Californian gold rush

Gold veins in rocks are known as lode deposits. The principal vein is the mother lode , now a figure of speech as well as the name of one of the most famous deposits of the Californian Gold Rush. When these lodes form at relatively low temperatures and low pressures near the surface of the Earth s crust, they can become exceptionally rich in gold. Such deposits can be found in Colorado and Nevada, and became known in the nineteenth century by the Spanish word for prosperity bonanza, a term now redolent with the mythology of the Wild West. 

Levi Strauss (left), the "father" of indigo-coloured "bluejeans", which scored their first success at the time ofthe Californian gold-rush. 

The western gold fields extend from Mexico to Alaska. The first discovery was made in 1848 at Sacramento, California, during excavation for a sawmill. A gold rush started and people from all parts of the world hastened to the gold district Characteristic of another Californian gold area, Carson Hill, were the rich quartz lodes found in the hill. The method adopted to win the gold was to explode a charge in the vein and, after the explosion, go round and pick up the pieces in hand baskets. Car-... 

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