USA > California > El Dorado County > Historical souvenir of El Dorado County, California : with illustrations and biographical setches of its prominent men & pioneers > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
THE ALABASTER CAVE,
or Coral Cave, located on the road from Pilot Hill to Rattle-Snake bridge, near the foot of Whisky Bar hill, and a short drive of about five miles from the first named town, takes us over to the mouth of this won- derful cave. We descend a short flight of steps and we involuntarily step on the very threshold of the first and main room, to gaze with awe and admiration on the brillantly beautiful scene before us; Here we rea- lized the exquisite words of Keats; "A thing of beauty is. a joy forever." This grandly magnificent work of nature unmistakably is "a thing of beauty." Pending from the ceiling in innumerable stalectites, singly and in clusters, some glittering in the purity of their alabas- ter whiteness, others of variegated colors, presenting a scene of unrivaled beauty; while in the ceiling itself every tint of the rainbow is softly and harmoniously blended. Wherever the eye turns it will rest on sta- lectites and stalagmites of all shapes, sizes, and we had almost said colors, for some are slightly tinted with blue, green and red. Here, on the right, is a frozen waterfall with icicles hanging around it; passing it we arrive in front of the natural pulpit, richly decorated with stainless white drapery falling gracefully over this twelve feet high ornament. A little further and we come to the Ladies' Bower, the dome of which is its most attractive feature, being perfect in its proportion and neat colors. The Music Gallery, elevated ten or twelve feet above the floor, is surpassingly beautiful -- carvings of unequalled richness, grace and beauty sus- pend from above, throw a shadow, light and wavy as the "soft tints of morn" over it; the best view of it is from a little eminence directly in front of it-But we only give an imperfect sketch of a few prominent ob- jects in this singularly beautiful cave, we have not the | are showing.
temerity to attempt to give a correct description of it; we confess our inability to do justice to the subject, and must leave the task to more competent hands. It must be seen to be appreciated.
The principal room is one hundred feet in length, from ten to thirty feet in width, and about the same in height. There are several smaller rooms, and a lake on the end of the large room which has not yet been explored. Arrangements were made, in early days, by the proprietors, Messrs. Moore and Smith, to illumi- nate the rooms with lamps, and surround all the in- convenient places with railings, to protect visitors from soiling their clothes or slipping up in their pros- pecting tour.
The cave was first opened for the public examina- tion in the Spring of 1860, and then was one of the greatest attractions; not less than forty visitors a day did register their names for the first year in the book which the proprietors, with wise precaution, had laid out for that purpose, to prevent the registering on the walls. And by this means the cave has preserved its virgin appearance and its charms of beauty.
A third but smaller cave may be found on the premises, and near by the lime kiln of M. W. Man- ning in cave valley, after which the district took its name. All indications are proving that this cave once has been embellished with equal beauty as Alabaster cave, but vandalism of the most cruel kind has broken away all the attributes of beauty, leaving hardly any- thing besides the naked walls, blackened by the smoke of fires. The cave consists of two compartments, the first one being about 20 feet long and wide, was used in early days as a dancing hall. Messrs. Flagg and Tout gave here a series of balls, in the years 1856 and 1857, for which tickets were sold at $5:00. Later it was used as a winecellar, but proved unfit for that pur- pose. At the present time it stands idle. It is seldom that one of the few scattered travellers, passing by, takes a fancy to peep in, and read the history of its de- stroyed beauty together with the names of many a van- dal from its walls and ceilings ; one of these names, A. A. Houston, is accompanied by the number 1847; un- doubtedly one of the first visitors to this cave, suppos ing that the number given truthfully indicates the year of the visit. A smaller compartment in the rear is now half ways filled up with stones from the partly broken down ceiling, forming a large skylight. Whether these two compartments are but the antichambers of other more capacious subterranean rooms, or this is all that will be found, is impossible to be decided under the present circumstances, but there are strong indica- tions to suppose a greater connection of caves in this vicinity; like other mountains of the same character
81
MINING INDUSTRY.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MINING INDUSTRY. RIVER MINING.
