Mining California
Subtitle: An Ecological History
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Published: July 14, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780809095353
Subjects: History: American; United States - 19th Century/Old West; History - General History; Effect of human beings on; United States - State & Local - West; History - U.S.; Nature; Natural Resources; Ecology; History / United States / General; United States - General; California; Californial; Environmental conditions; History
First sentence: Between 1849 and 1858, California produced over $550 million in gold.
Description: An environmental History of California during the Gold Rush. Between 1849 and 1874 almost $1 billion in gold was mined in California. With little available capital or labor, here's how: high-pressure water cannons washed hillsides into sluices that used mercury to trap gold but let the soil wash away; eventually more than three times the amount of earth moved to make way for the Panama Canal entered California's rivers, leaving behind twenty tons of mercury every mile--rivers overflowed their banks and valleys were flooded, the land poisoned. In the rush to wealth, the same chain of foreseeable consequences reduced California's forests and grasslands. --Publisher.