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Yuba Goldfields: Photographs
Mar. 10th, 2008 08:14 pmThe weekend before last, Susan and I went to the Yuba Goldfields so she could collect sand and gravel to make miniature glaciers with in her freezer for her students. The Yuba Goldfields are essentially the downstream equivalent of Malakoff Diggins, the last place I posted photographs of. During the gold rush, miners blasted apart the mountains at Malakoff Diggins with water cannons to look for gold, and all the debris from Malakoff Diggins washed down into the valley via the Yuba River. There was so much debris that it raised the entire riverbed drastically - so much that even all the way down in downtown Sacramento, which is several hours' driving distance from Malakoff Diggins, the I Street bridge over the Sacramento River had to be raised 20 feet because the riverbed was so full of debris from gold mining.
The Yuba River flows into the Sacramento River, which flows into the San Francisco Bay. A lot of the debris ended up in the San Francisco Bay, and a lot was left behind all along the way. The debris that washed ashore where the Yuba River first enters the Sacramento Valley formed what is now known as the Yuba Goldfields: 10,000 acres piles with loose gravel blasted out of the mountains upstream. The piles of gravel were re-mined for gold throughout much of the 20th century, and are now being marketed as aggregate to use in making cement.
Considering the massive environmental damage wreaked here, I was amazed at how many native plants I found thriving here. The very moment I stepped out of Susan's truck (R.I.P., Susan's truck), I was immediately greeted by the scene below. That's a native pine on the left, and native buckbrush directly to the right of it. I'm not sure what the other plants visible here are, but except for the grasses, they're all probably native. The whole area was also covered with lupine, which unfortunately wasn't in bloom yet, but it'll be gorgeous in another week or two (maybe it already is by now!) when the lupine bushes are all covered with purple flowers. For now, the buckbrush was already in bloom (there'll be better pictures of it later), and I also saw red maids, blue dicks, and purple vetch (all of which are native wildflowers).
( More photographs from the Yuba Goldfields )
The Yuba River flows into the Sacramento River, which flows into the San Francisco Bay. A lot of the debris ended up in the San Francisco Bay, and a lot was left behind all along the way. The debris that washed ashore where the Yuba River first enters the Sacramento Valley formed what is now known as the Yuba Goldfields: 10,000 acres piles with loose gravel blasted out of the mountains upstream. The piles of gravel were re-mined for gold throughout much of the 20th century, and are now being marketed as aggregate to use in making cement.
Considering the massive environmental damage wreaked here, I was amazed at how many native plants I found thriving here. The very moment I stepped out of Susan's truck (R.I.P., Susan's truck), I was immediately greeted by the scene below. That's a native pine on the left, and native buckbrush directly to the right of it. I'm not sure what the other plants visible here are, but except for the grasses, they're all probably native. The whole area was also covered with lupine, which unfortunately wasn't in bloom yet, but it'll be gorgeous in another week or two (maybe it already is by now!) when the lupine bushes are all covered with purple flowers. For now, the buckbrush was already in bloom (there'll be better pictures of it later), and I also saw red maids, blue dicks, and purple vetch (all of which are native wildflowers).
( More photographs from the Yuba Goldfields )
