USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33
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PROBABLE DEPTH OF VEINS.
It is well settled that quartz and other mineral veins have no particular connection with the center of the earth, but are surface affairs, extending no decper than the deposits of rocky matter that in the great
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
cycle of events is now filling up an ocean, and now being lifted to be denuded and sent again to the bot- tom of the deep sea. If the slope in the Keystone, Gover, and Seaton mines were maintained for a few thousand feet it would be apt to meet the bottom of the "V," or inverted syphon. The wall rock of the Consol- idated Amador failed at one thousand seven hundred and fifty feet; other mines may extend to greater depths, but if they could or should be worked down to greater depths, probably the wall rock would be found gradually getting flatter. Indeed, the univer- sal testimony is that after the permanent vein is reached a change in the direction of the vein is always towards a horizontal. The opinion sometimes entertained, that the quartz veins extend to intermin- able depthis is probably erroneous, though the limit may never be reached by any known methods of working deep mines.
METHODS OF DEPOSIT.
An uneducated person, when first shown a piece of crystalized quartz, is apt to form the opinion that it had been melted and run into that shape, but a little observation will convince him that the regular forins must be the result of a general law resulting from the adjustment of the particles to each other. In some specimens of crystals we may see the lines of deposit which are always parallel to the terminal faces. In examining veins of quartz of different localities, we find some in fine layers (like ribbons when viewed edgewise), not thicker than paper. The slightest amount of iron, lime, or other mineral, in solution with the silicious matter, will suffice to mark the lines of deposit. In other veins, which appear to be solid, we may get a hint of the method of deposit by the lines of decomposition or decay, which show an arrangement of partieles like melting iee, which does not melt in parallel lines, but in cavities. So a quartz vein will show a deposit of irregular crystals adhering to the sides of a cavity and gradually approaching each other until they unite and become solid. This seems to be a common form of deposit in the recent or surface veins. In other cases the quartz is in nodules or amorphous bunches. This is the case in the Keystone where the bunches are sometimes so large as to contain forty thousand tons of rich milling ore. The Hayward had a boulder vein also, though it would scarcely pay for milling. A more thorough investigation may show a uniform and decided difference in the lines of deposit of sur- face and true fissure veins, by which their character may be determined.
JURASSIC GRAVEL.
Geologists have determined the gold-bearing quartz and adjoining rocks to belong to the jurassic age. This classification is said to rest on the discovery of fossil reptiles, and is probably correct. The point to note in the matter, which seems to have escaped the attention of the professors, is the existence of large bodies of gravel in different portions of the county, in
strata parallel to the quartz veins, and probably extending down as far or farther than the quartz veins. These veins of gravel are full of quartz peb- bles, as well rounded as any that can be found in creck or river, and are no spheroidal concretions formed when the slates were a plastic mass, but are evidently the product of a rapid stream passing over auriferous quartz. Where is the stream that rounded these pebbles ? Where is the system of quartz veins which must antedate the Mother Lode from which these pebbles were torn? Where is the mountain that gave impetus to these streams that rounded them? The beds appear in such quantities and in such places and conditions as to forbid the idea of their having fallen into a fissure iu the earth. They have the regular stratification and cleavage of the slate; the layers being separated frequently by thin, delicate lines of slate such as may be seen in any allu- vial deposit. The gravel may be seen in nearly all the cañons west of the Mother Lode, but the most decided onterop is about one thousand feet east of Drytown, where there are two distinct deposits each a hundred feet thick, separated by a strata of the black clay slate, common to the country. This reef extends the whole length of Murderer's guleh on the north, and to the Rancheria bill on the south, a distance of two miles, and from the gold found in the ravine near by, is evidently gold-bearing. What becomes of the Mother Lode theory now? Here is gravel that is as old in its place as the Mother Lode, that presupposes an older lode still, not only that, but a subsequent upheaval. There is but one conclusion in the matter possible; there must have been an older Mother Lode, or grandmother, if such a term is per- missible, which existed and was in a mountain or range of mountains ere the upturning of the slates in whose company the gravels rest. As there are some two or three thousand feet of clay slate between this gravel and the Mother Lode, older than the quartz, occupying the inferior position, millions of years were necessary for the slow deposit of the clays afterwards indurated into slate. Reference to evi- dence of a former mineral region, denuded to the granite rock in a former age has once before been made.
