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 3
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The silver developments on the eastern slope of the Sierra induced a tremendous emigration to the new region, and called for large and long con- tinued supplies. Our county, occupying a central position, and almost on a line between the Bay of San Francisco and Virginia City, and having one of the best natural passes across the mountains, received a generous share of the travel to and from the land of silver.
I should not forget to mention that the silver discoveries gave an impulse to the Pacific Railroad movement. The project of constructing a trans- continental railway had long been a favorite theme among politicians of all parties. Sooner or later the enterprise must have been undertaken. But, the enormous prices paid for freight to the silver mines, and the grand prospect that seemed to be opening for rich and extensive mines of silver all over a wide extended region on the castern border of California, held out a prize for railroad men quite as tempting as the visionary carrying
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trade of the Indies. A railroad was deemed a necessity to the people of Washoe, and a rich investment to the builders. To obtain the trade of a region rich in silver, but poor in all other resources, therefore, became an object, and hightened the zeal of men anxious to associate their names with one of the greatest enterprises of modern times. A feasible route for a railroad was discovered by Theodore D. Judah, in October, 1860, which runs up the divide between Bear river and the American, through Placer and entering Nevada county near the high Sierra. On this route a first- class railroad has been built, at this time as far as Cisco, along the southern border of the county, and thus rendering our mines and productions of easy access has brought us into intimate connection with the men and the capital of the older countries of the globe. The importance of the road to Nevada county, in this regard, can scarcely be over estimated.
I am now to approach one of those extraordinary events that live in the annals of a community while time eudures. The fitful fever after fortunes in silver being over with the disappointed multitude, and reports being cir- culated of many recent and rich discoveries of quartz in our county, hun- dreds of desperate men came among us and highway and other robberies became common. On the 15th of May, 1866, the stage from North San Juan to Nevada was stopped at 43 o'clock in the morning, near the top of the hill on the south side of the South Yuba, above Black's Crossing, by three men in disguise, and $7,900 taken from Wells, Fargo & Co.'s coin chest, which is a fixture in all the stages wherever the company have a route. The passengers, seven in number, were ordered to get out, and the driver commanded to take the horses from the wagon without delay. As the rob- bers were armed with revolvers, there was no alternative but to obey. The robbers then proceeded to blow open the chest with powder, with which they came prepared. Their object was accomplished at the second attempt. The coin was taken and the driver was ordered to drive on.
The stage drove quickly into Nevada, a distance of five miles. The news was made public. Sheriff R. B. Gentry rallied a posse and repaired in all haste to the scene of the robbery. This posse consisted of Steve Venard, James H. Lee, Albert Gentry, and A. W. Potter.
An examination of the spot showed that the robbers had turned out of the road and gone down the river on a line parallel with it. Venard and Lee got on the trail of the robbers and followed it over the roughest of all imaginable ground for the distance of a mile and a half. It was evident which way the robbers went. Lee went back to take the horses around to the road of the crossing below, the rest of the Sheriff's party having previously gone in that direction. Venard, left alone, followed the trail. He came to Myers' Ravine, at its debouchure into the Yuba. He saw that
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the pursued had gone up the ravine to a crossing. He was alone in one of the wildest, and roughest of spots in that wild and rugged region. The hills hung steep above. Rocks, trees, brush and logs there were in profusion on every hand. Venard was armed with a Henry rifle. The waters of the ravine came tumbling down its steep bed of bowlders, with a rush and a noise which rendered no other sounds audible. The hero of the hour pro- cecded with caution. A huge rock rose twenty feet in hight in the midst of the muddy water ; other smaller rocks surrounded it, altogether forming an island. A tree or two grew upon the lower end of the island in the midst of the rocks, their branches and foliage partially covering the rocky rampart above. Below the island, at a few feet distance, was a precipice of fifteen feet or more over which the waters of the ravine tumbled. Venard attempted to cross the stream at the head of this fall. He walked on a short log to a rock. Above him rose the huge mass of granite, but- tressed in front by two smaller rocks. Between these latter was an alley which led up to the base of the Titan. His position was such as to look up this alley. At the base of the great rock Venard discovered the object of his search. The leader of the gang was sitting on the ground and in the act of drawing his revolver. Venard instantly leveled his rifle upon the robber, who was not more than twenty feet distant. At the same mo- ment he saw another of the gang pointing a pistol at him over the edge of a rock. There was no time to change his aim. He fired; the leader fell back shot through the heart. The other robber attempted to shield himself farther behind a rock, leaving the point of his pistol exposed over the top The exposure was fatal; Venard covered the spot with his unerring Henry. No sooner did the head of the robber peer above the rock to take aim than his brain was pierced with a bullet. There was yet another, but he was not to be seen. His pistol might at that moment be pointing at Venard. The latter, quick as thought, clambered up to the lair to beard him in his den. He found the treasure, took the pistols from the dead, covered quickly the former with carth and leaves, and proceeded to hunt up the missing robber. Crossing the stream and ascending the steep mountain beyond, he discovered the robber running up the acclivity sixty yards or more ahead. Venard fired and the robber fell. Another bullet, and the last robber rolled down the hill-dead.
