USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 35
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The first of these fires occurred in April, 1870. It was supposed that it originated from a lighted candle being left on a timber in the north shaft. The men below were hoisted out of the other shafts and the mine closed up. Some days after an examination was made; a number of men going down the shaft were rescued with the utmost difficulty on account of the noxious gasses engendered by the fire. As the lower levels were still burning, the shafts were covered up and the hoisting works removed. The mine was repaired at an enormous expense, as it was supposed that the rock would continue at an infinite depth, but though the sump, or advanced shaft, was carried down to two thousand two hundred and fifty feet, no ore body below the seventeen-hundred-foot level was worked. At that point the great lode had shrunken from forty to less than six feet in width, with a run from north to south of thirty feet, instead of four hundred and fifty, and very moderate in pay at that. The lower sinking failed to discover any new development of the vein; in fact, the fissure was all that was found, and when the last great fire occurred, it was deemed best to abandon the locality and open the mine in a new place, some six hundred feet towards the north, on the ground near the old Wolverine claim, which had been many years before consolidated with the Badger and Eureka. The rock now being taken out at a depth of four hundred and fifty feet, is not of the kind formerly found in the south end of the claim, but perhaps will pay for
SSE
FRUIT RANCH AND RESIDENCE OF JOHN NORTHUP. JULIEN DISTRICT AMADOR COUNTY. CAL .
LITH. BRITTON & REY S F
RANCH AND RESIDENCE OF A.A.VAN.SANDT.
TP Nº 2 AMADOR COUNTY, CAL.
153
QUARTZ MINING.
crushing. The superintendent does not expect to find good rock until the walls become well defined.
THE RAILROAD MINE
Is the name given to a vein of quartz some two or three hundred feet east of the Wolverine. It was worked down four or five hundred feet, and, though some rich rock was found (a thousand dollars once being taken out of a candle-box full of rock), the vein was neither rich nor permanent, and the work was suspended. The wall rocks were hard, with little gouge, a surface opening only being indicated.
THE WILDMAN MINE
Was on the north side of the creek. Some good rock was taken out of this ground, but, like the majority of quartz veins, has not made its owners rich. As this vein is located out of range with the other mines, many experienced miners believe that proper cross-cutting towards the west will be likely to strike a paying chimney.
THE MAHONEY.
This ground was formerly owned by Hayward, who thought he had found a thousand dollars when he sold it to the Mahoney brothers for that sum. Though not equal to the Consolidated Amador, it made very handsome dividends for a good many ycars. The vein, forty feet wide or morc, was worked down nearly eight hundred feet when work was suspended on account of the death of the last of the four Mahoncy brothers, by consumption, in the course of a few years. A few years since it fell into the hands of Senator Stewart of Nevada. Some sinking was done by James Morgan of the Oneida . Mining Company, nothing new being developed. The company erected a mill near the hoisting works, the rock formerly having been crushed by a water- mill on the creek some distance away. At a depth of eight hundred and fifty fect the vein is not well defined, the walls being much broken. The rock is supposed to pay only moderately. Those who saw this place in an early day would be ready to say that the quartz veins here made a sharp turn to the east, into what is called Tucker hill. This hill is netted with quartz veins sometimes in slate and often in the hard hanging-wall of the main range. Some small fortunes have been made out of the occasion- ally rich veins, which, though promising on the top, soon pinch out. Nearly all the surface has a little gold in it, and the gulches in the vicinity were the best around Sutter creck.
The true direction of the main lode may be seen by the cavity made by the falling in of the upper portion of the mine worked twenty years ago.
THE UNION OR LINCOLN,
Or, as it is sometimes called, the Stanford mine, was the first discovery in Sutter creek. E. B. McIntyre, Samuel Hanford, Levi Hanford, R. C. Downs, N. Drew, and others of Amador, formed a company in
1851 to hunt a quartz mine. They first tried Quartz mountain near Lower Rancheria. This not proving satisfactory,they divided into smaller parties and tried other places. One of the parties came on the south side of the ridge, Sutter creek then having about a dozen inhabitants. Much money had, even then, been expended in sinking on barren veins, and the company had made it a condition that no shaft should be commenced until gold was found in the ledge or vein in place. Floating rock with gold in it was found on the flat west of the present Mahoney and Union locations. Some narrow veins were found on the hill-side near the sulphuret works, but these not proving satisfactory they ran an open cut a few feet in depth and struck the main lode, in which they found a speck of gold. As this satisfied the condi- tions of the incorporation, a shaft was commenced and good rock soon after discovered, from which, with modern machinery, fifty or seventy-five dol- lars to the ton could be extracted.
