USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 15
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There is a little timber on the Gabilan mountains, but not much of any kind else- where in the county.
The San Benito river and its tributaries, together with the Pájaro on its northern boundary, take in the entire hydrographic system of the county.
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QUICKSILVER-NEW IDRIA.
As is well known, the New Idria quick- silver mines rank among the most famous in the world. They are situated in the western end of Vallecitos valley, on the southeastern borders of San Benito county, in the portion acquired from Fresno. These mines were discovered about the year 1852 or 1853. Work was first commenced upon a deposit of chromic iron at the top of the mountain near the boundary line between Monterey and this part of San Benito county, then a portion of Fresno, under the impression that it was silver ore.
Through assays made by the old padres of Monterey cinnabar was discovered where New Idria now stands, and about 1854 or 1855 the New Idria mine was located.
The lode is a large body of ore, in some places having been worked to a width of two hundred feet. The veln has a general pitch toward the south of from forty-five to sixty degrees.
The foot-wall is a "silico-argillaceous" slate. In the lower workings there is a dark-colored clay, from a few inches to a foot or more in thickness between it and the vein matter. The hanging-wall is a similar slate, but rather more compact in structure, often presenting a slicken-side surface toward the vein, and being easily broken into glossy laminæ.
The vein matter varies in different parts of the workings. The better grade of ore has been found in the highest and western portion of the mountain. Most of the gangue is hard
and siliceous, but at some times it is slaty or of a clayey nature, often containing much oxide of iron. The ore richest in mineral is usually found toward the hanging-wall. Be- low the Day tunnel, as far as has yet been explored, the vein becomes poorer, and the gangue, which is at first siliceous or slaty, changes to a sandy character. The New Idria mines are all in the northeastern slope of the monntain, which rises to the height of about 1,500 feet above the reduction works, which are situated at its base; the summit of the mountain is between 4,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level. There are over one and one- half miles of tunneling in the New Idria mines, not including the huge chambers which have been dug out in the heart of the mount- ain.
The highest workings are the oldest, and are at the ridge of the mountain. These con- sist of an incline running down upon the vein to the Sleeman tunnel. This tunnel, which is about 900 feet above the reduction works, runs south into the mountain for a distance of 700 feet, and was made in 1859. About 200 feet lower down is the Myers' tunnel, which was commenced in 1859 and finished in 1860. This penetrates the mountain to a distance of about 1,000 feet. It is from this tunnel and the Sleeman that the highest grade of ore and the largest quantities have been taken.
The ore here also appears to be the most ferruginous, and at one point, where a small stream of water drips from the roof, there are to be seen stalactites of sulphate of iron.
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Upon the walls of all the upper workings, fibrous gypsum forms in beautiful tufts like glossy moss. Some 200 feet lower down, and about 600 feet above the reduction works, is the Day tunnel. This also was started in 1859, and penetrated the mountain to a depth of 1,500 feet. This tunnel has been pro- longed outwardly by timber, in order to al- low dumping facilities for the work above, that otherwise would have covered up the mouth of the Day tunnel. The dump of the Myers' tunnel above lias accumulated and slid- den down upon the prolongation until there are over 100 feet at the commencement of the Day tunnel running under this waste rock.
All these workings, from the top of the mountain to the Day tunnel, constitute the upper portion of the mine, and are connected with each other by various tunnels and up- raises. About one hundred feet above the reduction works, and 500 feet below the Day tunnel, is the Bell tunnel, or lower workings, about 4,000 feet in length. This tunnel is timbered almost throughout its entire length with closely set timbers, there being over 3,000 sets, with lagging both on the roof and sides. Each set requires a log twenty feet long and ten inches in diameter. The temper- ature in this tunnel is high, and the atmos- phere damp and oppressive. Whether it is the effect of the heat and moisture, or some gaseous exhalation of the formation is not known; but the timbers decay in an unusually short time, and two men are kept constantly employed in replacing the old ones by new.
This rapid decay is more marked during sul- try weather, when the draft in the tunnel is almost nil and the atmosphere oppressive. Timbers immersed in water, or those which are kept constantly wet by seepage, do not seem to be so affected. Dry, seasoned wood lasts the longest. Timbers, after having stood in place for only thirty-six hours, have ac- cumulated a mildew one inch in thickness.
