USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 36
USA > California > Santa Barbara County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 36
USA > California > Ventura County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 36
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Professor Whitney says it was somewhere in this vicinity that gold was first obtained in California in considerable quantity, and that was as early as 1841. M. Duflot de
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Mofras says that the locality was in the mountains six leagues from San Fernando and fifteen leagues from Los Angeles, where gold was first discovered. Bancroft makes mention of the fact of this locality having been worked more or less during the first half of the present century. It is evident that the yield of gold and silver of this local- ity has amounted to a large sum in the aggregate.
The director of the mint, in one of his an- nnal reports to the Government, claims that Frazer mountain alone had yielded $1,000,- 000 in gold.
To preserve the chronological symmetry of the present work, is introduced an extract from the report of the director of the mint for the year 1882. Dr. Bowers gives this at the end of his own paper on these mines, to which recurrence will be made hereafter.
" The Piru District takes its name from the Piru Creek, which runs through it in a southerly direction, carrying, according to season, from 100 to 1,000 inches of water, and has placer diggings along its banks that have been profitably worked. It is about fifty miles in length by twenty-five in width, and is a strongly-marked mineral belt, carry- ing mineral veins of almost every kind, such as gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, iron, bis- muth and antimony. It is abundantly sup- plied with timber of all kinds and grass. It seems never to have attracted the attention of that class of men who get up booms in min- ing camps, Those who frequent it are poor men, who go there to make a raise, working the rich gold quartz they find, in arrastras. The district is in Ventura County, and the part around which the principal interest con- ters and the work is mainly done is distant fifty-five miles from Bakersfield.
" The principal lode is called the Fraser mine. During the time it was worked, a
period of eight years, until operations ceased, October 31, 1879, because of litigation aris- ing from disputed ownership, it is believed to have yielded about $1,000,000 in gold. The difficulty is now said to be on the eve of settlement, and it will be worked by improved methods and on a larger scale than hereto- fore. The vein varies from two to sixteen feet in width, and will average eight feet. The ore contains a small percentage of silver, which seems to increase with depth. At the depth of 250 feet it amounts to $6 per ton, while there was only a trace at the surface. The ore contains iron and other sulphurets that assay from $3.00 to $3.50 per ton. They are all saved, but there is no means of treating them at the mine. The yield in free gold is from $15 to $25 per ton. There are many other claims in the vicinity that are successfully worked, yielding from $500 to $3,500 yearly by the arrastra process. One of these, the Castac, has yielded about $1,500.
" Some of the most valuable lodes cannot be worked by the free-milling process, be- canse they contain lead, and therefore lie idle for the present. One of these, the Mountain Chief, a large, well-defined vein, gives an average of $31 in gold and $40 in silver per ton. The ore is also charged with rich sulphates. Probably one of the most valuable lodes in the district, if it were in some other place, is a vein of magnetic iron fifty feet in width, containing fifty-two per cent. of this useful metal.
"In this district are Frazer, Fitzgerald, Alamo, Brown and other mountains, all within the boundary line of Ventura County. In these are found true fissure quartz veins with granite walls, yielding gold and silver in paying quantities. Unfortunately for the development of these ledges they have gen- erally fallen into the hands of persons who have had little or no capital to work them.
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They are holding their claims by doing the necessary assessment work from year to year, awaiting the advent of men who can com- mand the means to purchase and develop them.
" Gold has also been found in the Guada- lasca range on the eastern side of the county, not far from the sea shore. The mountains rise from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea level a few miles back from the ocean, and contain numerous quartz deposits in which free gold is found. It has never been snc- cessfully mined in this locality, but prospect- ors have recently brought in some fine-looking ore carrying a considerable quantity of frec gold. This section still lacks thorough scientific investigation.
"The San Emidio Antimony Mine was located by its present owners in 1872. It is claimed that this ledge was known to the Jesuit Fathers at an early day and was worked under their direction. I learn that there is a record to this effect in some of the old missions, and that implements have been found here and elsewhere in this portion of the country, indicating their use in these mines many years ago.
