#439 Reflection #439
by William Lum
Title
#439 Reflection #439
Artist
William Lum
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
My watercolor painting for Day 33 theme Reflection (60 Days, 60 Themes – Isolation Art Challenge) is a pond with reflections on the water at the Malakoff Diggins. Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is a state park unit preserving the largest hydraulic mining site in California. The park Visitor Center features displays on mining and pioneer life in the old mining town of North Bloomfield.
In 1853 miners invented a new method of mining called hydraulic mining. Dams were built high in the mountains and the water traveled through flumes, some as long as 45 miles. The water ran swiftly to the canvas hoses and nozzles called monitors. The miners would aim the monitors at the hillsides to wash the gravel into huge sluices. Over time the monitors became bigger and more powerful. Their force was so great they could toss a fifty-pound rock like a cannonball or even kill a person.
In the late 1860s the towns of Marysville and Yuba City were buried under 25 feet of mud and rock, and Sacramento flooded repeatedly. Thousands of acres of rich farmland and property were destroyed as a result of hydraulic mining. By 1883 San Francisco Bay was estimated to be filling with silt at a rate of one foot per year. Debris, silt, and millions of gallons of water used daily by the mine caused extensive flooding, prompting Sacramento valley farmers to file the lawsuit Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company. On January 7, 1884 Judge Lorenzo Sawyer declared hydraulic mining illegal. Upon Reflection… Hydraulic Mining was a bad idea.
This 12” X 16” watercolor was painted on Arches, 140 lb, cold press paper.
Uploaded
July 10th, 2020
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