Many gold miners used rockers (also called cradles) to remove gold from pay dirt. They shoveled the dirt and gravel into a tray at the top of the rocker, and they moved the rocker back and forth as they poured water through the tray. Finer pieces of gold and dirt washed through holes in the tray into the box beneath. Gold was caught in screens or riffles in the rocker or panned from the box below.

This Asahel Curtis photo shows a group of men operating several rockers. At this location, the men are using large movable pipes, rather than sluices, to direct water to the rockers. The photo was taken around 1898 at Gold Hill, near Bonanza, Yukon Territory.

Original photograph: Curtis, Asahel, ca. 1898