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 4
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The geological character of Nevada county is yet to be studied by com- petent men. The time will come when the ancient map of the county will be made for the benefit of students, and fortified with such evidences of truth as to leave little if any doubt of its correctness.
NATURAL HISTORY.
My remarks under this head will be brief. I propose to give a list of the animals found in the county, by the names known among hunters and people generally, without any attempt at scientific classification. When
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
specimens shall have been collected and examined by the State Geological corps the proper scientific name will be given to cach.
Quadrupeds .- Grizzly bear, cinnamon bear, panther, or California lion, large yellow wolf, coyote, Indian dog, lynx, or catamount, wild cat, mountain or civit cat, gray, black, silver and cross fox, fisher, badger, marten, weasel, mink, large striped skunk, small spotted skunk, large gray, ground, pine and flying squirrel, chipmuck, otter, raccoon, woodchuck, gopher, mole, wood-mouse, and rat like a kangaroo in its motions. Besides these the black-tailed deer is found, and a small fur animal of the size of the muskrat. A porcupine was shot last Fall near Nevada.
Birds .- The list of birds is somewhat large. I have probably not obtained the names of many. The following are the common names of all that can be called to recollection : Condor, or king vulture, bald eagle, golden eagle, turkey buzzard, raven, crow, several kinds of hawk, road runner, several varieties of woodpecker, grouse, mountain and valley quail, pigeon, meadow lark, magpie, blackbird, flicker, robin, snipe, sand snipe, plover, curlew, red-winged blackbird, bluebird, oriole, gray sparrow, small sparrow, cherrybird, crossbill, linnet, chcewink, California canary, martin, swallow, blue crane, or heron, sand-hill crane, wild goose, small Canadian goose, wood duck, mallard, teal, dipper duck and mud-hen, pelican, and two varieties of humming bird.
Fish .- Salmon, salmon trout, brook trout, lake trout, perch, whitefish, sucker, chub, and two varieties of eels.
Reptiles .- Two kinds of rattlesnake, long striped, brown, pilot, green, purple, small garter, milk and water snakes. Four kinds of lizzard, horned toad, common toad, frogs.
Of insect life there is too great a variety to be specified in the limit allowed us.
The botany of the county is yet to be classified. Very many plants are here not known to the botanists of the East, and until examined and prop- erly described the flora of the region can not well be studied by the young student.
INDIANOLOGY.
It was my intention to make rather an extended notice of this subject, but on investigation I find the material much more scanty than I at first was led to suppose.
The Indiaus of Nevada county are but a handful. The whole tribe speaking the same language, and having the same habits, extends from Rabbit Creek on the north, to Yankee Jim's on the south, and from Em- C
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pire Ranch to Nevada, inclusive of all these places, and probably does not number to exceed five hundred persons. Their numbers were formerly much larger, but the old tale of contact with civilization destroying the Indian is to be told. Whisky, the great leveller, has laid them low ; be. sides diseases unknown until the advent of Americans, have taken fearful hold upon the aborigines here as well as in the more eastern regions of the United States.
The habits of the Indians here are filthy. They usually resided in Sum- mer in the open air or under temporary shelter of bushes. In Winter they erected conical frames of wood, and covered them with earth, leaving a hole in the top for the smoke to escape. The whole presented the appearance of a smoking coal pit. Very lately, some Indians have constructed small cabins of boards with roofs of shakes, and having doors and chimneys, which are but little inferior to the cabins of miners. The food of the In- dians was formerly acorns, the nut of the pine, seeds, grasshoppers, and whatever they could command by the chase. At the present time they purchase of the whites, flour, sugar and potatoes, and some few other arti- cles of food.
Like the Eastern Indian, the Digger is a polygamist. There is no re- striction upon him in Digger law which prevents him from having as many wives as he wants, though it is rare to see a man with more than one ; but it is probably owing more to his want of means than want of inclination. When marriage is contemplated the parents are propitiated with presents. The union is understood to be for life, or good behavior. The Indian takes his bride for better, but not for worse.
He has no tradition about coming to this country ; but says most decid- edly that he grew here as well as his ancestors before him. When asked who made the movable stone mortars that have been dug up from the soil, he says they were not made by his tribe, but were given them by the one who made the acorns, and since then the Indians have learned to make their own mortars in the solid and immovable rock.
