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 39
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The climate of this portion of our county is, without doubt, the most equable, healthy and delightful to be found in the whole State. The range, extending in width some twelve miles, from the head waters of Penn Valley creek to the Zinc House, is, at all seasons of the year, delightful and comfortable ; mild and pleasant both in. winter and summer, suffering neither the sudden and extreme changes which occur higher up in the mountains, nor the excessive heats of the plains- while the days of midsummer rarely show a heated term marking over 96°, (and even then for a very few days) the pleasant breeze from the south invariably mode- rates the air in the middle of the day, while sultriness at night is almost unknown; so, in the winter, or more properly speaking during the wet season, the formation of ice is of equally rare occurrence. Above Penn Valley, in the upper portion of this belt, snow sometimes falls, but rarely lies on the ground more than twenty-four hours-below Penn Valley, snow may be seen in the air, but scarcely more than whitens the ground for a few hours. As a consequence, almost every kind and quality of fruit may be grown successfully in the open air ; the apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry, nectarine, fig, almond, orange and pomegranate, as well as every variety of imported grape and small fruits, have been successfully cultivated ; the only risk being that once in a few years a cold snap might possibly nip some of the more delicate varieties. The same contingency has destroyed the orange groves of Florida, and cuts the sugar cane of Louisiana. Cotton and tobacco have also been successfully experimented on in several portions of the township, and planters from Georgia, Tennessee and Texas have gladdened their hearts with the rich bolls of the white fleece of their own growing here, equal in beauty, excellence of staple, strength of growth, and quantity of production, to the upland of either of the States named, as they have frequently declared to the writer whilst showing the results of their experiments. The climate is right without doubt, the soil is excel- lent in quality, and with proper application of the facilities for irrigation, and the
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right kind of farming, use of manures, and correct treatment of the soil, there seems no reason why many hundreds of acres of cotton and tobacco might not be grown in our small valleys. The writer was derided in 1851 and '52 for advocating the growing of wheat on our red hills, and for urging the building of a flouring mill at Grass Valley to grind the grain for home consumption.
The Copper Region,
In that portion of the township, heretofore referred to as being devoid of gold placers, lying in the range between Penn Valley and the Round Tent house, and extending north and south across the whole breadth of the county, (and also ex- tending further to the south and west into Placer and Yuba counties,) indications of mineral deposits had been observed by the earlier settlers, of a character which baffled ordinary prospecting, and gave rise to wild speculation as to the nature of this particular region. In the winter of 1862-3 prospecting for copper in this vicinity was suggested, and many straggling parties expended, in the aggregate, enormous amounts of time and money in vain researches. Some promising lodes were found, among the best of which is the " Well Lede," so called from the cir- cumstance that it was first discovered, long before any value was attached to it, in the sinking of a well for family purposes, on Purtyman's Ranch, at what is now Spenceville. This lede, however, although an enormons body of ore, being about seventy feet in width, is of too low grade to justify working at the present cost of labor and materials ; the time may come when it will prove a fortune to the own- ers. The ore is said to range from five to twelve per cent. of copper.
