USA > California > Tuolumne County > A history of Tuolumne County, California : compiled from the most authentic records > Part 33
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470
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
this time Strain, of Columbia, found an enormous nugget, whose size was twelve, by ten, by six inches, and whose weight was sixty-six pounds avoirdupois ! The value of the find was estimated at eight thousand dollars, and the lucky possessor sold it for seven thousand four hundred and thirty-eight dollars, after breaking off chunks to give to his friends as presents. In 1858 Robinson & Co., at Amer- ican Camp, found a two thousand-dollar nugget. One year later, Virgin & Co., near Columbia, found a lump of pure gold, which weighed four hundred and fifty-one ounces and sold for six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.
These brief notes will show to some extent the munifi- cent rewards that miners have met in these mines, which are now so worn out and exhausted. Nothing like an ac- curate account of the great finds can be attempted, how- ever, for probably not one-half of the notable finds were ever reported at all, for obvious reasons.
Here follows an announcement of some of the more no- table finds made previous to 1860. It is copied from Ban- croft's Mining Handbook, and is not in any way complete, being gathered from the files of the Alta California for the years denoted. As far as it goes, it may be presumed to be reliable. It will be seen to make no mention of the gigantic mass of quartz and gold which was found at Hol- den's Gardens in 1850, and which yielded thirty thousand dollars, and the truth of the report of which rests upon the editor of the Sonora Herald.
1850.
23 lbs., Woods' Diggings February 20th
5 lbs., near Sonora.
March 6th
51 oz., Sonora. April 2d
23 lbs. 2 oz., Sonora May 14th
10 1bs. 11 oz., Sonora May 14th
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GEOLOGY AND MINING.
18 lbs., Sonora. June 7th 4 lbs. 4 oz., Jamestown .April 11th
13 lbs., Sonora. October 14th
1851.
28 lbs. 4 oz., Sonora October 5th
24 lbs., Sonora. October 5th
23 lbs. 6 oz., near Sonora October 5th
69 oz., Wood's Creek. December 1st
1852.
$90, Sonora. January 6th 12 oz., Sonora. . January 6th $1100, Sonora. January 10th $900, Sonora. January 10th
$80, Sonora. January 10th
26 oz., Shaw's Flat. .August 15th
116 oz., Shaw's Flat. November 23d
1853.
29 oz., near Sonora. . January 18th 20 1bs. 7 oz., near Sonora February 19th
$1500, near Sonora. February 21st
9 oz., near Sonora February 24th
7 lbs., near Sonora February 25th
69 oz., near Columbia.
February 26th 7 oz., near Sonora March 4th
116 oz., Columbia
May 2d
24 oz., Columbia May 2d
18 oz., Columbia
May 13th
15 oz., Columbia May 13th 11 oz., Columbia May 13th
9 lbs., Indian Gulch May 16th
36 oz., Yankee Hill. June 5th
12 oz., Shaw's Flat June 12th
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472
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
4 oz., Shaw's Flat. June 13th
30 oz., Sonora June 29th
71 oz., Sonora. June 29th
7 lbs. 8 oz., Indian Gulch.
1854.
11} oz., Sonora. February 11th
27 1bs., Columbia March 23d
1 1b., Jamestown. June
$400, Springfield. June
2 lbs , near Columbia June
162 lbs., Sonora. July
72 lbs., near Columbia . September
17 lbs., Sonora November
1855.
30 lbs., near Sonora . January ~~
1858.
41 oz., Columbia . May -
13 oz., Columbia May -
11 oz., Saw Mill Flat May - -
47 oz., Columbia. July -
15 oz., Columbia September
333 lbs., Columbia. September
33 oz., Columbia September
In the portion of this article which treats of the origin of gold, it has been said that originally it was contained in the veins of quartz which intersected the slate which has now vanished, worn away by the action of the running streams. This statement deserves more extended treat- ment than has been accorded to it.
