USA > California > El Dorado County > Historical souvenir of El Dorado County, California : with illustrations and biographical setches of its prominent men & pioneers > Part 19
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The bed of the river had been tested in many places and found to be exceedingly rich, frequently yielding Several ounces of gold to the pan. For this reason the river at many places was entirely drained off in another bed, and the location by this means, changed to an extent one hardly could recognize it again.
One of the richest and most wonderful strikes in river mining was made in the Middle Fork of the American river, at a place known as "Big Crevice," crossing the river in a diagonal line at Murderer's Bar. J. D. Galbraith broke in here first in 1850, and worked the spot to the depth of twelve or fifteen feet, well back under the hill, on the El Dorado bank. The operations of 1851 enabled the working of the river bed, and disclosed the continuation of the crevice across the stream. A dyke of limestone here crosses the country, and this singular hole seems to have been a cavern which became filled with sediment rich in gold, perhaps before the present river system existed, as there is no gravel between the sediment. At the
*A political duel was fought at Volcano Bar, on March 20th, 1854, between J. S. Landon and David E. Hacker, such occurrences being then quite fashionable ; the dispute arose from a publication by Hacker about the Sen- atorial election and the duel resulted in the death of Landon.
RESCE WINECELLAR AND DISTILLERY OF JAMES SKINNER GREEN VALLEY. ELDORADO Cº, CAL.
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MINING INDUSTRY.
time of the discovery there was an over-laying stratum of gravel about two feet deep on top of it, then fol- lowed a layer of soapy sedimentary slum, which did not contain a particle of grit, and yielded from one to four ounces to the bucketfull. But the work was dreadfully annoying ; but four men could work in the excavation, two of whom were constantly bailing out water, one had to throw out the top gravel stratum as it fell in, while the fourth was grappling up the gold- bearing slum. During this operation the gold could be seen laying upon all sides of the pit in apparent handfuls. The hole could be placed in'such condition as to enable the fourth man to extract the paying stratum for only about three hours in a day, and eight days was all that work could be done at the spot in that summer ; the whole yield during that time, however, amounted to $4,600. From time to time the crevice has been worked again since ; the best pro- gress in this work was made under the superintendence of Mr. M. W. Manning, when it was worked to the depth of about ninety feet and in some parts up to sixty feet wide, yielding rich ; but the work was troublesome and dangerous for the workmen, on account of big wedge-shaped limestone rocks that are interspersed with the slum, and notwithstanding the bracing and stulling, some of them would sometimes glide out of their position endangering the work down below in the pit. No work has been done on the big crevice for a few years, but Mr. Manning's opinion is that a million could be taken out there, if a method can be adopted to work it thoroughly.
HOOSIER BAR.
The Hoosier Bar Gold Mining company, Mr. T. E. Terry, superintendent, have adopted a new invention in the line of hydraulic mining, by using the pressure of the water to elevate the gravel out of the pit, about forty feet below the water-level of the Middle Fork of the American river, to such a height as the sluice-boxes will afford. The elevator is an iron pipe of sixteen inches diameter at an acute angle, the top of which discharges into the head of the sluice-boxes. One stream of water forces the gravel into the lower ex- treniity of this pipe, whence it is driven upward with great force by another stream from a " Little Giant." By this means, for every 100 feet of pressure in the driving current a column of water and gravel can be driven upward forty feet. The Hoosier Bar elevator is giving eminent satisfaction and has opened up some very rich ground.
The dam built at Murderer's Bar, in 1853, was the largest and best at all the river bars, and was able to stand the high water of the flood of the following winter ; at this bar the water, rocks and pay-dirt all had to be raised by steam and water-power. A com-
pany had been organized for the purpose of tunneling around the falls through a bluff of rocks, just above the town, which enterprise enabled several bars within two miles up the river, that never had been worked before, to commence work to good advantage, where the jam at the falls had always made the water flow back a long distance.
The following is the estimated amount of gold as taken from some of the bars on the Middle Fork of the American river :
Volcano Bar. $1,500,000
Greenhorn Slide
1,000,000
Yankee Slide. 1,000,000
Sandy Bar.
500,000
Menken Cut Bar
200,000
Mud Canyon.
3,000,000
Nigger's Bluff.
