The Humor of the Gold Rush (Part I)

The gold rush days of California had been not without having their humor, and some of the stories are funny sufficient that they are nicely worth repeating. Now the rush for wealth in these days brought out each the excellent and the poor, the sincere and the deceitful. Not all pioneers have been difficult operating and truthful. Since it was (and nonetheless is) challenging to locate a deposit of gold, there was a demand for very good gold mines. A sharp trade was driven in mining claims, with a thousand dollars getting regularly paid for a piece of ground only thirty feet square, and this at a time when gold sold for only about $20 per ounce.

One claims broker, Moore Lerty, was specifically prosperous in promoting his claims. His operations had been bold, and probably for that time, original. He would stake a claim on unclaimed ground inside the vicinity of some other mines, digging it down to the layers of great-hunting dirt, and then, when no one was watching, he would load an old musket with gold-dust bought from a different miner, and shoot the ground complete of gold. It is mentioned that he were identified to punish a claim with two or 3 hundred dollars worth of gold in this way. If he did not sell the claim, he could wash the dirt, and recover the dust he had salted the claim with. He sold a claim for one thousand dollars in this way to Henry Jones, then viewed as the sharpest mining man in the old town of Volcano. Jones was incredibly cautious not to be taken, and tested the claim for a day or two ahead of getting, it is mentioned, even going into the hole at evening to get the dirt, so as to be confident that he was not imposed on. He located that all of the dirt was wealthy in nuggets, so he went ahead and purchased it.

With money in hand, Lerty figured he had incredibly pulled on over on Jones, in spite of Jones' reputation for expertise about mining properties. The fun of the matter was in the truth that at the finish, the spot proved to be incredibly wealthy, one of the finest in the camp, and Jones had the final laugh, as he later extracted quite a few thousands of dollars in gold from it. A different of Lerty's salted claims, this one identified in China gulch, also proved great, but for Lerty's mining claim sales, wealthy claims had been quite substantially the exception and not the rule. Most purchasers got tiny over the gold he salted onto his claims. With quite a few of his swindles coming to light and angry miners suitable on his heels, he fled the California gold nation ahead of the wrath of the law started to manifest itself, leaving the nation for superior. Meanwhile old Henry Jones, with a sack complete of gold nuggets was laughing all the way to the bank.

For additional tales of the life, hopes and the humor of California's Gold Rush, see California Gold Rush

Fundamental expertise on Prospecting for gold, such as how to get began, can be located at: Gold Prospecting

Chris Ralph writes on tiny scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Mackay College of Mines in Reno, and has worked for valuable metal mining organizations conducting each surface and underground operations. Right after functioning in the mining business, he has continued his interest in mining as an person prospector. His know-how web page on prospecting for gold can be viewed at the site noted above.