Gold Mining In American West During The Gold Rush

The American Gold Rush is one of the greatest adventures of human history, during which young men and women left their homes to find gold. They left in’49, and therefore, came to be known as the forty-niners. It was a very different story when these people got to California, where the conditions were so bad that not enough drinking water was available. Californians, on hearing about this, initiated selling water to the immigrants, and sometimes the price of water rose up to $100.

A steamboat operator could earn 40,000 dollars in one month, and a farmer could sell one egg for 50cents! Selling their ideas everywhere, could be found creative entrepreneurs. Levi Strauss began his business here, in addition to numerous names that went on to make more money.

There was a constant flow of people coming, and although there was gold in the riverbeds, it was hard to extract. Not much gold was achieved with panning. It appeared to be a losing battle since the gold reserves were diminishing fast. Other advanced mining techniques started being experimented with.

As gold became tricky to extract, changes occurred in California. By the early’50s, a man alone could not find gold; he needed technology, and expertise. First miners came together, formed a group, and realised that they needed to depend on each other. They decided to turn the river the other way, so that the gold on the riverbed could be extracted.

Other techniques were needed soon, and some main corporations took the place of the small group of miners. These proposed more ways to extract gold that were capital intensive in nature. These corporations employed the miners that stayed back, and although they hated the situation, they had to live with whoever paid their everyday bread. The ironic thing was that they came to become wealthy, and extract gold for themselves, but had to be paid to do the exact same thing for others.

The corporations proposed effective techniques that did the job. However, these corporations were also the cause of the first environmental disasters that struck California. Pristine rivers were rerouted. Hydraulic mining, introduced in’53, was the worst technique, under which powerful jets of water that could kill a man 200 feet away, were shot at the ground, which tore the riverbed. Californians had developed the attitude of utilising their own land negatively, not caring about the harm being caused.

Despite working tirelessly, miners had nothing to show for their efforts. Other ways to make money were searched for. People experimented with poker, to try their luck, and then turned towards crime. Jails started filling up rapidly.

People seemed to see that it was a losing battle. These eventually died in California trying to work hard towards making their dream a reality, but they never achieved their dream. Many left while others stayed. They still had hope. A few times people find gold unexpectedly, but it was so rare that it only encouraged those who are back to keep digging.

Jack Wagon is a gold investment consultant. You can buy pure gold bullion and get complete information about buying gold bars at his recommended site at http://www.goldmadesimple.com/.

categories: buy gold,buy gold bullion,gold bars