In April, 1863, the " Last Chance " mine was discovered, by James Downey, who had devoted the most of his time for many montlis in prospecting the section be- tween the Zinc House and the Empire Ranch, on a large number of " crevices," and wherever there seemed any favorable croppings, but without any flattering results. Finally, when discouraged and about to abandon all further work, a friend sug- gested that this spot seemed to promise the most favorably, and Downey exclaimed, " Well, this is the last chance-and if I don't strike it here I'll give it up "-jump- ing into the prospect shaft, a few feet in depth then, he worked vigorously for the day, and at evening struck a solid ledge of glittering sulphurets of copper, about three feet in thickness. The excitement became intense, as usually has been the case under similar circumstances throughout the State, and the rush to the copper region became as great as in earlier times it had been to Fraser River and Washoe: Thousands of claims were taken up, hundreds of shafts were sunk, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were uselessly expended in prospecting for copper. The whole region for ten miles in width, and twenty miles in length, was filled with people searching for " crevices," and talking copper ; new towns arose like magic, and Spenceville, Hacketville, Queen City, Wilsonville, etc., etc., became familiar as town sites, and even became pretentious as permanencies. But the tide soon ebbed, and the streets of the " cities" I have mentioned are now occasionally en- livened only by the hunter of game who may find it convenient to camp in one of the deserted houses, and who can start a hare, a bevy of quail, or even a deer, from the tall grass or thick chapparal around the spring which furnished the former inhabitants with water. " Sic transit." During the hight of the fever, specula- tion became rampant, and it is said that shares in some of the most promising claims, such as the Last Chance, Well Lede, Whisky Diggings, and others, were
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actually sold at $100 per foot. However that may be, if not true, it might well be, for I know that half that amount was paid for some claims. The Last Chance still gives hopes that a good, paying copper mine may be developed by the proper appli- cation of skill and perseverance with capital. While the original locators, consist- ing of the Downey family, still retain a portion of their interests severally, other parties have become interested by purchase, and a considerable portion of the stock is now held by D. O. Mills & Co., H. Miller, Thomas Gardner, and others, of Sacra- mento, A. Delano, J. M. C. Walker, Frank Beatty, S. D. Bosworth, E. W. Roberts, and others, of this county, and it is the intention now expressed by the share- holders, to put up machinery to work the vein effectually. The working shaft has been sunk to a depth of two hundred feet, showing a vein about twelve feet thick, rich in sulphurets of good quality, averaging twenty three per cent. and indicating a strong vein of good mineral. One shipment, made to Swansea, realized $35 per ton nett, above all expenses ; and with proper machinery for pumping and hoisting purposes, as well as apparatus for preparing and reducing the ore on the ground, there is no doubt that this mine would give employment to a large number of people, and perhaps stimulate others to develope good mines of copper now un- known. This mine consists of 2,400 feet on the ledge ; the company is incorporated, and have their office at Sacramento. Thomas Gardner is the present Secretary.
There are other good mines in the vicinity, such as the Green Ledge, the Emerald, the Mammoth, etc., but work does not seem to be actively progressing at present, and nearly all operations have ceased in the copper regions at this time. Whether it will ever be generally resumed again depends entirely upon the successful efforts of some one or more companies pushing ahead their own work with faith, and money to carry them through.
Placer Mining.
The placer mining of this region, in the early days, was confined to the beds of the small streams, ravines, gulches, flats and side hills adjacent ; in some instances the extent of gold-producing surface being broad, shallow and remarkably rich, gave employment to large numbers of men, whose claims were so situated on the gentle slopes that one tom-head of water would supply half a dozen or a dozen companies successively ; the quantity thus furnished would be about six or eight inches of miner's measure at the present day, and cost $16 per day during the first season for the first or head company, the price being then graduated off to each company succeeding, at a discount of $2 each, until the price would come down to $4, after which there was no deduction. The scarcity as well as the excessive cost of water therefore caused men to crowd as closely as their numbers and location would allow, and most cheering and animated sights were thus presented on Butte Flat, Rich Flat, Squirrel Creek, Texas Flat, Deer Creek, and other places, where twenty and thirty companies of men, numbering from one hundred to three hundred persons could be seen at one view, busily engaged in " sluicing surface." And as another and more fatal, as well as more irremediable result, the diggings around Rough and Ready being so accessible and so easily worked, were very soon " worked out." No extensive deposits were found in any of the hills, although a streak or range extends from Alta Hill, near Grass Valley, along Randolph Hill, Sugar Loaf, Spanish John, Goshen Hill, and Texas Flat, toward Timbuctoo, as if it were a branch of the old river bed which caused the famous " blue gravel " deposit
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at the latter place, but which seems to have been cut off in the vicinity of Pleasant Valley and Anthony House, in a manner unaccountable. In this range of hill dig- gings, Randolph Hill was the only portion of the whole that paid largely-one company, in less than two years, took out over $400,000 clear of all expenses, which was done by ground sluicing, before the hydraulic pipe came into use. The other points, however, have not produced so encouragingly, and but few attempts have been made in this part of the county to establish regular hydraulic diggings, and to trace any gravel lede into the deep channels of the hills. The principal mining operations of that character now carried on are those of Barker & Rex, on Grub Creek, Painter, Barnhard & Co., on Whitesell's Ranch, Binsley Brothers, on Ken- tucky Flat, Hamilton, Brown & Brown, at Butler's Flat, head of Squirrel creek, H. Q. & E. W. Roberts, on Bunker Hill, and Ladd's digging's, on Squirrel creek, now owned by a company of Portugese. The flume in the last named is abont a mile and a quarter long, in two compartments, and five feet wide in the whole.