To trace the descent of a piece of gold from the time of its formation, or the aggregation of its different molecules, down to the time when it was found in this age by the
J.B.Bacon
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473
GEOLOGY AND MINING.
hardy miner, is an extremely interesting topic, and one which it may be said has never been dealt with in its full- est details in the light of the latest discoveries in geologi- cal science. Let us then, since the topic is in a fair way to be satisfactorily settled, be among the first to adopt (for the time) the theories regarding, first, the origin and dis- pensation of gold in the slate crust of the earth, and sec- ond, those well-attested geological facts which relate to the gradual wearing away of thousands of feet of those slates with their contained quartz veins, and see if a rea- sonable cause may not be found for the existence of placer gold within the sands of the streams, as well as that which is found upon high elevations.
We may accept as a fact the sometime existence of a plain, where now the Sierra rises and where the foothills cluster about the mountains' base. At that time thousands of feet of slate strata lay horizontally upon each other, all doubtless containing numerous veins of quartz, probably some barren, but many containing gold which was brought to them, at the time of their formation, by the agencies of chemical affinity, solution and heat. We can imagine nothing less than that after these slate deposits were formed numerous fissures of greater or less depth were formed in them, much as cracks are formed in clay soils on the water drying out. These fissures, we may further imagine, were filled in the course of time with liquids of various sorts, which contained chemical compounds, and which were excessively hot-perhaps far hotter than boil- ing water, for it is well known that, under pressure, water can be heated even red-hot. These conditions make it possible, as we see from the extracts from Professor Le Conte's book, for quartz veins to be so formed; and in- deed they could hardly help forming if all these condi- tions, or even part of them, were complied with. So, we
474
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
may agree, the quartz veins came to exist. Returning now to the time when the slates began to wear away, we can easily imagine that as this wearing process went on, the rivers that then existed would carry the fragments (mostly small and rounded) to the lower lands and deposit them there. This they did; for there is the evidence of many localities to prove the existence of gold-bearing gravels, hundreds of feet in thickness, containing skeletons of ani- mals, and fossil plants, which were swept down the river at the time when the gravel, also, was being carried down- ward. These rivers evidently ran into lakes, for we find the particles of gravel sized by the settling action of the still waters. Consequently we may regard the slates, which were originally deposited from water, as being for the second time so deposited, but in a modified form.
We have now got as far as the lake deposits of gold- bearing gravel. These deposits were, as might be ex- pected, comparatively poor in gold, because the winnowing action of the water had not been such as to remove the vast bulk of gravel, which consequently served to dilute the mass, so to speak, and render it less rich than those portions of gravel which in other periods of the earth's history have passed down irregular and rapid streams, leaving a portion of the worthless rock, together with the heaviest of the gold particles, settled into crevices and hol- lows in the bed of the stream.
In the deposits, all vastly ancient, of gravels of this de- scription in lakes, not many are left in Tuolumne; but in Nevada and Butte Counties, with their neighbors to the north of us, miles and miles still remain, and give rise to the enormous hydraulic mining interest, with its attendant "slickens " evil. Those gravels are not rich; a dozen cents from each cubic yard usually pays the miner, because by the powerful streams of water which are directed against
475
GEOLOGY AND MINING.
the high banks, a vast amount of earth can be washed. A dollar per yard, or perhaps two dollars, is about the rich- est yield of such gravels. In former days a considerable amount of hydraulic mining was done at Saw Mill Flat, near Columbia, and even at this day a few known banks still exist to be worked, and quite probably other deposits may yet be found, even where their existence is at present entirely unsuspected.
The formation of these beds, which are the most ancient placers, of course preceded the formation of the late river beds. At the time that they were forming, and for a long time subsequent, the country presented an aspect far dif- ferent to that which it bears at present. The rivers ran courses entirely distinct from those at present, and lakes existed whose extent is not known, but must have been very great.
Following the deposition of the first auriferous gravels came a time when great changes took place. Extensive upheavals and subsidences took place, rivers ran with full banks across or at right angles to the former channels, and the rains became excessive-all these changes leading to the washing away, in part, of the previously formed gravel beds, and the diffusion of their constituents over other areas, perhaps far removed from their former sites. The rivers that did this work ran over irregular beds, which they wore away piecemeal, dropping into their cavities in limestone or in slate, the heavier particles which they had removed from their resting places in the higher altitudes. These particles, mostly broken from the slate, but some of it common quartz sand, held among it a portion of gold in greater or less quantity, which also became entangled in the crevices, or lost in the sand or pebbles of the bottom of the stream, there to remain until succeeding freshets
476
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
had removed it again and again from its place, or until the tireless miner's hand had plucked it up.
