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 34
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The U. S. Grant, another fine claim, containing sixteen hundred feet, is situated at the southern base of " Old Man Mountain." It was located by Thomas Carlyle and others, in the month of August, on a ledge styled the " Ohio." The mine has
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been energetically and successfully worked, and has done more, perhaps, than any claim in Excelsior to sustain the reputation of the district. Rock from it has yielded as high as one hundred dollars to the ton, and the average ore may be safely estimated at not less than thirty dollars in free gold. To the extent which the Grant has been prospected, it contains less of the sulphurets than any other ledge in that section. The ore is consequently easily and cheaply worked by the ordinary crushing and amalgamating process ; a fact which has materially aided the company in prospecting and developing its claim.
Still further to the south, and seven miles from the town, is situated the Enter- prise mine. The company owning it has fifteen hundred feet on the ledge. Their location was made in July, and commenced under the most flattering auspices. Specimens of surpassing richness, showing everywhere on the surface, indicated a . deposit of vast mineral wealth. Twenty-four hundred pounds of selected rock were sold, and yielded to the fortunate purchasers a profit of four thousand dollars. Subsequent explorations have disclosed a body of bright sulphurets with nearly forty per cent. of arseniurets, worth on an average twenty-eight dollars per ton.
Later in the season, some time in the month of October, a location was made four miles to the west of the town of Meadow Lake, called the Comet Company, on the Shooting Star ledge. A shaft has been sunk on it to the depth of forty-two feet, disclosing a well defined ledge eight feet in width. The rock also differs materialy from the ores of the other claims which have been described. Frequent assays show the presence of a considerable proportion of silver. The writer is not aware of another ledge in Excelsior in which more than a trace of argentiferous ore can be detected.
A large number of claims located and partially prospected in the summer and fall of 1865, have, during the past season, been sufficiently developed to deserve the name of mines. Many of them give promise of future excellence, but as the space allotted to a sketch like the present does not permit a particular description of all, the author has selected those named as the representative mines of the district. The large amount of work performed upon them, the important fact that they belong to different series of ledges, and the quantity of pay ore taken from their shafts and tunnels, fairly entitle them to the distinction. Very little labor, beyond what was necessary to hold a claim for twelve months, under the liberal mining laws of the county, was done on any ledge in the district during the year. , The task of development was deferred to a later period. Before the first storms of No- vember, the crowd of adventurers scattered over the hills and valleys of Exlelsior, had departed for a more genial clime. A few remained in Summit City, deter- mined to watch through the winter over their newly acquired claims, to guard them against trespassers, and be prepared for the tide of fortune that was expected to set in, with a golden current, on the return of spring. About two hundred persons, among whom were a few families, sojourned through the winter in the little village.
The season was one of severity and almost unprecedented duration. The first fall of snow occurred on the 24th of September. Early in October it disappeared, and for the remainder of the month the weather was comparatively mild and pleas- ant. In November, violent winds from the southwest swept over the district, bring- ing with them dense dark masses of clouds, sure precursors of snow and wintry storms. The signs, so familiar and well understood by the experienced dwellers
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in these mountainous regions, did not fail on this occasion. The storms continued almost withont cessation through the month of November. By the first of Decem- ber the country was covered with snow to a depth of five feet. From New Year's day until March 1866, the weather was, as is usually the case in this section, free from storms-the skies clear, and the atmosphere, never intensely cold, was fre- quently so moderate that fires were not requisite for comfort, except in the night time. The Excelsior climate in the winter time is far more moderate than the weather on the eastern slope of the Sierra, within a distance of less than one hun- dred miles. It comes not within the province of this sketch to discuss the philoso- phy of a fact which can be attested by hundreds who have wintered in Washoe and on the summit. In the month of March, the southwest winds which had prevailed in November, again appeared, accompanied by their invariable attendants-snow and sleet. Spring, as it is seen in other portions of California, is unknown in these high altitudes. The transition from winter to summer is almost immediate. As the period for the inevitable change draws near, it would seem that the storm king, throned in the frozen recesses of the mountains, becoming conscions that his tempestuous reign must soon dissolve under the genial sunshine of summer, exerts all his remaining strength, and makes a last determined effort to retain his domin- ion over nature.
