This is the third and final diary I'm writing about hydraulic gold mining in California which actually occurred in a pretty small part of the state...just around here where we live. It really happened on just a few rivers that all happen to be close by.
In part two of my report, I talked a lot about the flumes that were built to move water from upriver to down where the water under enormous pressure was shot out of water cannons that dissolved the sides of the mountains along the rivers where gold was found. This enterprise happened over only about a quarter century from 1853-1877.
At first just regular men were drawn here to try their luck at panning for gold. They used shovels, pick axes and muscles to dig up the river beds and river sides then panned that dirt and rock for gold. More commonly they made sluice boxes in which they placed the dirt they'd dug up so that river water could run through it to wash all the dirt and lighter debris away leaving gold nuggets behind in the ridged bottom.
The 1% at the time caught wind of all of this going on of course and moved in. They changed the entire way it was done since they had the money to build flumes to channel water and the infrastructure of industrial strength gold extraction. Once they became involved things changed in a hurry. The operations these rich guys created displaced and dwarfed what the normal guys were doing. Any regular men who were sluicing and panning for gold had no choice but to buy water from the 1% who suddenly controlled it all. I've read they had to pay $7 per day and made about $10 per day for their efforts. Sure it was profitable, but they had been making $10 each day themselves...now it was cut down to $3 per day.
After a short time the rich who could afford to build all this infrastructure literally channeled ALL the water from branches of the Feather River and Butte Creek into their flumes. Obviously that would certainly have put an end to the salmon runs in those rivers then. The water was used not only to shoot out of huge water cannons, but to mechanize sluice boxes and create electricity by running mini hydroelectric systems. This was brand new "technology" then and rather crude. The electricity they made was used for lighting.
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OK. A single 54 pound nugget of gold was found uphill from the West Branch of the Feather River at Magalia, CA. This was found after regular gold sluicing and panning had already produced a lot of gold from the Feather River. Finding this huge nugget of gold up the side of the mountain that came down to the river inspired "hydraulic mining" of the hillsides because it was clearly understood that if there was that much gold down in the river AND a
huge nugget of gold was found well up above the river...well this river must have carved through the land for millions of years thus leaving gold deposits throughout what had previously been "river level" for all that time. And they were absolutely right.
They dug a normal gold mine into the side of the mountain right at the sight they found the 54 pound nugget of gold...and sure enough they found a gold vein which they followed.
I did some sleuthing around to see if I could find the remains of the hydroelectric system they created using flumes. I found all the evidence rather easily. This stuff is in the range of 150 years old.
Here's a picture of the riveted iron pipes that took water from the flumes to specifically where it was needed.
It the last picture above ^^^^^ you see this iron pipe shuttled water through a circular part which turned an axle. Then the water went back down to the river. The next two pictures below show the pipes that lead the water back down to the river. From the rubble left in the river at this spot, it is obvious the water was shot through water canons towards the opposite side. So, a very efficient system was built here. The water flowing through a couple pipes was used for three things: 1) creating electricity, 2) moving a huge pulley-strap that mechanized a sluice box operation and 3) tore away at the opposite side of the river from where all this was built.
The next pictures are of the magneto that had whirling metal twisting within the rows of magnets along the periphery of this beast.
Something is missing however. You can see the part that twirled around, but where are the wires that had to be spinning within the magnetic field to create an electric current? Well, I found another one of these. The second one I found was out by itself...however you can see what remains of the thin metal parts that swept by the magnets. They didn't used a mass of wound wires...instead they made thin veins that had tines along the edges. This wasn't probably all that efficient in making electricity, but all they used it for was to power lights...both in the mine in the hill above and, I'm certain, where they were sluicing for gold at the river. This meant they could work around the clock if they wanted to.
Finally a couple pictures of hoodoos built by our swimming hole AND a bonus picture of Laughing Planet and smileycreek from just yesterday.
Well that's my final report about local hydraulic gold mining. What do you want to talk about?