Origins & Diffusion of Traditional Placer Mining in the West
Author(s): Randall Rohe
Source: Material Culture , Fall 1986, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 1986), pp. 127-166
Published by: International Society for Landscape, Place & Material Culture
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29763779
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127
Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
Origins & Diffusion
of
Traditional Placer Mining in the West
Randall Rohe
University of Wisconsin
Waukesha
After 1848, the West contributed the bulk of the gold mined in the United
States. The methods of gold mining fall into two types, placer mining and lode
mining. Customarily, the placer methods are divided into the traditional
methods, hydraulicking, and dredging. Initially, gold mining in the West con?
sisted almost entirely of placer operations. Placer mining, in fact, represented
the chief source of gold until 1873 (Gardner and Johnson, 3; Koschmann and
Bergendahl, 1).
Many studies of Western mining present a temporal progression from the
simple to the advanced (pan-rocker-tom-sluice-hydraulic-dredge) generalized
from the California experience. The degree to which the remainder of the West
followed this progression has been hardly considered. Further, only a limited
number of works consider the reasons for the invention or adoption of a new
mining method. Was necessity the mother of invention? Were mining methods
introduced only when necessitated by declining production and lower grade
deposits? How does Frederick Jackson Turner's theme of the West as a
laboratory for new ideas and techniques relate to mining methods? Some
authors feel the mining frontier made no contribution to the advancement of
the science of mining. Others characterize the West as an imitator or as an
adaptor and accelerator. In reality, what role did the West play and did that
role change notably with time? What environmental factors (physical and
cultural) influenced the spread of mining methods, and did certain areas
possessing given attributes display an affinity for the development of mining?
At the same time, were areas that lacked such attributes backwaters in the in?
troduction and adoption of improved forms of mining?
In this essay, I analyze the traditional methods of placer mining to answer
some of these questions. My analysis follows from previous studies of
hydraulicking and dredging (Rohe). I emphasize the California experience in
my analysis for several reasons. The Californian gold discovery and its subse?
quent development dominated the first decade of mining in the American
West, and brought into existence an advancing mining frontier that eventual?
ly enveloped most of the West. Estimates place the total placer yield of
California since 1848 at upwards of $2,430,000,000 (106,276,163 oz) making it
by far the leading producer of placer gold (Clark, W., 1, 5). It seems justifiable,
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Material Culture
128
therefore, to focus attention on California. At the same time, the California
rush was but one of a series that occurred between 1848 and 1880. What
transpired in California then serves as a basis for comparison with other parts
of the West.
California Beginnings
The discovery of gold in California occurred on January 24,1848. Not much
of a rush ensued until late May. By mid-summer the r* lines contained a popula?
tion of perhaps 4000; it reached eight or ten thousand by the end of the year.
Most of them came from within California, from Oregon or Mexico. News of
the gold discovery did not reach the East until late summer and Europe until
somewhat later. During the next two years, perhaps 200,000 people rushed to
California (Paul 1947, 21-27).
Most of the thousands who rushed to California in 1849-1850 were
Americans and Europeans untrained in mining. At first, Mexicans mostly
from Sonora constituted the only relatively large group in California with any
mining expertise. Later, South Americans with some familiarity with mining
arrived (Kelley 1851, 18-19, 23; Paul 1947, 48; Standart 1976, 335-336, 341;
Chaput 1981, 226-231; Perkins 1964, 31; Beilharz and Lopez 1976, xv; on Latin
American mining methods see Prieto 1973; West 1952; Fox 1940).
The latter part of 1849 brought Europeans directly from the mining districts
of Europe. Nearly simultaneously came the arrival of accomplished miners
from the older mining areas of the United States. Experienced miners from the
Southern Appalachians formed the most important group of Americans. Dur?
ing its development, the Southern Appalachian goldfields attracted miners
from Europe and Latin America and thereby acquired a knowledge of Euro?
pean mining methods. Other sections of the United States provided lesser con?
tributions. Of these, the Cornish miners from the lead region of the Upper
Mississippi Valley and elsewhere proved especially important. These ex?
perienced miners provided the necessary technical skill and implements for the
growth and development of mining. The early technological progression of
mining in California, in fact, consisted largely of the diffusion and adoption of
techniques from other parts of the world (Paul 1947, 45-48; Green 1935,
93-111, 210-228; 1937a, 1-19, 135-155; DeGroot 1875, 316; Sch?fer 1932, 44,
55-56, 213; Copeland 1898, 307, 310-312, 318-320; Young 1980,135-138; 1982,
386-387; Roberts 1972).
Panning
Popular usage divided the goldfields of California into the Northern and
Southern Mines. The Northern Mines consisted of the mining districts
tributary to the Sacramento River, while the Southern Mines included the
districts tributary to Stockton. The introduction of virtually all of the basic
forms of placer mining occurred in the Northern Mines.
During the first months of the California goldrush, a number of crude
methods served to obtain gold. Of these, panning achieved by far the most
widespread use and importance. Panning consists of separating the gold from
the gravel by washing it with water in a shallow basin-like pan or bowl (Fig. 1).
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Vol. 18(1986), No. 3
129
Fig. 1 Elementary Implements of Placer Mining. The pan (background far left), the cradle
(left front) and the batea (center middle), California, 1849 (Courtesy The Bancroft
Library).
The first panning utilized closely woven baskets of Indian manufacture.
Rosales in March 1849 recorded that many Indians of both sexes were at work
washing gold and expressed surprise at their extraordinary skill.
The division of labor they followed was this: the men dug and
gave the mud to the children, who then carried it in baskets to the
women. The women, lined up along the stream, then washed it in
grass baskets of the most perfect construction. The gold was tied in
rags, in amounts more or less equal, and they use these little parcels
to trade with just as if they were money (Beilharz and Lopez, 52).
Wooden bowls (bateas) or pans of tin or iron appeared quickly. The pan
generally was 16 to 18 inches in diameter, 2-1/4 to 4 inches deep, with sides
slanting outward at an angle of 37 to 50 degrees. The batea was a shallow
wooden bowl from 12 to 24 inches in diameter, and 2 to 4 inches deep. The in?
troduction of both the batea and pan occurred in early 1848 ("How We Get
Gold...," 599, 601; Kelley, 18-19; Bancroft 1888, 88; Guinn, 33; Perkins, 24,
176; Olmstead, 8; Phillips, 14; "The South Atlantic States in 1833...," 346;
Gaines, 33; Green 1935, 6, 1937a, 8, 1937b, 234; Russell, 9). Within months,
the pan achieved widespread use throughout the mining regions of California
(Buffum, 72; Robinson, 23; Scamehorn, 92; Street, 23; Missouri Statesman,
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130
MATERIAL CULTURE
October 26, 1849; Missouri Republican, June 22, 1949). The adoption of the
batea, however, proved to be more restricted. Characteristically, only the
Spanish used the batea. As a result, widespread use of the batea occurred only
in the Southern Mines or in those districts where the Spanish predominated
(Kenny, 198; Guinn, 33). Similarly, as mining spread through the West, the
pan, rapidly standardized in sheet iron, appeared in every mining area. The
batea, however, achieved widespread use only where the Spanish formed an ap?
preciable part of the mining population. Consequently, the greatest use of the
batea occurred in the mining districts of the Southwest. In areas of water scar?
city, Mexicans and South Americans often utilized the batea in dry washing
concentrating the gold by use of air {Alta California, August 27,1857; Taylor,
68-69; Pitt, 54-55; "How We Get Gold...," 600, 602-603). Ryan in 1849
described a group of Sonorians on the Stanislaus River practicing dry
washing:
One was shovelling up the sand into a large cloth, stretched out
upon the ground, and which, when it was tolerably well covered, he
took up by the corners, and shook until the pebbles and larger par?
ticles of stone and dirt came to the surface. These he brushed away
carefully with his hand, repeating the process of shaking and clear?
ing until the residue was sufficiently fine for the next operation
(Ryan, 13-14).
The other men deposited the residue in large bateas, then threw the contents
high into the air, catching the sand "very cleverly," blowing at it as it
descended. As this process was repeated a number of times, the sand gradually
disappeared, and at last two or three ounces of gold remained at the bottom of
the bowl.
Numerous period sources mention Mexican miners dry washing in the
Southwest (Alta California, June 18, 1863, September 20, 1863, October 16,
1863; Bancroft 1889:580; Arizona Miner, September 21, 1964; December 7,
1867; Rio Abajo Weekly Press, September 29, 1863; Rocky Mountain News,
January 6, 1864). The Picacho district (Arizona), for instance, in 1863 con?
tained "a population of three hundred, nearly all of them Sonoranians. The
gold is in fine, small particles, and the diggings are shallow. The mode of min?
ing is dry washing" (Alta California, May 23,1863). Later, came the introduc?
tion of various types of mechanical dry-washers, first hand-operated and later
powered by steam, gas, or electricity. Many of the dry washers consisted of
"bellows-type" machines. Wire screens served to remove the coarse gravel and
partly concentrate the materials. Air forced by bellows through canvas blew
away the fine material and left the gold and black sand for panning. Dry
washing achieved a notable use in the semi-arid areas of the West, especially in
New Mexico and Arizona.
