Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
1,804,684,356 visitors served.
forum mailing list For webmasters
?
New: Language forums
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

mother lode

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
Mother Lode, belt of gold-bearing quartz veins, central Calif., along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The term is sometimes limited to a strip c.70 mi (110 km) long and from 1 to 6 1-2 mi (1.6–10.5 km) wide, running NW from Mariposa. Popularly it is used to mean the gold-bearing area E of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and W of the Sierra Nevada. The discovery of alluvial gold on the South Fork of the American River led to the 1848 gold rush. Mark Twain Twain, Mark, pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature.
..... Click the link for more information.
 and Bret Harte Harte, Bret (Francis Brett Harte) (härt), 1836–1902, American writer of short stories and humorous verse, b. Albany, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information.
 helped make the Mother Lode famous.
mother lode [′məth·ər ‚lōd]
(geology)
A main unit of mineralized matter that may not have economic value but to which workable veins are related.

Mother Lode
name applied to gold-mining region of California. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 569]
See : Treasure


How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Email
Feedback
? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
``This is going to be the mother lode,'' said Jesse Diaz, a program coordinator for the March 25th Coalition, a group of clergy and activists organizing the massive protest.
Among the valuable nuggets of data in this mother lode are hourly wages for 21 plastics job classifications in those 125 locations.
Rescued by a British privateer, he joined the crew, profitably looted a mother lode of Spanish riches, returned to England, and eventually set sail again, finally dying of jungle fever in Africa.
 
Encyclopedia browser? ? Full browser
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Disclaimer | Privacy policy | Feedback | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. Terms of Use.