adapted from January/February 2000 Issue - Blacks in the Gold Rush
The Gold Rush brought with it its own vocabulary. Try your luck "panning" for these words!
Word Find
| P | I | K | M | I | C | C | S | O | N | X | D |
| A | A | K | E | L | N | U | L | G | E | T | R |
| R | W | N | A | A | B | N | U | G | G | E | T |
| G | M | I | N | E | E | L | I | L | O | D | D |
| O | M | M | E | I | N | U | C | D | L | T | R |
| N | S | M | R | N | N | I | E | E | D | P | E |
| A | B | I | O | P | T | G | B | T | K | I | D |
| U | P | I | C | T | Y | E | O | C | E | C | G |
| T | R | B | I | M | G | O | X | D | L | K | I |
| T | F | A | H | S | H | N | P | A | A | A | N |
| W | Y | I | H | M | I | X | O | I | C | X | G |
| T | A | I | L | I | N | G | S | L | S | E | W |
- Argonaut:
- the nickname for someone going to California seeking gold during the Gold Rush period. (The name traces its roots to the ancient Greek legendary hero named Jason, who sailed from Greece in search of the "golden fleece." Jason and his crew sailed in a ship named Argo and were known as the argonautae, "sailors in the Argo.")
- Claim:
- a piece of land or an area of a river that a person "claimed" as his own. This is where he would look for gold.
- Dredging:
- the removal of sand, mud, or silt from a river; gold seekers did this to reach the gold deposits more easily.
- Gold:
- a precious metal valued for its rarity and ability to be molded into countless items and shapes.
- Long tom:
- longer than a sluice box, but used in the same way.
- Mine:
- a dug-out or tunneled area that leads to mineral deposits.
- Nugget:
- a raw piece of gold.
- Ore:
- unrefined mineral deposits that have been removed from the earth.
- Panning:
- the method most gold seekers used to mine gold. Gold seekers would first scoop water and sand from a stream bed with a small metal pan. They then swirled the pan in a circular motion. The water and light sediment would swish out of the pan. The heavier gold pieces would remain in the bottom of the pan.
- Pickaxe:
- a tool with one sharp end and one flat end. It was used to dig in a mine.
- Scale:
- a device used to weigh gold. The weight of the gold would determine how much it was worth.
- Shaft:
- the tunneled portion of a mine.
- Sluice box:
- a wooden box with a screen or riffles (grooves) on the bottom. Two or more boxes were used together. Dirt from a mine or riverbed was placed in the top box. When water was poured over the dirt, gold, which was heavier than other gravel and sediment, would fall through the grate to the box below. There it was caught in a series of riffles. A handle on each side of each box allowed the box to be rocked - this led to the method's being called "rocking the cradle."
- Tailings:
- unwanted minerals and rocks left over from mining.