| Show I I GOLD OF EARLY EARLYS MINING DAYS S Fortunes That Were Found by Chance in Many Lands I SOME FAMOUS NUGGETS ONE IN CALIFORNIA WEIGHED EIGHTY POUNDS New York May Ia 13 What Is rs THe e big biggest biggest bigg gest g st nugget of gold on record where was Fas it Jt found and what was it worth The question Is one of at unusual interest for everybody likes to talk about gold and the idea af t f finding it in chunks has a wonderful fascination nation The very word nugget has a charm for It is only applied to the precious metals and gen generally generally to gold alone We never hear ot of ota ota ofa a nugget of ot iron or lead though these and otner other minerals are often lound round in ina ina a pure state but when a lump of o gold is found it is always described as a nugget and the word yord makes a good mouthful The bulk of the tho worlds supply of gold for coinage and manufacturing purposes is obtained by quartz and anti placer mining but nuggets nugget have con contributed contributed contributed their share No very vel large ones have been reported for some years past but it does not take a very large nugget of oC gold sold to mount up in value Even Eyen the little ones found now and then in the craws cr ws of Brown county chickens are worth saving Where Come From The biggest nuggets of gold have been b en found In the United States Aus Atis Australia Australia I trafla and South Africa though some have been found in Mexico and ana British America California has produced many and some very large ones No doubt douet many have been found of ot which no rec record record record ord has been preserved but the list pt of recorded ones is interesting It was the finding of a few small nuggets In Inthe Inthe inthe the tail race of a sawmill in 1848 1148 that started the California gold excitement and led to a rush of gold hunters from all parts of the world This was at Fort Captain Sutter Suiter tried to keep the dis discovery discovery covery secret ecret but it soon got out and the excitement spread like wildfire Governor Mason Iason mIlitary commandant of California visited the fort tort about three months after the first discovery and found upward of or four thousand men me working in the vicinity and getting from one to four tour ounces of gold a man mana a day In a letter to the tile secretary of war Governor Mason lason said Mr r Marshall guided me up the mountain on the north bank of or the south fork where a great deal of coarse gold has been found I there saw several parties at work all of whom were doing very Yel well a great grea many specimens were shown me some weighing four or five ounces This was only the beginning and nuggets the size of a hens egg or a goose egg continued to be found for years One Weighed Eighty Pounds 10 un The largest larest nugget California ever eyer yielded weighed SO 80 u pounds One night in November 1854 1851 two drunken fellows were crossing crossin the mountains to a new camp when a heavy rain came on n They sought shelter in a deserted hut but before morning the water swept them away awa and one was drowned The next morning the survivor started start d to dig a grave for his dead companion when he uncovered a chunk of oC pure gold so large that he had bad difficulty in getting it out and then could not car carry carr carry ry r it alone Obtaining help he got gut it Into camp and put It on un the scales It weighed 80 SO pounds By this time he was sober but too excited to go back and bury bUr his dead partner artner He sold the nugget n for 22 00 This was in Eldorado county and shortly afterward that county produced another nugget weighing IS 11 ounces ounce In 1851 a party of English sailors found a nugget in Eldorado county which they took to England and an exhibited at so much a sight It was the means of adding materially to the population of oC Califor California CalifornIa nia Fortune fur for nn an Indian In 1861 a halfbreed Indian IndI n washing his overalls In a Nevada county found a nugget in the bed bedoC of oC the stream that weighed 65 pounds the second largest ever eer found round In Call Cali California fornia It was sold for tor In 1868 on Table mountain Calaveras county count a negro on his way ray wa to pros pro prospect prospect a certain gulch saw a yellow point above aboc the ground When hen uncovered and dug out it proved to tobe tobe tobe be a big nugget of or gold Still intent on his prospecting tour he burled buried his treasure marked the spot and went his Ills way wa Returning in a few weeks leeks he found a party part of prospectors dig digging dl digging ging not more than ten feet from Ill hit buried treasure He told his story stor and Ithe they the permitted him to dig the nugget up It weighed 23 5 pounds and brought him If It the miners digging with within withIn within in ten feet of it had found it tim the ne negro negro negro gro never could have proved his title Other nuggets mentioned in histories of oC California or by contemporary writ writers writers ers els are from Calaveras county count one of or ounces worth 2800 at Elizabeth Elizabethtown Elizabethtown town one worth 2600 at Mohawk Valley Valle one of ounces worth from Nevada Neada county near Dutch Flats one worth 1300 Thomas Q Larkin Lark Larkin In United States navy nav agent writing from California to tc t the secretary of state at Washington November 16 iS 1848 said saidI il I 1 have hae had In my m hands bands several pieces of or gold about 23 karats fine weighing from one to two pounds and have It from good authority that pieces have been found weighing 16 pounds pound Indeed I have heard of one specimen that weighed 25 pounds These are California nuggets the record of which happens to have been preserved but no doubt there have been many others Australia Dent Bent California But Australia beats California in big finds Gold was