The Nevada Indians burn their dead like the ancient Romans, and bury the ashes. The only exception to this custom is with the dead bodies of their dreamers. These are buried for one year, when the bones are dug up and burnt. The women put on mourning for relatives, by covering their heads and smearing their faces, shoulders and breasts with a black pitch, which is suffered to remain many months. The corpse is dressed in the best it possessed while living; beads, bows and arrows, blankets, and every thing belonging to the deceased, are laid upon the pyre. The relatives and friends dance, howling around the flames till the body is consumed.
The Indian here has a very correct notion of right and wrong, and can
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
give a list with precision of what he deems wrongs, such as to stamp the perpetrator as a bad Indian. Ife says the Indian always had such ideas, and did not obtain them from the whites.
Their religious rites are very few, and their ideas of a future life rather confused. Like all undeveloped minds, they easily imbibe the mystic notions of others, and it is impossible to say what the former belief of the Indian was. If they ever had a general belief, it seems to be clouded by what they have learned from the whites.
The Indian of this region has many points of resemblance with his Eastern brother. The same arrow-head, the same council house, where the chief receives his friends, the same taeiturnity and gravity, the same medicine man, the same respect for dreamers or prophets, and the same improvidence belong to the race. But he differs widely in other respects. The Nevada Indian is not migratory ; he practices no torture on his ene- mies ; the rite of adoption of wives and children of enemies is not known, but all are killed indiscriminately ; chiefs are not hereditary or selected for prowess, but are chosen for other qualities, principally, it would seem, for ability to entertain or reward their friends. There is no regular chief to the tribe at present. Like all barbarous races, the Indian is addicted to games of chance.
The mechanical skill of the tribe was not great. The women wove baskets so compactly as to hold water, and the men made their arrows and a very superior bow, having a covering of sinew along its back, which retained the elasticity of the instrument.
The Indian doctor has but few and simple remedies. He applies poultices of plants to bruised flesh ; but for fever and other pains the disease is pre- tended to be sucked out.
I have been able to gain but little information respecting the language of the " Oustomah Midah," as the Nevada Indians call themselves. Philologists count the frequent recurrence of vowel sounds as indicative of the long influence of a warm climate on the language of a people. The language of the Indians here has its full share of vowels, and beyond this fact I am unable, at this writing, to say much concerning the tongue spoken by the Indians.
They have their story-tellers, who entertain their hearers the whole night long with weird and fanciful tales, like the Arabs of the desert. As a specimen of the kind of stories pleasing to the Indian ear, I give one that was related me by an Indian, in broken English. He received it from an old man who dreamed it, he said. Here it is :
It was a long time ago. A California lion and bis younger brother, the wild cat, lived in a big wigwam together. The lion was strong and fleet of foot. He was
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more than a match for most of the animals he wanted to eat. But he could not cope with the grizzly, or the serpent that crawled on the earth. His young brother was wise. He bad a wonderful power. From a magical ball of great beauty, he derived an influence potent to destroy all the animals his older brother was afraid of. They hunted together, the cat going before. One day-it was a long time ago-the two went out to hunt. "There is a bear," said the lion. The cat, pointing to the bear, said, " die," and the bear fell dead. They next met a serpent. and be was killed in like manner. They skinned the snake and took along bis skin for its magical power. A little farther on two large and very beautiful deer were found feeding together. "Kill one of these for yourself," said the boy brother to his man brother, " but catch me the other alive." The lion gave chase, and at night he returned to his wigwam. "Did you bring me back one of the beautiful deer?" said the cat. "No," said the lion, "it was too much work. I killed them both." Then the cat was sorry, and did not love his brother. They were estranged. The cat would not go out to slay the bear and the snake any more, and the lion would not go out for fear of the bear and the snake. He thought he would use the medicine ball of his brother, the cat, and learn to kill the bear and the snake himself. One day-it was a long time ago-the lion was playing with the ball, and tossing it up, he saw it go up and up, and out of sight. It never came down. Then the deer scattered all over the earth and the hunting has been poor ever since. The cat was disconsolate for the loss of the mag- ical ball. He left the wigwam to wander alone. He sorrowed for bis loss and looked to find the ball again. It was a long time ago. Big water run all round from "Lankee " Jims to Humbug, and away up to the high mountains. The wild cat went north. He climbed a tree by the water. He wished for the lost ball. By and by he saw a beautiful ball hanging, like a buckeye, on a limb. He picked it off. It was very pretty. He put it in the snake-skin to keep it so it would not get away. He went along the shore of the big water till he could see across it. Two girls were on the other side cooking. The ball jumped out of the snake-skin and rolled over in the water. It went across the river. One of the girls came down to the stream to get some water in her basket, and saw the beautiful ball rolling and shining in the water. She tried to dip it up in her basket. But it would roll away. She said, "sister, come and help me catch this beautiful ball." The sister came. They tried a long time, but finally caught it in the basket. It was bright and very pretty. They were afraid it would get away. One held it for a time, and then the other. They were very glad. At night they put it between them in the bed. They kept awake a long time and talked about their prize. But, at last they fell asleep. They woke in the morning -- the ball was gone-there was lying between them a full grown young man. And that was the first man that ever came on the earth. This was a long time ago.