Outside California, the use of the pan typically occurred simultaneously
with the discovery of gold. Characteristically, after the California rush, the
pan served mainly for prospecting and only initially in mining operations
(Begg, 317; Oregonian, June 20,1861: October 21, 1861; North West, July 25,
1861; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, September 19,1861; Pioneer and
Democrat, May 3, 1861; Oregon Statesman, February 25, 1861).
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131
Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
"Old Californians" provided one means for the introduction and diffusion of
the pan to other mining areas of the West. Veterans of the Southern Ap?
palachian goldfields, often with California experience, played a role in some
areas (Williams 1949, 4, 6, 14, 33). Mass produced items like pans were also
readily available at "jump off" and outfitting points where hopeful miners
equipped themselves for the trip west.
The advantage of panning lay in its simplicity and portability. These at?
tributes primarily accounted for its rapid spread and adoption throughout the
American goldfields. At the same time, panning proved a laboriously slow
method, unsuitable for large-scale operations.
Rocking
For larger-scale mining, the rocker or cradle provided the solution. Essen?
tially, the rocker consisted of a wooden box mounted on rockers and open at its
lower end; riffles nailed across the bottom caught the gold.
It consists of nothing more than a wooden box or hollowed log, two
sides and one end of which are closed, while the other end is left
open. At the end which is closed and called the "mouth" of the
machine, a sieve, usually made of a plate of sheet iron, or a piece of
raw hide, perforated with holes about half an inch in diameter is
rested upon the sides. A number of "bars" or "rifflers," which are
little pieces of board fr?m one to two inches in height, are nailed to
the bottom, and extend laterally across it. Of these, there are three
or four in the machine, and one at the "tail," as it is called, i.e. the
end where the dirt is washed out. This, with a pair of rockers like
those of a child's cradle, and a handle to rock it with, complete the
description of the machine, which being placed with the rockers
upon two logs, and the "mouth" elevated at a slight angle above the
tail, is ready for operation (Buffrum, 50-51).
The introduction of the rocker to California came in the spring and early
summer of 1848. (Bancroft 1888, 67; Browne and Taylor, 14-15). Like the pan,
veterans of the Southern Appalachian goldfields introduced the rocker into
California (Rothe, 206; Olmstead, 8; Gaines, 34; Green 1935, 216-217,1937a, 8,
1937b, 234; Russell 1957, 9). The rockers used in California typically were
smaller than those often used in the Southern Appalachians and contained a
box at the top to serve as a sieve.
Once introduced into an area, the adoption of the rocker spread quickly. The
Jamestown district offers an excellent example. On May 7 there were "but two
machines within two miles"; less than a week later rockers were "plentiful"
(Alta California, May 31, 1849). In mining district after mining district, the
rocker rapidly became the major method of mining. Early in the mining season
of 1848, the rocker constituted the major means of obtaining gold in parts of
the Northern Mines (Mason 1850, 428; Placer Times, April 28, 1848; Buffrum
1850, 50). The spread of the rocker to the Southern Mines came more slowly.
As late as August, 1849, Kelley in describing mining operations near Weber
Creek reported that "four-fifths of those I saw working there were doing so in?
dividually, with pans" (Kelley, 28). The summer and fall of 1849, however, saw
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Material Culture
132
the spread of the rocker into parts of the Southern Mines (Alta California, June
21, 1849; Taylor, 84; Wood, 26). By late 1849, rocking was the chief form of
mining in most of the California mining districts (Colton, 280-281; Weirzbicke,
42-43; Street, 40-41; Scamehorn, 92-93; Missouri Republican, June 22, 1849;
Missouri Statesman, October 26, 1849).
Variations and improvements of the common rocker came forth early.
Almost of the same construction as the rocker was the bullrocker. It was
larger than the rocker; the bullrocker was 2 feet wide and about 6 feet long, and
the iron sieve which covered the whole length of it was open at the lower end.
This enabled the larger rocks to drop off by themselves and the sieve did not
have to be emptied by hand as with the rocker (Lecouvreur, 216).
As early as the summer of 1849, another form of rocker, developed in the
Southern Appalachians, came into use. Known as a Burke rocker, Quicksilver
machine, Virginia Rocker, or Grizzly Bumper, this improved form of rocker
worked with mercury and saved more gold (Fig. 2). The quicksilver machine re?
quired five persons to work it. Basically, it consisted of a long cradle on stilts,
seven to nine feet long, two feet wide and two feet high, with a bottom of per?
forated cast iron plates underlaying drawers holding mercury. Water for
operating the quicksilver machine was often supplied by canvas hose. In 1849
Weirzbicke noted the recent introduction of Burke Rockers at Mormon Island;
he pointed out that it was in general use in Virginia at the time and had been
used in those mines for thirty years. Windeler's diary of the California gold
rush and an article in Harper's Magazine contain sketches of quicksilver
machines bearing a strong resemblance to sketches by a contemporary
observer of the Georgia mines (Alta California, August 31, 1849, September
20,1849; Hittell, 133; "How We Get Gold...," 609, 605; Phillips, 15; Windeier,
100).
Like most innovations, the spread of the quicksilver machine displayed the
characteristic time lag after its introduction in 1849. In 1850, the use of
quicksilver in mining achieved general use in California; and that same year
the adoption of quicksilver machines was fairly widespread; yet in the late
summer of 1850, quicksilver machines were still not widely employed on the
South Fork of the American River (Alta California, September 11,1850; Placer
Times, April 13, 1850; Marysville Herald, August 9, 1850; Scamehorn, 135).
Apparently quicksilver machines never achieved a general use in California.
Colton noted that "The machinery which can be readily taken to the mines in
Virginia, would cost a fortune in its transportation to the proper localities in
California." The Sacramento Transcript (May 9, 1850) described quicksilver
machines as heavy and expensive. What California needed, the paper claimed,
was light machines as manufactured locally (Chaput, 228).
Some Spanish mining methods also proved unsuitable for the gold deposits
of California. Rosales reported that many of his countrymen had brought
Chilian gold machines to California but had abandoned them "for the riffle
boxes and cradles of California/' He, too, tried to use such a machine and
decided afterward that it was "an act of folly to bring such contraptions" to
California. "Everyone who brought a machine here has abandoned it and
adopted the California cradle. It is a remarkably simple instrument, and pro?
duces excellent results" (Beilharz and Lopez, 54-55, 58). Borthwick (311)
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
133
1
Fig. 2 Examples of mining machines used in the Southern Appalachians in the 1830s (top)
and the quicksilver machine used in California in the late 1840s and early 1850s (bot?
tom).
presents a different picture from Rosales of Latin American adaptiveness:
"Mexicans, Chileans, and other Spanish Americans, most obstinately adhered
to their old-fashioned primitive style, although they had the example before
them of all the rest of the world continually making improvements in the
method of abstracting the gold, whereby time was saved and labour rendered
ten fold more effective."
Numerous types of gold washing machines were available in the East and at
the various outfitting points of the Midwest. Buffum said of them:
In regard to bringing machines to California for the purpose of
washing gold, I must caution the miner to be careful and judicious
in their selection. Some of the more recent inventions are valuable,
especially the "Quicksilver Gold Separator," which is constructed
to operate with quicksilver in such manner as to save the fine par?
ticles of gold which in the ordinary cradles or rockers are lost. Most
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Material Culture
134
of them had brought with them some one of the many newfangled
machines that were manufactured in the United States. They were
of all imaginable shapes and sizes, some of them appearing most ad?
mirably adapted to the churning of butter. I saw, last spring, hun?
dreds of huge, bulky machines, which had been brought round Cape
Horn. These were tried and found to fail, and have so far been in?
variably abandoned for the common rocker, which is, as I have
before said, the best machine to be used in connexion with mere
manual labour (Buffum, 99-100, 135-136).
Buffum was not alone in his beliefs and chroniclers of subsequent rushes
reiterated his statement (Brown, 38; Caughey, 47; Champness, 97; Cariboo,
44).
