More Luck at Roaring Camp

Roaring Camp Mine is mired in history. Set in the hills along the Mokelumne River east of Sacramento, California, it hums with the tales written by Mark Twain and Bret Harte, the most famous of which is Harte's "The Luck of Roaring Camp." The area has been mined continuously since the 1850's, and to say the ground is rich in gold is a given. I think of it as a "dude ranch" for miners. I spent a week in May working on a twenty-nine man crew split up into six teams at both Roaring Camp and China Camp (not to be confused with Chinese Camp, located some miles to the south). I rented a cabin on the site and during the week mined gold using sluices, trommels, Wiss-Bangrs, hi-bankers and pans.

Along the way, some unexpected finds turned up. At China camp, a team was using a Wiss-Bangr to clean out a deep crack in the bedrock. This gadget is a mini hydraulic system that pumps water directly onto the dirt/gravel while being immediately sucked up by a venturi hose that then jets the water/gravel through a sluice. Lo and behold, something glimmered in one of the riffles. One of the team members picked it out of the running water and his eyes about popped!

Notice the date on this Seated Liberty Dime! It might have been handled by Twain or Harte! But if you've read Twain's autobiography, Harte was so tight he likely never lost a dime!

The next day, when the team was returning from China Camp, one of the team members asked to be dropped off at the top of the hill on the way back. Then he swung his metal detector along the hiking trail back to camp. "Ping!" He dug a few inches of dirt and unearthed a Bust Quarter, dated 1821, two hundred years old! One wonders how many '49er hands had touched this coin?

Both coins are considered artifacts, so the finders were compensated and the coins are now on display in the lodge museum.

Oh, I almost forgot. How much gold was my take after five days hard (really hard) labor? 3.5 pennyweight. My impression is it was real and it was fun, but it wasn't real fun! Wore me out!

For more information on the Roaring Camp Mining Company, see:
https://roaringcampgold.com/

To read Harte's story, see:
Bret Harte The Luck of Roaring Camp(http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LucRoa.shtml)