Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs
Scope and Contents
The stereographs in this collection contain photographs from between 1870 and 1871. They show hydraulic mining performed by the Gold Point Mining Company, Blue Point Gold Mine, Union Claim Mine, S.C.H.M. Company, and Rose Bar Claim at Sucker Flat, Yuba County, California.
Two of the stereographs show a safe that was used by the mines at Sucker Flat. In one of them a man is standing next to a safe at Sucker Flat, and the following is written on the photograph, "Great clean up of the Blue Point Gold Mining Company", which portrays the robbery in 1871 of the Blue Point Mining Company. These stereographs are all from the series, "Scenes in California".
Dates
- Between 1870 and 1871
Creator
- Mains & Shippy Photographs (Organization)
Language of Materials
English
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research without restriction.
Usage Restrictions
No restrictions.
Biographical / Historical
These stereographs depict images from the Sucker Flat Mine, Yuba County, California. The first hydraulic mining in the California decade of the Gold Rush (re: 1849-1860) was done at the Blue Point Mine in Sucker Flat near the town of Smartsville (Yuba County), California. It was here that the first large scale primitive methods of washing auferious gravels began. Because of the primitiveness of the water hoses, nozzles, and engineering used, the easy gold played out. Later (1864-1871) hydraulic mining technology was perfected, allowing for stronger penetration into gravels (and the greater loss of soil to the rivers) and mining again brought people to Sucker Flat.
These images depict the new mining operation, the town, and the day that the corporation (Blue Point Mining Company) was robbed (1871). Millions of dollars in gold were pulled from the ground at Sucker Flat, much of it shipped east to supply Union soldiers during the Civil War and the Indian Wars that followed (1865-Wounded Knee).
Mains and Shippy were transient photographers moving from place to place throughout the west
Extent
0.2 Linear Feet (1 Folder with 8 Stereographs)
Abstract
The stereographs in this collection contain photographs from between 1870 and 1871. They show hydraulic mining performed by the Gold Point Mining Company, Blue Point Gold Mine, Union Claim Mine, S.C.H.M. Company, and Rose Bar Claim at Sucker Flat, Yuba County, California.
Arrangement
Original
Publication Rights
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, 1984
Material Cataloged Separately
Each stereograph has been cataloged separately and filed with the Historic Photograph Collection.
sc16764 -sc16771
Alternate Form of Material
No other forms of material.
Processing Information
Processing of the Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs was generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The [ABC repository] was awarded a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's Environmental Collections," in collaboration with eight additional special collections and archival repositories throughout the state and the California Digital Library (CDL). Grant objectives included processing of over 33 hidden collections related to the state's environment and environmental history. The collections document an array of important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry, land use, activism, and research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed, altered, exploited and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the Online Archive of California (OAC).
- Blue Point Gold Mine
- Gold Point Mining Company
- Hydraulic Mining -- California -- Yuba County -- Photographs.
- Mines and mineral resources -- California -- Yuba County -- Photographs.
- Rose Bar Claim
- S.C.H.M. Company
- Sucker Flat (Calif.) -- Photographs.
- Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project
- Union Claim Mine
- Yuba County (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Creator
- Mains & Shippy Photographs (Organization)
- Title
- Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by: Bill Jones
- Date
- 6/1/2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- Processing of this collection was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.
Repository Details
Part of the California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library Repository
California State University Chico
400 West First Street
Chico CA 95929-0295 USA US
SpecialCollections@csuchico.edu