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Inside the California Gold Rush of the 1800's | Full Documentary — Transcript

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0:04[Music]
0:11in the second half of the 19th century
0:13it was common for California Gold Rush
0:15towns to go through boom and bust cycles
0:18and Bodie was no exception nestled in
0:21the remote hills east of the Sierra
0:23Nevada mountains Bodie boomed in the
0:25late 1870s after huge gold deposits were
0:28discovered in underground mines nearby
0:30suddenly you had a mining camp that went
0:33from a few hundred in a space of months
0:35to 10,000 people bringing miners
0:38merchants
0:39you have or wagons wagons full of
0:41supplies coming and going
0:43you had the smells of bakeries hotels
0:45cooking the mines are up on the hill 24
0:48hours a day working it was just an
0:50amazing confluence of everything human
0:53in the West in one place for new towns
0:56like Bodie that exploded virtually
0:58overnight it was essentially every man
1:01for himself the sheriff's and constables
1:03were rarely to be found and it was the
1:05local miners organization that dispensed
1:08much of the justice keeping order was a
1:10different story
1:11bodis boom time was a pretty wild and
1:14rowdy time people were armed you
1:17expected everybody in Bodie did have a
1:19gun robberies staged holdups and street
1:22fights were common after a hard day's
1:24work in the mines liquor flowed freely
1:26in the saloons that lined the mile-long
1:28Main Street and things often got out of
1:31hand
1:32murders were almost daily events shortly
1:36before the boom time there was a family
1:38in San Jose that was moving to Bodie and
1:41they overheard their mom daughter about
1:42four years old in her prayers at night
1:44she said goodbye God we're going to
1:47bodie hitmen I'm going to the land of no
1:51right or wrong it's just wild Bodie by
1:551883 as mining claims tailed off and
1:58Bodie began its decline about fourteen
2:00million dollars in gold had been taken
2:02from the nearby mines worth about 250
2:05million in today's dollars
2:07bodis now a State Historic Park with
2:10only 5% of the original structures still
2:12standing
2:12it's preserved in a state of Arrested
2:14decay meaning it will be maintained to
2:17look just the way it does today
2:21the California Gold Rush can be traced
2:24to a single event in 1848 as the Mexican
2:27War came to an end
2:28California was about to be acquired by
2:30the United States it wasn't yet a state
2:33it wasn't even a territory a January
2:3624th of that year James Marshall found a
2:39gold nugget half the size of a pea near
2:41John Sutter's lumber mill on the
2:43American River the news set off a chain
2:46reaction around the world of historic
2:48proportions it was this magnet for
2:52people from all over the world and they
2:53came by the hundreds of thousands to
2:55California and without the discoveries
2:58gold they never would have done that
2:59they converged on the foothills of the
3:02Sierra Nevada mountains the mother lode
3:03region by land and by sea there were
3:06three ways essentially to get to
3:08California you could travel around Cape
3:11Horn in most cases you'd go by sailing
3:13ship you could go by steamship to the
3:17Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua and then
3:20cross overland and then pick up another
3:22ship and go up the Pacific coast and get
3:24to California
3:25the third way was simply to go overland
3:27from the Missouri River which was the
3:29jumping-off point for the Overland Trail
3:31to the Sacramento Valley some people
3:34rode horses some rode and wagons but for
3:36most of them it was a really long walk
3:38San Francisco became the springboard for
3:41prospectors arriving by sea the
3:43population there exploded from 600 in
3:461848 to 25,000 just two years later the
3:50rush for gold was on though I had sailed
3:53for California with little faith in the
3:55gold stories when I landed my skepticism
3:59turned to amazement everywhere piles of
4:02gold dust from fine-scale River gold to
4:05coarse nuggets
4:08the first gold discoveries in California
4:10were made in streambeds where miners
4:12used the power of running water to wash
4:14away whatever wasn't gold they called it
4:17placer mining working conditions for
4:20these prospectors were primitive and
4:22back-breaking the placer miners
4:24typically spent 10 12 14 hours a day
4:29waist-deep in water that was coming off
4:32the glaciers of the Sierras the Sun
4:35would be beating down on their head so
4:37from the waist up they would be boiling
4:39hot from the waist down they would be
4:41freezing well I wanted to find out for
4:43myself so not too far from John Sutter's
4:45lumber mill where the gold rush began I
4:47joined some modern-day prospectors to
