Artifact of the Week 20250502 - Baldy Gold

With the technology issues once again overcome, here is the delayed May 2, 2025, Artifact of the Week Video.

For more than 6,000 years, man has searched for gold. From finding a nugget lying in a stream bed to digging thousands of feet into the earth in search of veins of this yellow metal, man has willingly given up everything to satisfy that gold fever. While it wasn’t the first time they found gold in New Mexico, in 1866, gold was discovered on Baldy Mountain, which at the time was part of the Maxwell Land Grant. For Scouts with Badly Town or French Henry on their itinerary, they can learn more about the mining in the region and even take an opportunity to pan for some alluvial gold, much like those who came to the area in 1866 did. A special Thanks to Larry Murphy for his 1965 Thesis on Baldy Mountain. His writing provided almost all the information on Baldy Mountain in this story.

It is estimated that the total world gold production since the beginning of civilization has been around 244 million tons. Of that, about 90% of it was discovered and processed since the 1849 California Gold Rush. As of 2020, the world's largest gold producer was China, with 368.3 tons of gold mined in that year. The second-largest producer of gold was Russia, where 331.1 tons, followed by Australia with 327.8 tons. The United States produced about 190 tons that same year.