USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 36
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priation of the mineral lands; that if this were not
so, yet the particular tract in controversy was expressly excepted from the State grant by the seventh section of the Act of 1853, by reason of its settlement and the erection of dwelling-houses thereon prior to the survey. The local land officers and the Commission-General of the Land Office decided against the pretentions of the private claim- ants who use the State's name, and the case is now pending on appeal before the Secretary of the In- terior. The danger grows out of the fact that the Supreme Court of the State of California, in the case of Sherman against Buck, decided that the Act of 1853 did vest title to all sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in the State prior to the survey. And although it is believed the court will grant a rehear ing and reverse that decision, its action, neverthe- less, lends color of support to the attempt now making to obtain possession of the Amador mines and estab- lishes a principle fraught with immense danger to thousands of other interests. Rose is here person- ally pressing the case, in addition to Wm. H. Patter- son and other well-known California lawyers and lobbyists to assist in its prosecution. It is probable dilatory tactics will be employed to postpone the decis- ion of this tainted claim until the Benjamin Snelling case from the Marysville district can be presented to the Secretary for a decision of the naked question of the right of the State to the sixteenth and thirty- sixth sections of mineral lands; so that if the right of the State is affirmed, it will be comparatively easy to find a pretext for deciding Rose's case in his favor. The question has a vital importance to all mineral occupants on the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. If the mineral claimants in either the Keystone or Snelling cases are defeated, then all mines upon simi- larly numbered subdivisions, or which upon future survey may prove to be so numbered, are at the mercy of the first applicant to purchase from the State at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. It is represented here that the parties who are initiated in this speculation have already taken the requisite steps to file the first applications for all similar sec- tions throughout the State. The same dangers threaten mineral occupants in every other mineral State."
" WASHINGTON, April 28, 1873.
" The Secretary of the Interior to-day decided the very important and much contested cases of the Key- stone Mining Company et. al., vs. State of California, and of Benjamin Snelling vs. the State of California, both of which involved the question whether the grant to said State of sections sixteen and thirty six for school purposes by the Act of March 3, 1853, included said sections when they were on mineral lands. The Secretary held, first, that the title to said sections sixteen and thirty-six does not vest in the State until survey has been made, which brings into existence and locates said section, and that said mining companies, having appropriated said lands under the Act of July 26, 1866, prior to such survey, they had the better right. Second, that the seventh section of the Act of 1853 excepts from the grant all of sections sixteen and thirty-six, on which there had been, prior to the survey, a settlement by the erection of a dwelling-house or the cultivation of any portion of the land, and that the settlement referred to was technically known as pre-emption settlement. Third, that the grant was not intended to include, and does not include, said sections when they are on mineral lands. The decision was given against the State in both cases."
158
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Extraordinary reports are current as to the means by which this fraudulent survey was accomplished. J. G. Mather was not in the field at the time, though his name was attached to the plot returned to the office. His deputies were Uri Nurse and Marcellus Nurse, father and son, the latter doing the work. Some say the survey was made by moonlight; others that a lantern was used, and some go so far as to name the persons who acted as chain and torch bearers in these midnight surveys. Young Nurse is reported as saying that he made fifteen thousand dollars during the season. Mather is made to bear the responsibility, and has not since been employed by the Government in any work, nor is he likely to be.
The contest was finally terminated November 22, 1880.
" In the case Ivanhoe Mining Company vs. Key- stone Consolidated Company, the Supreme Court held that in the grant of the sixteenth and thirty- sixth sections of the public lands to the State of California for school purposes, the title to the mineral lands did not pass, for the reason that it was the established policy of the Government to withhold the mineral lands from sale, and that in this case the land in question, having been improved before the survey, it was exempt from sale by reason of section seven of such law."
The owners of mines and houses on the famous thirty-sixth section may now rest, secure in the results of their industry.
THE ORIGINAL AMADOR,
Sometimes called the Little Amador, is the mine on the north side of the creek, which was taken up by Thomas Rickey and son in February, 1851. This mine was about the first to pay dividends, J. T. Burke, still living in Amador, being the superintend- dent. In 1854, it passed into the hands of some Germans, who ran it until 1857, when it gradually failed, work being totally suspended in 1858. In the meantime it was sold to Haverstick and Leninger of Ione, the latter soon becoming the sole owner, the mine at this time being valued at only two hundred and fifty dollars. J. T. Burke, the first superintend- dent, leased the mine from Leninger, giving him half the profits. His knowledge of the mine enabled him to pay Leninger the sum of eight thousand dollars for his share of the profits. After the expiration of the lease, work was suspended until 1862, when J. T. Burke bought it for three thousand dollars, one-third down, balanee in installments. The mine paid for a short time, but the rock failing, it went baek to Leninger, who sold it to John C. Faul for a nominal price. The mine was developed under his manage- ment, the hoisting works and mill being rebuilt. The reputation of the mine was such that it was sold to an English company in 1870, for six hundred thousand dollars. It is not considered a paying property. Work is nearly suspended at present. Old miners think that a cross-cut
to the west might strike a paying vein. The present works are near the hanging-wall. A shaft is now being sunk on the summit, near the Bunker Hill ground. The hoisting is done with a wire cable from the old hoisting works nearly a thousand fect away.
