Search the Community

Just found this browsing for mining history, it’s about the history of gold mining in Montana: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/docs/2021-07/THE ROAD TO GARNET'S GOLD (002).pdf

LIFE ON THE DIGGINGS. ROBBERS' EXCHANGE OF GUNS By C. R. C. PEARCE. The great army of diggers at Bendigo did an immense amount of work in an incredibly short space of time. Vast areas of ground were turned over to the bedrock and rifled of their treasures. Forests of great ironbark trees, with their dense underwood, quickly disappeared. So thick and dark were these forests that people had often lost their way in the daylight. After the winter of 1852 almost all the natural beauty of Bendigo had disappeared. Earth and clay reduced to a powder, lay on the roads ankle deep, and the slightest puff of wind raised it in blinding clouds. Mr. George Mackay, in his "Annals of Bendigo," relates that Mr. Joseph Crook, who afterwards lived in South Yarra, camped with three mates at the bottom of Long and Ironbark gullies in April, 1852. They lost a horse, and in searching for it in a dense ironbark forest they discovered a very rich gully, in which they picked up 9oz. of gold from the surface in two hours. In order to find their way back to this spot they cut marks in the trees when passing on their way to American Flat through California Gully. A rush to California Gully occurred on the following day (Sunday), and on Monday so much timber had been destroyed that Mr. Crook and his mates were unable to find the track. At a new rush diggers were shovelings up the gold between one an- other's legs, but Mr. Crook's party could not get within a mile and a half of the scene, as all the ground had been taken up. At Pegleg they got gold at 2ft. 6in., but not in large quantities. Thinking that they knew all about their claim they moved on. They were chagrined later to see men whom they regarded as new chums shovel up gold almost in bucketful's. Eluding Black Douglas Black Douglas and his gang were the terror of diggers when they were taking their gold from Bendigo to Melbourne in 1852. Mr. Crook, it is recorded in the "Annals of Bendigo," related how he chiselled four chambers 8in. by 3in. by 4in. in the bed of a dray, and after placing four chamois leather bags in the chambers covered them up with wooden lids and filled the crevices with clay. Mr. Crook and his party were not "stuck up" by Black Douglas, but a neighbouring camp of diggers was robbed at Carlsruhe on the night they were there. A successful digger, who had fortunately sent his gold to Melbourne by escort, was robbed on his way to Melbourne. The robbers took all his money with the exception of a few shillings. They also took his double-barrelled gun and gave him an old single-barrelled gun in exchange. The digger took this gun to England as a memento, and some time afterwards a young friend tried to draw the charge. The first thing he pulled out was portion of a 5 note. A blacksmith unscrewed the breech and took out notes amounting to 150. A man at the third White Hill valued his horse at 150, and he used to sleep with the bridle rein round his wrist. One morning he found that the rein had been cut and that the horse had been stolen. About three months afterwards he found the horse outside his tent with a new saddle on its back and 20lb. of gold in the saddle bag. The owner of the gold never appeared. Diggers when they entered a store to make purchases emptied the contents of their matchboxes, filled with gold dust, on to white paper on the counter. The store keeper blew the dust and put the rest in a fine sieve, afterwards paying for it. Mr. H. Brown, in "Victoria as I found It," says that he saw innumerable grains of gold in the dust on a counter and directed the attention of a storekeeper to the loss of gold. Laughing, the storekeeper brushed the gold off the counter with his sleeve, and said that the dust was worthless. It was only when alluvial gold became scarcer that this fine dust was saved. "The police have commenced their search for the licenses of gold diggers" wrote the Bendigo correspondent of "The Argus" on October 17, 1853. "They have dropped the musket and bayonet, and have taken to the baton." The principal objection of the diggers to the gold license was the method of collection. In the "Annals of Bendigo," it is recorded that some diggers were chained to logs for hours in the blazing sun. It is to the credit of the diggers that the first balls which they attended were held in aid of the foundation of hospitals. At the first diggers' ball in Bendigo, the "ladies numbered 60 or about one in ten to the gentlemen, and they did credit to the classes on the diggings. Despite the assurance of the committee that full dress would not be exacted a great number of the men were attired in garments that exhibited a gentlemanly taste. The scarcity of women dancers is reflected in the reports of other balls which followed at Forest Creek and Ballarat. At the Forest Creek ball 600 people were present, but there were only 100 women among the dancers. At a Christmas ball held in Bendigo in 1853 some of the dresses cost 10. The program ranged from the opening quadrille to Sir Roger de Coverley. New rushes were frequent in 1853 and 1854, but an exciting rush which occurred at Bendigo was not for gold, but for cabbages. An enterprising man brought from Brighton to Bendigo late in 1853 the first cartload of cabbages seen on that field. The cabbages were quickly sold at 3/6 each. Commenting on this "rush," the correspondent says "The promise of the surveyor-general to give every digger a cabbage-garden near the mines is hailed with gladness." How well the miners of Bendigo and Ballarat and other districts took advantage of the opportunity to grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers was shown in later years by the beautiful cottage gar- dens which adorned the mining towns. Though the price of flour was decreasing the bakers were charging 3/6 for the 4lb. loaf on the White Hills in 1853. Cats were in great demand on the Bendigo field. Good mouse cats brought from 2 to 3 each. Cricket at Back Creek The first cricket match in Bendigo took place on January 2, 1854, between the married and single members of the Bendigo Cricket Club. The bachelors were "shame- fully defeated," and the correspondent re- corded: "The wicket was pitched on a tolerably level piece of ground at Back Creek. In a spacious tent an excellent dinner was provided for the members of the club. The wines were excellent, and were pretty fully discussed, so that towards the close of day the meeting of cricketers wore anything but a dull aspect. Several gentlemen from the Camp, commissioners, and others visited the tent during the afternoon, and the best possible feeling was displayed toward them." On the Back Creek cricket-ground in later years Mr. George Mackay and Mr. Angus Mackay, sons of the recorder of this first match, gave an impetus to cricket on the Back Creek ground which resulted in the production of many fine players in Bendigo. Mr. R. Brough Smyth, in the "Goldfields and Mineral Districts of Victoria," re- corded that in 1858 147,358 adult miners, including 23,673 Chinese, were employed on the goldfields. In 1856 2,985,9910z. gold, valued at 4 an ounce (11,943,964), were exported. From the discovery of gold in 1851 to 1868 the amount of gold exported from Victoria was 147,342,767, and Mr. Brough Smith calculated the average for each man at 1,699/8/3, or 98/10/4 a year. "But these figures are not a true test of the success of individuals," he added. "The measure of success of the gold-mining industry must not be summed up by the exports. Immense sums were expended in the construction of roads, rail- ways, and other public works. Large towns, with fine buildings, good streets and parks, supplied with water from reservoirs of large extent, arose, so that no small share of the wealth the mines have yielded has been profitably used in turning a wilderness into a habitable abode." The Argus 1930 http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4232417?searchTerm="Eluding Black Douglas"

