Drone Filming Behind the Scenes with Titus Davis

In the fall of 2019, Titus Davis of Lodestone Drone Productions, joined me to help tell more of the Deer Creek Watershed story. With his drone and special flying license, we met at several locations to film. Titus is a longtime Nevada County resident. Taking him hiking through the Black Swan Preserve was a pleasure because he enjoyed the new scenery and was thinking about other people he could share it with.  The old Cotton Brothers bridge near Bitney Springs Road was another first.

As we went through the filming and set-up process and sorted out how to transfer data, he explained some of the intricacies of drone operation. He generously shares these below.

Drone Operation Considerations from Titus Davis:

[While filming the Cotton Brothers Bridge, the drone had a little difficulty staying on course. This was caused by…]

Ferromagnetism is a phenomenon that occurs in some metals, most notably iron, cobalt, and nickel, that over time causes the metal to become magnetic. This is a natural process that can be caused by electrolysis, which is part of the corrosion process. Ferromagnetism can also be increased by the earth’s magnetic field, vehicles passing over, vibration, etc.

Most drones used for photography have a sensitive compass to help orientate the drone, allowing it to fly in a straight line. The drone I use has two compasses to ensure it has an accurate reading on the earths magnetic field. If the iron bridge has a magnetic field that is different than the earths field, the compass will be affected. This effect can be seen when the drone has difficulty flying in a straight line near the bridge.

Another challenge to flying is the drone’s GPS system feature which helps stabilize it and hold a position in the wind. Anything that affects the GPS signals will cause the drone to drift. Flying near iron objects or under them can cause a loss of the GPS signal. This will cause the drone to drift and not accurately hold altitude.

Drone Filming Precautions

Flying under the Boulder Street Bridge.

When we met at Lefty’s Grill (on a day the restaurant was closed) to film dusk over the creek and Nevada City, Titus had already communicated with Lefty’s management asking if it was OK to film there and notified the Nevada City Police Department. (If they received calls from concerned citizens, they’d already know what was going on.)

When we were at the turtle ponds on the Black Swan Preserve, he was watching for hunting birds after explaining that birds of prey sometimes attack drones. (Drone color may affect bird attraction.)

Deer Creek Bridge Films

Click here to watch Titus’s drone footage – Deer Creek Bridges – Elevations & History.

Davis Drone Footage to Appear in Deer Creek Flyover Film

Lisa is currently producing a flyover film she plans to submit to the 2021 SYRCL Wild and Scenic Film Festival. It’s taken a year to collect the footage for the project; Davis’s drone footage will highlight key features along Deer Creek. 

Resources:

 

Titus Davis Lodestone Drone Productions lodestonedrone.com lodestonedrone@gmail.com

 

*Fortunately, we had no attack bird skirmishes, but after we were done, I had to research what a confrontation would have looked like. See the video below. 

Geography of Deer Creek

The Total Length of Deer Creek is Approximately 34 Miles

At 3100 feet elevation, the North and South Forks of Deer Creek meet. It flows into Scotts Flat Reservoir at 3069 feet. Deer Creek travels through Nevada City, (2300′) then drops down into Lake Wildwood (1200′). From there, it descends 1100 feet where it converges with the Yuba River below Englebright Dam.

Sixteen Locations Along Deer Creek

  1. North & South Forks Deer Creek – PDF
  2. Scotts Flat Reservoir & Spillway – PDF
  3. Lower Scotts Flat Lake & Spillway – PDF
  4. Below Lower Scotts Flat Lake – (private land not open to the public) – PDF
  5. Willow Valley Road – PDF
  6. Pine Street Bridge in Nevada City – PDF
  7. Tribute Trail – PDF
  8. Champion Mine / Newtown Ditch area – PDF
  9. Little Deer Creek Lane (creek banks are private land not open to the public) – PDF
  10. Bitney Springs Road and Newtown Road (private land not open to the public) – PDF
  11. Deer Creek Falls (private land not open to the public) – PDF
  12. Below Deer Creek Falls (private land not open to the public) – PDF
  13. Deer Creek entrance to Lake Wildwood (community membership required for access) – PDF
  14. Lakewildwood Spillway – PDF
  15. Mooney Flat Road below Lakewildood (private land not open to the public) – PDF
  16. Mooney Flat Road Bridge & Black Swan Preserve – PDF

Entire length of Deer Creek –  PDF

 

Timbuctoo – Hydraulic Mining & First Land Use Limit Law

Though Timbuctoo and Smartsville are in Yuba County, we are including them in our creek history because water from the Yuba River and Deer Creek watersheds flowed through them causing one of the first land use limit laws to be written in the country.