Venard now sought his companions. They all proceeded to the scene of the tragedy, recovered the money, and by two o'clock of the same day the Sheriff's party deposited the cash with Wells, Fargo & Co., in Nevada. If this be not an example of summary justice and remarkable heroism I know not where one may be found. After the Sheriff's party had left Nevada, Wells, Fargo & Co. offered a reward of three thousand dollars, which was B
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paid. The Company also presented Steve Venard with a magnificent Henry riffe, gold mounted and beautifully inscribed, and Governor Low appointed him on his staff with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, "for meritorious services in the field."
The bodies of the robbers were brought to town, washed and fully iden- tified. Upon them was found property they had taken from the passen- gers in stages they had stopped before. The names of the robbers were George Shanks, alias Jack Williams, the leader, Bob Finn, alias Caton, and George W. Moore.
I have thus far abstained from mentioning the various Iromicides that have occurred in the county, from a feeling that too much prominence has been already given to such events in the newspapers of the day. Such tragedies are inseparable from life in California ; or in any other country of great excitements and disappointments. But, a murder of such atrocity as characterized the butchery of Cooper and Kile, at the upper crossing of the South Yuba, deserves special mention. On the evening of the 26th of November, 1866, J. L. Cooper and Joseph Kile, the former a part owner of the bridge known as Cooper's, were attacked by some person or persons unknown, with an ax, and both slain and most horribly mangled. A safe was opened and a few hundred dollars taken. Trunks were burst in with the bloody ax, but money and specimens in one were left untouched. Kile was found the next morning inside the house, and Cooper was lying on the bridge where he had been chopped down in his attempt at flight. Governor Low offered a reward of one thousand dollars for the apprehension of the murderers ; the Board of Supervisors of the county added two thousand more, and T. J. Manchester and James Patten, the former an owner in the bridge, and the latter a relative of Cooper, also increased the amount to three thousand five hundred dollars. The whole affair is shrouded in mystery.
On the evening of the 27th December, 1866, a hurricane of great fury passed Nevada, which broke down the strongest trees, unroofed buildings, blew down chimneys, and left other proofs of its violence. Its course was from the southwest to the northeast, and left its traces through Rough and Ready township, and on to the summit of the mountains. Its track was not more than five hundred feet wide, and luckily it passed where but little damage to property could be done. Hailstones of great size fell along the track and for a few miles on each side, alternating with torrents of rain. A gentleman who was on the edge of the hurricane says it was impossible to keep his feet, and that while lying flat on the ground the current of air against the top of his head was strong enough to push him lengthwise upon the ground.
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I have thus given a brief compilation of the historical events and their dates-pertaining to the county at large-so far as the design of the work for which this is written, will allow. Many other circumstances of interest will appear in the sketches of towns; but many incidents of secondary im- portance will have to go unnoticed, as beyond the limits and scope of the present sketch. Other facts in connection with the history of Nevada county are related in dircetories heretofore published, and still others may be found in other parts of this work.
