Original subtitles

(dramatic drum beats)

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- [Voiceover] John Augustus Sutter,

born Johann August Suter,

is a Swiss born pioneer,

who leaves his wife and five children

and comes to America to escape his personal debts back home.

Like many who came to America,

the country lent them the opportunity to start over.

A new life on a new soil.

Sutter eventually settles himself in California,

which at this time is still a province of Mexico.

So he ventures to the capital at Monterrey to ask permission

from the governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in order to settle.

To be able to qualify for land ownership,

Sutter becomes a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840.

He soon thereafter receives title to

48,827 acres of land

on the Sacramento River.

He names his new settlement

New Helvetia, New Switzerland.

With the help of the Maidu indians,

Sutter builds the fort that one day

the doomed Donner Party would reach out to for aid.

His sights are set on building his New Switzerland

and creating an agricultural empire.

James W. Marshall is a New Jersey born farmer and carpenter,

who, much like John Sutter, finds himself

in the middle of the nation,

seeking to find a way to establish himself.

After droughts foiled his attempts at farming

and falling ill with malaria,

Marshall joins an immigrant wagon train that's headed West,

destined for Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Marshall makes his way down into California,

where he reaches Sutter's Fort.

John Sutter places him under his employ

and Marshall finds his financial fortunes on the upswing.

He once again becomes a farmer.

Soon after though, the conflict and tensions

between Mexico and the US begin,

and James Marshall joins

Captain John C. Fremont's California Battalion,

in the short lived Bear Flag Revolt.

He returns home to his ranch,

and finds that his cattle have either strayed

or have been stolen.

With no source of income,

he loses his land.

Marshall soon enters into partnership with John Sutter,

to build and operate a sawmill in Coloma, California,

on the American River,

just 40 miles upstream of Sutter's Fort.

While under construction in January 1848,

it's discovered that the ditch which drains the water away

from the water wheel is much too narrow

and shallow to handle the amount of water

that is needed to keep the saw operational.

Marshall opts to use the river's natural force

to do the excavating for him,

in order to enlarge the tailrace.

There was no other choice

but to take this action over the course of the night

because if done during the work day,

the process could endanger the lives

of his men working on the mill.

On the morning of January 24th,

Marshall goes out to examine the progress

of the channel below the mill.

As he is surveying the developments from the night before,

he notices a few flecks in the water,

catching the light of the sun and shining back at him.

He would later recount,

- [Voiceover] "I picked up one or two pieces

"and examined them attentively,

"and having some general knowledge of minerals,

"I could not call to mind more than two

"which in any way resembled this.

"Sulfrite of iron, very bright and brittle,

"and gold, bright yet malleable.

"I then tried it between two rocks,

"and found that it could be beaten

"into a different shape, but not broken.

"I then collected four or five pieces

"and went up to Mr. Scott, who was working

"at the carpenter's bench making the mill wheel,

"with the pieces in my hand and said,

"I have found it!" James W. Marshall.

- [Voiceover] James Marshall's primary focus

and responsibility would remain to be

the completion of the saw mill,

so he sees no harm in permitting

his crew to search for gold during their free time.

Perhaps this is why it takes him four whole days

before he travels to Sutter's Fort

to show his findings to his partner John Sutter.

There, the two men examine the gold further,

and even reference an encyclopedia

to make sure of the properties.

They agree to keep the discovery quiet,

but little do they know that it's already too late.

A young journalist by the name

of Samuel Brannan who owns a general store,

has employees of John Sutter purchase goods from him,

and these men pay with gold flecks

that they have taken from the American in their spare time.

This encounter ignites Brannan's curiosity,

and he travels to the mill as a representative

of the LDS church where he receives

tithes of gold from the LDS workers.

Soon, the news that there is gold being harvested

from the American River will spread far and wide,

faster than the metal can be pulled from the ground.

Samuel Brannan takes his newly acquired information,

and wastes little time in molding it

into a means by which he can turn a profit.

His general store would soon be selling

picks, pans, and shovels

to any and all who crossed his threshold

with their glints of gold swirling in their eyes.

The events that take place in the coming years is perhaps

one of the greatest human migrations in modern times.

The world is in love, obsessed,

and enchanted by the promise of gold.

Never before in the years that follow

has the world been mobilized and drawn

to one place with such speed,

zeal, and recklessness.

An accidental discovery in the American River

will end up seducing the entire world.

- [Voiceover] "There are two times in a man's life

"when he should not speculate.

"When he can't afford it,

"and when he can." Mark Twain.