Historical proofs show that gold at all times has been an article of highest value. The Jews, as well as the old Egyptians, knew it, and were in the habit of wearing jewelry manufactured out of it for ornaments; the name already speaks for the derivation, and up to this day there is no other people in the world that can equal the Jewish people in fondness for jewelry. The gold used at that time so profusely for ornamentation, both in household and temple and for personal decora- tion, was the gold from Ophir, brought by the Phoni- cians from the fabulous land of Ophir, the existence of which has remained a secret to historians as well as scientists. The old Grecians adopted this use of gold from Egypt, but found some more useful appliance for the precious metal. They were the first to make a table of the value of the different metals, and gold, as the rarest known and most precious of them, was se- lected to give the general value of all other things ; a talent of gold gave the base by which to estimate other valuables. Thus, being only a nominal value, the Ro- mans went a step further on, making it a real article of exchange in trade.
The first gold pieces of money in circulation were only rough shaped, flattened, plain slugs ; but the Ro- man Emperors soon improved this kind of coin by giving it a regular octagonal or round shape, and em- bellished it with their images, and this habit has been in general use down to our day, and always has been the shape in which the sovereigns were the most favor- ably looked at, and were loved by their subjects with- out reserve. The gold in use by both of these na- tion, was procured in some parts of Greece, particularly Thessaly and the islands of Thasos, while the river valleys of northern Italy, together with the hills bor- dering the Alps on the southern side and the Pyrenees sent their contributions to Rome.
Spain, at the time when only a Roman province, took great amounts of gold out of the river beds of her streams. The Arabian conquest of this country, in 710 and 711, it is presumed, was for no other purpose than the possession of her gold mines, at least the very first act of this conquest was the occupation of her famous gold mines at Astorga, in the Province of Leon. These, as well as the mines on the river Tago, were placers producing the richest gold, and continued to give out rich until the middle ages ; and when these sources gave way, Spain was lucky enough to be indem- nified by the discovery of greater riches in her own prov- inces of Mexico, Peru and the East Indies. In England the alluvial soil in different parts of the United King- dom, since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from time to
time, was yielding quite considerably of the golden harvest of the world. The richest gold mines of Eu- rope, however, are those of Hungary, at Schemnitz and Kremnitz, the latter have been worked since about one thousand years, and is the gold here taken out of veins that are running through white quartz rock containing some silver besides; while the former are located in a small basin between barren mountains, being worked now on the 600-foot level (600 feet below the surface), and are known to have been worked continuously since the twelfth century, partly in private enter- prise, partly in government possession. Russia, also, is a great contributor to the world's supply of gold, and her mines in the Ural, up to the discovery in Cal- ifornia, and after that, in Australia, were one of the principal sources.
Of all parts of Asia, East India and most of the islands of the Indian Archipelago were yielding gold in great quantities, and have not been exhausted. China, as well as Russian Siberia and Japan are known to possess great riches in gold also; the same may be said of the eastern coast of Africa.
On this continent gold had been found and mined for in Brazil, and in those parts of South America bordering the Andes and Cordilleras to the west, from Chili northwards through Central America and Mex- ico. More recent discoveries, however, have shown that the two great chains of mountains running fur- ther north, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne- vada, through British Columbia and into Alaska, are just as rich as the Andes in the southern half of the con- tinent. Previous to these discoveries North America was not considered very highly, concerning the gold- mining capabilities, the Appalachian gold-fields, run- ning through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, since their discovery in Cabarrus county, North Carolina, in 1799, were the only places where gold had been found, yet never in great quantities.
The specific gravity of gold is 19.5, that is about 19 times heavier than water of the same volume; with the exception of platina this is the greatest of all metals, as well as it is noted for its softness and greatest mallea- bility. It is inelastic, and its resistence against the influence of the atmosphere, not being subject to oxi- dizing or rusting, makes it nearly imperishable, and it accounts very highly for the reflection of the an- cient people to adopt this metal before others for the coinage of money, as its qualities make it so much more fit for this purpose. The great adaptability of this metal is by far not yet exhausted, as may be seen by the variety of uses that modern industry and science is making in- ventions for : the use of gold in dentistry, doubtless of modern origin, is nevertheless nothing else than
82
HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
based upon the fondness for precious ornaments-we could do just as well without it ; in photography, how- ever, the gold is used in scientific solution-as chlo- ride of gold-to reproduce the picture as falling in through the lens-glass into the dark camera, upon a thus prepared plate of glass, a process of modern science, and, alas ! how old in nature. Geologists, per- haps, are able to tell us approximately the age of pho- tography, from the samples that nature has left in the slate-for instance, at George's slide, El Dorado county, or at Volcano, Amador county, etc., brought out by mining from three to five hundred feet underneath the surface of the earth. It is photography produced by sunlight and chloride of gold, copying the profusely growing ferns upon the slate, then in formation. An- other proof for Ben Akiba's : "Nothing new beneath the sun, everything has happened already before!"
