From PZI Talk, an online community forum, June 1, 2015.
The Mine at Malakoff Diggins
I camped with friends this weekend at Malakoff Diggins, near Humbug Creek. This was a site of incredible environmental destruction during the gold rush, where high pressure water cannons washed the hillsides down into the river so that gold could be sifted out downstream. I’m told the operation gave a $3 million return for $3 million of investment before the State shut it down. Broke even.
Everything I do and everything I invest in my life give back just enough to keep going. Barely. Waiting for the state to come shut me down. Just one more squirt at that mountain, I’m sure I’ll hit the Mother Lode. One more day.
Sitting at the Diggins Overlook before leaving yesterday, I saw trees repopulating the hillside; reeds and brush and meadows growing up in the marsh that used to be a big pile of sand. Birds and animals and butterflies were everywhere.
– Stephen