Group of photographs of gold mining operations at Murphys, Calaveras County, California, circa 1887. With manuscript captions reading; “Hydraulic Mining Murphys Cal”; “Old Gold bed Murphys Cal”; “Quartz crushing Mill Murphys Cal”; and “Entrance to Cave Murphys Cal”. The latter image shows four men and one woman in front of a hillside opening with some holding candles. On a wooden structure are six visible whiskey and wine bottles with candles stuck in them. Penciled at the bottom right of that page is written the date “March 18 / 87.”

One of the oldest gold mining camps of California’s southern mines, the town of Murphys boomed in 1851 when a company was organized to bring water down from the Stanislaus River. By the 1860s, most of the placer mining claims had played out but hydraulic and lode mining continued. In 1899 there were three mills still operating in the region.