Quartz Mining.
Quartz mining operations have never been cither extensively or successfully car- ried on in this township, and although numberless ledges of fine looking quartz, richly charged with sulphurets, and in many instances showing free gold in tempt- ing quantities, interlace the hills in every direction, in no instance as yet has there been established a paying mine. Indeed, the work of prospecting in this vicinity is only in its infancy, consisting mostly of mere prospect shafts-" gopher holes "- and abortive tunnels. In 1851 the Kentucky Ridge ledge was struck, by Abel, Porter and others, and a large amount of exceedingly rich specimen-rock was taken out with comparatively small expenditure of labor. A contract was made by them with Colonel Wm. F. English for the erection of what was called, in those days, a quartz mill. This consisted of two large-sized Chile mill wheels and pan, driven by water power, with a capacity of reducing about two or two and a half tons in twenty-four hours. Of course, the affair proved a failure, and was disastrous to all parties concerned. Not only, litigation ensued, which stopped the work, but Col. English was found dead on the road between the mill and Nevada, killed by a charge from his own shot-gun, but whether accidentally, or intentionally done by his own hand, was never satisfactorily ascertained. The ledge was finally jumped or relocated in after years, by others, and a small, four-stamp mill, run by water power, is now erected on the premises and occasionally makes a fair clean up on assorted rock from this ledge. It is now owned by Greenbanks and Co.
In the fall of 1855, the Osceola ledge, about one mile south from the town of Rough and Ready, was prospected by John Eudey, Thos. Euren and Jas. Truran, under contract with E. W. Roberts. A remarkably rich pocket or " bunch " was found in this ledge, and in addition to several thousands of dollars taken out in solid specimens, a lot of several loads, worked by mill process, returned an average of $225 per ton. The company was immediately incorporated, and caused a 24-stamp mill to be erected, with all necessary houses, etc., and commenced crushing rock in April, 1856 ; but as no other rich lot of specimens liad been found, and no researches made for any, except on a straight line of tunnel into the hill, and the main body of the ledge did not pay over $10 a ton, a huge disgust very naturally affected the San Francisco capitalists who had " bought in " at a large price, and who now held the controlling interest. After crushing about 120 tons and finding the
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machinery too crude to save the gold, all operations were suspended and the ma- chinery was removed to Sucker Flat, where it was erected and put in operation to crush cement ; this proving also non-remunerative, it was removed to Hansonville, thence finally to Reese River. The ledge having been sold to pay debts of the company, it has been lately purchased by Messrs. Tew & Morgan, who are proceed- ing to work upon and develop the mine in a proper manner, and will erect such machinery as may be necessary to reduce the refractory sulphurets. The old com- pany expended $36,000 upon this mine uselessly, and the experiment proved con- clusively that while very few men know how to " keep a hotel " a still fewer number know how to work a mine and run a quartz mill successfully. The mana- gers in this experiment were nearly all sca-captains, and. a few years later the same men, back again at their proper business, gallantly carried their vessels right up to the enemies batteries at Vicksburg, Mobile Bay, New Orleans, and Port Royal.
In 1865, an eight-stamp mill was erected at the lower end of the town of Rough and Ready, by A. A. and John Smith, worked by an overshot wheel, but as the people in the vicinity had not carried on the work of opening the mines to such an extent as to supply a sufficient quantity of rock to keep the mill running, but little benefit has been derived by the owners of the mill or by the miners, from this com- mendable enterprise ; like many other improvements, it was in advance of the times and now stands idle with little prospect of enough work to keep the machinery from falling to decay. These, with a few arastras erected here and there for pros- pecting purposes, constitute the quartz mill enterprises projected and carried out in this township.
