This page displays picture galleries of old and historical photos. They are usually pictures that I inherited or bought at a rare book or antique store.
Steel truss bridge over the American River connecting Folsom to Ashland before the Rainbow bridge was built in 1920. In the photo are the tall stone bridge supports for the California Central Railroad bridge built over the river in 1859. Possible date of photo 1900.
Looking northeast, the steel truss bridge over the American River with Ashland in the background. Folsom, Cal. Estimated date of photo approximately 1900.
Folsom to Orangevale Road. Bridge in the foreground was originally built by the California Central Railroad as the line went from Folsom to Roseville. The bridge in the background spanned a small gulch. Estimated date to be 1914.
Postcard image of Sutter’s Fort before restoration.
Wire rope suspension bridge at Rattlesnake Bar over the North Fork of the American River. Date possibly approximately 1866.
Hydraulic Mining, California
While in Albany, CA on business I stumbled upon a small book and antique store called Antiques on Solano. I purchased six photos involving hydraulic mining in California. The colorized pictures of the diversion dam and suspension bridge I subsequently created a blog call Salyer – Swanson hydraulic mine bridge and history because there was a whole story behind those photos. The photo of Spring Valley Mine with two monitors operating neatly connects to a previous blog post I did on the Cherokee and Spring Valley Mines east of Table Mountain and north of Oroville- See: Table Mountain Cherokee Hydraulic Mines.
Two of the photos are debris dams built after the 1884 Sawyer Decision to comply with the retention of hydraulic mining debris. The hydraulic elevator picture show one of the mining areas in or around Malakoff State Historic- See: Malakof Diggins Hydraulic Mines and Hike. Because I didn’t know what a “hydraulic elevator was, I’ve included a diagram I found in an old mining book. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.
Rattlesnake Bar suspension bridge 1866 with 2015 abutment pictures.
Library of Congress image from 1866 of the old Rattlesnake Bar suspension bridge over the North Fork of the American River. North and South abutments of the bridge from 2015 when Folsom Lake water levels were low. Log Dam for impounding tailings from a hydraulic mine. The material behind the dam is tailings from a hydraulic mine. c 1890 Upper Slate Creek.Diagram of a hydraulic elevator. A jet of water that blasts the placer gravel up (elevates) to sluice box for separation and removing gold from slurry. 1940Hydraulic Elevator, Bloomfield Mine, c 1890 above Nevada City.Brush Dam, North Bloomfield Company, For impounding tailings. Dam is in the washed-out ground. It is sixty-five feet high and is raised as the tailings accumulate. The impounded tailings may be seen in the artotype. Nevada City c. 189045 inch water pipe for hydraulic mining supported by suspension bridge in Trinity County. The Swanson Mining Corporation also used this water for power generation to pump the water to the mines.Campbell Creek diversion into the flume and water pipe carried by the suspension bridge to hydraulic mining activity near Salyer, CA, 1930 (?).Spring Valley Mine, Butte County, Oroville, hydraulic mining, photo shows entrance of 3,000′ tunnel that led to Sawmill Ravine, Dry Creek. “Two streams piping. Gravel is washed into the deep bedrock cut which leads to the tunnel seen in the background, right hand side of picture. This tunnel is three thousand feet long, and driven to get outlet for the tailings.”
