Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Gold Country
View from our balcony
Maybe because of the total seclusion of our log cabin but more probably due to our late night, it was 8.30 before we stirred. Tom likes to get up early to take photos but the sun was way up before we had even opened our eyes. He did take some photos from the balcony though. We were deciding where to go today – so much to see, so little time. Malakoff Diggins sounded interesting so we decided to drive into Grass Valley to find something to eat before heading north.
After breakfast at the Old Town Cafe we explored a little bit of Grass Valley including the pastie shop (or pasty as we would say in England). Cousin Jack Pasties. They are indeed authentic Cornish pasties. It is a family owned shop and the recipe has been handed down from generation to generation. Of course they sell many variations of the Cornish pasty. On their website they explain the tradition of Cornish pasties; Wikipedia is a good source as well. My father was a cook in the Royal Navy and he made oggies (naval term for Cornish pasties) all the time but his were not semi circular in shape and flat but crimped along the top. No matter what they look like, there’re great to eat. Obviously I bought one, which was just right for the two of us when we had a picnic lunch later.
(Click on the photos for larger versions)
South fork of the Yuba River
According to the map, it looked an easy drive to the Malakoff Diggins but, to be on the safe side, we turned on Camilla (our GPS), found Malakoff
Diggins and set off. The first part of the route was easy on Highway 49. Just beyond Nevada City the freeway ended and Highway 49 became a scenic route. The highway crossed the South Fork Yuba River and we turned down what we assumed to be the old road over the river and pulled into a small car park. We walked down to the bridge and looked down onto the fast flowing river beneath. Tom absorbed himself in taking photos and I spent several minutes watching a group of fisherman on the rocks below. The 1.5 mile long Independence Trail starts here and is the nation’s first wheelchair accessible wilderness trail. Two other trails start on the north side of the river – Hoyt’s and the South Yuba River trails. The first is 1.2 miles and the second 5 miles long. Another time maybe.
Back on the road again we faithfully followed the GPS instructions, turning right onto Tyler Foote Crossing Road but then things started to unravel. We were directed to turn right again, this time onto a road which quickly turned into a loose gravel track but we carried on, trusting Camilla absolutely. After a couple of miles she said ‘recalculating’ and directed us to take a couple of other turns. We were baffled but let her do her job. A few miles later she said ‘recalculating’ again. By now we were way out in the boonies and travelling on completely unpaved roads. We gave up and found our way back to Tyler Foote Crossing Road and looked for official signs to the Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park.
Eventually we saw a sign and breathed a sigh of relief. Then another sign which indicated we should turn right. We expected to see an entrance of some sort but there wasn’t any plus a complete lack of any directional signs. There were signs pointing to different camping sites and that was all. According to what we had read, Malakoff Diggins is famous for using hydraulic mining after the easy pickings from the mother lode began to dry up in the 1850′s but we could see nothing to indicate where we could go to see any sign of such mining. We did see a sign saying ‘North Bloomfield – originally Humbug’ which intrigued us so we went to investigate.
North Bloomfield turned out to be a small town with a few very old houses, which didn’t look as if they were occupied, a church, shops and a museum. We parked near the museum and I wandered inside to investigate. This turned out to be the park headquarters and where we had to pay a fee ($8.00). I picked up a handy little leaflet with lots of information and sat outside in the shade to read it. Tom, as usual, had wandered off with his camera. I discovered that a town tour started right at the spot I was at 1.30 every Saturday. Talk about good timing as it was 1.15. Several other people wandered over, including Tom.
Not long after 1.30 Debbie, the park ranger, joined us and for the next one and half hours she kept us enthralled. She first told us the origins of the town and Humbug was indeed it’s original name. Humbug was a common name used by miners back in the 1850′s and indicated a place where the gold had run out. When hydraulic mining uncovered gold in the hills, miners returned to Humbug and a thriving community formed. When the town applied to have a post office it was refused because there were too many places with the same name. The name that the US Post Office eventually agreed to in June of 1872 was North Bloomfield and has been known by that name ever since.
Hydraulic mining was widely used in the area but the side effects of the operation caused an environmental disaster. The process uses a lot of water which is aimed at the mountainside through a tapered nozzle. The force of the water blasted the side of the mountain and dislodged the rocks and released any gold in them. The water had to go somewhere of course and flowed into creeks, which fed into the Yuba River and caused flooding down in the valley. Mercury was used in the mining process and this, plus debris from the blasting, silted up the river and farmland was destroyed. After years of legal wrangling, an injunction was issued against dumping tailings into the Yuba River in 1874. Under the new restrictions, hydraulic mining became unprofitable and North Bloomfield declined as people drifted away. The town is not abandoned completely as a few people still live there but it is officially a ghost town.
Old house at Malakoff Diggins State Park
Then Debbie took us for a walk around the town and into a few of the old buildings. The first building we entered was the stable. Here several wagons were on display plus a hay bailing machine. A sign tacked to the wall amused me. It said ‘Whip Lightly, Drive Slow, Pay Cash Before You Go’. Of couse, any old mining town had to have plenty of saloons. The present museum used to be a saloon but Debbie took us into the restored King Saloon. It was a wonderful place. The long polished bar with the standard brass foot rail attached conjured up what the saloon looked like in its heyday and I imagined the miners drinking, carousing and the making full use of the strategically placed spittoons. A few minutes later we were peeping through the window into the Barber’s Shop. We went into the Drug Store (which was extremely cold) and looked at the bottles arrayed on the shelves. It surprised me that the smell of the old medical remedies still lingered in the air. Across the road we entered the General Store with a Post Office just inside (which was also very cold). At the back we could see, behind bars, the original Wells Fargo safe. Here the miners’ gold was stored. A twenty four watch was kept on the precious metal and we could glimpse the sleeping quarters of the armed guard. The last house was the Skidmore House which is reputed to be haunted. Inside it was interesting to see the layout of the house and could peep into most of the rooms.
After the tour, we couldn’t leave the area without going to look at the Malekoff Diggins themselves. We could see vast ridges, gouged out of the hillside by the high pressure hoses used in hydraulic mining, and it was hard to imagine just what the place looked like before the miners came. We passed a sign which said that Nevada City was only a few miles away but that was the route the muleteers took and completely impossible to drive today. We checked the mileage on the way back and it was 26 miles. On the way, Tom pointed about the milky colored water in ponds at the side of the road. These are the tailings from the hydraulic mining and even after all this time they are probably still full of mercury.
Once again, back in Nevada City, we walked around the town and enjoyed an ice cream in Treats. Tom had a cone but I went the whole hog and ordered a delicious ice cream sundae. In the evening we had dinner with Tom’s cousin, Judy, her husband, John, and Tom’s Aunt Thelma. Judy and John have a beautiful home in Nevada City and Thelma lives nearby. This was the first time I had met all of them and we had a wonderful time. Hopefully we will see more of them and if that means another trip to Nevada City, I’m all for it.
July 08 2010 12:20 pm | Special Places
