A tidbit for the gold panners who think it is impossible to find enough gold.
Thirty five years after the gold dredges had come and gone on the North Saskatchewan river gold rush of 1896-97, in 1932, a Mr. Tormod Nesjan took his wife and oldest son and started from Genesee on a log raft that was 12' x 20' in late May. The whole 'camp and kitchen' was on the raft. Tormod took the whole summer to reach Edmonton drifting from sand bar to sandbar. He sluiced for gold along the way. No pumps on his sluice box so he manually pouring the water needed to sluice. When he got to Edmonton by late September he had amassed 25 ounces of gold. This man went on to become the Holborn ferry operator in 1936. The Holborn ferry was the first ferry that was upstream of Edmonton. It was south of Stony Plain.
25 ounces at today's prices would be pretty good wages for 4 months work. 25 x 2267.00 = $56,665.00. Back in 1932 25 ounces of gold was worth $517.25 which was still considerable considering this was during the dirty thirties.
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This country was started by voyagers whose young lives were swept away by the currents of the rivers for ten cents a day... just for the vanity of the European's beaver hats. ~ Red Bullets
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It is when you walk alone in nature that you discover your strengths and weaknesses. ~ Red Bullets
Last edited by Red Bullets; 10-21-2021 at 07:01 PM.
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