" Professor William R. Blake, who visited this locality in 1853 as geologist and miner- alogist of the expedition surveying a route for the Pacific Railroad, refers to this deposit of antimony and says that in one place he found the remains of some old smelting works. Mr. Blake revisited this locality some years afterward, being much impressed with the character of its mineral deposits. In his reports he believed the antimony of sufficient importance to pay for its transport- ation to San Pedro on mules, a distance of over 100 miles, to what was then the nearest seaport. The ore is principally sulphuret of antimony. The vein crops out on the sun- Init of the San Emidio Range, and is from
thirty to 100 feet in width. The hanging and foot walls are composed of granite. The ore is carried on donkeys over a trail two and one-half miles to smelting works in San Emidio Cañon, which is 2,500 feet below the vein at the place where it is being mined. Here is a pulverizer and three concentrators, with other machinery, run by steam power.
" Messrs. Bonchey & Co., the owners of this mine, are preparing to erect a tramway or slide from the mine to the works, which will be abont one and one-half mile in length. There is an abundance of pine timber grow- ing near by that may be utilized for the purpose, while in the cañon where the smelt- ing works are located is a never-failing stream of water. The ore averages from thirty to thirty-five per cent. of antimony. It is also stated that it contains from $4 to $16 per ton in gold, and from $10 to $14 in silver. *
* * The mountain west of this ledge is capped with metamorphic sandstones, which Mr. Bouchey has tested for lining the fur- naces of his smelting works, and pronounces it equal to the best imported fire-bricks."
A large bed of gypsum occurs in the Ojai Valley, crossing the hill below the grade road that ascends to the upper valley. There is an exposure in the cañon on the sonth side of the road, some fifteen or twenty feet wide, dipping slightly to the east. It disappears under the mountain, but crops out nearly a mile distant on the opposite side. It is situ- ated so that it can be easily worked, requir- ing the construction of a wagon road but abont 2,000 feet along the side of the cañon. A large deposit of gypsum is reported to have been found recently in the western por- tion of the county. It is also found in small quantities in other portions of the county.
A ledge of bituminous rock was discov- ered a few months since in Diablo Cañon, about five miles from Ventura, and is worked
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by Messrs. Cyrus Bellah & Son. It is on the side of the cañon, and has been prospected a distance of forty feet and forty feet deep. The deposit gradually increases in thickness, and gives promise of being practically inexhaust- ible. It has been tested by the Southern Pacific Company and others, who pronounce it of most excellent quality. The town au- thorities of San Buenaventura have ordered sidewalks to be constructed of this material on one of its principal streets, which will test its durability and value for paving pur- poses. Small deposits of this mineral are found in the upper Ojai Valley and other places in the county.
The county abounds in hot and cold inin- eral springs. The most noted of these are situated in the Matilaja Cañon, fifteen or eighteen miles from San Buenaventura. They have been in nse several years by per- sons suffering from rheumatismn, indigestion, and cutaneous and other diseases. They are found somewhat abundantly for two or three miles along the cañon, varying in tempera- ture from cold to hot. Several medicinal springs are found on the Piru and at other portions of the county, but they have not been brought to the notice of the public.
Already all the following named minerals have been found in Ventura County, and doubtless others will be discovered in other . portions of the section that as yet have not been critically examined:
Agate, analcite, actinolite, aragonite, anti- mony, amygdaloid, azurite, alabaster, aurifer- ous quartz, argillaceous ironstone.
Bitumen, basalt, bromide of silver, bitu- minous rock, breccia, banded agate, brown coal, bituminous shale.
Copper, calcite, cinnabar, chalcedony, chert, chrysolite, conglomerate, calcareous tnfa, carbonaceous shale, chrysocolla, compact gypsum, coal, chimney rock.
Dolomite, dendrite, dogtooth spar, diorite, diatomaceous earth.
Epsomite.
Feldspar, fortification agate.
Gold, garnets, granite, graphite, galenite, gypsum, granular gypsum, fibrous gypsum, graphic granite, gneiss, grit rock, granular quartz, gray kip ore.
Hornblende, hornblendic gneiss, hyalite.
Iron, ironstone, iron pyrites, infusorial earth, jasper, jelsonite.
Kaolinite, lava, limestone lignite.
Mercury, marble, moss-agate, manganese, magnetic iron, marl, mica, mnica schist, mot- tled jasper, massive calcite, micaceous gran- ite, massive gypsum.
Natrolite, native sulphur, nickel (?), naphtha.
Opal, obsidian, oxide of iron, orthoclase.
Porphyry, petroleum, pumice-stone, pud- ding-stone, pitch-stone, potters' clay, petrified wood, pyrites, pierolite (?).
