Post by stephan on Jul 1, 2016 22:47:19 GMT -5
Good Lawdy, work has been keeping me busy.... I did have a chance for a weekend trip to a nice park near Nevada City.
Malakoff Diggins is a State Park created as a monument to an environmental catastrophe as a result of the unbridled greed that was much of the California Gold Rush. It is located at the site of California's largest hydraulic gold mine. This mine also triggered the nation's first environmental law, after tons of debris it created caused massive flooding (at one point, Marysville and Yuba City were buried under 25 feet of mud), farmland was destroyed, rivers became innavigable, the SF Bay filled at a rate of one foot per year. Additionally, although the miners attempted to reclaim as much of the mercury as they could from their operations, the amount used also caused environmental degradation, the extent of which is still being determined.
In this main pit, plant life is restoring itself, but the pit is also filling in, due to continuing, rapid erosion. The hydraulically blasted cliffs have an eerie beauty.
www.flickr.com/photos/36618387@N06/albums/72157670196084186
Malakoff Diggins is a State Park created as a monument to an environmental catastrophe as a result of the unbridled greed that was much of the California Gold Rush. It is located at the site of California's largest hydraulic gold mine. This mine also triggered the nation's first environmental law, after tons of debris it created caused massive flooding (at one point, Marysville and Yuba City were buried under 25 feet of mud), farmland was destroyed, rivers became innavigable, the SF Bay filled at a rate of one foot per year. Additionally, although the miners attempted to reclaim as much of the mercury as they could from their operations, the amount used also caused environmental degradation, the extent of which is still being determined.
In this main pit, plant life is restoring itself, but the pit is also filling in, due to continuing, rapid erosion. The hydraulically blasted cliffs have an eerie beauty.
www.flickr.com/photos/36618387@N06/albums/72157670196084186
