Hydraulic Gold Mining

This movie is the last remaining part of footage from an old video cassette that I owned. I believe that it is still available from the Empire Mines State Park. I do not own the copyright to this movie and this is being posted here under KZbin's Guidelines for informational and teaching purposes. Then I added pictures on my own of the Malakoff State park from days gone past when mining was active in the area to the end of this movie. This is a great addition to this hydraulic mining playlist, so watch history being taught from long ago & then learn & enjoy.

[@joanhunt5532]

Thanks a million, Reed, for the opportunity to see an amazing old movie about the sluicing history in California. It was a wonderful experience; much appreciated.

[@junesorenson279]

THANK YOU for sharing with us. I enjoyed watching and learning more about a place I had visited years ago and it left an impression on me then and still does.

[@mahmoodshamsan3940]

Amazing I study mining engineering. This video demonstrated everyhting I want Thank you very much for your effort

[@TheNathanEverest]

I love older history videos like this less about entertainment more about facts

[@SaltyNationalist]

I found this rather enjoyable to watch and learn about history like this. Way cool. Definitely educational and way worth the watch..

[@MARKE911]

Thank you for this educational video. I live in the South, the only mine we have here is the public diamond mine and bauxite mines. I never knew anything about this and I really enjoy learning about the past.

[@SamSeth]

Only a few minutes in and I'm already enjoying this video Reed! Absolutely incredible pictures - thanks for uploading.

[@ReedLukens]

Actually there is a sluice box on the west bound side & it's part of the Hydraulic mine tour that is set up in the rest area. Watch the rest of my hydraulic mining playlist and you will see a lot more on hydraulic mining. This isn't just one video and there is at least one more to come after the first of the year sometime.

[@fritzkocher]

wow thank you for this video very cool. I live here in Auburn and its great to see the history all around us in this beautiful area. So many of us just like myself take this place for granted not thinking about all that came before all of us. I enjoy going to the yuba many times a month and its great to see videos like this to put thing in perspective and to appreciate the river itself.

[@carshowlady]

Great video, and explanation of yet another interesting time in History ! In that Clint Eastwood movie, the Palerider, they have a few scenes of Hydraulic mine in operation. It gave a very nostalgic touch to the film, out of ordinary Westerns.. I love to watch the film, just for those scenes! Thanx for sharing this great info !

[@etmyld69]

Thanks for sharing Reed. The area's that have been hydraulic gold mined are all grown back now and many have settling ponds that are now home to wildlife. The small areas of land that have been hydraulic gold mined are a drop in the ocean and the benefits outweigh the tiny impact of the mining that has been done !

[@Sutterjack]

Excellent documentary - really helped me understand the damage caused but the hydraulic mining

[@FlashInYourPan]

Awesome video Reed, full of Mining history.... I really enjoyed it... Thanks for posting.

[@choochooman]

Thank you so much for this, I too came across some old cannons on Hwy 80 up by GOLD RUN rest area, along with the old sluice box cut into the hillside than it would go to the holding ponds. Since than Cal-Trans has covered them up and put in a sewer clean out at the old ponds, My heart is broken. Your pictures are a god send, Just wish there was a way I could get a copy of some of them.. I've shared this on my face book page, just hope it opens somebody else's eyes as it has mine. Thank you.

[@Rosenquist1965]

Wow thanks for the history class, never knew this form of gold mining was invented..

[@rjstevensjr68]

that was really interesting thank you for that!

[@GoldPanningGeorgia]

Great video, very good explanation of the hydraulic history

[@mariainesulla2357]

This is great! Thanks for sharing

[@andyamysarizonaadventures5450]

Very cool! They basically yelded over 30 500lb blocks of gold! 😆

[@ReedLukens]

Thanks :) We finally moved to Arizona permanently this year around Congress,Az

[@andyamysarizonaadventures5450]

@@ReedLukens really!? We are up the hill in Mayer.Ever dug around lynx creek? I'm finding Arizona a struggle for decent dredging ground though really love it

[@ReedLukens]

@@andyamysarizonaadventures5450 Yep, Lynx creek is a fun place 😀

[@indyme2]

Great video, Reed. Excellent pictures. Thanks for posting.

[@GarnettM]

Thats some great info ,I seem to have read something about this in Old Sacremento yrs ago .