The way it was, a lot of photos. The quality and speed can be selected at setting icon. I turned the volume off when I watched it. At the 20 minute mark in the second video, it goes religious

This is a list of Greater than 10 Tonne Gold found and recorded (a lot of early finds were not recorded) in Victoria Australia.

The 'Berlin Rush' beginnings, August 1868 when Alexander Clelland sank a shallow shaft outside John Catto's Paddock and found a 60 oz nugget at the bottom. The Government rewarded him 100 pounds for the discovery of what he called "Bervie" Gold field. This name was spelled incorrectly and became Berlin in the official register. The Rheola area became famous for its beds of large nuggets scattered through the gullies. Some of the gold nuggets found during the 19th century include: The Needful found in 1869, Rum Ton found in 1870, Viscount Canterbury found in 1871, Precious found in 1871, Viscountess Canterbury and the Crescent found in 1872. John Catto's Paddock was the location of both the Precious and the Viscount Canterbury. The Precious was Victoria’ fourth largest nugget, weighted at 1,717 ounces. Well that's the way the cookie crumbles 😢

Why was there a mint in Georgia? https://coinweek.com/us-coins/why-the-charlotte-and-dahlonega-mints-were-built-part-2/

I was out metal detecting a area I have wanted to detect for a long time. I ended up finding this cool old rail car. I has a big pot looking bucket in the middle. Any guesses for what it was used for? I is a bit of a different kind of relic to find. I was in a old railroad area and maybe it was moved here and forgotten may years ago, only remembered by the graffiti artists. The rest of the metal detecting finds are coming as soon as I clean and sort them out.

Bob Canaday worked for White's Electronics for 33 years and was one of the true experts in the metal detecting community, posting on White's Forum, Findmall, and Friendly Forums as rcsnake. I used to Google and read all his posts that I could find. Bob was particularly knowledgeable on the White's V3i and wrote Hunting in Mineralized Ground with the V3i My condolences to Bob's family and friends. Robert Moore Canaday obituary Bob explaining the White's V3i Factory Reset....

Everything changed in California and THE WEST. Every year there is a different version of the same story. It was not the first gold discovered in the west but it is the discovery credited with starting The Gold Rush which did change everything. https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/opinion/great-american-stories-the-original-49ers/article_bd9b9762-eb2c-5c8a-9c86-0b40fab7794b.html

Here a video link to the richest pocket gold mine in the gold country if not the state. Take note of the depressions from the wooden cross ties of ore cart tracks. A lot of barren quartz broke a lot of want to be mine owners but when they mined into a crossing the gold was in sheets. The contact was along the north south trending limestone formation. Later the drifts were used for passage ways between the cathouses and underground speak easies. Back in the 1950’s one of the sons of the then mine owner ran an ore cart off the tracks into a support timber. He discovered enough high graded gold buried under the foot of the timber to buy himself a new pick up truck and then some. Years later I would have the privilege of remodeling one of the above ground madam’s room, which was connected to this mine, into a bank manager’s office. The original cathouse door with glass window advertising, which led many a miner, logger & cowboy in the wrong direction, is still around back. I still own stock in that bank. Enjoy, few are alive that have ever got view inside of this historic mine.

Christmas day I was climbing the walls to do a little detecting, so with little time to hunt before dinner I decided to hit my neighbors 18th century house. After two wheaties and some modern clad I got my first good target. It was an odd piece of copper/bronze doo dad. Looks familiar but I just can't put my finger on it. My last good Target was what I thought to be a key of some sort, Well not so much. After I got home I cleaned the (key) off and found it to be an odd medallion. A date of 1876 and a liberty bell and some people shaking hands emerged. After a little Google research I found it to be a 1876 Philadelphia Exposition medallion. It was the first worlds fair. It was called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and products of the soil and mines. Kinda cool since I found it in the soil Ha Ha. 10 million people attended from 37 countries and was held in Fairmount Park. I believe only 2 buildings that were constructed are still standing today. It's a nice find for me, but I sure wish it had the rest of the pieces. It's funny how the detecting gods throw a little important history at you from time to time.

As if that were not enough, after having to create a new straight rod for the detector that I used immersed for 20 minutes, considering the new storm that arrives, today I have chosen an even worse scourge ... I have been waiting for months to complete a decent trolley that will help me transport cylinders and dpv without sinking into the sand and today might be the day🤣. It is out of the question that I buy balloon wheels at that price and I don't like the Idea of punctures happened in the past. So I'm recreating from a scratch the trolley with a bigger contact surface hopefully good to better distribute the weight on 6 wheels. Now the big problem that separates me from finishing the structure and mounting the containment sides Is a mix of aluminium and stainless steel not properly friends when soldering. Question now Is: Will this project finally see the light?🤣 At the worst, this crap will finish with bolts😁...