It has been already said that the ledges in this portion of the county are number- less-it is impossible to give even a list of their names and location-but it is evident to the most superficial observer that gold-bearing quartz veins exist in every direction, many of which give large promise of rich yields. Some have been pros- pected to a slight degree, rarely to a depth exceeding one hundred feet-mere surface scratching-and by mill process have given good returns. In that section along the head of Penn Valley creek, including Osceola ravine, Grub creek, Clear creek, etc., copper sulphurets predominate largely, which apparently causes the rock to be difficult to work by the ordinary mill process. Such are the Osceola, South Star, West Point, Legal Tender, 7-30 Loan, McCauley & Co's, and a large number of others, which have yielded from the same pile of rock, worked at the same time, in different mills, all the way from $7 50 to $40 per ton, with no per- ceptible difference in the ore. It is well settled that such ores must be reduced by some special process, directly applicable to their nature, the precise character of which can only be ascertained by analysis and practical experiment. There is not the slightest doubt that if such a process be discovered and disclosed that Rough and Ready would present as many good paying ledges as now are successfully operated in the vicinity of Nevada or Grass Valley. Time will show, if capital can be induced to enter the field.
Settlement.
The earliest white settler was most probably a man named Rose, who built " Rose's Corral," and kept a small trading post in Pleasant Valley, about midway between the Anthony House and Bridgeport. The next, I think, was David Bovyer, who established himself with a small stock of goods, principally for the Indian trade, at a place named by him "White Oak Springs," about midway between
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Newtown and Jones's Bar, and on the trail, as it then was, between Marysville and Nevada City, neither of which localities were then known by the names they now bear. The two locations of Rose and Bovyer must have been made in the summer or early in the fall of 1849, but I have not been able to procure the precise dates.
In the fall of 1849, the "Rough and Ready Company " of emigrants, under Captain Townsend, composed of some dozen men, from Shellsburg, Wisconsin, arrived by the Truckee route at a point on Deer Creek, near mouth of Slate Creek ; they mined successfully there a few weeks in the bed of the creek ; one of their number went out to kill some game, deer and grizzly being plentiful, and in quench- ing his thirst at the clear stream of the ravine below Randolph Flat, discovered a piece of gold on the naked bed-rock. Consequent prospecting by the company sat- isfied them that the new found diggings were rich, and removing their camp, they prepared winter quarters by building two log cabins on the point of the hill east from and overlooking the present town of Rough and Ready. Two of their num- ber struck out through the woods " on a bee line " for Sacramento, to procure provisions, and thus made the first wagon tracks on what afterward became the Telegraph road. From the name of this company, the settlement and town after- ward derived its designation. About the same time, or shortly after, the Randolph Company, consisting of Win. Gambrel, Jas. Patterson, Wm. D. Malone, two Dam- erons, and others, from Randolph county, Missouri, located on Randolph Flat, and built two log cabins, and the two companies divided the ground on the main ravine between them. Main Ravine, Red and Blue ravines were incredibly rich in gold. The work was all done in that day with the pick and shovel, crevicing kinife or spoon, pan and rocker, only, as the implements of mining ; the long tom came afterward in 1850, and the sluice box still later. Captain Townsend and his two brothers took out over $40,000 before the water failed in the spring of '50, (no ditches then conveyed water from any large stream to the smaller ones, or to dry ravines,) and the captain then returned hastily by steamer route to Wisconsin to procure a large number of working men " on shares," whom he brought out with him, at his own expense, forty in number, early in the fall of 1850, each of whom had contracted in writing to work for his employer one year, in consideration of which the employer paid the cost of the journey, was to pay them "States' wages" and support them during that time. Upon his arrival, his astonishment was great to find a town, or aggregated settlements of tents fast growing into clapboard houses, containing some four or five hundred inhabitants, instead of his two cabins; every foot of mining ground, for miles around, taken up, and scarcely room left for him to pitch liis tents, where he had left an almost unbroken wilderness less than six months before. Forty men to feed, flour fifty cents a pound, and not a place to put them to work. He was compelled to hire out his men in gangs to the new comers-who now owned the ground-to which course all of them consented, and he had then to " buy into a claim " to get a place to work himself. Such was the change of one season.
