USA > California > Tuolumne County > A history of Tuolumne County, California : compiled from the most authentic records > Part 34
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In the course of time the lower and central portions of the county were denuded of trees, and the mills were compelled to remove eastward, to keep within reach of the forests which they were so rapidly consuming.
Somewhat later-in the year 1856-there were twenty- four sawmills in the county, running thirty-four saws. Of these mills, fourteen were driven by steam, and the remainder by water power. This is the list:
Clapp & Brazee, 8 miles east of Sonora, 4 saws; Heslep & Travler, 7 miles east of Sonora, 4 saws; Whitney & Van Vechten, steam, 3 miles east of Columbia, 2 saws; Smith, Morse & Co., 6 miles east of Columbia, 2 saws and a plan- ing machine-the only one in the county; Nye, 11 miles east of Sonora, steam, 2 saws; Major Prevost, 11 miles east of Sonora, 1 saw; Davis & Co., 15 miles east of Sonora, 2 saws and . a shingle machine; Severance & Co., 4 miles southeast of Sonora, 2 saws; Latimer, steam, 1 saw; Mountain Pine Mill, steam, 10 miles east of Sonora, 1 saw; Reed & Co., near Garrote, steam, 2 saws; Smith, Hunt & Co., between Garrote and Coulterville, steam, 2 saws; Bean & Co., between Garrote and Coulterville, steam, 2 saws; Bailey & Morgan, 12 miles east of Sonora, steam, 1 saw; Sugar Pine, 18 miles east of Sonora, water, 2 saws;
485
MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
Enterprise, 11 miles east of Sonora, water, 2 saws; Char- bonell, east of Sonora, 1 saw; Lewis & Engle, 2 miles east of Columbia, water, 1 saw; Woodham & Co., 6 miles east of Columbia, water, 1 saw; Street, Tuolumne River, above Jacksonville, 1 saw; Vine Springs, near Columbia, water, 1 saw; Mountain Brow, Mormon Creek, near Spring- field, water, 1 saw; Zootman, Mormon Creek, water, 1 saw; Talbot, mouth of Woods' Creek, water, 1 saw.
The amount of lumber manufactured by the above mills in 1855 was about 15,000,000 feet, worth an average of $30 per M. The total cost of the mills was perhaps $375,000. In and about them 250 men found active employment, at wages ranging from $50 to $100 per month and found. About two thirds of the lumber was used for mining pur- poses, the remainder for building and fencing. The timber cut was mainly sugar, yellow, and nut pine, and cedar, with some oak and spruce.
Quartz Mills.
The Alabama Mill may be taken as the typical gold mill, a description of which will enable the reader to seize in his mind the salient facts connected with the simple process of milling gold quartz.
In 1880 this magnificent forty-stamp mill was put up, and has been kept in almost continual operation ever since. The mill consists of a wooden building, arranged in successive levels, in order to facilitate the movement of the quartz by gravity. There are forty stamps, each weigh- ing 800 1bs., which receive broken rock from two Dodge rock-breakers, by means of intermediate automatic feeders of the Tulloch patent.
The stamps, moving at the rate of eighty-five drops per minute, having a small drop, probably not over five or pos-
486
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
sibly six inches, crush the quartz to suitable fineness, to the amount of sixty tons daily. Within the battery, plates take up by far the greater percentage of the gold, the remainder, with the slimes, passing over electro-plated copper plates, contained in the bottoms of sluices, from the ends of which the slimes run over blankets, for the pur- pose of catching the contained sulphurets.
The course taken with the quartz upon its removal from the vein by blasting, etc., is as follows: A car, running upon a railroad track, transports it to the mill, by way of the tunnel. Reaching the mill, a distance of some two hundred feet, it enters the building at the top, and is dis- charged over " grizzlies " (inclined grate bars, about an inch apart), thus separating the finer particles from the coarse masses. The latter enter the jaws of the powerful rock- breakers (massive cast-iron-and-steel constructions, whose moving parts approach with irresistible force, crushing even the hardest stone, as if it were brittle wood). From thence it takes its way downward, without the intervention of human exertion, into the huge ore-bins, whence gravity, in due time, assists it into the feeders.
We have seen that the whole progress of the quartz is unattended with the slightest muscular exertion on the part of any employee; all the apparatus supplies its own wants, working automatically, and as efficiently as if guided and directed by the acutest brain power and the most unwearied attention.
