USA > California > El Dorado County > Historical souvenir of El Dorado County, California : with illustrations and biographical setches of its prominent men & pioneers > Part 24
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
September 4th, 1873, the El Dorado Water and Deep Gravel Mining company filed its articles of in- corporation with the county clerk. Its objects were " to purchase, or otherwise acquire, water privileges, and to purchase, construct and maintain canals, reser- voirs and water ditches, for agricultural, milling and mining purposes, in any county or counties in the State of California ; to supply pure, fresh water to the public, and to any city, county and town in the State of California ; to purchase and work any mine or mines, placer or placers, and carry on the business of mining for precious metals in the county of El Do- rado, and any other county in said State ; and to do and transact all such business as may be lawfully car- ried on by a corporation, organized for such purposes as are above enumerated, in the State of California." Principal place of business, San Francisco ; term of existence, fifty years ; number of directors, five ; cap- ital stock, $500,000 ; of which $375,000 was sub- scribed. The first directors were John O. Earl, J. D. Fry, Thomas Price, L. A, Garnett and Henry D. Ba- con. Officers-L. A. Garnett, president ; Thomas Price, managing director ; F. A. Bishop, superinten- dent and chief engineer ; Hugh Elias, secretary.
By a series of purchases and transfers, the company soon became possessed of the South Fork, Iowa, We- ber and Gold Hill canals, with their branches and ex- tensions ; the water rights held by Kirk and Bishop; a large area of surface gravel, embracing over 600
109
WATER SUPPLY.
acres and including the famous Coon Hollow mines, now known as the Excelsior and Weber, together with other valuable property in and about Placerville. The water-right of Blair, Brown & Blair, at the mouth of Weber creek, covering 30,000 inches, was also se- cured. This is designed to carry water out to the Sac- ramento plains.
Preparations were at once made for the construc- tion of the Main Trunk canal, from Cedar Rock to a junction with the Iowa canal, and through that to the South Fork canal at Smith's Flat, a distance of nearly forty miles, and work was commenced in 'May, 1874, but notwithstanding it was pushed on as fast as possi- ble, unforeseen delays kept the work in check, so that when, in the spring of 1876, Thomas Price, managing director, insisted that the completion of the canal should be celebrated on the Centennial Anniversary of the Republic, about a mile of flume remained to be constructed ; but with herculean force it was accom- plished. The night of July Ist, 1876, saw flume and ditch both completed, ready for carrying a stream of water through. The dam at Silver Lake, which had been commenced already by Mr. Kirk, was completed the same year. The timber used for its construction is principally tamarack, the most durable wood growing in this region. The "Old Amador road " crosses over this dam. The magnificent reservoir thus formed allows a storage of water twenty feet in depth, ex- tending two miles and 'a quarter in length by seven- eighths of a mile in width, with a capacity of 1,097,. 712,000 cubic feet or 8,200,000,000 gallons. The cost of the reservoir was a trifle over $8,000 ; the Main Trunk canal was finished at an expense of $500,000.
Echo Lake is situated on the east side of the sum- mit of the Sierra Nevada. To use the water of this lake the mountain summit had to be tunnelled through, for which work active operations were commenced in 1874, digging at the south end of the tunnel ; and re- sumed on July Ist, 1875, under the superintendence of Judge Reed, was pushed vigorously from both ends. Both parties met on November 5th, in the center of the 1,058 foot tunnel, and on the 3d of August, 1876, the water from Echo Lake found its way through the tunnel to the South Fork of the American river. The present capacity of Echo Lake as a water reservoir is over 200,000,000 cubic feet, or 1,750,000,000 gal- lons of water. It is proposed, however, to raise the dam to the height of 75 feet. The expenses for this work amounted to over $21,000.
Water is sold by the company for from 1212 to 20 cents per inch, according to quantity or purpose, and is delivered under a six inch pressure.
W. & D. G. M. Co. has been actively engaged in the development of its hydraulic mines, considering it an important part of the business that the water is not allowed to run to waste. The most important of the company's mines, and the one upon which the heaviest expenditures have been made, is the Excelsior, situ- ated directly south of Placerville, on the terminus of the great gravel deposit. Among other mines, oper- ated in whole or in part by this company, are the We- ber mine, Spanish Hill, Texas Hill, Stoney Ravine, Nigger Flat and Reservoir Hill.
