A cool historical fact
GoldenEyeNumismatics
Posts: 13,187 ✭✭✭
Ran into this while reading Eliot Lord's Comstock Mining and Miners.
The harvest of 1855 was lousy for placer miners working in Gold Canyon, located in the Washoe area of the Utah Territory. However, the Cottonwood trees near river banks were found to be laden with sweet-tasting, nearly microscopic balls. Miners would gather up the leaves and boil them (to get off the sweet tasting balls), and then remove the leaves and continue to boil the liquid down to a syrup. The syrup would crystalize, leaving behind a type of sugar. The miners were able to consume this sugar as part of their diet, and it helped sustain them through the year.
It was soon learned that these sweet-balls were actually aphid poo. But the miners didn't care--they kept on eating the stuff anyway!
The harvest of 1855 was lousy for placer miners working in Gold Canyon, located in the Washoe area of the Utah Territory. However, the Cottonwood trees near river banks were found to be laden with sweet-tasting, nearly microscopic balls. Miners would gather up the leaves and boil them (to get off the sweet tasting balls), and then remove the leaves and continue to boil the liquid down to a syrup. The syrup would crystalize, leaving behind a type of sugar. The miners were able to consume this sugar as part of their diet, and it helped sustain them through the year.
It was soon learned that these sweet-balls were actually aphid poo. But the miners didn't care--they kept on eating the stuff anyway!
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Comments
greg
www.brunkauctions.com
Interesting though. Just a Geography snafu.
bob
That is pretty interesting though.
Rick
<< <i>Hmmmmm, The Truckee goes from Lake Tahoe to Lake Pyramid through Reno. Nowhere near the Comstock.
Interesting though. Just a Geography snafu.
bob >>
Oops--you're right. The Truckee is discussed in the next passage--my brain accidentally associated the two.
I got the book out in front of me now----there is no specification to any rivers in particular, it just refers to "small cottonwoods on the river banks."
Good catch.
I think this is what we call "Good Kocktail Party information" if you're trying to remain single!
Interesting side note: The site would not allow me to spell Kocktail the correct way saying the first portion was a forbidden word, highlighting the word and asking me to change/rephrase.
Rob
"Those guys weren't Fathers they were...Mothers."