In the northern part of the State where the integ- rity of the mountain tops has been better maintained, there are large rivers which seem to run towards the south and become lost. The Blue Lead, the largest of these, is said to have been traced to El Dorado county. As this river was far to the cast, occupying a much greater altitude, these gravel beds may be the lacustrine termination of the Blue Lead which by a subsequent upheaval, is now tightly inclosed in its eoffin of slate. The question, " What has become of the Blue Lead ? " may possibly be answered here. The discovery may have no economic value but it will be an interesting leaf to read in the geology of California. This lead of gravel, traeing it by the appearance in places, seems to have taken a south-western direction
ARTHUR B. SANBORN.
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QUARTZ MINING.
across the county. It may be seen in Sutter ereek about four miles below the town, and again in the southern part of the county near the Mokelumne river. Although the veins have never been worked, a thorough prospecting might prove them to have some economic value.
CHAPTER XXVIII. QUARTZ MINING.
Quartz Mining, Commencement of-Quartz Miners' Convention- Account of the Mother Lode-Sketch of Different Mines -- Gwin Mines-Casco-Murphy's Ridge-Huffaker-Moore- Zeile-Description of a Model Mill-Platner Process of Reducing Sulphurets - Hinkley Mine-Monterichard- Kennedy-Tubbs-Oneida-Summit-Hayward-Character of the Same- Railroad - Wildman-Mahoney-Union or Lincoln-Accident in the Lincoln-Mechanics-Herbertville -Spring Hill-Keystone-Consolidation of Granite State and Walnut Hill-Discovery of the Bonanza-Statistics of Same-Big Grab, and Failure to Hold it-Account of the Suit-Original Amador-Bunker Hill-Pennsylvania Gover -Black Hills -- Seaton-Potosi-Quartz Mountain - Ply- mouth Group-Enterprise-Nashville.
THE intelligent men who worked the gulches and rivers in an early. day, soon sought the sources of the gold. Sometimes gold was found with quartz adhering to it, or occasionally a quartz pebble riveted through and through with gold. The veins of quartz seaming the hills in the vicinity of the richest placers, also served to point to that rock as the original source of the gold. At Carson Hill, in Mariposa county, quartz had been found immensely rich; but the expense of blasting the rock out and crushing it was such, that no serious attempts were made, in Amador county, until 1851. The whole country abounded with quartz; in some places there were mountains of it, which had filled the ravines with broken quartz, where no gold was to be found; so that the search for auriferous quartz was a tedious affair until men were put upon the scent.
The first discovery of gold in quartz seems to have been made by a man by the name of Davidson, a Baptist preacher, in February, 1851, on the south side of Amador creek near the spring then used by the miners. Boulders of considerable size were lying on the top of the ground, supposed to have been detached from the vein. Gold was found in some of these, and subsequently, in the vein from which these came. Associated with Davidson were Glover, Herbert, and P. Y. Cool, all ministers; hence the claim was known as the "ministers' claim." Samuel Hill, afterward a resident of Buckeye, was taken in as a capitalist, and the company organized as the Spring Hill Company. About the same time, Thomas Rickey, and his son James, afterward resi- dents of Ione, located the vein on the north side of the ereek, since known as the Original Amador. Gold could also be seen in this rock. None of these men had ever seen any quartz mining; in fact, there was none in the world to compare with what may be seen now at any mining town. Hill, of the Spring Hill Company, went to Sacramento and bought a 19
steam engine, aged and ancient in style, which proved a mine of trouble to them, as it took an enormous quantity of wood to make steam. The main shaft was wood with bearings of round bar iron, two inches in diameter, which were driven in with a hammer, the end of the log being banded with iron. The cams were large spikes of bar iron driven into the shaft and afterward bent. The stamps had wooden stems, and spikes driven into the stems for tappits or projections, against which the cams should play to raise the stamps. The gold was saved, or rather lost, by means of a roeker about eight feet long, worked by the same power as the stamps. The machinery proving a failure, was soon rebuilt with improvements suggested by experience.
The mill on the north side was started about the same time, September 5, 1851, with somewhat better machinery. The shaft was of wood, but had axe-bar iron four inches wide and half an inch thick for cams, the bars being bent after they were put in the shaft. The stamps also had wooden stems with slots in the middle to receive the cams. Dan Fiddler was the master mechanic, and J. T. Berke the superintendent of this mine. It made dividends as well as wages for its owners, who were all workers. Quicksilver was tried, but from some cause failed to give satisfactory results. It was also discovered that much of the gold was lost, being too fine to settle into the ordinary riffles. While experiments were being made to remedy the matter, a German, who had had experience in mining in Peru, pro- posed to amalgamate with arastras. With his assistance the company took out about seventy-five ounces a week, the German receiving one-thirteenth part for his share. This was the first successful quartz mining in the county.
