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"This is a very readable account of gold mining in California from the earliest days to the present and of its economic, social, cultural, and literary consequences. It should provide many evenings of enjoyable and informative reading."—Paul C. Bateman, U.S. Geological Survey, retired "Mary Hill's first-rate narrative is a remarkable synthesis. She skillfully weaves together the geology, history, and romance of the gold story in a lively and informative style. Anyone interested in California history, especially the Gold Rush, will relish this book."—Martin Ridge, Huntington Library
An environmental History of California during the Gold Rush Between 1849 and 1874 almost $1 billion in gold was mined in California. With little available capital or labor, here's how: high-pressure water cannons washed hillsides into sluices that used mercury to trap gold but let the soil wash away; eventually more than three times the amount of earth moved to make way for the Panama Canal entered California's rivers, leaving behind twenty tons of mercury every mile—rivers overflowed their banks and valleys were flooded, the land poisoned. In the rush to wealth, the same chain of foreseeable consequences reduced California's forests and grasslands. Not since William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis has a historian so skillfully applied John Muir's insight—"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe"—to the telling of the history of the American West. Beautifully told, this is western environmental history at its finest.
This report provides information for use in both short- and long term land-planning decisions, particularly at the county level, and an indication of the present and future economic impact of mineral and energy development. The report discusses eight major commodity groups: (1) oil and gas, (2) coal and coal resin, (3) coal-bed methane, (4) other energy resources (oil-impregnated rock, oil shale, geothermal), (5) uranium and vanadium, (6) metallic minerals, (7) industrial rocks and minerals, and (8) ground-water resources. In general, for each group or commodity within a group the following aspects are discussed: (1) known occurrences and characteristics, (2) past production and trends, (3) current production and exploration activity, and (4) geologic potential. Plates accompany each of the major commodity groups and show the locations of known resources and areas of geologic potential. In addition to the commodity discussions, the report contains a brief summary of land ownership status and concludes with a summary of commodities having the best potential for discovery and development. 161 pages + 14 plates