Just been cruising the hills in search of. I have been enlarging my detecting area around the original site so here are some recent finds. Little heart shaped piece of gold was when I told my wife the DEUS will find gold and it did. I will add that all but the gold was found by the 800

Riddle of the rainforest coin. Ancient Egyptian visitors to Australia or miner's mishap? ....Link to Coin....

It's been a while since I last posted and I have been busy with work and the yard. Not that I have not been out a few times, But today was something I had to take the time to share with everyone. I had the day off and wanted to go out early and see what the day would bring me. 5:00 am I decided to get dressed for the day and found a new T shirt that the wife had bought me, It said life is good. It had a dog holding an american flag in its mouth. I thought to myself this might bring me some good luck. Well I think it did. My first three hours were at a spot I hunted a few times. Its loaded with clad and I decided to hunt for quarters and dimes. After a few dollars in clad, I hit a 1945 Washington, (good start) A few more Quarters and I changed spots, Hunting an old horseshoe pit. No luck so I moved a few hundred feet and got a 24-25 on the 800. Out pops a ring that was pretty neat looking but seemed odd and silver plated, But it turned out to be sterling stamped ring made by Unca Co. in the mid 1900's. This morning is turning out pretty good. More clad and I decided to go back to the washington find and go a little slower. With in a minute I got a bouncy on edge tone that produced a very worn Denver mint standing liberty with no date. Sadly I had to go mow the lawn, But being greedy I needed to go back out to another spot. I called my buddy and we went to an old farm house that we hit once a month ago. The last trip yielded a capped bust, large cent, silver broach, pocket watch and an really early buckle. Today I had lower expectations. Well that didn't quite turn out that way. It started out a little slow but ended in a great way. My first good hit was a 1918 merc. Followed by a bunch of wheaties, 9 I think. My buddy hit a large cent and I followed up with a really nice 1914 barber quarter and a KG 3. He ended his day with a nice 1915 barber quarter. LIFE IS GOOD !!!!!!!

Gold gets stolen and stories get told. Here is the first part of a series on the 20 greatest gold heists. They are an interesting read. I'm sure there are others out there you've heard of also. https://coinweek.com/bullion-report/the-biggest-gold-heists-of-all-time-part-i/

What do you do when you have multiple Anglo-Saxon burial mounds on your property? You ask your local archaeologist to come by and check it out. And what if he happens to find one of the biggest treasures of the era? Well, we don’t have to speculate, because this actually happened. The Hoxne Hoard might have led to a change in the British law regarding uncovered antiquities, but the Sutton Hoo Treasure changed how the British were able to understand their history. Indeed, it’s difficult to know where to even get started explaining the story of the Sutton Hoo Treasure because it is so deeply embedded into the history of the time. The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death The short background is that after the Romans began withdrawing from Great Britain, the native Britons were faced with invaders from the east — the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who have become collectively known as “the Anglo-Saxons.” It is believed by historians that their earliest landings and heaviest areas of settlement were in East Anglia, which is where the Sutton Hoo Treasure was unearthed. Now it’s worth explaining a little bit about the Anglo-Saxons with regard to their religious views. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans with religious traditions not altogether different from their Viking cousins. What’s important about this is that it means they believed it was possible — indeed, advisable — to take one’s treasures with one into the next life. To that end, warriors were often buried with as much treasure as they weren’t going to pass onto their posterity. The Excavation of the Sutton Hoo Treasure Begins Fast forward to the dawn of World War II in Europe. Wealthy widow Edith Pretty is a landowner in the UK who knows that she has 18 Anglo-Saxon burial mounds on her property. So she calls up self-taught archaeologist Basil Brown. Edith was very familiar with archaeology, as she had traveled extensively throughout her youth. She paid Basil Brown 30 shillings a week, which is the equivalent of about $200 today. He was given two weeks to do some of his work. Brown initially worked the area with the assistance of Pretty’s gardening staff, which was extensive as Mrs. Pretty was a woman of some means. He was able to excavate three of the mounds and found evidence that they were being robbed as late as the medieval period. The first mound (confusingly called Mound 3) was interesting, but not terribly impressive — a lot of pottery, mostly, which while valuable during the Anglo-Saxon period of interest to historians today, is not terribly valuable. It was the second mound (Mound 2) that changed the nature of the excavation. It was here that signs of a large ship began to emerge in the form of rivets at first, but later other parts, perhaps most impressively a gold-plated shield boss. Mound 4 yielded nothing other than the knowledge that it had been completely stripped by graverobbers over the years. Brown put an end to his work but returned a year later due to curiosity that was spurred by Mound 2. But when Mound 1 began excavation a year later, it wasn’t the dig that had changed — it was the entire conception of British history. It was here that what a British Museum curator later called “one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time” began to take shape. What was unearthed there was a 7th-century Saxon ship, which may have been the last resting place of King Rædwald of East Anglia. Unfortunately, the body is missing but testing of the soil suggests that the body was once there and that it wasn’t stolen, but rather that it simply decomposed completely due to the high acidity levels in the soil. Brown handed the excavations off to the professionals, believing that he had reached the limit of his abilities. Why the Sutton Hoo Treasure Is Important So why was the Sutton Hoo Treasure so impressive? It wasn’t the value of the items found, despite the fact that these were quite valuable in and of themselves. No, the Sutton Hoo Treasure is more of an archaeological treasure than a financial one. The 90-foot ship was as intact as one could reasonably expect from a ship that was over 1,000 years old. The iconic Sutton Hoo Helmet, which adorns the covers of untold books about the Anglo-Saxons or the British Museum, was found in the Sutton Hoo Treasure. There were other helmets, along with spoons, bowls, weapons, and other effects including textiles. So why did this change the understanding of British history? The main reason is that the early Anglo-Saxon period was understood to be a “Dark Age” of English history, but the uncovering of the Sutton Hoo Treasure proved that there was a vibrant cultural life during this period. The ship contained items not just from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, but from around the world, showing how far-traveled the Anglo-Saxon people were. Both Scandinavian and Byzantine objects were found in the treasure ship. What’s more, the Sutton Hoo Treasure shed some additional light on another somewhat recent discovery of Britain’s Anglo-Saxon past — Beowulf. When the site was uncovered, literature scholars noted how closely the burial site matched up with burial reports in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem. The final fate of the Sutton Hoo Treasure? It sits today in the British Museum, where it has lived ever since it was gifted by Mrs. Pretty. An inquest found that the objects belonged to her and her alone, but rather than keep them or even sell them, the already wealthy Mrs. Pretty simply gifted them to the museum. Winston Churchill later offered her a CBE for her service to the British Empire, but she declined to accept the award. Nowadays, anyone can visit the Sutton Hoo Treasure at the British Museum or stomp around the area where the burial mounds were unearthed. No one got rich and no one got famous, but the Sutton Hoo Treasure became a symbol of British culture extending back over 1,000 years. Sutton Hoo Treasure originally appeared on kellycodetectors.com

