USA > California > Nevada County > Bean's history and directory of Nevada County, California. Containing a complete history of the county, with sketches of the various towns and mining camps also, full statistics of mining and all other industrial resources > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
IF CLOTHING IS CHEAP ANY WHERE IN THE COUNTY IT IS AT B. GAD'S.
EVERY BODY GOES TO DIXON'S V RIETY STORE.
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
215
at the Gold Hill mill, yielded about $6,000 ; and in December of the same year, sixty-two tons produced $23,000.
From 1855 up to last year the mine proved wonderfully rich, during which time large sums were expended in erecting machinery, sinking shafts, etc., the owners, the meanwhile, receiving liberal dividends. The gross yield of Allison Ranch from its opening to the close of 1866, as the books of the company demonstrate, was between $2,300,000 and $2,400,000. The product for the three years ending De- cember 30, 1865, was $1,000,000, and in 1866 about $200,000. [It should be borne in mind that only eight months work was performed in 1866, the company virtually suspending operations in September last, and entirely abandoning work early last winter.] The lowest depth reached on the incline is four hundred and seventy-five feet, giving a vertical depth on the lode of three hundred and forty feet. In this level the vein was drifted on a distance of four hundred and thirty-four feet, north- erly and southerly, two hundred and twenty feet in a northerly direction, and two hundred and fourteen feet southerly. In the south drift the vein showed an aver- age width of fourteen inches, and in the north drift eighteen inches. The ledge, which had been considerably broken up in this level, in fact showing for a time what appeared to be two veins, came together in the bottom of the level. A portion of the quartz in this level proved very rich, but the greater part was found barren, running the company in debt. Assessments were required to defray the expenses of sinking for another level, but such assessments came not, and a majority of the owners concluded to suspend work, carrying their conclusion to an unfortunate end. The mine, as already intimated, must at no distant day be re-opened. The owners of the Allison Ranch property are Michael Colbert, William Daniel and John Fahey, of Grass Valley, James Stanton, of San Francisco, and James O'Donahue and Chas. Field, of Bangor, Maine.
The first extension north of the Allison Ranch ledge (recorded as the Stanton ledge,) was located on February 23d, 1855, by the Franklin Company, consisting of twelve hundred feet. The mine was leased in 1860, by Orlando Jennings, who soon afterward erected hoisting works and two pumps on it. An inclined shaft was sunk to a depth of two hundred and thirty-four feet on what was then supposed to be the ledge, but which, according to the opinion of experienced miners, was in reality only a stringer. Work was continued until June 1st, 1862, from which time to the present, the mine has been idle. The sum of $24,000 was taken from the lodge, which amount fell greatly short of the expense of working the mine.
The south extension of Allison Ranch (Stanton ledge) was located in 1858, by George Wallace and others, who took up cight hundred feet. Several prospecting shafts have been sunk, the lowest perpendicular depth of any being about seventy- five feet. The croppings of the ledge were struck in the bottom of the deepest shaft, and about the same time, water was found, which caused a temporary aban- donment of work. A drain tunnel, commenced in 1861, from the west bank of Wolf creek, has been run a distance of three hundred feet, and will be continued during the present season two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet further. The present proprietors are, George D. Roberts, Con. Reilly, David Watt, Wm. Daniel, and Samuel Wittengenstein, the latter being an owner by purchase. Not being worked.
In Vail's Ranch is the Phoenix ledge, which runs parallel with the Allison Ranch ledge, at a distance of about fifty rods. The Phoenix was located in 1861, by P.
LET EVERY MAN WHO WANTS CLOTHING APPLY AT B. GAD'S.
DIXON'S NEW VARIETY STORE, No. 4 MILL STREET.
216
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
Hennessy and others, claiming one thousand feet. Several crushings of the Phoenix rock have been made, the lowest perpendicular depth from which ore has been extracted being thirty-five feet, and the average yield has been twenty-five dollars per ton. The owners of the Phoenix are, P. Hennessy, P. Gallwey, John Colbert, Richard Barry, John Fahey, and Thomas O'Rourke.
Norambagua Mine.
This mine is situated at Forest Springs, one mile south from the celebrated Alli- son Ranch mine, and three and a quarter miles from the town of Grass Valley. The vein runs nearly north and south, and dips to the east at a very low angle --- from twelve to seventcen degrees. It is incorporated as the "Forest Springs Quartz Mining and Lumber Company." This company now own 4,300 feet on the Noram- bagna vein, and 2,000 feet on the Bourbon, a parallel lode, which lies a little west of the Norambagua.
