What is Fools Gold?

We're taking a little break from gold bullion and investment talk to chat a bit about fool's gold. I was asked recently what it really is and how it got the name - and - I thought this was a good question - is it worth anything today? So, let's stop the market ticker, even though I see gold and oil up and I believe it is due to the war in Iraq, and let's find out what fool's gold is.

Just think if you were a newbie gold miner and, naturally, you're out there alone trying to find ore before anyone around you does - and you happen upon something that looks just like the real McCoy? It really does appear as cubes of pure gold but it isn't. As a matter of fact, when you get fool's gold wet, it starts to give off sulfuric acid. This is iron pyrite.

How Can I Be Sure Something is Pure Gold?

Oh, back in the mid 1800's, it was common for the forty-niners to find big chunks of this stuff and they would ride into the closest town thinking they had become rich. Fool's gold is found in the same places you find real gold. And because so many prospectors would mosey on into town with the iron pyrite, people started calling the stuff "fool's gold." It is a sulfide material found around fossils and sometimes in the coal mines.

Is There Any Industrial Use for Fool's Gold?

Well, prospectors hate the stuff because it caused them much labor and wasted a lot of their time, but iron pyrite is used today. It is durable enough to use in costume jewelry. And then there are the collectors. Fool's gold looks pretty interesting and is an item some like to have. But if you're a miner, you're not going to get rich on it.

Once that it was found to create sulfur dioxide, it became widely used in the paper making industry. Today another material is used, but iron pyrite got many companies off the ground and into major companies. So fool's gold actually helped industrialize part of our society as we know it.

Fool's gold isn't worth much, and it certainly is the grief of many miners looking for the real thing. Yet it does play a place in history and although it is not used today as it once was, we respect it for playing a vital part in getting the modern paper industry off the ground.

California Gold Rush: The Birth Of A State

On January 24, 1848 the history of California changed when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. The forty-niners, as they were known, flocked to the land of promised wealth to seek their fortune in gold. They came anyway they could, on ships, in covered wagons and even on horseback. This singular-minded drive for wealth will forever be known as the California Gold Rush.

San Francisco And Statehood

A mere town at the beginning of the great California gold rush, San Francisco became a boomtown as a result. It didn’t take long for the tiny town to grow a maze of streets filled with every mining town nuance imaginable. From a mining town, San Francisco grew larger and larger offering shops, churches and schools that attracted families and even those not interested in the California gold rush.

Another city that developed as a result of the California gold rush was Sacramento. And, as hamlets grew into towns and the towns boomed, a government had to be formed. With that step came laws, and before long California was admitted into the United States as a full state. All of this directly related to the thirst for wealth that first drove the forty-niners to what was considered the land of plenty.

Agriculture And Native Americans

As the California gold rush sparked growth in this newly formed state, the goals of the new immigrants began to shift. No longer were they called the forty-niners and no longer were they on the singular mission of finding gold. Instead, California’s gold rush had shifted to an agricultural push, which meant that more and more land was needed.

In addition to the land needed for agriculture, the California gold rush and the newly budding agricultural push meant a push for faster ways to move people and goods across the state. Eventually, California began building a railroad to accommodate the need to move people and things. With the need for land to mine on, land to grow things on, and land for railroads, Native Americans were shoved out of ancestral lands and onto reservations.

Years later, it was discovered that the boomtown building California gold rush had one other negative effect. Not only did the Native Americans suffer, but the land was also ravaged from the effects of mining. This was, and remains one of the most important pieces of American history. Now, students from anywhere can learn about the California gold rush and the lives of the miners by visiting the online museum, http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/fever.html. It is dedicated to preserving this historic event for generations to come.