Reports of the Mineralogist for the state of California. It seems fake news has been around for a long time. https://books.google.com/books?output=text&id=13POAAAAMAAJ&q=217#v=onepage&q&f=false

Not every gold rush changes the world like the California gold rush, the Yukon gold rush, or the Black Hills gold rush. Some simply change the history of a region and become part of the local character and lore. American examples of such include the Carolina gold rush and the Georgia gold rush. But for Finland and Russia, this gold rush is the Lapland gold rush, a rather obscure point of history for both of those countries, but one of immense significance and importance for gold hunters around the world. The Lapland gold rush, also known as the Ivalo gold rush because it began in the village of Ivalo, which is currently in the Republic of Finland, but at the time was in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was an autonomous region of the Russian Empire prior to its independence in 1917. The Ivalojoki River formed the core of where the gold rush took place. The 16th Century Origins The presence of gold in the region was known as far back as the 16th Century. Gold was discovered in Utsjoki, which is now the northernmost municipality in the entire country of Finland. This, of course, means that this is another one of our very cold gold rushes, similar to the Nome gold rush that flooded people into Alaska. As this was the 16th Century word traveled very slowly and so the presence of gold was not widespread knowledge until literally hundreds of years later, in the 19th Century. It wasn’t until the 1860s when a mineralogist and geologist by the name of Tellef Dahll conducted a survey in the far northern area of Finnmark, which was in Norway. He found gold in the Tana River. What he found, however, was that the best deposits for development and mining weren’t in Norway, but Finland and reported his findings to a government office in Helsinki. The find couldn’t have come at a better time. Finland, which was an autonomous region of the Russian Empire at the time, was in the middle of the Finnish famine of 1866 and it was thought that the gold would help to pull Finland out of its dire economic situation. All told, over 8.5 percent of the entire Finnish population died of hunger during this period, with people resorting to eating pine bark because the situation was so dire. An engineer named Conrad Lihr led the expedition and he would later be rewarded for his hard work by being named the head of the Mint of Finland. It was in September of 1868 that they discovered gold in the Ivalo River of Inali. So rich was this deposit that it was the impetus behind reform in the mineral laws of the Russian Empire, with Emperor Alexander II decreeing that all “noble metal” deposits were no longer the exclusive property of the Emperor. Instead, any “decent man” from the Russian Empire could engage in gold prospecting in the region. 1870: The Gold Rush Takes Off As mentioned above, word traveled very slowly during this time, as well as in this part of the world which had always been backward in comparison to its Western European neighbors. By 1870, however, the gold rush had begun in earnest. Prospectors had to work very hard to get to this part of the world. Boats, walking and even skis were common methods of transportation. The Russian Imperial Government quickly set about drafting measures to manage this massive influx of newcomers into the region. Kultala Crown Station quickly became the center point of Russian management of the region, as well as the center of services for miners and prospectors flooding into the region. It was where licenses for the miners were issued, as well as where they cashed in their gold. Law enforcement, cartographers, a restaurant, and a post office went up to serve the region. This community was soon home to 600 residents at its peak. This might not sound like a lot, but Russia was a sparsely populated nation and this was one of the hardest to reach areas in the entire Empire, not even taking into account the harsh conditions that one would meet upon arrival. Regulations and Fees Choke the Gold Rush One problem for those arriving in Lapland, however, was that fees and licenses were exorbitantly expensive. In practice, this meant that only 19 of the richest prospectors were entitled to any claim on the region. This elite group of 19 prospectors employed the remaining population who had entered the region. The largest of these claims had between 30 and 40 employees working 11 hour days, six days a week. Ten kilograms of gold were produced by larger claims annually, however, these quickly started to dry up. So quickly did these claims play out that by 1873, the government had cut their fees in half in an attempt to lure more prospectors into the region. A special law was passed to attempt to encourage mining in the Tana River as well and by the early 1880s, the Ivola River region was all but abandoned by those who had so recently made the hard trek in search of vast riches. The handful of prospectors who stuck around in hope of striking it rich moved onto Sotajoki and to the Laanila village, which was about 10 kilometers from where the gold rush began. The Kultala Crown Station was later converted by Finnish geophysicist Selim Lemström into a station for studying the Northern Lights. This was closed in the year 1900. In the 1920s, two industrial gold mining companies entered the region, hoping to turn a profit with some of the harder-to-extract gold, but they ultimately fell flat. Werner Thiede and the Second Lapland Gold Rush There was a find of gold in the Norwegian area of Lapland in 1890, but it never led to anything. However, there was a second wave of the Lapland gold rush in Finland which began in 1934. Sami people, basically Nordic Eskimos, found gold in Sodankylä originating in Tankavaara. This, of course, attracted the attention of Finnish prospectors, but also Swedish mining interests who were keen to get what they could from this new find. One strange story arising from this second gold rush is that of Werner Thiede (not to be confused with the prominent German theologian). He was a German miner from Hamburg who came to the region during the second Lapland gold rush. Eventually, he was deported in 1938. When the Second World War came, Thiede served in the German occupying forces in the country of Norway. He later returned to the Tankavaara region in 1944 as part of the German attempt to build a defensive wall. When the Germans began their retreat, they engaged in a scorched earth campaign that destroyed all the mines — save for the ones that had been built by one Werner Thiede. Since the 1970s, the area has become a tourist attraction in Finland, much like many other, more famous gold rush boom and bust towns that we have covered on this site. And despite the fact that the big boom played out quickly, there are still 20 prospectors and 50 working claims in the region, producing collectively over 20 kilograms of gold on an annual basis. These are all in Lemmenjoki National Park, which is a beautiful place to visit even for those who have absolutely no interest at all in gold mining. It is the biggest national park in all of Finland and one of the largest in Europe. It seems far more backpackers than prospectors — 10,000 every year. The Gold Rush Continues Today Lest you think that the prospectors there are simply legacy holdouts from a bygone age, however, this is simply not true. Indeed, people do still flock to the region in the hopes that they can be one of the lucky few to find some of the gold that is still up for grabs in this region of Finland. The official website promoting tourism in Finland offers tales of modern-day prospectors who have come to the region in search of the adventure of finding gold. Part of what has driven this is yet a third gold rush in Lapland. This one didn’t begin way back in the annals of the colonial age, or even at the turn of the 20th Century, but in the year 2009. Europe’s largest currently operational gold mine is currently in Lapland, the Suurikuusikko gold deposit. Drilling samples conducted in 2011 did much to fuel this new case of gold fever in Finland, proving that the days of the gold rush are not behind us. At that time, there were five operational gold mines in Lapland, with geological surveys finding high concentrations of gold in the surrounding ore — in a stunning 200 deposits. What’s more, the price of gold continues to increase, making the threshold for entry into the market lower and lower with each passing year. Perhaps this is why, as of July 2019, there were 20 full-time gold panners in Finland as well as another 150 part-timers. Note that these men are not “miners” in any sense that it is normally meant. They simply pan for gold as the prospectors of old (in the summer, of course — it’s far too cold in the winter), like what one might see in an old Western movie. Again, rising costs of gold make the trade more attractive and very little equipment is needed to join the ranks of these modern-Caday gold hunters. If you want to give it a try in Finland, you can always check out the Tankavaara Gold Village in Lapland where panning is the main activity. Here you can get a taste of whether or not you have what it takes to do this for hours on end, day after day. Guides are available in both English and Finnish. You should also check out the Gold Museum while you are there to get a feel for the history of gold prospecting in the region. There’s even a Gold Prospectors Association of Finnish Lapland. You might think that you have no chance of striking a decent find as a tourist, but you couldn’t be more wrong. In 2020, a tourist happened upon 61.9 grams of gold, worth a whopping $36,000. He did this right next to where he was staying and in an area that all the smart money said had been played out for decades. Before this, the biggest nugget that happened upon by a tourist was 3.2 grams, with finds of one to two grams not all that uncommon. Indeed, the equipment has gotten much better making it not only easier to find gold using high-tech metal detectors like the detectors available for rental at Kellyco but also to extract the gold from the earth. For example, you now have machines like the XP Metal Detectors Deus or the Minelab GPZ 7000 that makes detecting deep gold nuggets a lot easier than it used to be. Fortunately, unlike many other countries outside of the United States, Finland does not have a ban on the private discovery of gold or other minerals within its border. The legal concept of “Everyman’s Right” drives mineral extraction law down there. This doesn’t mean you can simply set up shop wherever you like and start your hunt for gold. There is some red tape to cut through and you can only conduct mining in designated, approved areas. There have been several films made about the time period, but the two most prominent are 1951 At the Rovaniemi Fair, which is something of a classic in Finland, and Gold Fever in Lapland. Finland’s gold rush didn’t dramatically change the landscape of Finland in the manner of North American gold rushes. But it’s fascinating perhaps in large part because of its perennial nature and the fact that it’s still going today. As such it provides inspiration for a new generation of gold hunters looking for their fortunes in the ground. The Lapland Gold Rush originally appeared on kellycodetectors.com