They found a company of men working quartz on the south side of the Tucker hill, who set up a claim to the discovery they had made. To quiet all dis- putes, the south side company, consisting of Malva- ney, Sherwood, Armstrong, and others, were taken in, making the company which was thereafter called the " Union," numbering about sixteen men, E. B. McIntyre being president, and N. Drew, secretary. A water-mill was built, near the present residence of R. C. Downs, with five stamps. This was the first mill in Sutter Creek, the Hayward mill being next. David Armstrong, who afterwards built a saw-mill near Pine Grove, was the mill-wright. The power was a breast-wheel, with a wooden shaft and wooden cams, the latter being sct into the shaft in mortiscs and curved at the end to match the tappits, which were also of wood, set into mortises in the square wooden stems of the stamps. Armstrong was a good mechanic, and the work was well done, though much power was lost in the unavoidable friction of the wooden machinery. It worked as well as could be expected, and something over expenses was made out of the quartz. The gold was saved on blankets laid along the sluices, which were washed every half- hour. Quicksilver was tried, but it would not unite with the gold. An amalgamator from the Nashville mine, on the Cosumnes, was hired to superintend the sluices. He discovered that the quicksilver was adulterated with lead; after this was gotten rid of there was no difficulty in amalgamation.
In 1852 the mine and mill were leased to a com- pany that made five thousand dollars to each partner. After the expiration of the lease, the Union company again worked it, Frank Tibbetts being superintend- ent. It was a common report that two million dollars were taken out of the mine during the next cight years, but the company became bankrupt, and in October, 1859, the mine fell into the hands of Leland Stanford, who made R. C. Downs superin- tendent. Under his management the mine became
20
154
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
highly remunerative. It was now called the " Lin- coln," and was worked by Downs and Stanford until 1873, when it passed into the hands of some foreign capitalists, who put up a mill on the south side of the hill, and made other improvements. At present the mine is not worked, the shaft and pumping machin- ery being used to drain the Mahoney mine. In this mine the paying vein was next to the hanging-wall, which, as in the Mahoney, the adjoining mine, was the hard, metamorphic slate, called " blue granite " by the miners. A cross cut into it indicated no change or prospect of a parallel vein. The gouge was on the foot-wall, which at a depth of five or six hundred feet, gradually changed to a quartzose char- acter. The pitch of the vein was sixty-seven to seventy degrees from horizontal, and was from two to twenty feet thick. It will be seen that this cluster of mines was practically exhausted at a depth of less than one. thousand feet, though deep sinking may, as in the Hayward mine, reveal a stronger vein than the surface one; the well-defined foot and hanging-walls favoring the presumption.
The most startling and serious accident that ever occurred in the mines in this county, happened here, in 1875. The following account taken from the Independent, a daily paper published at Sutter Creek at the time, will be read with interest :-
"Now that the dead and alive are all out of the mine and properly eared for, we shall attempt to give a correct version of the affair. On Friday morning, at seven o'clock, the day shift were let down, consisting of fifteen men, part of whom went on the three-hundred-foot, and part on the five-hun- dred-foot level. Those on the first were working in the stope, and three running the tunnel toward the old south shaft, which had been deserted for upwards of eight years, and was filled with stagnant water and foul air. Hardly had the drifters worked an hour when they broke through, and, at first, a small volume of water rushed in and drove them out. The alarm was immediately given, and fore- man Horn, with another man, went down. They found William Wadge and Antonio Robles almost dead from suffocation, and took them to the top. Wadge soon recovered and was taken home, while Robles suffered terribly for some hours, when he was removed, but died during the night. The most intense excitement now prevailed, and Superintendent Stewart, Foreman Horn, and others, commenced the work of getting to the remaining men below. The foul air had become so strong that no light would burn within thirty feet of the three-hundred-foot level. The workmen exerted every nerve to extri- cate the now supposed dead men. Finding that all chances were lost to pass the first level, the water buckets were put to use, and at night they had cleared the water out to within a few feet of the five-hundred-foot level, yet they could not descend. All night the work went on, and by morning four of the unfortunate men were found. Saturday after- noon the shaft was so cleared of the bad air, by the aid of the air pumps, that Mr. Horn managed to reach the top of the lower level.