For purposes of comparison, let us turn to the descrip- tion of the mill of the Experimental Quartz Company, which was erected in the Summer of 1854, in Experimental Gulch, at a distance of a mile or two from Columbia. This mill, one of the very first of the kind ever put up in Cali- fornia, is thus described :
" The motive power was water, of which there was suffi-
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MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
cient to drive sixteen stamps, but only eight stamps were used. The quartz was shoveled [probably after preliminary breaking] into two large receivers, or boxes, by means of a spout at the back; four stamps work in each box, and crush the quartz to any desired degree of fineness required. A stream of water ran continually through the box, and carried the finer particles of stone out through sieves in front of each box. The powdered quartz, with the water, falls into " riffles " (boxes fitted with grooves), in which about twenty pounds of quicksilver was placed, to which the gold was supposed to adhere, leaving the mud and water to run off as waste. The stamps, each of which weighed five hundred pounds, were raised by means of iron horns affixed to the main shaft or drum, and have a fall of about eighteen inches upon the rock. The ends of the stamps, working upon the rock, are made of cast iron, and as there can be no friction by the gravel sloshing upon the woodwork, they will last for years without repairs. * The mill crushes fifteen tons of rock in twenty- four hours, and, what is better, saves all the gold.
" The mill is but a short distance from the vein, which is of exceeding richness, and, as it is but five or six feet below the surface, is easy of access. The top soil is removed by ground sluicing, and two carts keep the mill in operation day and night. The whole force employed in and about the mill is but six men, and the total expense of working it is but $250 per week. The mill cost $4,000. The rock pays from fifty cents to two dollars per pound."
There are many points in the above sketch (taken from the Columbia Gazette, of October 28, 1854) which will be found worthy of reflection. The existence of a vein pay- ing from fifty cents to two dollars per pound, in sufficient mass to keep an eight-stamp mill going, is truly a wonder, in the light of modern experience in mines in Tuolumne.
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HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
The first and earliest stamps were made with wooden stems, four sided, and not capable of revolving. Usually these stems were from five to eight inches square. Later, wrought iron stems came into use, which, when the useful effect of rotation was discovered, were made round. At present the practice is to have these stems from thirteen to fifteen feet long, with a diameter of two and a half to three and three-eighths inches. Every part of the stamp battery has been modified and its efficiency increased, while the main principles of its action remain the same. The mortar, the shoes and dies, the stem, tappet, head or boss, cam and cam shaft, have been subjected to successive improvements, until the art of quartz crushing has been adapted to rock which pays, not one or two dollars per pound, but two or three or four dollars per ton! This great and useful result has been brought about, in part, by the improvements on mills and processes, and in part by the reduced prices of labor.
LIST OF QUARTZ MILLS IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
STAMPS.
STAMPS.
Confidence
40
Big Basin. 10
App
25
Hunter 10
Heslep
15
Ferguson 20
Silver
10
Spring Gulch 10
Quartz Mountain 20
New Albany 10
Rawhide Ranch
20
Golden Rule. 20
Harris 10
Soulsby . 15
Alabama 40
Telegraph
20
Golden Gate 10
Daegener 10
Big Creek. 10
Louisiana
8
Mount Jefferson 10
Grizzly 20
Nonpareil. 10
Consuelo 20
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MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
STAMPS.
STAMPS.
Riverside
20
Starr King.
5
Eureka
10
Buchanan. 8
Raymond
10
Patterson 20
Excelsior
10
Keltz 20
Kelsey 10
Atlas. 10
Evans.
5
Hazel Dell
5
Chandler & Beal
4
Bear Creek
5
Knox & Boyle
10
Santa Maria
10
Van Tromp
5
Seeber
3
Tuolumne Reduc. Co. 5
Several of these are in such a state of dilapidation that they do not appear on the Assessor's tax list. Thirty-seven are regarded as being in order for future work. It is prob- able that 700 stamps have, at one time and another, been operated in Tuolumne County.
Reduction Processes.
Within the limits of the county there exist no ores save the commonly found sulphurets, which require the agency of heat to free the contained gold. Of silver, we have no ores that contain more than a trace; so the whole question of rebellious or refractory ores settles upon the before men- tioned iron pyrites, commonly known as "sulphurets."
The chemical composition of these pyrites is variable. There may be plain sulphide of iron, of a specific gravity of 4.6, light colored and comparatively hard; or it may be a complex substance containing copper, arsenic, or anti- mony, besides the iron and sulphur. Perhaps the com- monest type is that which contains iron and sulphur, and with them, copper amounting to from five to thirty per cent. of the whole. This is copper pyrites. It is of a
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HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
darker color, of greater specific gravity, and softer than the sulphide of iron. Arsenical sulphurets, common in the claims about Arastraville, is like the copper pyrites chemi- cally, with the addition of arsenic. No two mines, it may be said, produce sulphurets of exactly the same character.
