Objectives:

• Use source material for gathering data
• Evaluate source material
• Gather information about the practices of hydraulic mining
• Make presentation to class

Student Task:

Students will participate in a simulated court hearing where a decision will be made whether to allow the continued use of hydraulic mining.

Grade Level: 4, 8

Lesson Connections and Standards References:
California Department of Education's

• History—Social Science Standards:

  4.4
  8.8.2
  8.12.1

• Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
  Kindergarten through Grade Five
  

  Chronological and Spatial Thinking:

  3

  Research, Evidence, and Point of View:
  

  1, 2

  Historical Interpretation:
  

  1, 3, 4

Subject Areas: History-Social Science, Language Arts, Technology

Resources Used:

• California Department of Conservation Division of Mines and Geology: DMG CD 98-001 California Gold Mines—A Sesquicentennial Photograph Collection.
• Hutchings California Magazine, September 1860
• Nevada City Transcript, September 1860
• Sacramento Record-Union, March 1878
• People vs. Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company, 1882
• Marysville Appeal, September 1889
• Woodruff vs. North Bloomfield, 1884
• Miscellaneous testimonies to California State Legislature

Materials and Preparation:

Before class begins, download and duplicate the following materials:

Visual Object Analysis Worksheet

Written Document Analysis Worksheet

Developing a Presentation Worksheet

Procedure:

1. The class will be divided into 3 groups.
   • The first group will represent the farmers and valley cities. They will present arguments against hydraulic mining.
   • The second group will represent the miners and present arguments in favor of hydraulic mining.
   • The third group will give testimony on how hydraulic mining works.
   • The teacher will be the judge who will make a final decision on hydraulic mining.
2. Students will go online to the Hydraulic Mining Documents and gather information from archived records. These records include testimony in legislative committee, newspaper articles, court decisions, and statement from the inventor of hydraulic mining, photos and other historical documents. There is a brief description of each document on the hydraulic mining web page. The students will need to decide which of the records would be helpful to their presentation. The decision of which documents are valuable is integral to the processes of a researcher. Students will record which of the picture or articles are helpful to their presentation and why that is so. Hydraulic Mining Photographs are available. Students can then print out the pages or pictures for their presentation. Provide each student with Visual Object Analysis Worksheet or the Written Document Analysis Worksheet. Each group will meet and plan the sequence of their presentation, using the Developing a Presentation Worksheet.
3. Each group will make their arguments in "court." They can use pictures downloaded from the web site and they can use oral arguments. It would be helpful if the group explaining hydraulic mining was the first to testify. The other groups would then present their cases. As judge, the teacher makes the ruling.
4. After the classroom court has reached its decision, the teacher can read portions of the original decisions of 1883 and 1884. A statute passed in 1893 is also included.
5. For further information on hydraulic mining, the teacher can go to the Teacher’s Information - Hydraulic Mining.
6. Students can get further information from the Additional Hydraulic Mining Web Sites. These sites are not connected to LearnCalifornia.org.

Evaluation:

Students will be evaluated on:

1. Thoroughness of information presented
2. Ability to work in a group
3. Research worksheets
4. Quality of the presentation made to the judge
5. Additional extensions selected by the teacher

Extensions:

• Students could discuss ways to clean up the residue left by the miners.
• Students could check the status of some of the mountain streams which still have mercury leaking from mines (mercury was used to capture the gold.)
• Students could write about the benefits of hydraulic mining for California and the nation (gold to treasury and water for irrigation and water supplies for the towns.)