The gold deposits in many places, especially in dry diggings, could be very deep, reaching down to the bedrock, and a well or shaft had to be dug to reach the pay dirt. When these holes were too deep for a man to throw the dirt out with a shovel a windlass and bucket would be used to remove the dirt, much like one would hand dig a well in those days. For very deep deposits men would often join forces but in places where the ore was not so deep each miner would have his own hole where he would collect the gold bearing soil above the bedrock as far he dared to excavate.
Sometimes shafts were sloping or even horizontal tunnels that bored several hundred feet into the hillsides. These miners were out of sight of others in the surrounding area but if there came a disturbance they would pop from their holes like coyotes, so it was said, and the holes themselves became known as coyote holes and the mining technique as coyote mining. One particular gravel hill near Nevada City was so perforated that it came to be called Coyoteville.
Nevada City 1851
I thought about prairie dogs too, Doris.
Thanks, John, you are so full of information on the gold rush times. It is so interesting. Thanks so much!
I’m glad you like the stories, Patsy, and I’m grateful you’ve let me know that. Thank you!
A fun adventure in gold hunting. Thanks, John, you are so full of information on the gold rush times. It is so interesting. Thanks so much! Good job
As a kid growing up near Nevada City in the 1950s and 60s I spent many an hour poking around coyote holes. We had one hole on our property that was a great place to uncover rose quartz.
Thanks for sharing Ray. Nevada City must have been a great place to grow up. I wonder if you ever found any gold in those holes?
this site was useless