- [Voiceover] One of the many ironies

of the California Gold Rush,

is that the two men who make the initial find,

would end up losing their land to hordes of squatters

who would swarm in from all corners of the world

and, in some cases, indiscriminately tear up the land

in order to search for gold.

They did this on lands that had

little to no regulation put upon them,

and those lands that did have regulation,

had no one to do the regulating.

Meanwhile, there's a shopkeep by the name of Samuel Brannan,

a Mormon and also a reporter,

who gains knowledge of the discovery of gold

in the American River purely by accident,

because of the imprudent purchase by a few of Sutter's men.

The men come into Samuel Brannan's general store,

and pay for goods with the gold dust that they found.

This seemingly innocuous transaction

would result in Samuel Brannan becoming

the first millionaire of the California Gold Rush.

Brannan ends up selling picks and pans

to those squatters and prospectors,

and he builds his fortune

on the hopes and dreams of those travelers

eager to find that same fortune

in the streams and in the hills.

His money was not made in the gold fields,

Brannan's riches were harvested

from the much more abundant fields

of prospectors and adventurers.

"Gold! Gold!

"Gold from the American River!"

Samuel Brannan shouts through the streets

of San Francisco, holding high a vial of nuggets

and dust that he has found.

His claim was in fact true,

and another truth was that he had the only general store

between San Francisco and the burgeoning gold fields.

His marketing ploy worked,

and he turned the ears of all those around him.

One vial of gold and one ton of hype,

and he got the adrenaline pumping

in the hearts of everyone within earshot.

The picks and pans he purchased for pennies a piece

he was able to turn around and resell

for upwards of up to 15 to 20 dollars each,

supply and demand in its rawest and purest form.

His timing and industrious nature would carry him far.

Samuel Brannan's general store provided

a much-needed service for all of those

hungry to get their hands dirty

and pull gold nuggets and dust

from the pristine California landscape.

- [Voiceover] "The whole country,

"from San Francisco to Los Angeles,

"and from the seashore

"to the base of the Sierra Nevadas

" resounds with the sordid cry of Gold, gold, gold!

"While the field is left half planted, the house half built,

"and everything neglected

"but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes."

The Californian.

- [Voiceover] Within a matter of days,

most of the 800 residents of San Francisco

rushed off to the gold fields in search of riches.

Their sudden evacuation

leaving the city a near-ghost town.

The newspaper, The Californian,

even announced that it would be suspending publication

because its staff had left for the gold fields.

- [Voiceover] "California has a mine of gold

"and without allowing any golden hopes

"to puzzle my prophetic vision of the future,

"I would predict for California a Peruvian harvest

"of the precious metals so soon as sufficiency

"of miners, minerologists, and metalogists

"find their way hither

"and commence dispersing her hidden treasures."

The New York Herald.

- [Voiceover] Seven months after James Marshall

discovered gold in the water

near Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California,

the news would finally begin to break on the East Coast.

Before anyone back East could even pack a bag,

let alone make a plan to venture westward,

thousands of souls were already

knee-deep in a river or stream,

toiling under the yellow California sun,

each one of them searching for an element

of much the same hue,

but which perhaps burns in the mind all the brighter.

Residents of California and Native Americans

were the first ones to start pulling

the precious metal from the ground.

Their knowledge of why the gold

was where it was was virtually non-existent,

and that ignorance was very much reflected

in their mining techniques.

They were simple and crude,

and relied very much on luck,

but in the early days of the Gold Rush,

all one needs is a pickax, a pan,

or a blanket to find success.

There were no permits or regulations.

All kept what they found,

and there was much to be found,

just waiting beneath the silt and the sand.

The American Indians had known of gold for centuries,

but it carried no value in their culture.

Quickly though, they caught on to the trade value

with the whites that this rich yellow metal yielded.

In the early days of the Gold Rush,

they were very successful in mining for gold.

Men, women, and children alike

would take part in the excavation.

Soon though, white miners were pushing the natives

out of the mines or taking advantage of them,

and using them as underpaid laborers.

Many were even killed,

and few whites paid the consequences

of their short-sighted and ruthless transgressions.

The next peoples to try their luck

were Americans from Oregon

and those from the Sandwich Islands,

along with many people from Latin America,

ranging from Chile to Mexico and even Peru.

The majority of these early prospectors

found gold easily in the stream beds and under rocks.

Their future counterparts would have

to delve much deeper,

and utilize more knowledge of the science

of why and where the gold was where it was.

