Hydraulic Mining and the California Gold Rush

Water cannon

Hydraulic mining was a practice which worked for extracting gold.  However it was not very healthy for the environment.  The water cannon would not only force the gravel and dirt into a sluice, where the gold was separated, it also destroyed the undergrowth and the hillsides.  The practice was halted by the federal government in 1885.

This pictures shows the result on the hillside.

This is a rest area on the I-80.