Quartz, quartzose granite.
Rose agate, ruby silver.
Silver, satin spar, salt, sulphur, shale, silica, silt, stalactite, stalagmite, slate, syenite, steatite, serpentine, selenite, semi-opal, shell marble.
Tin (?), trachyte, tale, talcose slate, tnfa. trap, travertine, vesicular basalt, wood opal, zeolite.
Potters' clay, pipe clay, brick clay and several other kinds that may be ntilized and their manufacture grow into important in- dustries, are found in this county. Also mineral soap is found in large quantity. This soap is composed of nearly pure silica, being the remains of infusoria, a microscop- ical organism that existed in vast numbers in past time. These deposits have detergent qualities, and are a valuable substitute for manufactured soap in many respects. It is also valuable for the manufacture of dyna-
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VENTURA COUNTY.
mite, in which it soaks up and retains the liquid nitro-glycerine, and is valuable for some other purposes.
Ventura County contains enough good building stone to supply the State of Cali- fornia for centuries to come. A ledge of brown sandstone begins at the Sespe and continues in a westerly direction (prob- ably curving northwardly) for over twenty- five miles to the ocean. It is several miles wide and of unknown depth. It crops out in various accessible places and varies in texture and hardness. But in every instance, so far as known, it is an excellent building stone. In some places this vast ledge has been lifted to a vertical position and in others it is horizontal. It can be quarried in any size required by builders.
This stone is being used extensively for the finest buildings in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and this promises to be one of the permanent and profitable industries of the county, whose development will furnish em- ployment for thousands of workmen, skilled and unskilled.
Other building stone is found in various portions of the county, as greenish and gray sandstone. In some places these are found in extensive ledges, but they are not equal in texture and beauty to the red sandstone above described. In the northern portion of the county may be found millions of tons of granite, syenite and mica slate. The former contains large rose-colored crystals of ortho- clase, giving it a most beautiful appearance, which is heightened by polishing. The mica, feldspar and quartz are distributed in such a manner as to make the granite durable and valuable for building and monumental purposes. The syenite is exceedingly tough and durable. In other portions of the county vast quantities of compact slate rock may be obtained, and also diorite. Compact basaltic
rocks in almost unlimited quantity may be found at the southeastern and northwestern portions of the county.
Altogether the building stone of Ventura County is inexhaustible. In quality it is probably unexcelled in the State. Hence- forward the " Ventura brownstone" will go into the finest buildings in every city in Cal- ifornia.
The asphaltum or bituminons rock mines forin one of the coming great interests of Ventura County. Up to this time a vast quantity has been shipped to varions cities for street paving, etc., and large contracts are being filled for contractors working in Colorado and Utah. The output over the Ventura wharf will average perhaps ten tons daily. New deposits have been discovered lately, and preparations are making to ship in large quantities as far east as New York. It is hoped that this county will soon be able to supply the demand for this article, for- inerly supplied from the Trinidad Islands. These beds of asphalt, along the San Anto- nio Creek, were first examined before the war, and before the oil discoveries in Penn- sylvania, by Professor Silliman of the Smith- sonian Institute. His report called attention to this territory, and led to the organization of the California & Philadelphia Petroleum Company.
MINERAL OILS.
(From the State Mineralogical Report.)
Owing to the vast mineral oil deposits in this sec- tion, Ventura is known as the " oil county " of Cali- fornia. The oil belt lies in the mountains to the north of the Santa Clara River; it starts from near the eastern boundary of the county, and runs in a south- easterly direction to the San Buenaventura River. It is also found near the Conejo Rancho and in other places in the county.
The wells are mostly situated from three to six miles north of the edge of the Santa Clara Valley, in and about a series of cañons which run southerly to the Santa Clara River. The names of these cañons in order, from east to west, are as follows: Piru, Hopper,
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Sespe, Santa Paula, Adams, Saltmarsh (a branch of Adams), Wheeler, West Wheeler (a branch of Wheel- er), Sulphur and Coche (these two being branches of the Cañada Larga). There are also a few wells in the Ojai Valley.
Westerly from Santa Paula Creek, between the Ojai Valley on the north and the Santa Clara Valley on the south, there extends an unbroken mountain ridge, whose highest crest is about 2,000 feet above the sea, as far west as the San Buenaventura River This ridge is called "Sulphur Mountain," and all the cañons above named to the west of Santa Paula Cañon lie on the southern flank of Sulphur Mountain.
