The Devious Art of “Salting” a Gold Claim,In the mid 19th century to the 20th century go

The Devious Art of “Salting” a Gold Claim,In the mid 19th century to the 20th century gold rushes brought a slew of people looking to become rich quick.  Not only were there gold prospectors, but businessman, bankers, restaurateurs, carpenters, lawyers, lawmen, gamblers and all sorts of trades.  Gold rushes also tended to bring in the more seedier types, such as cheats, hucksters, thieves, and con men.One of the most common con games practiced during gold rushes was the art of “salting” a claim.  Con artists would buy up exhausted mines or worthless land, the try to resell the land as being rich and full of gold.  To convince prospective buyers they would “salt” the land by leaving gold dust in strategic locations.  At the sight of easy to find gold many gold miners were fooled into paying top dollar for otherwise worthless land.However, to truly convince someone the land was rich for the taking, some con men came up with some truly ingenious methods for salting a claim.  One brilliant method was to load a shotgun or musket with gold nuggets, then fire it into the ground at several noteworthy points.  Later when the con man was showing the land to a buyer, he would direct the buyer to dig in a certain area.  Voila, the buyer would find gold nuggets scattered throughout the ground!  By the time the victimized miner discovered that the ground was not rich in gold, the con man would be long gone with his hard earned cash.One of the most interesting instances of claim salting occurred in 1851 during the California Gold Rush.  A party of miners had struck out with their claim but found that nearby a group of Chinese miners were striking it rich.  They arranged for the Chinese to tour the claim, and planted a dead rattlesnake along the mining area.  When the party came upon the snake one of the con men opened fire on the snake with a shotgun loaded with gold nuggets, thus spraying the surrounding area with “salted” gold.  The Chinese panned the soil and found many nuggets.The Chinese miners paid full price and the con men left the area before   the truth could be discovered.  However it was the con men’s plan that had backfired, as the Chinese knew they had salted the claim, but furthermore knew the land was rich in gold because they were experienced veteran prospectors.  The con men simply had not worked the land hard enough to produce results.  The claim became one of the richest claims in the area, and the Chinese returned to their homeland very wealthy men. -- source link

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