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Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs MSS.303
MSS.303  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Arrangement note
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Access Restrictions
  • Usage Restrictions
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition note
  • Scope and Contents note
  • Material Cataloged Separately
  • Preferred Citation note
  • Processing Information note
  • Publication Rights

  • Title: Sucker Flat Mine Stereographs
    Identifier/Call Number: MSS.303
    Contributing Institution: California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library
    Language of Material: English
    Container: 1
    Physical Description: 0.2 Linear feet 1 Folder with 8 Stereographs
    Date (inclusive): Between 1870 and 1871
    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.
    Language of Materials note: English
    Alternate Form of Material: No other forms of material.
    creator: Mains & Shippy Photographs.

    Arrangement note

    Original

    Biographical/Historical note

    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

    Access Restrictions

    Collection is open for research without restriction.

    Usage Restrictions

    No restrictions.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition note

    Purchase, 1984

    Scope and Contents note

    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".

    Material Cataloged Separately

    Each stereograph has been cataloged separately and filed with the Historic Photograph Collection.
    sc16764 -sc16771

    Preferred Citation note

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

    Processing Information note

    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).

    Publication Rights

    The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Blue Point Gold Mine.
    Gold Point Mining Company.
    Rose Bar Claim.
    S.C.H.M. Company.
    Union Claim Mine.
    Hydraulic Mining--California--Yuba County--Photographs.
    Mines and mineral resources--California--Yuba County--Photographs.
    Sucker Flat (Calif.)--Photographs.
    Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project
    Yuba County (Calif.)--Photographs.