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Chinese Miners Turn Discarded Clay Tailings into Gold

An 1857 Oregon law taxed each Chinese miner $2 a month for the privilege of mining in the state.  Some counties even made it illegal for Chinese to hold or work a claim.  The tax was extended a year later to everyone of Chinese descent, not only for mining, but also for trading, selling or buying goods.

By 1859 Josephine County was charging Chinese miners $50 a month to engage in any kind of business. 
 

The discriminatory treatment didn’t deter enterprising Chinese who demonstrated a knack for reviving abandoned claims.

In one example, a claim was located on a rocky area covered by hard white clay.  Miners had axed their way through the clay and thrown it onto the mine tailings, but after finding only about $8 a day in gold, they declared the mine unprofitable and abandoned it.

Eager Chinese took over the claim a few years later and carefully sluiced the discarded clay.  By rolling weathered clay chunks around long enough, the Chinese unlocked considerable gold and began collecting $15 to $20 a day from what had been an abandoned claim.

 

Source:  Pfefferle, Ruth. Golden Days and Pioneer Ways, Josephine County Historical Society (1977): 35. Print.

Lynda Demsher has been editor of a small-town weekly newspaper, a radio reporter, a daily newspaper reporter and columnist for the Redding Record Searchlight, Redding California. She is a former teacher and contributed to various non-profit organizations in Redding in the realm of public relations, ads, marketing, grant writing and photography.