CAN YOU PUT THIS IN YOUR OWN WORDS PLEASE ANYTHING WILL HELP In 1850, Sheldon Shufelt, a man who went to California in search of gold, wrote a letter to his cousin explaining the fields of gold there as described in “Letter From a Gold Miner.” First, these miners set up camp. The pitched tents, and bought their picks, shovels, and pans to try their luck at gold panning. Shufelt describes a scenery where gold seems to be in abundance. “It is found along the banks of the streams and and in the beds of the same, and in almost every little ravine putting into the streams,” he says. Shufelt also talks about prospecting and the different methods people use to obtain their gold, such as a tool called a tom. A tom is, as Shufelt states, “a box or trough, about 8 or 9 feet long, with some 18 inches wide and from 5 to 6 inches high with an iron sieve in one end punched with ½ in holes. Underneath this is placed a ripple or box with two ripples across it.” He then describes how the tom works. It is placed in an oblique position and a hose brings water. All the dirt, stone, clay, etc. is stirred into the water with a shovel until the water is clear of everything and the gold falls into the box underneath. People today can use a similar process to pan for gold. If you wish to do so, you will need a shovel to dig up rocks and a gold-panning pan. These pans can be sold at sports stores and hobby shops. Next, you must find a location to pan for gold. Gold can be found in all 50 states, but it is most abundant in the western third of the country. The first step is to fill your pan with sand and gravel from a stream. Then, you dip the pan into water. Once that is completed, you swirl the pan around, slowly ridding it of dirt and debris. This will also get rid of the water, so you will need to refill the pan with water periodically as you repeat this process. Finally, all that will remain are some flecks of gold and probably some black sand known as magnetite. Magnetite is given its name because of its magnetic properties, so you can easily use just a magnet to get rid of the magnetite. The only remaining substance in the pan should be tiny, sparkling flecks. “Is this real gold?” you ask yourself. Hopefully so, but these shimmering flecks could also be fool’s gold which is a nearly useless material the looks similar to real gold. This information was obtained and paraphrased from “There’s Still Gold in Those Hills.” As you can see, these two passages are extremely informative on the history and process of gold mining. “There’s Still Gold in Those Hills” gives a brief history on previous gold rushes as well as descriptive instructions on how to pan for gold. “Letter from a Gold Miner” gave a primary source for what things were like for gold miners in the 1849 California Gold Rush. Clearly, these sources helped the reader understand the history and process of gold mining in the United States very well.