 

Hydraulic Sluce Blocks for the Blue Gravel Claim, Smartsville, Nevada County

In the 1850s, Timbuctoo and Smartsville were centers of activity.  The population was between 1,000 to 4,000, many of them were Irish immigrants.  With the invention of hydraulic mining, it became one of the wealthiest regions in California. Estimates say that millions of dollars of gold dust were moved through local business and the Wells Fargo headquarters in Smartsville.

Gold attracted more than miners.  Famous robbers such as ‘the Timbuctoo Terror,’ Jim Webster and Black Bart prowled the roads.

Profits from hydraulic mining encouraged boomtown growth, enriched mining corporations, and filled state coffers.

Between 1850 and 1878, the Excelsior Company sent approximately eight million cubic yards of debris and plant matter into the Yuba River at Smartsville.

The town of North Bloomfield is located near Malakoff Diggings.

Silt and debris washed out of the steep mountains and settled, changing the course of waterways and making channels shallow.

Riverboat traffic conducting trade between Sacramento and San Francisco was threatened.

Alarmed by the danger of downstream flooding, farmers and townspeople created costly levee systems.

lawsuit against the North Bloomfield Gravel and Mining Company and others was filed. In 1884, the United States District Court in San Francisco ruled in favor of the farmers, putting an end to hydraulic mining.

Commentary from Yuba Trails and Tales blog by Hank Meals

“In the late 1870’s, the annual value of the dry-farmed wheat crop alone had reached $40,000,000, more than double that of the dwindling gold output.  According to geographer David Larsen, “The trend was clear and irreversible the pivot of prosperity had shifted permanently toward the fields.”

“Obviously, by outlawing the dumping of tailings there was improved water quality and fish habitat and there would be less toxins inadvertently released but this particular environmental remediation was incidental to the intent of the law.  Except in a very general way there were no environmental considerations addressed in the 24 volumes of testimony that were collected for Woodruff vs. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company. This law was not created out of respect for Gaia, or any consideration whatsoever for stream ecology.  Simply put, the issue was business interests in the Sacramento Valley (agriculture) were losing income to the wasteful procedures of a powerful upslope industry (hydraulic mining).  Specifically agricultural lands were being covered with choking mud, towns were periodically flooded and steamboat operations were hampered by the decreased navigability of the rivers.  I can’t see how the Sawyer Decision exhibits environmental activism but it does represent the beginning of regulations in the public interest.  The Sawyer Decision effectively limits the ideology of laissez-faire, which legitimized the single-minded pursuit of wealth at all costs.  This alone is a very big step in the direction of conservation and sustainability.” – Hydraulic Mining in the Yuba and Bear River Basins – Yuba Trails and Tales, Hank Meals

Pioneer Day – Yearly – Last Saturday in April

 

If you liked this post, you may also like Geology or Geography.

Resources:

CalEXPLORnia – Timbuctoo
CalEXPLORnia  – the church of Immaculate Conception
Chapman University – Huell Howser Archives – Timbucktoo / Smartsville (video)
Crow’s Range: An Environmental History of the Sierra Nevada, by David Beesley [KXJZ, Insight interview 35:46] Ghost Towns – Timbuctoo
Hydraulic Mining in the Yuba and Bear River Basins – Yuba Trails and Tales, Hank Meals
ilikehistory.com – The Infamous Stagecoach Robber Black Bart
Malakoff Diggins State Park – Sawyer Decision to stop hydraulic mining
National Geographic – Sierra Nevada Geotourism – Smartsville
National Geographic – Sierra Nevada Geotourism – Timbuctoo
Nevada County, CA Historical Sites – Mooney Flat Hotel
Nevada County Historical Landmarks Commission – Mooney Flat Hotel
Truewestmagazine.com – The Flawed Gentleman Bandit

RSS
Follow by Email
LinkedIn
Share
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
Instagram