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 8
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. PLACER MINING.
provement, enabling claims to be worked that would not pay with the rocker and long-tom, and gave a decided impetus to mining.
Ditches at length were constructed, and as the miners were compelled to leave the river beds and shallow ravines and take to the deeper diggings, the process of shoveling the earth into the sluices became unprofitable, and the practice of ground-sluicing came into use. By this process, the surface soil being loosened up was washed away by a stream of water, leaving only the heavy gravel at the bottom to be shoveled into the sluice. Ground- sluicing was carried on very extensively in this county in 1851 and 1852, the use of the sluice proper at that time being well understood, and having superseded other methods. With most of the mining improvements there was no especial invention, but the different appliances came into use gradu- ally, as they were needed by the changing character of mining, and may be considered as the result of the combined skill and ingenuity of the mining population. Perhaps to M. F. Hoit, now residing in Bridgeport township, but then a miner at Nevala City, more than to any other one person, is due the introduction of the sluice. It is used now in all placer mining operations, and is undoubtedly the most essential of any one contri- vance in placer mining. It can hardly be called a machine.
The hydraulic hose came into use in 1853, and enabled miners to work with profit a vast amount of ground that would never have paid for sluicing by the ordinary process. About April, 1852, a Frenchman named Chabot, mining on Buckeye Hill, had a hose made to work his claim. This was some four or five inches in diameter, and between thirty-five and forty feet in length. There was no pipe or nozzle at the end, but by concentrating the water and leading it into the diggings through the hose, it was found convenient to sluice off the earth and gravel that had been picked down, and a great help in cleaning up the bed-rock. We can not learn that a hose was used that season in any other claims, and it does not appear that Chabot discovered the great advantage that would result by directing the stream of water against the bank. This discovery was made by E. E. Matteson, a year later. In April, 1853, Matteson and his partners, who were working a claim on American Hill, rigged up a hose, attached a nozzle at the end, and directing it against the bank, found that a small stream of water would do the labor of a hundred men in excavating the earth. Very soon after this the hydraulic hose came into general use throughout the county, giving renewed impulse to placer mining.
Successive improvements have been made in hydraulic mining, until the appliances now in use resemble but little those of 1853, but the principle is the same, and to Matteson is due the credit of the important discovery. At present, the water is usually conducted into the diggings through large
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PLACER MINING.
iron pipes, at the end of which the hose is attached. In some of the larger operations, five or six streams of water are kept playing upon the bank, undermining the ground and melting away the hills at an incredible rate. In this manner acres of ground, frequently from one to two hundred feet deep, are washed away in a single season, and the bed-rock left bare. The hydraulic is the most effectual method ever yet devised for excavating large quantities of earth, and the process was employed to some extent last season, by the Pacific Railroad Company, in cutting through the deep hills near Dutch Flat.
The placer mines have been worked longer and more steadily than the quartz mines, and their yield has been more regular. At an early day of mining it was supposed the placer diggings would soon be exhausted, and in 1852 the prediction would have been regarded as wild, that they would hold out for fifteen years with no material decrease of yield. But the longer they have been worked the more extensive they appear to be, and the labor and developments of the fifteen years have barely been sufficient to give us an idea of their vast extent. The old channels are very numerous and extend from the foot hills to near the summit of the Sierra, all containing gravel deposits, with gold in greater or less abundance. The long ridges, like the Washington and Chalk Bluff, are believed to have been the chan- nels of ancient streams, which were filled with volcanic material, that sub- sequently cemented and became more impervious to the action of the elements than the surrounding bed-rock. Men of good judgment are con- fident they can trace the course of the old channels by surface indications, and quite extensive operations have been commenced at Chalk Bluff and Bear Valley on the probability of the correctness of this theory.