The months of March, April and May, 1866, will long be remembered in the mountains for their unprecedented severity. All marks of the narrow trails which traverse the summit were obliterated by the drifting snows, and even the highways, in many places, were rendered difficult of passage. As an illustration of the char- acter of the season, it may be mentioned, that from the 20th of May until the first day of June, there was almost constantly a snow storm in and around Meadow Lake. The first summer month opened with a strange aspect in this mountainous region. Instead of fragrant flowers, murmuring streams, the hum of bees, and carol of birds, so familiar to the denizen of the plains on the approach of the sum- mer months, here were scen mountains capped with snow, streams held fast with frozen chains, and icicles pendant from the branches of the giant pines, whose lofty heads towered grandly among the clouds of the Sierra. Still traveling was not interrupted to any serious extent, The tide of emigration set in toward Excelsior about the first of May, and continued without abatement through the month of June. During these months it may be safely estimated that no less than four thou- sand people visited the new district. It appeared for a time that the exciting scenes which had been witnessed in Virginia City a few years previously, were destined to be repeated in Meadow Lake. In the town all was excitement and activity. The bar-rooms of the public houses, three in all, and the saloons, were crowded to overflowing with strangers who had been attracted to the village. Every sleeping place and corner were in demand, and from twenty-five to thirty persons were often crowded together at night in a room aptly styled a corral. There was nothing talked of but "feet," " ledges," stocks and town lots. The latter were held at fig- ures that seemed to a cool observer, not merely extravagant, but absurdly high. For a lot sixty by eighty feet, on any of the principal streets, from $1,500 to $2,500 were asked, and actually, in some instances, paid. Rents were advanced in the same proportion. A small tenement on "C" street, with a frontage of 18 feet and a depth of 24 feet, rented for $200 per month. The possessor of a few corner lots considered himself a millionaire, and talked of his thousands of dollars with more
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nonchalance than he would have exhibited, at some former period of his life, in dis- cussing the details of a bargain which involved as many dimes. There was but little building undertaken until the latter part of June. Although there were four saw-mills in the district, which had been constantly in operation during the spring, yet owing to the inclemency of the weather and the almost impassable state of the roads leading from them to the town, lumber was scarce, and held at prices ranging from $50 to $75 per thousand feet. The only supplies of the much needed article came from Sierra Valley, a distance of some fifteen miles. As soon as materials could be obtained, building commenced on an extensive scale, and during the months of July and August from four to five hundred frame houses were erected. Some of these tenements were really handsome and substantial edifices, and remain as useful and ornamental structures, giving to the town an appearance decidedly more aristocratic and city-like than is usually seen in a mountain village.
In the month of June a Stock Board, with thirty-nine members, was established. Considering that there was not at the time a mine developed, or ledge visible, in the whole district, the transaction was unique and refreshingly cool. With sol- emn visages, night after night the members assembled, a long roll of stocks was called, and no bids made. Verily the sellers were many, but alas ! purchasers were few! In the town the whole affair was regarded as a farce, which all enjoyed, and none, perhaps, more than the actors who assumed a leading part in the perform- ance. Yet the effect of the movement was decidedly prejudicial to the interests of Excelsior ; abroad it created, not unreasonably, an impression that the people of the district had no confidence in, nor intention of developing their claims, but held them simply for speculative purposes. The excitement which prevailed in the town and district was fictitious, and destined, after a brief existence, to find an inglorious collapse. A reaction followed, and Excelsior experienced a descent from its exalted pinnacle in public estimation, almost as rapid, and quite as unreasonable as its fa- mous rise.