The furnaces of the New Idria mines are of the same style as those in use at the Idria, Austria, being square, about thirty feet in height, ten feet in width, and twelve feet in length. The furnace is fed at the top by means of a drop hopper, at the rate of one ton per hour, and holding twenty-four tons when full. There are employed two men to each shift of twelve hours on the furnace, and fifty inen in and about the mines. The fuel used is almost entirely manzanita and oak, which is delivered at the furnace at $6.50 per cord, one cord being consumed every twenty- four hours.
A condensed history of the Mexican grant, " La Panoche Grande," on which these " New Idria quicksilver mines " were discovered, may be found in another part of this work,
The enormous output of these mines, which are claimed only by a squatter's title (by a company composed largely of foreigners or of persons living in foreign countries) has enabled the claimants of the mines to con- test the title to the ranche for thirty-five years, notwithstanding the fact that said title has been pronounced genuine, and that a patent was ordered issued therefor nearly
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thirty years ago. The case is one of the most anomalous in the history of this country.
ANTIMONY.
Antimony is found in the McLeod mining district, which is situated some fourteen miles northeast of Hollister, the county seat. The mines, which were discovered in 1861 are situated on the northern and western slopes of Antimony mountain, which rises to the height of over 3,000 feet above sea level.
The backbone and higher portions of Anti- mony mountain are formed of diorite, syenite and serpentine rocks, which penetrate a sand- stone at its base, and argillaceons slates upon its slope, in which the principal mineral- bearing veins are chiefly located.
The Shriver and Ambrose are the principal antimony mines which have been worked. The ore from the latter contains 38 per cent metallic antimony, which sells in San Fran- cisco at $55 per ton. The former was bonded in 1890 for $35,000, the bonders paying $5 a ton on all antimony ore taken out.
COAL.
Valuable discoveries of coal have been made in numerons localities in San Benito county; as in the New Idria, Vallecitos and other dis- tricts. A variety of coal resembling jet has been found near Elkhorn, and good coal pros- pects are to be found on the Cienega Gabilan (Hawk swamp or marsh) ranche. The coal- bearing formations at Emmett were worked as early as 1878. The Bart coal mine, situated
about 1,000 feet above the roadway north of Emmett, is developed by an incline and a cross-cut at the upper working and a 100-foot tunnel lower down. The incline commences on a small vein about three inches wide of black, lustrous lignite, much of which shows a woody structurc. The working itself is in clay slate, of which both hanging and foot walls are composed. The pitch of the vein is to the northwest at an angle of about twenty degrees. At one place, about half way down the main incline, the vein pinches out, but reappears shortly before reaching the cross- cut, which is at a depth of about thirty feet. The main incline is continued for about sixty feet farther, but has now caved. The cross-cut is continued to the west as an incline and fol- low the vein, which is from two to six inches in thickness. This cross-cut was filled with water to within a distance of thirty feet from the main incline. At the wat- er's edge the vein is about six inches in diameter. Eighty feet below the month of the upper working is a tunnel, which has been started to connect with the incline and drain the upper workings of water. In this tunnel slate or conglomerate is encountered with small crystals of gypsum on the cleavage sur- face of the hard slate passed through.
On Panoche creek, also upon the east side of the roadway, to the west of the well of the California Central Oil Company, some work has been done in the way of development. There appear to be three coal veins separated by strata of light-colored sandstone. These veins, the largest of which are over four feet
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thick, are composed of shale interstratified with seams of coal.
On the Ashurst ranch in the Vallecitos, are several coal prospects,-probably a con- tinnation of the coal measures which crop out on the east side of the road near the central oil well. The formation is sandstone, occa- sionally interstratified with shale; in the up- per portion of the hills is a fossiliferous sand- stone containing Pecten and other shells. The coal measures are exposed at two places on this ranch in the channels of the creek. At one point the vein is about eighteen inches wide and dips a little to the east of south at an angle of about forty-five degrees. It is composed of black fissile shale mixed with carbonaceous matter and rests upon a stratum of clay about six inches thick, showing car- bonized. plant remains; above the coal is a stratum of highly colored clay. In another portion of the same creek other veins are ex- posed. Crossing the New Idria section of the coast range, which here rises to the height of about 4,000 feet above sea level, the water- shed of San Benito creek is reached.