Following the California rush, the rocker subsequently spread to all the min?
ing areas of the West. Besides its portability, the rocker proved simple to use
and fairly easy and inexpensive to construct. Further, the rocker provided a
means to work deposits with a limited water supply. The rocker often came in?
to use almost immediately following the discovery of gold. Contemporary
newspapers, in fact, often reported rockers in general use within months of the
gold discovery (Nebraska Advertiser, December 16, 1858; Kansas City Daily
Western Journal of Commerce, January 29, 1859; Weekly Mountaineer,
August 21, 1861; Oregon Statesman, October 28, 1861; March 3, 1862;
Oregonian, September 3, 1861; October 21, 1861; Oregon Argus, August 24,
1861; November 23,1861). Their employment immediately after the discovery
of gold often was the result of factors that made superior alternatives impossi?
ble or impractical at least initially. Toms, or sluices, for instance, were more
expensive to construct arid required a constant supply of water via ditch con?
struction. Veterans of California and the Southern Appalachian goldfields
often functioned as the prime movers behind the introduction and dispersion
of the rocker through the mining West. A contemporary description of the
Fraser River rush, for example, noted that "the great majority of the
emigrants were men who had gained a thorough knowledge of mining by years
of experience in California" (Vancouver's Island and British Columbia..., 3; see
also Paul 1963, 161-172; Williams 1949, 33). Well into a mining district's
development, rockers were often employed during those parts of the year when
other methods were not practical or in those areas not suitable for more ad?
vanced techniques. Many diggings along the Snake River in Idaho, for in?
stance, proved unworkable by methods other than rocking (Mining and Scien?
tific Press, March 30, 1867; Owyhee Avalanche, September 3, 1870).
Tomming
For almost two years, the pan and rocker constituted the major methods of
mining in California (Browne, 16; Missouri Republican, June 22, 1849;
Missouri Statesman, October 26, 1849; Delano, 256; San Francisco Evening
Picayune, April 12, 1850, August 31, 1850, September 11, 1850). During this
period, operations centered on rich, easily worked, and more accessible gold
deposits. With their exhaustion, mining operations shifted to lower-grade
deposits. The shift to lower-grade deposits and the need for larger-scale opera?
tions brought about the introduction of the long torn from the Southern Ap
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
135
palachians {Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner, January 1896, 120; Engineer?
ing and Mining Journal, May 8, 1875 p. 329; Bowie, 204; Green 1935, 217,
1937a, 12,1937b, 234). Its first use was probably at Nevada City (Sacramento
Union, May 15,1856). The long torn represented an adaptation of the rocker to
larger-scale production. Essentially, the long torn consisted of a long, inclined
open-ended trough with a bottom of perforated sheet iron overlaid by a riffle
box (Fig. 3). One Cornish miner in California described the long torn as nothing
but a washing strake as used in the lead mines of Wisconsin (Rowe, 110).
Shufelt writing from Placerville in March 1850 stated:
I like the torn best of any thing that I have seen. It is a box or
trough about 8 or 9 feet long, some 18 in. wide and from 5 to 6 in.
high, with an iron sieve in one end punched with 1/2 in. holes.
Underneath there is placed a ripple or box with two ripples across it.
The torn is then placed in an oblique position, the water is brought
on by means of a hose. The dirt, stone, clay and all is then thrown in
and stirred with a shovel until the water runs clear, the gold and
finer gravel goes through the sieve and falls in the under box and
lodges above the ripples. Three men can wash all day without taking
this out as the water washes the loose gravel over and all the gold
settles to the bottom. One man will wash as fast as two can pick and
shovel it in, or as fast as three rockers or cradles (Brerton 1976,290).
Street (39-40) added:
The long torn is simply a trough or box, ten or fifteen feet long,
about twenty inches wide and six inches deep, with a riffle at one
end, while the other is so fixed as to receive a current of water which
passes rapidly through the torn, into which the dirt is thrown, while
two or three men stand by with shovels, and keep the dirt in motion
until it passes through the riddle at the lower end, under which a
box, about five feet long, with ripples or cleats across the bottom is
placed to receive the gold.
The flow of water through the torn did the work that rocking did with the
cradle but it had to be constant. This required a connection by either pipe, hose
or flume and the development of ditches for water supply. The lower end of the
torn usually had a catch blanket of sheepskin, corduroy or carpeting to save
fine gold.
The introduction of the long torn possibly occurred as early as May 1849
(Bancroft 1888, 410; Bowie, 204; Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner, January
1896: 120; "How We Get The Gold...," 605; Jenkins, 73; Hittell, 22; Raymer,
205; Paul 1947, 64). During 1850, mention of the introduction of the long torn
became increasingly common (Scamehorn, 144, 156; The Marysville Herald,
August 9,1850; Placer Times, May 17,1850; Alta California, August 15,1850;
Sacramento Transcript, April 26, 1850; Bancroft 1888, 410; Street, 39-40;
Perkins, 215). In 1850 tomming already constituted one of the most popular
methods of mining in the Sonora region (Perkins, 176-177; Kenny, 396). For
1850, however, the rocker remained the chief method {Marysville Herald,
August 9, 1850; Sacramento Transcript, April 26, 1850, October 19, 1850;
Windeier, 58). As in the spread of most innovations, an inevitable delay occur?
red between the initial introduction of the long torn and its widespread adop
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Material Culture
136
Fig. 3 Long torn, Auburn, California, early 1850s. To the side are the pans which were used
in the final recovery of the gold (Courtesy Wells Fargo Bank History Room).
tion. In many districts, the long torn remained unknown until 1850 or 1851.
One primary factor accounted for the time lag between the introduction of the
long torn and its widespread adoption. The long torn required a constant supp?
ly of water. Its introduction, therefore, awaited the development of a water
supply system {Alta California, September 22,1851, February 8,1851; Woods,
186; Browne, 18-19). In late 1851, the torn gained widespread and general use
throughout most of the California gold region. As late as November of that
year, however, the Aha California claimed that in the extreme southern por?
tion of the Southern Mines, "very few have ever used long toms." Indeed, the
latter part of 1851 marked the initial introduction of the long torn into
Mariposa County, where the rocker continued as the primary mining method
as late as 1854 (Aha California, March 6,1852, November 18, 1851, April 30,
1854). In most California mining areas, however, neither the rocker nor the pan
still constituted important mining methods. After 1852, only the Chinese used
the rocker to any degree. Louise Clapp wrote in 1852 that she seldom saw
rockers in use although hundreds laid "ownerless along the banks of the river"
(Clapp, 136). The pan experienced a similar decline in use. One authority stated
in 1853 that as far as he knew not a single white man still used the pan in min?
ing (Kenny, 394; "How We Get The Gold...," 605). Sometimes where gold oc?
curred in a very fine state, miners resorted to the double long torn. Unlike the
regular long torn, it contained two sieves, six or eight inches apart, with a finer
sieve below the first and the riffle box contained three or four divisions instead
of two (Lecouvreur, 216). Apparently several other variations of the long torn
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137
Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
existed including the Victoria, Jenny Lind (Broad Tom) and Oregon Tom
("Placer and Hydraulic Mining," 14-15; California State Mining Bureau 1896,
176-78).
Outside California, one encounters only infrequent mention of the use of
long toms. From available sources, it seems the long torn, although introduced
early into some areas of the West by former Californian and Southern Ap?
palachian miners, achieved only a limited and short-lived use (Homsher, 89,
141; Green Bay Advocate, April 7, 1859; Williams 1941, 36). Possibly, the
development of the sluice and sluice fork accounts for the sporadic use of the
torn outside California. The beginning of mining in the rest of the West
postdated the widespread use of the sluice in California. The torn was
developed to wash very coarse deposits; its upper deck could hold a large
amount of gravel, yet be quickly cleared with a scoop shovel. The sluice proved
not only easier to construct but allowed the working of greater amounts of
gravel; the sluice fork enabled the larger rocks to be removed easily and quick?
ly. The result-long toms were hardly employed after the introduction of the
sluice.
Sluicing
Mining operations with the long torn eventually led to the development of
the sluice (Fig. 4). Possibly the sluice developed from the trough that con?
ducted water to the long torn. Or, perhaps the sluice developed out of the series
of riffle boxes miners placed at the end of the long torn to save the finer par?
ticles of gold. Two basic forms of the sluice existed. The board (surface) sluice
consisted of a long, narrow, open-ended and inclined wooden trough with a
riffle-lined bottom. The wooden sluice consisted of a line of long, narrow, open
troughs with its basic dimensions, 12 feet long by 1 to 2 feet wide and 10 in?
ches high. Both ends of the sluice were open, with one end a little wider to per?
mit the addition of more sections. At times, sluices reached lengths of hun?
dreds of feet. The ground (bedrock) sluice was an inclined trench cut in gravel
or bedrock with the natural irregularities of its bottom acting as riffles. Usual?
ly a torn or wooden sluice at the end of the ground sluice caught most of the
gold. Ground sluicing came into use as early as the summer of 1850 at Nevada
City. In 1851-52, it achieved general use in the vicinity of that town. Like
board sluicing, it spread throughout the California mining districts and later
gained widespread use in the remainder of the mining West (Davis, 22; Browne
1868, 117-118).
