Existing comment:
Finding Gold in the Tailrace:
Because gold is so heavy when it tumbles downstream it settles through the sand and gravel to the lowest point it can go. In January, 1848 James Marshall and his mill workers were working trying to dig the mill's water channel deep enough to allow the water to race back into the river. They dug down as far as the solid bedrock where gold had settled into the lowest crevices. |