On the western slope of the mountains, about three miles northeast of the creek, a large vein of coal is exposed. This vein was uncovered by a landslide, which occurred during wet weather in 1885. It is on the northern side of a ravine in the western slope of the New Idria section of the coast range. The vein of about six feet in thick- ness is exposed along its strike for a dis- tance of 100 feet, and dips to the north at an angle of about forty degrees. The hang-
ing-wall is a brownish shale, eighteen inches thick, containing gypsum. Above this wall are about eight inches of sandstone, stained with yellow ocherous impregnations, which is overlaid by a stratum of hard, ferruginous sandstone, a foot or more in thickness; and from that to the top of the bluff, probably 200 feet, the formation is a gray, friable sandstone, interstratified with pebbles, some- times increasing to the size of small boulders and strata of hard, iron-stained sandstone a few inches in thickness. The coal appears to be of good quality, and resembles that in the Vallecitos. These croppings are partly on Government land and partly on land belong- ing to the Southern Pacific Railway Company . There is no doubt that a careful investigation will discover similar formations in other spurs and hills on the western slope of the same mountain.
PETROLEUM.
The oil-bearing strata of San Benito county have as yet been only partially prospected. A well has been bored by the California Cen- tral Oil Company in the Vallecitos mining district. The road to this district from Pa- noche lies through Grizzly cañon, a treeless, desolate section of country, where the erosive action of the winter's storms, cloudbursts, and atmospheric agencies, are strikingly demonstrated in the precipitous banks of the dry watercourses, the gaping crevasses in the alluvial soil, and the grotesque shapes into which the sandstones and softer rocks are worn.
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The works of the oil company are situated about eight miles from Panoche. Work was commenced here in 1886, and suspended during the following year. It is said that the company expended $20,000 on their works, and that their well, which was sunk to a depth of 400 feet, has partially caved. The boring was through a light-colored sand- stone, which became quite white toward the bottom, where a small quantity of oil was struck.
In the cañon to the north is a spring of dark-colored oil, and oil also seeps through the bed and bank of the creek at several places, as well as on the Ashurst ranch in this district.
LIME.
Lime is extensively manufactured at Cien- ega, in the Gabilan mountains, sixteen miles south of Hollister; and excellent limestone also occurs in the Twitchell range, nine miles west of Hollister, where it has been burnt in pot kilns. The Twitchell kilns furnished the lime used in building the Hollister court- house.
The geological formation of the neighbor- hood is entirely metamorphic, the rocks of the vicinity being principally granitoid, to- gether with altered limestone. The latter is a beautiful crystalline variety, which yields an excellent quality of lime, and is in great demand, especially for plastering and brick work. The strata of limestone in the quarry appear much disturbed, pitching southwest at an angle of sixty-five degrees upon the west side of the quarry, and upon the north side
to the northwest at an angle of forty-five de- grees. Before reaching the line, a body of decomposed grantic rock was cut through for a few feet, and the clays and shales which sep- arated the strata of limestone previous to the metamorphic action, are strangely diversified, some being chalky, others slaty, while a few feet off they are granitic. The hill, at the foot of which the quarry is situated, rises to the height of over 2,000 feet above sea level, being about 700 feet above the quarry. The limestone crops out at varions places among the chemisal almost to the summit.
Further to the northwest granitic rocks make their appearance in a ridge running north-northeast by sonth-sonthwest, and a short distance up the cañon from precipitous cliffs. Immediately at the point of contact between the ridge of granitic rocks and the limestone, is a spring of water and an appear- ance of vein matter. One great peculiarity of the granitic rocks of this locality is their singular stratified appearance.