4:49try my hand at placer mining
4:52[Music]
5:01you're agitating the material using
5:04motion in the water the quality of gold
5:06the fact that it's very heavy it's 19
5:08times heavier than the water we're
5:10hoping that it's going to stick to the
5:11bottom when they discovered gold within
5:13weeks there were miners on the river
5:15American River and they were panning
5:18that's all they had going for him
5:19where's pans in the first few weeks they
5:21knew nothing else they were not very
5:22good at it they were using frying pans
5:24dinner plates Indian baskets anything
5:27they get their hands on the pan with and
5:29they were doing the same thing we're
5:30doing they were down there hoping
5:31alright but the smart guys quickly
5:34figured out they could sell them pans
5:37boy I just started and I can already see
5:40the day after day in the rain
5:43feet in the water cold already the
5:46health would be in jeopardy
5:47all the way to California for all this
5:49this is awful so you would have been the
5:55sort of miner that lasted about a day
5:56and a half what's this stuff I see
5:59already I see these flakes here is that
6:01fool's gold probably if it's on top
6:04that's what that's okay this this is how
6:06we learn that's what keeps you going see
6:07kind of a circular motion you want to
6:11get that gold down where you can trap it
6:12and capture it later and going from that
6:14circular motion you go to a side-to-side
6:16motion like this and you start to tip
6:18the pans can already the carpenter in me
6:21is that what we have here is the next
6:29level of mechanization in the gold rush
6:31this was introduced only a couple months
6:33after discovery so we're talking like
6:34around March 1848 our object here is to
6:37try to get the heavier material the gold
6:39the black sand and the river garnet all
6:42down here so the name of the game in
6:44gold mining is take a whole bunch of
6:46gold-bearing gravel right and keep
6:49sifting it right until the heavier gold
6:51sinks down to the bypass if I can
6:53retrieve it correct so the more material
6:55you can move through and sift the faster
6:57you're gonna get rich so the big stuff
6:59gets filtered out here right finer stuff
7:01gets fillets into apron and it runs to
7:03the back the material washes all the way
7:05to this Inn and these little cleats the
7:06wood in here called riffles we're gonna
7:08actually capture the gold
7:10okay now with the addition of water here
7:14just your technique is going to be like
7:16a jerking motion like this because you
7:18want to get some agitation in there so
7:23this is really just a quick way to
7:25remove the the lighter earth but still
7:30there must be a faster way to move more
7:33material through there sure is steam but
7:35you have your hands on there is a chain
7:37pump it's a very simple device but it
7:39works very very efficiently as you can
7:40see so the water travels down through a
7:43chute
7:43these are flumes so you'd have three
7:48four or five guys dumping in dirt you'll
7:50notice now we have a flow of water
7:52that's working for us now you're going
7:53to be dragging the rest of that gravel
7:55down here and moving it back and forth
7:57over the Riddler's you can lift the long
8:03time now and I'll pull the riffle box
8:04out so you're digging it out right there
8:08right behind the and rip take this and
8:10pant you would pan that out when you
8:12actually found gold
8:14where'd it look like there's a nice 9.9
8:17penny wait that's just shy of a half of
8:19an ounce that is a nugget that would
8:21make your day yeah how much does this
8:23work now approximately $800 and back
8:26then about eight dollars but more
8:28commonly miners would find flakes not
8:31big nuggets that's right be stuff
8:33typical like that tiny little flakes but
8:37they add up what are these worth though
8:38not too much probably ten twelve dollars
8:40and back then pennies pennies some when
8:43it came right down to it you were doing
8:44a whole lot of work for pennies at a
8:47time that's right but there was money in
8:49the dirt and there was all that's right
8:54the gold rush transformed the very
8:56definition of success acquiring material
8:59wealth had always been part of the
9:01American Dream if you wanted to get
9:03ahead you worked hard and put your
9:05shoulder to the wheel and in time your
9:07reward would come California overturns
9:10all of those notions because in
9:12California
9:13the race is not to the diligent its to
9:16the Swift
9:16the goldrush taught Americans to take
9:19risks if you were willing to court
9:22failure then the rewards could be beyond
9:25the dreams of anybody before the days of
9:28the gold rush by the early 1850s just a
9:33few years after gold was discovered at
9:35Sutter's Mill the placer gold deposits
9:37in California were drying up miners