At a later date, a form of ground sluicing known as booming came into
vogue. Like ground sluicing, booming represents a mining technique utilized
for centuries in Europe, especially Spain and later practiced in Latin America.
Booming consisted of accumulating a supply of water in a reservoir and sud?
denly releasing it to erode and transport the gravel through sluices. Apparent?
ly, the first booming occurred in California and took place in Trinity County
and it achieved its greatest use in that state, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. It
found employment, too, in Oregon, and according to contemporary
newspapers, it had quite a development in the Black Hills (Engineering and
Mining Journal, May 27,1893, p. 494; Mining Review, January 1873, pp. 9, 31,
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138
Material Culture
Fig. 4 Sluicing near Lewistown, Montana, 1888 (Courtesy: Historical Society of Montana).
August 1873, p. 64; Crane, 359; California State Mining Bureau 1890, 22,
26-27; Black Hills Journal, April 6, 1878, September 7, 1878, November 16,
1878; Black Hills Central, January 12, 1879).
Some controversy exists on the origins and introduction of the sluice. The
sluice represented a mining method long employed in both Europe and Latin
America. Possibly, miners from Europe or Latin America introduced the sluice
into California (Bancroft 1888, 411). At the same time, some evidence exists
for the reinvention of the sluice in California. According to Paul, experiments
with sluices took place as early as the winter of 1849-1850 and Browne con?
sidered the sluice, though previously invented elsewhere, an original invention
in California (Paul 1947, 63; Browne 1867, 118-119). A final possibility holds
that Southern Appalachian miners introduced the sluice in the latter part of
1849 or early part of 1850 (Browne 1867,19; Browne 1868,118-119; Marysville
Herald, April 26, 1851; Fairchild 1934, 27-28; on use in Appalachians see
Bryan 1955, 398; Green 1935, 261). Historians generally accept the spring of
1850 as the date of introduction and the place as Nevada City. Former
Southern Appalachian miners usually receive credit for its introduction (Ban?
croft 1888, 411; May 1970, 37; Sacramento Union, May 15,1856; some writers
give 1851; Jenkins, 73; Lakes, 129; Hittel, 22).
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
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Within two or three years, the sluice replaced the long torn as the primary
form of mining. As early as 1850, Street noted that "in many places the plan of
sluice washing is adopted" (Street, 39). In parts of the Northern Mines, par?
ticularly, the sluice rapidly assumed an important role in mining operations.
Its adoption proceeded especially quickly in the Nevada City district. As early
as the summer of 1850, the sluice achieved a notable use, and within a year, the
Nevada Journal noted that the torn "is about to be laid aside for the sluice
boxes" and the Marysville Herald reported the method of sluice washing
almost universally adopted in the vicinity of Nevada City (Ton, 111; Nevada
Journal, April 19, 1851; Marysville Herald, April 26, 1851). Browne stated
that by 1851 and 1852 the use of the sluice proper was well understood and had
in great measures superseded other methods in Nevada County (Browne 1867,
118). During the summer of 1851, the sluice achieved widespread employment
in a number of mining districts (Marysville Herald, May 31, 1851). In most
districts, however, the introduction of the sluice did not occur until late 1850
or 1851; and it did not come into anything like general use until the summer of
1851 or later (Browne 1867, 19; Sacramento Transcript, May 2, 1851; Alta
California, July 9, 1852; Morrell, 99). The sluice did not immediately supplant
the torn because the early ditches did not provide sufficient water for sluicing.
The high water costs during the early 1850's probably formed an auxiliary fac?
tor. Those districts in which the sluice attained an early and widespread use
possessed the best water supply facilities. The Southern Mines proved
especially deficient in such facilities and correspondingly, use of the sluice did
not spread here until the late summer and fall of 1851 (Alta California,
November 18,1851, December 22,1851). In some parts of the Southern Mines,
in fact, the sluice remained unknown as late as the spring of 1852 (Alta Califor?
nia, March 25, 1852).
Sluicing gained a widespread, often early, use in the mining districts of the
West. In fact, it was employed as a standard initial production process
wherever practical. Typically, the introduction of the sluice occurred within a
year of the gold discovery and rapidly became the major means of obtaining
gold. Colorado offers a good illustration. The introduction of the sluice took
place in 1858 (Kansas City Daily Western Journal of Commerce, January 14,
1859). In late May a correspondent of the Nebraska Advertiser (June 16,1859)
wrote that only one group of miners had sluices, everyone else used pans. Use
of the sluice increased rapidly, however, once water became available through
ditch construction. In June, the Gregory district alone contained some twenty
sluices and by July there were a hundred sluices within just a short distance of
Gregory Point and sluicing represented the principal mining method employed
in the district (Richardson, 182; Hollister, 68). By the end of that summer,
sluicing spread to many of the mining districts and already represented the
major form of mining in some (Missouri Republican, August 11, 1859; Daily
Missouri Democrat, August 20, 1859; Smith, 73, 81). During the mining
seasons of 1860-1861, sluicing continued spreading throughout the mining
districts of Colorado. In the summer of that year, in fact, it spread to practical?
ly every one of the major mining districts (Nebraska City News, July 21,1860,
August 25, 1860, July 13, 1861). The spread of sluicing in Colorado was
especially rapid considering that the bulk of the mining population came from
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140
Material Culture
the Midwest and knew little about mining. Apparently, they learned rapidly
from the handful of experienced Southern Appalachian miners and "Old
Californians" present (Williams 1949, 41-42). The rest of the mining West mir?
rored the Colorado experience. Chisholm's journal of the Sweetwater Mines of
Wyoming in 1868, for example, states that "the miners here are a quiet in?
dustrious class of men, mostly old Californians-very intelligent, and affording
more practical information on mining matters than one can derive from mere
book students and theorists" (Homsher, 89). Contemporary sources indicate
an early and often rapid adoption of the sluice in the mining districts of the
West (Oregon Argus, September 7, 1861, North West, July 25, 1861, October
26, 1861; Oregon Statesman, June 2, 1862; San Francisco Bulletin, February
28, 1861; Montana Post, September 3, 1864; Pioneer and Democrat, April 26,
1861; Angelo 1865, 26; Foster, 40, Cariboo, 1862, 25, 53).
River Mining
Another form of mining, river turning, that used the methods just discuss?
ed, came into vogue in California during the 1850s. River turning or mining
consisted of the use of dams, ditches, and flumes to divert streams from their
natural beds. The miners then worked the drained streambeds with pans,
rockers, long toms, or sluices. While not peculiar to California, river mining
probably reachad its greatest development there. The responsibility for in?
troducing river mining into California remains uncertain. River mining,
however, represents a technique known and employed for centuries in Europe,
especially Spain, and later in Latin America. Conceivably, therefore, Latin
Americans provided a reasonable means for its spread to California. The
likelihood exists, too, that river mining represents a technique discovered
anew in California.
It appears that the American River was the place of introduction and the
center for the early development of river mining (Paul 1947, 126). As early as
1848, an unsuccessful attempt to work the bed of the American River at Mor?
mon Island took place (Alta California, September 11, 1850). The next year,
however, really marked the beginning of river mining in California. In 1849,
numerous companies formed to engage in river mining in both the Northern
and Southern Mines (Tyson, 6; Taylor, 84; Kip, 30; Alta California, March 29,
1849, June 21, 1849, August 2, 1849, August 30, 1849, October 1, 1849,
December 31, 1849; Placer Times, May 26, 1849, July 20, 1849; Woods, 64,
124; Buffum, 78). Small scale efforts characterized the river mining operations
of 1849. In 1850, however, they grew to large-scale undertakings. At the same
time, the number of river mining projects multiplied.
During 1850, river mining diffused through most of the mining districts
(Alta California, April 2, 1850, August 11, 1850, May 1, 1850, September 2,
1850; Marysville Herald, August 9, 1850). By 1850 river mining constituted
the principal mining technique employed on the North, Middle and South
Forks of the American River (Alta California, August 1, 1850). River mining
also spread quickly within the Southern Mines. Companies formed for river
mining almost wholly monopolized the Tuolumne River (Alta California,
August 2,1850, May 24,1850). In 1851, river mining even spread as far as the
Trinity River in northwestern California (Cox, 43-44, 213). The number of river
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
141
mining enterprises continued to increase; the Alta California (October 4, 1852)
noted that there were at least four damming and fluming companies engaged
on the various streams during 1852 where there was one the previous year.
The years 1852,1853, and 1854 saw a very large amount of river mining and
it accounted for most of the gold yield during these years (California State
Mining Bureau 1890, 262; Sacramento Union, June 18, 1853; Weekly Butte
Record, May 13,1854). Yet river diversion apparently reached its peak in 1855
and 1856 (Paul 1947, 129). River mining became so important in some parts of
California that it retarded the development of other forms of mining. Accor?
ding to the Sacramento Union (July 2, 1856):
Butte county is one or two years behind many of the counties of the
State (in) most kinds of mining. Many of the modern improvements
as ground sluicing and some of the late inventions in quicksilver
machines and riffle boxes, have been very little used here. The
reason that we have made less progress in the science of mining, and
in the development of our deep and placer diggings, is that river
mining has absorbed our attention.
