The bars and terraces along the Snake River contain gold in many places and have been worked intermittently since the seventies or earlier. In Idaho, the principal operations have been along the stretch of river between Blackfoot and Minidoka, but some work has been done near Twin Falls, between King Hill and Hammett, near the mouth of the Bruneau River, and farther west.
Dredges and numerous other devices have been tried, but small scale operations appear to have been most successful. Recent laboratory studies show that the gold can be recovered by flotation.
It appears that gold is present so generally that the total quantity must be large, but ground containing as much as 40 cents to the cubic yard is exceptionally rich, much of that worked containing less than half this amount, and the gold is so irregularly distributed and so exceedingly fine as to be difficult to recover. Much of the gold is so fine that it takes approximately 5,000 grains to equal one cent in value (old price), and a great deal is far finer.
Exceedingly fine flakes of platinum and allied metals are present, apparently in the proportion of about one grain of platinum to 2,000 or 3,000 gold particles,