9:40looking for the next big strike crossed
9:41the Sierra Nevada mountains into Nevada
9:43some went south into Arizona and some
9:47went north in the Idaho and Montana
9:49Montana was a pretty big unexplored
9:53place at that time prior to that there
9:55were some fur trappers a few traders
9:57Indian traders up here but very little
10:00else by 1863 year before Montana became
10:03a territory thousands of gold seekers
10:06had arrived that was the lure of gold
10:08that really got Montana populated and it
10:11was one of the biggest gold rushes after
10:13their gold rush in California
10:15those are the Bitterroot Mountains once
10:19covered in snow the Centennial's
10:20and nestled in the hills the town of
10:24Bannack Montana first territorial
10:26capital in the 1860s in between Banach
10:30and Virginia City was the richest placer
10:33gold strike in Montana history on par
10:36with the big strikes in the Klondike in
10:38California he had the ideal combination
10:41of isolation and the prospect of
10:44fantastic wealth which meant that in
10:47Bannack like many Gold Rush towns the
10:49name of the game was law and disorder
10:53[Music]
11:03gold was discovered in July of 1862
11:07there was a group of prospectors from
11:10Colorado and they discovered gold about
11:12three miles downstream from here and
11:15they knew right away they're into
11:17something pretty rich word spread like
11:19wildfire by that fall hundreds of
11:22prospectors are panning for gold up and
11:24down the creek there were no stores in
11:26town and you brought or shot whatever
11:28you needed to survive you had people
11:31that were just out trying to make their
11:33fortune we had people that were trying
11:35to escape the Civil War you had outlaws
11:37that were running from the law so you
11:40had all kinds of people good and bad
11:43Bannack was home to some notorious
11:45outlaws Henry Plummer being the most
11:48famous outlaw of all he was a former
11:50lawman in Nevada City California he was
11:53sentenced to San Quentin for killing a
11:55man out there after he was released he
11:58made his way here to Bannock
12:00and in the spring of 1863 he was elected
12:03sheriff it was believed that he was
12:06secretly leaving a game of road agent
12:09sent with the outlaws of those days and
12:11then holdup stagecoaches
12:12a wagon trains and to lead the miners of
12:15their gold dust it said that back in
12:171863 there over a hundred people that
12:20were murdered and from how did Plummer
12:22and his gang meet their just reward well
12:27a group of citizens formed a vigilante
12:29group they met secretly they signed to
12:31oath swearing allegiance to one another
12:33and that they would do no wrong that
12:35they would do this for the good of the
12:38people in this community since they
12:39believed that the law was actually
12:41behind all the robberies and murders the
12:43outlaws they ended up giving themselves
12:44away yes it's kind of ironic they
12:48believed that they had a secret password
12:49and that password is I am innocent so
12:54when they were being questioned by the
12:55vigilantes as soon as they said I'm
12:58innocent they assumed that they were
13:00part of the gang in guilty and in a
13:02period of about one and a half months
13:03they hanged over 20 people including
13:05sheriff Plummer and his to death
13:07right up the draw there at the gallows
13:10one cold January evening
13:13the horror of what I saw was
13:15photographed on my memory the bodies of
13:18five men with ropes around their necks
13:20hung limp from a roof beam I trembled so
13:24that I could scarcely run toward home
13:28the vigilantes ruled Bannock area for
13:31another three years before life began to
13:33settle down during that time prospectors
13:36began to tap into rich gold veins
13:38underground throughout the West placer
13:42mining had removed the most accessible
13:43gold near the Earth's surface other
13:46mining technologies evolved that dug
13:48deeper in the 1850s large companies in
13:51California started using a technology
13:53called hydraulic mining high pressure
13:56hoses would literally blast away entire
13:58mountains and hillsides and the gold was
14:00then extracted from the residue powerful
14:03enough to kill a man 200 feet away
14:05hydraulic mining was environmentally
14:07devastating and ended by the turn of the
14:10century huge dredges also began to be
14:12used to scoop out entire riverbeds and
14:14streams and miners searched for gold and
14:17underground veins it was called lode
14:20mining
14:21[Music]
14:26the drum lemon goldmine under this
14:29mountain in Marysville Montana was
14:31originally staked around 1876 by a miner
14:34named Thomas Cruz he was clearly on to
14:37something because from 1883 until 1950
14:40over 500,000 ounces of gold were
14:43recovered worth more than 255 million in