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

14:15 - Wow, what a view of D street in Marysville. The Bok Kai Temple and Tower theater - are still there today. Many other historical, Victorian-era buildings were demolished soon (after this video) to make way for that accursed, failure of a mall. (Left side of street.) The white building on the right - the saloon where Juan Corona, the serial killer - met many of his victims and lured them to obscure orchard work sites where he dug their mass graves. They appear to be in-progress demolishing the ramp that used to go up to the original, historic D Street bridge - destroyed in the 1955 flood. (Remains visible on sat view of Google maps.) A minor correction - he says "Sacramento River" but, he's standing on the levee for the Yuba. Probably just a slip-up. Marysville, I always joked, is "Mesopotamia." The land between two rivers. (Feather being the second.) Thank you for this upload!

[@anthonyjohnson100]

Would be really nice if I could buy one of those mountains and dig massive tailing ponds to catch the silt and mud to then be collected and used for something else since there must be a good use for it. I'd give them a really good deal on it all😁

[@ReedLukens]

Most of the old Hydraulic pits that are close to civilization were turned into gravel plants 😀

[@kateevansnomadicwriter]

Thank you for posting this. It's been very helpful for my research on a book I'm writing.

[@kalidilerious]

Try a library. That's where I rented this very video and the whole version of it. It's free too

[@PartridgeFamilyProspecting]

Very interesting thank you!!

[@juanmanuelgalviszamora9577]

very good informe, I like

[@ReedLukens]

Thanks my friends. It's one of the first videos that I ever watched many years ago. I still remember seeing old Bill Wilson in Auburn some times, he would buy a lot of equipment from my dad at the old hardware store that the family had in Auburn. On a side note, the ICMJ was originally started and put together in the basement of this store. Back then it was the California Mining Journal. I have some old copies that Scott Harn sent me a few years back with centerfold adds from Lukens Hardware 8°)

[@bryantgrantham8992]

Hey, Reed don't know how to contact you directly but I'm thinking about those poor people in Oro Washington buried under that mud slide and how hydraulic mining could help them move thousands of tons of material. Maybe drain the muddy water into catch basins (multiple plastic lined dirt tanks) where the mud can settle down to the bottom and the clearer water can be recycled or drained to the nearby river. Do you know where they could find a water cannon? Just worried about those poor people up there.

[@garyjohnson4657]

The monitor you see being demonstrated, is connected to a fire hydrant. The actual monitors being used to mine, would have easily reached the top of the face they were mining!

[@CplSkiUSMC]

An excellent historical account. Some refer to the old hydraulic site as scars, but I think they have a beauty all their own. Nobody refers to Bryce Canyon as a scar, and these sites remind me of some of the beautiful places in Utah. As nature continues her reclamation, these sites will simply become more and more beautiful and unique. I think hydraulic mining still has a place, but as the documentary points out, it has to be in moderation to avoid the problems that the excesses created.

[@utuberine]

These ancient rivers were covered , not by dirt from whereever, but from volcanoes. The rock that covers these rivers is hard, andesite usually, and harder than the country rock around it and is now in place where the ridges are, the present day rivers having eroded around them.

[@MrPaulRozman]

awesome, reminds me of something that I have seen not to long ago, can't quite remember where.

[@eddiesykes4080]

Much love .. our whole environment has been altered- looks jus like the Grand Canyon.. Sedona, Arizona is know as mining country

[@ProMainMan]

I might feel differently about hydro mining if I lived anywhere close to it. When I was in my early 20's I worked several draglines/ strip-pits as a welder down in Texas (im from Oklahoma). A strip mine is like a rock quarry in the sense that it could be turned into a lake. Hydro on the other hand seems like it would just take years and years. I wonder though what could be done to replace dirt and nutrients over hydro sites? Flipping dirt up over the sediment and planting trees and such?

[@craigdutton6924]

Cool vid mate loaded with info 👌

[@Snydes003]

The block of gold at 10:40 is worth 13.5mil today!

[@alcampbell6832]

I remember seeing an old western movie featuring hydraulic mining. It must have been over forty years ago. The story line was very much as you described it. Valley people vs. miners. By the way, if that gold block is still hanging around I have a need for a good paperweight.

[@kerryemmerson9845]

Outlaw Josey Wales wasn't it.

[@edgewood99]

PALE RIDER 1985

[@utuberine]

John Edgewood That was it.

[@mrbond4204]

I just visited the omega mine with the owner for some camping. Unbelievable place

[@omeganuggets_9003]

Thanks for the info I really needed this info for my class 🙃

[@bryanmayorga7771]

No

[@Bella-uy7qq]

about 7,500,000 pounds of water are in that monitor

[@soconnoriv]

Really curious to see the size of the pumps that powered those “monitors”

[@ReedLukens]

They were ran with gravity. They built huge dams and ran pipes for miles. The dams are used to run the hydroelectric power plants for most of northern California now.

