slgwv's photos with the keyword: dredging

Site of a placer operation in Mono County, beginning in the 1850s. The sediments along the drainage (Virginia Creek) were later worked by dredging in the latter 19th century or so. The big piles of cobble-sized gravel are the spoil heaps ejected behind the dredge. Still barren after all these years. A mining technique that yields more collateral damage than most...

Cobble-sized spoil left behind from dredging operations for gold. This had been farmland, and the farmers had sold their mineral rights--without, however, any constraints on how the minerals might be recovered. I don't think it was a good trade--