14:47today's dollars
14:48so how was lode mining done in the late
14:5019th century we came to the drum lemon
14:53to find out Steve looks like you're
14:57ready to go underground here protect you
14:59Footwear you got sturdy clothing on you
15:02got a miner's belt with the battery for
15:04your headlamp detective d-ring the
15:08battery has a cord that goes up to your
15:09headlamp on the side here turn the lamp
15:12on and off and focus it your hearing
15:14protection on your hard hat safety
15:16glasses and over on this side of your
15:19belt this is a self rescuer in case of a
15:22mine fire it converts the carbon
15:24monoxide to carbon dioxide it'll burn
15:27your mouth because it's an exothermic
15:28reaction but don't spit it out so I
15:31think we're ready to go okay okay oh by
15:35the way grab that box of dynamite when
15:36you come
15:42even though the mine has been closed for
15:44several decades the drum lemons owners
15:46believe there's still plenty of gold in
15:48the mountain mining engineer Larry
15:50Hoffman and I came to see for ourselves
15:52there were about 700 feet into the 1600
15:56foot tunnel this timbering keeps the
15:59unstable ground in this section of the
16:00mine from falling down on us we're about
16:03400 feet below the surface is it safe
16:06yeah it's safe but you can see where the
16:09Timbers kind of sagging here
16:13[Music]
16:18welcome to the hoist room of the drum
16:21Lum and mine Wow Wow look at this it's
16:27about a hundred and fifty feet across
16:28there and up above your head is a brick
16:33arch that was put in in 1884 10 to 12
16:37courses of brick thick you can imagine
16:39the scaffold that took to put in that
16:41arch why is it so big it supports the
16:44fractured rock and the rock that was
16:46mine from the vein from here to the
16:48surface what was in this space this face
16:52was used for the hoisting engine and the
16:54air compressors that powered the mine
16:57the hoisting engine was a large electric
16:59winch but raised the ore and lowered
17:02miners and supplies into the shaft so
17:04this is a shaft not just a little pool
17:06of water this is a shaft like an
17:08elevator shaft in a building it took
17:10miners 1,200 feet down with levels a
17:13hundred feet apart and tunnels snaking
17:15into the narrow but deep veins of gold
17:18so if I toss this rock in going down
17:231,250 1,200 feet then take that rock a
17:26couple of minutes to get to the bottom
17:28through the water I don't think I want
17:30to fall into the shack no your gear that
17:32you're wearing would drag you down and
17:33you just watch the square light
17:35disappear behind you that gives me the
17:37chills
17:38here's one of the gold veins that was
17:41mine back in the old days you can see
17:44the slot that goes to the surface each
17:46one of those Timbers held the platform
17:49that the miners worked on to mine that
17:50rock what were they using for tools I'll
17:53show you over here from the Middle Ages
17:57until after the Civil War the only way
17:59that miners had to drill into the rock
18:01was to use hardened steel or iron bits
18:04on the drill steel and one man at a time
18:08was called single jacking one man
18:10holding and rotating the steal another
18:12man's swinging hammer was called double
18:14Jackie how fast could they drill through
18:16a man single jacking probably could do
18:18six inches in an hour maybe a foot in
18:20softer Rock
18:22didn't want to mess with those guys in
18:24the dark now you didn't wanna
18:25arm-wrestle Oh next evolution after the
18:28Civil War with the demands for part mine
18:30production they developed compressed air
18:32drills like this one they were called
18:34Slugger drills because the steel is
18:37clamped into the piston everything goes
18:40back and forth I'll show you what it
18:41looks like your back I'll stand back
18:43okeydoke
18:53from the piston drill technology evolved
18:56into the light hammer drill the heavy
18:58hammer drill bastard faster drilling why
19:01drill to begin with to get dynamite
19:03behind the rock to blast the rock out
19:05get the gold rock in the box pard rock
19:07in the box at the end of the 19th
19:12century the drum lemon mine was the most
19:14productive goldmine in Montana miners
19:17would get to the gold veins by drilling
19:19into the rock face and planting dynamite
19:21sometimes using as many as 300 sticks at
19:24a time and then blasting the wall into
19:26small pieces of ore mining engineer
19:29Larry Hoffman is showing me how it was
19:31done
19:35[Music]
19:45these are long tubes like a sausage and
19:49they're kind of squishy yeah what's in
19:51there
19:52it's actually an emulsion harmonium
19:55nitrate based with accelerators in it
19:58and what are you attaching to it this is
20:02the non L detonator non electronic
20:05detonator it's a blasting cap with a