After 1856 river mining declined rapidly and the majority of the claims passed
to the Chinese. These Chinese attempts at river mining dispel the often held
image that all Chinese mining was primitive and small scale.
Some of their undertakings are extensive and display patience, in?
dustry and ingenuity, and a careful imitation of the modes of work?
ing practised by their American neighbors. At the forks of the
American a company of 250 Chinamen, during last summer, con?
structed a flume 3,800 feet long and 16 feet wide, propelling 25
waterwheels for pumping out the water from the claims they were
working, and 5 others for raising the water used in washing the
earth (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, December 31, 1858).
It seems likely that these Chinese miners did not simply copy their American
counterparts. The pumps used to drain river claims were invariably referred to
as Chinese pumps, indicating a Chinese origin. Such pumps and others of a
similar nature were widely used in China and other parts of Asia. These pumps
consisted of a large wheel around which passed a chain-bucket system, that
lifted the water and dumped it into an adjacent sluice. An undershot water
wheel, driven by the current of the river, powered the pump (Fig. 5). Borthwick
described one in California:
They were on the principle of a chain pump, the chain being formed
of pieces of wood about six inches long, hingeing on each other, with
cross-pieces in the middle for buckets, having about six square in?
ches of surface. The hinges fitted exactly to the spokes of a small
wheel, which was turned by a Chinaman at each side of it working a
miniature treadmill of four spokes on the same axle (Borthwick,
265-266).
Steam power was utilized early. By the late 1850s steam pumps were quite
common along the Feather River near Oroville (San Francisco Evening
Bulletin, June 26, 1857). In the early river mining operations what was called a
"jack" was used for moving large rocks and boulders from the riverbed. It was
a long pole with a pulley at its top; held in an almost upright position by two or
more cables or ropes (Windeier, 139, 218).
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Material Culture
142
Fig. 5 River mining about 1856 at Grand Mountain Bar, California. Photo shows "Chinese
pumps" and the nature of river mining settlements (Courtesy: George Eastman
House).
"\
River mining required a heavy capital investment-an investment that was
largely incurred year in and year out because the operations occurred in the
riverbeds. There was no way of testing the richness of the bed before mining
began and, of course, there was no way of ensuring that the weather would
cooperate. Period newspapers, diaries, and mining journals frequently note the
early arrival of the rains and the complete destruction of river mining opera?
tions. The San Francico Evening Bulletin (January 4, 1858) adroitly pointed
out that river mining compared to other forms of mining had "more uncertain?
ty attached to it, and is regarded as a sort of gambling/' The failure of a great
many attempts at river mining led many white miners to abandon it.
As early as 1859, the Chinese already possessed a large part of the American
River. By the close of 1863, they controlled most of the river claims in the
State. The main exceptions occurred in the Northwest Mines. There river min?
ing on the Trinity, Scott, Klamath, and Salmon by whites continued as late as
1885. Even as late as 1889, the Director of the Mint noted a great deal of river
mining on the Klamath River and reported "more of this class of work going
on in the extreme northwestern counties than elsewhere in the State." Here,
too, however, the Chinese acquired more and more of a monopoly in river min?
ing. In 1890, the State Mineralogist reported several thousand Chinese work?
ed river claims in the Northwestern Mines and held many of the claims along
the rivers (Paul 1947, 130; Engineering and Mining Journal, September 12,
1885, p. 184; Leech, 141; California State Mining Bureau 1890, 31).
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
143
Scattered river mining operations by other than the Chinese continued
sporadically through the 1890s. Expensive, large-scale undertakings
characterized these later river mining projects (Fig. 6). The operations of the
Golden Feather Channel Company in 1893, for instance, included ten miles of
roads, three separate camps for up to 300 miners, workshops and a canal forty
feet wide and 6,000 feet long (California State Mining Bureau 1890, 29, 31,
159-161; 1893, 440-41; Engineering and Mining Journal, December 7, 1895, p.
543; California Miners Association 1899, 290). Even after the turn of the cen?
tury, occasional attempts at river mining took place (Engineering and Mining
Journal, December 1, 1900, p. 649; September 12, 1903, p. 404; Mining and
Scientific Press, September 6, 1902, p. 134; June 17, 1905, p. 399).
As with most forms of mining, the techniques of river mining changed with
time. At first, wing dams, extending some distance into the stream proved suf?
ficient to drain a portion of the riverbed. Wing dams usually consisted of
obstructions of stone and brush packed with soil, that extended some distance
into the stream, and downstream. Sometimes, however, the small coffee or pot
dams used to drain just a small section of river consisted of sandbags (bags of
white cotton drill filled with sand).
Fig. 6 Close-up view of the Golden Feather Mining Claim, Feather River, Butte County,
California about 1880 (Courtesy: The Bancroft Library).
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144
Material Culture
Later, canals and flumes made possible the draining of the whole streambed.
For a time, a fairly large number of river mining operations used canals. Time,
however, proved the greater effectiveness and cheapness of flumes. As early as
1851, fluming became the preferred form of river mining in some districts
(Marysville Herald, March 20, 1851; Alta California, December 16, 1851). The
flumes used in river mining were 18 to 40 feet wide and 6 feet high. By 1852,
fluming probably constituted the major means of river mining in California
(Paul 1947, 128). Some contractors even specialized in the building of flumes
for river mining (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, June 17,1857). River mining
by wingdams, however, continued to be used where the volume of water was
too great for fluming. As late as the 1890s, it was the only method of river min?
ing employed on the Klamath. On the Feather, Yuba, and American rivers,
however, it was seldom used any more except by a few Chinese companies
(California State Mining Bureau 1890, 266).
A rather unusual form of river mining developed to work portions of some
streams that proved unworkable by fluming. Tunnels driven through bedrock
and across the bends (horseshoes) of streams served to drain the riverbeds.
This form of river mining probably originated on the American River near Col
oma in 1850 (Alta California, July 23, 1850, September 11, 1850). Its first use
in the Southern Mines occurred as early as 1853 on the Stanislaus River (Alta
California, March 22, 1853). Apparently, however, few similar operations took
place until well after its introduction near Coloma (Daily Herald [Marysville],
August 25, 1853). The lack of such projects perhaps is best indicated by
descriptions in the 1880s of tunnels as a new method for diverting rivers from
their beds (Burchard 1881, 329; 1885, 64). Presumably, the expense of tunnel?
ing retarded the adoption of this form of river mining. Additionally, its prac?
ticability was limited to only certain portions of some streams. Perhaps, too,
the early attempts proved financially unsuccessful and little incentive existed
for further undertakings. Throughout the nineteenth century available
evidence indicates only occasional attempts at river mining by tunnels in
California (California State Mining Bureau 1888, 475; 1890, 32; Engineering
and Mining Journal, November 19, 1887, p. 381; June 7, 1890, p. 646. For
twentieth century attempts see Mining and Scientific Press, October 21,1905,
pp. 281-282; February 24,1906, p. 131). The most impressive attempts at river
mining by tunnels in California occurred in the 1880s. The Big Bend Tunnel
represented the most important of these, both in capital outlay and area
developed for mining. Construction of the tunnel took four years. The com?
pleted tunnel drained some thirteen miles of riverbed on the North Fork of the
Feather River. Over 12,000 feet long, 16 feet wide and 13 feet high, the tunnel
cost nearly one million dollars (Burchard 1885, 77; California State Mining
Bureau 1886, 25-27, 1890, 30-31).
Almost simultaneous with the construction of the Big Bend Tunnel, similar
operations began in other parts of the West. The most notable of these
transpired in the Black Hills. As early as December 1878, the Black Hills Cen?
tral (December 15: 1878) described operations in progress near Rockford to
drain the Little Rapid River by means of a tunnel. According to contemporary
newspapers, the next several years saw a proliferation of such projects in the
Black Hills (Black Hills Daily Times, June 26, 1879; July 29, 1879; May 27,
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
145
1880; July 20,1880; Black Hills Journal, February 16,1878; July 26,1879; Oc?
tober 4, 1879; November 15, 1879; November 22, 1879; June 12, 1880;
November 20, 1880; December 11, 1880; February 19, 1881; Black Hills Cen?
tral, March 2,1879). In the remainder of the West, a few scattered attempts at
river mining by tunnels occurred until after the turn of the century (Hodges,
25; Engineering and Mining Journal, December 10, 1903, p. 906; Mining and
Scientific Press, March 11, 1905, p. 158; May 27, 1905, p. 343; Raymod 1870,
218).
