Environmental Impacts of the Gold Rush

Primary


"A Federal Agent Assesses Miningís Impact on the Indians, 1853. From a letter from E. A. Stevenson, Special Indian Agent to Hon. Thomas J. Henry, Supt. of Indian Affairs, San Francisco." In The Destruction of the California Indians, edited by Robert F. Heizer, 15-16. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith, 1974.

"Woodruff Versus North Bloomfield Gravel and Mining Co.: The Sawyer Decision of 1884." The Federal Reporter 18, no. 14 (1884): 753-818.

Beilharz, Edwin A., and Carlos U. Lopez, eds. We Were 49ers!: Chilean Accounts of the California Gold Rush. Pasadena, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1976.

Benton, Thomas Hart. Thrilling Sketch of the Life of Col. J.C. Fremont. London: J. Field, 1850.
Bowie, Augustus Jesse, Jr. A Practical Treatise on Hydraulic Mining in California. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1905.

Bradley, Walter Wadsworth. Present Status of Hydraulic-Mine Debris Disposal in California. New York: American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, 1936.

Bruff, J. Goldsborough. "Gold Rush": The Journals, Drawings, and Other Papers of J. Goldsborough Bruff. Edited by Georgia Willis Read and Ruth Gaines. New York: Columbia University Press, 1949.

Buffum, E. Gould. Six Months in the Gold Mines. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1850.

Clappe, Louise Amelia ("Dame Shirley"). The Shirley Letters, Being Letters Written in 1851-1852 from the California Mines. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985.

Dana, C.W. The Great West, or the Garden of the World. Boston: Wentworth & Co., 1857.

Delano, Alonzo. The Minerís Progress; or, Scenes in the Life of a California Miner. Sacramento: Daily Union Office, 1853.

DuBois, Cora. Wintu Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1935.

Eccleston, Robert. The Mariposa Indian War, 1850-1851. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1957.

Ellison, Joseph Waldo. The Mineral Land Question in California, 1848-1866. Austin: The Texas State Historical Association, 1926.

Erskine, Michael. The Diary of Michael Erskine: Describing His Cattle Drive from Texas to California Together With Correspondence from the Gold Fields, 1854-1859. Midland, TX: Nita Steward Haley Memorial Library, 1979.

Fariss and Smith. History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties with California, 1882. Berkeley: Howell-North Books, rept. 1971.

Fayette, Robinson. California and Its Gold Regions. New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1849.

Giffen, Helen S., ed. The Diaries of Peter Decker: Overland to California in 1849 and Life in the Mines, 1850-1851. Georgetown, CA: Talisman Press, 1966.

Gilbert, Grove Karl. "Hydraulic-Mining Debris in the Sierra Nevada." Washington, D.C.: Govt. Print. Office, 1917.

Harts, William Wright. The Control of Hydraulic Mining in California by the Federal Government. New York: n.p., 1906.

Hittell, John S. A History of the City of San Francisco and Incidentally of the State of California. San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1878.

Holliday, J. S. The World Rushed In. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.

Jenkins, W. History of the Development of Placer Mining in California. Los Angeles: The Historical Society of Southern California Publications, 1907.

King, James T. ""I Take This Opportunity to Inform You...": The Gold Rush Letters of Andrew Cairns." California Historical Society Quarterly XLVI, no. 3 (1967): 207-22.

McCall, A. J. Pick and Pan. Trip to the Diggingís [sic] in 1849. Reminiscences of California Life by an Argonaut. Bath, NY: Steuben Courier Printing, 1883.

McMurtrie, Douglas C., ed. A Report in April, 1848, on the Discovery of Gold and Other Minerals in California, and on the People, Commerce, Agriculture, Customs, Religion, Press, etc., of the new Pacific Coast Territory. rpt. from the New York Herald, Aug. 19, 1848 ed. Evanston, IL, 1848.

McPhee, John. Assembling California. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1993.

Metlar, George W. Northern California, Scott and Klamath Rivers, Their Inhabitants and Characteristics... Mining Interests. Yreka, CA: Yreka Union Office, 1856.