This is an interesting little story about Mineral Park, Arizona. It tells about a geologist who was told to find ore or be fired. There is a bit of history about fine gold recovery also. https://kdminer.com/news/2021/feb/06/mohave-county-geology-concentrate/

An article on the origin of money ..... .....LINK..... Has anyone found any of these.

Aaron had been working a permission with his first detector for a while and decided it was time to purchase a more versatile detector. After purchasing a new Equinox 800 form Kellyco, he decided to start fresh on the property and go back over everything. The permission owner’s family had owned the property since the mid-1800s when they immigrated to America from Sweden. He had been collecting things found on the property to make a birthday gift for the owner since everything found at some point belonged to one of his ancestors. On Aaron’s first hunt with his Equinox, he found something that had been talked about in the property owner’s family for over a century. While detecting where the first home on the property had stood Aaron had a signal that he thought to be a penny. Upon digging, he discovered it wasn’t a penny but a larger coin. After some research, he discovered it to be a Swedish 5 ore copper coin from 1857. The property owner says he always heard about the coin as a child. The coin served as a reminder and keepsake of his great-great-grandfather’s homeland and was a prized possession of his. The coin had been lost when the home burnt down in the late 1800s and had been buried for 130 years. It will be included in the birthday gift to the homeowner. Treasure Find: 130 Years of Buried Family History originally appeared on kellycodetectors.com.