The greatest quantities of gold in most countries have been met with in the sand of rivers, and on the surface of the earth, in small grains or pieces of irreg- ular form and size, called " placer gold," and Califor- nia made no exception to this rule ; the gold discov- ered by Marshall, on the 19th of January, 1848, in the Coloma mill-race, was placer gold, and all the mining done here during the next five or six years after the discovery was in the placers of the river and creek beds, and of the alluvial soil bordering these streams.
The discoverer, however, and his followers had not the remotest idea how to make the thing profitable, and up to the 7th of March, 1848, when Isaac Hum- phrey, from Georgia, went on to construct the first rocker, they had not proceded further on in the man- ner how to gather the precious metal, but still picked up the pieces with their fingers; the farms and the ships did not bring any knowedge either ; the instru- ments first in use were butcher-knives, iron spoons and small iron bars, to pick the gold out of the crevi- ces. Very few of them were conversant with any kind of a method of extracting the gold from the ground. where it had been embedded. But the greed of gain and the peculiarity of the American people to pick up and improve helped along. I. Humphrey had intro- duced the rocker, Baptiste Ruelle came to mine, as he had learned it from the Mexicans, using the batea, and soon hundreds of different vessels or bowls, resem- bling the Mexican implement-Indian baskets as well as any kind of a flat tin pan, was going to serve the purpose, and rockers were roughly made out of hollow trees or dug out of logs, or nailed together out of boards ; everything of this shape from three to six feet in length, and set on an incline, suitable of being rocked back and forth while the gold-bearing gravel was filled in and water poured upon it. And numer- ous were the different implements brought along from
the East by many of the adventurers, all based upon the idea of the batea, or the rocker, but incomprehen- sion of the fundamental idea had complicated the simple apparatus to such an extent that all proved senseless and useless. The mill-race of Coloma, to- gether with the peculiarity how the gold had been dis- covered therein, ought to have taught them the way to use the water in ground sluices or ditches, but con- siderable time had to pass by before this principle was taken up and introduced in the practical mining. Others knew or had seen the mining after tin in Corn- wall, where the dirt, for generations back, had already been washed through boxes or sluices, made of boards, with cleats nailed across the bottom piece for gathering the metal; but none thought of anything alike to appro- priate for the gold-mining. Gold was found plenty, and the excitement took away all better reflection, and it was given to the old masters, experience and time, to teach the miners economy and thoroughness in exercising their business.
The active mining, going out from Coloma, jumped right away down to Mormon Island, where one of the richest gold deposits was found, and from there the new-comers went up again along the banks of the American river, and every bar or place of deposited gravel inside of the river-beds, was taken up by some parties. And all these river-bars contained gold, some more some less, the best strikes generally were made within one or two feet of the bed-rock. but even the bed-rock, for a depth of from two to twelve inches, was filled up with the golden flakes. The extent of these bars were very different, from one to fifty acres, perhaps more, they consisted in the main part of gravel, from five to thirty feet in depth ; the surface oftentimes covered with soil, and a luxury of vegeta- tion rooting therein, or they were covered with a pile of gigantic trees, that had been torn away and swept down, but the winter's flood had not been strong enough to move them further on-they were left to rot and make the foundation for another vegetation. In some instances these bars were denuded of the gravel and the gold found lying in the rough places of the bed rock; and thousands of dollars' worth of gold in small flakes or nuggets, have been gathered from pocket-like exposed places by one individual in a single day. To separate the gold from the gravel it was imbedded in, the gravel was filled in the bowl or pan, and by moving or shaking the latter under agita- tion of the water, the gold getting free, by virtue of its specific gravity, settled down on the bottom of the pan, while the lighter material, gravel, clay and sand, was washed over or thrown out. Using the rocker the work was done in that way: the gravel was thrown in the hopper or riddle, a back and forward motion
83
MINING INDUSTRY.