NOTE .- Since writing the above, my friend, J. E. Squire, informs me that a strange inscription is found on the rocks a short distance below Meadow Lake. The rocks appear to have been covered with a black coat- ing, and the hieroglyphics or characters cut through the layer and into the rock. This inscription was, probably, not made by the present tribe inhabiting the lower part of Nevada county. It may have been done by Indians from the other side of the mountains, who came to the lake region near the summit to fish ; or it may have a still stranger origin.
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
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. PATRIOTIC.
Besides giving a heavy majority at the polls for the maintenance of the integrity of the Union, Nevada county contributed liberally of men and money in the war of rebellion. Four companies were enlisted, and did service in the field. Captains Greene, Thayer, Atchisson and Kendall raised and commanded these companies, which altogether numbered about two hundred and fifty men. They all served in Arizona, or on the southern borders of the United States and Mexico. All these companies were assisted by the citizens of the county to enter the service of their country. The distance to the scenes of heaviest conflict was so great as to prevent extensive enlistments in California, though the people of no portion of the Union had more fervid desires for the fray.
In the way of contributions to the Sanitary Fund, Nevada county has left a noble record. The California Branch of the Sanitary Commission, in a published pamphlet, gives statements of the amounts contributed by each town and county of the State, which passed through the hands of the Commission, and also the amounts sent through Dr. Bellows. The follow- ing is a compilation of the amounts raised by the various places in Nevada county :
Bridgeport.
$1,000 00
Birchville.
1,089 00
Chalk Bluff.
127 50
Columbia Hill.
149 00
French Corral
300 00
Grass Valley.
8,523 85
Lake City
101 00
Moore's Flat
332 50
Nevada ..
4,938 95
North San Juan
3,390 56
North Bloomfield.
140 00
Omega
21 25
Patterson
38 50
Red Dog.
1,034 00
Rough and Ready.
624 00
Sweetland.
226 37
Washington.
329 00
County at Large.
522 35
. Total.
$22,887 83
To this amount is to be added $6,500 raised in Nevada City and sent by Hon. A. A. Sargent, while a member of Congress, direct to New York. Of the amount contributed by the county at large, $355 00 was taken at the polls in Nevada City. All of the above amounts were in coin. There was, also, contributed $58 in currency. The total amount given by Nevada county to the Sanitary Fund during the war, for which receipts can be shown was, therefore, $29,387 83 in coin, and the above named sum in greenbacks.
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
THE MINES AND THEIR PRODUCT.
It is an easy matter, comparatively, to obtain the statistics of mines at present worked in the county. The curious will find much valuable infor- mation in this respect in other parts of this volume. But, to go back and gather up the facts in relation to the product of the mines now exhausted ; to obtain even the names of the ravines, river-bars, gulches, hills, etc., from which thousands have been enriched ; to approximate the amounts of gold that have been extracted in all the various localities of the county, is too laborious a work for a volume of this character, if it were practicable.
