Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that employs water under pressure to dislodge rock material or move sediment. This form of mining was used in the region around Nevada City, California, c. 1853 to exploit gold-bearing upland paleogravels. Previously hydraulicking had been invented by the Romans, the ruina montium, to find gold using high-pressure water jets from a tank situated from 400-800 feet above the ground as in Las Médulas of Spain. In contrast, ground sluicing, which uses water at atmospheric pressures under the force of gravity alone, has been utilized for more than a thousand years. This article is about mineral extraction. ... Nevada City is the county seat of Nevada County, California, USA, 166 miles (267 km) northeast of San Francisco. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Las Médulas were the most important Gold Mines in the Roman Empire. ... Sluice gates near Henley, on the River Thames A small wooden sluice in Magome, Japan, used to power a waterwheel. ...

In California, hydraulic mining often applied water under very high pressures developed by bringing water from high Sierra locations for long distances along ridge crests to holding ponds several hundred feet above the surface to be mined. Insofar as California hydraulic mining exploited primarily river gravels, it was one form of placer mining; that is, working of alluvium (river sediments). Look up sierra in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A sluice box used in placer mining Placer mining (pronounced plass-er) is a open-pit or open-cast form of mining by which certain valuable minerals are extracted from the earth without tunneling. ... Alluvium (from the Latin, alluvius, from alluere, to wash against) is soil or sediments deposited by a river or other running water. ...

Process

Gold miners excavate an eroded bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in Dutch Flat, California sometime between 1857 and 1870.

Early placer miners in California discovered that the more earth they could process, the more gold they were likely to find. Instead of working with pans, sluice boxes, long toms, and rockers, miners collaborated to find ways to process larger quantities of earth more rapidly. Hydraulic mining became the largest-scale, and most devastating, form of placer mining. Water was redirected into an ever-narrowing channel, through a large canvas hose, and out a giant iron nozzle, or monitor. The extremely high pressure stream was used to wash entire hillsides through enormous sluices. By the early 1860s, while hydraulic mining was at its height, small-scale placer mining was a thing of the past. The vast majority of lone prospectors could not sustain themselves, and the mining industry was taken over by large companies, most of which found hard rock gold mining (or quartz mining) more profitable. By the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces of gold (worth approximately US$7.5 billion at mid-2006 prices) had been recovered by hydraulic mining in the California Gold Rush. Image File history File links X-60072. ... Image File history File links X-60072. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... Rocket Nozzle A nozzle is a mechanical device designed to control the characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits from an enclosed chamber into some medium. ... // The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA is built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earths continental crust. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began in January 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutters Mill. ...

Environmental effects

A man leans over a wooden sluice. Rocks line the outside of the wood boards that create the sluice.

While generating millions of dollars in tax revenues for the state and supporting a large population of miners in the mountains, hydraulic mining had a devastating effect on riparian environments and agricultural systems in California. Millions of tons of earth and water were delivered to mountain streams that fed rivers flowing into the Sacramento Valley. Once the rivers reached the relatively flat valley, the water slowed, the rivers widened, and the sediment was deposited in the floodplains and river beds causing them to rise, shift to new channels, and overflow their banks, causing major flooding, especially during the periods of Spring runoff. Image File history File links P-1252. ... Image File history File links P-1252. ... A riparian zone schematic from the Everglades. ... The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. ... Picture of flooding in Amphoe Sena, Ayutthaya Province, (.)(.) For other uses, see Flood (disambiguation). ...

Cities and towns in the Sacramento Valley experienced an increasing number of devastating floods, while the rising riverbeds made navigation on the rivers increasingly difficult. Perhaps no other city experienced the boon and the bane of gold mining, as did Marysville. Situated at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers, Marysville was the final "jumping off" point for miners heading to the foothills to seek their fortune. Steamboats from San Francisco, carrying miners and supplies, navigated up the Sacramento River, then the Feather River to Marysville where they would unload their passengers and cargo. Marysville eventually constructed a complex levee system to protect the city from floods and sediment. Hydraulic mining greatly excerbated the problem of flooding in Marysville and shoaled the waters of the Feather River so severely that few steamboats could navigate from Sacramento to the Marysville docks. Marysville is the home of many great people namely Courtney Weaver county seat of Yuba County, California, USA. The population was 12,268 at the 2000 census. ... The Yuba River is an important river in California and a major tributary of the Feather River, which is a tributary of the Sacramento River. ... This article treats the river in California. ... Paddle steamers - Lucerne-Switzerland Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... A spring at the Sacramento River headwater The Sacramento River is the longest river in the state of California. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Dike (construction). ...

Legal ramifications

Vast areas of farmland in the Sacramento Valley were deeply buried by the mining sediment. Frequently devastated by flood waters, farmers demanded an end to hydraulic mining. In the most renowned legal fight of farmers against miners, the farmers sued the hydraulic mining operations and the landmark case of Edwards Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company made its way to the United States District Court in San Francisco where Judge Lorenzo Sawyer decided in favor of the farmers in 1884, declaring that hydraulic mining was “a public and private nuisance” and enjoining its operation in areas tributary to navigable streams and rivers. Hydraulic mining was recommenced after 1893 when Congress passed the Camminetti Act which allowed such mining if sediment detention structures were constructed. This led to a number of operations above brush dams and log crib dams. Most of the water-delivery infrastructure had been destroyed by an 1891 flood, so this later stage of mining was carried on at a much smaller scale in California. Map of the boundaries of the United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Look up Congress in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Beyond California

Although often associated with California due to its adoption and widespread use there, the technology was exported widely to Alaska, Montana, Colorado, the southeastern USA, British Columbia (Canada), and overseas. For example, it was employed in extensively in Dahlonega, Georgia and continues to be used in developing nations, often with devastating environmental consequences. Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... Official language(s) English Capital Helena Largest city Billings Area  Ranked 4th  - Total 147,165 sq mi (381,156 km²)  - Width 255 miles (410 km)  - Length 630 miles (1,015 km)  - % water 1  - Latitude 44°26N to 49°N  - Longitude 104°2W to 116°2W Population  Ranked... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 36 6 Area... Historic Lumpkin County Courthouse, which now houses the Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site Dahlonega is a town in Lumpkin County, Georgia, USA, and is its county seatGR6. ...

References

• Hydraulic Mining in California: A Tarnished Legacy, by Powell Greenland, 2001
• Battling the Inland Sea: American Political Culture, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley: 1850-1986., U.Calif Press; 395pp.
• Gold vs. Grain: The Hydraulic Mining Controversy in California's Sacramento Valley, by Robert L. Kelley, 1959

External links

• Hydraulic Gold Mining in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains (at the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum)
• The Evolution of Gold Mining