Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold. It is also used in mining kaolin and coal.
The Gold Country is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. State of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines that attracted waves of immigrants, known as the 49ers, during the 1849 California Gold Rush.
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is a state park unit preserving the largest hydraulic mining site in California, United States. The mine was one of several hydraulic mining sites at the center of the 1882 landmark case Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company. The mine pit and several Gold Rush-era buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Malakoff Diggins-North Bloomfield Historic District. The "canyon" is 7,000 feet (2,100 m) long, as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) wide, and nearly 600 feet (180 m) deep in places. Visitors can see huge cliffs carved by mighty streams of water, results of the mining technique of washing away entire mountains of gravel to wash out the gold. The park is a 26-mile (42 km) drive north-east of Nevada City, California, in the Gold Rush country. The 3,143-acre (1,272 ha) park was established in 1965.
You Bet is a small unincorporated community in Nevada County, California. You Bet is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills, 7 miles (11.3 km) east of Grass Valley and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Chicago Park.
Graniteville is a small, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Nevada County, California, United States. The town sits on the San Juan ridge separating the Middle and South Forks of the Yuba River, approximately 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Nevada City. The elevation of Graniteville is 4,977 feet (1,517 m) above sea level.
The North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company of North Bloomfield, California, was established in 1866 and operated a hydraulic gold-mining operation at the Malakoff Mine subsequent to the California Gold Rush. In its day, no other company's operations matched North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company in size or expense. The company operated until 1910. In the years prior, its profits and procedures had been reduced due to the landmark ruling of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company.
Lake City is an unincorporated community in Nevada County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3300 ft. about 10 m. northeast of Nevada City as the crow flies, and about 3 m. southeast of North Columbia, and 3 m. southwest of North Bloomfield. It is located at the junction of modern day North Bloomfield, Back Bone and Lake City Roads. It was an important mining and transportation center in the second half of the 19th century.
Snow Tent was a historic settlement in Nevada County located on the San Juan Ridge roughly midway between North Bloomfield and Graniteville, about 16 miles northeast of Nevada City, as the crow flies. It was situated around the intersection of what are now Snow Tent Road and the N. Bloomfield-Graniteville Road. It flourished in the second half of the 19th century as a center for mining and lumbering and as an important stop on one of the routes through the Henness Pass. It still appeared on maps as of 1902.
Badger Hill is a former settlement in Nevada County, California. It is situated at an elevation of 2,552 ft (778 m) above sea level.
Birchville is a historic mining and agricultural community in Nevada County, California. Birchville is located about 10 miles northwest of Nevada City and about 2 miles northeast of French Corral. It is situated at an elevation of 1,765 ft (538 m) above sea level.
Blue Tent is a historic 19th century gold mining community located about six miles northeast of Nevada City, California.
Cherokee is a former gold mining community in Nevada County, California. As explained below, it has also been known as Patterson, Melrose and Tyler. It is located on the San Juan Ridge about 4 miles east of North San Juan. Its elevation is 2,516 ft (767 m) above sea level.
Red Dog was a California gold rush mining town located in the Gold Country in south-central Nevada County, California, United States, 6 mi (9.7 km) northeast of Chicago Park. Red Dog Hill, a mine and campsite, was founded by three men all under the age of 22, and was named by their youngest, a 15-year-old prospector. As mining operations grew, the campsite became a settlement, and then a town with a population of 2,000 residents, before it was eventually abandoned. Still considered important today, Red Dog Townsite is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Red Dog has been noted for its unusual place name.
Hunt's Hill is a former mining camp in Nevada County, California, United States. Hunt's Hill was located in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 6 miles in a straight line southeast of Nevada City and about 2 miles northwest of You Bet, on the north side of Greenhorn Creek, not far from the present intersection of Red Dog and Buckeye Roads. Hunt’s Hill was founded in 1852 by a miner named Hunt. It was located on one of the deepest parts of the rich Blue Lead channel of gold-bearing gravel. In 1855, one of the mining claims established by some French miners, was “jumped". During the fight, one of the French miners lost an eye. Thereafter, that mine, and sometimes the town, were called Gouge Eye. By 1857, the town boasted two saloons, a hotel, a blacksmith and stable, a butcher shop, a boot and shoe store, and several grocery stores. In 1858, a stage line from Nevada City arrived. In 1866, seven cement mills for extracting gold from the “blue cement” were operating in the area. By 1880, the town was reduced to a combined store and saloon and a few houses. In 1895, one directory summed up the state of the community thus: "At the present time there is not much doing there." Since that same directory identified the town's justice of the peace and constable, what little happened must have been interesting. Today, it is just a historic site.
Chalk Bluff is the name of the ridge which lies between Greenhorn and Steephollow Creeks in Nevada County. It runs in a northeasterly direction for about 10 miles, and sits atop a "lead" of auriferous gravel, which intersects the fabled "Blue Lead" which runs from the San Juan Ridge through Red Dog and You Bet towards Placer County. It was also briefly the name for the mining camp that grew into the important town of Red Dog, then the name for a mining camp east of Red Dog. It received its name from the prominent chalk bluffs on the Ridge.
Relief Hill is an unincorporated community in Nevada County, California. Relief Hill is located roughly midway between North Bloomfield and the town of Washington. It lies at an elevation of 3,947 feet. The post office established in 1894 was named Relief, and that name appears on some maps, especially those from around the turn of the nineteenth century. However, the town's inhabitants and most historians called it Relief Hill. The post office was discontinued in 1921.
Remington Hill is a historic mining camp in Nevada County, California which prospered in the second half of the 19th century. It was named for Caleb Remington, a prominent local miner who lived mostly in neighboring Little York, where he died in 1865. It lay at an elevation of 4052 feet. It was situated around present Chalk Bluff Road about one mile south of Highway 20 and about 5.5 miles southeast of the town of Washington and 6 miles northeast of Dutch Flat, as the crow flies.
Walloupa was an historic mining community in Nevada County, located about 1/2 mile south of You Bet. It was named by its white developers after a Nisenan chief, and should not be confused with the Nisenan village of Walloupa, which was located about 15 miles to the west near Rough and Ready.
The case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company was a lawsuit brought to California courts in 1882 where a group of local farmers sued North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company over damages caused to farmland in the Central Valley. The farmers who brought the suit claimed that the company's hydraulic mining operations resulted in the disposal of excess sediment, debris, and chemicals in local rivers. Prosecutors argued that the debris raised river beds and restricted flow in the rivers leading to heavy man-made flooding. In the years prior, flooding of debris and chemicals had destroyed a large portion of the valley's agriculture.
The Monte Cristo was a famous old mining settlement in Sierra County, California near California State Route 49 and Downieville, California, USA. Monte Cristo can be reached by trails from Downieville. One of the main trails is at the ridge between Goodyears Creek and the North Fork of the North Yuba River. There are views of the Excelsior Mine on Goodyears Creek four miles northwest of Downieville near Monte Cristo. Goodyears Bar, California is nearby. The mines at Fir Cap, two miles from Monte Cristo, were once rich with gold.
