Photographing Mining Pollution in Gold Rush: California

Abstract

This paper draws comparison between three photographers who documented the North Bloomfield Mining Co.’s (1866–1899) hydraulic gold mine, in California. The history of the North Bloomfield Mining Co. is of interest because of the role that photography played in promoting the interests of corporate capitalism, and conversely acting as an evidential tool for farmers whose lands were flooded by polluted tailings emanating from the mine. The company twice commissioned Carleton Watkins to document their undertakings; however, this paper argues that the aesthetic of the “industrial sublime” originating in Watkins’ photographs obfuscates an understanding of the ecological realities of mining. Alternatively, this paper presents two lesser-known photographers, J.A. Todd and “Clinch”, who adopt a counter-aesthetic approach to Watkins. Todd’s photographs from the Woodruff vs. North Bloomfield (1884) trial were presented as evidence in the first collective civil action in US legal history, which pitched the interests of farmers against the corporate mining industry. The resulting Sawyer verdict (1884) represents the USA’s earliest environmental legislation, which heralded the end of the Gold Rush. The photographs of “Clinch” were utilised in the subsequent US vs. North Bloomfield Mining Company (1899) trial, which finally put the company out of business for persistent illegalities.