The inclosing rock is a very large-jointed variety of green stone syenite, which drills and breaks readily in mining-a very fortunate circumstance in the economy of working. This rock is considerably decomposed at surface, but assumes its true character below water level.
The Norambagua vein has been extensively explored since 1855. It is a narrow vein, being rarely over ten inches and averaging, perhaps, four or five inches. is composed of a blueish-white quartz, seamed and banded with arsenical and white iron pyrites arranged in parallel zones, producing a ribbon-like structure. The gold is seen in delicate parcels interspersed in the mass, requiring careful observation to detect it ; but sometimes it is seen more conspicuously, as a thin fibre wire cleaves in the vein. Its tenor of gold is high, ranging from $40 to $100 to the ton. This vein is unlike the general character of the Grass Valley veins, which, as a rule, are destitute of arsenic and white iron pyrites. Similar ores are seen, however, in Osborne Hill.
The Norambagua vein has been opened by an incline shaft, sunk to a depth of five hundred and sixty-seven feet (to the fifth level) and is now going down, but the extremely low angle of easterly dip (12º to 17º) gives only about one hundred and fifty feet of vertical hight over the level named. The levels have heen extended about one thousand feet south and five hundred feet north of the incline, or in all, fully one thousand and five hundred feet on the horizon of the main tunnel. The lower level was, in March, 1867, about two hundred and thirty feet north and two hundred and twenty feet south of the incline. The ores, especially on the south, were remarkably rich, yielding in mill over $70 per ton, and assaying very much more.
The drain tunnel, which connects with the vein at four hundred and ninety feet from its croppings, was opened through on the 7th of March, 1867, eleven hundred feet in length, and four hundred and sixty feet north of the incline, having been in process of driving for four years, or since 1862, and at a cost of over $40,000. This is an important work, offering an exit for all the ores in nearly five hundred feet of backs, and a passage for the waters above and below this level, thus reducing the task of the pump to hoisting from the lower levels to the drain level. From this level the ores can be delivered by gravity to the proposed new mill site.
The mine is furnished with a new 60-horse power hoisting and pumping engine. The ore is hoisted up the incline on a tram way by wire ropes. Most of the dead
EVERY VARIETY OF CALIFORNIA MADE BLANKETS CAN BE FOUND AT B. GAD'S.
217
INK STANDS, PENS AND PAPER, AT DIXON'S,
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
rock broken in taking up the vein is used to fill up the old stopes, thus saving the uso of timber. The levels of this mine are walled up in solid stone in the most substantial and workman-like manner. The cost of mining and milling the ore is about $30 per ton. The reserves of ore appear to be very great in the Noramba- gua. The vein has exhibited remarkable constancy in its general characteristics and gold tenor, but is said to have grown richer to the south in descending. The mine has been worked in former years in a very unsystematic and temporizing manner, exhausting all the available ores and then pausing for some months while the incline was sunk and new levels were driven. A short time since the property changed hands, and now, under the energetic management of Mr. W. H. Rodda, formerly superintendent of the North Star, the incline is being vigorously sunk, the drain level has been opened through, and the levels are being extended both ways to explore new ground.
The Bourbon lode, which is some five hundred feet in front (west) of the Noram- bagna vein, has remained, until lately, quite unexplored, except that from a shaft sunk upon it for a short distance, the ore was found of a promising character. Recently, work has been commenced on the Bourbon by tribute, the miners fur- nishing their own supplies and dividing the product with the owners. This is evi- dence that the miners entertain a favorable opinion of the value of the ledge, or they would not risk their labor and expenses on it.
The Norambagua ores are reduced at the mill belonging to the Forest Springs Company, situated on Wolf creek, near the mine, and driven by a water wheel of twenty-eight fect diameter and four feet breast. This mill was built in 1851, has ten stamps, in two batteries, square heads and wooden stems. Amalgamation in battery is used, with copper plates and concentration of the tailings on Bradford's vanning tables or concentrators; also with Norton's pans, to grind the sulphurets. The copper pans of these machines are found to act well in saving floating mercury and amalgam, as well as in effecting a satisfactory concentration of the sulphurets. It is surprising that they do so good word, for they are charged far beyond the ca- pacity for which they were designed, are very poorly attended, and by neglect have become much worn and disarranged. It is a machine which, with good manage- ment, is capable of doing excellent work. Although this mill is one of the most venerable in California, it has lately been repaired and its performance in treating gold seems more satisfactory than its rude exterior would indicate. The pile of tailings collected near the mill, carefully averaged yielded only about $7 per ton in gold. The concentrated sulphurets are worth about $50 per ton. The amount of sulphurets in the Norambagua ores is considerable, probably as much as three per cent. The capacity of this mill for treatment is about fifteen tons per day. It is run on custom work when not fully ocenpied on Norambagua ores. Now that the Norambagua mine is opened by its drain tunnel, and has also ample hoisting power, it will be the policy of the company to mine ores to the full capacity of the mill. A new mill site has been selected and a new mill is talked of.
