Gold Panning Illustration - Historical Prospecting Technique #3867387 (License: Personal Use)

The black-and-white line illustration depicts a rugged prospector with a long beard and wide-brimmed hat, kneeling beside a shallow stream. He pours gravel and water from a metal pan into a tilted wooden sluice box lined with riffles, where flowing water separates dense gold particles from lighter debris. The scene evokes the spirit of the 1849 California Gold Rush and frontier mining life.

This image is commonly used on history, geology, or mining education websites; museum exhibits about the Gold Rush; or hobbyist pages about recreational prospecting. It serves users seeking visual context for historical mining methods or educational content on placer mining techniques.