North Bloomfield

Overview

The town that hydraulic mining built, and the court case that ended it

North Bloomfield sits on the San Juan Ridge about 10 miles northeast of Nevada City, at the edge of a raw, colored canyon called the Diggins. Miners came to Humbug Creek in the early 1850s, named the creek and their camp Humbug after a find that went nowhere, and took up placer mining. By 1857 the camp had about 500 people and a post office, under the more respectable name of North Bloomfield.

The town's fortune came from water. In 1866 the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company bought up 1,535 acres of claims, built reservoirs and more than 100 miles of canals and ditches, and drove a drainage tunnel of about 7,800 feet through bedrock to Humbug Creek (sources give 7,800, 7,847 and 7,878 feet). From 1876 seven big nozzles called monitors blasted whole hillsides into sluices. The town grew to about 2,000 people, with a Chinese community, stores, saloons and breweries.

The mud went downstream. Debris buried farms, raised the riverbeds and choked navigation as far as the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay. On January 7, 1884, Judge Lorenzo Sawyer permanently barred the company from dumping tailings into the Yuba. The park says the fight produced the first environmental protection law in the United States. Hydraulic mining on this scale was finished. The population halved by 1900, buildings went for lumber, and by 1950 fewer than 20 people lived here. The state created Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park in 1965, and the surviving town is now its headquarters.

Video

A winter walk to the town cemetery

A YouTuber walks North Bloomfield's main street with snow on the ground: white frame houses behind picket fences, a hydraulic monitor, the park's welcome sign, and furnished rooms and a store's shelves of bottles seen through the windows. He passes the church, its windows boarded up, and spends most of the video reading the headstones in the town cemetery, many from the 1870s and 1880s, before ending at the edge of the Diggins. The narration says the miners were fined and shut down over mercury in the water; our sources say Judge Sawyer's 1884 ruling barred dumping tailings into the Yuba.

Play “ABANDONED GHOST TOWN of North Bloomfield, Ca” from YouTube

Timeline

From Humbug to a state park

1. 1851–1852Prospectors find gold in a creek near the later townsite. Legends of America dates the find to 1851; the park brochure says placer mining began in 1852 after a rich deposit turned up in Humbug Creek. The creek, and the camp, are named Humbug after miners who followed a boastful prospector found nothing.
2. 1857About 500 people live in the camp. A post office opens on June 1 under the name North Bloomfield, chosen because California already had a Bloomfield.
3. 1858Humbug grows to take in the old sites of Lake City, Relief Hill and North Columbia as North Bloomfield Township, with a sawmill, saloons and breweries. Chinese immigrants work the mines and grow vegetables for the town.
4. 1866Julius Poquillon assembles 1,535 acres of abandoned claims and brings in San Francisco investors. The North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company is formed in August.
5. 1872–1874Crews dig a drainage tunnel through bedrock from the pit to Humbug Creek, working from eight shafts at once. It is finished on November 15, 1874, at a cost of $275,574.
6. 1876Seven large Craig monitors start washing the hillsides. At capacity the water system can work 100,000 tons of gravel a day, fed by more than 100 miles of canals and ditches. The town reaches about 2,000 people (another count gives about 1,229 at the height of mining).
7. 1875–1883Mining debris floods farms and clogs the rivers below. Marysville floods in 1875. When a dam on the Yuba fails in 1883, miners suspect it was dynamited.
8. January 7, 1884Judge Lorenzo Sawyer rules in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, a suit brought by a Marysville property owner, and permanently bars dumping tailings into the Yuba. Large-scale hydraulic mining in California ends.
9. 1886–1890sThe company is held in contempt and fined for mining at night, and again after Congress sets licensing rules in 1893. Work stops in the late 1890s.
10. 1900The population is about half what it was: Legends of America gives 730.
11. 1914–1941Empty buildings are pulled down for lumber after 1914, and Prohibition closes the saloons. Former residents drift back to live free in the old houses during the Depression, then leave for war work after 1941, when more buildings are razed.
12. 1942The post office closes.
13. 1950Fewer than 20 permanent residents are left.
14. 1965Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is created after a local campaign, taking in the town and the pit.
15. 1973The Malakoff Diggins-North Bloomfield Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the ground

A preserved town beside the pit

Some of North Bloomfield's original buildings still stand and a few have been reconstructed; Wikipedia names the Skidmore House, the E Clampus Vitus building, the McKillican & Mobley General Store and St. Columncille's Catholic Church. Legends of America lists homes, a drugstore, a church and a schoolhouse, and the town's cemetery survives. The visitor center and museum in town cover mining and pioneer life and show a short film on hydraulic mining. California State Parks runs town tours every Saturday, year-round, and some historic buildings can be entered. Three miner's cabins in town can be reserved.

Just west of town is the Diggins itself: the brochure gives it as about 6,800 feet long and 1,000 to 3,800 feet wide, with more than 100 feet of sediment now settled on its floor. A hydraulic monitor is displayed in the park, and the Hiller Tunnel, an early drainage tunnel, opens onto Humbug Creek. A bronze plaque, California Historical Landmark No. 852, placed on June 11, 1972, tells the company's story.

The historic maps below follow the town. The 1891 Colfax sheet shows North Bloomfield as a cluster of buildings on Humbug Creek, with Malakoff just west and the camps of Relief, Lake City and North Columbia around it. The 1949 and 1951 North Bloomfield sheets show the main street lined with buildings, a ranger station south of the creek and the Diggings to the west. By 1977 the Truckee sheet shades the Malakoff Diggins State Historical Park around the town.

