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Distribution of Principal Gold Producing Districts of the United States
HISTORY OF GOLD MINING AND TRENDS IN PRODUCTION
Gold in the United States was first mined in the Southeastern States about 1799, but these deposits, though rich, were relatively small. After the discovery of placer gold in California in 1848, the Western States contributed the bulk of the domestic gold production. Placer deposits offered quick and large returns with simple equipment and thus stimulated migration to the new gold fields. Many prospectors, trained in the California gold fields, spread to other parts of the new territories and many deposits were found in rapid succession in widely separated areas. The discovery of these rich placer deposits marked the beginning of active development and settlement of the West. Exploration and mining activity boomed; gold production reached 2 million ounces in 1850 and 3 million ounces in 1853. It then declined steadily and in 1862 again dropped below the 2-million-ounce level. Placers were the chief source of our domestic output until 1873 (Loughlin and others, 1930, fig. 3), when their output was exceeded by that of lode mines, a relation that has continued through 1965. Placer activity remained at a relatively low ebb during the 1880's and early 1890's, but there were three periods in later years when placer production, though exceeded by lode production, formed a significant proportion of the domestic output—in 1896 when large dredges were introduced in California, in 1904 when large deposits of rich gravels were discovered in Alaska, and in 1934 when the price of gold was increased to $35 an ounce.
In many districts the prospectors followed gold-bearing gravel to the source of the gold in veins, and lode mining began shortly after placer mining. It was not, however, until about the middle 1860's, when the Mother Lode and Grass Valley lodes in California and the Comstock Lode in Nevada became important producers, that lode mines became significant sources of gold. Lode production increased rapidly after the discovery of gold in the Cripple Creek district, Colorado, in 1892. By 1898, production from this district together with the increased placer production in California and the accelerated output of the Homestake mine at Lead, S. Dak., had raised our annual gold production to more than 3 million ounces. Production continued to rise with the discoveries of gold at Tonopah, Nev., in 1903, the placer deposits of Alaska in 1904, and gold at Goldfield, Nev., in 1905. By 1905 gold production for the first time exceeded 4 million ounces, a level maintained until 1917. Because of a shortage of manpower during World War I, production then declined rapidly, falling almost to the 2-million-ounce level by 1920, where it remained until 1934. Many gold mines were reopened during the depression in the early 1930's. When the price of gold was raised in 1934 from $20.67 to $35 per ounce, production increased rapidly and in 1937 again passed the 4-million-ounce mark. Additional gold was obtained as a byproduct from increased output of base metals in the late 1930's, and in 1940 gold production reached an alltime high of 4,869,949 ounces. Shortly after the United States entered World War II, the gold mines were closed, and gold production in 1944 and 1945 dropped below the 1-million-ounce mark, the lowest since 1849. Production in 1965 was 1,705,190 ounces.