Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park and tourist info for visitors

This is a photograph of the pit left by the miners. The scale is a little hard to comprehend just from a photo, you have to walk around in it to understand.

North Bloomfield was once an active community. A few people still live in and around town, but most of the buildings are museum pieces and not active businesses. This photo was taken the first week of spring. Come summer tourists will line the streets, tours will commence regularly, and the picnic areas will be buzzing with tourists (and less attractive guests.)

It was created between the 1850s and 1880s by hydraulic gold mining. Water was brought to the site and then aimed at hillsides through giant nozzles. However, in 1886, hydraulic mining was outlawed because of damage done to downstream rivers and waterways.

The park now contains a museum, the deserted mining town of North Bloomfield and picnic facilities. Visitors can also gold pan on Humbug Creek pans provided.

Hydraulic Mining

Water, after traveling miles along canals and aquaducts reached a pipe called a Penstock. The Penstock might have been as much as a mile long. By the time the water reached the of the water cannon (called a monitor) nozzle it was moving 5-7000 gallons per minute. The water shot out with sufficient force to wash away whole mountains of dirt. The water and dirt was washed across riffles in a sluice box (a wooden channel). The heavy gold settled to the bottom because it is heavier than the other sand and gravel. When the monitors fell silent, the miners would clean the sluice box and recover the gold. Unfortunately all the remaining debris was washed into the streams and rivers. Downstream farms, ranches, even towns were covered in mud and silt. This is why hydraulic mining was eventually outlawed.

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