Tuesday, 15th April 2008 (738 views)

A museum located at the southern gateway to California's historic goldfields is giving visitors a chance to experience life during the gold rush - as well as some hands-on panning for gold, according to reports.

The Post-Gazette says that the Mariposa Museum and History Centre offers insights into life in the 19th century through a number of mostly donated items from the time.

Among them are old firearms, clothes, patented medicine bottles and furniture, the newspaper says.

There is also mining equipment, including a stamp mill used at California's Gold Key mine to pulverise ore into slurry from which the gold flakes contained within could be recovered.

Visitors also get to experience prospecting first hand with the museum's gold panning exhibit, where they can wash out trays of gravel and dirt in search of the elusive yellow metal.

People from all over the world came to California after word of the gold rush broke in 1849 - and while those who arrived early could find placer gold in rivers during their morning wash, thousands of others never struck it rich.

Some 300,000 prospectors are believed to have come to the state during this time from the US as well as Europe, Latin America and China.

 

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