North Bloomfield History
Gold was discovered in the North Bloomfield district in 1851. According to the traditional account, three prospectors found promising gravel deposits while exploring the country around San Juan Ridge. When one of the men went to Nevada City for supplies, word of the discovery escaped and other prospectors followed him back into the mountains. The newcomers failed to find the riches they expected and dismissed the discovery as a "humbug," a name that became attached to Humbug Creek and the mining camp that developed nearby.
Although the initial rush ended in disappointment, the extensive ancient gravel deposits surrounding Humbug soon revealed substantial quantities of gold. By 1853 miners were experimenting with hydraulic methods in the district. Instead of excavating gravel by hand, hydraulic miners directed powerful streams of water against the gravel banks, washing enormous quantities of material through sluices where the gold could be recovered. Ground sluicing and increasingly sophisticated hydraulic methods were employed through the 1850s.
By the middle of the decade, the settlement of Humbug had stores, saloons, lodging, and other businesses serving the surrounding mines. The Hotel de France was operating by 1855, when the community had more than 400 residents. Residents eventually sought a more respectable name for their growing town. The community was briefly known as Bloomfield, but because a Bloomfield already existed in Sonoma County, the Nevada County settlement became North Bloomfield. A post office was established in 1857, when the population was about 500.
North Bloomfield continued to grow during the following years. The 1860 census recorded 784 residents, and a daily pony express connected the isolated mountain community with the outside world. Like many California mining towns, North Bloomfield also had a significant Chinese population. Chinese immigrants worked in the mines and cultivated vegetables for local residents.
The North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company
The future of the town became closely tied to the enormous deposits of ancient river gravel surrounding it. Individual miners could work the shallower deposits, but exploiting the deeper gravel required large quantities of water, extensive drainage works, and far more capital than small operators could provide.
In the mid-1860s, French immigrant Julius Poquillion began consolidating abandoned and marginal claims around North Bloomfield. By 1866, Poquillion and his associates had assembled more than 1,500 acres of claims and obtained financial backing from San Francisco investors. The resulting North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company transformed what had been a collection of comparatively small mining claims into a heavily capitalized industrial operation.
One of the company's greatest challenges was supplying sufficient water. Hydraulic mining consumed extraordinary quantities, particularly as the workings expanded. The company acquired reservoirs and water rights and constructed an extensive network of dams, canals, ditches, and flumes extending for more than 100 miles through the surrounding mountains. Water collected at higher elevations could then be delivered under pressure to the mine.
Drainage presented an equally difficult problem. As the hydraulic pit became deeper, existing outlets could no longer efficiently remove the water, gravel, and tailings generated by mining. In 1872 the company began construction of an ambitious drainage tunnel beneath the diggings.
Rather than excavating the tunnel entirely from its ends, eight vertical shafts were sunk along its route. Crews then worked in opposite directions from the bottoms of the shafts, allowing numerous headings to be driven simultaneously. The tunnel was completed on November 15, 1874. Nearly a mile and a half long, it extended approximately 7,800 feet through bedrock and cost almost $500,000. Its completion allowed the company to work deeper gravel deposits while discharging the enormous volume of mining debris through Humbug Creek toward the South Yuba River.
Malakoff Diggins
With its water and drainage systems completed, mining at North Bloomfield rapidly expanded. In 1876 the company placed seven large hydraulic monitors in operation. These water cannons directed powerful jets against the gravel banks, breaking them apart and sending the resulting mixture of water, sand, rock, and gold through the mine's sluice system.
At its peak, the operation could process as much as 100,000 tons of gravel per day. In 1876 alone, approximately 16 billion gallons of water were used. The company ultimately invested about $3 million in its mining and water infrastructure.
The great hydraulic excavation became known as the Malakoff Diggins. Hydraulic monitors gradually removed a substantial portion of the ancient gravel ridge, leaving an enormous open pit thousands of feet long, thousands of feet wide, and hundreds of feet deep. The scar created by the operation remains the most prominent physical feature of the district today.