Thus far the old channels have only been opened and worked at the more. favorable localities-where there are bi-washes, or where they are cut transversely by more modern streams, as is the case in the Nevada basin. The old claims of the Young America, Live Oak, Nebraska and Harmony Companies, are situated on the same channel, which, beyond question, extends far up the ridge, and will eventually be traced to its source. All of these claims, except the Harmony, yielded immense profits; but the latter company were so unfortunate as to commence operations on the north side of the ridge, when the channel, at their location, swept around on the south side, thus greatly enhancing the cost of working. The result was, that they took out about $70,000, at a cost of $85,000, when the work was suspended. Latterly, the owners have been arranging to resume work, and expect to commence operations on the south side of the ridge this season. In the former operations, they had merely tapped the edge of the channel. The Cold Spring Company, whose claims adjoin the Harmony above, will
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probably also commence operations this season. Some years ago the channel was tapped about ten miles above Nevada, and the gravel found to be rich, but in consequence of the pumping machinery being inadequate to free the shaft of water, the work was suspended before reaching the bottom of the channel. A dozen or more owners in the Nebraska, Live Oak and Young America claims realized snug fortunes in working less than half a mile along the lead, and from this some idea may be formed of the prospective yield of the lead for twenty miles or more above.
The ridge between Deer creek and Greenhorn, and the Eureka ridge, also present almost inexhaustible fields for mining enterprise. The ancient channels following the course of these ridges, together with the Washington ridge, it is probable join together at some point below Nevada, and have their outflow at Smartsville. From that point to the summit, the channels will eventually be traced out and made to disgorge their stores of treasure.
Placer mining is carried on more or less in every township in the county, except Meadow Lake. Bridgeport takes the lead, and the hydraulic works of the American Company, at North San Juan, are the most extensive of the kind in the county. The fiumies and sluices of the company extend from Manzanita Hill to the South Yuba, a distance of nearly a mile, a tunnel having been run through the bed-rock for a thousand feet to drain the claims.
Taking the county at large, the placer mines still retain their importance, and the longer they are worked the more confidence is entertained in their durability.
CANALS AND DITCHES.
The first mining in California was upon river-bars and in gulches, where the gold was deposited from the encroachments on the placers of an older era. These deposits, from their proximity to water, were easily exhausted. But early in 1850 the gravel hills above the city of Nevada were found to be rich, and from this fact came the investigation of other hills of like , character, until it was found that the bulk of all the gold washings of the State were in the deep drifts of gravel that crossed the country in many places. These, from their elevation above the modern water channels of the country, could not be worked by the ordinary modes. Water must be brought to the hills, and hence the ditches and canals, that have run in every direction where there was auriferous gravel to wash, until the interest has become one of the most prominent on the coast. To obtain water in quantities adequate to the demand, and at sufficient elevation to command the mining ground, required an aggregation of capital and the joint enter- prise of miners in considerable numbers. Companies were formed and the work of supplying the gravel ranges with water began.
The first enterprise of the kind was projected at Nevada in March, 1850. It brought water from Musketo creek to Coyote Hill, a distance of a mile and a half. It was closely followed by other enterprises of a similar char- acter about Nevada, and as the old river beds were explored water companies were formed in all parts of the county.
At the present time, there are but two really grand canal companies in the county ; the one supplying nearly the whole region lying between the Middle and South Yuba, and the other mainly all the remaining portion of the county. The first is acting under a charter granted by the State of New York in December, 1865, and is called The Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company Consolidated. It has a capital of $2,250,000, and an office in New York City, but the whole concern is under the efficient general superintendence of Richard Abbey, Esq., of North San Juan. In general terms, the works of the company consist of one grand trunk canal, com- mencing near the summit of the Sierra in four small lakes, and extending
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CANALS AND DITCHES.
to North San Juan, a distance of sixty-five miles, and several side ditches that have been purchased and consolidated into one system.
The principal reservoir to supply the main canal is Eureka or Canon Creek lake. This lake, when first surveyed, had an area of about one square mile, but a substantial dam of granite rocks has been thrown across the outlet to the average hight of forty-two feet. Its base at the bottom is one hundred and twenty feet long, its hight in the deepest place seventy feet, and length of dam on the top two hundred and fifty feet. This arti- ficial work gives the lake double its original surface, it being now two miles long and one wide, with an average depth of sixty-five feet. The supply of water in this lake is estimated at 933,000,000 cubic feet. Another res- ervoir is Lake Faucherie, a few miles below Eureka Lake, which has a wooden dam thirty feet high, flooding about two hundred acres. This, in addition to other smaller reservoirs, is computed to add 300,000,000 cubic feet of water to the amount stored in Eureka Lake. The storage supply of the main canal in the dry season is estimated to cqual a run of one hundred and fifty days, allowing three thousand inches, miner's meas- ure, per day of ten hours.
