Western mining towns
The first gold prospectors in the 1850s and 1860s worked with easily portable tools that allowed them to follow their dream and try to strike it rich (a). It did not take long for the most accessible minerals to be stripped, making way for large mining operations, including hydraulic mining, where high-pressure water jets removed sediment and rocks (b).
Image (a) is a photograph of three prospectors kneeling beside a stream and panning for gold. Image (b) is a photograph of two laborers engaged in hydraulic mining, with a massive expanse of rock spread out before them.
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http://cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@3.22:gYbRgDXd@3/Making-a-Living-in-Gold-and-Ca
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