The various types of sulphurets are alike in this respect: That they all contain gold; and that they require to be roasted to set free this gold, and enable it to be acted upon by the quicksilver or the chlorine gas in the saving pro- cesses. Roasting is indispensable: thorough roasting is equally so. And it may safely be said, that any process that pretends to extract gold from sulphurets without first roasting is a swindle, or else it is the invention of some one who is profoundly ignorant of the subject.
Once thoroughly roasted, these sulphurets can be treated by the simple processes of amalgamation in pans with quicksilver, or they may be subjected to treatment with chlorine gas. The latter process has been introduced into this county, and in a certain sense may be said to be suc- cessful. At the Golden Gate Works, near Sonora, it is conducted in a manner of which the outlines are these: Preliminary roasting in a four-hearth reverberatory furnace is carried to a very high pitch. Twenty-four hours' exposure to an increasing heat, with influx of atmospheric air, serves to drive off the sulphur as sulphurous acid. Withdrawn from the furnace, and cooled upon a brick floor, the ore, now changed by the substitution of oxygen for sulphur, from sulphide to oxide, is sprinkled with water, sifted, and placed in tanks of a capacity of a ton and a half.
Chlorine gas, manufactured by acting upon a mixture of common salt and black oxide of manganese, with oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), is conducted through lead pipes into the bottom of each tank, and, dispersing itself into all parts of the contained ore, comes in contact with the minute
491
REDUCTION PROCESSES.
particles of gold therein, and combines chemically with them, producing just as many atoms or particles of chloride of gold. Now, this chloride of gold dissolves in water; and by taking advantage of this fact, the valuable substance is leached out, just as potash is leached out of ashes, in the form of lye.
Collecting the lye, as we may term it, in large tanks, the next step in the process is to extract the gold, now totally invisible. To effect this, some green copperas (sulphate of iron) is dissolved in water and poured into the tanks, when instantly the chlorine gas which was in alliance with the gold forsakes it, and attaches itself to a portion of the iron in the copperas. This leaves the gold particles by them- selves, in the shape of a fine brown powder, which, as they car not dissolve in water, sink slowly to the bottom, form- ing there a sort of mud.
The last step is the gathering up of the mud and melting it, when a mass of pure yellow gold is produced.
From an economic standpoint, the chlorination process is a superior one. Compared with amalgamation, we may say, that for very rich sulphurets, or for those sulphuretted ores which contain neither talc, nor lime nor magnesia as carbonates, the chlorination method is superior. But for pyrites carrying little gold, or for those gangues which when calcined produce caustic lime or magnesia (or baryta), which have a faculty of taking up the chlorine before it can reach the gold, then amalgamation should be resorted to.
The reverberating furnace seems to possess the greatest advantages for roasting preparatory to chlorinating. A thorough roast is indispensable for the success of that pro- cess, it happening that some of the substances formed at the lower temperatures act injuriously on its application, hence must be driven off by long continued heat.
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492
HISTORY OF . TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
The number of processes for the extraction of gold from pyrites, that have been tried or proposed in this county is enormous. There is no limit to the ingenuity that has been laid out to effect this end. Early in the history of the county a man proposed to convert the quartz into a liquid, when, as he said, the gold would settle to the bottom, and could then be shoveled out. We find the newspapers of that day applauding the invention, and prognosticating the time when the process would come into general use. It is almost unnecessary to say to a community so well read as this that the inventor had hit upon the old chemical · discovery that quartz (silica) is soluble in hydrofluoric acid.
There was, a short year or two previous, a parallel inven- tion which, although not germane to this subject, may possess interest enough to deserve mention here. It is the goldometer of Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher, described as a gen- tleman of education and refinement, was the first of the numerous horde of divining-rod men-a tribe who were born too late by many centuries, to profitably pursue their seductive ways of entrapping the gold from the pockets of worthier men. Still there are men who believe in such things, as there are men who believe in the sea serpent and in perpetual motion.