20:08hollow tube that's filled with the same
20:10material that's in airbags but Larry's
20:14plan is to detonate the dynamite in
20:16three separate blasts that go off and
20:18close sequence to maximize the amount of
20:20rock will blow out from the wall we have
20:22to drill the holes in a precise pattern
20:25next we insert the blasting caps into
20:28the sticks of dynamite the blasting cap
20:30is real sensitive if you hit it against
20:32a rock or hit it against rail it could
20:36go off once the flame front reaches here
20:39the actual cap goes off and then the cap
20:42sets off the dynamite dynamite so this
20:44is the lethal combination right got to
20:55prime and stick a dynamite so now the
20:59next step is to tamp them hole at the
21:01end of the hole you tamp it enough that
21:04you can feel the cartridge break so you
21:08want to split that sausage casing so
21:10that the plastic material loses out yes
21:15last one last one how many sticks in all
21:1927
21:22the holes are now filled with dynamite
21:25and the non electric detonator tubes are
21:28connected to a single blasting cap when
21:32we got the area cleared then we'll
21:34connect these wires string a lead wire
21:36back to a detonating device down the
21:39tunnel a safe distance away from the
21:41blast and then everything's out of the
21:45way we'll come back and connect it shoot
21:47this puppy we slipped behind a rock wall
21:49about 300 feet from the blast all right
22:01and then it's time to let her rip okay
22:05fire the hole
22:19this is awesome
22:21sorry Colton well I'll take a couple of
22:24samples back in lass am but in mining we
22:27always say you always drive one more
22:29round because you might be just a foot
22:33from a million dollars on the other hand
22:36it might be a million feet from a dollar
22:39well speaking around eyes by hey here we
22:43got enough gold to buy in lode mining
22:47the gold is still embedded in the ore to
22:50extract it the ore was transported to
22:52stamp mills for us pulverized by huge
22:55cast iron rods called stamps
23:02again and again a thousand pounds of
23:05weight and force have come crashing down
23:06on the rock and just crush it depression
23:08till it was dust wherever there were
23:12gold mines there were stamp mills
23:14running 24 hours a day seven days a week
23:17some mills contain as many as 50 stamps
23:20we searched far and wide for a 19th
23:23century stamp mill that still worked we
23:25finally tracked one down in Nevada City
23:27California painstakingly restored by
23:30mining preservation as to Mike Mebius so
23:33what's the process I can see the ore
23:35carts up top there yeah the ore gets
23:36dumped into the hopper and then just the
23:38weight of the ore brings it all the way
23:40down to a feeder mechanism that feeds it
23:42to the stamps and then it crushes the
23:44rock and these are the stamps how much
23:46they weigh
23:47there are a thousand pounds each and it
23:49just pulverizes the ore that's right can
23:51you crank it up
24:08this is a job record and its purpose was
24:11to bring the ore down from the larger
24:15rocks to a uniform size so they could be
24:18fed into the Sam Hill they would have
24:21come on down by gravity flow drop it in
24:24there the crushed rock would fall into a
24:28feeder trail and then would be pushed by
24:30water under the stamps to be pulverized
24:54[Music]
24:58would drop onto large copper sheets
25:01coated with Mercury the gold particles
25:03combined with the mercury to form a
25:05sludgy alloy called amalgam the amalgam
25:09was scooped into buckets and heated in a
25:11retort to about 700 degrees the mercury
25:14evaporated leaving behind a spongy form
25:17of gold which was then melted and formed
25:20into solid bars for the prospectors who
25:24rushed out west in the late 19th century
25:26mining for gold was often back-breaking
25:28work
25:29it rarely paid off for many it was very
25:32much like a lottery and for a few people
25:35who struck it rich there were very very
25:37many people who came home empty-handed
25:39but there was another way to make a
25:41fortune by selling goods and services it
25:44was called mining the miners the miners
25:47required all sorts of products all sorts
25:51of provisions everything that
25:54constituted civilized life Baggies
25:57they've been paying top dollar for for
26:00clothes for pants that wouldn't wear out
26:02merchants the world over saw an
26:04opportunity they couldn't pass up in
26:061853 Levi Strauss expanded his family's
26:09New York dry goods business to San
26:11Francisco 20 years later he pioneered
26:14the use of metal rivets that kept denim
26:16pants from falling apart at first called
26:19waste overalls these jeans were a huge
26:21hit with miners who needed clothing that
26:24wouldn't fall apart after months in the
26:25mine