Early in January, 1850, the first family arrived at these diggings ; these were James S. Dunleavy and wife, who came from Oregon upon news of the gold dis- covery. Dunleavy was sent out a year or two before from the East as a missionary to Oregon, and it may be that the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak, for. he opened the first whisky shop in this settlement, just about where Major Wood's store now stands, and he had so far advanced in civilization and refinement a few
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1 months after that I had the honor of a special invitation from him, in the fall of that year, to dedicate his new ten-pin saloon, the first in this part of the country, by rolling the first game on his 90-foot alley. The finale of his career was conso- nant with this bright promise, and he died some years later at Mazatlan. In Feb- ruary, H. Q. Roberts arrived at Rough and Ready diggings-the population around there numbering some thirty or forty within a few miles-and after working a few weeks in the mines, he brought in a pack train of provisions, tools, etc., and opened the first regular store in the place, although it was not even a place as yet. The " store " consisted, walls and roof, of a mainsail of some large vessel, origi- nally brought up to the Anthony House by some sailors, and was supported by pine poles cut on the spot. The fame of the rich diggings reached the Sacramento paper, people began to crowd in, and thus commenced the town, about the first day of April, 1850. This section of country was then in the jurisdiction of Yuba county, but neither Alcalde, nor Justice, nor any other peace officer, was in all that region. The population rapidly increased, and soon numbered hundreds, finally thousands, the necessities of some kind of government became painfully apparent, for thefts and robberies, as well as high handed deeds of violence and outrage, and murders, became common ; the people assembled in mass, and appointed a committee of three, consisting of H. Q. Roberts, James S. Dunleavy and Emanuel Smith, who were authorized to assume the reins of government as a Committee of Vigilance and safety, whose powers were almost absolute and from whose decision there was no appeal. They had no lawyers then, with technicalities, and as their power was supreme, there was no body to appeal to, in fact, there was no established tribunal of justice nearer than Marysville, which place was then known as Nye's Landing, and the people of the mountains neither knew nor cared whether an Alcalde lived there or not, and there was no court of higher jurisdiction nearer than the Bay. This provisional tribunal accordingly, and justly, as all accounts go to show, ad- ministered justice with an equitable hand, laid out the town, marked off each man's lot or premises, decided all disputes concerning town lots and mining claims, appointed a Constable, issued writs, heard and decided causes, calling a jury when the parties desired it, took bonds for appearance from persons charged with crime, (I have one in my possession given by a man charged with horse stealing, and the person appeared and stood his trial,) and punished criminals convicted before them. One man was whipped, thirty-nine lashes, for stealing, escorted to the lower edge of town and with a parting kick notified never to appear again, under penalty of death.
The town of Rough and Ready increased very rapidly, and was for a while the principal place in what now constitutes Nevada county, and at the election held in October, 1850, polled a little less than 1,000 votes. At that time, Rich Flat, Ran- dolph Flat, Texas Flat, Kentucky Flat, Newtown. Bridgeport, Indian Flat, Anthony House, Gass Flat, and Lander's Bar, besides other minor localities, were also settle- ments of importance, crowded with miners, and a new county was much talked of during the year 1850, of which Rough and Ready was to be the county seat, and a subscription was started for the purpose of establishing a newspaper ; a church was built by donations of the people, and a hospital was erected by Dr. Wm. McCor- mick, now of Grass Valley. The cholera extended into the mountains, but in a modified form, and a few fatal cases occurred at Rough and Ready and in the vicinity, not exceeding, however, seven in number. The members of the orders of
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Odd Fellows and Masons organized themselves in September, int o associations for benevolent purposes, not merely to assist their own, but other cases of distress, of which the number was legion. The reputation of Rough and Ready for richness had gone abroad throughout the East, and immense numbers of the emigration of 1850 poured into the neighborhood, worn out, broken down, penniless, destitute and diseased, and it is reasonably estimated that the citizens of Rough and Ready were equally as heavily taxed per capita, that year from the causes just named, as were the people of San Francisco or Sacramento.
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