Small claims owned and mined by individuals may need to be merged into larger tracts. During the time, many books were published including Call of the Wild, which had much success during the period.Īfter the sluice-box stage, placer mining may become increasingly large scale, requiring larger organisations and higher capital expenditures. The Gold Rush was a topic that inspired many TV shows and book considering it was a very important topic at the time.
Gold rushes occurred as early as the times of the Greek Empire, whose gold mining was described by Diodarus Sicules and Pliny the Elder, and probably further back to ancient Greece. At a time when the world's money supply was based on gold, the newly mined gold provided economic stimulus far beyond the gold fields. Activities propelled by gold rushes define significant aspects of the culture of the Australian and North American frontiers. Gold rushes helped spur a huge immigration that often led to permanent settlement of new regions. While gold mining itself didn't make much money for most diggers and mine owners, some people made large fortunes. Well-known examples are the California Gold Rush of 1849, Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s, and the Australian gold rush which began in 1851. Ballarat's tent city in the summer of 1853–54 oil painting from an original sketch by Eugene von Guerard.Ī gold rush is when a lot of miners go to a mining place full of gold.