{"id":1826,"slug":"malakoff-digginsnorth-bloomfield-historic-district-north-bloomfield-california","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Malakoff Diggins is the mine that ate a mountain — California's largest hydraulic gold mine, where water cannons washed entire hillsides into sluices from 1866 to 1884. The cliffs that stand today are man-made badlands: fifty-million-year-old river gravels blasted open by monitors that threw a hundred million gallons of water a day. The gold went out; the debris went down Humbug Creek into the Yuba River, and the Sacramento Valley's farms flooded with mining slickens.","The downstream damage made law. In 1884 Judge Lorenzo Sawyer's decision in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield shut down hydraulic mining — effectively the nation's first major environmental ruling, born of the mud Malakoff sent downriver. The mine closed, the town of North Bloomfield emptied, and the state eventually made the ruin a park: the carved amphitheater, the Hiller Tunnel, the town's surviving buildings, and the mercury that still leaches into the creek — the contamination the USGS is still measuring.","The file keeps Malakoff: the water cannon mining, the 1884 injunction, the destroyed landscape that became a park, and the poison still draining from it.","Malakoff Diggins is the archive's hydraulic file — the washed-away mountain, the first environmental law, and the mercury legacy."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Malakoff Diggins is the archive's hydraulic file — the largest water-cannon mine, the Sawyer decision, and the pit that is still a contamination source.","A mountain washed away keeps its scar — the file's suggestion being that Malakoff's hold is the trade made visible: the gold that came out, the valley that filled with mud, and the first law that said stop."]}],"name":"Malakoff Diggins–North Bloomfield Historic District","aliases":["Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park","North Bloomfield"],"type":"MINING_TOWN","type_label":"Mining Town","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","GHOST_TOWN"],"groups":["dark-history","ghost-towns"],"desc":"Historic hydraulic mine and preserved mining town.","full_desc":"Malakoff Diggins–North Bloomfield Historic District is a mining town in North Bloomfield, California. Historic hydraulic mine and preserved mining town. The park contains North Bloomfield and the former hydraulic mine. Mining debris prompted legal action in 1884; State Parks acquired the damaged landscape in 1965.","address":"23579 N. Bloomfield Road","city":"North Bloomfield","county":null,"state":"California","postal":"95959","region":"West","lat":38.322069,"lon":-122.834464,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"One district record for adjoining mine and town; aliases prevent counting the same complex twice. Postal address uses Nevada City, while historic locality is North Bloomfield.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":65,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"The park contains North Bloomfield and the former hydraulic mine. Mining debris prompted legal action in 1884; State Parks acquired the damaged landscape in 1965. Malakoff Diggins–North Bloomfield Historic District's history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park","url":"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?lang=en&page_id=494","publisher":"California State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"opening_hours":"Grounds sunrise–sunset; museum Memorial Day–Labor Day daily 10:00–18:00, through October daily 10:00–16:00, November–May weekends 10:00–16:00","admission_fee":"Vehicle day use $10","tour_availability":"Historic town tours Saturdays year-round","parking":"Available","public_restroom":"Available","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:21+00:00","source":{"name":"Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park","url":"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?lang=en&page_id=494","publisher":"California State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},"sources":[{"name":"Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park","url":"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?lang=en&page_id=494","publisher":"California State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakoff_Diggins_State_Historic_Park","desc":"State Historic Park","extract":"Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is a state park unit preserving Malakoff Diggins, the largest hydraulic mining site in California. The mine was one of several hydraulic mining sites at the center of the 1882 landmark case Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company. The mine pit and several Gold Rush-era buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Malakoff Diggins-North Bloomfield Historic District. The \"canyon\" is 7,000 feet (2,100 m) long, as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) wide, and nearly 600 feet (180 m) deep in places. Visitors can see huge cliffs carved by mighty streams of water, results of the mining technique of washing away entire mountains o","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Malakoff_Diggins%2C_State_Historic_Park_%28Retouched%29.JPG/960px-Malakoff_Diggins%2C_State_Historic_Park_%28Retouched%29.JPG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":39.36277778,"lon":-120.92444444},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}