It is not likely that more than an extremely small per- centage of all the gold staid upon the bottom of the river in the immediate vicinity of the beds from which it was washed. Probably not one hundredth part of the entire wealth of the veins which had been worn down ever re- mained at points now accessible to man. Doubtless the vastly greater portion, in particles of exceedingly small size, passed downward as " float" gold, only finding a rest- ing place in the comparatively level reaches in the lower course of the stream, or perhaps reaching the occan itself. By far the greater portion of the gold as it exists in most quartz veins (milling veins) is in particles too small to be seen by the naked eye, and which float in water under ordi- nary circumstances. This fact, coupled with the additional one of the vast preponderance of milling veins over those in which the gold is in comparatively large pieces, shows conclusively that by far the greater part of the metal must have escaped. Undoubtedly all of the placer gold, prop- erly so called, came from pocket veins. Milling veins could have had no part in the supply of the modern placers, though they probably supplied a large part of the gold in the ancient beds. This winnowing and sizing action of the water, then, we may conclude, has cost to mankind the whole of the minute particles of gold contained in the enormous slate strata which formerly rested upon what is now the surface of Tuolumne.
The consideration relating to the dispersion of the finer particles of gold will probably be accepted without ques- tion. At any rate it does not affect the present race of men whether the gold be buried beneath many feet of strata in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, or whether it has found some other abiding place. In any case, nothing
477
GEOLOGY AND MINING.
short of great geological changes can ever bring it to light again, though it is by no means certain that such changes will not take place, upheaving great sections of rock, which, if in an elevated situation, will be again washed away by the water, and again the gold may be winnowed out to ap- pear in future placers, to be utilized by the exertions of future races of gold-seekers.
This topic, though interesting, must give way to the more practical one of what placers still remain. As re- marked, the washing away of the surface to a great depth has been so general in Tuolumne that it is useless to look for the existence of ancient gravels in situations which would have rendered them exposed to the running streams. But it happens that portions of the surface of this region have been so circumstanced as to be entirely protected from the tearing down influences of the water. These portions are covered by volcanic products. These products-basaltic lava in one case, a light pumice stone or breccia in the other cases-overlie a portion of the country, and obvi- ously have preserved the ground on which they rest. In the eastern portion of the county, about Soulsbyville and other places, these breccia deposits appear on the crests of hills, or often crop out at the sides of hills, presenting a palisaded appearance. This arises from the very large tracts having been covered by the outflow, which, after being de- posited, (presumably upon auriferous gravels, as there is no evidence that the matters beneath were of any but slaty origin), was worn away in places, valleys and cañons being formed and the lava upon the hills which remained being left intact.
It is in the gravels underlying the breccia that future discoveries of gold-bearing matters may be expected. In times past such discoveries have been hinted at; but, ex- cepting near Soulsbyville, no systematic attempt has been
478
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
made to explore the ground. Probably in no case will those deposits be found very rich unless some river-bed be met with, which itself is not very probable.
From a cursory view of the circumstances, it would ap- pear that the only probability of the existence of large deposits of gold-bearing gravel is, as pointed out above, beneath the lava deposits; and those may well be worth exploring in the localities mentioned, while the utmost cer- tainty exists that there is gold in the ancient river channels beneath Table Mountain, which we will now proceed to discuss.
The existence of river gravel beneath the basaltic lava was unsuspected until the year 1855, when it was discovered at the bottom of a shaft which was being sunk at Caldwell's Garden, near Shaw's Flat. At this point, the lava which had formerly covered it had been denuded and its traces lost, but the underlying gravel had remained, and was found to yield gold in immense quantities. Miners at once set to work to follow the course of the newly found lead, which ran under the basaltic formation further to the west. Great interest was felt in the new discoveries; all the avail- able ground was staked off, and many shafts were sunk, at a place which was given the name of " Whim Town," from the large number of whims there set up to facilitate work- ing those shafts. The lead first found is known to have been one of the richest deposits of gold-bearing gravel ever found in California. First raising the golden sands to the surface, spending in that manner the Summer months, the fortunate finders, when water became plenty in the ensuing Autumn, washed their great piles of rich dirt, taking thence gold to the amount of five, ten or more pounds daily, the aggregate yield of the several claims being sixty or seventy pounds each day.