The expansion of the mine brought renewed prosperity to North Bloomfield, as workers, merchants, teamsters, tradesmen, and their families supported a substantial community. From the late 1860s through the early 1880s, the town reached a population of nearly 1,500 and contained more than 200 buildings, serving as an important supply center for the surrounding mining district. At its height, North Bloomfield had five hotels, eight saloons, two livery stables, two dry goods stores, two breweries, three bootmakers, three fraternal organizations, a school, barbershop, drugstore, butcher shop, bakery, dairy, and two churches.
The scale of the operation also encouraged technological innovation. In 1878, the North Bloomfield, Milton, and Eureka companies constructed what is recognized as the first long-distance telephone line in the United States, extending from French Corral along San Juan Ridge to their reservoirs, ditches, and other facilities. The approximately $6,000 system connected 22 stations and allowed operators to monitor water flows and quickly report breaks in the extensive water network. By the 1880s, electric lights were being used to illuminate the mining operation.
Decline of North Bloomfield
The enormous scale of hydraulic mining at North Bloomfield eventually contributed to the town's decline. Millions of tons of gravel and other debris from Malakoff Diggins were washed into Humbug Creek and ultimately into the Yuba and Sacramento river systems. Similar operations throughout the northern Sierra Nevada sent vast quantities of sediment downstream, raising riverbeds, increasing the risk of flooding, interfering with navigation, and damaging agricultural lands in the Sacramento Valley. By the late 1870s and early 1880s, farmers and other downstream property owners were engaged in an increasingly bitter campaign to restrict hydraulic mining.
The conflict culminated in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, filed in 1882. On January 7, 1884, a federal judge issued an injunction prohibiting the discharge of mining debris into the Yuba River and its tributaries. The decision did not prohibit hydraulic mining itself, but large operations such as Malakoff Diggins depended on streams to carry away enormous quantities of debris, making continued mining under the new restrictions impractical.
Mining at Malakoff Diggins did not cease immediately. The North Bloomfield company attempted to continue operations under the new restrictions, while underground drift mining was used to reach gravel deposits beneath the former hydraulic workings. By 1888, more than 10,000 feet of underground workings had reportedly been driven beneath the Malakoff pit. Congress established a system for regulated hydraulic mining with the Caminetti Act of 1893, requiring operators to impound their debris, but mining at North Bloomfield never returned to its former scale and was eventually abandoned. As mining declined, so did the town that had depended upon it.
North Bloomfield declined with the industry that had supported it. By 1900 its population had fallen substantially, and vacant buildings began to deteriorate. During World War I some abandoned structures were dismantled for lumber. Prohibition eliminated the remaining saloons, further diminishing what remained of the old commercial district.
The town experienced a modest revival during the Great Depression, when some former residents returned and occupied inexpensive or abandoned houses. The revival was temporary. World War II drew workers to military service and defense industries elsewhere, and additional buildings were dismantled. By 1950, fewer than twenty permanent residents remained at North Bloomfield.
North Bloomfield Today
Unlike many California mining camps that disappeared entirely, a portion of North Bloomfield survived. During the 1960s, Nevada County residents began working to preserve both the town and the extraordinary hydraulic landscape surrounding Malakoff Diggins. Their efforts resulted in the creation of Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park in 1965.
Today the park encompasses approximately 3,000 acres and preserves both the enormous hydraulic excavation and the surviving townsite of North Bloomfield. Historic buildings include residences, commercial structures, a church, and buildings associated with the mining operation. The Malakoff Diggins-North Bloomfield Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
It All Started With The Gold Rush
The great California Gold Rush kicked off the entire saga of western mining. Read about it at The California Gold Rush.
California Gold
"Where to Find Gold in California" looks at the density of modern placer mining claims along with historical gold mining locations and mining district descriptions to determine areas of high gold discovery potential in California. Read more: Where to Find Gold in California.