In the meantime though, these early prospectors

would become wealthy almost overnight.

There was little competition between those digging for gold,

everyone was focused on becoming rich

and many had little trouble doing so.

Seven months of digging

by over 6000 hands had commenced

before the New York Herald broke the story back East.

While they were late in being informed,

the masses were now roused and began mobilizing.

A great change in the country was about to take place,

both in the geographical aspects of its population,

as well as the mindset of those Americans

who would soon traverse the unsettled nation

in search of gold.

The notions of risk, luck, and a new kind of ambition

was coming over the people of the East.

The discovery of gold on the Western edge

of the continent practically sealed the notion

of Manifest Destiny in many of the minds

of those who held that belief.

What more evidence did we need to see?

The nation was meant to stretch

from the Atlantic to the Pacific,

and that bright new land was there

for any and all who would risk the chance to claim it.

It was almost as if the very Earth itself

was urging Americans onward,

tempting them to come claim their collective birthrights.

- [Voiceover] "I remember one day in the Spring of 1848

"that two men, Americans, came into the office

"and inquired for the governor.

"I asked their business,

"and one answered that they had just come down

"from Captain Sutter on special business,

"and they wanted to see Governor Mason in person."

William T. Sherman.

- [Voiceover] Sherman and Mason examine the gold

that these two men from Sutter's Mill

have brought to their attention.

In July of 1848, General Richard Barnes Mason

along with Captain William T. Sherman

visit the gold fields to procure information

that will go into a report for the US government.

- [Voiceover] "The discovery of these vast deposits

"of gold has entirely changed

"the character of upper California.

"Its people, before engaged in cultivating

"their small patches of ground

"and guarding their herds of cattle and horses,

"have all gone to the mines,

"or are now on their way thither.

"Laborers of every trade have left their work benches,

"and tradesmen their shops.

"Sailors desert their ships

"as fast as they arrive on the coast,

"and several vessels have gone to sea

"with hardly enough hands to spread a sail."

General Richard Barnes Mason.

- [Voiceover] On December 5th, 1848,

President James K. Polk confirms the discovery of gold

in California during his address to Congress.

General Mason's findings are just too overwhelming

for the President to do anything

but announce the full measure of the findings.

- [Voiceover] "The accounts of abundance of gold

"are of such an extraordinary character

"as would scarcely command belief,

"were they not corroborated by the authentic reports

of officers in the public service."

James K. Polk.

- [Voiceover] Once the information is announced,

it does not take long for the masses to become mobilized.

Soon in the new year,

San Francisco and the surrounding areas

became inundated with these prospectors,

these 49ers, which were so named for the year

in which the swarm began.

It's a name that they would continue

to be called for years to come.

By the time the Gold Rush ends,

the United States would see more than

300,000 of its people uproot their lives,

and place themselves in the hills and valleys of California.

Some would give up the land

that provided sustenance for them.

Some abandoned promising and stable careers back East,

leaving families on their own until they returned.

Some never returned.

Still others had nothing to lose,

or no one to leave behind,

and only adventure ahead.

These numbers were matched

by those peoples from around the globe

who made the arduous journey to the gold fields,

some of whom remained in the country

and shaped not only the ethnic diversity

of San Francisco and California,

but the entire nation.

The stories of the riches being pulled from the land

were all they needed to emancipate themselves

from the lives they were living

and reach for something new,

something hopeful, something brighter.

- [Voiceover] "By this sudden discovery of the gold,

"all my great plans were destroyed.

"Had I succeeded for a few years

"before the gold was discovered,

"I would have been the richest citizen

"on the Pacific shore, but it had to be different.

"Instead of being rich, I am ruined." John Sutter.

- [Voiceover] What began as an accidental find

in the waters near James Sutter's burgeoning mill,

would shape the decisions

of thousands of people around the world.

It would make some rich beyond their dreams,

and leave many more

with less than what they started out with,

only to return home and begin their old life again.

Thousands had nothing to return to,

and they would stay on in California,

and shape the cultural diversity

that it continues to have to this day.

Lives would be lost to the inherent dangers of mining,

the raw living conditions,

and lifestyles that many of the miners endured

while they relentlessly dug for gold.

It's unfortunate as well

that many others would be abused

and discriminated against

purely because of their race.

The discovery of gold would hasten

the introduction of California into the Union.

The rush for gold rapidly shaped the fate

of California statehood as much as the actions

of those who came to reap from the land.

The ravenous miners would leave scars upon it

that are still very much present to this very day.

