How the Old Timers Got Under Boulders

[Terry Soloman]

 

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[magrudersGold]

Where is this?

 

[kingskid1611]

Where is this?

This is Terry's back yard......

 

[wildminer]

You know those boys are gettin' shiny stuff in and near that crick!

 

[Terry Soloman]

Where is this?

China

 

[Hoser John]

Way too labor intensive. Simply blast/dredge around the boulder,jack up with a pneumatic car jack, place rocks to retain up. Dredge/blast,repeat other side and 1/100 the work. Ez to do, quicker and lots less work. Did not see anything close/big enough to winch to? John

 

[magrudersGold]

I wonder why the Chinese went to California in the gold rush if they have gold

 

[Deft Tones]

I wonder why the Chinese went to California in the gold rush if they have gold

Probably to escape.

 

[Tuolumne]

China does alot of base metal/gold mining- lots of micron gold in Shandong area on east coast of China and lots of gold in the tibetan sino boarder lands. When I was doing research in tibet for my university translating ancient text back to english for breaks I was panning next to big dredges on the Jin Sha river in Sichuan, which means "gold dust", there was a giant bardge dredge every turn of the river. Lots of flood gold in that area, fault activity uplifting the strata and exposing the gold bearing material.

As far as I know its illegal to pan in any place I was in Tibet, sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. So its not a small miner thing in the areas I observed- but a state/prefecture level run or multi national mining org that goes in with big equipment. As Tibet is opening up with new trains, airports and roads we will see the old silk route trading routes open up and more minerals will come out of Chinas west. China does not export its gold but is hoarding it.

 

[Vance in AK]

The big hammer weighs as much as he does! Dude looks small but I wouldn't want to wrestle him!

 

[Terry Soloman]

I wonder why the Chinese went to California in the gold rush if they have gold

People from all over the world sailed to San Francisco! Think of the hype - "The nuggets are just laying on the ground, all you have to do is pick them up!"

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

People from all over the world sailed to San Francisco! Think of the hype - "The nuggets are just laying on the ground, all you have to do is pick them up!"

The first 2 years were probably easy pickings for sure.

 

[Tuolumne]

gold nuggets on the ground all over, placerville has gold under the streets too, albert at the hardware store was the first to pan it a few years back when they repaved everything. He thought the city should have bagged it and sold it as pay dirt! He showed me the gold he got from that and it was ridiculous. Gold is where you find it in our area streets....... http://fox40.com/2015/03/20/gold-found-during-placerville-main-street-upgrade/

after this big 25 year storm everyone should check their patches

Streets of Gold Rush towns once lined with gold;

This happened in the “Good Old Days,” a beautiful and lavishly prosperous time in our foothills when hard rock mining was at the top of its game, unemployment was virtually zero, and, notwithstanding ill-luck, those with the entrepreneurial spirit could still strike out on their own and make a respectable living by washing gold in the Mother Lode’s placers.

In Sonora, as with many California cities built over alluvial soil, there was a curious group of townspeople known as “pickers” who waited for cloudbursts, then rushed into the streets to gather up small gold nuggets and chispas exposed by the rain.

Hardly a storm went by without at least two or three stories told as truth of pickers doing exceedingly well. In the winter of 1897, for instance, a picker was said to have taken five sizable nuggets from Sonora’s streets and gullies, yielding approximately $280,000 based on today’s inflated precious metals market.

That same year a Sonora man plucked an eight-pound nugget out of the mud from in front of the City Hotel, and another lucky picker spotted a six-pound lump in front of the Long Tom Saloon.

So numerous are stories of pickers’ amazing finds that they would never fit in the narrow space of a newspaper article. Shall we hear more?

Back in 1857 - a banner year for pickers - a loiterer behind the Wells’ Fargo & Company’s express office in Sonora found a 14-pounder lodged in the mud, less than an inch from the surface.

Another rain storm yielded a nugget of similar size from in front of Sonora’s livery stable on Washington Street. And finally this: One wet morning in 1888, or thereabouts, a Sonora lady spotted a 2 1/2-ounce nugget on her way to church.

She dropped it in the collection plate, or so it is legended, prompting the minister to end his sermon by saying, “It is not sinful to look for nuggets on the Sabbath, provided what is found is given to the service of the Lord.”

Interestingly enough, a pickers’ work was made easier in the Good Old Days owing to several contributing factors. First, there was the pulverizing effect. A steady stream of wagon traffic through Sonora’s busy streets ground up rocks and boulders like a stamp mill.

Secondly, heavy rains turned wheel ruts into mini sluice troughs, similar to those used by miners working their claims in the diggings.

Thirdly and most importantly, Sonora’s main thoroughfare was surfaced on a regular basis with tailings from the world-famous Bonanza pocket mine.

Learned scholars have since speculated that approximately ninety percent of Sonora’s hidden treasure still remains in the ground, by the way, and a mere fraction of her vast yellow wealth came out of the Bonanza.

The now-sealed off entrance to this unparalleled gold mine is situated on a hillside behind St. James Episcopal Church, overlooking Sonora High School.

In 1879, at the height of its glory, the Bonanza’s daily production was kept a close-guarded secret, but its total activity over some 100 years of existence has since been estimated by knowledgeable persons at $3.5 million - $119 million based on present market values.

All things good eventually come to an end, it is said, and so it was that the great Bonanza eventually played out and was abandoned in November of 1898. After numerous failed attempts to once again make it profitable over the next 50 years, it was finally sold to PG&E in 1948, its gallows frame torn down in 1953, and its shafts, tunnels and crosscuts allowed to fill with water permanently.

But I digress.

Back on the streets of Sonora, townsfolk had a field day up until 1924, at which time the city’s main thoroughfares were paved over with a crude form of asphalt to accommodate horseless carriages. Result: Pickers became a dying breed soon after this.

Today, unlikely stories of streets lined with gold are vivid reminders of Sonora’s fabulous Good Old Days — a fleeting era in the Old West to return no more.

 

[arizau]

Wait until they dig up a water main or whatever and get you some.

 

[Jeff95531]

Way too labor intensive. Simply blast/dredge around the boulder,jack up with a pneumatic car jack, place rocks to retain up. Dredge/blast,repeat other side and 1/100 the work. Ez to do, quicker and lots less work. Did not see anything close/big enough to winch to? John

I like your style John.

12 Ton Air Hydraulic Bottle Jack

IDK about you, but moving a 12 ton rock is plenty big enuff for me.

 

[placertogo]

Someone needs to tell the gentleman with the chisel to grind the mushrooming off the striking surface before a piece of steel end up inside him...

 

[Reed Lukens]

I've had those days where I found a spot and started picking up nuggets plenty of times. 3½oz was my best back right after the 97 floods, picking up nuggets one after the other, with no detector needed as they were on top of bedrock, but I've had a few ounce days like that also. So it still happens for me in every flood year. It's just a matter of being the first guy in and that is where the danger's at. I'm not counting the 4oz nugget from when I was a kid. Or this 6oz.

Then I have broken my share of boulders too, sometimes by hand and others by -

 

[Jbarsk8]

Wow reed! Beautiful! Did you just hike the rivers visually looking in bedrock cracks after the water level started to drop? 10 inches of rain alone this weekend has made some certain floods in my area....

 

[Reed Lukens]

Wow reed! Beautiful! Did you just hike the rivers visually looking in bedrock cracks after the water level started to drop? 10 inches of rain alone this weekend has made some certain floods in my area....

I didn't have to look hard, a lot of areas replenish during a flood. You just need to find those areas and remember where they are because many places don't replenish at all.

 

[ARC]

HEY !

I am not that old and they found me under a rock :P