The mines of Nevada were, when first discovered, exceedingly rich and casy of development. The first claims were on river-bars or in ravines, where men with a common rocker, without more than from a few hours to a day or two of preparation could proceed to collect from a half ounce to two ounces per day, and in frequent cases hundreds of dollars per day to the man were extracted. Men in a few weeks were known to return to the Eastern States carrying from ten to fifty, and as high as a hundred and sixty pounds of gold dust each, as a reward for their enterprise. Gold Run, near Nevada City, and Gold Flat, were extraordinarily rich. They must have been so, for the claims allowed by the early mining laws were small, fifteen feet in length, and yet some of the reported results of single claims are scarcely credible. The ravines falling into Deer Creek on the site of the present City of Nevada, were also rich beyond precedent. Deer Creek, below the town, afforded splendid claims. Selby Flat was another magnificent locality for miners, and Brush and Rock creeks also. Wood's Ravine yielded immensely. The mines about Newtown, for a time, were extremely profitable. The region about Grass Valley was one of enormous product. The ravines of Rough and Ready could scarcely be excelled, yielding gold, it is said, by the pound daily. The bars of the South and Middle Yubas were splendid ground for the early miners. The ravines about French Corral yielded magnificently. Shady Creek and other localities in Bridgeport Township, were excellent, and good mines were worked at Humbug and Eureka. Some fine claims were worked on Green- horn Creek, by emigrants in 1849.
But the discovery of the ancient river bed near Nevada opened a new class of mines, that required a large outlay and more risk to work than the river or ravine claims that engaged the attention of the pioneer miners. These ancient gravel drifts were soon found in many parts of the county, and from these the bulk of the gold has been extracted. We have no means of knowing the amount taken from the "Coyote diggings," above Nevada, but from the fact that all the gravel hills were rich, and the Live
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
Oak and Nebraska claims, the last ones worked on the northern end of the range, yielded, probably, a million and a quarter dollars, it is presumed that not less than eight or ten millions were extracted, in half a mile on the lead. The sums taken from the gravel range extending from North San Juan down to French Corral must have been immense. At Grass Valley a very large amount was obtained from the same class of mines. Randolph Flat, in Rough and Ready, yielded handsomely. Orleans, Moore's and Woolsey's Flats, in Eureka township, have been nearly washed away, and immense sums taken. Alpha and Omega, Quaker Hill, Hunt's Hill, Little York, and many other places, have yielded their share to reward the miners.
It is variously estimated that the basin in which Nevada is situated, has produced from fifteen to thirty millions in gold, and by some the whole gold product of the county is placed at not less than seventy-five millions of dollars. I am disposed to believe that a higher figure is warranted ; but at this time the facts cannot be obtained and statements in regard to the question must be based on conjecture only. One assertion we may safely venture, that no part of California, or the world, has produced a richer auriferous section than Nevada county.
The ancient river beds of the section are not yet exhausted. Indeed, the gravel deposits are as yet comparatively unworked. Gold is still ob- tained in ravines and on river bars that have been worked over repeatedly, the decrease in wages and improved modes of mining enabling miners to obtain compensation for their labor. But, the reliance of the miners is on the old drifts of gravel and quartz for gold. The latter source is almost unlimited, gold-bearing rock being found in several distinct districts in the county. Formerly Grass Valley came near reckoning quartz mining as an industrial interest peculiarly her own. Now, Nevada has a few quartz mills, Eureka is fast developing into an excellent locality for rock mining, and Meadow Lake promises, from its large and numerous ledges, to become the chief quartz-crushing district in the county, if not the State. The spirit of enterprise and discovery is so active, that no danger is apprehended that Nevada county will lose any of its character as the first gold producing section on the coast.
The mines of our county yield, in combination with gold, a small quan- tity of silver. Some excitement was manifested in the Summer of 1866 by the discovery of copper mines on the Greenhorn creek, near Bear river. Some very rich specimens were exhibited, taken from the cupriferous ledges, and strong hopes are entertained that mines of copper will be opened in that section which will prove valuable.
