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California Gold Rush | Digging Deeper | 4

American History Tellers

CHAPTER

Hydraulic Mining Was the Brainchild of a Connecticut Engineer

Hydraulic mining was the brainchild of a Connecticut engineer turned minor named Edward Madison Madison. It required extensive upfront investment to pay for all the dams, sluices, hoses and cannons the process required. Hydraulic miners diverted streams and creeks that were the lifeblood of many ecosystems. The water cannons themselves were even more destructive They sprayed jets of water at 100 miles an hour, stripping thousands of acres down to bedrock And uprooting tens of thousands of trees Today, many of these environmental scars are still visible in California.

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