How much gold were the first 1849 California Gold Rush miners getting with pans?

[firebird]

I can't seem to find any specific info on how much gold were they actually finding in virgin placer deposits back then, only vague descriptions about how they found lots of flakes and nuggets just using gold pans, not even using rocker boxes or sluices. Were they getting over 1 ounce a day? And how much was gold actually worth back then, compared to today which is around $1300 an ounce?

 

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[OreCart]

I found the old dairy of my Great Uncle several times removed who was a "Forty-Niner".

In August 1853 in Grass Valley, California, he made $30 in one week until the water dried up and they had no water to run through their sluices (they being him, and his two brothers). He went on to say that he was swindled, buying 50 acres to farm at the lofty price of $2500 for 50 acres, when unbeknownst to him, land was only selling for 50 cents an acre.

 

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[63bkpkr]

OreCart and the Swindlers are still at work and seemingly multiplying like Fleas at a Circus.............63bkpkr

 

[OreCart]

OreCart and the Swindlers are still at work and seemingly multiplying like Fleas at a Circus.............63bkpkr

Yeah I hear ya.

I was just bringing up some interesting numbers my Uncle had written down when he was there as a "49'er" of sorts.

I cannot imagine him buying 50 acres of land for $2500 though a he should have seen through that. In 1930, 77 years later, the house I live in now was only worth $6500, and it had three times more land (160 acres), and a house and barn on it. I bought it for $50,000 in 2011, so $312 an acre...kind of high even for today, but it had good wood on it.

Today, people with big tracts of land are selling them because the property taxes are so high, they just cannot afford to keep them.

I got a chance to buy 115 acres now just over the property line for $300 and acre, but it is all I can do to pay my property taxes now, I am not sure I want to pay more. It would be nice to clear the wood off and farm it, but jeesh; there is only so much taxes a farmer can pay.

 

[firebird]

I cannot imagine him buying 50 acres of land for $2500 though a he should have seen through that. In 1930, 77 years later, the house I live in now was only worth $6500, and it had three times more land (160 acres), and a house and barn on it. I bought it for $50,000 in 2011, so $312 an acre...kind of high even for today, but it had good wood on it.

Always remember, you're not paying for the land or the house, you're paying for the location. Check out what housing prices here in California are these days.

 

[OreCart]

Always remember, you're not paying for the land or the house, you're paying for the location. Check out what housing prices here in California are these days.

That is very true, but then again you could not pay me enough money to live in California. (LOL)

We have our winters in Maine, and have THE highest taxes in the country, and yes, our own set of issues; but.....

 

[deserdog]

I have read in various books that some early miners made unbelievable amounts of gold per pan. You have to remember though that when an early miner cleaned out a big crevice or crack, gold had been collecting in it for thousands and thousands of years. No one had ever cleaned it out before.

 

[Asmbandits]

That is very true, but then again you could not pay me enough money to live in California. (LOL)

We have our winters in Maine, and have THE highest taxes in the country, and yes, our own set of issues; but.....

Dont feel so bad, plenty of folks can't keep up out here.

One of my mining partneres is a real modern day gold rusher who gave up the cold miserable winters in Boston not far from you to move out here for not only gold but opportunity and much more..

California is a amazing state is so many ways.

There has literally become a hate for California by lots, I bet lost that feel strong have never even been here. It's getting out of hand honestly the amount of energy and hate put out , as is hating California is the cool thing to do..

Most are clueless

 

[firebird]

I have read in various books that some early miners made unbelievable amounts of gold per pan. You have to remember though that when an early miner cleaned out a big crevice or crack, gold had been collecting in it for thousands and thousands of years. No one had ever cleaned it out before.

That's what I'm wondering. Is this what prospecting is like for us in California now, we're just digging in areas that had already been cleaned out 170 years ago and that almost all the gold we get now is just flood gold washed down recently? Are there no virgin grounds left?

 

[OreCart]

Dont feel so bad, plenty of folks can't keep up out here.

One of my mining partneres is a real modern day gold rusher who gave up the cold miserable winters in Boston not far from you to move out here for not only gold but opportunity and much more..

California is a amazing state is so many ways.

There has literally become a hate for California by lots, I bet lost that feel strong have never even been here. It's getting out of hand honestly the amount of energy and hate put out , as is hating California is the cool thing to do..

Most are clueless

No, I have been to California, almost all of the states in the United States, most of the states in Canada, and quite a few different countries around the globe. I have learned that no place has the winters like we do here, but it is still home.

I was in the hospital with a guy, and he said he moved to Southern Maine, and when I asked him why he moved south, he said he was "sick of looking at snow in June." He has a point, but it is still home.

 

[placertogo]

Good comments.