Sporadic river mining operations occurred at various times throughout the
mining West {Morning Oregonian, August 7, 1862; June 13, 1863; Oregon
Statesman, October 28, 1861; Oregon Argus, June 28, 1862; Oregon Sentinel,
June 23, 1860; Idaho Statesman, November 5, 1864; New North-West,
December 17, 1869; Boise News, October 20, 1863; November 10, 1863; San
Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, September 18, 1861; Engineering and Min?
ing Journal, May 27, 1893, p. 494). These operations, however, seldom ap?
proached the scale and never achieved the widespread adoption that
characterized river mining in California. Only in Colorado did the development
of river mining even faintly resemble that of California. In the period
1859-1863, numerous attempts, all of a small scale, at river mining occurred in
Colorado. The greatest number of river mining operations took place in 1859.
That year, river mining diverted portions of Boulder Creek, South Boulder
Creek, Four Mile Creek, South Clear Creek, Platte River, Fall River, Lefthand
Creek, and Blue River (Rocky Mountain News, July 9, 1859; July 23, 1859;
August 27, 1859; September 10, 1859; October 6, 1859; October 20, 1859; Oc?
tober 27, 1859; Daily Missouri Democrat, August 20, 1859; Villard, 1860:66;
Bancroft, 1890:397). A few additional river mining operations took place in
Colorado between 1860-1863 (Rocky Mountain News, June 13, 1860; October
16, 1860; November 14, 1860; May 15, 1861; December 7,1861; May 28,1863;
Hollister, 1867:311).
The lack of widespread adoption of river mining through most of the West
resulted primarily from the absence of requisite conditions outside California.
The characteristics of the climate of the California goldfields strongly affected
the widespread development of river mining there and its relatively limited
employment elsewhere. The distinct summer drought resulted in a period of
low water that enabled the working of the streambeds. A secondary factor was
the richness of the California gold deposits. In Californa, the possibility of a
good return from river mining existed. Elsewhere in the West, river mining
faced considerably less favorable odds. Finally, California contained large
numbers of Latin Americans with a heritage of river mining. In the remainder
of the West, Latin Americans rarely formed an appreciable part of the mining
population.
Within California, the Southern Mines typically lagged behind the Northern
Mines in the adoption of new methods. Several factors apparently contributed
to the seeming backwardness of the Southern Mines. Geology, climate, vegeta?
tion, and the presence of Georgia miners with skills developed in another
"wet" placer region helps explain the "inventive fertility" of the Northern
Mines. In the Northern Mines, higher labor costs also acted as a stimulus to
technological innovation. In contrast, the large Latin American minority of
the Southern Mines acted to depress wages. The Southern Mines "with their
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Material Culture
146
large foreign element and their smaller total population, found themselves at a
disadvantage when they had to call upon their people for something more than
simple labor and elementary mining techniques" (May 1970, 25-26). Apparent?
ly, the Nevada City District in the Northern Mines played a significant role in
the origin and introduction of mining methods. Among others, the introduc?
tion of the long torn and sluice and the invention of hydraulic mining all occur?
red here (Sacramento Union, May 15, 1856).
Like the Southern Mines, those of northwestern California proved a
backwater in the spread and adoption of mining methods. Largely the result of
its ruggedness and remoteness as well as the Indian threat, the mines of nor?
thwestern California experienced a slow development. The rocker, for example,
was still employed on the Klamath River at the end of 1856, half a dozen years
after the long torn and sluice replaced it elsewhere in the state. Paul
characterized the region as a "retarded mining frontier occupied by a sparse
population of men of little wealth and inferior initiative." A region "rich
enough to furnish a living with primitive modes of mining, but not rich enough
to attract to it men of substantial capital or outstanding ability" (Paul 1947,
96-98). The miners were able to realize good wages without recourse to more
advanced methods. There was no incentive to change their way of mining.
Drifting
At first, with placer operations restricted mainly to shallow, low-lying gold
deposits, the previously described methods constituted the principal forms of
mining. Thereafter, coincident with the discovery of the deep gravels, came the
introduction of another form of mining. The term deep or Tertiary gravels
refers to extensive gold bearing gravels laid down by stream approximately 50
million years ago, and subsequently covered by as much as 1500 feet of
younger gravels and volcanic material. Drifting provided the first means of
working these deep gravels. Essentially, drifting consisted of the excavation
of auriferious gravel by means of shafts, tunnels, galleries, gangways, and ex?
traction of the gold by panning, rocking, tomming, or sluicing. Drifting
originated from the practice of "coyoting," following pay streaks under the
riverbank by means of rude excavations often supported by boulders. The
"coyoting" of recent gravels began perhaps as early as 1849 (Kip 1850, 30, 45).
During 1850, its use spread to the deep gravels. That year its introduction oc?
curred almost simultaneously at several different locations (Paul 1947, 174;
Alta California, July 9, 1852; California Miners Association, 1899,264-266;
California State Mining Bureau, 1893,265: Bancroft, 1888,141; Windeier,
1969,116-117). Several writers, however, claim drifting originated in 1851 at
Brown's Bar on the Middle Fork of the American River. (Mining and Scientific
Press, July 28, 1906, p. 115; Jenkins, 1906,75). Evidence seems strongest for
its introduction at Nevada City in 1850. Apparently the Cornish and perhaps
Latin Americans, too, introduced drifting into California (Paul 1947,147; Ban?
croft 1888, 88, 141; Borthwick, 113).
Small scale and primitive characterized the first attempts at drifting.
Descriptions of the Coyote Diggings at Nevada City in 1850 provides an ex?
cellent example of these early drifting operations:
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
The side of this hill is literally covered with holes and piles of earth.
The miners sink perpendicular shafts down to the bedrock. From
each shaft are dug a number of drifts nearly in a horizontal line of
from six to twenty-eight feet in length. The perpendicular shafts are
from ten to thirty-five feet in depth...his movements are designated
coyoting: large lifts are reported, and very many are engaged in this
novel process of mining (Alta California, August 1, 1850, July 20,
1850).
A correspondent of the Green Bay Advocate (September 19, 1850) claimed
that this new method was most extensively employed in the Nevada City
district. Drifting grew rapidly in this area. By October 1850, it already
represented the most common mining method used in the district (Marysville
Herald October 29, 1850).
From crude beginnings like that described at Nevada City, drifting evolved
into a distinct branch of mining. The first extensive drifting in the Northern
Mines occurred in 1852 at Forest Hill (Bancroft 1888, 414; Lakes, 129). During
1852-1853, drift mining spread to almost all the suitable parts of the Sierra
Foothills and northwest California (Alta California, March 13, 1851, May 13,
1851; Patterson, 39, 44; Alta California, January 1,1852, March 25,1852, May
17, 1852, June 7, 1852, January 22, 1853; California State Mining Bureau
1882, 173; 1888,741). Drifting on a large scale commenced in the Southern
Mines in early 1853 (Alta California, April 23,1853). By 1854, it was already in
general use in the Sonora district. (Alta California, April 30, 1854). That same
year, the Sacramento Daily Union (October 23, 1854) characterized drifting as
one of "the most important and productive of any branch of mining in the
State."
As drift mining spread throughout the California mines, the size of opera?
tions grew. In early 1852, most tunnels measured less than 200 feet long (Paul
1947, 148). In the next few years, however, the tunnels increased greatly in
size (Marysville Herald, October 4, 1855). Tunnels 1,000 to 2,000 feet long
became common and some approached 3,000 feet (Paul 1947, 148-149). In
1861, one writer claimed that a single district of three of four square miles
often contained as many as fifty tunnels, each from 300 to 2,000 feet long.
(Mining and Scientific Press, August 16, 1871). Drifting continued to increase
until the 1870s when it probably reached its peak (Julihn and Horton, 34; Ray?
mond 1873, 52). Some of the California drift mines eventually reached lengths
of over two miles and extended over a mile underground (California Miners
Association 1899, 331).
Through the years the techniques of drifting changed notably. In the late
1850s, a correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin (June 20, 1857)
toured a typical drift mine near Oroville. The only illumination was provided
by candles, every man had his own and others were placed every ten or fifteen
feet along the passageways. After descending the shaft and walking about for?
ty feet along a drift he encountered the following scene:
Here three men were at work with their picks, digging out paydirt...
As excavating progresses, at about every four feet, a wooden prop is
placed to sustain the weight overhead. Another man moved about
here with a wheelbarrow on which is placed the bucket used in
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147
Material Culture
148
hoisting. As fast as the dirt is dug by the drifters, he shovels it into
the bucket and wheels it to the shaft. Another man is also employed
with him, who picks out the large stones and throws them to one
side or piles them regularly into walls and supports for the roof...
When distance made wheeling in the stooping position too laborious, a new
shaft sunk from the surface and the old shaft became an air hole or ventilator.
