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Volume 055-2 - April 2001 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
than five ounces of gold to the U.S. Mint was required to
present an affidavit stating the source of the gold, where
and when it was mined, together with the tonnage or yardage of rock or gravel from which it was extracted.
The big highgrading bust of 1936 occurred in late September. After months of investigation and surveillance,
state and federal agents arrested five local persons for participation in a million-dollar highgrading scheme. [Name
deleted], a Grass Valley policeman; [deleted], an assayer
and grocery store owner from French Corral; Miss [deleted], a secretary; [deleted], justice of the peace in Nevada
City; and [deleted], a Grass Valley mining engineer. !3
This particular highgrading case was to drag through
several years and two trials. A Secret Service agent declared that the U.S. Mint had been used as a “fence”
through the filing of false affidavits of gold receipts. All
five were charged with conspiracy to evade provisions of
the 1934 Gold Reserve Act. The story was picked up by the
Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle, and
wired statewide by the United Press International and the
Associated Press news services.!4 Apparently the only one
of the five to actually spend time in prison was the assayer/grocery store owner. The others were either given
probation or their sentence is unknown.)
[Editor’s note: Discretion suggested that we not print the
names of persons accused of highgrading.]
References:
1. McQuiston, F. W. Jr., Gold: The Saga of the Empire
Mine, 1850-1956 (Grass Valley: Empire Mine Park Association, 1986), p. 85.
2. Wallace, Robert, The Miners, The Old West Series (New
York: Time-Life Books, 1976), pp. 146-148.
3. Peele, Robert, Mining Engineer’s Handbook (New York,
John Wiley and Sons, 1927), p. 1542. Also see Goldfield Consolidated Mines Co. v. Richardson, 194 Federal Report, p.
200.
4. Thomas A. Rickard, “Rich Ore and its Moral Effects,”
NCHS Bulletin April 2001
Mining and Scientific Press (June 6, 1908), as quoted by
Robert Wallace in The Miners, p. 148.
5. McQuiston, op cit., p. 85.
6. Ibid., p. 86.
7. Wallace, op cit., pp 146-148.
8. Taliesin Evans, “Hydraulic Mining in California,” The
Century Magazine, XXV (January 1883), pp. 328-329.
9. “Specimen Stealing,” The Union, Jan. 13, 1871, p. 2.
10. “Highgrading—Some Miners’ Way Of Life,” The Independent, Oct. 25, 1978, p. 19.
11. The Union, Aug. 2 (p. 5), Aug. 4 (p. 6), Aug. 5 (p. 5),
Aug. 8 (p. 5), and Aug. 9 (p. 5), 1911.
12. “Thirty Years Ago,” The Union, July 23, 1969.
13. The Union, Sept. 30, 1936, p. 1.
14. The Union, Oct. 1 (p. 4), Oct. 2 (p. 1), 1936.
In the photo below, the metal object on the bookcase is a
retort which may have been used by a highgrader to aid in
the separation of gold from ore. It was purchased at an Antique Street Fair in Grass Valley several years ago. It
could have been used in the following manner: initially the
highgrader would grind his ore very fine to separate the
gold from the native rock. He would then pour into the
mortar a small amount of mercury, and stir this through
the ore. As mercury has an affinity for gold, it would
absorb the gold with which it came into contact and form
an amalgam. The amalgam would be placed into the retort
(which is the large barrel to the right of the metal pipe in
the photograph). The retort could be held over a wood fire
by some mechanical device, and upon reaching approximately 700 degrees Fahrenheit the mercury would
vaporize and pass to the left through the hollow tube. The
enlarged section around the tube is a water jacket wherein
cold water could be passed. The purpose of the water
jacket is to cool the mercury vapor and condense it back
into a fluid so that it could be recycled. Hopefully, what
would be left in the retort after it had cooled would be a
small amount of gold which could be sold on the black
market. (Photo by Bedford Lampkin.)