Gold Canyon is located a few miles south of Alleghany, California, on the border between Sierra and Nevada Counties.
This decision was adapted elsewhere, and laid the foundation for Senator William Morris Stewart's U.S. Mining Act of 1866, which prohibited Chinese workers from holding original mining claims.
A dam was also built about a mile up river which fed a 3-foot-diameter (0.91 m) redwood penstock that supplied high pressure water to the power plant.
There was also extensive drag line dredging done in the river, just west of the old power plant site.
Today there is still active mining in Gold Canyon, both placer and hard rock.