In 1849, several thousands of people migrated to California to find out the gold deposits for making more and more money. Several methods were used by people to achieve gold but the widely used method was panning. People used to make attempts in search of gold for even months.


This was a highly desirable metal and people were not ready to end their struggle without achieving their goal. Their urge to find more and more gold increased with finding gold flake once. They eventually become more enthusiastic in their efforts and tend to strive much harder in lust of having more gold. If they achieved some flakes of gold in their first attempt, they used to struggle for more.
 
Besides ordinary people, some Government departments also advanced there search for gold by establishing various laboratories, equipped with much advanced techniques than panning. The government institutions also realized the value of this place having large amounts of gold deposits.
 
Majority of the new comers, also known as the forty-niners, were found wearing long shoes holding pans for extracting gold at the gold mines of California. They sometimes found the gold flakes in their pans while most of the times their efforts proved to be useless. The continuous struggle used to make them exhausted sometimes, but even then they did not stop making efforts in the particular direction. The miners found large amounts of gold flakes which encouraged the government to establish a mint there.
 
In the past, only metal pans were used for gold extraction from the waterbeds, while at present time, the use of plastic pans is more common. However, the methods to place these pans in water for getting gold flakes were different from the ones being used today.
 
The weight of the present day plastic pans is much less than the once used metal pans. However, these pans have spaces in them which allow the gold to get into the pan more easily. Nowadays, slats and bars are also used for this purpose. Earlier, only metal pans were in use but the latest equipments have made possible to separate the gold from other materials.
 
However, most of the previously used techniques were quite good and effective. The gold panning is one such method, which is still in use in spite of the fact that so many years have been passed now. They used to place these pans at places where the flow of water was slow in order to get more gold flakes. Previously, people used to separate gold from the sand particles with the help of their hands as no pipette and tweezers were used in those days.
 

Most of the emigrants arrived California from faraway places in order to get their dreams come true. So, they made utmost efforts for achieving their goal and their determination led them to the way of success.