How did the comstock lode affect the western part of the united states? a. individual miners claimed all the land in the west for themselves. b. thousands of prospectors traveled west in search of gold and silver. c. native americans sold their land to prospectors. d. gold and silver lost its value because prospectors found so much. as soon as possible

Which answer choice best describes “panning” for gold? a.) miners ran iron pans along the rocks near streams. because gold is magnetic, any gold that was present in the rock would attract the pans. the miners would then pick away the surface of the rock to expose the gold. b.) miners ran water through a long, sloping wooden box called a “pan.” wooden bars across the bottom of the pan trapped any gold that was in the water. c.) miners went to places where stream currents slowed. they gathered rock from the stream bed into flat pans. any heavier gold particles would drop to the bottom of the pan. d.) after the most obvious gold had been taken, miners used a rock-crushing machine called the “pan” to search for gold on a large scale.