Gold and the Mother Lode

1
Gold and the Mother Lode

• A PowerPoint presentation by
• Scott Nicotero
• Laura Holland
• Mikki Williams
• Kim Ballinger

2
Our Question...

• What is Gold and how has it affected the Mother
  Lode?
• Our Rationale...
• We chose this topic because (mostly) everyone
  loves gold and it is a dynamic part of the fourth
  grade CA content standards for Science and Social
  Studies!

3
Our Objectives...

• Our goal is to provide our teacher peers with a
  hook for a WHERETO lesson plan encompassing and
  integrating both fourth grade Earth Science
  Standard 4b and History/Social Science Standard
  4.3., 4.4.
• We hope to convey the importance of Gold in our
  community and its influence everywhere around us.

4
What is Gold, anyway?

• Is this your idea of Gold?
• We want you to think of it this way

5
Lets define Gold

• Gold is a naturally occurring valuable metal
  used as money and in jewelry
• Gold is also a pure element it is not a mixture
  of any other metals or elements

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Types of Gold in the Mother Lode -

• Placer gold singular nuggets found in streams
  and rocky areas
• Crystalline gold forms as crystals, both on and
  in minerals such as quartz, normally found
  through mining processes

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Why is Gold a mineral?

• Gold is inorganic (lifeless lump).
• Gold is naturally occurring.
• The atoms of Gold are bonded in a specific
  repeating pattern.

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Gold classification in the field

• Gold is malleable when hit (pyrite breaks easily,
  mica will crush)
• Gold is gold in color (pyrite is brassy)
• Gold will not glitter (mica is very reflective)
• Gold, when swirled in a pan, will not move easily
  (mica flakes swirl freely)
• Gold is soft (2.5-3.0)(pyrite is hard)
• Gold is heavy (specific gravity of 19.3)(pyrite
  is 5.02, mica is 2.76-3.1)

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Diagnostic Table

• Color/Clarity
• Crystal Form/Habit
• Luster
• Hardness
• Streak
• Cleavage
• Fracture

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How did Gold form in the Mother Lode?

• 400 MILLION years ago
• CA was at the bottom of sea.
• Off shore islands collided with the American
  continent .
• SLOWLY these rocks became the metamorphic
  bedrock of the Mother Lode.

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200 Million Years ago

• Plates shifted, sea floors crushed, rock turned
  to magma.
• Molten rock forced its way into the crust.
• Magma SLOWLY cooled, forming granite.
• Precipitation trickled down inside fractures to
  the magma.
• The heated water dissolved the quartz and gold.
• The hot water and melted materials rose along the
  fractures.
• Cooling created large quartz veins with varying
  amounts of gold.

12
Rise and fall of the Sierra Nevada

• Twice, the Sierra Nevada rose and then eroded.
• Rivers carried fragments of gold downstream.
• Gold-rich gravel was deposited on mountain sides
  and canyons.
• Gold bearing quartz veins followed the hot
  waters path.

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What a discovery!

• Inspecting a sawmill for John Sutter, James
  Marshall noticed shiny flecks in the water.
• On January 24, 1848
• Gold is discovered!
• John Sutter wanted to keep the discovery of gold
  a secret. Why do you think this is?

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Gold Rush in California

• Gold Rush confirmed
• Forty-Niners invade the Gold Country
• Effect on Population
• Spring of 1849, population is 14,000
• End of 1849, population is 100,000
• By 1852, population is 250,000!!!

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How did the Gold Rush affect the development of
the Mother Lode?

• Transcontinental Railroad
• California becomes the 31st state
• Mining towns developed
• Pre-Gold Rush cities
• John Sutter

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Conclusion

• How did the Gold Rush affect the development of
  the Mother Lode?
• Population
• State of California
• Indigenous people
• Mining Towns
• Infrastructure Lawlessness
• Environment

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References

• California Gold Rush. Wikipedia. June
  2006. 26 June 2006
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush.
  
• Gold Rush Overview. California State Parks.
  2004. 26 June 2006
• http//www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id1081.
• How Did the Gold Get There? 26 June 2006
• http//virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/goldrush.h
  tm.
• Prospecting and Rockhounding. Arizona Online
  Journal. July 2000. 27 June 2006
• http//www.aojournal.com/AOJ_gold.html.

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Abstract

• 1. Our team researched the topic of gold, and
  what affect this mineral had on the Mother Lode
  region of California.
• 2. We chose this topic because it combined an
  Earth Science standard (4.b) and History- Social
  Science standards (4.3, 4.4 1,2,3) for the
  fourth grade, making it possible to integrate
  science teaching with social science.
• 3. To do our research, we came up with 4
  essential questions concerning our topic. Then,
  we each chose one of the questions to research.
  Each person looked up their question on the web,
  in books or on charts, etc.
• 4. We found that gold is a valuable mineral with
  many unique and useful properties. It can be
  identified using a diagnostic table and some
  simple tests. It was formed with geologic
  processes working over a span of 4 million years
  which ended with gold distributed in quartz veins
  and eroded into rivers and ancient stream beds.
  The Gold Rush had many affects on every aspect of
  the Mother Lode. Without the discovery of gold,
  our civilization would not be the same.