given, while water was poured upon it ; the fine parti- cles running through the perforated iron bottom or screen, and flowing out the lower end, leaving the gold in the riffles prepared for it ; so soon as the finer par- ticles passed through, the hopper was removed and emptied of the coarse gravel. Two men, one to shovel, carry and pour in the gravel, the other to manipulate the rocker, on a convenient river bar, would wash thus from 300 to 400 buckets of gravel a day. The first improvement in the
RIVER MINING
was the introduction of the "long-tom," by some Geor- gia miners, early in 1850, working in Nevada county. This is a trough made of boards about 12 feet long, eight inches deep, and from twelve to fifteen inches wide at the head-end 'and double this dimension on the lower end ; the wide portion terminates in a riddle of perforated sheet-iron, so curved that nothing goes over the end or sides. It requires a man to at- tend to it with hoe and shovel, to stir up the gravel and water as they enter, washing all that is possible through the riddle, and with the shovel throwing the coarse gravel away. Beneath the sheet-iron is a box with riffles, where gold is retained with a small quantitty of sand, from which it has to be separated by washing in a pan or rocker. "A constant stream of water was running through the iron tom, which was provided with dirt by one or two men. To secure sufficient water for the use of the tom, wing-dams were built upward from the bar, and by their means and the thus built races, the water of a portion of the stream, or the whole of it, directed towards the head of the tom.
The tom, however, was but an intermediate step in the way of improvement in mining machinery, only preceding the sluice. By experience, the miner had found out that the longer the tom the easier the work and the greater the success. Others had carried their water in a rough kind of a trough or flume to the tom, and occasionally had shoveled some dirt into this sluice, to be washed down with the water through the tom, and they found out that the gold had not fol- lowed their intention, but remained in that flume or sluice, thus making the tender on the riddle of the tom unnecessary ; and taking up the hint, they worked from that time on only the sluice. The sluice was a success as may be seen by the statement of lots of miners, that ground which would not pay more than three to four dollars a day to the man, worked with toms, yielded from eight to ten dollars per day when sluices were applied. This was deciding for the sluices, and they were adopted all over the min- ing country. The size of the sluice-boxes are a
twelve-inch board for the bottom, and two ten-inch boards for the sides. For catching the gold, cleats were nailed across the bottom-piece of the sluice, and numerous are the improvements that are in use still for this purpose, as "riffles," in the sluice-boxes of the hydraulic mines : From the rough cross-cut blocks, sawed from big trees, all about six inches thick, to the iron-armed scantling to be set in the sluice-box across, or lengthways, either.
Starting from Mormon Island, and going up the American river, there were the following principal river bars, inside of the line of El Dorado county :
Condemned Bar, where one of the first built bridges connected El Dorado with Placer county. A few miles further up the stream was Long Bar, and oppo- site Doton's Bar ; during the summer months from 1849 to '52, there were not less the 500 miners en- gaged in working on both these bars. The after- wards grain-king, Isaac Friedlander, may be remem- bered here by old-timers ; he occupied a little brush tent near the upper end of the bar, where he worked a single-handed digging and a rocker all by himself, and laid the first foundation of his future wealth. Here, at Long Bar, could be found John C. Heenan, better known in after years as "The Benicia Boy," then only an unknown youth ; his first prize fight was forced on him here by a much older fellow. The fol- lowing bars, with the exception of one, were all in Placer county : Beale's Bar, Horseshoe Bar, Whisky Bar, Beaver Bar, Dead Man's Bar, Milk Punch Bar and Rattlesnake Bar ; at the latter bar Richard H. Barter, alias Rattlesnake Dick, worked as an honest miner until led astray. Whisky Bar was in El Dorado county ; here a wire-rope bridge was built across the river, and finished in the fall of 1854, which circum- stance may give to it the full right to the epithet of the pioneer wire suspension bridge in the State. On the Middle Fork of the American river, from the junction upwards, we have: Oregon Bar, Louisiana Bar, then New York Bar and Murderer's Bar, all in El Dorado county, the mines of both of the latter bars, together with those of Vermont, Buckner's Bar and Sailor's claim, on the opposite river bank, in the summer of 1850, consolidated for the purpose of a grand fluming operation, the united membership of the named five companies was over 500, and they had agreed to join Humes, covering more than a mile along the river. No saw-mill was in existence then in that part of the country, the nearest one being at Coloma, and it seemed a vast undertaking, but it is a well-known fact, that the inventive genius always appears in the right time, in case of necessity ; just so here, two men of Mur- derer's Bar, Stephen Tyler and Lefingwall made a propo- sition to build the flume for $6 per linear foot, the