The main canal which conducts the water from these reservoirs is eight feet wide by three and one-half feet deep, and has a fall of sixteen and one- half feet per mile. Its capacity is somewhat more than three thousand inches. The Magenta and National aqueducts, a short distance below Eu- reka, are, probably, the finest works of the kind in the State, reflecting great credit upon Mr. Faucherie, the engineer. The National and Magenta are separated only by a small hill, and in fact may be counted almost as one aqueduct. The National is 1,800 feet in length. Its greatest hight is sixty-five feet. The Magenta is 1,400 feet long, and its greatest hight a hundred and twenty-six feet. The flume is seven feet wide by one foot three inches high, and has a grade of one foot in a hundred. The aqueduct, standing on tall posts hewn from the trees that grew near the spot, and winding about in graceful curves, to give it more strength to withstand the winds that sweep through the gap that the structure crosses, is a conspicu- ous and admirable object.
The great enterprise of damming the lakes high up in the mountains, and constructing the canal above mentioned, was projected by B. Faucherie, P. Obert, Louis Lay, P. Pelletier, P. Poirson, Louis Leliot, L. Watier, M. W. Irvin, and John McNulty, in 1855, and was finished in 1860. The Magenta flume was constructed in 1859. It is estimated that the whole, canal, flume and dams, cost $950,000. The company became hopelessly involved by borrowing money to complete the enterprise, and the whole work fell into its present hands, who proceeded to absorb the entire canal interest of the
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CANALS AND DITCHES.
section, by the purchase and consolidation of the ditches we are about to describe, under the control of one head.
The Miners' Ditch was commenced and completed by John Hays, George Fellows, James Creegan, Robert Curran, Rose Warner, L. A. Sackett, and others. Work began upon it in 1855 and ended on the year following. It heads on the Middle Yuba, two miles above the junction of the south fork of that stream, and running generally along the southern bank of the gorge in which the Middle Yuba flows, in twenty miles, it gains an elevation to supply Snow Point, Orleans, Moore's and Woolsey's Flats with water. These Flats have an altitude above the river of 1,500 feet, the auriferous drift that underlies the volcanic tufa spread over the entire upper portion of the Ridge, erop out at these points, revealing rich gravel, and calling for the water of the Miners' Ditch to wash it. This ditch, or canal, is five feet wide by three deep, has a running capacity of seven hundred and fifty inches, from its source to its debouchure into, Bloody Run it is twenty-six miles in length, and its original cost, including reservoirs, branches and feeders, is given at $175,000.
The Middle Yuba Canal was located in 1853, by M. F. Hoit, and work began upon it in December of that year, and the ditch completed to Grizzly Canon in 1854. The enterprise was pushed on to the Yuba and completed in 1856. It takes water from the Middle Yuba, a short distance above the mouth of Bloody Run, and carries it in a canal, seven feet wide by four and a half deep, to Badger Hill, San Juan, Sebastopol, Sweetland, Birch- ville, and French Corral, a distance of forty miles. On its way this canal takes in the waters of Grizzly Canon and other small streams. Its capacity is 1,500 inches, and its cost originally $400,000.
The Poorman's Creek ditch takes water from Poorman's Creek, below. Eureka, to Orleans, Moore's and Woolsey's Flats. It, also, has a branch conveying water from the Middle Yuba. Total length, twenty-two miles ; capacity, three hundred and fifty inches ; cost, $90,000. Its projectors were Richard Berryman, John Cowger, J. P. McGuire, G. K. Barry, Ed. Craddock, John P. Brenton, and others. Ground was broken for this ditch in 1853, and the work completed in 1855.
The Memphis Race was begun in 1853, by Dr. James Weaver. It took water from the south fork of the Middle Yuba, at the same point as the Poorman's Ditch, and bore it to the Flats before mentioned, and on to Columbia Hill, a distance of thirty miles. Its capacity was about five hundred inches. . Weaver had a larger enterprise commenced, to take water from the Middle Yuba, which failed. It is thought he must have expended a half million dollars upon his canal projects.