Piru Canon .- From Camulos station it is about six miles to the well of Messrs. Rhodes & Baker, head of Brea Canon.
The well is about 250 feet north of the anticlinal axis, and is now (July 12, 18:7) 715 feet deep. * * They have stopped drilling this well for a while, be- cause their water supply for the engine gave out. There is a moderate quantity of gas in the water from this well. The oil from the well is dark brown in color. This is said to be the only well in or abont Piru Cañon. And certain it is that in the Piru Canon itself the visible surface indications of bituminous matter are very slight. From 200 to 300 feet south of the well there is an extensive deposit of asphaltum mixed with surface sand, and numerous little springs of black maltha scattered over perhaps an acre of ground. Next west of Piru Cañon comes
Hopper Canon,-at whose mouth *
*
* a well was drilled in 1877, by M. W. Beardsley, to a depth of 300 feet, * *
* when the work was stopped for lack of funds. * Even at that depth * * it would probably have yielded three or four barrels per day of light green oil. From this well, in an air
* * line * * about one and one-half miles, * are two wells about 200 feet apart. The lower one is ninety feet deep, and was abandoned because the hole became irretrievably crooked. There was here a good deal of heavy black oil. The other well is a new one just started, * * * yet they have a little heavy black oil on the tools even now.
All the way from here down to the mouth of the cañon there is liquid oil floating on top of the water in the creek. Some of it is green and some of it is black. The aggregate quantity of oil which thus vozes out and floats away on the water is, of course, not large; nevertheless it is greater in this cañon than in any other cañon yet seen in Southern California.
About opposite Waring's house, in the hills on the south side of the Santa Clara Valley, on the Simi Rancho, and on the northern slopes of the San Fer- nando range of mountains, there is a large deposit of asphaltum, together with extensive outflows of liquid
petroleum, where, some years ago, a man gathered for a while about ten barrels of oil per day. Oil men be- lieve that with the expenditure of a moderate amount of labor a surface flow of forty barrels per day could be obtained there. Mr. Hugh Waring states that this is the most westerly point where asphaltum is found in the San Fernando Range. He also says that east of there, in the hills somewhere to the south of Cam- ulos, he has seen cattle mired and dead in pools of viscid and muddy maltha.
Sespe Canon .- Sespe Creek, occupying the cañon next west of Hopper Cañon, is the largest and longest northern branch of the Santa Clara River in Ventura County. It heads far back in the mountains to the north of the Ojai Valley, and at first flows nearly east for a number of miles, passing entirely around the head branches of Santa Paula Cañon, and then curves around so that its general direction for the last ten or twelve miles of its course in the mountains is nearly south. The mouth of the cañon is something like ten miles east of the town of Santa Paula. "Tar Creek " and the " Little Sespe" are two different branches of the main Sespe Cañon, both of them coming in from the east, the mouth of Tar Creek being several miles above that of the Little Sespe. The latter is a short cañon not more than four or five miles in length, but Tar Creek is a longer stream. *
* Near the * mouth of the main Sespe Cañon one small oil spring occurs in the bed of the cañon. In the Little Sespe there is a nice little spring of water, and occasional small oil springs and seepages. * * * In the Little Sespe are the so-called " Los Angeles " wells, of which there are two. One of these is about 1,500 feet deep, and is said to have yielded at first, for some time, about 150 barrels per day. But about the year 1882, in the course of a "freeze out" game amongst the owners, while still yielding some forty barrels per day, it was maliciously plugged by somebody, and thus ruined. The other one went down about 200 feet, when it became crooked.
The present wells of the " Sespe Oil Company " are scattered about the upper branches of Tar Creek. *
* * Well No. 1 is on the right bauk of the main Tar Creek. It was begun January 26, 1887, and fin- ished February 12, 1887 ; is 196 feet deep, and pumps about forty barrels per day of a very dark-colored greenish-brown oil. This well first started off at about 100 barrels per day.
No. 2 is about 300 feet southeasterly from No. 1. It was drilled in April, 1887, and is 206 feet deep. It first started off at about 150 barrels per day, but after- ward fell off, and now flows about seventy-five barrels per day of a dark green oil. It also produces consid erable gas.
No. 4 is probably 1,200 feet northwesterly from No.
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VENTURA COUNTY.