Hundreds had rushed to a mountain region when the snow was ten feet deep on the ground-into a village with only a few rudely constructed tenements, and lastly, into a mining district, new, and of course undeveloped, and then, forsooth, were surprised and chagrined at not finding the ample accommodations of a city, the serenity of a summer climate, and mines and mills in active operation ! All such visitors returned to their homes sadder, and it is to be hoped, somewhat wiser than before their departure. There was yet another class of emigrants who favored Meadow Lake for a brief season with their presence, and left in deep disgust with the district. It consisted of a lot of idle, needy and profligate adventurers, who had neither capital nor industry, but expected to live by sharp practices, by prey- ing on the unwary-in fine, by any methods other than the exercise of an honest and useful industry. Men of this character were sadly disappointed in Ex- celsior, and returning to their wonted haunts in the cities, decried with eager voices the mines and prospects of the new district. Fortunately there were among the residents of the township, a few persons of sound, practical judgment, who clearly foreseeing the inevitable result of the fictitious excitement prevalent in the spring, had resisted its influence, and pursued the even tenor of their way. Such men, enlightened by experience, and well knowing that labor and capital only- more potent when united than the wand of Prospero-could open roads, level for- ests, develop mines, or erect mills, had gone persistently to work upon their claims.
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Their example had a salutary and encouraging effect upon the majority of the commu- nity. The results made evident what energetic work could accomplish. Four good roads were opened from the town-one to Bowman's Station, situated on the South Eureka branch of the Henness Pass, another to Jackson's, a few miles dis. tant, on the same road ; a third to intersect the main Henness Pass at a point near Truckee Lake, and intended to accommodate the Washoe travel. A fourth, was completed to Cisco, and connects by a line of daily stages with the Central Pacific railroad, thus bringing the district within a day's ride of San Francisco.
Some thirty claims, situated in different parts of the township, were developed to depths on the ledges varying from twenty to two hundred and forty feet. The results in all cases have been eminently satisfactory. They have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the ledges of Excelsior are true fissure veins, and not mere superficial deposits of anriferous quartz.
Seven mills have been erected, or are in the course of speedy construction, for the reduction of ores, with an aggregate capacity of seventy-two stamps. Two fur- naces for the roasting of rock have been finished. and Plattner's chlorine process used successfully at one of them. Experiments have proved that the gold in the sulphurets can be saved within five per cent. of their assayed values. In addition to this and other achievments, they have built and paid for a handsome and substantial town. Although the building of the latter, in advance of the development of the ledges of the country, may seem an unusual and unwise departure from the established order of improvement, it has not been without its advantages. Any one who has over resided in a mining region will understand the substantial benefits which must accrue to the mill-men, and workmen in a mine, from having in their vicinity a permanent depot, where supplies can be obtained at all seasons, upon moderate ternis.
Meadow Lake is not the only town laid ont in the district. About two miles to the south of it, and at the intersection of the Cisco trail and the Yuba river, stands the present village and embryo city of Ossaville, a name that seems not altogether inapropriate, when one looks at the huge bowlders which cover much the greater portion of the town site. Following down the Yuba in its tortuous course, the trav- eler comes in about an hour's walk to Carlyle, a little village with a score of houses, situated at the base of Old Man Mountain, and near by the Grant mine. Still further to the west is Paris, a small cluster of deserted cabins, built appar- ently for no other purpose than to demonstrate the folly of its projectors. There is yet another town called Mendoza, located near the Enterprise works, quite flour- ishing at one time during the summer, but abandoned at the approach of winter. As none of these places are more, at present, than mining camps, any description of them is deemed superfluous.
When we remember that this vast amount of work, which has been stated in a summary manner, was the product of one brief season of exertion ; that it was undertaken in the face of predicted failure, and accomplished with no aid from extraneous capital, it must be conceded that the residents of Excelsior have shown a degree of energy which affords the best guarantee of future success.