26:26other entrepreneurs were also doing
26:28brisk business
26:29Folgers coffee originated when james
26:32Folger from Nantucket Massachusetts came
26:34out west with his brothers to mine gold
26:36but then discovered there was a market
26:38for pre-ground coffee John M Studebaker
26:41built and sold wheelbarrows to miners in
26:43the next century he and his brothers
26:45made automobiles but whatever equipment
26:49miners used it had to be durable and
26:51much of it was made from cast iron in
26:54the early days equipment was shipped
26:56from foundries back east within a few
26:58years though wherever there was a mine a
27:00foundry was often operating nearby today
27:04only a few of these foundries are still
27:05standing we located one just several
27:08miles from where the California Gold
27:10Rush began
27:11[Music]
27:18by the 1870s Sutter Creek California was
27:22a gritty industrial mining Center seven
27:25stamp mills operated 24 hours a day
27:27there were a couple of brick yards a
27:29brewery and countless boarding houses
27:32brothels and saloons and here on Eureka
27:35Street was the night foundry which
27:38pioneered some of the most innovative
27:39mining technology in the West founded in
27:421873 by Samuel Knight a brilliant
27:45inventor and engineer the foundry
27:48manufactured machinery in parts that
27:50help power the gold mines of the
27:51California mother lode region the night
27:54foundry is believed to be the oldest
27:55continually operating water powered
27:57foundry in the United States and it's a
28:01hundred and thirty years ago Knight
28:02works is in full swing paint me a
28:04picture of what it's like well it's a
28:06bustling shop there's somebody standing
28:08at every one of these big machines doing
28:10work there's probably 20 machinists in
28:13here the people that work on these
28:14machines many of them were trained by
28:16night there'd be kids hanging out at the
28:17door of the foundry every day these are
28:19original machine these are the use of
28:21machines this place was fitted out by
28:23about 1882 it was pretty much as you see
28:25it today looks like about a hundred and
28:27twenty-five pounds of water pressure in
28:29this pipe where does the water come from
28:30comes from 45 miles back in the
28:33mountains by a canal system of flumes
28:36and ditches comes to the edge of the
28:37valley here and then drops in a pipe
28:40almost 500 feet down and that gravity
28:43pressure in the pipe gives us all this
28:45pressure the pressure comes in here
28:47through a valve in through a jet small
28:49jet really into this the water comes out
28:52of here about 110 miles an hour so it's
28:54like a big squirt gun coming in there
28:56this was Samuel Knight's signature
28:57invention the water powered impulse
29:00turbine or the night wheel the wheel
29:03starts turning it's going by at about 50
29:06and when the water hits the bucket it
29:08does a u-turn right it drops down at
29:10zero it gives all of its energy to the
29:13wheel almost all of it
29:14this was nice genius yes this is the
29:16most efficient machine ever invented you
29:18figure a steam engine that they were
29:19using then would get about six percent
29:21of the energy out of the wood it used or
29:24an automobile only gets two
29:25fifteen percent of its energy out of the
29:27gasoline this wheeled from the get-go
29:29got 70 percent and today they make 92
29:32percent this is how we create our
29:33hydroelectricity in California is a
29:35wheel like this and this one wheel runs
29:37most of the shop that's right it was
29:39invented by Samuel night can we crank it
29:41up oh sure but if we do we would be very
29:44wet so let's let's put the hood down
29:46okay turn the valve slowly you can hear
29:50the water come through the pipe keep
29:52going
29:52sounds like a jet engine taking yeah
29:54keep going okay Mario
30:00wheels beginning to turn Wow look at
30:04that the main belt from the power system
30:06running all over machines to the machine
30:08shop that is amazing most of the
30:12equipment at the knight foundry was made
30:13of cast iron the iron casting process
30:17for all tools large and small such as
30:19this gear used in a drill press always
30:21began by fashioning a wooden model in
30:24the pattern shop the wooden pattern
30:27would then be placed in a box and packed
30:29in a special mixture of sand used for
30:31casting the pattern was then carefully
30:34removed leaving its impression molten
30:38iron was poured in and the piece took
30:41shape after the iron cooled the piece
30:44was transferred to a large lathe where
30:47holes were milled to precise
30:48specifications well here's one of our
30:51real treasures this is the oldest
30:53working machine tool in the United
30:55States might bought this used came
30:57around Cape Horn and a clipper ship
