Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1932-10-15


ed. so. 900 men could 80 20 work
immediately. draw $250,000 daily
in pay and turn that gold into tns
marts Of trade at the rate OF
more shan szo. O00,O 900 yearly
This Is, Of course. the miners
picture: but it has a mighty ap-
peal IN the fact that, whatever
the pros and cons. here for once
IS a problem whose final solution
win not rest on the bromide
premise Of robbing Peter to pay
Paul.
It is the sort Of problem that
turns high minds and inteilects
away from hunting public hand
outs through an astronomic quest
OF the heavens. gets back to fun
damentals and sends people
searching nor work and money
where work and money is: In
the earth and on It.
situation Is Trayesty
That California should have
hydraulic mining problem is
travesty proper. The State was
built on gold coin Of the
realm. From 1s4s. when Mar
shan found his first nuggets at
CoIma, until April Of 1851, when
Beauregard fired on Fort stump
ter, California took $7oo,ooo.OoO
in gold out Of it's creeks, streams
and canyons.
From 1851 to 1855. it dug out
another s0.oOO.0OO in gold.
Between Marshall and coloma
t1s4s,) and Gov Rolph and his
Roman ibathtub in the new State
Building in Los Angeles tiss2,)
California has produced $4,000
600, 600 in gold.
out OF the. endowment with
which nature blessed it. It financ-
ed an epoch: Itself, the Civil
war and q nation. But when.
three years ago. II came TO feed
ing hungry people mere incl
dant n An epoch-4he search dor
new gold. again by travesty'
turned stupidity to peoples peck
ets--not to the places where the
gold is.
Four-fifths OF the s2,OOO,oOo,-
600 the state has produced IN
gold came from gravel deposits.
That gets back to the farmers
ana miners tight. the hydraulic
process
Hydraulic mining, substan-
tally. consists Of turning the
Of q high-Uressure water
pipe on q deposit end washing
dirt gravel. boulders and gold
into a common sluice. The sluice
has iron RIFLES across its bed.
The gold, very heavy, drops down
behind the RIFLES. At the end Of
ak weeks or so, you shut off the
water. walk along the sluice with
an amaIeam bucket and q clean
up scoop and pick up the gold.
Eevery ounce you pick up -
worth s2O.s7 at any United States
mine. That is the price as this
Is written. Customariiy, before
Il Is refined. raw gold runs from
s14 to $3.50 an ounce.
New the hydraulic process has
one unhappy aspect. Rather, II
did have.
The boulders and silt have %
be dumped after the gold Is re-
claimed. In the old days the
miners thoughtlessly washed their
sebris down into the fertile San
JOAQUIN and Sacramento River
valleys. choked up the channels
II the rivers and flooded the
,armers rich agricultural land.
FARaEERs WE'RE AEGERED
The tanners tired Of having
in cans thrown In their 'front.'
ards, to put It figuratiyeiy. They
stopped Il: but they spurned JUS
ice and took a vengeance. They
banned the process from me gold
ields. It was a futile retribu-
ION. No one needs gold more
han DO the farmers today.
Whist actually happened was
his
when the hardened. primitive
Of the HourdshiHg hy-
raulic mines. separated from
oresieht and common sense by
he fever Of gold and two-gun
aw. washed ton upon ton Of
amag1ng debris down on the
road and fertile valleys Of agri-
uture. the lmmigrant farmers