discovered in Aus Australia Australia Australia in 1851 about three years ears after aeter it was In California and there was an another another another other rush of gold hunters some even from California for gold hunt hunters hunters hunters ers always alwa s flock to the tile newest disco discovery ery Australia Austral a has furnished the big biggest biggest biggest gest nugget on record and it was found by b two prospectors who had so ex cx exhausted exhausted hausted bausted their resources that they the were obliged to live Uve on charity charit It measured four feet nine inches by b three feet three inches averaging four inches In thickness sl weighed about pounds and was sold for tOr Another Australian nugget very cel celebrated celebrated In its day by the name of Welcome Stranger was discovered in inthe inthe Inthe the rut made by a peddlers cart bare barely barely barely ly covered with loose loam It meas measured measured ten by inches weighed 2280 ounces was nearly 99 per cent pure gold and was sold for These The e were the largest nug nuggets nuggets gets found in A us ti alia but hundreds of or others have hae been found weighing from a few ounces to 1000 and 2000 00 ounces Australia has produced more gold nuggets than any other country though thou h in the general output of ot gold by b placer and quartz mining It is surpassed considerably by b the United States and greatly by b Africa Not Vot Many ManT In ID Alaska Several Se eral of ot the Rocky mountain states stat s Colorado Nevada and Idaho have produced some nuggets nugget but not many Alaska has produced an enor enormous enormous DOus quantity of gold about but not many nuggets One weigh ing thirtyfour ounces was found in the Klondike and the largest nugget nu ounces was found nearly twenty year ago The placer gold Kold of or Alaska which is obtained In such enormous quantities by b digging and washing Is mostly free tree gold in thin leafy flakes like wheat chaff chat Interspersed with small pellets but no n large nuggets have haye been reported The pellets run from Irom the size of fine tine sand to that of bird shot hot garden peas peas hazel hazelnuts hazelnuts hazelnuts nuts and now and then the size of or pigeon eggs It may surprise many persons to learn that North Korth Carolina was once a regular bonanza in gold nuggets and has produced some large ones Gold Geld was discovered in that state fifty years before it was in California and as is often otten the case c se the discovery was acci accidental accidental dental In 1799 a earold boy son of a farmer farther named John Red Esel living UViDi la In iy j Cabarrus started out with a younger brother for a Sunday Sunda walk While strolling along the banks of a small creek the boy bo saw aw something shining in the shallow water and waded in and got it Had Never eer heard of if Gold It was yellow nearly nearh as big as an flatiron and heavy hea The Thebo boy bo had never heard of ot gold but the thing was pretty and he took it home His father did not know kno what it was but the next time he went to the county seat he be showed it to the local silver silversmith smith sn and he could not tell Farmer Reed kept the piece two or three years e rs using it for tor a weight to hold the door open Finally he took it to Fayette Fayetteville Fayetteville Fayetteville ville a larger town than the county seat and a Jeweler told him It was gold and offered to melt it down for him lIm Reed left it at the shop for tor that pur par purpose purpose pose and the next time he went to town the jeweler produced a bar of gold seven or eight inches long and asked him what he would take for It Not knowing the value of ot gold and think thinking thinking ing i ng he would fix fi a big price Reed said The Jeweler took It It was pure gold and worth several hundred dol dollars lars Jars l ars Reed thought he be had done dona pret pretty pretty pretty ty well and after returning home he In Instituted instituted I a search and found several other nuggets including one that weighed pounds This set others to hunting and during the next few tew years ears thirteen more nuggets were found the smallest of ot which weighed one pound the largest taen pounds pound and others four Zour seven eight nine nine and thirteen en enand and sixteen pounds These finds led the gold bearing quartz and it was th tim egold bearing quartz and it was known for many years as Reeds gold goldmine goldmine goldin mine in Itie A Mint Was Wan Started Start eel The working of ot f this mine and the discovery of gold at other points in North Carolina led to the establish establishment establishment establishment ment of a branch mint at Charlotte which was operated up to the begin beginning beginning beginning ning of ot the civil war In 1838 the su superintendent superIntendent of the mint established the thc product of ot the North Carolina mines at a year The report of ot the director of the mint in 1861 shows that from 1838 to 1861 the branch mint at Charlotte coined gold pieces to the value of and part of ot this represented nuggets found in i n the beds of ot streams passing through quartz A claim near Albemarle North Caro Carolina Carolina lina ina l yielded nuggets weighing re respectively respectively ten eight six and three pounds and dozens of smaller ones In proportion to the total amount of ot gold produced North Carolina has probably yielded more nuggets than any other country In the world Since the disco discor discoveries eries erles of gold in California Australia South Africa and Alaska North Caro Carolina Carolina lina ina l hardly hard 1 ranks as a gold producing state but the natives still sUll do some mining and nuggets are found occa occasionally occasionally occasionally Within the last fifteen years one has been reported weighing ten pounds and another of eight pounds and five ounces |