84
HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
flume to be twelve feet wide and three feet high ; pro- vided the company would grade and prepare the way for laying the flume. The proposition accepted, the contractors went right on, procured an ordinary horse- power, connected it with a circular saw, and the saw- mill was improvised. A band of 150 horses were bought, and as many as could be attached at one time were hitched up to the horse-power, and the mill was run as perfect as could be expected ; nay, as could not be surpassed at that time. To the balance of the horses was given ample time to restore their strength by pasturing off the neighboring hill-sides, but these hill-sides were soon giving out, and the old horses and mules followed suit, until the hill-sides were scattered with the bleeching bones of the poor brutes as a mem- ory of the pioneer saw-mill of the northern part of El Dorado county. When it became visible that the contractors would not complete their work that way it was proposed to use canvass for lining the flume, and here all the sailor-boys, and others that were able to use a palm, found there work and half an ounce wages per day. Meanwhile the grading of the flume- way went on, superintended by Otis T. Nichols ; and in this company one could see men of all kinds of professions-doctors and lawyers and divines, just as the society of the mining districts at that time was made up. At the falls above, a dam was built for the purpose of turning the water from the river to the flume. Major Harry Love, afterwards noted for his connection with the capture of the bandit Joaquin Mur- rietta and other Spanish cut-throats, when sheriff of Alameda county, superintended this part of the work. But the work, whereupon months of labor of hundreds of men had been spent, just finished, sometime in September, 1850, was pitilessly destroyed a few days after the last nail had been driven, and swept away by the waters of an early rain-storm that had prevailed high up in the mountains. Thousands of men wit- nessed the march of the floating flume, that did not break up for miles, the canvass keeping it together as a whole for miles of travel.
Here, at Murderer's Bar, a ferry was carrying the travel from Sacramento by the road to Salmon Falls and Pilot Hill, through Cave valley into Placer county, to Yankee Jims, Iowa Hill, etc. Further up the river, there are : Rocky Point Slide, Mammoth Bar, Texas Bar, Quail Bar, Brown's Bar and Kennebec Bar, all on the opposite side of the stream ; Wildcat Bar, Willow Bar, Hoosier Bar, Green Mountain Bar, Main Bar and Poverty Bar, however, on the El Dorado county side. The population of some of these bars was quite large, at least large enough that an en- terprising business firm like Lee & Marshall of the National Circus, found it profitable to visit the bars in
the river-canyon, and give exhibitions at places like Rattlesnake Bar and Murderer's Bar. Proceeding, we come to a number of bars named after the nationality of those who started the first work ; there is first, Buck- eye Bar ; next is the American Bar, Sardine Bar, Dutch Bar, Spanish Bar, African and Drunkard's Bars; only Spanish Bar is located in El Dorado county. Here the stage road from Georgetown to Todd's val- ley and Yankee Jim's crossed the river, by means of one of the first built wooden bridges in this section of the country. Further up are : Ford's Bar, Volcano Bar*, Sandy Bar and Grey Eagle Bar, Yankee Slide, Eureka and Boston, on the El Dorado side of the river, and Pleasant Bar on the opposite side ; Horseshoe Bar and Junction Bar, at the mouth of State ravine, and Alabama Bar on the El Dorado side. All these bars on the Middle Fork of the Amer- ican river, from Oregon Bar upwards, after the lowest estimate, employed in the summer of 1850 not less than 1,500 men ; originally working on shares, and the assessment on the share paid out daily, so that those who had been drunk or absent did not get any part of it ; but this after a while caused dissatisfaction and was the reason of breaking up the co-operative work and commencing work on claims. A claim was a spot of ground fifteen feet wide on the river front, which, if there was a bar on the opposite side of the river, ran from the center of the stream back to the hills, but otherwise, there being no bar, extended clear across, to an indefinite point on both sides of the hills.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.