The Grizzly Ditch, or ditches, were commenced in November, 1851, by
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Charles Marsh, Pettibone and Stewart. The object was to carry the waters of Bloody Run and Grizzly Canon to North San Juan, which was accom- plished in 1852. The ditch had a capacity originally of seven hundred and fifty inches, and was forty-five miles in length. Its cost was a little more than $50,000.
The Spring Creek ditches were projected by Charles Marsh, George Rocheford and William L. Tisdale, in 1853, and carried the waters of Humbug Canon and Spring Creek to Columbia Hill, Montezuma Hill and intermediate mines. Its length was sixteen miles, and its capacity eight hundred inches. Cost $20,000.
Captain Irvin had two or three small ditches, one of which carried water from Poorman's Creek to Relief Hill and on to Lake City and Columbia Hill, where it falls into the main trunk. It was commenced in 1851, and completed to Humbug and Lake City in 1857.
The McDonald ditch brought water to Eureka from Weaver Creek, a distance of five miles. Its cost was about $7,000, and its capacity about one hundred and fifty inches.
In addition to the above mentioned ditches, there are several others of little note, all of which have become incorporated under the control of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company Consolidated, forming one of the most stupendous and costly systems of canals in the mining districts of the State, and commanding as rich and extensive a section of auriferous gravel as has been discovered on the planet. The selling capacity of the grand canal and branches equals 5,500 inches every ten hours, and the length of all the canals exceeds two hundred miles. The cost of all to the company now controlling it is reported at more than $1,000,000, and the net receipts about $1,000 per day. The ability of the region watered by the canals of the company to produce the computed average of the last ten years, two millions per annum, is not doubted.
When it is taken into consideration that the company has a perpetual monopoly of all the water that can be made available for mining purposes in the region, it must be admitted that it is one of the grandest pieces of property in which capital can be with entire security invested. But a small per centage of the ancient gravel deposits are yet washed in the districts traversed by these canals, and only those portions most exposed and easiest to work. The great labor is yet to come, and the water of the canals before named is the great agent to do it.
The only canal of any considerable importance on the Ridge between the Middle and South Yuba, not owned by the consolidated company, is that of the Eddys, formerly called the "Shady Creek Ditch," which takes the water from Shady creek, a distance of twelve miles to French Corral. It
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CANALS AND DITCHES.
was constructed in 1851. Its capacity is 2,500 inches, and its cost, in- cluding reservoirs, $140,000. This canal is in the hands of some of its projectors and original owners.
One of the most extensive canals of the State is that owned by the South Yuba Canal Company, taking water from the South Yuba river, and several lakes as feeders, and distributing it to Dutch Flat, in Placer county, as well as over the extensive region lying between the South Yuba and Bear River, as far down the western slope of the Sierra Nevada as Grass Valley. The canals of the company are remarkable for their cost, their substantial nature and the fact that they are in the hands of the original projectors and builders. While nearly all the canal enterprises of the country have passed from the control of the men who conceived and executed them, the South Yuba Canal remains a triumph as well of the engineering as financial ability of its managers, still remaining in the possession of the fathers of the en- terprise, and owned without an incumbrance or an enemy, all the men who assisted in any degree in the construction of the works having long-ago been paid to the uttermost farthing.
The history of the South Yuba Canal Company is interesting. After the discovery of gold in the gravel hills above the town of Nevada, for a time the auriferous carth was hauled to Deer Creek to be washed. In Sep- tember, 1850, William Crawford, Charles Marsh, John and Thomas Dunn, and C. Carrol, conceived the idea of digging a ditch, nine miles in length, from the gravel hills to Rock Creek. The work was completed in Decem- ber following, and was productive of splendid results-paying its cost, $10,000, in six weeks. While this ditch was in the course of building, in November, two rival companies, "The Deer Creek Water Company" and " The Coyote Water Company," began the construction of canals to take the waters of Deer Creek to the new diggings. Law suits ensucd, which terminated by the consolidation of the two into one.
In 1853 Rich and Fordyce began the construction of a canal which was to bring the waters of the South Yuba to Nevada. Law suits arose between the companies, and finally another consolidation took place, and from this consolidation grew the magnificent system of canals controlled by the South Yuba Canal Company.