QUARTZ MINERS' CONVENTION.
The discovery of gold-bearing quartz aroused the whole country. All were looking forward to the time when the gulches and surface claims should be exhausted, and there were numbers of men who thought this was the case as early as 1851. Quartz was now tried everywhere; like any other mining craze it went beyond all reasonable bounds. Possi- bilities became certainties. A mill had been put up at Quartzburg on the Cosumnes river which was thought to be making fabulous fortunes for its own- ers, which, however, was far from true. It may as well be told here that the superintendent, Dr. Har- ris, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, brought out seventeen thousand dollars to work the mine, drew on the company for twenty-eight thousand dollars more, and then abandoned the mine to the hired hands to make their back wages out of it if they could. The lead or Mother Lode, as this system of veins, chutes, or chimneys, has been called, was soon traced to the Cosumnes on the north, and the Mokelumne on the south. All kinds of claims were set up and a harvest of lawsuits
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
seemed impending, when it was resolved to hold a quartz convention and make regulations to ensure the peace and security of quartz mining, which, after a proper notice, was held at Rancheria, that being probably the largest place in the county.
The following is copied from the book of records now in the hands of M. B. Church of Drytown.
"QUARTZ MINING LAWS.
" At a meeting of the miners of Dry Creek, Ran- cheria Creek, Amador Creek, Sutter Creek, holden near the town of Rancheria, June 7, 1851, in accord- ance with previous public notice, for the purpose of making rules and regulations for quartz miners, in the mining districts hereinafter described.
" T. J. Lawton was chosen President; Samuel Her- bert, Vice-President; Wm. Salter, Jr., Secretary.
" On motion of O. L. Palmer, a committee of three was appointed consisting of O. L. Palmer, Wm. Fen- ton, of Rancheria, and Hiram B. Platt, of Drytown, to prepare resolutions for the consideration of the meet- ing. The committee offered the following report, which was accepted.
"Resolved, That rules and regulations for the security, peace and harmony of the miners, who are now or who may be hereafter engaged in prospect- ing and working quartz mines, are positively neces- sary.
"2 .- That in compliance with that necessity, we do hereby ordain and establish the following rules and regulations for the government of the district within the following bonds, to wit: All that portion of the county of Calaveras that lies south of the dividing ridge between Cosumucs river and Dry creek and north of the Mokelumne river.
" 3 .- That the size of a claim in quartz veins shall be two hundred and forty (240) feet in length of the vein without regard to the width, to the discoverer or company, and one hundred and twenty (120) feet in addition thereto for each member of the company that shall now or may be hereafter organized.
"4 .- That no claims, hereafter made, shall be con- sidered good and valid, unless the same shall have been staked off, in conformity with the provisions of Resolution 3, and written notice of the size of the claim, and the number of the men in the company, posted on a stake or tree at each end of the claim, together with the date of the day when the claim was made; and all claims now made shall be staked off in conformity with these resolutions, within five days from the date of the adoption of these resolu- tions.
"5 .- That the size of the claim, the names and num- ber of men composing the company that holds the claim, together with a brief description of the loca- tion of the same, so that it may be identified, shall, within ten days after the claim is made, be filed in the office of the Justice of the Peace, in whose dis- trict the same may be located. And all persons holding such claims shall file the same within ten days from this meeting, and all persons hereafter making claims (within ten days after the claims are located), or otherwise, said claims shall be forfeited. "6 .- In all cases where claims are held by a com- pany working jointly, they shall not be required to work in more than one place; but where held by individuals, each several claim must be worked.
7 .- Whenever a claim has been abandoned, and such can be clearly proved before the Justice of the Peace, where such filing was made, said claim shall
be forfeited to the person or persons establishing such proof.
"8 .- That these rules, regulations, and proceedings, be signed by the president and secretary of this meeting, and filed in the Justice's office at Drytown. "T. J. LAWTON, Pres., "W.M. SALTER, Sec."
The number of talented men in this Convention was noted, although it was not unusual for such bodies, in the early fifties, to be composed of men who might have sat in Legislative halls, with credit to themselves and all concerned.