Let it suffice, in closing this division of my subject, to remark, that a wild and rugged region has, in less than two decades, been subjugated from nature ; that it has been made to yield more gold than any other spot of like extent on the globe ; that from a handful of people, without law, has grown a population of probably more than twenty thousand souls, where the rights of the citizen are maintained by as incorruptible a judiciary as can bless a people ; that from a roving, restless population, intent on filch- ing the gold from the soil and abandoning the country, we have settled down content in the belief that the region is incomparable as a home, and have surrounded ourselves with the comforts of a high civilization; that schools are established and a rising generation are garnering up the pleas- ant incidents of youth, which, associated with the scenes around us, will attach them to Nevada forever.
Furthermore, that late developments are opening to us and the world the truth, that the career of prosperity of Nevada county has but just begun. At this writing new lodes of quartz are being worked in all parts of the county ; capital and enterprise are enlisted in earnest; and the year 1867 promises to be extraordinary in happy results.
In another branch of industry there are strong incentives to enterprise. Experiments so far conducted show that a large share of the soil of the county and the climate, are specially adapted to the production of the finest kinds of table wines. Articles of the kind have been produced that sold to good judges at from $2 50 to $3 00 per gallon- An interest has been awakened in this branch of culture, and ere long the sides of these moun- tains will flourish with the vine, whose juice will rival the most generous productions of a foreign soil. There is room for indefinite expansion.
METEOROLOGY.
The subject of my sketch, having every altitude from a few feet to eight thousand above the ocean level, must necessarily have a variety of climate.
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Near the plains frost is rare, while at Meadow Lake scarcely a night passes without leaving traces of frost in the morning.
In the upper part of the county snow, if not Winter, reigns one-half the year, while a snow fall at Rough and Ready and below is an uncommon occurrence. The fall of snow is light over that portion of the surface of the county having an altitude of 2,500 feet or less.
At Nevada City,
which has an elevation of about 2,350 feet, it rarely falls to the depth of two feet, and it seldom lies on the ground more than two or three days. Sleighing about Nevada and Grass Valley is not persisted in beyond a few hours, the ground never freezing so as to give a sound base for the snow to rest on for that purpose. At Bear Valley, snow fell during the Winter of 1858-59, twenty-four feet, by actual measurement, falling on April 19th of that season cighteen feet deep. Further up, in the region of Meadow Lake, the fall is heavier and the Winters more severe. But, the Winter in any part of Nevada county is not so cold by far as in the same latitude on the eastern side of the continent. This is due, to a large extent to the latent heat set free by the condensation of the vapors on our mountains which come from the South Pacific ocean. The sun, during our rainy sea- son, pours down his ferved rays upon the Southern hemisphere, which is largely of ocean, and an immense amount of moisture is taken to the clouds which, borne along by the southeast trade-winds till transferred to the south- west trades, are driven against the Sierra Nevada chain of mountains. The cold of the elevated regiou condenses the moisture into rain or snow, and the heat borrowed in a latent state in the South Pacific is set free to amel- iorate our Winter climate.
From a few observations it would seem that some parts of the county are subject to heavier falls of rain than other parts, and the rain fall of the county is much heavier than in the valley regions of the State.
I am indebted to James Whartenby, Esq., who has kept a rain-guage at the office of the South Yuba Canal Company, in Nevada City, and, also, a - thermometrical register, during many years, for interesting facts. The de- structive fires that have so frequently visited Nevada, have consumed some of the journals of Mr. Whartenby, but what have been spared will serve to give some idea of the climatic changes experienced in the county, par- ticularly in the central part, that portion having an altitude of from two thousand to three thousand feet. From these journals it appears that during the rainy season of 1861-62 the fall of water was 109 inches ; 1862-63, 27.87 inches ; 1863-64, 17.26 inches ; 1864-65, 54.49 inches ; 1865-66, 59.26 inches. That part of the rainy season of 1866-67, ending on the 1st of January, 1867, was extraordinary, for the amount of water fallen ; 42.39 inches are reported at the office of the Canal Company.