Mr. Caldwell took out of his claim, it is supposed, over
479
GEOLOGY AND MINING.
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and after its sale to other parties, a like sum was realized. The Aiken claim was scarcely less rich, producing two hundred and seven- teen thousand. The Sidewiper produced sixty or seventy thousand, and the Baxter hardly less, while the Jackson and Columbia claims produced immensely, also.
The gold was in every case found imbedded in the sand and gravel, as evenly distributed as happens in the modern rivers; and indeed presents a striking likeness in every re- spect to those rivers which have yielded largely, as the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, etc. The richest gravel was, as might be expected, found near the bedrock, which gen- erally consists of slate. Rich spots were found in cavities, which yielded many pounds of gold.
In the course of years many tunnels and inclines were run to tap the channels, which were soon found to exist in great length. For several miles on either side of the mountain these tunnels recur at short intervals. A gigantic amount of labor has been expended on the work, but with disproportionately small results. Although some of the companies who have operated therein have reaped a plen- tiful harvest, more there were who got nothing for their pains. The chief reason seems to have been the little un- derstanding that men had at the beginning, of the direction which the gravel leads took; the small means possessed by the individuals who composed those companies, there often being but two or three, whose work was necessarily long and expensive. Added to these facts, the influx of water from the highly permeable stratum of gravel was so great as to effectually check further operations in many claims. Gradually work was given up all along the line, until now very few are occupied in developments, the numerous works falling to decay.
It is not to be inferred that they are permanently aban-
480
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
doned, however; within a few years a noticeable revival in interest concerning the leads has taken place, and although little progress has as yet been made beyond the formation of new companies and the issuing of prospectuses, there is a bright prospect for future work, which is almost sure to pay. Arrangements have been made to consolidate the old claims into properties which can be more conveniently handled and worked. The old tunnels low down on the lead are to be utilized to drain the ground, and work is to be carried on systematically. Among the great difficulties that have been met with was the difficulty of supporting the immense mass of superincumbent sandstone, "pipe- clay " and basalt, which, mostly loose in texture, threat- ened to crush the supports of the roofs of galleries and immense vacant spaces from which the gravel has been re- moved; and, in fact, serious accidents have occurred, causing death in several instances. These drawbacks are expected to be met in an efficient manner.
Among the new companies which propose to themselves the working of these concealed placers, the Tuolumne Table Mountain Gold Mining Company attracts the largest share of attention, controlling, as it does, the ground upon which the best known of the older claims were situated. For one hundred thousand dollars these four mines, the Empire, Hidden Treasure, Bedrock Blue Gravel and Cald- well, have been purchased. The old locations combined in these are the American, Obar, Lager Beer, Independent, Virginia, Nelson, Gold Hunter, Jim Fair, Aiken, Baxter, Captain Mann, Peck & Davis, Fillmore and others, many of which have produced large sums in former years, and from which greater results may be expected. Possessing every facility for working, such as draining tunnels at various points, a permanent water supply from the ditch of
481
GEOLOGY AND MINING.
the Tuolumne County Water Company, the new organiza- tion confidently expect rich results.
In addition to the proposed workings in Table Mountain proper, the company propose to drain the basin of Shaw's Flat, and enable certain untouched ground that still re- mains therein to be worked. This project appears very feasible, as it is well remembered that the locality was one of the richest in all the Southern Mines, but which, for want of drainage, could not be fully prospected and worked. Several miles, they say, could be thus re-worked with profit, as the new system of drainage would enable explorations to go on at a depth of several hundred feet.