Fletcher's apparatus, we are told by the directory of Heckendorn & Gist, consisted of a rod of steel, cane, or other elastic material, having a length of three feet, and provided with a ball at one end. What this ball contained no one was permitted to know. Fletcher said the appara- tus would not act in other hands but his own, because of his peculiar electrical condition! Holding the rod in his hand he walked over the ground, and if gold existed in the vicinity the rod would bend toward it. He explained it thus: "The motive power was an animal magnetic influ- ence acting through a metallic agency, the action of the
493
REDUCTION PROCESSES.
instrument depending upon his peculiarity of temperament, and therefore it would not work in other hands." Not very intelligible this, but nevertheless it duped many, among them a Dr. Sprague, who wrote intelligently upon its vir- tues and effects.
Returning to the subject of sulphurets, it is noticeable that the failures in (working sulphuret mines have been almost universal. This is rather to be attributed to the limited supply of rich ores rather than to errors of man- àgement, though the latter cause can be saddled with a great many failures.
In very few cases have science and practical judgment combined to lead the way to success, so room yet remains for capital, aided by experience, to do an immense deal toward developing the yet remaining resources. A great fault thus far has been the character of some of those men who have come from abroad to introduce processes. Per- haps the leading characteristic of process vendors has been dishonesty rather than ingenuity; a disposition to trick workmen and tradesmen rather than to honestly carry out their pretended objects.
Want of space forbids mention of many of these pro- jects, but cases in point may be cited. Mr. Eames, of San Francisco, engaged in the business of extracting gold from sulphurets, by a process of his own invention, which he, no doubt, believed efficient. In proof that he was sincere or partly so, it may be remembered that he expended tens of thousands of dollars, bankrupting himself and certain credulous friends. This pseudo-scientific man, having erected costly works at Saucelito, and supplemented them by the purchase of three mines near Tuttletown, and the erection of a mill, commenced mining where, and in what manner, his " knowledge of geology told him to." The consequence was that he failed at once, and suspended op-
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HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
erations, leaving everything to his creditors, who at last accounts had realized some few cents on the dollar.
Flouring Mills.
The earliest flour or grist mill, of which mention can be found at this day, was fitted up in February, 1854, by W. G. Heslep. It stood on Wood's Creek, ten miles below Sonora, and was merged into the mill of Bell & Heslep, now owned by the former partner.
Before this, the Talbot Mill Company had incorporated (October, 1853), with the objects of " manufacturing flour and meal and grinding barley, of sawing lumber, and of farming." The corporation was. to exist for twenty-five years. Its capital stock was $40,000, and the Trustees of the enterprise were David Talbot, Major Alva Farnsworth and B. W. Horr. Their mill was built upon the Tuol- umne River, near Horr's ranch. For awhile the enterprise was successful, but its promising business was cut short by a freshet in 1855, which swept away the mill, with the dam, the buildings, flour, grain, etc., the total loss being about $30,000. The work was never resumed.
Since then the flouring mills have kept even pace with the progress of the county. In 1876 there were six such mills, but that number has now decreased to four.
The building of Messrs. Hampton, Divoll & Smith's flour and planing mill, in 1872, marked quite an epoch in the business, but that structure has been since thrown in the background by the more pretentious Star Mills, also in Sonora.
The former structure, still occupied for its original pur- pose, is 50x60 feet, three stories high in front, but so situ- ated upon a hillside as to be but one story in the rear. There were three pairs of burrs, arranged to be driven by
495
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
a 60-horse power steam engine in time of drought, but by a 30-foot overshot water-wheel at other seasons. The mill was capable of grinding from 100 to 150 barrels of flour daily. Connected therewith was a planing mill.
This mill was and still is known as the Sonora City Flouring and Planing Mill, and is yet in existence and constantly doing good work.
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
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The County of Tuolumne (which derives its name from an Indian word signifying " stone wigwams") lies upon the western slope of the Sierra, reaching from 'its summits to the valley land of the San Joaquin. It closely re- sembles, in its general features, the Counties of Mariposa and Calaveras, which adjoin it upon the south and north, respectively. These features may be summed up as follows: The general slope of drainage is toward the west. The country is very uneven, the knolls of the lowermost portion verging into the majestic mountains of the higher, or east- ern part. All classes of scenery are comprised therein, from the monotonous rolling hills, bordering the San Joaquin Valley, through the beautiful rural landscapes of the middle region, to the grand and awful Alpine scenery of the Upper Sierra.
Throughout this whole extent as great a diversity exists in the soil and drainage as in the scenery. Comparatively little of the large area is level land, the hills, mountains and narrow valleys between making up the most of the surface.