[@goofygooferson7834]

The dig ins

[@cookingqueenb]

Hydraulic mining began first in Spain during the Roman empire.

[@bidenpeleg8084]

Today, similar methods are employed, although in much smaller scale, but still with unwanted side effects.

[@Lufisyth]

Surprisingly powerful technology for the time.

[@elonmust7470]

They were more advanced than we are today.

[@MOTOMINING]

They were doing it in the 30's where I live.

[@miketheminer2023]

The people who profited are still in power of banks etc. Without mining you wouldnt have 80% of the products you use today. 😊

[@thomasmckay9878]

Hmmm,small pressure washer to move material

[@ReedLukens]

I've used a pressure washer under water before to clean bedrock. They work great underwater.

[@goldhunterexploration-shei5873]

👍👍👍

[@SpotTreasure]

Welcome my KZbin channel spot treasure I'm watching from Philippines

[@chucklotro8749]

The guy in the video sounds so familiar..........

[@piecartbox]

Love pavarati in the suit rofl..

[@jonyknoxvil]

@9:47 doesn't care about standing on a highwall that constantly collapses..

[@robh6638]

Found nothing about the cannon being from the civil war

[@s.marcus3669]

Great video and still pics, thanks for posting. However, "photos" is not possessive; it does not get an apostrophe before the "s". And yes, I am a grammar nazi, just with a small "n".

[@chucklotro8749]

how the hell were they allowed to hydraulic mine at the time of the filming????

[@Sawdust5764]

My question too

[@ethanshinabarger4390]

His voice is reminding me of Chappel

[@rockbottomrhythm_blues]

If this mining was banned over 100 yrs ago how is this guy blasting away a hillside?

[@ReedLukens]

It was never banned but restrictions were put in place for the tailings to be kept under control. This method is still used today but with limitations.

[@BudDubR]

What a super method to tear Mother Earth a new ass....very efficient.....

[@first-thoughtgiver-of-will2456]

Actual footage of my bidet

[@ReedLukens]

I laugh everytime I read this 🤠🍻👍

[@weekendwarriorprospecting817]

Get involved

[@jeff.s.7160]

Sickening

[@MrViki60]

Stfu lib

[@pedropedrohan102]

whot

[@janjohannessmith7033]

Then in the 1880s the English damn collapsed and sent a 60 ft wall of water in mud downriver that hit Marysville in 40 minutes.... Good morning America!

[@Johnny.P.Drizzle]

Kermit?

[@Johnny.P.Drizzle]

Yep. This guy's voice, plus your voice equals Kermit. It has to be a combination of the two, or it's not Kermit.

[@738polarbear]

Disgraceful way to mine.

[@chinoching-topic]

I would love to gold minin

[@unlikelyprophet3260]

Giant skull at 2:44

[@croatiansensation6062]

Most inefficient and caveman way to mine, glad it was stopped by the government otherwise California would be entirely flat.

[@Mike-01234]

Amazing what miners were able to do in the 19th century without modern machines and virtually no regulations. This was a time when opportunity and success was all that mattered there was no Government to take care of you. You succeeded, or starved but very little regulation allowed an opportunity for anyone to start mining. This is what the American dream was all about why so many immigrated all they wanted was an opportunity to succeed.

[@rmcg23]

Raping the earth for profit without much oversight...lots if waste....they were ignorant...finally after losses the ignorant cave man finds a better way...dumb ass humans

[@gsp0113]

I can hardly believe this blockhead of a reporter gushes endlessly about the "excitement" of hydraulic mining and _never once_ mentions the destruction of the landscape. Not a _word_ about environmental destruction in the first 12 minutes. Finally -- because it's a necessary element to the story and explains the end of hydraulic mining -- he mentions how the tailings and mud were clogging waterways downstream. This lack of respect for the destroyed mountainsides might have been common in the 1870s, but in the 1970s, when this report was filed, it's inexcusable. That said, the video was interesting and does a good job of covering the history of hydraulic mining -- albeit with an environmental blind spot that is so glaring as to be bizarre.

[@MatthewB-Kornafel-xv6oi]

Mud flood

[@apophisjones4361]

So much damage for greed .Shame on you and your forfathers .

[@kevinaalberts9251]

didnt I hear that gold mining was all a hoax!!!??? the California gold rush....I herd the was all gone by the time these people came to mine gold.

[@ReedLukens]

The gold is still there and easy to find, but the state of California has made mining for a profit mostly illegal. Many of the places that I grew up gold mining in Placer County California, won't even allow you to even have a shovel in your possession... Mining has been regulated out of the Golden state, which is why people are leaving California so fast.