Kris and the list:

My mining historian husband says that Otis Young, WESTERN MINING, paperback
from the University of Oklahoma Press, has the history of gold pans in it,
clear back forever. I didn't look it up, so can't tell you in encapsulated
form. By the way, both Bob Spude (dear hubby) and Otis are founding members
of the Mining History Association.

Cathy Spude





                      Kris Farmen
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                      05/03/02 09:55 AM
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Hello list. . .


I was wondering if anybody on the list knows about the history of gold
panning. . .  I never really thought much about it until recently.  I of
course know that prospectors used pans to recover stream placer gold in
California, Alaska, Colorado, etc. (and presumably Australia, New Zealand,
and other locales as well)  But I was reading a paper in Antiquity a while
back talking about a gold mining site in Ireland from the 1300's.  (I could
have the wrong century, but it was definetly OLD, i.e. pre-Columbus.)  As I
recall, gold panning was mentioned as a recovery technique.


What this is all leading up to is this:   Does anybody have any
information/references about the history/archaeology of panning as a gold
recovery technique?



Kris Farmen
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
Fairbanks, Alaska