About the middle of July, 1876, Mayor Bryant, of San Francisco, accompanied by Auditor Maynard and District Attorney Murphy and Major Mendell, of the U. S. A., with a staff of reporters of the leading San Francisco papers, were traveling all over El Dorado county, inspecting its resources, and particularly its water supply, having as an object the future water supply of the metropolis of the Pacific.
"The Georgetown divide," comprising the entire region between the Middle and South Forks of the American river, along the foot-hill region, is one of the richest in soil, timber, water and mineral resources. There is a large area equal to the best portion of the plains for the production of wheat and barley, its fruit-yield is unsurpassed in quantity per acre or qual- ity anywhere. The mountain section is covered with the best timber in the State, and an inexhaustible sup- ply of purest mountain water for irrigating and min- ing purposes is controled and can be furnished by the
CALIFORNIA WATER COMPANY.
As elsewhere, through the mining counties, ditchies were originally constructed with a view to mining op- erations only. The Pilot Creek ditch was constructed. in 1852 to 1853 by Dr. W. H. Stone and others, bringing the water of that stream into the rich mining district of which Georgetown is the center. The first sales were at the rate of one dollar per inch. But the extravagance of the times affected the manage- ment of this property as it did everything else, and the high price of water was offset by the cost of main- tenance. We have been unsucessful in procuring the necessary data of the early history of this important enterprise ; the records of the county are extremely meagre in this regard. Numerous water companies were organized, only to be quietly disincorporated. Still, the original company held its ground, gradually extending its area of usefulness until 1872, when a number of San Francisco capitalists purchased the property under the mentioned name.
The California Water company was organized under the State law, with a capital stock of $10,000,000, di-
Like nearly all mountain water companies the E. D. | vided into 100,000 shares, the greater part of which is
IIO
HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
held by J. P. Pierce, John Center, E. Judson, D. O. Mills and John O. Earl. The principal place of busi- ness is in San Francisco-315 California street. The officers of the company are: J. P. Pierce, president ; George Thurston, secretary ; E. R. Pease, superinten- dent ; Hon. Thomas Findley, managing director.
Immediately upon entering into possession, the new company commenced the work of extension and en- largement, in which it has already expended more than half a million dollars. Lakes lying far up towards the Sierra peaks were secured as storage reservoirs, to be drawn upon when the ordinary supply from Pilot creek, and other tributaries of the Middle Fork of the American river, begin to fail. Principal among these is Loon Lake, to which point the system has already been extended, Pleasant and Bixby Lakes, lying in close proximity, are now utilized. The dams built aggregate 800 feet in length. The lakes have an area of about 1,500 acres, and can be drained to a depth of fifteen feet-this is equivalent to 980,000,000 cubic feet of water.
In the valley of the Rubicon, further east, an almost unlimited additional supply can be impounded. Surveys have been made and water-rights secured with this object in view.
Pleasant and Bixby Lakes are drained through Loon Lake, from which the water flows in the channel of Gurley creek six or eight miles ; thence three miles of ditch carries it to a junction with the Little South Fork ditch, which conveys it into one of the head branches of Pilot creek through a tunnel at the Hog Back. This ditch has an estimated capacity of 1,500 inches, and is eight miles in length.
The winter and spring supply is taken from Pilot creek in three lines of ditches. The upper or main ditch heads at Pilot creek reservoir, about twenty-one miles by road from Georgetown. The second, or new ditch heads a mile and a half down, forming a junc- tion with the main ditch at Mutton canyon. This ditch was constructed to secure the seepage from the reservoir, as well as to convey a greater amount of water down the divide than the old Pilot creek ditch could carry. From Mutton canyon to Georgetown, the old ditch has been enlarged to a capacity of 2000 inches The third line is the old El Dorado ditch, which was constructed in 1853 and 1854, by Thomas. Wren, 1). C. McKinney and John Hardin ; and was sold to the Pilot Creek Company, in 1860. It takes water from Pilot creek three miles below the head of the new ditch, and is over 20 miles in length to its junct- tion with the main line, eight miles from Georgetown, and has a capacity of 350 inches. It has been enlarged also, from Hotchkiss Hill to Georgetown, to about the same size as the main line.