Agriculturally considered, Tuolumne County does not by any means take a high rank. For a long time known
496
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
as a mining region, it is only at a comparatively recent date that the adaptability of her soil to special agricultural products has become known. Limited in the extent of her arable land as she is, the culture of general crops, as the raising of wheat, etc., in competition with the valley lands, is impossible, for obvious reasons. Leaving aside a discus- sion of why this is so, an examination of her advantages in the way of special crops is in order.
The soil is composed of the fine particles washed down . from the more elevated regions, decomposing aud disin- tegrating in its passage. It is mostly of granitic origin, and so of reasonable fertility. The tracts of arable land are confined to the borders of water-courses, usually nar- row and hard of access. This gravelly soil, containing all of the chemical elements necessary to plant growth, is easily worked, and is found to be peculiarly adapted to the useful products, more, perhaps, than in any other part of the State. The list of productions is a long one in- deed, embracing most of the useful plants and trees of the Temperate Zone, together with a considerable number of tropical and sub-tropical productions. The cereals, in consequence of the limited area of the farms, as above ob- served, do not attain great prominence. Not enough of wheat or barley are raised to supply the local demand, but the " plains " are depended on for the difference. Hay, from the sowing of wheat or barley, is raised in large quantities, and usually commands a round price, varying at Sonora from $15 to $25, averaging, perhaps, $20 per ton. Potatoes have been a rather successful crop, if well irrigated, and corn, too, may be raised. In fact, it would be difficult to mention an agricultural product of any in- dustrial value which could not be successfully raised here. The land and climate seem adapted to the raising of tolerable yields of nearly every known food crop. It is,
497
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
however, in the culture of fruit that the foothill region most excels. The products of the orchard here attain a flavor unequaled by the insipid growths of the lower country.
The small fruits and berries are reared in profusion. Too much can not be said in favor of the strawberry and the rasp- berry, which are susceptible of high cultivation, and attain a remarkably perfect flavor, taking a high rank as important · adjuncts of the dining table. But the blackberry, the most valuable of all the berries, finds here its chosen habitat, where it grows to a size and luxuriousness hitherto unnoted. Its native heath is here, and the porous soil rewards the propagator of this inestimable berry a thousand-fold. Cherries we have, but the fruit degenerates, becoming un- dersized, puckery, and comparatively unwholesome. The characteristics of different fruits furnish subjects for pro- longed discussion; but at present it may be well merely to outline the salient points connected with the practice of horticulture in Tuolumne, and dismiss the subject. The apple claims attention as the most important fruit grown, and deservedly so, as it is the surest of all fruit crops, and marvelous when we come to regard the thriftiness of the trees and their regular and prolific bearing. Somewhat more than the demand would warrant is raised of this de- licious fruit. Equally admirable for flavor, beauty and size, are the pears grown in this section. Peaches, too, that are raised under the conditions here surrounding, take rank with the apple and pear as being most perfectly adapted to the climate and soil. Considering the perfect adapta- bility to the cultivation of these three most important fruits-the apple, the pear, and the peach-it is not too much to say that the raising of these alone, in such quantity as can and will be done, would suffice to make this a favored and prosperous region.
1
498
HISTORY OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
The grape shows quite a high degree of adaptability to the soil. Excellent varieties for wine and for table use have been raised, and it would seem that viniculture should have taken a permanent place as one of the very foremost indus- tries. Such it once seemed to do. The time was, when it was deemed that grape growing was to take the place of mining; and that these hills, robbed of their underground wealth, should continue to yield, through the vines upon their flanks, a yet richer harvest. Many vineyards were planted, but the hopes of their owners were not realized. From some real or fancied reason, wine and raisin making has not been found to pay as richly as was anticipated, and those men who entered largely into grape growing, saw, in the course of a few years, that they had not found therein a certain road to wealth. These vineyards, planted some dozen years since, are scattered through the middle foothill region, on the sides of the hills and in the valleys, but have mostly been suffered to go to decay, through lack of care and attention. Magnificent grape fields, capable of pro- ducing each year from three to five tons per acre, have been so allowed to run to waste, and the grass and weeds have choked the vines until desolation rules the scene. Tourists and others often ask why this is so; why is a prom- ising source of wealth neglected thus ? The reasons seem to be that, first, the art of wine-making has not been studied sufficiently, the production of poor, sour, red wines consti- tuting the greater part of the vintage, they being the handi- work of certain Italians and Portuguese, whose taste in such matters is as coarse as can be imagined, and who con- trol the greater part of the vines and wines of this section. Next, we have the exorbitant prices of freight-prices that amount to, at the least calculation, six cents per gallon for transporting to San Francisco, exclusive of the cost of casks.
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