craig333
Riley's Human
Not withstanding the lack of snow the fest still had a decent turn out. l went on the historical run. We got some history of some Grass Valley notables and then headed on towards bridgeport. Great weather to see the bridge.
Then on to Camptonville. The town used to be much larger before most of it was hydraulic mined away.
Here we had an unexpected treat. We were joined by a (off duty) forest service archaeologist that lives in Camptonville. I was surprised how much I had yet to know about gold mining. Such as, after hydraulic mining was banned it was three years before the law was effectively enforced. At the time the mining interests built the first long distance phone line so they could warn the miners and the dam operators to shut things down when the marshalls were on the way.
We continued on up to Forest City. There they have an actual functioning ore crusher thing, though it runs on compressed air. Pretty interesting story on that came about. Learned tons more about mining, and though I already knew about the use of mercury I was stunned to learn just how much was lost into the creeks. Scary stuff. Okay, the niners were playing so it was time to high tail it back to GV. This is my Jeep I'm going to win.
Okay Alaskan guys. This was in the parking lot.
Then on to Camptonville. The town used to be much larger before most of it was hydraulic mined away.
Here we had an unexpected treat. We were joined by a (off duty) forest service archaeologist that lives in Camptonville. I was surprised how much I had yet to know about gold mining. Such as, after hydraulic mining was banned it was three years before the law was effectively enforced. At the time the mining interests built the first long distance phone line so they could warn the miners and the dam operators to shut things down when the marshalls were on the way.
We continued on up to Forest City. There they have an actual functioning ore crusher thing, though it runs on compressed air. Pretty interesting story on that came about. Learned tons more about mining, and though I already knew about the use of mercury I was stunned to learn just how much was lost into the creeks. Scary stuff. Okay, the niners were playing so it was time to high tail it back to GV. This is my Jeep I'm going to win.
Okay Alaskan guys. This was in the parking lot.
