Upon arriving in California and discovering gold, they established the town of Rough and Ready at the discovery site, and began what would be a lucrative placer operation.
Friday, November 04, 2022
Rough and Ready, California
Rough and Ready was settled in 1849 by a group of prospectors from Wisconsin who had headed west after news of Marshall's 1848 gold discovery in California. The party had named themselves the Rough and Ready Mining Company in honor of General Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor.
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The price of gold from 1850 thru 1918 was just under $19 per troy ounce. Which means that if
ReplyDelete"The miners in and about Rough and Ready... are making from $6 to $10 per day as an average."
they were finding a third to a half an ounce a day. That sounds like pretty rich ground to me!
That is some rich ground.
DeleteI remember seeing an original document where it talks about a miner in the Central District finding 10 ounces (!) of gold in a single pan. I felt lucky if I found a quarter ounce in an entire day of hard work.
At today's prices, if a guy could come up with a quarter of an ounce more times than not it would be pretty darn good money.
DeleteBTW, that $19 per troy ounce back then translates to around $575 today, figuring for inflation. I thought that was pretty interesting.
And so is this-
https://nma.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/historic_gold_prices_1833_pres.pdf