The Convention was hopeful, and even confident, of success. Some, who were not in possession of satisfactory claims, wished the size to be cut down. It was urged that fifty feet of a vein, which probably had no bottom, was quite enough to satisfy any reasonable man. One thousand dollars a ton was set as the probable value of the quartz. Some of the veins were fifty, and even a hundred feet wide. It was easy to figure up into millions within a short distance of the top on a fifty-foot claim. Some ventured to say that the quartz would not pay a dollar a pound. Mr. Davidson, being a candid, unexcitable man, was called upon to give his opinion as to the value of it. He said that he had no wish to deceive the Convention, but he doubted if the rock would average more than ten cents per pound, or two hundred dollars per ton (he had not then started his mill); and claims were made one hundred and twenty feet, with two extra claims to the dis- coverer. What would have been the feelings of the Convention if they could have foreseen that one- tenth of the sum named would come to be considered very rich? Scarcely one of all the number who assembled that day, but what retired from quartz mining, bankrupt and discouraged. This, however, is anticipating.
Quartz mining was now fairly inaugurated. In a short time, the Granite State, the Herbertville, the Union, Eureka, Badger, Wolverine (the last three being consolidated in the Hayward mine), Oneida, all came in a short time. The Granite State was the first to put up a mill with iron shaft, tappits and stems. John Conness was a stockholder in this mine. Garfield, afterwards Governor of Washington Territory, invented the stamp with tapering stem and socket, to correspond. Shaking tables were introduced in 1852, and were in use until 1860. The Chile mill, with rotating balls and revolving barrel, was introduced by P. M. Randal. The last is still used. Roasting the ore was tried, but, though it was more easily pulverized, it was soon abandoned as not satisfactory. The sulphurets were saved by means of blankets or rawhides, placed along the bottoms of the sluices, and amalgamated in the Chile mill, or revolving barrel.
THE MOTHER LODE.
Perhaps no term more inappropriate could have been selected. The name is inappropriate because
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QUARTZ MINING.
there is no principal lode or vein at all, but rather a series or system of veins, chutes or chimneys along a certain range of country, varying in width from two hundred to four thousand, or perhaps eight thousand feet. In some places there are hundreds of veins, as on the Black hills and Murphy's ridge, some of which are mere threads, ramifying in every direction. In other places, the ore-bearing ground is narrowed within walls two or three hundred feet apart, as at the Keystone, Plymouth, and the Hay- ward mines; though even here, as we shall see, the ore is not concentrated in a single vein. The term mother, is also misleading, for it gives the idea that all other veins are connected soniehow, and fed from this, than which nothing could be more erroneous. Evidently, the first theorists presumed that all mineral veins came out of the interior regions of the earth, where the fires are always glowing, and that down some thousand feet all the veins of quartz, big and little; would come together in one main lode, extending the whole length of the State, or as far as the gold range extends.
SKETCH OF THE DIFFERENT MINES.
The Gwin mine, though in Calaveras county, is really the beginning of the series of veins which have made Amador the richest county in the State in quartz. This is in Rich gulch, which is supposed to have derived its wealth from the breaking down of the vein matter. The owner, Dr. Gwin, is better known as Duke Gwin, from his having that title con- ferred on him for, valuable aid to the Emperor Max- imillian of Mexico. The mine is said to be paying well. The series of veins here is quite wide, several other veins cropping out a thousand feet or more to the east.
The Casco mine is on the north side of the Mokel- umne river, and consequently in Amador county.
This mine was worked in 1868 by J. R. Harden- burg some eight hundred feet deep, the rock being crushed by a water-mill of twenty stamps, not far from the mine. The owner sunk twenty thousand dollars in the operation. The Casco mine is on the eastern side of the range, which here is quite wide. Abraham Mckinney has a mine on the west side of the range, which is yet undeveloped, but which shows some very rich speeimens, some of which are of singular appearance, containing gold in crystal- line forms in coarse granulated quartz. Persons who entertain an opinion that gold is deposited in a melted state, will find a puzzling problem in these specimens. The rock east of here (hanging-wall) is syenitic or stratified rock, resembling granite, vary- ing in texture and character at every dividing seam. On the west the wall rock (foot-wall) is the hard metamorphic slate sometimes termed by the miners " blue granite."
MURPHY'S RIDGE.
This singular formation is the Mother Lode in its integrity with the foot and hanging-walls washed
away and occupied by ravines, Murphy's gulch and Black gulch on one side, and Hunt's gulch on the other. It is likely that the gouge, which is generally a soft, clayey mass, which seems to have been formed by the slow grinding of the walls against the vein, gave direction to the course of the water which finally eroded them away. On the west side of the ridge the miners have followed the gouge down in places to a considerable depth for the gold that lies on the foot-wall. The ravines were, perhaps, the richest cver found in the county, as they were worked with profit for twenty years, one set of miners after another taking away their "piles."