500,000
Gray Eagle Bar
800,000
Eureka
100,000
Horse Shoe Bend.
2,500,000
Boston 100,000
American Bar
3,000,000
Willow Bar
600,000
Junction Bar
150,000
Missouri Canyon
800,000
Grizzly Canyon
300,000
Otter Creek
400,000
From all the hills
300,000
Total $16,750,000
The first mining company that was chartered in this State was the "Boston Bar Company," of the Ameri- can river, in El Dorado county; the charter was granted in 1850, and extended over the whole Boston Bar; the ground has yielded great sums of money, and was sold to a company of Chinese in the spring of 1861, for $5,000.
On the South Fork of the American river, bars were not as numerous as on the sister stream, there were Dutch Bar, Kanaka Bar, Red Bar, Stony Bar, Ledge Bar, Missouri Bar and Michigan Bar.
On the Cosumnes river there were : Big Bar, Mich- igan Bar, Buck's Bar, Pittsburgh Bar, and Wisconsin Bar.
SONG OF LABOR : THE MINER. BY J. SWETT.
The eastern sky is blushing red, The distant hill-top glowing ;
The brook is murmuring in is bed, In idle frolics flowing ;
'Tis time the pick-axe and the spade
And iron "tom " were ringing ;
And with ourselves the mountain stream A song of labor singing.
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HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The mountain air is cool and fresh ; Unclouded skies bend o'er us ; Broad placers, rich in hidden gold,
Lie temptingly before us ;
Then lightly ply the pick and spade With sinews strong and lusty ; A golden "pile " is quickly made Wherever claims are "dusty."
We ask no magic Midas wand Nor wizard-rod divining ; The pick-axe, spade and brawny hand Are sorcerers in mining : We toil for hard and yellow gold,
No bogus bank notes taking ; The bank, we trust, though growing old. Will better pay by breaking.
There is no manlier life than ours, A life amid the mountains, Where from the hill-sides rich in gold, Are welling sparkling fountains : A mighty army of the hills, Like some strong giant labors
To gather spoil by earnest toil, And not by robbing neighbors.
When labor closes with the day, To simple fare returning, We gather in a merry group Around the camp-fires burning ; The mountain sod our couch at night, The stars shine bright above us; We think of home and fall asleep To dream of those who love us.
CHAPTER XIX.
MINING INDUSTRY-DRY DIGGINGS-HYDRAULIC MIN- ING.
blankets, provisions etc, a going. The river on that day had risen more than sixty feet, and in the rising water they had an ample chance to test the ground, and the result was that these five men did not com- plain about their loss or leave the spot, but they went right on to Long valley, now Greenwood valley, to buy another supply of goods, and returned to the spot to start in work on the
DRY DIGGINGS.
The mining for gold in the Dry Diggings was com- menced about the same time as river-mining ; there can be no doubt that both schemes were contemporary existing when the Military Governor, Colonel R. B. Mason, on his official trip, in July, 1848, came up to Coloma. Gen. W. T. Sherman in his memoirs, speak- ing about their arrival at Coloma says : "The next day we crossed the American river to its north side, and visited many small camps of men, in what were called the 'Dry Diggings.' Little pools of water stood in the beds of the streams, and these were used to wash the gold; and there the gold was in every conceivable shape and size, some of the specimens weighing several ounces. Some of these 'diggings' were extremely rich, but as a whole they were more precarious in result than at the river. Sometimes a lucky fellow would hit a 'pocket' and collect several thousand dollars in a few days, and then again he would be shifting about from place to place, 'prospecting,' and spending all he had made."
