Gary Noy The Sierra Nevada Mountain

The story behind the Sierra Nevada Mountains is history that I was not taught in school and was very enlightened on this subject. I’ve been up to the Sierra Nevada Mountains many times; however, I was unaware that they reached as far as Sacramento. The truth is though, I never have been very interested in history but to learn about how things came to be the way they are is very intriguing and draws my interest. I was also unaware how the mines had ultimately hurt our environment and are still seeing the effects today. I’ve grown up around the rivers and have always drunk the water, by accident or intentional, and eaten the fish that us kids worked so hard to catch. I guess we were lucky that the toxicity in them was not high enough, if any, to harm us. I am very surprised that my parents didn’t know more about this area since they’ve lived here for so long because if they knew what I know now I would have probably never went to the river. When you learn about the gold rush in school you only here about the tons of riches that everyone gained from it. It is scary to me to see how much of our water resource that we depend on comes from the Sierra Mountains. If our main water supply is tainted it severely cause problems for the numerous counties that it has always served. I’m curious to find out why more people aren’t aware of this issue. I very much enjoyed Gary Noy’s lecture on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the impact of some aspects like mining, transportation, tourism, and the overall history of them. I now have a different outlook on the history of the gold rush.