What better way to go after a casino jackpot here at Jackpot Capital Casino than by recognizing the amazing California Gold Rush that started on December 7, 1848 when President James K. Polk of the United States, announced that gold had been found in California.
Casino Jackpots and the Gold Rush Have Something in Common
That something is that the gold rush was not a rush in the modern sense at all and winning a jackpot often takes as long as it took in 1848 to get from the east coast to California. In 1848 and the years after that, many people who had no idea how to pan for gold made their way to California to pan for gold!
How Did People Get to California in 1848?
Most came by covered wagon or on horseback. The trip was fraught with danger as the Native Americans were none too happy to have people traversing their lands heading west.
There were no paved roads back then, no organized rest stops, no instant communication, no television or radio or streaming sites. People were quite literally on their own! Families may have gotten together to form a caravan of sorts of covered wagons.
Once the travelers got past the Mississippi River, water became harder and harder to come by. No supermarkets or neighborhood groceries either.
In the great movie, “City Slickers”, the cook of the herding group said about the food, “It’s hot, it’s brown, and there’s plenty of it.” That’s likely how the food was in the long trip from east to west in 1848 and beyond.
How Many People Made the Trip from East to West?
Historians have concluded that the non-native population of California was about 1000 people in 1848 and was more than 100,000 by the time the Gold Rush hit its peak a few years after it started.
The heads of families who braved all of the obstacles to reach California, had then to actually try to find more gold. Once again, the gold was not set neatly in gold bars as at Fort Knox. The gold had to be tickled to come out of the ground. It is very educational to watch the great movie, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” for the scenes in which the old gold prospector taught the two young get-rich-quick men how to tickle the gold out of the earth.
Isn’t There a Rock Called Fool’s Gold?
Yes, there is!
In fact, there are three rocks that mimic real gold in appearance. They are pyrite, chalcopyrite, and mica. The difference is in how they react when they are scraped, poked, or pressed. Fool’s Gold crumbles while real gold retains its shape and may show an indentation where it was pressed.
Finding a big vein of pyrite was the big fear of easterners whose quest was to get rich and had little idea as to how to go about doing so.
This characteristic of gold is one of the main reasons that it has been used as money or to represent money for millennia. Gold does not crumble. So, a gold coin retains its value over time. In physical terms, gold is useful as currency because it is durable.
Anything can be used as currency if the buyer and seller both agree but food, for instance, spoils. Gold has proven to be as durable as anything else.
What Was More Plentiful, Gold or Fool’s Gold?
We don’t know for sure! First of all, once a prospector found out that the “gold” he had extracted from the ground was not gold at all, he likely just dumped the pyrite. So, we have no real way to determine how much pyrite was found and dug up.
Researchers have determined that about 750,000 pounds of real gold were dug up or panned. A little arithmetic reveals that 750,000 pounds is 12,000,000 ounces of gold. Researchers have also decided that the dollar value at the time of the gold extracted from the ground was some two billion dollars. This leaves us with $166 per ounce for the gold!
It was the vast value of a single ounce of gold that spurred on the tens of thousands of prospective prospectors to try to get to California and pan for gold.
Sign Up Now!
California Wasn’t Even in the United States Yet!
There was a war between the United States and Mexico. The United States won that war and took possession of California. The treaty that formally ended the war is called the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It was signed just a few days after gold was found in the Sacramento Valley.
Trying to Keep the Discovery a Secret
The owner of the land on which gold was found, John Sutter, tried to keep it a secret but the secret got out nevertheless. By the way, John Sutter was a native of Switzerland who was not a very nice person. He owned many slaves, mostly native Americans.
How Do You Pan for Gold?
This is the most obvious question relating to getting the gold out of the ground. In the beginning of the gold rush, prospectors could chop away at the ground and find gold. This top layer of gold soon became exhausted so people had to develop technologies for finding gold.
The most primitive technology is called panning. This requires that there be a source of plentiful water. Usually, the prospectors pan in a pool of water. If there isn’t a pool, they might have to build a sluice to bring water to the gold.
Obviously, you need a pan! A deep, round pan is best for panning. Most people like a green pan because the gold shows up very well against a green background.
When there is more gold than sand in the pan, prospectors swirl the pan to separate the gold from the sand. This works well until there is more sand than gold or the ratio is 1-1. Then swirling is more like stirring soup. The ingredients stay together.
Really expert panners then tap the pan rather than swirl it. The gold is lighter than the sand so the tapping makes the sand sink. It might sink only a few fractions of an inch but that is enough to make the gold appear at the top of the mixture.
When you can see the gold on top of the sand, you start to send a very small amount of water towards the sand. That pulls the sand away from the gold.
Gamers Can Pan for Gold at Jackpot Capital Casino
There are basically two ways to pan for gold at Jackpot Capital. One is to play progressive slots. Here we caution you in the same way that old-time prospectors cautioned the city slickers who thought that giant gold nuggets were there for the taking.
NOT!
Progressive slots usually have high volatility which means that a few gamers will share in the 96-97% return to player rate. Progressive slots are fun to play in moderation. After all, almost every day someone gets lucky!
The second way to pan for gold at Jackpot Capital is to play video poker or blackjack with a 99.5% return to player rate and no volatility. The skill you’ll need is how to swirl and tap the dish or what is the best strategy on every hand?
Jackpot Capital Offers Great Prospecting
We encourage gamers to sample all of our games since there is never any waiting at an online casino and you never have to give up a seat which doesn’t exist anyway in cyberspace.
Just as the great Gold Rush began with a single announcement, we feel that the rush to join Jackpot Capital will begin with a single call to action:
JOIN JACKPOT CAPITAL ONLINE CASINO NOW!
Check Out Glamma:
