Although the quartz sample shown is from Sonoma, California, it shows what hard rock miners were searching for. The quartz samples I have seen from Camp McKinney vary from this specimen. As the Cariboo-Amelia workings went deeper, the quartz vein went from a milky-white color to light blue and occasionally reached an incredible ten feet in width. Gold was unique to certain areas and thieves were often convicted after claiming they had mined their gold in one place only to learn it came from another mine, one where a robbery occurred. The lure of gold was especially strong at a time when it existed as the main currency over paper. In historic BC, the American dollar and British pound were both available, but gold was king.
