Martin Mason Hazeltine (1827-1903), photographer. Iowa Hill Cal. Outdoor snowy landscape. Series title: "Pacific Coast." Albumen stereoview. on orange cardstock mount. N.p.: M.M. Hazeltine, ca. 1870s. Mount recto bearing publisher imprint and series title. Mount verso inscribed in period ink script "Iowa Hill Cal." with faint pencil notation at upper right.

This image captures the remote Sierra Nevada mining settlement of Iowa Hill, California, buried under heavy snows. A narrow pedestrian foot trench cuts through the deep snowdrifts in the foreground, leading past wooden fence posts toward timber cabins, commercial buildings, and outbuildings, with cattle or other draft animals standing in the snow at left and a steep ladder propped against a building at right.

Perched on a high ridge above the North Fork of the American River in Placer County, Iowa Hill was one of California's richest hydraulic and drift gold-mining camps, producing tens of millions in placer gold during the 1850s and 1860s. Winter views capturing the extreme mountain conditions and daily realities of Sierra mining towns are notoriously elusive, and Martin M. Hazeltine's documentation of Iowa Hill stands as a rare and atmospheric Gold Country survivor.

[California Gold Rush, Gold Country, Iowa Hill California, Placer County, Sierra Nevada, Hydraulic Mining, Mining Town, Winter Landscape, Snowdrifts, Martin M Hazeltine, MM Hazeltine, Pacific Coast, Western Americana, 19th Century California] [Stereoview, Stereoviews, Stereoscopic Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Western Photography, Gold Rush History]

Very good. The prints exhibit warm, even tones. The orange mount remains sturdy with light edge and corner rubbing, and a small area of paper loss along the lower right verso edge.