The ridge is a network of small veins which ramify in every direction through a rather soft earthy slate. Some of the seams are immensely rich, four or five hundred dollars being taken out of a bucketful of the rotten roek. Sometimes the gold is found in combi- nation with arsenic, or arsenical sulphurets, which pay a thousand dollars or more to the ton, though the tons are not many, as the veins may not be a half inch in thiekness. In places the ridge is being washed down by hydraulic power. As much of the gold is too fine to be saved by this process, much must be lost. In other instances the small veins of quartz are mined out and crushed, paying good wages. "There is millions in it," i. e., the hill or ridge, but how to get it out economically is the ques- tion. Isaac N. Dewitt owns twenty acres of this ridge, being a long strip four hundred feet wide along the center.
Many experienced miners think all these veins will come together below, and offer as a reason for this opinion that the wall rocks are converging as they go down. James Morgan, a man with much experience in mining, is of this opinion, and is now running a cross cut some four hundred feet below the summit of the ridge, to test the theory. A shaft sunk four hundred feet on the east side of the ridge, did not expose any workable vein.
HUFFAKER LEAD.
This once very rich mine, some two thousand feet or more to the east of the last-named mine, is not worked at present. It is said that in 1856 the Huff- aker brothers and - Harris, found quartz that would pay twenty thousand dollars per ton. The gold was found in bunches or pockets. Like all pocket veins, this one marred about as many fortunes as it made. James Morgan is now sinking on this lode with good prospects. This vein is believed to have supplied the gold that enriched the hills around the south side of the Butte Basin.
THE MOORE MINE
Is at the head of Hunt's gulch, on the eastern side of the Mother Lode. It is a curiosity, and is worthy of observation. It is a rather thin vein of good looking quartz, with an enormous mass of bar- ren quartzose rock for a foot-wall, the whole mass being considerable out of the range of Murphy's
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
ridge, which is thought to be the main lode. North of Murphy's the quartz seems to be wanting, though a few small veins crop out over a space perhaps half a mile wide, some of these being in the hard, mneta- morphic slate, which is supposed to have been the axis of elevation when the mountian chains were formed. These veins may be traced along the ridge west of Jackson and the Oneida. Though they contain some gold they pinch out at a short distance from the sur- face, and are avoided by quartz miners.
There has been considerable prospecting in the neighborhood of Jackson, and several times the announcement of the beginning of the quartz mining era was made, but it never came. So many promising mines were discovered that in 1862 the Kearsing brothers erected a four-stamp mill and arastra, run by water-power, for custom work. The mill was afterwards enlarged to ten stamps, but it was not a paying coneern. In 1862
THE ZEILE MINE
Was discovered by Leonard Coney, who put up a mill with sixteen stamps, with works to reduce the sulphurets, though the Platner process was not intro- dueed at that time. Some very good runs were made, realizing ten thousand dollars per month. In April, 1866, it was sold by Charles T. Meader, who had been running it, to Dr. Zeile, of San Francisco, for seventy-five thousand dollars. Work was sus- pended until within the past two years, since which time new hoisting works and mill, with all the lat- est improvements, have been placed on the mine. As this is considered the model mill of the county, a description of it will be in place. The hoisting works over the shaft have powerful pumps, which can be set in motion without interfering with the other machinery. An air-compresser saves the work of striking the drills, while an automatic dumper does away with the dangerous work of bucket land- ing, by which so many men have been injured. The roek is carried on a tramway to the upper story of the mill, where a "grizzly " separates the fine from the coarse roek, the latter going into a roek- breaker, which prepares it for the stamps. From the roek breaker the quartz goes to the automatic feeder, a machine that seems almost endowed with life, so closely does it watch the batteries, supplying them with quartz at the moment the stamps begin to strike the bed of the mortar. The action is sim- ple and reliable. The idea originated with James Tulloek, of Voleano, who erceted the first one some years ago. Several designs have been patented sinee, but his holds a place yet among quartz-mills. The tappit or collar around the stem of the stamp, by means of which the cam raises the stamp, is the agent employed. It is put in connection with a revolving belt or table, containing the quartz to be fed to the battery, so that when the stamp deseends to the bottom of the mortar, the tappit moves the table, and drops some roek into the battery, which
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