The modus operandi to separate the gold from the gravel or dirt, where it was imbedded, was in the Dry Diggings the same as in the river mining; the same ma- chinery was used here also, from the pan and rocker to the later arrangements of the Long Tom and the even more profitable Sluices. As long as only pan and rocker were in use, this kind of mining had its most available time just when the river miners could not go to work, on account of the high. water in the river beds, and vice versa, when the river mining began to flourish the Dry Diggings had to lay idle. The first improvement to enlarge the time for working in the lat- ter, beyond the raining season, was by daming up the rain water in places above the diggings, and the miners went to considerable expense to build strong dams across broad gulches or creek beds, to gather quite an amount of water during the raining period, which was to be used for washing in the diggings after the winter had made room for the dry summer season, and all
The summer of 1849 had brought already quite a lively time into the canyon of the Middle Fork of the American river, at Murderer's Bar and the neighbor- ing mining places, but toward fall inost of the men left the canyon to spend the winter months at some other place ; only five men decided not to follow this ex- ample, having made up their minds to stay until spring, built their cabins high up on the hills, laid in a supply of provisions for the winter, and not being troubled with any sorrow, waited for the season to come on. The names of the men were William Harris, Eiisha Hardin, James Hardin, Freeman Eldridge and James Lee, the time they left the bar was about the Ist of De- cember, and every thing went well up to the 9th of hope for rain was gone. With the introduction of the January, 1850, when the rising water surprised them, more water-absorbing machinery of the sluice boxes, however, these reservoirs would give out too soon and the miners had to look out for a greater supply of wa- ter to keep up their working season as long as possible; this led some industrious fellows to the construction of and if they were not frightened out of their wits, they at least were driven in the greatest hurry out of their cabins and higher up the hills; whence looking back they just had a chance to see the cabins with their
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DRY DIGGINGS. HYDRAULIC MINING.
WATER DITCHES.
The first water ditch in this county, and without doubt in the whole mining region of California, was built at Coloma, in 1850 to 1851, by Valentine McDougall, Davis Thompson, Lippset, Starr and Birdsall ; they took the water down to the Coloma basin in a ditch carried around the hillsides, interrupted with short aqueducts, the whole length being three miles, and the expenses for construction are stated at $10,000. It proved a good investment for the pro- jectors and caused others to invest in the same enter- prise, selling water to the miners, and notwithstand- ing the expense for the construction of those ditches were enormously high, they all paid well, water being sold in early times as high as $1 oo per inch per working day of twelve hours. This good result invited many others to bring their brethren in all other dry diggings the blessings of sufficient water, and a few years after the first water by artificial means had been carried to Coloma all those innumerable flats and dry diggings in gulches or on hillsides were provided with a ditch of running water, and in some instances the location was so favorable that the same water could be used four, five or even eight and ten times.
DRIFT MINING
Or 'coyoting,' as it was and still is termed in California mining camps, from its similarity to the underground digging of the coyotes, used in all those localities where the gold bearing gravel is covered under a bank of twenty to fifty and more feet of solid material. The miners sink in a shaft from the top down to the bed- rock, and then rather than throw off the whole surface, would coyote, or drift in, on surface of the bed-rock or wherever their gold bearing strata was found, and this was the beginning of the drift mining. The gravel thus reached is to be mined out, the superincumbent mass being supported by pillars of the natural matter left standing, and by timbers placed beneath for greater safety, if necessary. In some cases the miners took out the gravel by means of drifts, and then took a stream of water through the drifts to wash away from the remaining pillars what would be unsafe for men to go to work, until the whole mass would break down. This led to another improvement in mining operations,
THE HYDRAULIC MINING.
By saving the work necessary for drifting, and have the water under high pressure directly working against the gravel bank, washing the whole of it down through the sluices, that were placed in trenches in the bed-rock ready for the reception of it. The highly improved style of hydraulic mining as being worked nowadays stands hardly a comparison with the scheme when it was first applied in Nevada county, in the year 1852.
Then the miners were washing the gravel by turning against the bank a stream of water, directed by a can- vass hose of four or five inches diameter, with a sheet- iron pipe, or nozzle, as a fireman would direct water upon a burning building. This stream, first of twenty five or fifty inches of water, coming under pressure of forty or sixty feet from a ditch and penstock on the hill above, played against the gravel bank would wash it away, leaving the mass above to fall down, and in this manner a large amount of earth was moved. On account that the main work has to be done by the wa- ter, the system took the name of "hydraulic." It was first adopted and invented by Mr. Edward E. Mattison a native of Connecticut, and was in all probability one of the most important inventions, though never pat- ented. The principal parts then were about the same as they are now, but much simpler, and of course, less- effective ; leading from a ditch, to gain pressure, was a trough set upon slight trestle, looking something like a line of telegraph poles, conveyed the water to a penstock for which was used an old barrel or a rough box, fun- nel shaped, nailed together out of boards, to which the canvass hose was attached, to carry the water down to the gravel bank where the other end of the hose was armed with a muzzle rudely made out of sheet-iron. This system is appliable and, of course, soon came in use at all those deep gravel mines where sufficient wa- ter could be procured; and drift mining is only kept up where the gravel deposits are overcapped by basalt and other matter of volcanic origin, leaving far in the moun- tain the channel of some former river or glazier that contains the auriferous gravel. At points these de- posits are cropping out, leading the miner to search beneath.