America has the California Gold Rush. It’s equivalent in Canada is the Klondike Gold Rush. All told, this brought 100,000 prospectors into the region, which was not sunny California, but the frozen tundra of the Canadian Yukon over the course of three years between 1896 and 1899, with the bulk coming in 1897 and 1898. Gold was first found in the Yukon by miners who had been working the region on August 16, 1896. Word quickly spread to Seattle and San Francisco, leading to the massive stampede of prospectors who arrived the next year. And while many arrived, this was not the free-for-all that many of the other gold rushes were due to the cold and remote location of the find. The Canadian government required that men arrive with at least a year’s supply of food to prevent mass starvation. By 1898, the rush was largely over, not because the area had necessarily played out, but because the media had lost interest and was now focused on the Nome Gold Rush in Alaska. Many of the men who panned for gold in Alaska got their start working the goldfields of the Yukon. Before the Gold Rush In the second half of the 19th Century, however, more enterprising American prospectors began to flood the region. They made arrangements with the local Tlingit and Tagish tribes, finally arriving at the Yukon Valley around 1870. It was here that they encountered the Hän, who, as mentioned above, we’re aware of the gold deposits but did not place any value on gold and also did not know the extent of the gold deposits that they were sitting on. The Prospector’s Prospector: Ed Schieffelin It was in 1883 that Ed Schieffelin, a prospector and Indian scout who had cut his teeth prospecting for silver in the Arizona Territory found gold deposits in a reconnoiter along the Yukon River. In 1886, he discovered large deposits of gold during a trip up the Fortymile River. As a result of this trip, he founded Fortymile City, one of the boomtowns of the Klondike Gold Rush. Schieffelin was known as a restless and casual figure, who kept his long hair and beard for most of his years on this earth, even after Tombstone silver made him a millionaire. He rarely stayed still and moved from one boomtown to another in search of the massive continental belt of gold running through North America. He was convinced that in Yukon that he had found this, however, he didn’t last long — the cold of the region and the difficulties that it presented in prospecting had him searching for greener pastures in short order. His next stop was Alaska, which had the predictable effect of having him leave the north entirely. He eventually died prospecting in Oregon and was buried with his pick, his shovel, and his canteen outside of Tombstone. Several hundred miners had arrived in advance of the gold rush proper in the late 1880s. This led to the birth of mining camps on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. One boom town that sprung up in the early years before the rush was Circle City, founded in 1893. This was known at the time as “the Paris of Alaska” with a mighty 1,200 inhabitants, but lots of saloons, theaters, libraries, schools, and opera houses for the miners and their families. By 1896, Circle City was a ghost town as all the miners had left for the more remote parts of the Yukon in search of that Klondike gold. The Discovery Claim Discovery Claim is the name for the place on Bonanza Creek where the Klondike Gold Rush began. This is in an area lying approximately 10 miles south-southeast of Dawson City, a remote little Canadian town of about 1,300 people. The site itself is now a National Historic Site that you can go visit this day. Unlike many other gold rushes, we know exactly when the Klondike Gold Rush began. It began with the discovery of gold on August 16, 1896, by American prospector George Carmack and his wife Kate who was of Tagish Indian extraction. They discovered gold while stopping for a rest during a long trip up the river. One of the troops, which also included Kate’s brother and their nephew, spotted something shiny in the water. Carmack claimed that he found it, but this is disputed by some historians, who believe it was his brother-in-law or even his wife who gave up the claim fearful that the Canadian government would not recognize the claim of an Indian. All told four claims came out of this: The law at the time allowed Carmack to establish a second claim because he was the first person to discover gold in the region. The other two claims went to his brother-in-law and nephew. Orphaned at the age of 11, Carmack was a Marine Corps veteran who was serving in Alaska aboard the USS Wachusett’s when he deserted in 1882 to go care for his sick sister in California. He came back to Alaska in 1885 in search of his fortunes in fishing, trapping, and trading, the common activities of those in the region at the time. Carmack was generally disliked by the other prospectors in the area because of his closeness to the local native tribes, which eventually led to his marriage to Shaw Tláa (which means “gumboot mother”), who was known as “Kate.” They nicknamed him “Squaw Man” after the marriage but also referred to him as “Lyin’ George” due to his tendency toward exaggeration. The village of Carmacks, Yukon is named after him to this day, the site of his discovery of a large coal deposit. The discovery of gold made Carmack a very wealthy man. He and Kate moved to Modesto, California after they struck it rich. In 1900, Carmack abandoned Kate and married Marguerite P. Laimee in Olympia, Washington. They later moved to Seattle, where his new wife invested his money wisely in real estate, mostly office buildings, hotels, and apartment buildings. His investments made his fortune continue to grow, but he never gave up his passion for gold hunting. He even did a little prospecting in California as a fat old man in the the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges. He died in 1922 at the age of 61 while working a claim. Mount Carmack, along the Alaska-Canada border, is also named after him. Rabbit Creek Becomes Bonanza Creek The creek that Carmack and company were navigating was known as Rabbit Creek, but quickly came to be known as Bonanza Creek. By the end of August, the entirety of the creek’s banks was claimed by prospectors looking to get their share of the massive amounts of gold that were believed to be in the region. Additional gold was found up a tributary creek which was dubbed Eldorado Creek. The claims which were made by the initial prospectors in the region quickly became a source of speculation. Claims were made, then bought and sold and traded among potential prospectors and land speculators looking to increase their wealth either through finding gold on the claim or by flipping it to another land investor or prospector. It was around this time that Circle City cleared out, but those who arrived at this time by dog sled found that most of the best claims were already taken. Beyond Circle City, the news of the gold rush did not reach much of the outside world. This is because once the rivers of the area froze, travel to the outside world was virtually impossible. The stampede into the region began in the summer of the next year. Stampede: The Klondike Gold Rush Begins in Earnest The stampede kicked off the Klondike Gold Rush proper in July of 1897. All told, 100,000 people tried to get into the region, but it was only about 30,000 to 40,000 who made it all the way to the prospecting country. On July 15, 1897, a ship arrived in San Francisco, with one arriving from Seattle two days later. These had huge amounts of gold (the equivalent of $1 billion in 2020 dollars) on them and work quickly spread throughout the two cities, with men picking up stakes and heading off to the Great White North in search of a fortune in gold. The prospectors were joined by those looking to make coin off of the prospectors, including traders, photographers, and newspaper writers. The news of a massive gold discovery came at exactly the right time. The United States was in the middle of an economic depression that saw gold prices spike as paper money became less valuable and was being hoarded by Americans. The Panic of 1893 and the Panic of 1896 dramatically damaged the labor market. This meant that there was both a thirst for gold and a ready and waiting labor pool of men willing to take off to remote regions of Canada in search of their fortune. The prospectors were overwhelmingly American or recent arrivals to America — between 60 and 80 percent. Few of them had any experience in mining, with most of the new arrivals being salesmen and clerks. Among their number was John McGraw, the former governor of Washington, and William D. Wood, who was the current Mayor of Seattle and abandoned his post to go hunt for Yukon gold. It generally costs $1,000 ($27,000 in today’s money) to even get to the region. Supplies were difficult to get to the region, which made them both scarce and expensive. Savvy marketers added the name “Klondike” in front of just about any supply one might need, to imply that it was specially designed for those working in the region. Some examples of high prices include salt (which reached parity with gold), nails ($28 per pound or $784 in today’s dollars), butter ($5 per can or about $140 today), and eggs ($3, equivalent to $84 today). Scurvy was common in the camps. Rich prospectors were not prevented from spending big on food, drink, and entertainment. It was expected that rich prospectors would go through a $60 bottle of champagne in a single night, equivalent to $1,660 today. Dice pots often started at $1,000 ($28,000) and poker pots at $5,000 ($140,000). Prosperous prospector Jimmy McMahon once spent $28,000 ($784,000) in a single night. Unlike many gold rushes, the Klondike Gold Rush is known for a preponderance of law and order, with the Northwest Mounted Police keeping the local population in line. The region was 92 percent male, with less than one percent of all women in the area working a claim. The End of the Klondike Gold Rush The Klondike Gold Rush began to taper off in the summer of 1898 when many prospectors, unable to make any money, started leaving the region. Casual work wages fell dramatically because there was a glut of labor in the region. The average laborer made about $100 per month, equivalent to $2,700 today. The attention of the newspapers turned from the Klondike region and it’s gold to the Spanish-American War, which kicked off on April 21, 1898. When gold was found in other, neighboring regions (primarily Nome), the area largely emptied of everyone seeking fortune, leaving only those who had already made it, either through the gold itself or by selling goods that the prospectors couldn’t do without. Discovery Day is still a holiday in the Yukon to this day, celebrated on the third Monday in August. The Klondike Gold Rush originally appeared on kellycodetectors.com.