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Mr. Whartenby estimates the average rain fall since the settlement of the county by Americans, at from fifty to fifty-five inches. The above figures have been called in question heretofore as being too large, and it has been supposed that the rain-guage kept at Nevada could not be correct. To settle the question, Mr. Whartenby has had a new guage made by Tennent, of San Francisco, and the tests show the new guage to give rather more water than the old one, both standing side by side. The figures above are, therefore, too small.
It is proper to remark that the rain fall here is not unusual, the mean annual fall on the globe being estimated at sixty inches, and in the north- ern hemisphere at about ninety inches. In the tropics of the eastern con- tinent it is computed at seventy-seven, and in the western tropics at one hundred and fifteen inches. The latter is about the fall at Nevada City during the rainy season of 1861-62.
But there are other places on the globe subject to still greater deluges from the clouds. According to Maury, rain fell at Parimaribo, in South America, in one season, to the depth of two hundred and twenty-nine inches, or nineteen feet. Brazil has had a rain fall in a season of twenty-three feet, and twenty-five feet have fallen iu a year at South Bombay. In forty- one days a hundred and fifty-three inches, or thirteen feet of water fell on the west coast of Patagonia. From the facts before us, it is safe to say that the fall of rain annually in Nevada county is not above the average on the surface of the globe.
A late fall of snow occurred at Nevada and Grass Valley May 21, 1861, which broke down and damaged fruit trees. It was very moist and heavy and in a few hours was dissolved in water and gone.
It has been observed by those in the employ of the South Yuba Canal Company, that when the thermometer at Nevada is at 37° to 38° Fahren- heit, snow falls instead of rain. If the thermometer shows 43º to 44° it rains further on about twenty miles above Nevada, and snows beyond. At 50° to 51° it rains to the summit. These observations apply, of course, to times when vapors of the clouds are condensing in the form of rain or snow.
We can give only some general idea of the changes in the thermometer as observed at the office of the South Yuba Canal Company. The coldest day was January 20, 1854, when at seven in the morning the mercury stood at 1º above zero, while the hottest day ever known at the same point was 1423° in the sun.
For extraordinary changes of weather, the fact may be cited that on April 12, 1859, the thermometer indicated at 23 o'clock P. M., 94°; seven and a half hours later, at 10 o'clock, the mercury had fallen to 27°. The
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temperature in the Winter season, in the morning, ranges from 12º to 40°, and in Summer, the hottest weather in the sun is usually from 110° to 130°. These remarks are only intended to show the extraordinary extremes of heat and cold. Generally Nevada county has a pleasant and equable cli- mate; in fact, all who have enjoyed it for a time are captivated, and if away, long to return to it again. The Summers are all sunshine and are quite warm, but the nights are cool and refreshing inducing sound and in- vigorating sleep, while the Winters are not severe except at the highest altitudes, and even there the degrees of cold are not to be estimated by the depth of the snow. A large number of persons and some families passed the Winter of 1865-66, very pleasantly at Meadow Lake, and while this volume is going through the press, a great many more are following the example of their predecessors.
GEOLOGICAL.
Nevada county is entirely mountainous, lying wholly on the western water-shed of the Sierra Nevada, and extending almost from the Sacra- mento valley to the summit. The average descent of the surface from the top of the mountain range to the valley is about one hundred feet to the mile.
The strata, which strike north and south, corresponding with the direc- tion of the range, are generally of granite alternating with slate. Of the latter there seems to be three distinct ranges at least. Besides rock of the slate and granite order, syenite, serpentine, trap, limestone, talc and quartz, occur frequently, as an examination of the banks of the rivers that cut these rocks at right angles, and the various mines that have been opened, will show. Gold is found in a talcose slate in the extreme lower part of the county. In Grass Valley it occurs in quartz, sandwiched in greenstone or trap generally. About Nevada the cab or country rock is granitic, and in the upper quartz belt, in the vicinity of Meadow Lake, it is syenite.
Lying upon the primitive strata, and extending over a good share of the central portion of the county, are immense gravel ranges, the beds of ancient streams, the date of whose formation is referred to the pliocene age. Out of the gravel of these old river beds, up to this time, a large share of the' gold of the county has been extracted. Immense basins still exist untouched for want of adequate drainage, and long reaches of the ancient streams are supposed to be yet unexplored.