The Main ditch continues west from Georgetown to Greenwood, crossing Greenwood canyon by means of a pipe 5,500 feet long, 52 inches diameter, with a capacity of about 800 inches. Thence a branch runs to Centerville and Wild Goose Flat. A new ditch is in contemplation from Greenwood creek, over the divide at Pilot Hill, to Negro Hill, at the junction of the North and South forks of the American river, a dis- tance of forty miles. Another 15 inch pipe, 3500 feet in length, crosses Greenwood canyon at Frazer Flat.
The system of subsidiary ditches owned by this Company, permeates every portion ot the divide where there is any demand for water for mining or irrigating purposes. They aggregate 300 miles of ditches, flumes and iron pipes, able to supply for mining and other purposes the following districts: Georgetown, Georgia Slide, Pilot Hill, Cranes Gulch, Mt. Gregory, Volcanoville, St. Lawrenceville, Kelsey, Rich Flat, Centreville and Wild Goose Flat. The completion of the dam and the reservoir at Loon Lake in summer of 1882, places the company in a position to command a larger area of mining, agricultural and timber lands than any other corporation of this kind in California or the United States. The company also owns a number of distributing reservoirs, two large ones being located in the vicinity of Georgetown.
The following rates are charged for water sold under six inch pressure, estimated to be equal to 94.7 cubic feet per hour. For mining : ten hours, ten cents per inch; twenty-four hours, twenty cents per inch; for irrigating: for each twenty-four hours, twenty-five cents per inch.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FARMING INDUSTRY AND STATISTICS.
The Resources of El Dorado county are of various kinds, and each one is contributing largely to the sup_ port of the others ; but were it not for the home mar- ket, created and supported by the mines, agriculture would never have been so fully developed or so suc- cessfully maintained. This being a mining county and without a railroad, the farmers of the county have been thrown chiefly upon the nome demand to fur- nish a market for their produce, which will be regu- lated by the mining industry, where it is mainly depend- ent from. An attempt has always been made to secure and supply the market of that part of the State of Nevada, adjoining the county, in opposition to the railroad.
The first experiment to plant potatoes and other vegetables in large patches were made as early as 1849 and 1850, in the vicinity of Union Bar and Coloma,
111
FARMING INDUSTRY AND STATISTICS.
on Greenwood creek ; the men who undertook this first trial were three brothers, Hodges. At Garden val- ley also vegetable gardening on a more business like scale had been commenced in early days, and the place derived its name from this vocation. These ex- periments turned out in the most satisfactory way, and soon other localities with equal facilities followed the given example.
An experiment also was that first attempt at grain raising made in the Spring of 1851, by Wm. Crone, of Greenwood valley, when he sowed the first barley on land now belonging to the ranch owned by I. E. Terry, of said township. This has to be looked at as the first trial of grain raising not only of the Northern part of the county but of the whole of it. A. J. Bayley, of Pilot Hill, started in general farming on a large scale in 1851 or 1852, and he was the first man in the county who made use of such farming ma- chinery as reaper and mower, threshing machine etc .; the first mower that was delivered at Pilot Hill, arrived there the whole taken apart, for easier shipment, but there was no one around who had ever seen a mower and some difficulty arose in putting it together and bring it in working order. All other parts came together very well but the sicklebar did not join in to work satisfactorily, and Mr. Bayley had to send the machine back to Sacramento to have it done right. Some years later he bought the first threshing machine that was worked in the county, the railroad then was just com- pleted from Sacramento up to Auburn, it was delivered for him at the latter station. He went over with his teams to bring it home, and on the trip he more than one time was asked if he was going in the circus busi- ness, or if a circus was coming, the people not familiar with its sight took the machine for a band-wagon.
For planting fruit trees, within this county, Coloma has to be considered as the starting point, just as well as it always was the leading place. Among the first who engaged in general fruit growing must be named A. A. Van Guelder and E. Woodruff; others followed, and the Coloma basin has become the most famous district in fruit-growing. Coloma fruit com- mands a higher market price than fruit from other places. The principal fruit growers of Coloma dis- trict at the present time are: Henry Mahler, Robert Chalmers' widow, J. Crocker, B. F. Edmonds, W. D. Othick, Frank Nicholls, N. Mansfield, S. Rasmussen's widow, W. H. Valentine, G. W. Ramsey, Wm. White, Ernest Mortensen, G. D. Enters, Albert Mosely and others.
