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

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firebird

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Oct 17, 2018
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Central Valley California
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I can't seem to find any specific info on how much gold were they actually finding in virgin placer deposits back then, only vague descriptions about how they found lots of flakes and nuggets just using gold pans, not even using rocker boxes or sluices. Were they getting over 1 ounce a day? And how much was gold actually worth back then, compared to today which is around $1300 an ounce?
 

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Not sure how much they were getting but i do know gold was somewhere around $30 to $35 per ounce.

I stand corrected....i guess i could have looked the price of gold up but for some reason that number was stuck in my head.
 

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They got a lot!!! They were not hampered by modern thought. When they panned down to black sand, they tossed in a few drops of mercury so all gold down to 300 mesh was caught. Then they got out their mercury and went to another pan. They did not waste mercury!!!! It was way to expensive. You try that today and you will probably do some Federal time ;) The same with their sluice boxes. They were not like a modern sluice that only catches 15% (the visible gold above 70 mesh). They used copper slick plates coated with quicksilver. That did the same, caught all gold down to 300 mesh. The riffles were just safety catches for course gold. Your trying to mine with a box that don't work except for course gold. That is why you shovel all day and come home with $5 worth of gold LOL! Don't feel too bad, a dredger, working a 5 inch dredge, catching 1/2 oz. a day is throwing 2.8 ozs. out the back of his sluices HEHHE! In a week he rids himself of not too small a fortune!

Want to make 4 times the gold? Use a super sluice pan and only pan down to the black sand, take it all home and amalgamate it. You will be amazed what you've been throwing back in the creek!!!! And don't forget the platinum!!! I've seen creeks where it runs 40% to gold values!!! Waste not want not :)
 

Mercury was rarely used by panners during the initial rush. And not very often after as a form of production??!!

They didn't start mining for it with any marked production until 1850. They didn't really start using it on a mass scale until Hydraulicing really caught on.
It was rare. and expensive for single miners early on. In fact it was used more by the Chinese in small scale ops than most of the other pick and shovel miners.

The bulk of the early guys that were succesful we're finding coarse gold down to 100 mesh just fine.

While its true that there is a lot of fine gold that is difficult to catch with just hydraulic gravity system. It is an absolute myth an impossiblity that they lost more out of their equipment than they captured.

literal, literary hooey!!!

same goes for today If you are getting a half ounce a day with anything. You are not passing through 2.5 times that much in fines

the price of gold in 1849 was $ 20.96

In my area they were getting $6 dollar pans in numerous spots the first few years. but, the whole water course , drainage or bench was not that rich.

You will read other similar accounts

The first ones im many spots were digging eroded lode deposits that had not moved far and were very rich.

waterways that cut ancient channels and benches also made for very very rich bedrock deposits that we will never find again unless it was missed.

There will not be the concentration of millenia. that led to what the first fellas in certain spots found.

A shovel would require somewhere near a half ounce at one point!!!

Gold is worth much much more now. Even when you consider local inflated prices... that shovel had a lot more value back then.

Today an ounce of gold will buy you a truck load of shovels.
 

firebird said:
I can't seem to find any specific info on how much gold were they actually finding in virgin placer deposits back then, only vague descriptions about how they found lots of flakes and nuggets just using gold pans, not even using rocker boxes or sluices. Were they getting over 1 ounce a day? And how much was gold actually worth back then, compared to today which is around $1300 an ounce?
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Gold price was just a little over $20 in 1849. In relative terms the buying power was about the same per ounce then as it is today with current pricing. Finding an ounce then was probably close to what they could earn in a month or longer in a day job if they actually had one...think farmers and the like (turned prospectors) that bartered or sold their crops, etc. Profiteering inflated pricing during the rush driving the value down though.
 

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Johnnybravo300 said:
Even to this day you can walk along any California creek and nuggets practically jump into your pan. People have been injured.
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I'm going to have to call you out on that one Johnny, I walked a ways on California creeks and rivers last summer and not a single nugget jumped into my pan lol. Maybe it was because I'm a rookie :laughing9:
 

It’s also worth mentioning that old gem that the people that got rich during the gold rush were not the miners. If all the gold that has ever been found IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY of mankind were accumulated in one place it would fill less than 2 Olympic swimming pools. That kind of gives it a little perspective. We, as humans, are just inexplicably drawn to it and will doggedly chase it to the ends of the earth
 

I’d settle for finding an old double sawbuck
 

AllenJ said:
I'm going to have to call you out on that one Johnny, I walked a ways on California creeks and rivers last summer and not a single nugget jumped into my pan lol. Maybe it was because I'm a rookie :laughing9:
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Metal detecting for nuggets seems like a huge waste of time, the gold here in California is just too worn down and rolled around by the water to be big nuggets. I've had more luck just using a shovel and a $5 plastic gold pan. Only Australia still has the huge gold nuggets that we dream about.

 

Madmox said:
It’s also worth mentioning that old gem that the people that got rich during the gold rush were not the miners. If all the gold that has ever been found IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY of mankind were accumulated in one place it would fill less than 2 Olympic swimming pools. That kind of gives it a little perspective. We, as humans, are just inexplicably drawn to it and will doggedly chase it to the ends of the earth
Click to expand...

Yeah I found this nice picture here that really illustrates it.

CxqDkqXXEAAbVt4.jpg
 

AllenJ said:
I'm going to have to call you out on that one Johnny, I walked a ways on California creeks and rivers last summer and not a single nugget jumped into my pan lol. Maybe it was because I'm a rookie :laughing9:
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You probably forgot to wave a gold pan over your head as you walked. Try again!
 

Madmox said:
Or to put it another way all the gold ever found by mankind would barely pay 1/3 of the national debt. [emoji2373][emoji2361] that stings a little...
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Which is why we don’t have, and can never have, a gold backed currency.
 

lol. rest assured there is more than that.

Hint. Don't trust the first three pages of google.


Funny how it isn't mentioned that becuase of the fact that gold doesn't really go away after it is mined.

You know minus ship wrecks and what we've sent into space.


Funny how it kinda sells over and over....and over again.

In my ever so humble opinion. It is way undervalued...and there is more of it than the "experts" are saying... or Knowing?
 

Its such a broad question, Really depended on the 49er and where he was digging. Some did very well, some failed miserably. I forget what gold rush account it was but they were dealing with gold as fine as mustard flour and tried all sorts of methods to capture all of it. Early if the rush in then were remote parts of the state over winter gold was for all intensive purposes worthless if there wasn't any food or drink to buy with it.
 

I read about a boat that docked there full of rich British women during the gold rush. They had the boat loaded with rakes and when asked what they were gonna do with the rakes?

"Rake the gold up!"
 

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Nice Specimen.

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