North Fork American River
The North Fork American River is the longest branch of the American River in Northern California. It is long from its source at the crest of the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, to its mouth at Folsom Lake northeast of Sacramento. Prior to the construction of Folsom Dam the river was about longer making for a total length of .
American River
Although miners looking for gold worked all three forks of the American River, the South Fork held the richest deposits. However, as the easily accessible placer gold was played out, large companies used hydraulic mining to access gold buried deeper in the soil. Unfortunately, this large and extensive mining practice washed away entire mountainsides and heavily polluted all the waterways, including the American River.