The easily available gold in California soon
was depleted, but rich deposits of the precious metal remained far
below the surface. Thus the early mining methods gave way to methods
more complex--and more destructive.
Working together in large mining companies, miners
turned aside entire rivers to expose the pay dirt of streambeds.
They also dug deep shafts or tunnels into the earth. One of the most
spectacular of the new mining methods was "hydraulicking." Miners
used the destructive power of high-pressure water to wash away banks
and hills, uncovering gold-bearing gravel far beneath the surface.
Hydraulicking left the earth deeply scarred and in some places unrecognizable
from its previous state.
Hydraulic mining was a true California innovation.
In 1853 a former sailmaker named Anthony Chabot constructed a sturdy
canvas hose, and a Connecticut Yankee named Edward E. Matteson invented
a tapered nozzle of sheet brass. For the next three decades, hydraulic
mining was the dominant form of gold extraction in northern California.