A few yards to the south of the quarry are the (perpetual) lime kilns. These kilns are upright, tapering toward the top, thirty-one feet high, and having a circumference at the level of the fireplaces, of forty-two feet with an inside diameter of four and one-half feet at the same level. The charging floor is twenty-one feet above the firing floor, where two fireplaces heat the kiln; the point of dis- charge is ten feet lower down. The kilns are two in number and have a capacity of about fifty barrels each twenty-four hours, each kiln consuming two and one-half cords of
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wood. The wood used is pitch pine, costing $2.50 per cord delivered at the kiln, and the wages paid to the seven employes is from $50 to $60 per month. The lime can be de- livered at the Tres Pinos railroad station for $1.30 per barrel.
A copper mine called the Antelope has been opened about fourteen miles east of Emmett, on the east side of the Panoche section of the coast range.
Chromite is found near New Idria, and in many other localities, but all at present are too far from railroad communication to make the deposits of commercial value.
There is a large body of hematite near Cienega, and gypsum is found in the south end of the county.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY HISTORY.
19 UT little was known of the interior of California prior to the commencement of the mission era, or 1769, although various navigators had sailed along the Cali- fornia coast, as recounted elsewhere in this volume, during the period intervening be- tween the time of its discovery by Cabrillo, in 1642, and the advent of the Franciscan missionaries.
The Indians had roamed through the mountains and plains of this western coast for unknown ages, living a degraded life, but little above the level of that of the wild ani- mals indigenous to this region. Of their origin or history there is no record. Aside from the story of the rocks, and the vague
lesson taught by the topography of the country, we know absolutely nothing of Alta California prior to 1642; nor indeed but very little until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The historical period, therefore, may be said to commence with the founding of the missions.
During Father Junipero Serra's able ad- ministration, nine missions had been founded in Alta or Upper California. These missions had gathered many Indians into their folds, or had brought them under their control; and they had also acquired considerable wealth in the form of cattle, horses, sheep and other useful animals, and in grain, etc .; and also, four presidios or military appen- dages of the missions had been established by the government for the protection of the latter; so that the missionary establishments may be said to have had the territory along the coast, at least, practically under their control:
After the death of the pioneer president of the missions, Father Junipero Serra, in 1784, Father Palou, the senior priest in California, who had filled Father Junipero's place during his absence, became acting president till the appointment of a successor in the person of Father Fermin Francisco Lasuen of San Diego, in honor of whom Point Fermin was named.
The policy of establishing missions in eligible localities was continned under the presidency of Father Lasuen, in accordance with orders of Governor Borica. Expeditions were sent out from different missions, for the
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purpose of finally fixing the locations for these new missions.
In November, 1795, Friar Dantí and Lieutenant Sal and party set out from Monte- rey to explore the San Benito valley, and they found two snitable places, -- one on the San Benito river, and the other near the site of the present town of Gilroy. President Las- uen reported these to Governor Borica, who embodied the same in his report to the vice- roy. As two sites had been recommended for the mission between San Carlos and Santa Clara, a further examination was ordered, and the site on San Benito river was chosen.
Here, on St. John's day, June 24, 1797, was founded the mission of San Juan Bau- tista (St. John the Baptist), so named to distinguish it from the mission already estab- lished, of San Juan Capistrano, which was named after an entirely different personage or saint.
President Lasuen appointed, as the first ministers of the new mission, " Los R. R. P. P., Pred'res, App. cos, Fr. Jesef de Mortea- rena, y Fr. Pedro Adriano Martines;" i. e., the reverend prelates, preachers apostolical, friars, etc., etc.
A few years after, or on the 13th of June, 1803, the corner-stone of a church building was laid. Among the names of the persons who took part in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of this church, almost ninety years ago, were Padre Viader, conductor of ceremonies, José de la Guerra, padrino, and Captain Font and Surgeon Morelas. A record of the proceedings and a few coins were de-
posited in the corner-stone. An image of the patron saint of the mission, St. John the Bap- tist, was placed on the high altar in 1809; and on the 25th of June, 1812, or nine years after the corner-stone was laid, the church was dedicated, the records of the mission, noting the contemporary facts, of "Fernando VII (whom God preserve!) being king of Spain; Don Fernando Venegas, viceroy of New Spain (Mexico); José Joaquin Arrillaga, governor of California; Esteban Tapis, presi- dent of the missions in California, and Fr. Felipe de la Cuesta, minister at the mis- sion."