• Historic town buildings: store, drugstore, St. Columncille's church, schoolhouse, homes
• Cemetery
• Park visitor center and museum
• The Diggins hydraulic pit and Diggins Overlook
• Hiller Tunnel on Humbug Creek
• California Historical Landmark No. 852 plaque

The mine

Washing away a mountain

Hydraulic mining began in the early 1850s, when a miner named Anthony Chabot turned a canvas hose on the gravel and Edward Mattison added a nozzle to raise the pressure. At North Bloomfield it ran at an industrial scale: monitors that Legends of America says could use up to 25 million gallons of water in 24 hours, a drainage tunnel to carry the slurry away, and reservoirs high in the Sierra. The brochure says the company spent about $3 million on its works and took out only about $3 million in gold before the courts stopped it; Legends of America puts the total at more than $13.5 million over nearly 44 years.

After 1884 the company kept trying, was fined for mining at night in 1886 and again in the 1890s, and gave up by the end of the decade. The pit has partly healed since: landslides have softened its walls, sediment has flattened its floor, and pines and manzanita have grown back. Scientists are still studying the mercury that the old sluices lost into the soil and water.

Historic maps

North Bloomfield on USGS maps, 1891–1977

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18911:125,00019491:24,00019511:24,00019771:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

North Bloomfield is on North Bloomfield-Graniteville Road inside Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. The routing service picks the shortest way from Nevada City, North Bloomfield Road, which California State Parks does not recommend: it is partly dirt and the park strongly suggests high-clearance 4WD. The park's paved route takes Highway 49 north 11 miles from Nevada City to Tyler Foote Road and follows that road through its name changes to North Bloomfield, 26 miles and about 50 minutes in all. The third route below shows that paved road from Highway 49.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

North Bloomfield and the Diggins in photos

Autumn on the main street of North Bloomfield, October 2013The town sign, October 2008: "Pop 8–12 (Formerly Humbug, CA)"Inside an old general store exhibit at the park, October 2013A hydraulic monitor on display at the park, July 2013The Diggins from above, July 2013Eroded cliffs of the Diggins, October 2008Cliffs and a pond on the floor of the Diggins, July 2010The mine pit in a photograph entered as evidence in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield, August 1884Looking out of the Hiller Tunnel toward Humbug Creek, October 2008California Historical Landmark No. 852, placed June 11, 1972, on the North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company, August 2014

Visitor reports

Been to North Bloomfield?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near North Bloomfield

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our California index.

• Alleghany7.5 mi NE · Sierra
• Forest8.9 mi N · Sierra
• Nevada City9.8 mi SW · Nevada
• Camptonville9.8 mi NW · Yuba
• Graniteville9.9 mi NE · Nevada
• Red Dog10.5 mi S · Nevada
• North San Juan11.1 mi W · Nevada
• Dutch Flat11.6 mi S · Placer

Sources

Sources and credits

1. California State Parks, "Malakoff Diggins SHP", read October 29, 2026: hours, museum hours, the $10 vehicle day-use fee, cabins and campground, road warnings and the paved route, town tours, dogs, the 1884 law, the park inheriting the mining damage in 1965.
2. California State Parks, Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park brochure (2010, revised 2013): placer mining from 1852, Humbug, the 1858 township, Poquillon and the 1866 company, the 7,847-foot tunnel finished November 15, 1874 for $275,574, the 1876 monitors, $3 million spent and $3 million recovered, the 1875 and 1883 floods, the Sawyer decision of January 7, 1884, the decline to 1950, the 1965 park, pit dimensions, climate, cabins.
3. Kathy Alexander, "North Bloomfield, California and the Malakoff Diggins", Legends of America, updated March 2026: the 1851 find, Humbug City, about 500 people in 1857, the August 1866 company, the 7,878-foot tunnel, about 2,000 people in 1876, the 1886 and 1893 contempt cases, 730 people in 1900, fewer than 20 in 1950, $13.5 million, the 1965 park and 1973 National Register listing, the surviving buildings.
4. Wikipedia, "North Bloomfield, California", retrieved October 29, 2026: Humbug and Humbug City, the post office from June 1, 1857 to 1942, about 500 people in 1857 and 2,000 in 1876, Woodruff v. North Bloomfield, the named surviving buildings, coordinates.
5. ghosttowns.com, "North Bloomfield", read October 29, 2026: fact sheet, the Humbug name, about 1,229 residents at the height of mining, Judge Sawyer's injunction, best time and climate.
6. California Historical Landmark No. 852 plaque, as photographed on Wikimedia Commons in August 2014: the 7,800-foot tunnel and the plaque's June 11, 1972 date.
7. Cemetery Man, "ABANDONED GHOST TOWN of North Bloomfield, Ca", YouTube, posted January 30, 2022: a winter walk through the town and its cemetery (the video on this page); checked against its captions and storyboard frames.
8. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 29, 2026. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Autumn on the main street of North Bloomfield, October 2013: jcookfisher, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The town sign, October 2008: "Pop 8–12 (Formerly Humbug, CA)": J.smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Inside an old general store exhibit at the park, October 2013: jcookfisher, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• A hydraulic monitor on display at the park, July 2013: BenFranske, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The Diggins from above, July 2013: BenFranske, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Eroded cliffs of the Diggins, October 2008: J.smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Cliffs and a pond on the floor of the Diggins, July 2010: Commodoredudley, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The mine pit in a photograph entered as evidence in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield, August 1884: Unknown author or not provided, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Looking out of the Hiller Tunnel toward Humbug Creek, October 2008: J.smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• California Historical Landmark No. 852, placed June 11, 1972, on the North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company, August 2014: Ukemochi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Colfax 1891, 1:125,000; North Bloomfield 1949, 1:24,000; North Bloomfield 1951, 1:24,000; Truckee 1977, 1:100,000.