2. Vacation
  3. Stanford Graduation Trip

Gold Mining in Jamestown, CA

After picking up Jonathan's cap and gown from Stanford University, they headed East toward the city of Jamestown, CA... in the heart of Gold Country! (June 15, 2006)
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This looks like a scene out of that Discovery Channel show... Dirty Jobs.
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This looks like a scene out of that Discovery Channel show... Dirty Jobs.

  • We know the water carries gold downstream... but something tells me there's some other use for it.
  • Jonathan decided to climb the steep, homemade steps, back up to the car to drop off a few of the group's items. The Saturn Vue did well for us... it held our things, but it wasn't such a nice vehicle to drive.
  • A Slippery Slope? Well, definitely! Josh, made these steps, leading from road-level to water-level. After the flood each Spring, he usually has to remake the bottom steps, which get washed away. There were about 30 steps to get down, and you could fall if you're not careful!
  • Down here in the creek bed, there's gold all around. Sometimes it's just dust... sometimes it's much, much more!
  • Looks like Jonathan's Dad took the next shift in the pit. Hilliary is pretty tired, and Mom is offering lots of encouragement.
  • This looks like a scene out of that Discovery Channel show... Dirty Jobs.
  • The further down, and the further into the bank that you dig, the better the chances of finding gold! Come on, Dad... dig... DIG!
  • The buckets are filling up! Not a pretty sight to look at, and really heavy to walk with... but somewhere in that mess, there might be GOLD!
  • Of course, the further in you dig, the more likely that the ceiling of the hole will cave in on you. Ah, Dad's not afraid of that... he wants to find gold!
  • An idyllic scene: Warm sunlight, and cool flowing water. No traffic, no noises, no phones... just the beauty of nature. Awesome.
  • Walking around was somewhat difficult, with the loose rocks and roots.
  • Just watch him go! Buckets were being filled in no time!
  • He just keeps getting deeper and deeper in that hole...
  • Of course, collecting the buckets of material is just the first step. To get at the gold, you have to separate it from everything else. Here we see Jonathan and his Mom (background) in the creek, sluicing.
  • Gold is 20 times heavier than water. The sluice box works on this principle. A bucket of material is poured in at the front, and sifted through by hand. The dirt, mud, and small rocks, are carried away by the current, and the gold settles to the bottom.
  • Jonathan tries to smile for the camera, but by this time, he's exhausted. He started by leaning over the sluice box, then kneeling, and finally, sitting in the frigid water. His hands are numb, and getting torn up by all of the rocks he's sifting through.
  • The sluice box lets the water do most of the work for you, and it's much more efficient than panning. In about the time it takes to process one pan, you can process out 15 pan's worth of material in a sluice box.
  • As the day wears on, Hilliary takes a break from the gold hunt.
  • Wow, the hole is even deeper now! The more buckets you process, the more gold you find, and Dad did the lion's share of the digging.
  • Josh owns the land that we're digging on, and teaches newbies like us all about finding gold. Here he is digging in another (somewhat drier) hole.
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