Probably the buildings, including the church, warehouses, etc., as they exist at the present day, afford a fair idea of the mission establishment as it appeared during the early part of the century, less the busy and numer- ons neophyte actors and the missionary fathers under whom they labored. These buildings, of course, show the effects of time and the action of the elements; nevertheless, they are still in a fair state of preservation, and they show plainly, even to this late day, that their designers and builders were wise managers in temporal affairs, as well as faith- ful and devoted teachers of the spiritual doc- trines which they believed in.
Some distance from the church were two rows of buildings, about 300 feet in length, under a common roof, with a passage-way between them, divided into many rooms, each entirely separate from the others, in which the neophytes were shut up nights, sepa- rately.
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These Indian abode quarters long ago dis- solved into earth mounds, which now are all that is left to mark their locality. The church buildings were so planned as to in- close an area some 200 feet square, in which the friars and their wards were safe from all outside enemies. A story is told that beneath the fallen wall on the west side of this square, sixty Spanish silver dollars of ancient dates were found. The San Juan church was built of adobes and slack-burnt bricks-the latter being twelve inches by eight inches, by two inches thick, and being baked in a slow fire were very durable. The plan of the building is in the form of a cross; being 140 feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty feet to the ceiling, with a tile roofing. There are three altars, the principal one dedicated to St. John the Baptist, with a life-size statne of this titular saint, at the end of the nave of the church, and an altar on each side of the transept. The walls are four feet thick, braced with brick abutments outside when over twenty feet long, and plastered with lime mortar.
The church formerly had a chime of nine very fine-toned bells, cast in Peru, only one of which is now remaining in the building.
Of the venerable ten-acre mission orchard, only the old pear trees still live and bear fruit; and but a very few hardy olive trees are left of the olive orchard about a mile south of the church; while the vineyard disappeared many years ago.
According to the church records, over 4,000 bodies are buried in the cemetery ad-
joining the north wall of the church. Friar Esteban Tapis, who labored as a missionary in Alta California thirty-five years, died at this mission, November 4, 1825, and was buried under the chancel floor of the church. He had been in charge, successively, of the missions of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Santa Bárbara, Santa Ynez, San Cárlos and San Juan Bautista. The books of the church show that the number of Indians baptized amounted in all to 3,981.
Humboldt reports that at the time of his visit to California, in 1802, there were at the mission 530 male and 428 female In- dian neophytes, or 958 in all. As a center of activity of nearly 1,000 human beings, we can imagine that it presented a vastly different scene from what it does now. As indicating the number of Indians in that neighborhood, at that period, it may be men- tioned that within three and a half years after the founding of San Juan Mission, nearly 650 Indians had been baptized, and that there were twenty-three rancherias, or Indian villages, within that jurisdiction.
The numerous Indian tribes of the dis- trict annoyed the mission by various nn- friendly acts from time to time; and Ser- geant Castro was sent out by Governor Borica with sufficient force to chastise them, and to partially check their depredations.
The prosperity and fertility of the country around San Juan are shown by the fact that during the first three years the increase of ganado mayor (large cattle or animals) be- longing to the mission amounted to over 700
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head, and the ganado menor, or smaller animals, exceeded 2,000 head; while 2,700 bushels of grain were produced in the year 1800.
In October, 1800, numerous earthquake shocks were felt; and especially on the eight- eenth of that month, a very severe one oc- curred, causing considerable damage to the adobe buildings standing at the time, an ac- count of which, as noticed at San Juan Bautista, is given in a letter of the Captain of the presidio of Monterey to Governor Ar- rillaga, on October 31, 1800: "I have to in- form your Excellency that the mission of San Juan Bautista, since the 11th inst., has been visited by severe earthquakes; that Pedro Adriano Martinez, one of the Fathers of said mission, has informed me that during one day there were six severe shocks; that there is not a single habitation, although built with double walls, that has not been in- jured from roof to foundation, and that all are threatened with ruin; and that the fathers are compelled to sleep in the wagons to avoid danger, since the houses are not habitable. At the place where the rancheria is situated, some small openings have been observed in the earth, and also in the neighborhood of the river Pájaro, there is another deep open- ing, all resulting from the earthquakes. These phenomena have filled the fathers and inhabitants of that mission with consterna- tion.
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