The first storm commenced on the morning of the third of November. It was ushered in with the usual gales from the southwest, and on their wings came the lowering clouds of winter, frowning darkly as they gathered around the mountain tops. Rain and snow came down in heavy showers during the day ; by night the L2
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former element had disappeared, and the snow flakes descended with noiseless fall upon forest, hill and glen. At sunrise, on the fourth, the face of nature was cov- ered witli a veil of spotless white. No one, unless he has been an eye-witness of the scene, can appreciate, from description, the wondrous change which a few hours of a winter's storm will effect in the appearance of a mountain landscape. At eve the sun sinks in purple splendor beneath the horizon ; no sign in the heavens indi- cates to the inexperienced observer the coming storms. The old mountaineer, however, reads nature with a different power of perceptives, and readily discerns the portents of the tempest. He sees them in the light clouds which hover in the western sky ; he hears them in the southwest winds' melancholy sighing through the forests. The last glance at sunset takes in the evergreen pines, the stream dancing along its narrow channel and dashing its spray over the grim old rocks which stand in its wayward course-the lakes whose crystal waves reflect the gol- den hues of departing day ; the next morn the scene is changed. The icy hand of winter has been laid on the landscape, and the beholder, dazzled and astonished, finds scarcely a trace of the loveliness which enchanted his senses the previous eve- ning. The stillness and repose of death now reign where only a few weeks before all was life and animation. The mountain tops are shrouded in robes of white ; the tall pines, with their snowy wreaths and pendant icicles, wear a strange and spectral appearance ; the babbling brook is frozen into silence, and the lake lies cold and motionless, its polished surface gleaming like burnished steel in the light of day. The scene, now weird and desolate, is no longer beautiful-it has become sublime. The first snows of November soon disappeared, leaving the country open and accessible to travel in every direction. Toward the last of the month the weather became somewhat stormy, and as it closes, at the date of this sketch, the district is covered by snow to the depth of ten or twelve inches.
The writer feels that he cannot, in justice to the subject which he has ventured to present to the public, conclude this description without an allusion, at least, to the magnificent scenery and glorious summer and autumn climate of Excelsior. He has for several months past been a dweller in the mountains, far removed from the luxurious ease of the cities, and subject to all the privations of life in the wil- derness. He finds an ample compensation for any sacrifice of social enjoyment, in the wondrous pictures which memory will retain of Excelsior to the last syllable of recorded life.
Within the limits of the district are Donner and Crystal lakes. These are on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, and have been so often described by tourists, that no further sketch is required to attract public attention to their beauties. Some four miles distant from the line of railroad travel, and in the immediate vicinity of the beautiful lake of the meadows, the visitor can find a scene of loveli- ness and sublimity not surpassed on the habitable globe. Let him, on some dewy morn, climb to the top of Old Man Mountain, or the hights which to the westward, overlook the pleasant village of Meadow Lake. From those rocky battlements the soul expands as it contemplates the beauty and grandeur of nature. Look well- for the picture which spreads before you has been drawn by the hand of an Almighty Artist. In one direction repose a cluster of lakes, whose clear waves mirror the fleeting, fleecy clouds of day-the star-lit firmament of night. Their shores, rising into gentle hills, are crowned with stately forests, and decked with flowers as fair as the dews of earth ever nourished. Down the mountain
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sides roll in silvery threads a thousand tiny streams, finding rest in the bosom of some placid lake, or mingling with the sparkling waters of the rapid rolling Yuba. Glancing in another course, at the base of Old Man Mountain, the dazzled eye beholds a landscape of a sterner character. Huge bowlders of everlasting granite, trees standing apart and in solitary majesty, and frightful, yawning chasms make up a picture, wild, weird and desolate, but grandly sublime. The writer has looked upon the scene at all hours of the day, and at all seasons of the year, and never yet without a feeling of solemn awe pervading his whole being. Perhaps the most appropriate time to view the landscape is when the storm is raging, and the darkness of twilight has cast a somber mantle over the face of nature. At fit- ful intervals, when the lightning's glare illumes the scenery, and the harsh thun- der rolls along the granite peaks of the mountain, one catches for a moment an inspiration which tempts him to exclaim-
" The sky is changed ; and such a change ! 0 night And storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong -- Yet lovely is your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman."
The beauty of the scenery is not the only, nor perhaps the chief, attraction of Excelsior. The delightful summer and fall climate of the district has excited the notice of all who have visited it during these seasons. In August and September, when the heat of the plains is sultry and oppressive, the temperature of the sum- mit is most refreshing. The physical character of the country contributes to this result. The altitude of the district, placed between seven and eight thousand feet above the level of the ocean, secures it alike against the assaults of pestilence, or the miasmatic vapor of the lowlands. On the other hand, its numerous lakes, rip- pling streams, and dense forests, not only afford pleasing contrasts to the eye, but diffuse an agreeable moisture through the atmosphere, and thus take from it that rarity so generally prevalent in mountainous regions. To the invalid in search of vigorous health; to the tourist, longing to sojuurn awhile amid scenes of unsur- passed grandeur ; to the weary dweller in the city, or on the plains, who would exchange, for a brief season, the conventional restraints of society for the free life of the mountains, Excelsior offers inducements to a visit, beyond any spot in Cali- ifornia.
