Panning
Panning for gold was very hard. They would be knee deep in water as they would dig up sand and water they would shake the pan and some of the water and sand would fall out until all of it would be out of the pan and there would be gold at the bottom. This process did take a long time so other methods were invented. More gold was found using the other methods but this was the original method and you also wouldn't find as much gold as the other methods.
Cradle rocker
The cradle rocker was the second way used to mine for gold. It took the work of three people but did the work of five pans. Someone would shovel dirt from the bank of the stream and someone else would dump water in while someone else would shake the cradle. The water would agitate the dirt and the dirt would fall through the little holes and the gold would stay on top. This you could find much bigger nuggets and was a lot faster
LONG TOM
The long tom was a long wooden structure that would require seven people but would do the work of 12 pans. Two of the people would have regular shovels and the other five would have flat tip shovels. The two people with regular shovels would pour water and dirt into the top of the long tom. Then three people with flat tip shovels would agitate the dirt and then one other person would shovel the dirt into little holes and the water would was away the little dirt and the gold would stay on top. Then the last person would shovel the extra dirt back into the river.
hydraulic mining
Hydraulic mining was the last way invented to mine for gold. The name doesn't make sense because it isn't mining. It only required one person but did the work of 25 pans. This way worked the best but also destroyed the environment so much over time but people kept doing it because they didn't realize they were destroying the environment. This mining method worked by getting a hose with pressurized water and blasting it at a hill. Because gold came from the top of the Sierra Nevada mountains some of the gold would be on hills. So by shooting this water at a hill the gold would roll down the hill and then the miners would just pick up these big gold nuggets.