As has often been said, a great length of these aurifer- ous channels exists in Tuolumne, the extent of them having been estimated by some at one hundred miles, of which not more than a tenth have so far been prospected. There seems to be no reason why the vicinity of Shaw's Flat should afford richer placers than any other section of the concealed river beds; and the probability certainly is that it is not richer there than at other points, it only happen- ing that its riches were more easily available. A portion of the work of the next century will doubtless be in unearth- ing such deposits and in realizing the wealth which is stored within them. This can be done more easily at present than in the past, inasmuch as the diminished prices of labor and materials permit tunnels to be run and other necessary works to be carried to completion at half the cost which attended them in former times, and the future years will doubtless see a still further proportionate elimination of expense in such works.
Much remains to be written concerning the placer mining of Tuolumne, but the narrow limits to which this article can extend forbid further mention of the sources from which further wealth may be expected to be derived. Cer-
482
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
tainly it is not right to regard the mining interest of the section as exhausted. No intelligent observer can so con- clude. On the contrary, much work will yet be done upon the placer claims, with good results. A plan to drain the limestone plateau between Columbia and Shaw's Flat has been mooted, but whether it will be carried out remains for the future to determine. The probabilities are that in case a tunnel were run from a low point on the Stanislaus River, beneath the limestone, so as to intercept the sources of the water which is so abundant beneath the surface of the flat, not sufficient gold could be extracted to repay the necessarily enormous expenses of such a work, for although the metal has been abundant in the crevices at the top, yet it must be remembered that as it was deposited therein by waters flowing over the surface, but small chance exists of its having penetrated to a depth much greater than at present explored. It may happen, however, that some localities in the limestone, small in extent and situated in considerable depressions, may yet be found where the gold exists in quantities almost unheard of. Such a discovery becomes more probable as the lower depths are reached.
The above observations on the geology and mining of Tuolumne embrace all that it is deemed advisable to in- clude within the present work. Most of the facts stated are matters of common knowledge, but the generalizations and deductions therefrom have not before been in print. It has not been the object of the writer to do more than to give utterance to a few pregnant facts which would seem to him to be of some value to whoever may have interest in mining affairs in Tuolumne; and if anything therein sets the sagacious mind to thinking and produces good re- sults, the exertions of the compiler will be abundantly repaid.
483
MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
Mills and Manufactures.
The earliest demands of the bustling population who early arrived within the gold region were for articles of provision, for tools, and for lumber with which to construct the flumes, rockers, and other accessories of mining life, and for the important uses of house building. During the first years the production of lumber was necessarily lim- ited, and the article was of correspondingly high price. Men earned extravagant wages by sawing planks out by hand-pit sawing, it was called.
The first records that we have of any important move in the direction of lumber making, are the accounts of Major Charbonell's steam saw mill, situated in Sonora, on land bought from C. F. and T. Dodge, for $150. The existence of this pioneer mill was short, but it was succeeded by numerous others, driven by either steam or water power, and situated in various portions of the county.
Soon after Charbonell's experiment, Messrs. Heslep & Manning built a sawmill on Woods' Creek, on the present site of Mr. Bell's Flouring Mill. Subsequently a run of stones was added, and Heslep & Bell commenced the manu- facture of flour, Mr. Bell succeeding to the present busi- ness.
Somewhat later than Messrs. Heslep & Manning's ven- ture, Mr. Caleb Dorsey erected a mill on Mormon Creek, near Springfield, with the double object of sawing lumber and of hoisting water for the use of the miners of Shaw's Flat. Failing in his objects, he removed his mill to Saw- mill Flat, and engaged in lumber making, with good suc- cess.
At about the same time, or a little later, Messrs. Stacy, Bennett & Turner built also a sawmill on the Flat, selling out at a later period to J. W. Brazee. This gentleman
484
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
failed in business, and Messrs. Whitney & Van Vechten became proprietors of the mill.
Mills were erected in the vicinity of nearly every im- portant mining camp, but the enormous demand for lumber was but partially met. Extravagant prices ruled at first, but the multiplicity of sawmills, by the year 1853, had brought them down to a reasonable figure. Thus, after the great fire in Sonora in October, 1853, boards were quoted at $50 to $60 per thousand. Not a very high price, considering the times and the great demand for rebuilding purposes.
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