In Montana, 54 mining districts have each have produced more than 10,000 ounces of gold. The largest producers are Butte, Helena, Marysville, and Virginia City, each having produced more than one million ounces. Twenty seven other districts are each credited with between 100,000 and one million ounces of gold production. Continue Reading
A vast fortune in gold ingots were lost to the sea in 1857 with the sinking of the S.S. Central America. Much of the gold has now been salvaged from the wreck, and in addition to the value of the bullion, the ingots serve as an important historical record of the private assayers that operated in California during the 1850s. “A Fortune in Gold: Ingots of the S.S. Central America” examines some of the stunning gold ingots that have sold at auction in recent years. Continue Reading
From The Mineralogical Record, volume 25, January-February, 1994: “On December 26, 1992, owners of the Jamestown mine in Tuolumne County, California, received an unexpected Christmas present. Excavation in the company’s Crystalline pit revealed a ‘pocket’ of crystalline leaf gold. Approximately 1,568 ounces of specimen gold were collected in all. The largest piece, weighing in at 25.79 kg (69 troy pounds), ranks as one of the largest specimens of gold ever found in California, or the nation.” Continue Reading
Historically, very few large nuggets were saved for their value as collectibles. In modern times, large gold nuggets are exceedingly rare and are highly valued. The following examples are gold nuggets that have been sold at Heritage Auctions and have sales prices over $10,000. Continue Reading
Most known gold localities are no longer actively producing on a large scale or are actively mined as open pits, and the prospect of a nice nugget or matrix specimen is low. That is not to say that good size and quality nuggets are not being found, and good matrix specimens are still uncovered in old mines, now worked in the hopes of finding “pocket gold” specimens. Continue Reading
Of the 508 distinct gold districts identified in the western states by the USGS, these are the top 25 gold producers during the golden age of western mining. Continue Reading
The district locations and descriptions in this article are primarily based on the publication Mining Districts of Nevada by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. For districts with recorded gold placer mining activity, additional information has been included from the publication Placer Gold Deposits of Nevada – USGS Bulletin 1356. Images of district locations Continue Reading
From 1799 through 1965, the United States produced over 300,000,000 ounces of gold, which at the current price of around $1,500 per ounce (as of August 2019) would be valued at over $450 billion dollars. These are the ten states that contributed the most gold to US production during the golden era of mining in the American West. Continue Reading
The following article describing the early history of Plumas County gold districts and a resurgence of mining in the mid-1890s appeared in the San Francisco Call on July 18, 1895. The map image was published with the article, all other images were added from separate archives. Plumas is county of rugged mountains, holding in their Continue Reading