30:59during the gold rush and it's an 1850
31:02New Haven lathe
31:04this type of bed lathe was used in the
31:07manufacture of almost every kind of
31:09machine operating in gold mines and
31:11stamp mills here the center hole in the
31:14drill press gear is being fine-tuned as
31:16it was down more than a century ago
31:19well there's your bevel gear Steve
31:21finished and ready to go to work that is
31:23cool Joe thank you Andy it's amazing to
31:27think that this is just one of thousands
31:30of individual custom parts know that the
31:33night foundry produced and whole
31:35machines from the smallest pump to the
31:37most massive mine hosts all created in
31:40this Wizards workshop of Samuel Knight
31:42it's an amazing piece of history thanks
31:45for saving it for us pleasure
31:48in the 1860s in the mountains of western
31:51Montana placer miners struck gold in
31:54first chance Gulch there was soon
31:56hunting for the underground sources of
31:58the placer deposits and worked their way
32:00six miles up the side of this mountain
32:02at the top they found what they were
32:05looking for in the town of Garnett was
32:08born by 1897 over a thousand people
32:12lived and worked here seeking their
32:14fortunes in the underground mines carnet
32:16was one of the last of the Montana boom
32:18towns and today is one of the country's
32:21few remaining Gold Rush ghost towns
32:24[Music]
32:29was this the extent of Main Street no no
32:32Main Street to extend it to several
32:34blocks building side by side until a
32:37major fire in 1912 wiped out about
32:40three-quarters of the time
32:42but this is the general store this was
32:45opened by Frank Davey who was an
32:48Englishman he came up here and he spoke
32:51the Queen's English
32:52it was very prim and proper and if you
32:55can imagine an English Butler in the
32:57movie that would be Frank Davey he would
33:00get up every morning and put on a
33:01three-piece suit with a celluloid collar
33:04and he he was all business and he smoked
33:07a pipe and he looked a little Stern and
33:09uh but he had a heart of gold
33:11the extended credit to the miners over
33:13and over again one of the great
33:15political characters some of the miners
33:19cabins have decayed badly and are in
33:21desperate need of restoration so the
33:24residential neighborhood was up slope of
33:26downtown it was it was up here in the
33:28hillside Road to the mine is right down
33:31there so there are a lot more cabins in
33:33the old days for sure where this whole
33:35area was filled with cabins but through
33:37the years they burned wide I'm through
33:40coal oil lamps tipping over and chimney
33:42fires so that makes it that much more
33:44important that we preserve what we have
33:46here so the surviving ones how are they
33:49faring in this Montana climate well
33:52let's take a look at this cabin up here
33:55well I know they're a little bit shorter
33:59back then but I don't think they were
34:01this short no not really
34:03what happened to building this is a
34:04great example of mother nature
34:06reclaiming a log structure how so well
34:10when the logs don't have a foundation
34:12underneath and they just rot into the
34:15ground so you're telling me that at one
34:18time this was a window at a height it
34:21was just with normal height hard to
34:23believe but it sunk down that many logs
34:25have rotted out underneath it so how do
34:28you go about bringing a structure like
34:29this back well for that answer you have
34:31to talk to Bernie Weisgerber will do
34:33thanks Allen thank you
34:38Bernier log cabin restoration specialist
34:41who has worked all over the United
34:43States what causes these buildings to
34:45melt into the ground biggest problem
34:47Steve is water and dirt if you've got
34:51water and dirt in contact with logs on
34:54the building you're gonna have a
34:56deterioration of the fabric so when
34:59these buildings were built the miners
35:00who built them just took that first log
35:02set it right on the ground yeah probably
35:04probably the logs we skidded down off of
35:06the hill here at a native material
35:08brought right down here dug in place and
35:10just laid up from their low base logs
35:13were completely deteriorated especially
35:16back into the hillside right there we
35:18had this tree which was growing up and
35:20shoving the building over here we had
35:23the ground that was swallowing it up
35:25well we got a crew here from Glacier
35:27National Park who specialized in log
35:29cabin restoration stabilizing this
35:32building what's the goal the goal is to
35:35keep it for your grandchildren I mean
35:37that's always the goal with our historic
35:40structures is to keep them in perpetuity
35:42first step first step would be these
35:48whalers right here wave those Whalers
35:52before anything else happens the
