North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 31 Lake of Gold
Ever since traveling through time, A-Zu feels that his memory is surprisingly good!

Everything I heard, saw, and did in my previous life... is now vivid in my mind!
Even everything that had been forgotten in the previous life was remembered again after the time travel, and it was extremely clear.

Is this a benefit for time travelers?
Just like now, A-Zu clearly remembers that in later life he watched a documentary series about the North American gold rush.

The first episode of the documentary is about Souter's Mill.

The second episode is the "Mother Mine" of the Nevada Mountains.

And the third episode is the Golden Lake Waterfall!
According to the location introduced in the documentary of his previous life, A Zu compared it with the gold mining map in his hand and found that the approximate range was correct.

Until he saw the surrounding terrain clearly, it was almost exactly the same as the scenes in later documentaries!
So, he laughed, and laughed happily!
He also clearly remembered that the Golden Lake with waterfalls in the documentary was not developed until the 1890s, more than 40 years later, because of its remote location, the rampant Indians and bandits, and the fact that the lake was too deep.

This inconspicuous little river, a tributary of the American River, is a river of gold that flows directly to the "mother mine" of the Nevada Mountains!

The "mother ore" of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is gold-rich lava that erupted from deep within the earth during ancient geological activities.

The gold in the "mother ore" was crushed by ancient glaciers and then washed down by floods. The water flow upstream of the waterfall was turbulent, making it difficult for the gold to settle, and it was washed all the way to the small lake below the waterfall.

Over countless years, sedimentation has continued in the small lake below this waterfall, forming rich gold deposits far exceeding those found in other locations.

Although the lake is small, it is extremely deep underwater, forming a natural conical gold panning basin!

In the 1890s, this small lake of just a few dozen acres yielded over 150,000 ounces of gold!

These days, one ounce of gold is worth about twenty-one dollars.

In other words, if all the gold under this small lake was mined, it would be worth more than three million US dollars!

What does three million dollars mean in this era?
A large ocean-going clipper like the Barbara, with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, would cost no more than $80,000.

Three million US dollars is enough to build more than 30 "Barbaras" to form the ocean-going fleet that A-Zu has always dreamed of!

But the prerequisite is that the gold buried deep under the water can be mined!
You also have to make sure that you won’t be discovered by other gold miners, Indians, and gangs when you are panning for gold here!

In case we are discovered, we must have the ability to deal with them!

It's very difficult, extremely difficult. If it were other gold diggers, it would be impossible to do it.

But A Zu wants to try!

First, I used a gold pan to dig a basin of mud and sand from the lakeside to confirm that there was indeed gold in it and that I had not made a mistake in the location.

A-Zu's technique of using the gold pan was quite unskillful and unfamiliar.

But Jason was an old gold digger and was extremely skilled, and he quickly cleaned the basin of mud and sand.

When a thin layer of brilliant yellow appeared at the bottom of the gold pan, Jason, the old gold digger, was stunned!

"plum……!"

"How is it? I see there is gold, but what is the gold content?"

A-Zu had no real experience in gold panning and didn't know how much gold he had to find from a basin of mud and sand to be considered qualified.

Jason stared at the thin layer of golden color at the bottom of the gold pan, stunned!
"Li, slap me and tell me I'm not dreaming!"

"Snapped!"

Without saying a word, A Zu raised his hand and gave him a big fight.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

"Hahaha! I'm not dreaming! Lee, we're going to be rich! We're all going to be millionaires!!!"

Jason jumped and laughed while holding the gold pan. "Lee, let me tell you, I've been panning for gold in North and South America for twenty years, and I've never seen such a rich concentration of gold!"

"Boer!"

Jason put his arm around A-Zu's neck and bit A-Zu's face hard with his bearded mouth!
"Li, you are the god from the mysterious East! Every place you find is a lake of gold that I will never encounter in my lifetime! I love you so much!"

"In my twenty years of gold panning experience, the lakeside is only the place with the lowest gold content! In the center of the lake, where the water is the deepest, the gold content there is definitely a terrifying number!"

"Really?" A-Zu wiped the saliva off his face with his sleeve in disgust. "Is the gold content here really very high?"

"High, absolutely high!" Jason excitedly pointed at the thin layer of gold particles at the bottom of the gold panning basin. "Look, even a basin of mud like this, if there are only five or six gold particles, it's already worth panning for." "If there are more than ten gold particles like this, it's a rich mine, a place that all gold diggers will fight for."

"Look at this pot again. How many are there?"

A-Zu took the gold pan and did a quick count. He found that there were sixty or seventy tiny gold grains in this small pan of mud and sand.

And this is just the mud and sand with the lowest gold content on the shore of this small lake!

A-Zu nodded with satisfaction: "That's right, it looks like I've found the right place!"

Jason was stunned. "Lee, you know this place? You didn't just look for it randomly?"

"Tsk, you can find a lake of gold just by looking around? You must be kidding!"

"Tell me quickly, how do you know about this Golden Lake?"

Without even looking up, A-Zu pointed his finger at the sky: "Secret!"

Jason looked up at the sky and suddenly realized, "So that's it!"

Jason looked down at Zu, his eyes filled with awe: "Li, you are really not a human!"

"You are not human, your whole family is not human!"

A-Zu put down the gold pan and asked Jason to row the boat, while he used a rope to hang stones and measured the water depth in various places on the lake.

Then he climbed up a cliff more than ten meters high with his bare hands, stood by the waterfall, and looked out at the surrounding terrain.

Then, he took out a pen and paper from his backpack and started writing and drawing.

Jason also climbed up and looked at A-Zu squatting there and gesturing with a confused look on his face.

"Lee, what are you doing again?"

"With your IQ, it's hard to explain it to you!"

"Am I stupid?" Jason pulled out his cherry wood pipe and took a deep puff of it in frustration. "Well, compared to you, I don't think I'm smart enough!"

"You have some self-awareness!"

After drawing the diagram and marking the parameters, A Zu put away the paper and pen and said, "Let's go, let's go back!"

"Going back?" Jason was completely confused. "We spent ten whole days here, and we've only been here for a short while, and we're already going back?"

As A-Zu climbed down the cliff, he replied, "Didn't you say it was extremely dangerous here, making my scalp tingle? If I don't go back quickly, will I stay here and wait for someone to scalp me?"

Jason was unwilling to give up: "But...what about the gold?"

"Gold can't grow legs and run away!"

Jason still didn't give up: "How about we take some back?"

"If you miss, stay here!"

A moment later, the two got back on the boat and rowed downstream.

Jason kept looking back, gazing at the lake reluctantly.

For any gold digger, such a golden lake is definitely a lifelong dream.

I would die without regrets if I could find a place like this!
Jason certainly did too.

"Don't look!" A Zu couldn't help but said, "Don't worry, we will come back!"

"But, you must remember, you must never leak the news of finding the Golden Lake to anyone!"

A-Zu looked extremely cautious, which was rare.

"Otherwise, we will all die horribly!!!"

(End of this chapter)