How Do I Get the Gold?

A photo of a gold pan from the Alaska State Museum.

     Today we have many ways to get information quickly. We can access the Internet, consult a book in library, or even just call experts on the phone. But to the miners at the turn of the last century they had to rely on each other and small portable books that contained only basic information.

     Study the cover and contents page of the miners manual: Gold Dust: How to Find It and How to Mine It. When was it published? How useful do you think a book like this would be? Read pages 2,3,4. Describe the author's writing style. How easy do you think it would be to follow the directions?

Gold Dust: How to Find It and How to Mine It. By Philip Minor 1898 A miners manual. 4 pages

Model of a "Long Tom" sluice box for placer mining.

Look at the photograph of miners working. What activities do you see in the photograph? What do you learn about gold mining techniques from the picture? Describe what it might have been like to be one of the workers at this location.

A. Torgersons 15. Gold Stream Two men standing by sluice as tram bucket empties into top. Wolfe Foto (no. 318)

Overview I How do I Get the Gold? I What was a gold miner like?
Is that legal?

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Alaska's Gold was developed through a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission by the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums, the Alaska Dept. of Education and Early Development.  © 1999.  All rights reserved.   Alaska Gold Themes written by Cristine Crooks, Alaska Consultants in Education.  Alaska's Gold Themes website developed by WEBDesign.