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Events/Record · 1872

Holtermann reef gold specimen unearthed

Record, 1872-10-19, Australia.

What happened

A mass of reef gold weighing 286 kg, the largest specimen of its kind, came out of Bernhardt Holtermann's Star of Hope mine at Hill End on 19 October 1872. Photographers Merlin and Bayliss recorded it before it was crushed.1,2

Why it matters

The photographs form part of the Holtermann Collection of goldfield life.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. California Gold Rush begins

    California Gold Rush begins.3

  2. Alfred Beit born

    Alfred Beit born (date from Wikidata).4

  3. Pikes Peak (Colorado) gold rush

    Most of the early finds were far from Pikes Peak, yet the rush took its name and led to the founding of Colorado Territory.5,6

  4. San Francisco ships US$724 million of treasure in 16 years

    Eastern ports took US$462 million, England US$168 million and China US$68 million.7,8

  5. Herbert Hoover born

    Herbert Hoover born (date from Wikidata).9

  6. Gold found in the Kimberley (Halls Creek)

    It was the first Western Australian gold excitement, before the 1890s rushes.10,11

  7. Cripple Creek gold rush

    Cripple Creek was the last great Colorado gold camp and its mine is still the state's only large gold mine.12,13

  8. Klondike Gold Rush begins

    Klondike Gold Rush begins.14

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inHill End goldfieldThe Star of Hope mine at Hill End produced the 286 kg mass of gold in 1872.1

Events

Came out ofWelcome Stranger nugget foundThree years later a 286 kg mass of reef gold came out of the Star of Hope mine.1

Sources

  1. The Holtermann Collection State Library of New South Wales
  2. Hill End (item Q14202724), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q17550 (California Gold Rush begins)
  4. Wikidata item Q77802 (Alfred Beit)
  5. Colorado Gold Rush Colorado Encyclopedia
  6. Denver (item Q16554), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. Peabody A., Early voyages to California (treasure shipped from San Francisco 1854-1869) Library of Congress (Essex Institute Historical Collections)
  8. Wikidata item Q62 (San Francisco)
  9. Wikidata item Q35236 (Herbert Hoover)
  10. The Rush for Gold (WA Goldfields) Western Australian Museum
  11. Halls Creek (item Q992686), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Cripple Creek Colorado Encyclopedia
  13. Cripple Creek (item Q117605), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. Wikidata item Q631489 (Klondike Gold Rush begins)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.