" About eight o'clock, while the water bucket was down, the signal rope was pulled and the bell rung, which caused great excitement above. When the
bucket arrived at the top, there sat upon it Joseph Bath, and alive. He sang out to the astonished crowd, 'I am all right, there are three moro alive in the lower level.' Reader, imagine the scene. We cannot give it in words. The bucket was lowered, and up came the three other men. It is impossible for us to give a description of the feelings of the people at this time. Mr. Bath has given us a full account of the whole affair-at least what happened underground-and in all history nothing has ever come to our notice that can in the slightest compare with this. None of the men about the mine have a word of fault to find with the management from first to last. We hear nothing but praise to Super- intendent Stewart and Foreman Horn for their untir- ing perseverance. For over two days and nights Mr. Horn never left his post, and not till the last man was found and taken out did the brave man have any rest.
" We here give the names of the dead and living in full. Dead-Patrick Frazier, leaves a wife and four children, Ireland; John Collier, wife and five children, Ireland; Dennis Lynch, Ireland, wife and two children; William Coombs, England, wife and two children; W. H. Rule, England, single; G. B. Bobbino and Bartolomeo Gazzolo, single, Italy; Antonio Robles, Mexico, single; Nicolas Balulich, Austria, wife and four children. Saved-Jos. Bath, wife and four children, England; Bart. Curotto, wife and four children, Italy; Stefano Poclepovich, wife and six children. Italy; William Wadge, wife and several children, England; John O'Neil, Ireland. Mr. Frazier had an insurance of one thousand dol- lars, and Mr. Collier a policy of two thousand dol- lars in the Phoenix Mutual of Hartford.
" Seven were buried on Sunday, and two on Mon- day. Never before has so much sadness and sorrow been mixed with so much joy and happiness as has been the case within the past three days."
The accident was evidently owing to a faulty survey, which failed to indicate the proximity of the old works. It is said that some of the victims had presentiments of the danger, and bid their families good-bye on leaving home the morning of the accident. The feelings of the parties inclosed in the drift must have been terrible. It was expected that all were dead, but the drift being ascending, the chamber of air prevented the water from filling it. Those who attempted to swim out through the submerged end of the level were lost. Can imagina- tion conceive a more terrible situation ?
THE MECHANICS' MINE
Was a vein a mile east of the Mother Lode in the vicinity of Sutter creek. The rock was good-look- ing, and for a time the mine was considered promising, but it proved a losing concern, and is not worked at present.
THE HERBERTVILLE MINE
Is some mile or more north of the Sutter creek cluster, the intervening ground not having any strong croppings indicating a large lode, though several shafts have been sunk on the thin veins which appear at the surface. The Herbertville is singular in having the foot-wall of the hard meta- morphie slate. The direction of this vein hardly conforms to the general trend of the Mother Lode;
155
QUARTZ MINING.
it is also somewhat out of range, being to the east of the other mines; from these circumstances it is con- sidered, by many experienced miners, as an acci- dental deposit, not occupying a truc fissure. It was first worked in 1854, by Jones & Davis. The vein was twenty feet wide in places, and had a' run of nearly three hundred feet, pinching out at the depth of six hundred feet. The rock was very good, fre- quently paying forty dollars a ton. It was among the best mines twenty years ago, but is not worked at present. If this was an accidental vein, it was a happy accident-for the owners at least. A cross- cut to the west might discover the true vein. A boulder, weighing several tons and quite rich in gold, was found, some years since, in a situation which indicated it as a float from a vein farther west. E. B. McIntyre of Sutter Creck is the owner of this chance for a mine.
SPRING HILL.
Though promising at the beginning, these mines had ruined nearly all who had been connected with them. " Quartz-mine" debts were harder to collect than saw-mill debts, which is saying a great deal. Sharp practice was often necessary to get pay for hay, grain or timber furnished the mines. In 1857, Stone, of the Buena Vista ranch, sold the Spring Hill Company a quantity of hay, but when he called for his money he was put off on various pretexts. He was as shrewd as they and had a sheriff watch the mill, to attach the amalgam when it was taken up. It was hidden in the lower works out of his way. The sheriff went down after it. The mining company quit pumping and let the shaft fill up with water, not soon enough, however, to save their amalgam. Stone got his pay. It is not intended to convey the idea that quartz mining is necessarily demoralizing, more than any other business which happens to be unprofitable. The mill and mine (Spring Hill) was owned by P. M. Randal, B. F. Pendleton, and
Palmer until 1858, when they finally broke up, the creditors taking the property and running it with success, paying off the debts, after which, about 1861, it fell into the hands of Isaac Perkins. He ran it for four years at a loss; then the Hoopers, father and son, tried it with no better success. In 1867, work was suspended until it was consolidated with the Keystone Company's property.
THE KEYSTONE.