The roofs of the tunnels were generally supported "by stout timbers" and
"pillars left for the purpose, and by building up regular walls "with large rocks
and boulders (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, January 4, 1858). The shafts,
too, were timbered or in some cases "line from top to bottom with two inch
plank" (Sacramento Union, July 30, 1859).
Initially, a common windlass operated by one or two men, sometimes using
horse power, served to bring the buckets of auriferous gravel to the surface.
Occasionally the gravel was raised to the surface with a derrick and windlass
powered by a current wheel or overshot waterwheel in the same manner as
those used in river mining (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, June 20, 1857;
Stumpf, 27). A mine at Moore's Flat even had an ingenious arrangement that
used a tub of water for power (Alta California, December 26,1857). Quite early,
however, steam pumps were employed for raising dirt and soon became stan?
dard. A correspondent of the Sacramento Union (July 30, 1859) described one
such drift mine near Downieville:
It (the shaft) is divided into three equal apartments, one of which is
occupied by the pump, the others by two cages, which move up and
down the shaft on slides fastened to the sides. These cages are so ar?
ranged that the loaded cars are hoisted from the bottom, and while
one is ascending another is descending; when the cage arrives at the
surface...the car runs off the cage on to the track, the dirt is then
dumped, and an empty car, which is always in readiness, is put in
the cage, and lowered.
The various structures at this mine included an engine house, sawmill,
carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, and dump house.
In the early drift mines, the auriferous gravel was wheelbarrowed to a sluice.
Later, many companies, especially those located some distance from water,
utilized horse drawn rail cars capable of holding 20 or 30 wheelbarrow loads to
haul the paydirt to the sluices. (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, June 20,
1857). In the 1870s one drifting operation, the Bald Mountain Drift Mine near
Forest, Ca., even used a steam locomotive (Clark, 19). The somewhat slow
development of drifting in California resulted from several factors.
Underground mining proved more laborious and required greater skill and
more geologic knowledge than the working of recent placers. The expense in?
volved in tunneling certainly constituted an important, if not the primary, fac?
tor. The financial failure of many drifting projects, too, played a role
(Sacramento Union, May 30, 1856; San Francisco Evening Bulletin, January
4, 1858).
The employment of drifting was "the result of necessity and not of choice."
The drifting claims were found in the higher ranges of the Sierra Nevadas and
were covered with hundreds of feet of volcanic mud and scoria and in some in?
stances of basalt. The process of drifting was "the only one available for the
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Vol. 18(1986), No. 3
149
extraction of the gold." As noted in Burchard's report for 1880, "no ground is
worked by the drift method where hydraulicing is practicable" (Burchard
1881, 316-317).
Few areas outside California possessed extensive areas of Tertiary gravels.
As a result, drifting in the remainder of the West never approached the exten?
sive operations common to California. Drifting on a small scale, however, serv?
ed as a practical method of exploiting rich streaks on or near bedrock in more
recent deposits covered by a thick layer of overburden. Small-scale drifting, in
addition, proved applicable where insufficient grade or lack of water prevented
hydraulicking or where conditions proved unsatisfactory for dredging. In
most mining areas of the West, drifting on a small-scale constituted one of the
first methods of mining employed. During the years 1860-1861, drifting took
place in most of the major mining districts of Colorado. In a few, it even gained
widespread use (Rocky Mountain News, December 13, 1860, March 13, 1861,
March 20, 1861; Miner's Record, July 27, 1861; Richardson, 309).
A similar pattern emerged in the Northwest. In the period 1862-1865, drif?
ting was introduced into many districts and in some it became one of the prin?
cipal forms of mining (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, November 21, 1856;
Morning Oregonian, January 22, 1863; Oregon Statesman, September 15,
1862; Montana Post, August 27, 1864; The Golden Age, January 8, 1863,
February 5, 1863; Black Hills Pioneer, October 14, 1876; Black Hills Daily
Times, May 11,1878, Mining and Scientific Press, March 30,1867; Foster, 74).
The mining districts of central Idaho provide a good example. Small scale drif?
ting began in the Boise Basin as early as 1863 (Boise News, November 28,
1863; Angelo 1866, 9). By 1866, the Basin contained a "goodly" number of
tunnels some 300 feet deep. The expected commencement of several more tun?
nels led the Idaho World to predict a "new era in mining is likely to succeed in
the immediate vicinity of this city (Idaho City), and in other portions of the
Basin" (Idaho World, October 27,1866). In 1875 the Boise Basin contained the
most extensive drifting operations in the territory (Idaho World, October
1875).
The pattern changed little in the remainder of the West. Small-scale drifting
usually took place during the early history of most mining districts (Fig. 7).
Champness in 1862 wrote of the importance of "Old Californians" in the
development of drifting in the Cariboo Diggings of British Columbia:
Skillful miners were obtaining wages of from eight to ten dollars a
day, and working in successive relays, day and night. But then,
these were experienced men, chiefly from Cornwall and California.
The general run of immigrants could neither accomplish such work,
nor meet with the opportunity of being employed (Champness,
72-73).
Drifting often was employed during the winter seaspn when conditions made
sluicing or other methods impossible, and in some districts it was the only
feasible method (Mining and Scientific Press, February 2, 1867, March 28,
1868). One newspaper reported, for example, that "Bear Gulch is deep, and the
claims therein are mostly drifting claims. Some do not require drainage. In
some of these remunerative labor was going on all last summer and fall, and
during this winter when practicable. Many bars and points have been worked
and have paid well" (Mining and Scientific Press, March 30, 1867).
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Material Culture
150
Fig. 7 Drifting in Bobtail Gulch, South Dakota, 1876. Small-scale drifting operations like
that pictured here occurred on every mining frontier (Courtesy The National Ar?
chives).
Landscape
Even with simple machinery and primitive methods, the thousands upon
thousands of miners, usually working in small groups, collectively affected a
large area and had a very noticeable impact on the land. At first the miners
were mostly Americans and European immigrants. As yields declined,
however, they were usually replaced by Chinese. The Chinese reworked the
tailings again and again, extracting every possible ounce of gold. They also
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Vol. 18 (1986), No. 3
worked areas considered worthless by white miners, and added thousands of
acres to the total area worked by the traditional methods.
Numerous period writers left vivid descriptions of the effects of the early
mining operations. Often their accounts were quite graphic:
The beds of the numerous ravines which wrinkle the faces of the
hills, the bed of the creek, and all the little flats alongside of it, were
a confused mass of heaps of dirt and piles of stones lying around the
innumerable holes (Borthwick, 92).
In traversing through the mining country, we cannot fail to notice
the many holes and trenches that have been dug in the mountain
sides, the gulches, ravines, and in the bars and shoals of the streams
(Clark, C. M., 92).
One writer in 1864 compared the once limpid Clear Creek in Colorado to the
Thames at Blackfriars and another in 1864 commented that because of mining
the Blue River of Colorado was "anything but Blue" (Morris, 108-109;
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1867, 16).
Despite their wide employment the traditional methods of placer mining had
a lesser impact than the other forms of gold mining (Rohe 1984b, 5-17). The
small scale nature of these operations and their widely scattered locations
often make recognition of these areas difficult. Characteristically, however,
they have a shallow, hummocky appearance. Small round, somewhat evenly
spaced and more or less symmetrical piles of rock and gravel often mark areas
worked by the traditional methods. Small stacks of large rocks piled around
the base of trees dot the area, and small shallow trenches or cuts mark the ad?
jacent hillslopes. Typically, these cuts average only one or two feet deep and
less than five yards wide, but greater dimensions are not uncommon. Vegeta?
tion often obscures these areas and makes difficult an assertion of the extent
of former mining.
As improved methods that enabled the handling of greater amounts of
auriferous gravel came into use, the miners grouped together in cooperative ef?
forts. Mining operations with the long torn usually involved three to six men;
while in mining with the sluice five to twenty miners often combined their ef?
forts. Not surprisingly, of the hand methods, sluicing resulted in the greatest
changes to the landscape. Low parallel lines of gravels and cobbles often mark
areas worked by sluicing. Narrow trenches or cuts, of varying dimensions,
characteristically line the adjacent hillslopes. The finer debris from sluicing
often accumulated in circular or elongated rises up to five feet high and three
or more feet long. The former location of sluices is often marked by lines of
large rocks thrown out of them by the miners, with the larger ones marking the
head of the sluice. Occasionally the location where the concentrates were pann?
ed out is obvious as a slight rise.
Like sluicing, attempts at drifting were usually undertaken by joint-stock
associations composed principally of working miners. Although some hills
were "literally covered with holes and piles of earth," drifting typically
covered relatively small areas. Since it occurred underground, often little sur?
face evidence remains. Only occasionally does any sign of the surface buildings
survive. The mine entrances, its shafts, and tailing piles form the most promi?
nent surface features of almost all drift mines. Often the mine's entrances and
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151
Material Culture
152
shafts are caved in or filled with water. The tailings usually form a distinctive
landform at or near the site of the main entrance. Characteristically, the tradi?
tional methods served to work the gravels removed by drifting. As a result,
the surface evidence of drifting approximate those of the traditional methods.