A belt of copper bearing rock crosses the county through Rough and Ready township, in which various efforts have been made to open remuner-
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SKETCH OF NEVADA COUNTY.
ative mines, but, since the active year for prospecting for copper, 1863, the hopes of those who had an interest in the enterprise have been depressed. The "Well Mine" developed a solid mass of sulphurets full fifty feet thick, inclosed in metamorphic slate. A portion of the ore was shipped to Swansea and yielded, it is said, from nine to ten per cent. It is the opinion of many that this mine will yet prove a valuable one, though work upon it at present is suspended. The "Last Chance," and "Green" ledges, in the same general district, as well as the " Distillery Mine," are by many thought to show indications of value. It is predicted, from the results of the prospecting after copper, that Nevada county will in the future possess copper mines of great importance.
Manganese is found near Sweetland in considerable quantities. Ledges of galena have been discovered near Meadow Lake Nickel, arsenic and antimony exist in combination with gold in the quartz of that section rendering the ores, in some cases, refractory by the ordinary processes. Limestone, in a metamorphic state, is found on Wolf Creek, on the South Yuba, six miles from Nevada, on the same stream above Bear Valley, and in several other parts of the county.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MINING.
Nevada county is entitled to the credit of introducing or inventing most of the improvements in mining. Here the long-tom was first introduced in 1850. The sluice came next, and was first used in the ravine near the African Church in Nevada City. E. E. Mattison soon after adopted a mode of washing down high banks, which gave a great impetus to mining, rendering immense ranges of gravel productive that could be worked in no other way profitably. This was to throw a large stream of water compressed through a small nozzle, upon the bank, as water is thrown through a hose upon fires in cities, and now known as the hydraulic mode. Improvements have been frequently made on the hydraulic pipes, one of the best of which was suggested by Macy of Little York township, which prevents the water whirling when passing through the pipe, thereby scattering and losing its force before striking the bank. Several improved couplings for hose origi- nated in the county. Mattison applied hydraulic power to the derrick, causing a vast saving of expense where a derrick is much employed. A hose sewing machine was invented and put in operation here. French invented a machine for drilling rocks. Dunning's under-current sluice was first used at North San Juan. The Crall, or waltzing pan, was originated in that place, and the practice of blowing up and pulverizing gravel banks
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POLITICAL SKETCH.
by gunpowder was adopted there also. As many as five hundred and fifty kegs of powder have been used at North San Juan in one blast. The hurdy-gurdy wheel is another of the simple machines to save expense. It would be a tedious task to name all the little contrivances for saving gold that have been produced by the genius and experience of the people of our county.
POLITICAL.
Upon the organization of the county, in 1851, the voters were about evenly divided between Whigs and Democrats, and in this regard Nevada was an index of the State. Sectional feelings were rife at first, and it generally happened that Southern men, or those sympathizing with South- ern views, obtained the offices. An effectual mode of ruining a candidate was, to raise a suspicion that he was not " sound," or, in other words, he was suspected of having an idea that slavery was not a divine institution. Ultimately the charge of abolitionism became to the candidate the passport to success. Latterly Nevada has been one of the most advanced of counties as well in political sentiment and action as in material development.
At the first election, held in the Fall of 1851, the Whigs elected J. N. Turner and E. F. W. Ellis, who fell while acting as Brigadier at the battle of Shiloh, to the Assembly. Burton and Lindsey were elected to the Assembly as Whigs in 1853. But generally, the Democrats were able to carry the county by small majorities, till their power was broken by the Know Nothings in 1855, though the year previous the Whigs elected their first Senator, with two Assemblymen. After the decline of the Know Nothings the Democrats swept the county and State till the Republican party broke in upon them in 1860, and the next year won the field main- taining their ascendency to the present hour.
There was an early misunderstanding between Northern and Southern Democrats in the county, which sometimes contributed to the success of Whigs. There was, also, a want of harmony between Northern and Southern Whigs. The antagonism between Northern and Southern men destroyed party lines to some extent and disposed some of the most sectional to vote for the men from their part of the Union. Gamblers had a powerful influ- ence in the early elections, and being numerous and generally Democrats, they contributed greatly to the success of their party at the polls. The party with the most desperate men was likely to succeed. Hundreds of unnaturalized foreigners voted at the first elections, and even down to a D
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