1, and is a new well, not yet drilled. Nos. 1, 2 and 4 are nearly in a straight line. No. 5 is on Oil Creek. Here they have not begun drilling.
No. 3 is down about 500 feet, and they are still drilling.
No. 6 is located some 500 feet easterly from No. 1. Here the grading has been done, but the derrick is not yet erected.
The foregoing statements refer to the condition of the wells July 25, 1887. Some months later No. 2 was reported pumping instead of flowing; beginning with 225 barrels per day, it continued with about 140 per day. No. 4, now about 400 feet deep, was pumping twenty-five barrels per day. Nos. 3 and 4, having gone down about 700 feet, proved dry holes.
The report of the State Mineralogist for 1888 contains the following:
In addition to the report relating to these deposits, published by the Mining Bureau, last year, I have to say that work has steadily progressed, and the output of oil for the last fiscal year has increased from 62,500 barrels to 226,050 barrels.
The following is a statement of the work which has been done in this district during the year ending September 18:
Hopper Canon .- Considerable work has been done here, but the returns have been meager. The forma- tion is so broken up that it is not unlikely the oil exudes at the surface as rapidly as it is elaborated be- low. In order to thoroughly test this locality two wells have been drilled during the past year, one 400, and the other about 800, feet deep. In the deeper well a small amount of oil was struck, and a large flow of water. In the 400-foot well a flow of soda water was obtained, which is said to be of excellent quality, and may be profitably utilized.
Piru Canon .- Like Hopper Cañon, this seems to be outside of the paying oil belt. Two new wells have been drilled here during the past year. One was sunk to a depth of 1,000 feet, but no oil was obtained, and it was abandoned. Another well was sunk one- fourth of a mile away, but it was abandoned for the same reason.
Sespe Canon .- The efforts of the oil company have been much more successful here. Eight new wells have been dug here during the year, which, in the aggregate, yield a large quantity of oil.
No. 7 is located about thirty rods southwest of No. 5. The depth reached was 300 feet. When first com- pleted the well produced twenty barrels a day, but now yields ten barrels daily.
No. 8, located about eighty rods north of No. 4, was drilled to a depth of 650 feet, and yielded seventy-five barrels a day; now reduced to forty-five barrels daily.
No. 9, located about 600 feet from No. 4, is down to a depth of 400 feet, and is producing about eight bar- rels a day.
No. 10 is about 500 feet south of No. 7. It is 350 feet deep and pumps seventy-five barrels a day.
No. 11 is south west of No. 8, and is down to a depth of 400 feet. It produced thirty or forty barrels a day, but quickly ran down to its present product of about nine barrels.
No. 12 is north of No. 8, and is about 650 feet deep. This well produces seventy-five barrels daily.
No. 13 is one-half mile north of No. 12, on Irelan Creek. It is 600 feet deep, and pumps ten barrels a day.
No. 14 is west of No. 13, and was drilled as a test well, going down 1,400 feet. About 500 feet below the surface a small deposit of oil was struck, but the well is practically dry.
No. 15 is south of No. 13, and is still drilling at a deptlı of 700 feet. Considerable water has been struck, and a small quantity of oil.
No. 16 is down about 100 feet, and still drilling.
These wells are located twenty-five miles from the ocean, at an altitude of 2,800 feet.
Adams Canon .- Well No. 16, which was completed in January, at a depth of 750 feet, is the largest flow- ing well ever struck in California. The oil, when reached, shot up to the height of nearly 100 feet, and flowed at the rate of 800 or 930 barrels daily. Before it could be controlled it sent a stream down the cañon for a distance of seven miles. After the lapse of nine months it continues to flow at the rate of 500 barrels daily.
No. 17 is drilled to a depth of 1,4)0 feet, but is a small producer, barely paying for pumping.
No. 18 is located about 400 feet south of No. 9, and is about 900 feet deep and still in process of drilling.
The Adams Canon wetls are about the head of the canon, and most of them strung along a very narrow belt about three-quarters of a mile long. These wells are quite productive. No. 13, when one year old, had produced 74,000 barrels, and is still producing 220 barrels daily. There is considerable asphaltum on the surface of the ground in Adams Canon. The largest patch covers probably one or two acres of ground and contains numerous little springs of black maltha. Adams Cañon well, No. 16, is probably also the largest gas well on the Pacific Coast. At the present time it is producing sufficient gas to run all the works and machinery in the cañon.
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