The Gold Hill district has long been famous for its fruit, not only in this State, but far over the eastern limits ; great quantities of the fruit raised here are going over the mountains every year and find a ready
market in the mining camps and towns in the State of Nevada. The leading growers of the district are : Messrs. Veerkamp, Kesselring, Tinney, Annabel, Sweeny, O'Brien and Mckay.
In the Mud Spring district the principal orchardists are : J. M. B. Wetherwax, Jacob Knisely and L. Davis.
Missouri Flat also belongs to the great fruit producing sections of the county ; quite an amount of fruit is grown by Samuel Miller, N. S. Miller, Walter Miles, J. M. Bryan, Frank Fisher and others, who all make fruit-growing a specialty.
At and around Diamond Springs are C. G. Carpen- ter, Tom. Stapleton, Bart. Koch's widow, Kramp Bros., Nicholas Theison, C. D. Bruck and Henry Larkin, engaged in the fruit and grape-raising busi- ness.
The basin around Placerville is one continuous or- chard, while the surrounding hills have to produce their share also. Mr. Hardy, on Cedar Hill, is doing a great business in fruit and grape-growing.
On French creek is another quite important fruit- growing district of the county; the farms here are not continuous, but scattered over the whole extent of the canyon. The pricipal fruit-growers here may be called Captain G. Worth, Z. L. Brandon and G. Ba- rette.
Mr. Jacob Zentgraf, on Sweetwater creek, Green Valley, keeps one of the oldest vineyards in the county, which he has endeavored to enlarge and improve con- siderably every year. Among other extensive grape- growers of the same section have to be mentioned James Skinner, of Green Valley, David Bennett, near Shingle Springs. The finest display of beautiful grow- ing vineyards, covering many hundreds of acres of ground in close connection, and one that will stand comparison with any in any other part of the State, may be found lower down in the county, near Mormon Island. The principal vineyards here are Henry Mette's, next is the Bugbee place, Mrs. Stroup's, H. T. Hart's, Powell Hart's, and across the river G. M. Wobbena's ; most all of them connected with large vinefies. The views of Henry Mette's and H. T. Hart's vieneyards, which will be found at some other part of the book, give an idea of the grape industry on the rolling hills below the Natoma ditch, in this section of El Dorado county.
The most extensive operations in the way of fruit- raising in this county, however, is conducted by the " California Fruit Growing Association." Their ranch of 1,700 acres of land is located in the foot-hill region about five miles south of Placerville, and in the line of location as well as for the soil, is perfectly adapted for fruit-growing, being placed between the Park Canal
II2
HISTORY OF EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
and Mining Company's ditch and the Cosumnes river. The work of this association dates back to 1874, and will assume mammoth proportions. When they acquired possession of the place there was three-fourths of an acre planted with apple trees, and up to January Ist, 1881, 140 acres of thrifty orchard, with 4,000 peach trees, 8,000 prune trees and 5,000 plum trees, were giving proof of the spirit of the enterprise.
Mosquito canyon, also, belongs to the fruit-growing districts of the county; though general farming is con- sidered the principal line of business in the valley, there may be found large and fine looking orchards producing excellent fruit of the harder varieties. Most excellent fruit, furthermore, is raised in the north- ern part of the county, at Alabama Flat, by D. W. Fox; at Garden Valley, by F. Lagerson and others ; at Peru, by H. Hackamoller, and in the vicinity of Georgetown, by E. C. Day and Son, R. Demuth and others.
