not enough good sluice claims to supply one-third of the miners. The erection of a long sluice, the cutting of drains (often necessary to carry off the tailings), and the purchase of water from the ditch company, required capital; and the manner of clearing up rendered it possible for the owner of a sluice to prevent his servants from stealing any considerable portion of his gold before it came to his possession. Thus, it was that the custom of hiring miners for wages became common in the placer diggings.

Since the discovery of the original home of gold, the extraction of it was carried on in a more scientific manner than placer mining.

There are other modes of obtaining gold, which almost became obsolete. The arastra, for instance, was used in the early days to pulverize the ore. It was a Mexican contrivance, rude, but effective. Winnowing, or "drywashing" was also practiced by the Mexicans and continued to be used in lower California, where the ore was found too far away from a sufficient supply of water to make any other practice possible. The wind bears away the dust and light particles of earth, and leaves the gold dust, which is heavier.

During the progress of geological surveys gold was found in many places, but nowhere in such quantities as in California. It was found in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in Vermont, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in still larger quantities, in the has been remaining Southern seaboard States, as far as Alabama.

Gold mining contains more of the gambling element than any other regular industry; and this is one of the reasons why it has always possessed such a singular fascination for many. But quartz mining is robbed essentially of this uncertain element; for the business, if properly conducted, yields more regular profits than any other mode of gathering the precious metal.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, February, 2010.

About the Article: The article first appeared in a book written by Albert S. Bolles, entitled Industrial History of the United States, Volume IV, in 1879. Published by the Henry Bill Publishing Company, Norwich, Ct. Bolles was a lecturer in Political Economy at the Boston University, editor of the Banker's Magazine, also lectured on banking and trusts at the University of the City of New York, and wrote several other books including The Financial History of the United States, The Conflict Between Labor and Capital, and Practical Banking. Note: The article is not verbatim as it has been edited for the modern reader.

Adit at the Lucky Tiger Mine, Humboldt County, Nevada.

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