The horde was coming, and James Sutter

was not able to keep them from squatting

on his now highly-valuable property.

He would fight for years over the validity

of his land claims that were established

with the now-absent Mexican government.

Because of the exchange of power

after the Mexican-American War,

ownership of property at the time in that location,

was a line that was all-too-easily blurred,

and with the United States government back East,

there was no way to enforce such claims.

The prospectors and squatters would move

on to James Sutter's precious New Helvetia,

slowly destroying his pastoral dream,

one body at a time.

They would claim their findings in the land for their own,

and when they had taken all they could,

they would move on.

Prospectors would come from all corners of the world,

and from every walk of life.

The hopeful would come by land,

and the would come by sea.

Choosing to venture westward

by land meant a shorter trip

if you left at the proper time of year,

but it did not mean an easier one.

One advantage that those

who traveled to California by land

held over those choosing to sail by ship,

was that they were able to take

many of the supplies and provisions

they needed with them,

because many, if not all, traveled by covered wagon.

Often, these people would travel in groups

to provide a sense of security

against the unknown elements ahead,

and help ensure a safer overall journey

from the Native Americans,

which many knew little of and blindly feared.

The jumping off point for the trails

were much the same as the fur trappers

who came before them: Independence, Missouri,

St. Joseph, Missouri, or Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Many traveled along the Oregon Trail

until splitting off towards their individual destinations.

The story of the Donner-Reed Party

was still fresh in the minds of Americans,

and it was by now well-known

that if you were going to travel west,

you were well-advised to choose the proper time of year.

After the early spring rains,

the grass would grow to sufficient lengths

so the oxen and other livestock taken

could sustain themselves upon it.

If you left too late, you ran the very real risk

of having snow fall in the mountain passes

by the time your party reached them.

The Donners had made a mistake

that no one wanted to make again.

The trip was long and exhausting.

Many chose to walk alongside their wagons

because the rough trail

made the wagon seats too uncomfortable,

but an uncomfortable wagon seat

was the least of the future prospector's problems.

Many fell ill with dysentery from drinking bad water,

and cholera took the lives of many along the way.

All the preparations and knowledge

of those who took the paths before them

could not keep these simple infections and disorders

from ravaging the ranks of travelers.

Those crossing the Great Plains would have to make do

with the materials that nature provided.

Wood for a fire was a scarce commodity along the trail,

but it was discovered that oxen patties

made a clean and odorless fuel.

It was an inevitability that some traveling

to California for the Gold Rush

would fall on hard times along the way,

and for a multitude of reasons.

Most who made it to California

made it carrying a much lighter load

than the one they departed with,

whether it was a wagon that was broken beyond repair,

dead livestock, or simply having to leave gear

that was unneeded and only weighing them down on the trail.

These Americans had to purge some of their gear

only to have to repurchase it from now-flourishing merchants

once they made it to the gold fields.

Thousands crossed the nation and risked their lives,

and they would continue to take risks

once on California soil.

If an American from the East Coast

chose to make their way to California by sea,

then they had two main options before them.

The first option was to travel

all the way down to the tip of South America,

and maneuver around the treacherous Cape Horn.

This was the cheaper and longer of the two options.

This route often took upwards of six months

to complete the over 13,000 mile journey.

The obsession to hasten

towards the gold fields as quickly as possible

brought about a shorter, second option.

This route would mean to take a boat

down to Panama and then cross

the 70 mile isthmus of jungle on foot,

where, if the passengers were lucky,

another ship would not be far off

to take them the rest of the way to San Francisco.

Neither option offered the traveler much comfort or safety.

Many of these ships were converted old cargo vessels,

whose owners hastily made crude repairs and modifications.

The owners sometimes installed holes in the deck

to better ventilate the spaces below,

and where the cargo once was stored,

they created cramped bunks to fit as many people

into the ship as they could.

As if the inherent natural danger of such a trip

or the sheer boredom induced from months at sea

were not enough to test the mettle of these travelers,

they often found themselves sailing with spoiled provisions

such as salted meats, rancid lard,

and pests that got into anything they could.

The list of diseases that plagued the passengers

was long and included scurvy,

which was brought on by the lack of a balanced diet,

and more deadly, cholera that claimed many souls

who traveled both the land path

as well as the water routes.

For those who made it to the port in San Francisco,

many expected to find gold right where they landed.

Their knowledge of California's geography

was almost non-existent,

and the news about the discovery of gold

did not provide many small details.

