| argonaut | a person in search of gold |
| alcalde | the mayor or judge of a town |
| assay | to test ore with a chemical to find out how much gold is in it |
| boom town | a town that grew fast as a result of mining |
| batea | a flat Indian bowl used by miners when they needed a meal pan or mining pan |
| claim | a piece of ground of a certain size which no one has a right to mine except the person who owns the ground |
| claim jumping | a form of robbery wherby a rightful owner of a claim is forced to abandon it by threats, violence or even murder |
| cradle | a rocking device used in placer mining for separating gold from rock and gravel; also called a rocker |
| color | any trace or sized particle of placer gold |
| coyote hole | a vertical shaft dug in loose dirt or gravel in the diggings |
| diggin's | the name given to placer mining places during the gold rush |
| dry diggin's | mining town without water; digging old out of cracks in the rocks or from dry river beds |
| dust | very fine particles of placer gold |
| El Dorado | a Spanish term that means "The place of gold" |
| fandango | a dance of Mexican, Spanish or South American origin |
| flake | a small piece of placer gold |
| fool's gold | iron pyrite that made many miners think they had found gold |
| forty-niners | specifically, those people who came to mine for gold in 1849, but has come to mean all who came to mine for gold in California during the gold rush |
| ghost town | a town where few, if any, people live after the gold had been panned out of the area |
| gold fever | a mania or extreme interest in mining for gold |
| grubstake | a loan of food until the miner could repay |
| hopper | a part of a cradle rocker |
| lode | a vein or deposit of gold, usually in quartz |
| Maidu | the name of the Indian people who lived n the northern part of the gold country |
| malleable | can be bent or pounded easily without breaking; gold has this property |
| Miwok | the name of the Indian people who lived in the southern part of the gold country |
| mother lode | a huge deposit of gold running through quartz in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It is the source of placer gold. |
| New Helvetia | the name of John Sutter's land holdings or town (means New Switzerland) |
| Nisenan | the name of the Indian people who lived in the central part of the gold country including the Cullumah |
| nugget | lumps of gold of medium to large size |
| pan out | a term meaning the gold is gone in an area |
| pay dirt | clay, sand or gravel with gold in it |
| poke | a bag used to carry money or gold |
| quartz | a mineral in which gold is often found |
| seeing the elephant | finding gold in the gold fields |
| stake a claim | marking the boundary line of a miner's property with a stake or pile of rocks |
| tailings | rocks and gravel piles left over after mining an area |
| tailrace | a channel that drains water away from water-powered machinery |
| throw down the box | a term used by robbers when they held up a stagecoach; it refers to the box that holds the gold |
| whip | the driver of a stagecoach |