California's Gold Rush Country by Dave Wyman
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  2. California's Gold Rush CountryCalifornia's Gold Rush Country


As we have for the past few years, Ken Rockwell and I led a group of photographers along the backroads of California. This year, we explored the northern reaches of California's historic Gold Rush country. Our circular route led us north and east from Sacramento, the state capitol, to the quintessential gold rush towns of Nevada City and Downieville, down the Feather River Canyon to the town of Chico, and back to Sacramento. In between we photographed old mines, ghost towns, local citizens, ourselves, and the sublime scenery of the Northern California.


The Gold Rush began in 1848, with the discovery of flakes of gold at the bottom of a creek flowing through a lumber mill. People are still looking for gold, and still finding it, in one form or another.


Though California's image of late seems tarnished, gold can still be found, and not just in miners' pans or under the ground. More transitory yet recurrent forms of gold can be found in fields of golden flowers, and not infrequently at sunrise and sunset, when golden light fills the sky. And the Golden State is still a land of golden opportunities, drawing now, as it did more than a century and a half ago, people from around the world. In this sense, surely Gold Rush country is as much as state of mind as it is a place fixed by geography.


My photographic approach saw me as often as not restricting my field of view. I attempted to master methods of photographing visual fragments, rather than the entirety of what I saw. In so doing, I hoped to create my own encompassing vision of Gold Rush country.


Lupines

F/8 is wide enough an aperture to blur out the background when magnifying an image from reasonably close range with a telephoto lens, as I did here, along the banks of the American River.
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 12:57 PMViews: 137

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Cowgirls at the Marshall Gold Discovery Park

We had a great time photographing the cowgirls, who drove visitors around the park in a horse-drawn wagon. They were completely relaxed and charming.
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 12:33 PMViews: 136

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Ken Rockwell at Work Above Gold (or is it Green?) Country

Ken and I will be at it in June on the Central Coast of California, and in Yosemite and the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in October.
Capture Date: Apr 20, 2010 06:26 PMViews: 135

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In the Wine Cave, Gold Hill Winery

What better wave to light a cave than by candlelight? I'll take credit for the idea.
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 08:58 AMViews: 135

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Frog in the Pond at the Gold Hill Winery

Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 09:23 AMViews: 135

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Reflections in the Window at the Gold Hill Winery

This is looking into a window, not out of it. I am fascinated with reflections, which I found on this trip in a variety of locations, including here, on the lower deck of the winery. Reflections are everywhere, we just have to look for them.
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 10:46 AMViews: 133

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On the Deck Overlooking the Gold Hill Winery

The upper deck at the winery offers an expansive view of the vineyards and the surrounding landscape, still green from prolonged rains the past winter that continued into spring.
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 08:27 AMViews: 133

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View over the Gold Hill Winery

Our first official stop on our first full day was at the delightful and appropriately-named Gold Hill Winery, not far from the historic town of Placerville. We were met by Ken Dacus, who could not have been nicer to us. The winery is in a beautiful setting, in the heart of the Sierra Nevada foothills, just a few miles from the location where John Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill.

Today's gold is apt to be white or red in color, and a liquid rather than a solid. It's found at the vineyards rather than in the gold fields. I can attest to the high value of the Gold Hill Winery's offerings, like the "Meriticious," a terrific Bordeaux blend, part Cabernet Sauvignon and part Merlot, that complimented our picnic lunch.

As for John Sutter, he hoped to keep Marshall's find quiet, fearing the consequences of a gold rush that could wreck his plans of an agricultural empire. Word did leak out, most famously when Sam Brannan, a San Francisco newspaper publisher, after learaning of the discove
Capture Date: Apr 17, 2010 07:44 AMViews: 134

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State Capitol at 10 P.M.

I like my photograph. I think it was impossible, given the equipment and the time I had, to photograph the entire building. On the other hand, see Ken Rockwell's version, here. I think he came away with a more interesting image than I did.
Capture Date: Apr 16, 2010 02:58 AMViews: 133

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Pier Pilings, Sacramento, California

As in the previous photograph, stepping back from this view would have revealed too much distracting information. I'll cop a plea here: I make the scene much more warm, more golden, than it really was. Why not? This was Gold Rush Country, after all, and Sacramento and the Sacramento River played important parts in the history of the Gold Rush.
Capture Date: Apr 21, 2010 03:34 PMViews: 133

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Delta Queens Paddle Wheel and Sacramentos Tower Bridge

The sky was too bright, and including a larger view of the old boat or the bridge or trying to include a larger view of both the boat and the bridge, wasn't going to work; there would have been too much information. I think I did a fair job of reducing the view to what's essential: color and shape.
Capture Date: Apr 21, 2010 03:27 PMViews: 133

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Candle and Candle Holder on Our Dinner Table, Sacramento, California

The candle cast a golden glow over our dinner table, a fitting image on this, the first night of our photography trip.
Capture Date: Apr 16, 2010 01:30 AMViews: 133

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Gold is Where You Find It: Upper Bidwell Park, above Chico, California

Capture Date: Apr 20, 2010 06:07 PMViews: 134

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