 

[deserdog]

"That's what I'm wondering. Is this what prospecting is like for us in California now, we're just digging in areas that had already been cleaned out 170 years ago and that almost all the gold we get now is just flood gold washed down recently? Are there no virgin grounds left?"

Does not have to be virgin ground to find good gold. Especially in areas that have had fires, and then big rain or snow events with lots of run off. When you have debris flows, landslides and such in gold bearing areas, it moves a lot of material into rivers and creeks.

 

[N-Lionberger]

There is plenty of virgin ground left, the easy pickings are gone but a lot remains in areas not easily mined by the old timers.

 

[Hard Prospector]

The desert is still full of gold, gave up wet placer mining several years ago for it. Isolation and lack of water has kept large scale commercial operations to a minimum over the years. Drywashing takes time to get the knack of but once I did, 2-4 grams a day not unusual........sometimes more.

 

[Mitch Dickson]

That's A lot of blind faith you got in the corporations that make sluice boxes there Goldwasher Let me tell you what really happens. The first 4 or 5 shovels it does what it is suppose to do with the little particles dancing behind the riffles. Then the black sand and the heavys pack up behinds those riffles. After that All fine gold is swept out. They know this but sell them anyway!!!! Dave McCracken and other pros know this as well and spent large sums of money developing oscillating sluices, pulse jigs and the like trying to save that lost gold!!! How bad is the problem? Well McCracken found that if he got $1000 in his box, he threw out $8000 that same day!!!!! That is a right pricy piece of equipment that looses you $240,000 a month!!!!! They finally solved it with a centrifigual concentrator that caught gold down to 300 mesh. That also allowed them to work deposits that otherwise wouldn't pay. That was back in the 80s! You seen one on the market here? Not likely to either as they don't want you mining. They won't even sell you a decent gold pan. The super sluice is the best they offer. But a batea? Try to buy one in the US. Why won't they sell you one? Because they work!! Now if you got confidence in your sluice that it doesn't loose fine gold, wonderful! The rest of you better pan your tailings! As to the oldtimers, they were using quicksilver here (Georgia) in the 1820s. 40 years before they went to California!!! California and Nevada is full of cinibar. Why are all those old cinibar mines still listed if only the Chinese were using mercury? What was the point of hunting and mining cinibar if only a few Chinese were interested in it? The old timers used it in their pans, their sluices, and their stamp mills. If you don't like mercury, that is perfectly alright. That sluice is not going to capture any fine gold where you would need it anyway

 

[Goldwasher]

So, many words... too bad they aren't accurate , factual or even relevant.

Seems like a huge waste of time.

It's a shame that crap like that ends up in these threads.

 

[N-Lionberger]

That's A lot of blind faith you got in the corporations that make sluice boxes there Goldwasher Let me tell you what really happens. The first 4 or 5 shovels it does what it is suppose to do with the little particles dancing behind the riffles. Then the black sand and the heavys pack up behinds those riffles. After that All fine gold is swept out. They know this but sell them anyway!!!! Dave McCracken and other pros know this as well and spent large sums of money developing oscillating sluices, pulse jigs and the like trying to save that lost gold!!! How bad is the problem? Well McCracken found that if he got $1000 in his box, he threw out $8000 that same day!!!!! That is a right pricy piece of equipment that looses you $240,000 a month!!!!! They finally solved it with a centrifigual concentrator that caught gold down to 300 mesh. That also allowed them to work deposits that otherwise wouldn't pay. That was back in the 80s! You seen one on the market here? Not likely to either as they don't want you mining. They won't even sell you a decent gold pan. The super sluice is the best they offer. But a batea? Try to buy one in the US. Why won't they sell you one? Because they work!! Now if you got confidence in your sluice that it doesn't loose fine gold, wonderful! The rest of you better pan your tailings! As to the oldtimers, they were using quicksilver here (Georgia) in the 1820s. 40 years before they went to California!!! California and Nevada is full of cinibar. Why are all those old cinibar mines still listed if only the Chinese were using mercury? What was the point of hunting and mining cinibar if only a few Chinese were interested in it? The old timers used it in their pans, their sluices, and their stamp mills. If you don't like mercury, that is perfectly alright. That sluice is not going to capture any fine gold where you would need it anyway

Is this the same guy as the oil and burlap? Non California people telling California people how California stuff went down.

 

[Goldwasher]

Is this the same guy as the oil and burlap? Non California people telling California people how California stuff went down.

Sort of and most likely

 

[arizau]

Nope, that was a "fish oil and burlap lady(?). She or he, whom ever, is now shown as "Banned" from the forum probably for some of the posts/arguments on the subject though. The handle was "Chlsbrns".

On the subject of the batea, it is my understanding that most used world wide are handmade....carved from wood or shaped from a drum lid or bottom. There is/was a Canadian company though that makes and sells them at a premium price not counting fees and shipping to the U.S.