American River
The North Fork is the longest tributary of the American River, at . It begins at an elevation of about near Lake Tahoe in Placer County at Mountain Meadow Lake, just northeast of Granite Chief and immediately due west of Squaw Valley Ski Resort. It flows westward through remote wilderness areas.
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.