The product of the Norambagua mine from September, 1864, to the same month in 1865, was $80,643. About four months of the year very little ore was crushed ; eight men on a shift being all the force employed in taking out ore. It is the pol- icy of the present owners to develop the mine in such a way as to have the explora- tions well in advance of the work of extraction, and at the same time to bring their mill up to its full capacity.
A2
IF YOU WANT A FINE DRESS SUIT GO TO B. GAD'S.
DIXON'S, ONE MILE FROM EUREKA MINE.
218 GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
Not one-fourth part of the ore-ground owned by the company on the Norambagua has been prospected, and the Bourbon ledge is as yet hardly opened, and yet the work of exploration on the former mine has been in progress for about twelve years. There is hence good reason to believe that this fine property will soon be productive, more productive than ever before. The advantage possessed by this mine in respect to drainage and the amount of ore available within a moderate depth, will be un derstood when it is remembered that (if the mean dip of 15° is preserved) before a vertical depth of five hundred feet under the drain tunnel is reached the incline shaft must be sunk over twenty-one hundred feet from the mouth of the shaft, measured on the slope. We find in this peculiarity as well as in the high tenor of gold, a compensation for the small thickness of the vein, which, it should be added, has all the characteristics of a true fissure vein, likely to continue anchanged in depth.
-
The Shamrock ledge runs parallel with the Norambagua, being southeast of the latter about twelve hundred feet ; located in 1860. Two thousand feet in claim. Vertical depth reached on vein, about thirty feet, and the ledge worked at various points for an entire distance of thirteen hundred feet. About seven hundred tons of quartz have been extracted, paying from $14 to $50 per ton ; average pay, $26 per ton. Ledge averages about ten inches in width. Owned by John Tierney, James Harrigan, Patrick Reilly, Patrick Hayes, and Anthony Copeland.
The Perrin ledge, owned by Joseph Perrin and B. F. Colvin, runs parallel with the Shamrock, and is now being profitably worked. Water wheel used for pump- ing and hoisting purposes.
The General Grant, same course as Shamrock, is a narrow vein, but is rich in gold. Last crushing, a few weeks since, showed an average yield of $50 per ton. Owned by George Little, James Harrigan, and others.
Gold Hill Mine.
This mine is on the hill after which it is named, and the claim calls for one thousand feet upon the vein. This mine has been celebrated for the large amount of gold which at various times since 1850 it has returned. It has had more than its share of the vicissitudes attending gold mining, but its history has not been re- corded. At times the quartz has been knit together with gold which seemed to be distributed in this portion of the Massachusetts Hill vein in pockets. Those best able to know assert that there is a continuous communication in quartz between the workings on Massachusetts Hill and Gold Hill, leaving, apparently, no doubt of the identity of the vein. Mr. Attwood, who worked the Gold Hill mine for a length of time, informed the writer that at times the quartz was completely barren or contained less gold than would return the costs of mining in one thousand tons, which, without any assignable reason, would again yield an almost fabulous pro- duct. Vast sums in " specimens " are known to have been stolen by the miners during the run of these bonanzas, in spite of all vigilance. It was this mine that supplied the quartz for the so-called Gold Hill mill, memorable and venerable among the quartz mills of California. It is a popular belief that Gold Hill, during the fourteen years of its history prior to 1865, had returned not less than four millions of dollars in gold bullion. From September, 1865, until September, 1866, this mine was idle. Since then explorations have been resumed with good unvary- ing result.
This mine is explored by an incline shaft, which descends south 86° E (magnetic)
B. GAD'S, CORNER MAIN AND MILL STREETS, GRASS VALLEY.
219
GO TO No. 4 MILL STREET, GRASS VALLEY.
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
to a depth, on the slope, of three hundred feet. For the first one hundred and forty feet this shaft dips at an angle of forty-five degrees, until it strikes the vein, which it follows for one hundred and sixty feet more at an average dip of twenty-eight degrees. There is an adit or drain tunnel at the depth of ninety fect from the mouth of the shaft. The former explorations of this mine appear to have been extremely unsystematic and irregular, producing the impression to an experienced eye that the ups and downs which have attended it may be, in part at least, charge- able to want of skill and good judgment on the part of those who worked it. The older workings above two hundred and twenty-four feet are mostly filled up or in- accessible, and no trustworthy tradition of them are preserved.