If any of you are getting stir crazy with winter and all you can think about is getting back out come spring to find the gold then check out this good documentary on The Oregon Trail's counterpart, The Bozeman Trail, and the gold rushes of Montana. It's pretty good.

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows anything about history that gold was a big draw for colonists coming to the New World. One of the earliest gold rushes that brought people across the ocean and attracted the attention of major world powers was the Brazilian Gold Rush. At this time Brazil was an integral part of the Portuguese Empire. Back in 1690 when the Brazilian Gold Rush kicked off, Portugal was not a small nation almost surrounded by Spain, but a major world power in possession of one of the largest empires in the world. This is largely thanks to their early efforts at overseas exploration that predate even the Columbian Contact between the Old World and the New. Indeed, the Portuguese had been colonizing parts of Africa for the better part of a century before Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic. The Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral first arrived in Brazil in 1500 intending to simply use the land as a trading post, but not to actually create any kind of permanent settlement or society there. Of course, other factors were luring the Portuguese to the region: The allure of adventure on new and untamed lands — and the women who were there. Native women often greeted explorers in a manner that would seem excessive during the hedonistic days of 1970s rock. The final result was that the Brazilian Gold Rush became the biggest in recorded history. The Portuguese colonization of Brazil is very intimately tied to the Brazilian Gold Rush, especially the beginning. It was the Bandeirantes (a term that literally translates as “flag carriers”) who discovered rich deposits of gold in the mountains of Minas Gerais. Who Were the Bandeirantes? The Bandeirantes were something between the Spanish Conquistadors and the cowboys of the United States. They were men who sought to make their fortune in the New World by hook or by crook. Oftentimes this meant through adventuring, treasure hunting, or slaving. They were so-called because as they went on their adventures through the undiscovered country they would plant the Portuguese flag, claiming the land for the mother country. Like the American cowboys, they were largely responsible for the westward expansion of the country, going well past the Tordesillas Line, which Pope Julius declared as the dividing line between the Portuguese and Castilian New World in 1494. The Bandeirantes are an interesting group of people sociologically. They hailed almost entirely from the São Paulo region of Brazil, which at that time was known as the Captaincy of São Vicente before changing its name to the Captaincy of São Paulo in 1709. They were descendants of some of the earliest Portuguese settlers in Brazil, however, they were very commonly of mixed blood between Europeans and Native Brazilians. This racial admixture is called “mameluco,” a term roughly equivalent to the Spanish mestizo. For their part, the Bandeirantes largely adopted many of the indigenous ways, which made it easier for them to survive in the often hostile and unforgiving interior of this strange new world. In addition to claiming the land for the Portuguese Crown, the Bandeirantes’ main charge was to find and enslave the local native population. However silver, diamonds, and, of course, gold quickly became a much more lucrative adventure in the New World. Thus, their efforts shifted away from humans to minerals. They are largely responsible both for the large territory that is a part of Brazil today, but also almost single-handedly responsible for the discovery of mineral wealth in the vast country. The Captaincy of São Vicente transformed into the Viceroyalty of Brazil, more or less coterminous with the modern-day Republic of Brazil, largely thanks to their efforts. While they were certainly engaged in the unsavory practice of slavery, the Bandeirantes continue to enjoy a revered status in Brazilian history to this day. A Massive Influx Into São Paulo The population influx of the Brazilian Gold Rush absolutely dwarfs nearly every other gold rush in history. All told, almost one million souls flooded the country in search of fortune — 400,000 Portuguese and 500,000 African slaves went into the region to hunt for gold. Sugar plantations, previously a massive source of revenue for the Portuguese Crown, were abandoned so in favor of the gold mines in the southeastern part of the country. By 1725, half of the population of Brazil was living in the gold mining region of the country. This also significantly impacted the population of the mother country. The Portuguese court at Lisbon was forced to restrict emigration to the colonies due to the massive outflux of people from Europe to the New World. What’s more, the Brazilian gold rush is distinguished from other, similar gold rushes, by the fact that much of the mining was being done by both African and indigenous slaves rather than free European labor. The result was over 800 metric tons of gold pulled out of the region and that’s just the official tally. There was also illegal mining going on and other black-market forces that were finding more gold than they were reporting to the crown back in Lisbon, thousands of miles and an ocean away. Other gold was simply used for ornamentation locally on churches and other institutions. While the region eventually took on the name the Captaincy of São Paulo, this was not the largest city in Brazil at the time. The largest city was Ouro Preto with 40,000 people by 1730 and a few decades later, 80,000. For context, this was twice the size of New York City at the time, while São Paulo had a mere 