Excerpts from
Mining the Environment
by Catarina Marie Spiess and Irma Gonzalez
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Hydraulic Mining
Hydraulic mining was the primary new technology that came out of the Gold Rush. Invented in 1853, by Antoine Chabot and Edward Matterson, it used water pressure to blast away at rock and soil to find gold-bearing quartz. The water from huge reservoirs in the mountains traveled through cast-iron pipes and was released through a giant nozzle. The water could not be turned off, requiring 24-hour-a-day operation. Because of the lack of electricity, bonfires had to be kept going through the night with timber cut from surrounding forests.
Effects of Mining on Salmon
An 1860 article from Hutchings Magazine by C.A. Kirkpatrick provides some perspective on the effects of mining on the salmon:
Many of the Pioneers of California, if they are not already aware of the fact, will be sorry to learn that the Salmon fish are fast disappearing from our waters–that is, upon all the streams upon which mining is carried on to any extent, and, in fact, we may say from all the streams of importance. This may be attributed to three causes. First, the mining operations, by which the water is carried by ditches and flumes for miles out of its channel, and, when it again finds its natural course, it would scarcely be true to call such a muddy mass, water. This being the case on all the tributaries, the fountain being impure the whole stream is polluted, and our beautiful and highly palatable fish, scorning to "live, move, and have their being" in such an impure element, are seeking other realms, where their native element is not made so unpleasant by man’s search for gold.