So affective a system was not long to remain without improvements, and many an inventor obtained patents for small changes whose genius was not able to con- ceive the original idea, but carried home the profits that in reality were due to the original inventor. The first step from the canvass hose and, sheet-iron nozzle was against a rubber hose and nozzles with brass coup- lings ; then followed distributing boxes and iron pen. stock; the rubber hose was succeeded by the iron pipe, leading direct to a Craig's 'Monitor; or a 'Dictator,' or a 'Giant' patent nozzle, passing a stream of from 500 to 3000 inches of water from a pressure of 200 feet high, with a force that will whirl around every bowlder up to half a ton weight.
The early miners swarmed along the streams and over the shallow placers, making little progress in the main gravel deposits, except where drift mining was profitable, until the introduction of the hydraulic process The former have been gone over and over again, until most of them have ceased to pay even grub money,
88
HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
at least to white men. Although hydraulic mining has been carried on for many years, scarcely more than an impression has yet been made on the immense gravel beds which cover a large area in this county; how large is here not the place to tell.
On the Georgetown divide, the deposits are found almost continuously from Pilot creek to beyond Green- wcod, except where they have been cut away by the modern streams, covering a large portion of the slope toward the Middle fork, and varying in depth from 25 to 300 feet. Besides this there are isolated masses in other sections, south and west. Many of the deposits will undoubtedly pay handsomely whenever properly opened and mined. A great deal of drift mining has been done, realizing splendid returns. All the surplus water of the California Water Company is employed in hy- draulic mining, while small miners take advantage of the local supply afforded by the winter rains. A large number of claims are held by men who lack the means to properly open them, and are waiting for something to turn up which will realize their golden dreams, in- stead of disposing of such partially developed ledges, where good offers have been made.
South of the South Fork of the American river, the most extensive gravel deposit is the great channel com- mencing at White Rock, and sweeping around in a cir- cle, through Smith's Flat to Coon Hollow. Immense sums have been spent and realized in operations on this mass and its tributary spurs, such as Nigger Hill, Clay Hill and Indian Hill. Coon Hollow was once one of the most prosperous mining camps in Cali- fornia; it is estimated that not less than $5,000,000 has been taken out of the mines there. Later it was known as the Excelsior mine, operated by the E. D. W. & D. G. M. Company. On the Placerville side of the ridge a great deal of gravel has been washed down Oregon ravine; the Placerville Mining Company, under the management of Mr. Varozza, has done a large amount of work here. Previous to the construc- tion of the Main Trunk Canal, the hydraulic operations on this divide were materially kept in check, on ac- count of the scarceity and cost of water. Now all the water from said canal is ready for use in the various mines under the control of the Water Company. The Spanish Hill section has proved exceedingly rich here- tofore, and there is an immense area of gravel up that ravine that may be handled as soon as a proper outlet for the tailings has been secured.
A very rich gold bearing gravel derosit has been found on Tennessee Hill, almost the whole hill is one gravel bed, that is embraced in one claim of one mile in length by one fourth of a mile wide. Messrs. J. J. Crawford and Samuel Hale are in the possession of this property, and ditches and flume have been built | made quite a progress ; while then only two or three
connecting with the Park Canal, at great expense, ca- pable of supplying 1200 inches of water to the claim, with 175 feet fall.