At two hundred and twenty-four feet depth on the incline is a drift running northerly one hundred and fifty-nine feet from the shaft; at two hundred and thirty- five feet depth is another drift running south three hundred and seventy-seven fect from the shaft ; and at two hundred and eighty-seven fect is another, south eighty- six and a half feet, and north fifty-nine feet. Course of the vein and ore very crooked. In the two hundred and twenty-four fect drift north the vein is irregular, all the drifts below varying in size from a mere stringer at points near the shaft to six feet at one hundred and eight feet from it-but split into two parts with a mass of bedrock between-making an average of about two and a half feet of quartz. Over this drift it is believed the ground is mostly unbroken to the surface north of one hundred and eight feet from the shaft. The end of this drift is pretty wet. The two hundred and eighty-seven feet drift north shows stringers of quartz having bodies at times of considerable extent, and averaging about fifteen inclies, the walls of the vein being from five to eight feet apart. No stoping has been done in this drift, which is very wet. South on the same drift, passing a block of twenty-five feet of ground from the shaft, believed to be of no value. The vein curves in irregular, mixed with perhapes eighteen inches of quartz, and some stoping has been done, averaging twenty inches from the bottom of the vein. About twelve feet from the end of this drift, or two hundred and seventy-five feet from the shaft, there is a fault, called by the miners, a " cross course," beyond which there is no vein matter, so far as explored, the hanging wall of the vein having dropped on the foot wall, which retains its position. This fault is nearly northwest and southeast, and dips steeply at about seventy degress. It contains no ore, being a mere scam, and the end of the drift is dry.
The vein in the two hundred and thirty-five fect level south shows some good stoping ground, and the vein varies from two to three feet in thickness, being, in some places, as much as four and a half feet thick and very highly impregnated with sulphurets-as is also the hanging wall for a considerable distance over the vein. The vein carries in its wider portions a good deal of rock but is there also more highly sulphuretted.
The tenor of gold in the vein at present is not very high, averaging about $15. The books show that 2,887 tons of ore, crushed from September, 1862, to March, 1867, gave an average yield of $13 05 per ton, the yield from the individual crush- ings varying greatly.
This mine is furnished with an engine, rated at 100-horse power, for pumping, and a hoisting engine rated at 25-horse power ; both supplied from the same boiler at a consumption of about three and a half cords of wood in twenty-four hours. The pump is eight inch to the adit level, above that point to surface it is ten inches.
B. GAD KEEPS A FULL ASSORTMENT OF BOYS' CLOTHING.
EVERY BODY PATRONISES DIXON,
220
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
The strength of the Gold Hill vein and its well known richness in former times, encourage explorations in depth and extent, with the reasonable expectation that the mine will at an early day resume its place as a dividend paying mine. There are now reserves standing in the stopes of about eight hundred tons of ore, and it is reputed that a considerable amount of good ore remains available also in the upper workings, which may swell the reserves to one thousand or twelve hundred tons. Meanwhile the incline is being sunk under the present management.
Union Hill.
