North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company
| North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company | |
|---|---|
North Bloomfield Mine, ca. 1891
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| Location |
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park North Bloomfield, California |
| Coordinates | 39°22′7″N 120°54′48.79″W / 39.36861°N 120.9135528°WCoordinates: 39°22′7″N 120°54′48.79″W / 39.36861°N 120.9135528°W |
| Built | 1866, founded 1874, Malakoff Mine tunnel built |
| Architect | Hamilton Smith, Chief Engineer |
| Architectural style(s) | 7,800 feet (2,400 m) long drainage tunnel through solid bedrock |
| Governing body | State Department of Parks and Recreation |
| Designated | 1972-01-20 |
| Reference no. | 852 |
 Location of North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company in California
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The North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company of North Bloomfield, California, was established in 1866 and operated a hydraulic gold-mining operation at the Malakoff Mine subsequent to the California Gold Rush. In its day, no other company's operations matched North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company in size or expense.
The mine is located within Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, 16 miles (26 km) east of Highway 49 on Tyler Foote's Crossing Road, and 28 miles (45 km) north of Nevada City, California. The company office is still standing.
The North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company was owned by 30 capitalists from San Francisco, led by railroad baron Lester I. Robinson, and William Ralston, a silver miner from Sun Mountain in Nevada. The company's water rights were the same watershed as Summit Water and Irrigation Company's but lower down on Canyon Creek. The principal reservoir was at Bowman Lake, while others included Crooked, Island, Middle, Round, English/Rudyard, Sawmill, and Shotgun Reservoirs. The company's main canal was the Bloomfield Ditch, but, according to Superintendent L.L. Meyers, only a small fraction of the ditch's water was used for irrigation and most was used for mine operations.
The company had numerous operations in Nevada County, including Union Diggings at Columbia Hill, but those at Malakoff Mine were the most notable. Completed in 1874-11-15, the North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company carved a 7,800 feet (2,400 m) long drainage tunnel through solid bedrock at Malakoff Mine. After tunnel completion, the company reached its peak processing of 50,0000 tons of gravel each day by operating seven giant monitors twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In the company's 1879 year-end report, the company's president hailed a major improvement:
"... electric light of 12,000 candle intensity ... to facilitate mining operations at night better than the pitch bonfires heretofore used.
The tailings, dumped into the Yuba River, destroyed farm land as far west as Sacramento, creating California’s first major environmental controversy. in September 1882, Edwards Woodruff, a disgruntled New Yorker who owned farmland in Marysville, brought suit in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, an anti-debris lawsuit. By June 1883, the case was at trial. On 1884-01-07, Judge Lorenzo Sawyer handed down what became known as the Sawyer Decision, among the first environmental decisions in the United States. While North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company was notable for operating the world’s largest hydraulic gold mine in 1884, the Sawyer Decision abruptly ended hydraulic mining in Gold Country soon after. The tailings can still be found on the river as the Yuba Goldfields.
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