35:54building has to be stabilized so these
35:56four by six is our sandwich there's one
35:59on the inside they're bolted together
36:00with this rod here and just clamped in
36:03place so that keeps the logs from
36:05rolling off each other when you start
36:07moving the building it does once the
36:09building is stable what's next next is
36:12excavation then we have to dig a ditch
36:14in here cut this all out cut the grade
36:17down and so we can jack it up and get in
36:21and what we do for that is use a system
36:24of bail based screw jacks it just screw
36:27up take the weight and this new
36:30high-tech thing here an air pillow which
36:33the compressor is pretty neat it just
36:36sort of a pillow that raises the
36:38building up but the most important thing
36:41is the cribbing the cribbing are these
36:45square cans that are cross-hatched in
36:48your underneath the building
36:50and then wedged up with these miners
36:52wedges and that really is the safety
36:55mechanism for this this building and
36:58this job is a really safe job the way I
37:00look at it the name of the game in
37:02historic preservation is to save as much
37:04original fabric as possible in cabin and
37:08you can see where this is original right
37:10here this is a new piece that's been
37:12chunked in here from the crown in back
37:14to this lap joint which is not quite
37:16finished yet wouldn't it have been
37:18easier to replace that whole log rather
37:20than having to make those fancy cuts it
37:22sure would have been but as you can see
37:24this portion of the log is still sound
37:28so we save every inch of original fabric
37:30you can readily tell the new from the
37:33old does that bother you not at all I'd
37:35rather have it be that way I don't want
37:37somebody coming in here and mistaking
37:39our work today for the original builders
37:42work so once these repairs are made what
37:44comes next well we have to notch one and
37:47bring it over and put it up underneath
37:49[Music]
37:55what are you cutting this is a steeple
37:58notch this is a type of notch that the
38:00original builders used when they
38:02constructed this cabin this is a reverse
38:05steeple and it fits over top of this not
38:07just like this this is the faceting
38:09system and it works on gravity that
38:12holds this whole cabin together there
38:14are no screws no nails so you've got
38:16dozens of these notches to make in the
38:18course of this reconstruction that's
38:20right my chainsaw is a great tool what
38:22do they use before chainsaws single bid
38:25axes steeple notch all done so you've
38:35got notches on both ends of the log the
38:37log is cut to length is it ready to go
38:39into place
38:40not so fast we got a surface on the
38:42interior that was flattened or hewn and
38:45we got to do that to it before we put it
38:47in the cabin what do you use for that
38:49use the broad axe for that yeah they are
38:56these three right here late 19th century
38:59this is my grandfather's broad axe this
39:02is a slick you push it it's kind of like
39:05a big chisel but you don't drive it like
39:07a chisel this is another broad axe and
39:09the one I'm going to use for the healing
39:10[Music]
39:25under the lifted cabin and we attach the
39:28new log to the one just above it
39:31ultimately the new base laws rest on
39:33concrete pillars to help keep them from
39:35rotted come this way about two feet so
39:38the idea is that we got to drop it into
39:40this hole lift it up with these straps
39:43and secure it and then add the next log
39:46beneath this one and then just put the
39:47next log in and that'll hold that one up
39:48well I got a feeling it was a lot easier
39:50to build it from the ground up the first
39:52time than from the sky down the second
39:54time you need to lift your end up so I
40:00would set it down
40:06it took the crew three weeks to
40:07stabilize the cabin the goal as always
40:10is to maintain it in a state of Arrested
40:13decay the work to save Garnett's past is
40:17a fight taking place in other gold rush
40:19ghost towns it's a fight against time
40:22[Music]
40:32the rush for gold transformed the
40:35American West hundreds of thousands of
40:37people came here from the world over and
40:39many of them stayed these towns
40:41generated tremendous wealth and there
40:44were magnets for fresh thinking and
40:46innovative technology these weathered
40:49old buildings contain the stories of the
40:52men women and children who lived and
40:54died here if we don't maintain them
40:56they'll turn to dust and the stories
40:59will be just words without a place to
41:01make them real by preserving these
41:04goldrush ghost towns we keep alive the
41:07story of the American West for the
41:09History Channel I am Steve Thomas thanks
41:12for watching

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