Drift landscapes occur scattered throughout the West. Drifting, however,
reached its greatest development in the Tertiary gravels of California and here
the greatest evidence survives today. Table Mountain alone contained a total
of 40,000 feet of tunnels (Raymond 1872, 52). Drift mines literally pockmark
some localities. The Jackass Hill and Campo Seco-Stent region contains hun?
dreds of "coyote holes." Outside California drifting largely took place on a
small scale in recent gravels, but it still left noticeable evidence. In the Clear
Creek district of Colorado, for instance, nearly every wide section in the valley
of South Clear Creek south of Idaho Springs for some seven miles contain
evidence of drift mining (Parker, B? 123).
The traditional methods achieved widespread employment throughout the
West. Yet, today areas displaying the effects of these methods occupy a
relatively limited area. As the initial forms of mining in most areas, subse?
quent mining often eradicated all traces of traditional methods. Other times,
later cultural activities destroyed all evidence of these mining operations. To?
day the best examples of areas worked by the minor methods occur along the
upper ends of the smaller streams and along adjacent side ravines and gulches.
Conclusion
The origin and diffusion of the traditional placer techniques through the
American West displayed certain characteristics. The lack of innovation was a
major feature of placer mining in the American West. Generally, the methods
employed consisted of techniques long known to Europe and Latin America.
Agricola described most of the basic equipment used in California and on suc?
cessive mining frontiers in De Re Metallica in 1556 (Agricola). Browne, an
astute observer of the mining frontier, aptly noted that:
With all the genius and enterprise of the American people, no impor?
tant discovery in the way of machinery for mining was made which
had not been long in use in South America, Mexico, or Europe. The
same necessities gave rise to identical contrivances for saving labor,
and it is sufficiently creditable to our miners to say that without
any knowledge of what others had done, they frequently improved
upon the original (Browne 1868, 8).
Few new ideas and techniques came out of the American West:
With most of the mining improvements there were no especial in?
ventions, but the different appliances came into use gradually as
they were needed by the changing character of mining (Browne
1868, 118).
In placer mining, the West was not so much an originator as an adaptor and
accelerator, at least during its early frontier period.
Compared to the remainder of the mining West, California seemed slow in
adopting new mining methods. One, two, and even three years passed before
methods used successively in Europe, Latin America and the southern Ap
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VoL 18 (1986), No. 3
153
palachians acheived widespread application in California. In some cases, in
fact, the reinvention of mining methods in use at that time in other parts of the
world occurred. Outside of California, the development from the most
primitive to the more advanced methods of mining proceeded much more
quickly. A number of combined factors probably caused this. The bulk of those
involved in the California rush consisted of persons untrained in mining. Impa?
tient and restless to begin, the early mining population learned the simplest
methods that enabled the initiation of mining with a minimum of capital and
delay. Individualism characterized the early mining population and the more
advanced methods required not only capital, but a degree of organization and
cooperation. Many corning from the East organized into companies for mutual
assistance and protection in transit, as well as for the later exploitation of the
mines. Almost all of these companies, however, disintegrated soon after
reaching California (Howe; Hughes; Vail, 247-78).
The rich placer deposits of California did not necessitate the introduction
and adoption of more efficient mining methods as soon as other areas of the
West. By far the greatest part of the gold occurred in recent placers, ex?
ploitable with simple machinery and primitive methods. Few participants of
the California gold rush possessed a practical knowledge of mining. Subse?
quent rushes, however, always contained California-trained miners. "Old
Californians" guided each successive mining area through the whole cycle of
technological evolution that California experienced in the 1850s. As Paul
states, "it was like re-reading a novel" (Paul 1963, 47). It was often a rapid
transformation. In Colorado, for example, the pan, rocker, torn, sluice, river
mining, and hydraulicking were all introduced within two years of the
discovery of gold.
Few new mining techniques came out of the West. In terms of mining,
Turner's emphasis on the West as a land of innovation needs qualification.
Just as misleading is the statement that the West made no contribution to the
development of mining methods. Even the characterization of the West as an
imitator or as an adaptor and accelerator requires a cautionary note. It seems
the West was all of these, depending on the time and region observed. At least
during its frontier period, the West was not so much originator as adaptor and
accelerator. Most of the methods used on the mining frontier consisted of prac?
tices, processes, and machines used for centuries in other parts of the world.
Mining represented a specialized and decidedly international occupation. The
mining frontier, especially that of California, drew many directly from Europe.
Customs, techniques, and individual miners circulated freely. "Old Califor
nians" and former southern Appalachian miners worked as the primary agents
through which the inexperienced learned the basics of mining. These ex?
perienced miners played a singular role in the introduction and spread of min?
ing methods. "The skill of old Californians was pre-eminent and everywhere
from Cariboo to Owyhee the methods and opinions of Californians were given
great respect" (Trimble, 93). It seems likely, however, that the influence of
"Old Californians" was not everywhere equal and in general lessened with
time. Most of the participants of the Montana rush, for example, came from
the East or Colorado {Daily Mountaineer, March 21, 1866; Washington
Statesman, April 18, 1863; Rocky Mountain News, April 23, 1863; Fisk, 31;
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154
Material Culture
Browne and Taylor, 36). While some California-trained miners did participate
in the rush to the Black Hills, by this date they were indeed "Old Californians"
and undoubtedly few in number. It seems likely that miners from Montana
and Colorado played a greater role than "Old Californians" in the development
of mining here (Parker 1966, 95; Press and Dakotian, May 24, 1877). A Dr.
Nichols of Deadwod even took seventy bushels of gravel and a string of sluice
boxes to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia to show easterners the art
of sluicing (Parker 1966, 74).
During the early years the miners themselves were agents of diffusion. In
the absence of both technical schools and reliable manuals, it was considered a
great advantage to have a Georgian, Carolinian, Cornishman, or Sonoran as a
mining partner (Paul 1947,48). Subsequently, other means of diffusion became
important. In the goldfields and the outfitting points and supply centers as
well, much of the news revolved around mining operations. Local newspapers
were always hungry for news and frequently carried correspondence from the
mining camps and copied items of mining interest from other newspapers.
Consequently, news of mining innovations was widely disseminated via
newspaper. Mining journals, like the California Mining Journal which ap?
peared in 1856 and the Mining and Scientific Press which began in 1860, in
turn, often copied news items from the papers of the mining regions. Addi?
tionally, such journals invariably contained correspondence directly from the
mining camps and towns. The mining commissioner reports of Browne,
Taylor, and Raymond which began in 1867 and the reports of geologists like
Trask, Whitney, and others certainly played some role. The technology utiliz?
ed during the epogee of river mining and drifting entailed some heavy-duty
engineering. Undoubtedly, the formal studies of commercial and academic
scientists were also of importance.
Technological progress on the mining frontier consisted largely of adopting
methods long known in Europe and Latin America and adapting and improv?
ing them. The methods adapted to meet conditions in some mining regions
often proved as novel as the problem. Although much of the adaptive effort
proved relatively unsuccessful, as is characteristic of most attempts at inven?
tion, considerable imaginative effort was expended in efforts to work some
placer deposits. In time, the West repaid its debt to the older mining regions of
the world. During the latter part of the nineteenth and first half of the twen?
tieth century, American originated or perfected mining methods spread
throughout the world.
The often described progression of mining methods (pan, rocker, torn, sluice,
hydraulic, dredge) from simple to advanced is both an overgeneralization and
misleading for most areas of the West. Often the sequence was a mixed pro?
gression in which some of the techniques were interrelated, the pans used in
the final recovery of gold from concentrates obtained by sluicing or sluices us?
ed in hydraulicking to catch the gold and dispose of the tailings. Further, the
generalization does not allow for river mining, dry placering, and other
methods that achieved wide use in some parts of the West. In essence, dif?
ferent processes were utilized for different deposits. Windeier, for example in
1851-1852 alternately used panning, rocking, tomming, sluicing, drifting and
river mining depending on conditions (Windeier, 114, 116-117, 120, 131-132,
137, 142-144, 151-152).
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155
Vol. 18(1986), No. 3
The progression to more advanced forms of mining for the most part
resulted from the exhaustion of the richer deposits and the need to work lower
grade deposits, and the need to use large-scale, labor saving methods to avoid
high labor costs. Almost without exception, a method remained in vogue as
long as it was profitable?often despite the availability of more effective
methods. Mining methods typically spread in a helter-skelter pattern. The lack
of uniformity in the occurrence and discovery of gold, as well as the varying
environmental factors from gold region to gold region account for this ir?
regular pattern.
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