Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs, Between 1870 and 1871

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Summary

Title:
Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs
Dates:
Between 1870 and 1871
Creators:
Mains & Shippy Photographs.
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.
Containers:
Folder: 1
Extent:
0.2 Linear feet 1 Folder with 8 Stereographs
Language:
and English
Preferred citation:

Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs, MSS 303, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.

Background

Scope and content:

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".

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

Acquisition information:
Purchase, 1984
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).

Arrangement:

Original

Material specific details:
No other forms of material.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Leilani Silver, Pamela Nett Kruger
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.
Date Prepared:
6/1/2010
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2012-09-11T15:25-0700

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research without restriction.

Terms of access:

No restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs, MSS 303, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.

Location of this collection:
California State University, Chico, Special Collections Meriam Library
400 West First Street
Chico, CA 95929-0295, US
Contact:
(530) 898-6603
SpecialCollections@csuchico.edu
Website