Miller, Joaquin. My Life Amongst the Indians. Chicago: Morril, Higgins & Co., 1892.

Miller, Joaquin. My Life Amongst the Modoc. Chicago: Morril, Higgins, & Co., 1890.

Minke, Pauline. Chinese in the Mother Lode, 1850-1870. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1974.

Pacific Ore Co. The Hagan Method for the Reduction of Rebellious Ores. San Francisco: Turnbull and Smith, 1868.

Paul, Almarin B. Mine Development the Basis of Prosperity. The Mac-Arthur-Forrest Cyanide Process; Hydraulic Mining Industry; Gold in the Black Sands; Ore Reduction. San Francisco: Janssen Printing & Binding Co., 1900.

Royce, Sarah. A Frontier Lady: Recollections of the Gold Rush and Early California. Ed. Ralph H. Gabriel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.

Steele, John. In Camp and Cabin. Mining Life and Adventure in California During 1850 and Later. Lodi, WI: J. Steele, 1901.

Street, Franklin. California in 1850, Compared with What It Was in 1849. Cincinnati: R.E. Edwards, 1851.

Taylor, Burrell B. How to Get Rich in California. Philadelphia: McMorris & Gans, 1876.

Thompson, Monroe. The Golden Resources of California, Containing the Views and Suggestions of a Practical and Experienced Miner, on the Origin, Extent and Importance of the Placers of California. New York: Livermoore & Rudd, 1856.

Todd, John. The Sunset Land; or the Great Pacific Slope. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1870.

Twain, Mark. Roughing It. London: George Routledge, 1871.

United States. Report of the Director of the Mint upon the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States during the Calendar Year 1883. Washington, D.C.: Govt. Print. Office, 1884.

Vischer, Edward. "A Trip to the Mining Regions in the Spring of 1859." California Historical Society Quarterly 11, no. 4 (1932): 321-338.

Von Geldern, Otto. An Analysis of the Problem of the Proposed Rehabilitation of Hydraulic Mining in California, with Particular Reference to the Mining Region on the Yuba River and Its Tributaries. Yuba City, CA, 1928.

Weston, Silas. Four Months in the Mines of California: or, Life in the Mountains. Providence, RI: B.T. Albro, 1854.

Whitney, J. D. The Metallic Wealth of the United States. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1854.

Wyld, James. Notes on the Distribution of Gold Throughout the World: Including Australia, California, and Russia. London: J. Wyld, 1853.
 

Secondary


Beasley, Delilah L. The Negro Trail Blazers of California. Los Angeles: Times Mirror Pub. Co., 1919.

Boudway, Becky. Treasure in the Dust: Enduring Gold and Silverís Century of Divorce. Fresno, CA: Panorama West Books, 1985.

Caughey, John W. Rushing for Gold. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.

Caughey, John W. The California Gold Rush. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.

Comstock, David A. "Proper Women at the Mines: Life at Nevada City in the 1850ís." Pacific Historian 28, no. 3 (1984): 65-73.

Dillon, Richard, ed. "Mother Lode Memoir: Reminiscences of George A. Marshall." Journal of the West 3, no. 3 (1964): 355-68.

Dilsaver, L. M. "After the Gold Rush." Geographical Review 75 (January 1985): 1-18.

Ewart, Shirley. Cornish Mining Families of Grass Valley, California, Immigrant Communities and Ethnic Minorities in the United States and Canada. New York: AMS Editorial Dept., 1989.

Farquhar, Francis P. History of the Sierra Nevada. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

Faugsted, George Edward. The Chilenos in the California Gold Rush. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1973.

Fletcher, Thomas C. Paiute, Prospector, Pioneer: The Bodie-Mono Lake Area in the Nineteenth Century. Lee Vining, CA: Artemisia Press, 1987.

Giacobbi, Steve. Chile and Her Argonauts in the Gold Rush, 1848-1856. Saratoga, CA: R and E Research Associates, 1974.

Goldman, Marion S. Gold Diggers and Silver Miners: Prostitution and Social Life on the Comstock Lode, Women and Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1981.