A great deal of drift mining has been and is yet be- ing done. The Cedar Springs, formerly Dickerhoff mine, up Cedar ravine, running a ten-stamp mill, has been in successful operations for years. Just above is the Linden minea shaft ; not long ago sunk here struck splendid pay gravel at a depth of sixty feet. If the pay channel is as extensive as the company has reason to believe, it may not be exhausted before a good many years. The Lyon Deep Channel claim at Prospect Flat, owned by H. L. Robinson and Company, is one of the finest in the State; fifteen acres yielded nearly $200,000 and no exact estimate can be given of the extent and value of the undeveloped part; the pros- pecting work, however, consisting in shafts and tunnels on the hill to the south indicated a rich gravel all the way through. The mine is thoroughly equipped with a ten-stamp mill, cars, cages, engine etc. The Oak Ranch, former Crusen mine, though abandoned at present, after the opinion of experienced miners will .not lie idle for a long time; it has paid handsomely in the past, and there is great confidence felt for its future.
SMITH'S FLAT.
Some of the best paying claims in the mines of Cal- ifornia, were located at Smith's Fiat, some three miles above Placerville. We do not know who was the lucky man that first struck "big pay" on the Flat. In the winter of 1852 some very rich surface diggings were found there, and many of the Placervillians hastened to take up claims, anxious to become honest miners, when the gold could be picked up from the surface. These surface claims, however, didn't all pay largely, and consegently many of the standing-collar miners deserted the diggings they had so eagerly staked off and trenched around, making room for a hardier and more laborious population. This second set of miners, after working the surface diggings, concluded that they would try the hills surrounding the flat so beautifully, calculating that the gold they had already found, had originally been placed on deposit within their slate-bound circumference, and had found its way from there to the Flat. Consequently, many tunnels were driven into the hills, and although not all of them proved productive, several have richly rewarded their industrious and persevering proprietors for the labor spent upon them. Of the best paying we mention : the Fremont, Hook and Ladder, Native American, Henry Clay, etc. In five or six years from the time of the first strike the appearance of the mining camp had
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DRY DIGGINGS. HYDRAULIC MINING.
lost miner's cabins told of the existence of the place, it presented quite a lively mining camp a few years after.
The Benfeldt Blue Gravel claim, one of the finest gravel mines in El Dorado county, just south-east of Smith's Flat, is in itself a monument of industry, pluck and perseverence for the owner, Mr. Fred. Benfeldt, who, with small means, prosecuted the work of open- ing it until he was fortunate enough to strike a rich bed of cement gravel ; generous friends built a ten- stamp mill for him, run by an over-shot wheel, forty feet eight inches in diameter, and subsequently he put up hoisting works and an eight inch pump, all run by a hurdy-gurdy wheel. The gold taken from the claim is of superior quality, as shown by the fact that for 135.15 ounces sent to the San Francisco mint he re- ceived in return $2,550.26.
A great tributary deposit is traced all the way from Plum creek, below the -Esmeralda House, as shown on both sides of the plateau. It is claimed by miners who have explored the ground that a rich channel crosses from Iowa canyon, a little above the Eight-Mile House, to the valley of Weber creek. There is another large deposit between the forks of Weber creek, while the south bank of that stream shows an almost continuous mass from above Newtown nearly to Diamond Springs.
Further south, the neighborhood of Pleasant valley, Dry gulch, the valleys of Park creek, Camp creek and the other branches of the Cosumnes, all contain au- riferous deposits. Extensive mining operations have been carried on at Dry Gulch, Henry's Diggings, the neighborhood of Grizzly Flat, Brownsville, Fair Play and Indian Diggings. It is evident, that there is little danger of exhausting all these gravel deposits for gen- erations to come. With cheap water and improved appliances, operations will gradually extend to ground now looked upon as unremunerative, while much good ground is only waiting for water and capital.
SEAM MINES,
.Or Seam Diggings, to which class the latter belong, are peculiar to the locality of the Georgetown mining district, not having been discovered, as far as we know, in any other part of the State. These mines are em- braced in a belt of country about ten miles wide, and extend across the divide from the South Fork to the Middle Fork of the American river, a distance of twenty miles. The character and value of these mines have not until recently been well understood ; the formation is slate interspersed with numerous quartz seams, mostly decomposed and varying in size from the thickness of a knife-blade to several feet. To pro- cure the gold out of these crevices, the bed-rock banks and the "everlasting hills," from fifty to above
two hundred feet in height, are being tumbled down and washed away through sluices, like as though they were a bed of gravel. This at present is the most re. munerative mining in that section, and although it is still in its infancy, the amounts realized at times are enormous, and not only as a novelty, but in some more directions, they well deserve a visit.
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