8,000 residents. What’s more, the Portuguese were quickly outfoxed by their allies — and rivals — the British. The Portuguese wanted to ship as much of the gold they were mining back to the mother country and were deeply concerned about every last nugget that wasn’t making it back. To that end, they set up a massive bureaucracy to oversee the production of gold in Brazil. Unfortunately, it was also a very inefficient and often corrupt bureaucracy, so it might have caused more problems than it solved. All told, the court in Lisbon demanded that fully 20 percent of all gold mined be sent directly to them, a massive tax that probably encouraged a lot of “off the books” mining allowing the miners to keep more of the spoils from the mines. The Second Wave: The Cuiaba Gold Rush The first wave of the Brazilian Gold Rush might be termed the São Paolo Gold Rush due to it being centered in that Captaincy. However, there was a second wave of the Brazilian Gold Rush that was centered around the Cuiaba River, a little over 850 miles from the site of the first wave. At the time this was terra incognita and the second wave of the Brazilian Gold Rush helped to expand the borders of Brazil all the way to the frontier of what is now Bolivia. Three men are generally credited with kicking off this second wave of the Brazilian Gold Rush: Pascoal Moreira Cabral Leme, Antonio Pires de Campos, and Miguel Sutil. However, we know very little about their lives other than that they were Portuguese adventurers who discovered gold in the area around the Cuiaba River. Over 7,000 men, including 2,600 slaves poured into the region quickly, and soon there were over 10,000 pounds of gold being produced by the region every month. It was mostly to be for naught from the perspective of the Portuguese crown. First, there was the baked-in cost of transporting massive amounts of extremely heavy gold across an ocean. The overland journey out of the region to the coast took between five and seven months on its own. Then there was the unfortunate surprise upon opening the chests and finding lead inside. The perpetrators of this crime were never uncovered and the gold reserves in this area quickly played out making it almost entirely a bust from the perspective of the Portuguese monarch — but what a heist for whoever actually got that gold. By the year 1737, there were only seven white men and a handful of slaves working in the region. A Look at a Portuguese Gold Convoy It goes without saying that transporting heavy goods in the 18th Century was nothing like transporting heavy goods today. Before the industrial revolution, the primary sources of energy were fire and muscle. This muscle might have been animal or human, but it was bound by all of the constraints that muscle is bound to. Having all the gold in the world doesn’t matter at all if you can’t move it to somewhere it can be spent or otherwise used, so this is significant in understanding the Brazilian Gold Rush, which largely took place before the invention of the steam engine. The overland route was just about a hundred miles. This doesn’t sound like a lot by modern standards. It’s barely a “trip” and more of just a “long drive.” However, in addition to not having access to the internal combustion machine, the Portuguese gold train also had to contend with mosquitos (which were a deadly threat, not a minor nuisance, due to malaria and other diseases) as well as hostile natives. The entire 1720 convoy was wiped out, but no one knows why. The 1725 convoy saw only two survivors after it was attacked by a canoe-based native tribe known as the Payaguá. In 1728, another convoy was attacked, this time to liberate a band of Paraesi captives who were being transported back as slaves. The 1730 convoy saw 400 people killed by hostile natives who also took nearly 2,000 pounds of gold, which they promptly threw in the river with no idea as to its true value. They kept about 300 pounds of the gold, which they traded to some Spaniards they encountered later. One Spaniard was able to trade a simple tin plate for five pounds of gold. In 1733, a convoy attack left three survivors. This was the first attack that prompted a punitive counterattack from the Portuguese. To that end, they sent a force of 842 men to destroy a village of Payaguá Indians the next year. A similar attack in 1735 left another four alive. Once the gold stopped flowing from the region the attacks on the Portuguese stopped. Instead, the Payaguá went back to feuding with their fellow Indians, the Guayacuru or Mbayá, who preferred horses to canoes. The Aftermath of the Brazilian Gold Rush The Brazilian Gold Rush was over almost as quickly as it began. Once the gold ran out, the entire Brazilian economy entered a very long period of stagnation. By the year 1807, gold had entirely ceased to be a source of revenue for the Portuguese crown. There is still a great deal of gold to be found in the Amazon region of the nation, however, gold mining in and around the Amazon is strictly forbidden under Brazilian law. Illicit trade in Brazilian gold continues despite this ban, but the penalties are high. These miners come from all walks of life, unlike those who rushed to make their fortunes during the Brazilian Gold Rush. The Brazilian Gold Rush is instructive in terms of how quickly even the largest reserves of gold in the world can be tapped out in a short period of time. We might not live in the days where easy fortunes can be made on all four corners of the globe, but there is still plenty of gold in the earth for those lucky or bold enough to find it. What’s more, we have means to both find and extract the gold from the earth that is far more than what was available to the Portuguese during the Brazilian Gold Rush. Where will you find your fortune? The Brazilian Gold Rush: Gold Mining in Brazil originally appeared on kellycodetectors.com.