Goode, Kenneth G. Californiaís Black Pioneers: A Brief Historical Survey. Santa Barbara, CA: McNally and Loftin, 1973.

Greever, W.S. The Bonanza West: The Story of the Western Mining Rushes, 1848-1900. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Hale, Duane K. "Californiaís First Mining Frontier and Its Influence on the Settlement of That Area." Journal of the West 18, no. 1 (1979): 14-21.

Heizer, Robert F., ed. The Destruction of the California Indians. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, 1974.

Kelley, Robert L. "Forgotten Giant: The Hydraulic Gold Mining Industry in California." Pacific Historical Review 23, no. 4 (November 1954): 343-56.

Kelley, Robert. Gold Vs. Grain: The Hydraulic Mining Controversy in Californiaís Sacramento Valley. Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1959.

Kowalewski, Michael. "Imagining the California Gold Rush: The Visual and Verbal Legacy." California History 71, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 61-73.

Lapp, Rudolph M. Blacks in Gold Rush California, Yale Western Americana. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.

Leshy, J.D. The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, Inc., 1987.

Levy, JoAnn. They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1990.

Lingenfelter, R.E. The Hardrock Miners: A History of the Mining Labor Movement in the American West, 1863-1893. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

Littlefield, Douglas R. "Water Rights During the California Gold Rush: Conflicts over Economic Points of View." Western Historical Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1983): 415-34.

Lydon, Sany. Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region. Capitola, CA: Capitola Book Co., 1985.

Mann, Ralph. After the Gold Rush: Society in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California, 1849-1870. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982.

May, Philip. Origins of Hydraulic Mining in California. Oakland, CA: Holmes Book Co., 1970.

Mayer, Carl, and George Riley. Public Domain, Private Domain: A History of Mineral Policy in America. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1985.

McKevitt, Jerry. "Gold Lake Myth Brought Civilization to Plumas County." Journal of the West 3, no. 4 (Oct. 1964).

Monaghan, Jay. Australians and the Gold Rush: California and Down Under, 1849-1854. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

Moynihan, Ruth B., et al. So Much to Be Done: Women Settlers on the Mining and Ranching Frontier. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Paul, Rodman W. California Gold: The Beginning of Mining in the Far West. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947.

Paul, Rodman. Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880. New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

Paul, Rodman. The Far West and the Great Plains in Transition, 1859-1900. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

Peterson, Richard H. The Bonanza Kings: The Social Origins and Business Behavior of Western Mining Entrepreneurs. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977.

Pomeroy, Earl. The Pacific Slope. New York: Albert Knopf, 1965.

Rawls, James J. "Gold Diggers: Indian Miners in the California Gold Rush." California Historical Quarterly 55 (Spring 1976).

Reyer, Edward. "Documents: Placer-mining in California." Pacific Historical Review 4, no. 4 (1935): 386-92.

Rickard, Thomas A. A History of American Mining. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1932.

Robbins, William G. Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

Robinson, Fayette, and Franklin Street. The Gold Mines of California: Two Guidebooks. New York: Arno Press, 1973.

Rohe, Rand E. "Man as Geomorphic Agent: Hydraulic Mining in the American West." Pacific Historian 27, no. 1 (1983): 5-16.

Rohrbough, Malcolm J. Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Savage, William Sherman. Blacks in the West. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976.

Smith, Duane. Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980. Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 1987.

Solnit, Rebecca. Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994.

Spence, Clark. "The Golden Age of Dredging." Western Historical Quarterly (October 1980): 403-14.

Sylva, Seville A. Foreigners in the California Gold Rush. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1972.

Thurman, Sue Baily. Pioneers of Negro Origin in California. San Francisco: Acme Publishing Co, 1952.

Wagner, Jack R. Gold Mines of California. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books, 1970.

Williams, Stephen. The Chinese in the California Mines: 1848-1860. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1971.

Wyman, Mark. Hard Rock Epic: Western Miners and the Industrial Revolution, 1860-1910. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

Young, Otis E. Black Powder and Hand Steel: Miners and Machines on the Old Western Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

Young, Otis E. Jr. Western Mining. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.