This mine has the most eventful history of any of the Amador mines. Though never called on the stoek-boards, it has almost a world-wide reputa- tion. It was here that quartz mining in this county commenced, and here were made the first failures as well as successes. In the history of the beginning of quartz mining, we left the Spring Hill and Granite State making their first efforts in the work. We have seen that the Spring Hill was located by the minister company, consisting of Davidson, Herbert, Glover, and Cool. The Granite State was located by
Wheeler; the Walnut Hill, named after Beecher's famous seminary near Cincinnati, by two brothers named Holt. The mill was in the house now used by the Keystone company, as an office and assaying room. After the mill and mine had been run for a while at a loss, the two brothers proposed to run it themselves for what they could make out of it. They found a bonanza, making twenty thousand dollars in a short time.
The Granite State was located near the present Keystone mill; the Spring Hill towards the creek. these mines had, at first, been worked with arastras which made selected rock yield one hundred dollars per ton, but the process was slow and was abandoned, though an attempt was made to run the arastras by water-power, which also was a failure. These three mines constitute the property now known as the Keystone.
CONSOLIDATION OF
The Granite State and Walnut Hill. About 1857 these two mines had some share-holders in common, one of whom, Samuel Mannon, made a proposition that they should consolidate, which was adopted, the new company being called the Keystone; but the move did not relieve the indebtedness which was over- whelming, everything being attached for much more than it was worth. A mortgage on it was foreclosed, but an older judgment, in the hands of A. H. Rose and Phil. Crusart, took the mine, Rose eventually becoming sole owner. It was not supposed to be a paying property, though it was worked more or less, the mill being nsed for custom work as well as for the mine. Once during the time it was sold to Frank Tibbetts, who run it at a serious loss, and the prop- erty reverted to Rose. In 1869 it was sold to J. M. MeDonald, Michael Reese and others, of San Fran- cisco, for one hundred and four thousand dollars, which was thought by outsiders to be an enormous price. It had previously been offered for fifteen thousand dollars, but the rich discoveries then being made along the range in the vicinity of the Seaton mine shot quartz up with alarming rapidity. It is currently reported also, that the Mint receipts for custom work, were used to enhance the apparent value of the mine. At all events the first workings were a total failure. The old proprietor was heard to say that that no child born would live to see the mine pay for itself !! This may all be legitimate among stock-dealers.
DISCOVERY OF THE BONANZA.
Old miners had suspected another vein to the east in what was considered the hanging-wall, though this opinion was not shared by the former proprie- lors. Occasionally a blast in the hanging-wall would show stringers of quartz which indicated another deposit. A cross-cut was started, but a beginning had hardly been made when rich quartz was uncovered. Quartz in the hanging-wall was a novelty, but there it was sparkling with gold. The
156
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
first month's crushing paid forty thousand dollars, and the next-and ever since the same. By select- ing the best rock it could be made to pay a million a year for an indefinite time, but all rock that will pay two dollars, which is considered about the cost of extracting and crushing, is worked. The vein is a boulder vein, that is, lying in bunches, kidney- shaped, and varying in size from a few tons to forty thousand tons. The bunches are connected by stringers. It will be recollected that the boulder vein in the Hayward mine was next the foot-wall, and was not uniformly rich. There seems to be no rule governing in such deposits. The pitch of the mine is about forty-five degrees. The following figures from the actual survey will give an idea of pitch.
Distances.
Horizontal. Vertical.
1st Level
On the slope. 475 ft.
294.77 ft.
394.23 ft.
2d
556
358.63 «
424.88 "
3d
681
439.25 “
520.40 «
4th
812
523.75
620.51 «
5th
950 =
612.76 4
725.96 “
6th
1080
696.61 « 825.30 «
The run north and south is seven hundred and sixty-five feet between the pinehes. The best de- posits are found on the flat portion of the foot-wall, these places acting like a riffle in retaining the quartz. Within the last two years new and sub- stantial works have been erected. From the hoisting works to the mill, everything is arranged for con- venience. The ore falls into substantial ore houses. that will hold a month's crushing, so that a repair of the shaft or mine will cause no delay of work.
One hundred and thirty men find eonstant em- ployment here. The rates of labor have not varied much for twenty years, and are
For Under-ground Miners, per day,. $3 00
Laborers above ground, 6
66 2 50
Blacksmiths
66
3 50
Carpenters
66
66
3 00
The lumber used in one year is enormous:
5,000 round timbers with sawed lumber. $26,000 00 25,000 pieces of lageing, @ $95 00 per M. 2,375 00
2,000 cords of wood @ $6 00 per cord ... 12,000 00
It will be seen that nearly two hundred thousand dollars is distributed annually by this mine in the matter of expenses.
with Town Site.
and Keystone, Mineral Veins.