Instead of finding gold where they landed,

these men quickly learned that it was

another 150 miles inland

to reach the gold fields.

Many were already exhausted

and in less-than ideal health after the trip.

They would learn a valuable lesson.

They had come so far only to have to go farther.

These men trudged on toward their most desirous goal.

The seemingly endless journey by sea

was only the first of many hurdles

these adventurers would face.

Hundreds of ships from all over the world

landed in San Francisco

throughout the course of the Gold Rush.

Time and time again, ships would be utterly abandoned

by both passenger and crew as they feverishly headed inland

towards the promise of gold.

These ships would sit in the harbor nearly forgotten.

Sometimes, they were used as store ships or hotels,

They were also often purposefully sunk.

The two abandoned ships that General Mason saw

in July of 1848 and reported on

in his letter to the US government

was only the beginning of a trend

that the harbor would endure for years to come.

San Francisco became a boom town nearly overnight.

From 1848 through 1850,

the city would see its population rise

from 1000 to over 20,000.

The influx of new citizens was so great

that the surrounding area could not supply

enough timber to build the city fast enough.

This is where the many forgotten ships found new life.

They would be repurposed and turned into

shops, hotels, homes, and other structures.

Pieces of the ships were used as landfill,

and the ever-expanding city

was built right on top of them.

The most iconic and simplest way

to extract gold from the earth was to pan for it.

This method was also the cheapest and least effective.

Panning involved the use of a shallow metal bowl,

if one could be procured

from such establishments such as Samuel Brannon's,

or if the miner could not find one,

then any bowl would suffice.

Panning required little to no research or preparation time.

You could begin in the morning

and potentially have results in minutes.

The prospector would crouch beside the water,

scoop out a helping of the soil and stone.

They would then swirl it around in the pans

in the hopes that the heavier gold would sink to the bottom

as they gradually worked off

the undesirable material at the top of the pan.

Winnowing was another early technique

where the paydirt would be dug up

and set out to dry on a large piece of canvas.

Once dried, the material would be crushed

into finer particles and then tossed

into the air on the canvas,

where the wind would blow away the lighter material

and ideally, the gold dust would fall back into the canvas.

These techniques were among the first used

by those searching for riches during the Gold Rush,

and many had good fortunes with them

because the gold was easy to find

and at the surface of these rivers and streams.

But in order to search deeper

into the waters and the hillsides

where there was no natural water

to aid in the separation of sediment from gold,

the miners would have to develop complex methods and devices

in order to extract the precious metal from the earth.

It was not long before miners came to the conclusion

that use of the pan and the pan itself

was a most inefficient approach to searching for gold.

More soil and sediment needed to be moved,

and it needed to be moved faster

and in a less laborious manner.

The rocker box or cradle was soon invented.

It got its name as it resembled a child's cradle.

The cradle is a device that separates

the gold from sand and gravel

by rocking the device back and forth.

It's made of a high-sided box

with an open end and an open top.

The top of this box contains a sieve

for classifying the material.

Usually, the openings will be a half inch or a quarter inch,

and this lets the smaller pieces

of rock and material through

while keeping out the unwanted, larger chunks.

Inside, the bottom of the box is often lined

with baffles that separate out the material.

This works to catch pieces of gold

as they are washed through the classifier box.

The final stage of this process reverts

back to the panning method.

After many shovels full of dirt and rock

have been put through the cradle,

the miner than takes the heavier material

that has been collected in the slats or riffles

on the bottom of the box and sorts them by hand.

Ideally, it would take four men

to efficiently run a cradle.

One to dig the material from the ground,

one to carry it from the claim to the cradle,

one to put the dirt into the cradle itself

and pour water over it,

and one to rock the cradle

and remove unwanted larger stones.

The Long Tom and the sluice were the last methods

that could be employed by a small operation of miners.

The Long Tom was much like an expanded rocker,

often having a ten to twenty foot trough

though unlike the rocker box,

agitating of the paydirt was not done by hand,

but by gravity and the force of the running water.

The length of the sluice was dependent upon

how refined the material needed to be.

They were often linked together,

and could be many yards long.

Miners would often dam and divert streams great distances

in order to direct the constantly moving water

that was needed in order for the sluice to work.

The water would come in at the highest point of the sluice,

and gravity would carry it down,

pushing and separating the material as it went,

first separating out the largest pieces

through metal bars called grizzlies,

and as the material moved downward,

the heavier gold would be caught in the riffles

and eventually panned by hand.

