Gold rush tools and methods

A variety of tools and methods were used during the Gold rushes of the 19th century. This article covers the tools and methods used during the California Gold Rush, the Fraser River Gold Rush, the Cariboo Gold Rush, and the Klondike Gold Rush.

The Gold rushes

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush was in 1849, in San Francisco. After James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, he tried to keep his find a secret, but it was hard to keep. The workers at the sawmill had close friends working at Sutter's Fort. As soon as rumors began to circle around the Fort, the first pioneers made the 40-mile trip to the sawmill. When these men returned to the Fort with samples of gold dust, everyone left.

Almost everyone went to the sawmill to dig for gold. But one person named Sam Brannan had a better idea. He bought all the mining supplies he could find, and filled up his store at Sutter's Fort with buckets, pans, clothing articles, foods, and more. Then he took a bottle full of gold flakes to the nearest town, San Francisco. There he walked up and down the streets, waving the bottle of gold over his head and shouting "Gold, gold, gold in the American River!" The next day, the town's newspaper described San Francisco as a "ghost town." Sam Brannan quickly became California's first millionaire, selling supplies to the miners as they passed by Sutter's Fort.

Fraser River Gold Rush

The Fraser River Gold Rush was in 1858, in the town of Ft. Yale. Natives were the first to get gold from the Fraser River. When news spread about the gold, millions of miners came. The Fraser River Gold Rush’s productions were fantastic, and so people decided to come to the Fraser River. Victoria's population increased from 10,000 to 25,000Fact|date=December 2007. In a short time, gold mining became a bigger business than fur trading. The basic tools used in the Fraser River Gold Rush were rocker boxes and gold pans.

Cariboo Gold Rush

The Cariboo Gold Rush was in 1862, in Barkerville. It was started in 1860 by miners who spread out from the Fraser River in British Columbia to search for the source of the river's gold. By the end of 1859 the Fraser River gold rush was declared a "bunk" and prospectors began to look elsewhere. Since the Cariboo watersheds drain into the Fraser river, it was a natural progression. The first discovery of Cariboo gold is credited to five American prospectors led by Peter Dunleavy. It was on the Little Horsefly River. Dunleavy and his men were guided by two Natives named Tomas and Matisse. At the same time other prospectors were working their way along the Quesnelle River(also in the Cariboo). Soon word spread of the immense gold wealth and each successive strike was richer and richer. Again news spread through the world and the rush was on for The Cariboo (named after the mountain caribou that inhabited some of the regions). People came from the United States, Scotland, England, Germany and China. Some people came because the California Gold Rush ended. In those days, the people would take a boat to New Westminster. The cheapest way from there to the gold fields was to take a canoe, and that was what most people did. After less than 200 miles on water and upriver the people had to walk on hard trails, for a distance of 300 and more miles. Only after rich strikes were made was a road built. The basic tools used in the Cariboo Gold Rush were long toms, rocker boxes, and gold pans and sluices. The Caiboo rush lasted until 1865. By then there was no more easy ground that a single or two miners could work cheaply. Work continued in the area pretty well continuously to 1880, but only by Companies. Barkerville, which was established as the center of the mining region remained a gold mining town until the second world war. Today Barkerville is a living ghost town museaum, In its heyday it boasted a population of over a thousand persons. The longest running Cariboo gold mine was the Lowhee. Gold was first discovered on it in 1860 or '61. It ran both continuously and intermittently for more than 90 years.

Klondike Gold Rush

The Klondike Gold Rush was in 1897, in Dawson City. There were two paths to get to Dawson City. The two paths were Chilkoot Pass and White Pass. Chilkoot was 10 miles shorter than White Pass, but more mountainous. Many people brought horses to White Pass, since they couldn’t get over Chilkoot. When the horses could not go further, they would be killed, and soon there were so many dead horses that White Pass became known as the "Dead Horse Trail". After crossing the path, the prospectors reached Lake Bennett and Lake Lindeman. The basic tools used in the Klondike Gold Rush were rocker boxes, gold pans, blowers, and sluice boxes.

Australian Gold Rush

The Australian gold rush started in 1851 by Edward Hargraves when he found gold near Summerhill Creek. The main diggings are in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Before the gold rush started a man also discovered gold in Australia but it was never told to anyone.

There were many methods for finding gold during the early gold rushes and there had to be. Some methods are still used today, such as the rocker box/ Gold cradle.

River damming

River damming required groups of men working together. The miners either stopped part of a river with a U-shaped dam, called a wing dam, or they led the whole river into a neighboring river or valley. While the first method was easier, both methods dried out the river bed to process its dirt in long toms.

Dry digging

Dry digging required sinking a shaft into gold-bearing ground, usually a hillside, with a winch installed at the top of the shaft. Once the gold-bearing layers were reached, the miners dug a horizontal tunnel. Two men were able to work this mine — one digging in the tunnel, and the other working the winch — interrupting their work occasionally to wash the dirt. Since water was important to the process of washing gold, the miners started to form water companies from 1851 onwards to secure water supply in dry digging. It was their task to build a trench or aqueduct to the diggings in order to supply the long toms with water. This is a very dangerous process.

Rocker box

Rocker boxes were used in the California Gold Rush, Fraser River Gold Rush, and the Klondike Gold Rush.

The rocker box was one of the primary tools used to separate gold from paydirt. It was usually set near the bank of a stream creek or river. The paydirt is first scooped into a tray at the top, called a sieve. The sieve stops large gravel from passing through. Water is then scooped in, and the rocker box, rocked. After that, gold is collected at the canvas apron, or at the riffles at the bottom.

Rocker boxes were usually worked in pairs. They were usually set on rockers, which enabled them to be rocked, and enabled a person to wash up to 3 cubic yards (2 m³) of gold-bearing gravel. This technique was called 'traying' or 'panning'; a continuous rocking of the box a tray to remove all sediment. Rocker boxes were usually small, measuring only 1 meter long and 30 centimetres wide, as they had to be carried around.Rocker box are easy and smaller then a long tom.

Another name for a rocker box is a cradle

maller sluice box

Smaller sluice boxes were used in the Klondike Gold Rush.

The smaller sluice box was like a rocker (sometimes called cradle), only longer and heavier. It separated gold from mud and muck. It has an upper tray, and a bottom part called a sluice. Materials are first shoveled into the upper tray. Water is then added to flush down everything. The materials slide down the upper tray along with the water, into the riffles, and the rocks gets removed in the process. After that, there is a clean-up, and the pay dirt gets removed. Next, the pay dirt is gold-panned. An optional addition to the sluice box was the 'grizzly'. It was a triangular shaped wooden object with riffles in it and, was used to stop large objects from entering sluice

Bigger sluice box

Bigger sluice boxes sometimes called "long tom" (also called 'bigger sluce box', 'bigger sluice', or 'bigger sluice') were used in the Klondike Gold Rush, the Cariboo Gold Rush, the Fraser River Gold Rush, and the California Gold Rush.

Long Tom

Long Toms were used in the Cari boo Gold Rush and the California Gold Rush.

The long tom looks like a sluice box, but bigger. Measuring 12 to 15 feet long, it was mainly made of wood, with a metal bottom, and with a ripple box and sieve at the end. It is put up on a slight incline. Six to eight men have to work a long tom to fully utilise it. One man shovels dirt and makes sure that the water is running. Another man mixes water and dirt and takes out the big stones. At the end of the day, the dirt is taken out and washed in a pan. It was a useful in the mining days, it was also expensive.

This method was popular in the California Gold Rush.