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Title: Hydraulic Mining in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains Author:
Liza McMurtry Abstract: The California Gold Rush is a pivotal event in early American history. Techniques used for gold extraction in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during this period, especially hydraulic mining, negatively impacted the California landscape and the local populations living there. Hydraulic mining involves using a hose to direct a stream of water at a hillside. The sediment that is washed down by the water is then directed into sluice boxes to filter out the gold, and funneled downstream in a river. California suffered massive change both environmentally and socially due to the erosion and depletion of natural resources near mining sights, and in the flooding and deforestation of the valleys below. As an effort to capitalize on a resource rich area without proper regard to the resources consumed or the land affected, the 49ers irreparably hurt the California ecosystem, and the people living in this region. Key References: Hagwood Jr., Joseph J. (1981). The California Debris Commission: A History. California: U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District. Kelley, Robert L. (1959). Gold vs. Grain: The Hydraulic Mining Controversy in California’s Sacramento Valley. California: The Arthur H. Clark Company Merchant, Carolyn. (2007). American Environmental History. New York: Columbia University Press. Sawyer, Lorenzo J. (1884). Woodruff versus North Bloomfield Gravel and Mining Co.: The Sawyer Decision of 1884. In Carolyn Merchant (Ed.), Green Versus Gold: Sources in California’s Environmental History (pp. 113-116). Washington, DC: Island Press, 1998. Return to Water
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Date: May
2008
Student: lmcmurtr@willamette.edu
ENVR 327: Water Resources
Instructor: Dr. Karen Arabas
http://www.willamette.edu/~karabas/courses/envr327w