Gold Nugget Jewelry - A History of Hard-earned Beauty

Gold nugget jewelry has an extremely interesting history behind it. Before the Alaskan Gold Rush, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California and Australia in search of it. Some succeeded while many failed. The jewelry, which is fashioned into a variety of pieces, is designed to accentuate the natural, weathered nugget and evokes historical times of these rushes.

In 1849, gold was found in California, inciting one of the largest rushes in history. Over 300,000 people flocked to California from other parts of the country as well as Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Striking gold and becoming wealthy fast in a new world became known as the "California Dream" and motivated various people into a feverish migration for the metal. It was so prevalent initially that significantly sized nuggets could be picked up right off the ground. Later, it was sifted and panned out of streams and riverbeds. During the California Gold Rush, tens of billions of today's dollars was recovered from the environment and made a select few extremely wealthy.

A couple of years after the California Gold Rush, the Australian government which had been burying news of gold discoveries for years became increasingly concerned over the emigration of people to California. They made their own discoveries public news and incited a new Australian Gold Rush, which took full effect after 1851. Approximately forty-five years later, the Alaskan Gold Rush began with about 100,000 people traveling to the Klondike region of the state. Because of challenging environmental factors like extreme weather, dangerous terrain and unstable food sources, this rush proved less lucrative than the California or Australian rushes for many.

While the gold rush in Alaska has long been over, many areas of the state continue to be mined for it to this day. Currently, the state of Alaska produces the second largest amount of gold in the United States on an annual basis after Nevada. One result of this has been a growing and popular market for nugget jewelry-a style of jewelry that showcases the rugged, natural look of a piece of gold. While nugget jewelry is also fashioned from Australian gold, those pieces tend to be less valuable as there is significantly more nugget material coming from Australia as compared to Alaska. For this reason, nuggets from Alaska demand higher prices than other origins because of their rarity.

Wearing a piece of this jewelry evokes times of long ago. A piece of nugget jewelry conjures images of these gold rushes where men from all over the world feverishly assembled to make it big and fulfill dreams of fast wealth. Because the gold in real nugget jewelry is created by mother nature, the look is one of an authentic and natural antique. Indeed, when wearing this nugget jewelry, there is an element being shown off that is something larger than simple aesthetics or style. The owner is sporting a symbolic remnant of meaningful and interesting history.

Alaska Jewelry was started in Sitka, Alaska in 1990 by local operators Chris and Tamara Fondell. Featuring hand-carved, Northwest native Alaskan jewelry as well as popular and iconic brands like John Hardy, Tacori and Simon G., the company expanded its clientele with the introduction of its online presence in 2000. It is the only locally owned jewelry operator in Sitka, Alaska. For more information, please visit http://www.alaskajewelry.com/ . Rate this Article

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Cleve Oines has published 4 articles. Article submitted on October 08, 2013. Word count: 488

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