Sometime about the middle of the year 1868, Mr. T. H. Schnell, a German by birth but for long years a resident of Japan, came from the latter country to California with the intention to settle, and after look- ing around for awhile, all over the country, he made a purchase of some tracts of land at Gold Hill, which location seemed to answer best his purpose of enga- ging in the culture of the tea plant, the oil plant, the wax tree and the mulberry tree, which eventually was to be connected with the raising of the silk worm and the manufacturing of silk. To realize this purpose he went on to establish a
JAPANESE COLONY,
to be conducted on the co-operative labor system. The colony was started with a number of Japanese la- borers in the same year, and sixteen new arriving Jap's were added to it in the Spring of 1869, and some vig- orous attempts were made towards planting and gen- eral improving of the place. He imported from Japan a new variety of silkworm, called the aman, which is much hardier and feeds on the leaves of the black oak tree, then he went on to build a cocoonery for the raising and breeding of these silkworms. By that time, in the Spring of 1870, he had imported and set out 150,000 tea plants, and from those plants that had been set out the year before a crop was expected already that same year, as well as other improvements promised to bring some return. But he became em- barrassed in different trouble, first with the miners who jumped in his place and commenced to work out the ground, which caused much annoyance and damage to the ground as well as to the growing crop; then with his plants, not being sufficient expert, he had been cheated in the quality of the plants he had imported
for good money; and last but not least, his financial affairs began to bother him, and the result was that he failed and returned to Japan, whether with the inten- tion to raise new funds to meet his obligations, or to simply get out of the way of all these difficulties which he did not like to face, this has never been un- raveled, on account that he never came back, but the news arrived here that he had been killed in Japan. This was the end of the Japanese Colony. The ground and premises then came in the possession of Mr. Fr. Veerkamp.
STOCK RAISING.
This most primitive occupation of man naturally has received a good deal of attention here. Princi- pally this business is divided among cattle, sheep and goats, while comparatively few horses are raised in the county. The assessment roll of 1880 shows 2,868, horses and colts, with a value of $114,055, but only 116 jacks, jennies and mules, with a valuation of $4,415. Considering the well known hardiness and adaptability of the mule for all kinds of work, this seems to be singular, but it is a fact that there can hardly be found another part of California where so few mules tread the road than in El Dorado county. Of sheep the report gives 22,999, valued at $34,500. A large percentage of the sheep summered in the higher mountains of this county is owned in Sacramento or other counties, and notwithstanding the Spring clip is taken before they are sent above and the greater part of the Fall clip, after they return home, the present clip actually belonging to El Dorado county would be sufficient to run a first class woolen manufactory here where the water-power is consid- erable cheap, and convenient in any one of a half a dozen localities; while rents , labor and all incidental expenses are below those of Sacramento, San Fran- cisco etc. But the California people still prefer pay- ing freight both ways, giving the Eastern factory owners and the transportation companies the profit, which might just as well be distributed at home, bene- fiting this country.
The stock raising and dairying business of this county is carried on to a greater extent than most of its residents even are aware of. There are hundreds of thousands of acres within this county of little or no value for any other purpose but this. Most all the land from Latrobe and Clarksville toward the line of Sacramento county, in a body having a beautiful ap- pearance, but only here and there is a tract suitable for cultivation, on account of the bed-rock coming too near to the surface, the soil above cannot give suffi- cient nourishment during our dry summers. Mr. J. H. Miller, of Latrobe, who has upwards of 6,000 acres
113
FARMING INDUSTRY AND STATISTICS.
of land, and 3500 of it under fence, divided by cross- fences, upon this he is pasturing 6,500 head of sheep, besides some 50 horses and cattle; and by his system of changing his stock from field to field, he is improv- ing the pasture gradually.
Hogs do not seem popular, there were 2,730 assessed at a value of $13,355, which figure is hardly large enough to cover the smaller part of the home con- sume, and farmers, like city folks, have to buy their ba- con just as they have to buy their sugar and coffee, while there are tracts of land easy to irrigate and grow alfalfa, on which hogs could be raised.
Passing from the farming industries our attention will be drawn next to the timber supply of the great forests. In this respect the county certainly is not behind any part of the State, if we except the redwood The following are the saw-mills in El Dorado county; they are all worked by steam with the exception of one or two : The California Water company owns two mills ; one of them is worked only for supplying the company with what is required for the renewal of the flumes, etc .; the other, near Georgetown, sells large quantities of lumber for transportation to Folsom and forests of the Coast Range, which monopolize with their product the market of San, Francisco. The de- mands of the miners have practically divested the western half of the county of the timber for the man- ufacture of lunmber, but there is no limit to the supply for fuel anywhere, while the new growth will soon cover the vacant lands with all the timber required for below. D. W. C. Benjamin's mill on Bear creek, and any purpose. Further east, excepting the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the country is covered with a dense growth of the finest timber in the world. We believe we are safe in saying that El Dorado county has, to-day, not less than 600 square miles of virgin forests. This consists principally of cedar, spruce, fir, several varieties of yellow pine, and the magnificent sugar pine. In the higher altitudes, tam- arack is found in large quantities, while an occasional hemlock puts in an appearance.
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.