Klondike..Children mining Gold

[Relichunter2016 640]

Caught this on the internet today..cool pic of children running a rocker in the Klondike. The caption read...Greta...time traveler/ ? Regardless its an authentic picture showing youngsters  mining gold.

[Au Seeker 2,750]

I wonder if they got to keep what they found or just regular old child labor!!

Great photo!

[Relichunter2016 640]

I doubt they kept the gold ..back in those days the family including young children who worked contributed everything towards the families well being. One for all and all for one. It's the only picture I personally have seen where children worked a rocker box. I am sure there were others..

It appears this picture is form the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s and not the Klondike which actually makes more sense considering the Klondike and weather hardships. 

 

Many Children went to the goldfields with their parents and by december of 1852 their were almost 12,000 children on the Victorian diggins. Most

of them spent their childhood helping their parents search for gold. They carried wood, looked after tent or hut and cared for animals. By the time 1880 came around government laws changed requiring children to attend school. Whats interesting is in states like West Virginia, children worked in the deep depths of coal mines. By  1910 their were 2 million children working in the coal mines of the United States.

Edited November 20 by Relichunter2016

[Au Seeker 2,750]

I was JK, know the kids contributed as much as they could to the family's income/survival, it was the same in my family I grew up in the 60s and 70s, I have 4 brothers and 4 sisters, I was next to the youngest and we all had to do what ever we were able to do to help to either earn money or do the chores around the house, we did have a little spending money each week when times were good, when I was 10 I got a whole dollar a week for my very own!! 

By the time I was 10 I was working on the family vehicles, my father taught us all even the girls how to do anything to motor vehicles, electrical, plumbing, and carpentry.

[Relichunter2016 640]

Yup, my father also told me stories similar to yours, although it was in Europe plenty of stories of the war and the tough decade after. Rebuilding and restarting the small family farm all destroyed that had to be rebuilt ground up. It took the whole family. That generation sure learned the value of money, and were so much more self reliant as they had to do all the work on their own. Hardship builds good character in good people.