Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Syd Whittle
Taken: February 3, 2009
Caption: Close-Up of Photo on Marker - Chinese Miners
Additional Description: GOLD! was discovered at Sutter’s Mill about 30 miles upstream in 1848. Here on the banks of the American River, Chinese miners dug deep trenches into the gold-bearing gravel and washed out the gold in pans and sluices. Starting in the late 1890’s huge gold dredges scooped up mountains of gravel from the ancient riverbed between Sunrise Boulevard and Folsom’s old town. By 1962 when dredging stopped, more than $125 million worth of gold was removed from the gravel, but miles of salmon spawning beds lay in ruin.

California State Library
Submitted: February 3, 2009, by Syd Whittle of Mesa, Arizona.
Database Locator Identification Number: p52052
File Size: 0.372 Megabytes

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