Old Picture Postcard Mining Scenes

I came upon several scenes of hydraulic mining from the 1910s -- essentially blasting down a hillside with a high pressure hose in order to sluice the rubble for gold. This would never fly today for the obvious environmentally destructive reasons, but it was looked on as a fascinating process back in the day, as the back of one card attests.





Anyone have cards with mining themes?

One card is labelled Oregon. The other two are not label but a search may reveal a location by the name. They are not in California.



Two years after a lawsuit was filled, hydrolic mining was outlawed in California January 7, 1884. Yet even years later post cards were made for California showing the practice stopped decades prior.

There is a Silver Bow Basin in Alaska.

Long before picture postcards, there were illustrated miner covers. These were mostly used in the mid-1850s from San Francisco and the gold fields. This design is "Rocking the Cradle" and illustrates placer mining using a "cradle" to sift through sediment faster than hand panning for gold.

I've had the pleasure of exploring and collecting in some mines and I like seeing the old images. Thanks for posting those and SPQR for posting that great cover. I've a small collection of postcards showing mines. Here are a couple. My apologies for the low resolution scans.

Mt. Mica in Paris, Maine is a well known locality for beryl, tourmaline, and lithium minerals.


The old Rockport Granite Co. quarry in Rockport, Massachusetts closed in 1929 and the quarry was allowed to fill with water. It is immediately next to the ocean and is now part of the beautiful Halibut Point State Park.

I have a similar vignette on a gold rush era check from Adams & Co.

Another one on this topic came my way, so it's time for a bump.

Shoveler - I'd like to get up to Maine for some mineral searching, but I am not exactly good with travel. Rockport is easier BUT this time of year I bet the traffic is nuts!! Anything heading toward Cape Cod OR north toward NH or ME!

Nells, me too. I haven't been in years. I think Mt. Mica is now closed to the public but when it was open I was able to find some nice tourmaline, beryl, garnet, and lepidolite. There are still good specimens to be found for those willing to work at it. I go from MA to NH often, but this time of year leaving early or very late is a must, otherwise traffic is backed up.

Here's an eye-catching card that needed to be added to this topic. I suspect this would be worth a little more than $6000 these days.

Here's one from a mine I've been to -- The Treadwell Mine, near Juneau, Alaska. ( more on that here: https://goscf.com/t/67471#791899 ). The caption says "looking east" so just over the ridge, the land drops down to sea level. The primary glory hole of the main shaft collapsed in 1917 and was flooded by seawater from the Gastineau Channel.

It's pretty beat up but is a Mining scene, another card from my Elgin-Boyd group of 50+ cards that keep on giving. All are addressed to either an Elgin or a Boyd, a family of woodsmen working in the Redwoods.