Historians of the Gold Rush. Could this have happened?

Question

Looking to make a screenplay historically plausible. 1870’s, probably California but it doesn’t need to be. Some bad guys are going to rob a stage coach full of gold. Then, they are going launder the gold by buying a worthless mine and pretending to have found the gold there. Here are my questions.

In what form was gold likely to have been trafficked? Dust? Ore? Nuggets? Bars?

When and why would gold have been moved via stage coach? Who owns it at that point? Miners? Banks?

Would someone have a need to launder gold? My thinking is if you show up with a whole bunch on nuggets it raises question but if you own a mine and a stamping mill you’re supposed to have all this….Gold dust? Gold bars? You get where I’m going.

Also related question: What type of operational security would those shipping a wagon full of gold have? Who would know about it?

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers all these questions.

Answer 1

You are thinking too much in present day scenarios. In those days laundering was not really necessary, if you showed up somewhere with a bunch of gold, no questions were asked. also a stage coach would not carry too much gold. maybe short of a thousand pounds.

Usually gold was shipped by armed personnel, loaded on donkeys, which are easier to lead than a stagecoach, no matter what Hollywood says. You should try looking into Mexican mines at the time. In the 1870's Mexican minted Gold and Silver was the only one accepted worldwide. And Mexican seals were imitated on gold bars from North American mines of the time, which would fetch them a higher price. Robberies happened on the open sea, once the gold was being shipped from America to Europe, for many reasons, but mainly because it was an expensive business, and just pirates could afford such an expensive operation.

Answer 2

Wow, a lot of questions indeed.

I will help where I can.

The gold rush was in 1849, that's why the SF team is the 49ers.

Louis L'Amour, the western writer, had several stories along this theme.

One might pan or dig for gold (and answer above me is right too) and then one would take the dust or nuggets to an Assessor. They'd wiegh your gold and pay you.

Dust came from rivers where a gold source was upstream. This is called 'placer mining'. Nuggets come from a vein. The veins are normally found in quartz veins, mixed in.

One type of cop was the Pinkertons -- they were detectives and might ride on a stage coach for protection. The movie "Hang 'em High" is about a bounty hunter, but has a part describing the beginnings of authorities communicating.

Gold travelling by coach? Maybe from the boom town to the big city bank. I don't know when they'd melt into bars, at the mint I reckon. And there was prolly one in SF at that time.

Movies?
Paint Your Wagon has a scheme were the guys decide to get the gold dust dropped in town under the floorboards.
Pale Rider is about mining and that 'hose type' mining.
Unsinkable Molly Brown is about silver mining in colorado (they thought they were washing away worthless lead while looking for gold).


California is a good choice. There are towns called Placerville and Placerita.

Santa Clarita Valley has a place called The Oak of the Golden Dream. It's called that because a mexican travelor took a nap under an oak and when he woke up he pulled an onion out of the ground for dinner and found gold in the roots. This was the first place gold was discovered, I'm told.

Laundering the money (gold) is an interesting idea. I think it was a common scam of the time to lace a worthless hole with some chunks and then sell claims to the mine. They'd also create worthless claims (registered at the assessor's office) and then sell them too.

Luck with your screen play!

Answer 3

Large amounts of gold being shipped would most likely have been in bar form with an assayer mark stamped on them. The miners would take their gold to the assayer who would in turn, buy it from them and melt it into ingots and then sell to banks. These banks would have sold the gold to the U.S. government for cash. The government would take the gold to a mint where it would be used for coins or stockpiled for reserve. A mint was subsequently built in San Francisco but I do not know the year. Eventually the gold would have been shipped by railroad but once again, I am unsure of the year the transcon RR was complete. Gold from Alaska (Yukon Territory) would have been shipped by steamer to Seattle and then points south, this is something else to consider. Good Luck

Answer 4

1870's is 20 years after the Gold Rush. Mining had gone to commercial rather than individual panners in streams.

The gold was washed out of the hills by hydraulic mining. This is a type of placer mining used in areas where large amounts of loose gravel and sand or soil are poorly packed and may be washed away with a heavy stream of water. Hoses are used to strip away entire hills of loose gravel, which are then run through a sluice. This caused the size of SF Bay to shrink by 50%.

For movies they like to use hard rock mining. This involves tunnelling and use of explosives. The gold is found in veins in the form of flakes and nuggets.

Answer 5

wow, i never thought about that. good point!