The reader must pardon this digression. He may at least be assured that the author has no selfish object to subserve in descanting on the merits of a region which none have yet seen without carrying away with them a feeling of true enjoyment. The author has no town lots to sell-no mines in which a "few feet may yet be purchased at a low figure"-not even a desire to see or mingle with the gay denizens of the fashionable world who might be attracted to Excelsior. His avocations and tastes lead him to other pleasures, and far different pursuits. He has written this sketch, because in the first place it pleased him to write of a theme with which circumstances have made him familiar ; and secondly, it will gratify certain friends, whose interests are identified with those of Excelsior, and who naturally wish the district placed in its proper character before the world. The writer has no solicitude as to the future of Meadow Lake district. The period of its prosperity may be delayed ; but it will come sooner or later, as certainly as night follows the day. The unreasonable prejudice which ignorance and envy have created against it, are already disappearing before the light of acknowledged
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facts. One more, and yet another season of toil, of continued and well directed application of skill to the development of its magnificent ledges, and Excelsior will assuredly rank among the richest mining regions of the Pacific coast.
The mineral region popularly called the Excelsior district, extends over an area some eight miles from north to south, and from five to six miles, between its east- ern and western boundaries. The town of Meadow Lake is a prominent point near the northern line of the district. At this place the summit of the Sierra Nevada attains an altitude of some eight thousand feet. Two miles to the south- west of Meadow Lake, a rocky eminence called " Old Man Mountain," raises its bald and storm-beaten cliffs of granite to an elevation of not less than one thousand feet above the surrounding country. Along the canyon, at the eastern base of Old Man Mountain, a branch of the Yuba river finds it way, in a southwesterly course, to the lowlands. The district to the north of Meadow Lake, and indeed in any direction except to the south, is covered with a dense forest, consisting of every variety of pine and cedar. The supply of timber and fuel derivable from this source is deemed, if not inexhaustible, at least amply sufficient for many years to come.
In the district there are about twenty artificial or natural lakes, and the number could be increased almost indefinitely at a trifling expense. All that is required to form a reservoir is the cost and labor of erecting a stone dam across some val- ley or ravine. The snows of winter, melting into torrents at the approach of sum- mer, furnish in abundance whatever water is desired. Thus nature has gener- ously supplied the two principal wants of a mining population.
The gold bearing ledges of Excelsior have been exposed by the soil washing away, leaving them with distinct traces, in many instances, for more than a mile. The general course of the principal lodes is northwest and southeast, although the exceptions are numerous, forming in some instances a vast net work of ledges, as difficult to thread as the labyrinths of ancient Egypt. They all occur in a strati- fied granitic formation, at many localities devoid of mica or its substitute. The gold bearing vein stone is of the same mineralogical character as the country rock, and is highly charged with iron pyrites, sometimes intermixed with sulphurets of copper, zinc and lead. Auriferous arseniurets of iron also occur in the ledges on the ridge terminated by the eminence called " Red Mountain," a prominent point opposite to the town of Cisco, on the Central Patific Railroad. Near the same locality, on the road leading from Clsco to Meadow Lake, a nickel and cobalt vein, bearing arseniuret of iron, intermixed with copper pyrites, is found imbedded in a granitic formation, close to its contact with the slate. The selected ore from this vein is reported to assay, in copper, 14 per cent .; in nickel 3 per cent .; in cobalt 1} per cent, Auriferous copper ores assaying up to 15 per cent. of the latter metal are also found in the district, and it is proposed by competent parties to erect, at an early day, an experimental furnace on the Rachette plan for their reduction to crude copper. Some four miles to the west of Meadow Lake, in a ledge known as the "Shooting Star," at the depth of forty feet, auriferous ore has been found which assays as high as 15 per cent. of copper, and yields by chemical analysis $40 per ton in silver.
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