The main canal of this company is sixteen miles in length, commencing on the South Yuba and passing through a tunnel sixty feet in length, which cost $6,000, the waters enter a flume, seven miles in length, set on solid wall-rock for one and a half miles through the canon on the South Yuba, a shelf having been blasted through the solid precipice rock, in places a hundred feet high, to receive it, the workmen at first being let down from the top by means of ropes to begin the drilling and blasting. Another
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tunnel, 3,800 feet long, at the head of Deer Creek, enables the waters of the South Yuba to mingle with those of Deer Creek. This tunnel ivas finished at a cost of $112,000. The capacity of the canal is 8,500 running inches, miner's measure, its size is six feet wide by five deep, and work commenced upon it in April, 1853, ending October, 1858. The cost of the main canal and tunnels was not far from $600,000. A branch ditch runs from the lower end of the grand tunnel, eighteen miles, to Chalk Bluff, Red Dog and You Bet. From the same point another branch runs to Omega, Alpha, Gold Hill and Blue Tent, also eighteen miles in length ; while the supply for Nevada and Grass Valley is thrown into Deer Creek and taken out six miles below to fill the Cascade ditch, leading to Quaker Hill and Scotch Flat, and going farther on supplies Gold Flat and Grass Valley.
The Dutch Flat branch commences a mile and a half below the head of the main canal and runs a distance of twenty-three miles to Dutch Flat. It was commenced in 1864 and completed the following year, at a cost of $108,000. The capacity of this branch is 3,000 running inches, which amount finds a ready market in the rich auriferous district to which it runs.
It might have been supposed that the control and use of the waters of the South Yuba, Deer and Rock creeks, would be sufficient for the demand, or that at least money enough had been spent upon canals and ditches to supply the mines which the waters of these streams could reach. But not
so. The company commenced in carnest in 1860, and completed in four years, the damming of five lakes near the summit of the mountains as feeders to the canals in the months of summer. A dam of solid masonry, one of the most substantial structures of its kind in California, forty-two feet high and eleven hundred and fifty feet long, was thrown across the outlet of Meadow Lake, increasing its capacity ten fold. This lake, when full, is more than a mile and a quarter long by half a mile wide. Seven miles distant, in a southeasterly direction from Meadow Lake, are the White Rock, Devil's Peak and two other small lakes, the united capacity of which will equal that of Meadow Lake. The dam at Meadow Lake cost, in round numbers, $50,000, and the dams of the other lakes as much more. The Devil's Peak lakes lie in close proximity to the Pacific Railroad.
In the summer, when the supply of water is limited in the streams, these lakes are resorted to for their stores of water laid up in the rainy months, and the yield is generally sufficient to last through the year. The waters of Meadow Lake are emptied into the South Yuba, and taken into the main canal nine miles below, and before finally running to waste pass over fifty miles in artificial channels.
The books of the company show that they have constructed and purchased
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about two hundred and seventy-five miles of canals and ditches, at a cost of more than a million dollars. In twelve years, the expense account of the company reaches $1,130,000, and its receipts $1,400,000.
The owners of this immense property are James Whartenby, who is gene- ral managing agent of the company, Charles Marsh, G. W. Kidd, Thomas and John Dunn, W. J. Knox, and several others. The stock of the com- pany is divided into three hundred shares, and is almost entirely in the hands of the gentlemen above named.
It is proper to remark that, in addition to the ditches named, the company own one-half of a ditch sixteen miles in length, from the South Yuba to Omega, projected and partially built by Culbertson, Riley, and others, the other half being owned individually by George W. Kidd. This ditch cost about $80,000.
Some of the ditches owned by the company have passed into disuse from the exhaustion of the mines to which they ran, so that the number of ditches actually employed of late years is lessened. But, taking the capacity of the reservoirs of the company, which can greatly be increased, into consideration, and the vast territory the canals of the company are capable of watering, the property of the company will yet, and for long years to come, remain among the most desirable of acquisitions. I may be laughed at for my convictions, but I do not hesitate to assert that nearly all, if not all, of the ditches of the South Yuba Canal Company, and I go farther, and say nearly all the ditches of Nevada county, that have ceased to run water to exhausted mines, will yet, and not many years hence, be useful and valuable to irri- gate the vineyards and gardens of the mountains. It is impossible that such a magnificent field should long remain unoccupied.
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