GLOSSARY
claim: A prospector could lay claim -- pre-empt -- a piece of unoccupied ground by staking it and recording it. He then had ownership rights to it, while he worked it.
fool's gold: Iron pyrites, which, expecially under water will give off a sheen like gold.
grubstake: As a noun, usually a supply of food (grub), and other supplies and/or equipment. An investor would grubstake a prospector, that is supply food, etc., in return for a share of the gold or other minerals discovered.
lode: A body of ore, not a placer deposit. Also called a quartz lode. At Bannack and Virginia city in the early days the ore was usually crushed then washed to recover the gold, or silver.
pay dirt: An alluvial deposit which when washed by panning, rocker, sluice box, or otherwise yielded enough gold to pay wages.
placer: A gold deposit along a stream or old stream bed. The "dirt", that is sand and gravel was washed away using pans, sluice boxes, or rockers.
sluice box: An open-top box made of planks into which sand and gravel was shovelled and then water turned into, carrying away the sand and gravel, and leaving behind the gold.
stamp mill: When gold was found in an ore body, called a lode, the ore had to be crushed before it could be washed to recover the gold. Crude stamp mills were built with vertical logs fitted with iron shoes made from iron wagon tires in some cases.
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