The big blue lead of Sierra county is known to cross the Middle Yuba,
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the northern boundary of the county, at or about Snow Point. From there it is thought by some to run southwardly; and to connect with the blue cement diggings at Quaker and Hunt's hills. Others suppose the lead to follow down the ridge between the South and Middle Yubas, and to show itself in the gravel ranges at Humbug, North San Juan and on to French Corral, terminating finally in the very rich deposits worked by Pierce & Co .; at Smartsville, in Yuba county. It is more probable, however, that the grand range of North San Juan is a continuation of another river bed formerly coming down thorugh Sierra county, at Camptonville. The gravel range above the town of Nevada, and but a half mile distant, is thought to have some connection with the San Juan range by way of Round Mountain and Montezuma Hill ; but it is not impossible that it may continue beneath the ridge between the South Yuba and Deer Creek, as that ridge is demon- strated to rest on a bed of gravel, overlaid on the surface with lava to the depth of from eighty to one hundred feet. But it is not possible to recon- struct the ancient map of the county with the data thus far obtained. Undoubtedly when the region has been thoroughly examined by Professor Whitney and his corps, much light will be thrown upon this interesting subject. It is understood that Nevada county will be thoroughly explored the coming season by the Professor and his scientific coadjutors.
Unlike the counties of Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne, farther south, whose gravel ranges are ascribed to the same cra, Nevada furnishes no fossil shells, or any organic remains whatever. In the former counties have been discovered bones of the mastodon, elephant, rhinoceros and horse, and the scientific world has been startled with the report of the discovery of even the remains of a man who is supposed to have walked the carth ante- rior to or coeval with the filling of these ancient river beds. Not a bone of an animal has been so far found in the gravel drifts of Nevada county of which any report has been made. Why not here as well as in other parts of the State ? The most ready answer would be, its more northern latitude. But this is not satisfactory, when it is known that teeth of the mastodon have been discovered in the auriferous gravel of Idaho, hundreds of miles still farther north, and the deposits in which these remains were found are supposed to date their origin in the same era as the gravel ranges of California.
It seems to me that more untenable positions have been taken by geolo- gists than that which would ascribe the gravel ranges of California to causes now in force. Why may not the present rivers running down the western declivity of the Sierra Nevada, before their present deep channels were formed, have coursed along those old channels now filled up with gravel? There are some reasons for believing that no great climatic changes
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have occurred since these old deposits were made. The existence of petri- fied wood undoubtedly of the coniferæe family, oak and manzanita, and of wood cither lignite or in almost its natural state, in these auriferous gravel drifts, would seem to indicate that our mountains were, at the time these ancient river beds were filled, covered with pine and oak as at the present day. And if so, why were they not inhabited ? Indeed, the discovery of the fossil remains of man further south, coupled with the fact which seems to be well authenticated, of the washing out of a stone arrow-head, sixty feet from the surface, and on the bed rock, in the claims of Major Lewis, at Buckeye hill, near Sweetland, would seem to prove that a race inhabited our mountains at a period before the present river chasms were channeled, and before the last run of lava from the upper Sierra. And if the cli- mate of this region has undergone no radical change, why may not the existence of the mastodon further south be attributed to local attractions, which did not and do not present themselves in this county ? The pro- ductions of the county at present are not calculated to give sustenance to large numbers of such animals, and it may be that their scarcity, from like causes, precludes the possibility of their remains being found here, and in but limited quantities, in places most congenial to their habits. But these are questions we leave for geologists.
High up in the Sierra granite or syenite mountains rise to an altitude of a little more than 8,000 fect above the sea level, leaving gorges between of fearful depth, the walls of which are often of ragged and bare rock. Sometimes the declivities of the mountains, and the valleys present exten- sive beds of detritus that may have been deposited when the mighty gla- ciers of the Sierra were melted-abundant evidence of glacial action being frequent at that altitude The detrital deposits are of sedimentary lava, pebbles and bowlders of the material of the primitive rocks, and sand. In some cases large beds of sand appear, and sometimes deposits of angular gravel, which have the look of ancient moraines.
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