September 5, 2013 Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park

The Malakoff Diggins were amazing.  In the 1850's miners decided to use water-power to wash the sides of the hills into huge sluices; drain and strain until they had the gold; and flush the remainder downstream.  It must have been much more efficient than the old sluice box method, but oh my, what total destruction!  Our pictures really don't do justice to the sheer scope of this operation.  And the Malakoff was not the only outfit out there doing hydraulic mining.  The end result was that the streams and rivers were so clogged with mud and debris (all the way down to Sacramento) a law was passed outlawing the hydraulic method.  The site we visited included the old town of North Bloomfield, which was once a bustling community.  We wish we could have spent more time there, but as always, we had to be someplace else....  Please go to the link I provided and read more about the hydraulic mining, it's quite interesting!

This is called a monitor and it was used like a firehose to wash away the side of a mountain.

Old bldg. in North Bloomfield.

Can you guess what this is/was?

The Catholic church.

Another old one.

We walked down in one of many huge pits created by hydraulic mining.

How big was it, Jimmy?

Called the Hiller Tunnel.

Hiller Tunnel; taken with the flash.
Very dark in there, and water is trickling out.

Bubba and the Hiller Tunnel.