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Rocker boxes: where to buy

A rocker box, or cradle, is the gold rush answer to a creek with little water. It is a short box on curved rockers in three parts: a hopper on top with a perforated bottom, a sloping canvas or carpet apron under it, and a short riffled floor below. You shovel gravel into the hopper, pour water over it with a dipper and rock the box like a baby's cradle; the fines wash through onto the apron and over the riffles, which catch the gold, while the big stones stay in the hopper to be thrown out. It was one of the most used tools of the California Gold Rush, and later on the hillside diggings of the Klondike.

A rocker washes much more gravel than a pan with only a little water, so it still earns its place on dry benches above the creek, at a camp where you haul your own water, or anywhere you want a quiet machine with no engine. Rock it steadily but not violently, or the gold splashes over the riffles, and clean the apron and riffles every few hours, more often on rich ground.

Many rocker boxes are still built by hand in small shops, often from wood, and some builders let you choose the apron material.

1 shop across the US that sell rocker boxes, 1 of them building their own. Each one links to its own website, so you can compare them one by one.

• Desert DryWashers

  Builder, builds to order · Online or by order · San Tan Valley, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  Makes: Redwood bellows puffers, blower drywashers and rocker boxes

  One man in a garage builds redwood drywashers by hand, one at a time

  One-man shop in San Tan Valley that builds redwood drywashers and rocker boxes by hand, one at a time, to order. Ships in the USA.

  Also sells: Drywashers

  desertdrywashers.com ↗Eureka listing →

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