This hill is two miles east of Grass Valley, and is separated from Howard Hill, with which it is parallel, by Middle Wolf creek. The Hill was made a matter of record January 30, 1851. The first and chief location on the eastern end of Union Hill ledge, was made by Dr. McMurtry, David Brooks, G. W. Woodward, and others, who afterward purchased several other claims. The company erected a Mexican arastra mill, and took out enough rock to defray all expenses. The mine was badly managed, as nearly all other mines were at that time. With heavy expenses and no experience in quartz mining, the company became involved. Judgments were obtained, executions were issued, and the mine was sold on April 6th, 1854, to Dr. Wm. McCormick, H. Hannah, and others. But little work was done on the mine beyond enough to hold it under the mining laws. Dr. McCormick, in 1865, became sole owner, selling interests the same year to Geo. D. Roberts, Thomas Findley and John Gashwilder, who are now the owners of the property. The latter part of 1865 the company put up hoisting and pumping works, and in the winter of 1866 sunk an inclined shaft one hundred and ten feet, and during the summer run drifts at that depth about seven hundred feet, two hundred feet west and five hundred feet east, the lode varying in width from one to six feet, averaging about two and one-half feet in width, the rock paying from $12 to $80 per ton by mill process. In June and July of the same year the company built a twenty-stamp mill, which was kept running during the day time, from August 1st, the mine not being sufficiently opened to run the mill day and night. In September last they started the incline and sunk eighty feet deeper, and the tunnels were run on the lode east and west about one hundred and fifty feet each way, the rock being richer and the ledge wider-averaging nearly three feet. The company, at this time, were making preparations to run the mill day and night. When the severe winter set in they were obliged, on account of water and some of the machinery giving way, to temporarily abandon the mine about February 1st, 1867, until spring. They have now resumed operations at the mine and will run a drain tunnel, connecting with the upper level, which will take off all surface water and save the mine from being filled with water another winter. The average pitch of the ledge, which runs in slate, is at an angle of fifty degrees. The lowest perpendicular depth attained has been about one hundred and thirty feet. The company own three thousand feet on the ledge, with all its dips, angles and variations; in addition to which they own three hundred square claims ; and they also own Wolf creek, for mining purposes, the entire length of their claims. They have on their claims, besides the engine for running the mill, one 12-inch engine for pumping and an 8-inch engine for hoisting, and two pumps, one eight inch and the other fourteen inch, plunger and bucket. The machinery erected and attached to the mine cost about $40,000. The proceeds from this mine since starting the mill until work was suspended last winter, by water, were $74,413 41.
BUSINESS SUITS OF THE LATEST STYLE AT B. GAD'S,
DIXON'S VARIETY STORE, FOUR MILES FROM NEVADA.
GRASS VALLEY TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
221
Near the summit of Union Hill, and running in a northwesterly and southeasterly direction, is the mine of the Grass Valley Consolidated Mining Company, now solely owned by Col. William O'Connor Sidney. This lode runs in hornblende, dipping westerly with an average inclination of about fifty degrees. The claim embraces twenty-five hundred feet on the vein, including, of course, all the dips, angles and variations of the lode. This is an carly location, and was known at different periods as the MeGrann, and the Murphy and the Bulger ledge. Colonel Sidney purchased the mine in January, 1866, from George D. Roberts, who had bought it from the original owners. A number of years ago the ledge was super- ficially worked by its locators, paying from $13 to $36 per ton, the rock having been crushed at the Gold Hill, the Lady Franklin and Laton & Son's mills. A tunnel was started about seven years since, and was run a distance of five hundred and twelve feet, where the vein, which was here narrow, was struck at a perpen- dicular depth of one hundred and twelve feet from the surface. In October of last year, an inclined shaft was started on the summit of the hill, at a distance of about five hundred feet northwesterly from the end of the tunnel. The incline is twelve feet by five in the clear, is splendidly timbered throughout, having a double track, and affording ample room for a large pump. The shaft pitches at an angle of fifty- five degrees, not varying the least in the inclination from the head to its present terminus, which is about one hundred and eighty-six feet from the surface. At the foot of the incline, where a splendid locking ledge was exposed, the water came in with discouraging rapidity, and having no pumping facil- ities, work was temporarily abandoned. That no time should be lost, the labor of cleaning out the old tunnel, referred to above, was commenced. The tunnel, as already stated, had renched a distance of five hundred and twelve feet, under the old ownership, when the owners, who, by the way, were poor men and unable to thoroughly work the mine, became discouraged. Under the present management work was recently resumed at the end of the tunnel, the needed repairs were made, and upon putting in the first set of timbers, the ledge, showing a width of ten inches and looking very well, was discovered. The vein has been followed in this drift about four hundred feet in a southeasterly direction, the lode increasing in width and improving in the character of the ore as the work has progressed. A drift, started by the original owners, had been run about one hundred and eighty feet in a northwesterly direction from the head of the tunnel, and along this drift are several " chutes," from which the crushings already spoken of were taken. The northwest drift has been connected with the incline shaft, leaving the vein exposed for a distance of about nine hundred feet. The lode for the entire distance will average about two feet and one-half in width, showing generally a good char- acter of quartz, and in the southeast drift is presented an excellent quality of ore, strongly resembling the Eureka rock, and strengthening the long accepted belief among practical miners that this is really the Eureka vein. The rock in the south- east drift is liberally filled with fine sulphurets, a portion of which sulphurets will yield at the rate of $420 to the ton. The vertical depth of the present level will not average more than eighty feet. The work of sinking for another level, to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet below the present one, was commenced a few weeks since, and will probably he completed before this work reaches the public. Drifts will of course be run on the lode on this level for the entire length of the Consolidated Company's claims. A splendid 10-stamp mill, which can be increased
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.