GOLD!

Men left home and family to answer that cry. In 1849, gold was discovered in California, starting the California Gold Rush. Gold has held a strange almost magnetic attraction over human emotions and desires since the dawn of our race. Civilizations have worshiped it. Wars have been fought over it. Men have worked, schemed, cheated, killed, and died to possess it. It is the King of all metals. The 1849’ers moved with their pans and rockers from California to Oregon, then to Nevada and many other western states, and eventually to the Frazier Valley in Southwestern Canada in search of gold dust and nuggets. In 1897, gold was discovered in the Yukon and Alaska. Prospectors and miners today still pan and dredge in the same streams and still recover gold. The majority of the gold used in our nugget jewelry comes from the sand and gravel deposits of the historic Forty Mile mining region of east central Alaska.

Gold is found in almost all the states of the US, with Alaska ranking 2nd highest in gold production. Gold is recovered by two methods: hard rock mining, which involves tunneling below the ground to follow the twisting gold veins of lode gold, and by placer mining, mining gold which has been exposed by natural erosion process into the rivers and streams, thus yielding GOLD NUGGETS. Less than 2% of the earth’s gold is found in NUGGET form, making GOLD NUGGETS one of the earth’s most precious commodities. In nature, gold never occurs in pure form, but is mixed with silver, copper and other metals. Refined gold is 999/1000 pure or 24K pure. Our Alaska gold nuggets run about 875/1000 pure or 22K-23K pure. Gold nuggets used in our jewelry have not been altered from their natural shape.