What equipment did the gold rush use?

Answer 1

The full answer depends on which gold rush you're talking about. But if you're referring to the most famous gold rush in America that occurred in 1849 in California, then most of the miners were prospecting for placer gold (as opposed to hard rock mining, where the gold is trapped inside the rock). For placer mining, the miners mostly used:

- picks and shovels (to loosen and gather gold-bearing dirt for processing)

- gold pans (to separate gold from the dirt)

- sluice boxes (to separate gold from the dirt)

- rocker boxes (to separate gold from the dirt)

For hard rock mining, a lot of other equipment is needed, such as dynamite, to get the ore, crushers to crush the ore, mules and mining carts to haul the ore, mining hats and carbide lanterns, etc.