Gold Canyon is located a few miles south of

Alleghany, California Alleghany is a small census-designated place in Sierra County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada. It is situated in the Gold Country and continues to be a significant locale for gold mining. The Sixteen To One Mine has been in operat ...

, on the border between Sierra and

Nevada Counties There are 16 counties and 1 independent city in the U.S. state of Nevada. On November 25, 1861, the first Nevada Territorial Legislature established 9 counties. Nevada was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, with 11 counties. In 1969, Orm ...

. The middle fork of the

Yuba River The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sacramento Valley, in the U.S. state of California. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into three major forks. The Yuba Rive ...

flows through the canyon.

Gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

began in Gold Canyon in the early 1850s and has continued to present day. Three major gold mines are located here: German Bar Mine, Gold Canõn Mine, and Independent Mine. In 1859 the Gold Canyon area became the first to ban Chinese miners, after a group of 50 Chinese miners had earned a reported $35,000. This decision was adapted elsewhere, and laid the foundation for Senator

William Morris Stewart William Morris Stewart (August 9, 1827April 23, 1909) was an American lawyer and politician. In 1964, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Personal Stewart was born in Wayne County ...

's U.S. Mining Act of 1866, which prohibited Chinese workers from holding original mining claims. Before power was brought to the area, the nearby Plumbago Mine built a power plant on the river next to the present day bridge. A dam was also built about a mile up river which fed a redwood penstock that supplied high pressure water to the power plant. Once power was brought to the area, the power plant was shut down, and soon afterward local miners began dismantling the penstock to use the redwood. In 1926 William Whore used the wood to build three cabins. Two of those remain today, but the third burned in 1949. There was also extensive drag line dredging done in the river, just west of the old power plant site. Huge piles of giant boulders remain in arc shaped piles on the south side of the river. Today there is still active mining in Gold Canyon, both placer and hard rock. The Plumbago Mine, for instance, was still in operation as of 2006.California Trails Northern Sierra Region, by Peter Massey, Jeanne Wilson, Angela Titus, 2006, page 184

References

{{coord, 39, 26, 05, N, 120, 49, 31, W, display=title Canyons and gorges of California Landforms of Nevada County, California Landforms of Sierra County, California