a Time Flies Travel Company (TFTC) geocache
Rusty Nugget
salting: the practice of artfully depositing minerals in a mine in order to deceive purchasers regarding its value.
In the realm of bamboozles and confidence games, it is hard to find greater examples of chicanery than some of the frauds perpetrated during the California Gold Rush. Confidence men quickly became proficient in the art of "salting" and preyed upon naive newcomers stricken with gold fever. One particularly creative scam occurred in the 1850 in Calaveras County, California when Benjamin Greeley used a shotgun to enrich the ground of an abandoned gravel pit with gold dust, thus creating the illusion it was largely smothered in gold to its core. John Worthington, a hapless prospector who had only recently arrived to the gold fields, paid $500 for the claim. Worthington named the mine Rusty Nugget and initially thought he had struck it rich only to find that the mine was merely yielding iron pyrite, known as "Fool's Gold" with occasional gold flakes from Greeley's shotgun mixed in. Greeley later bragged about fleecing Worthington, regaling saloon patrons with his vividly animated tales of him and his shotgun filling the ground with gold dust. Soon, Worthington had become a local laughingstock. Undaunted by what seemed like a monumental waste of time and resources, Worthington worked the Rusty Nugget mine for several years with slim reward. He might have given up and moved on to better prospects had it not been for a San Francisco fortune-teller who repeatedly told him to keep digging. “Some day,” she said, “the Rusty Nugget will make you rich.”
The shotgun sham "backfired" on Greeley when Worthington, after tunneling over two miles, miraculously hit one of the richest veins of gold ever discovered in California. At its zenith, the Rusty Nugget employed more than 500 miners running shifts around the clock. Total disclosed output when it permanently shut down in 1906 was an astounding $16.4 million – more than $1 billion on today’s precious metals market.
CACHE: The Rusty Nugget Mine itself is private property so don't go past the barbed wire perimeter. Much like panning for gold dust, this cache can seem like searching for a needle in a haystack ... and there's lots of needles here.
- This geocache was placed with the permission of the F. D. Roosevelt State Park Manager
- Park hours are 7am-10pm.
- A $5 daily park pass is required for each vehicle entering F. D. Roosevelt State Park.
- While visiting any Georgia State Park, please obey all park rules and remain on the marked trails as you make your way to the geocache location.
- Pets are welcome but must be on a 6' leash at all times. Please be a good pet owner and clean up after your pet.
Note For New Geocachers:
Join us and enjoy the adventure of Geocaching. Please don't move or vandalize the container; simply replace the geocache where and how you found it. Before you leave, make sure the geocache is completely out of sight. The real treasure is discovering the location, signing the log book, trading even or up with personal SWAG and sharing your experience with everyone online in your "found it" log. You might even find a trackable item!
Note For Geocachers:
In your log, please indicate the condition of the container without giving any clues to its hiding spot (post no spoilers!). This will assist us with maintenance and provide a pleasant experience for others. Please replace the container in the same hiding spot as you found it. If the container is not found, please log your DNF and do not replace the geocache with a "throwdown".