MINING: Gold in Shasta?

Thrifty Christ Kutras ran a Greek restaurant at Redding in California’s deep, fertile Sacramento Valley. He put his profits into real estate outside of town. When construction began in 1938 on the $36,000,000 Shasta Dam, devised to stabilize Sacramento Valley’s water supply, engineers built a ten-mile belt line to convey 10,000,000 cubic yards of gravel to the world’s No. 2 dam. For their gravel pit they chose Christ Kutras’ tract of land.

No man to miss a bet, Christ saw a business opportunity: California, No. 1 U. S. gold producer (25%), is salted with not-quite-commercial flecks and traces of gold. Why not pan the gravel for it before whisking the gravel to Shasta? As the first gravel moved over the conveyor last week a $30,291 gold-reduction plant (built by Columbia Construction Co.) was nearing completion. The deal: Christ to split the profits, if any, with Columbia after interest, plant and production costs. Oldtimers, recalling that Sacramento is part of the motherlode country, figured that the works might gross some $200,000.