The rocker box and the sluice of the Gold Rush era

were deficient in catching the finest

of gold particles called flour,

so miners often put mercury,

or quicksilver, at the base of these contraptions

because the chemical composition of mercury

would trap fine gold.

The miners would heat the mercury,

and as it vaporized, it would leave the gold behind.

Often, the mercury was trapped and reused.

It wasn't long into the Gold Rush before the placer miner

slowly gave way to the larger operation.

Many men who set out on an ambitious journey west

to stake a claim for themselves and to strike it rich,

found that they were either too late

in finding the easy gold,

or were just in the wrong place.

A journey that was born of independence

soon transformed into one of paid labor.

These miners found themselves

working for larger operations

run by the very wealthy or for corporations.

These men were no longer working for the same end goal,

which was to excavate gold from the earth.

Now, they were simply working for a day's wage,

while someone else reaped the rewards of their work

under the sun or under the earth.

As the easy gold in the rivers and streams

started to disappear, miners recognized

that their tactics needed to change.

With the advent of hydraulic mining,

miners could blast away large expanses

of sediment and rock.

Water would be forced through a hose

that grew narrower and narrower

until it led to a nozzle called a monitor.

At first, the hoses were made of canvas,

but soon crinoline replaced it as the material of choice.

In such instances where the miners found themselves

up against a particularly stubborn piece of hard rock,

they would create a hole in the rock

and fill it with black powder.

They would then touch off the black powder

to blast the hole and continue

pummeling the sediment with the hose.

The excavated rock was then run through a sluice

to acquire any gold that the mountain had released.

With the advancements in mining,

the environment was being altered at an alarming rate,

and the consequences of hydraulic mining

would last for years.

The sediment that would wash downriver into the valley

would cause the riverbanks to rise and flood.

Dredging was another technique used

once the gold in the surface of a river or stream

had been gleaned from the top layer of sediment.

These machines would scoop up the sediment,

either with a single bucket or a continuous loop of buckets,

which then would run the material

through various phases of classification,

such as in a rocker box.

The smaller pieces of rock and sediment

were then run through the sluice.

All the remaining material would be dumped out

the rear of the dredger into piles

along the banks called tailings.

It was not unheard of for some of these tailings

to grow to be seven stories high.

The third large-scale technique for mining gold

during the Rush was underground hard rock mining.

Corporate mining was never more prevalent

than it was in this version of gold mining.

It took a much larger bankroll of money

and many more hands to run this mine.

The process involved extracting the gold from the hard rock.

In this case, the rock was quartz.

The miners would trace the veins,

and blast the gold and rock at the appropriate locations.

The shaft was then mucked out,

and the ore was brought

to the surface for further processing

where the gold-bearing quartz would be crushed

until it was a sand-like consistency.

This would be done with something called a stamp.

These stamps were large slabs of steel or cast iron,

which would be raised and dropped

over and over onto the pieces of ore,

until they were small enough to be passed over

to the amalgamation process.

It was a large undertaking to build a stamp mill,

so most were owned and operated

only by larger mining companies.

Individuals and smaller operations may have used

an arrastra for grinding the metal ore.

The arrastra is a primitive mill introduced to the New World

by the Spanish around the year 1500.

It consists of one or two flat-bottom drag stones

that are placed in a circular pit

which is covered with smaller flat stones.

The drag stone is connected

to a center post by a long arm,

which is powered by a horse, a man, or a mule.

The gold-bearing ore is placed in the pit,

and the drag stone slowly grinds it

between itself and the paving stones.

Both the stamp mill technique

and its more rudimentary cousin the arrastra

needed the same final stage to pull the gold from the ore.

Once again, quicksilver was used to bond with the gold,

and leave the unwanted quartz behind.

While this technique was effective,

and miners attempted to collect

as much of the quicksilver for reuse as possible,

much of it was lost, and caused damage

to the surrounding environment.

Mercury deposits can still be found at the bottom

of the San Francisco Bay to this very day.

Because of man's great haste

to become rich from mining gold,

much of the land was torn apart

with little to no forethought as to the

long-ranging consequences of these actions.

The Gold Rush not only helped shape

California into the state that it soon became,

but it fundamentally altered the size and scope

of cities such as San Francisco.

In some cases, it grew too fast,

and in careless directions.

The miners and their machines forever altered

the surrounding landscapes and environment.

The resourcefulness of man

has often been able to move mountains,

but man's greed often overlooks

how to replace and repair them.

Too often, once the gold is gone,

we leave only wreckage behind.

(dramatic orchestral music)

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