Placer miners first looked for gold among the gravel and sand in the creek bottoms, such as the one near you. If panning was productive, a group of miners would build a sluice to wash gold from the gravel.

[Illustration captions, left to right:]

Library of Congress

Individual prospectors used a metal pan to separate gold from sand and rocks. The miner swirled the sand and water mixture, allowing the heavy gold to sink to the bottom.

[Photo:] Library of Congress

A Sluice removed the gold from dirt and gravel on a larger scale. The riffles on the bottom of the slanted boxes caught the gold, while water rinsed away the waste.

“This was a Rockey day on us... Ground Sluiced Some but could not make it go commenced Shoveling in when or best Riffel come out. I Swore Some, think we lost lots of money Had two days run in the Sluices... Musketos are geting thick”

June 8, 1876, from the diary of Jerry Bryan

[Photo:] Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Marker is at the intersection of Pine Street and Water Steet on Pine Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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