36
Section 36, T. 7 N., R. 10 E.
The Assessor furnishes the following report of the procceds for 1879, which may approximate the facts: Amount of rock crushed, in tons. .39,000
Total yield .. .$151,000 00
Expenses claimed by mine 273,000 00
allowed by Assessor 195,000 00
BIG GRAB.
The history of these mincs would be incomplete without an account of the daring attempt, under cover of an agricultural claim, to obtain possession of all thesc mines. In August, 1869, that portion of the county was surveyed and sectionized by J. G. Mather, and the plot of the section and mines, and other improvements thercon, reported to the general office at San Francisco.
Including town Site.
and Keystone,
Bunker Hill, Amador
Mining Ground.
Marked
East
36
Agricultural.
Half
Section 36, T. 7 N., R. 10 E.
A. H. Rose had a vineyard and farm east of the town of Amador; so it was supposed that it would be on the east half-seetion, section thirty-six. As sec- tions sixteen and thirty-six in each township had been donated to the State for school purposes, no alarm was raised or objections interposed when a patent for the east half-section was applied for, and obtained from the State; though the fact that Henry Casey, instead of A. H. Rose, the actual owner of the vineyard, applied for and obtained the deed to the land, Rose acting as his business agent, would naturally eause inquiry and suspicion of fraud.
The plot, as subsequently corrected, and now on file in the State Surveyor General's office at San Francisco, is as follows :-
-
Marked | Agricultural.
Rose | Ranch,
31
T. 7 N., R. 11 E
4 00
Engineers
Bunker Hill, Amador
MAHONEY MINE AND QUARTZ MILL SUTTER CREEK, AMADOR CO CAL
SD.RSTEWART. PRESIDENT
157
QUARTZ MINING.
When the plot had been consummated Henry Casey disappeared, and A. H. Rose appeared, armed with a deed from the State, as the claimant for millions worth of property. It is not necessary to follow the
matter through the courts. It is sufficient to say that it was finally carried up to the Secretary of the Interior. The following, from the Washington cor-
respondent of the Sacramento Union, will give a clear
idea of the dangers the Amadorians have surmounted:
" WASHINGTON, April 9, 1873.
" Extraordinary professional and lobby interests are being organized and concentrated here by A. H. Rose, to bear upon the Secretary of the Interior in the important case of the Keystone Consolidated Mining Company, the Original Amador Mining Com-
site of Amador, against the State of California. pany, Bunker Hill Quartz Company, and the town
The purpose is to secure a reversal of the decision of the General Land Office, whereby to turn over to Rose and his associates property worth millions of dollars, for which the nominal sum of four hundred dollars was partly paid by Henry Casey, the alleged grantee from the State. The case involves extraor- dinary features, apparent frauds, as well as a princi- ple of the utmost importance to thousands of mine- owners and mines in controversy, situated on the Mother Lode of California, which have been worked since 1850. Rose sold, for one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, the Keystone mine, and he now seeks to recover it in the name of Casey. The town of Amador was founded in 1850, its site, and all the mines situated upon the east half-section of sec- tion thirty-six, township seven north, range ten east, Mt. Diablo meridian. In 1870 certain parties procured a United States survey of that township, and, it is alleged, induced the Deputy Surveyor, by fraudulent field notes, to represent the mines and town as located upon the west half of the section. This was to deceive occupants, so as to induce them to apply for the wrong tract, while the specu- lators could, without opposition, purchase from the State for four hundred dollars, and receive a patent for the tract on which these properties were actually located. The fraud was discovered and exposed by abundant proofs, demonstrating unquestionably the surveyor's infidelity, in returning as agricultural land the richest half-section of mineral land ever dis- covered. The patent not having been issued, the bona fide mining claimants and town authorities immedi- ately applied to the Land Department for patents under the mineral and town site laws, but the would-be purchasers from the State then boldly claimed that the School Land Act of March 3, 1853, was a grant en presente of both surveyed and unsur- veyed, and both mineral and agricultural, lands com- prised in the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of every township, and consequently that the mineral lands in controversy situated in the thirty-sixth sec- tion, passed to the State immediately on the passage of the Act of 1853. To this it is replied that min- eral lands were excluded from the grants to the State; that the State title did not vest in any lands until surveyed, there being prior thereto no sections sixteen and thirty-six; the Act of 1853 provided that as to mineral lands only township lines should be run, which provision was not repealed until July 9, 1870; that it was competent for Congress, before vested rights attached, to make a different appropriation of the lands; that before the survey Congress did, by the Act of July 26, 1866, make a different appro-
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