THE BUNKER HILL.
This is one of the mines included in the famous thirty-sixth section, a portion of the ground being on the doubtful tract. Superintendent Palmer furnishes the following information about the mine: It was worked in 1851, by Snediker, Briggs, and others, mak- ing the quartz pay twenty dollars per ton, until the works were carried down some depth. It is now four hundred and fifty feet deep, with two veins of paying rock. The vein next to the hanging-wall is about five feet thick. The second one varies from one foot to thirty feet in thickness, and is what is called a chimney, dipping to the north about forty-five degrees. The hanging-wall is well defined and reg- ular; the foot-wall being somewhat broken. The general piteh is about twenty-eight degrees from a perpendicular. The two veins are about sixty feet apart, no gold being found in the slates between the veins. The sulphurets, constituting about three per cent. of the entire rock, are worth about eighty dollars per ton, this being about one-tenth of the entire product, which at these figures would be about twenty-five dollars per ton. The rock shows an improvement as a greater depth is reached.
New hoisting works, mill and chlorination works are being erected, and a new shaft is being sunk. The mill is to have forty stamps run by water-power, and everything is to be substantial and first-class. The property is owned by a joint-stock company and bids fair to be highly remunerative.
There are no mines of note for some distance north of the Bunker Hill; though several shafts have been sunk no valuable lodes were opened.
THE PENNSYLVANIA.
This mine was worked by J. W. Pierson, of Oakland. Either bad management or other causes have given it an unenviable reputation. About a year since, fortunately while there was no one in the works, it eaved in, the whole works collapsing. As the mine is being dismantled it is likely that it was not found profitable.
THE GOVER.
This is an old mine with a varied experience, the balance generally being on the wrong side of the ledger. It has been worked to a depth of one thou- sand and thirty feet; has two veins, the one next the hanging-wall about seven feet thiek containing the pay. The pitch is about forty-five degrees. The vein one hundred and thirty feet west is about four feet thick and does not contain much gold. A cross- cut at seven hundred feet showed no improvement in the west vein; at this depth the eastern or hanging-
159
QUARTZ MINING.
wall vein was good, averaging twelve dollars and a half per ton, but gradually became poorer as a greater depth was reached. The west vein was not tested below the seven-hundred-foot level.
There is no appearance of a chimney in this mine, the vein maintaining about the same width on a run of seven hundred feet. This is a solitary case, every other paying vein being in the shape of a channel, chute, or chimney. The hoisting works and water- power mill (twenty stamp) are substantial and well arranged. The town, called New Chicago, built up on the strength of this and the adjoining mines, is distressingly quiet. There is a prospect (January 1, 1881) of the Gover resuming work.
THE BLACK HILLS.
This is, to some extent, a repetition of Murphy's ridge in the southern part of the county, the veins being irregular in location and very much so in their value. Immense sums have been taken out by the Italians, Austrians and Mexicans, who have been working this section for twenty years or more. There is a strong hanging-wall but no foot-wall except the ordinary slate. Sometimes the quartz shows in large chimneys of barren rock a hundred feet thick; at other times it ramifies into a thousand seams all containing gold. The hills have been sluiced, hydrau- liced, coyoted, and tunnelled and worked in every way conceivable, and still a great number of men make a living for their families, most of whom live in the hollows below the mine in a primitive style, with goats and children swarming over the hills. Efforts have been made to mine this scientifieally, and long tunnels have been run under or down the hanging-wall, which has a slope of about forty-five degrees, but the Mexican with his crow-bar and bataya still holds the country. The gulches heading against this quartz reef were all rich, clear to the summit, and it was by following up these that the rieh threads of quartz interlacing the hill were found.
THE SEATON MINE.
Twenty years ago this was a power in the land. It was immensely rich in places. It adjoins the Black hills on the north. The same rule as at the other mines in this cluster holds good, i. e., a strong hanging- wall. A mill and hoisting works were erected, and the results were such as to make a boom in quartz; a million of dollars seeking investment in the county in a short time. Some of these ventures have proved failures, others exceeded the most sanguine expecta- tions of the investors. The mine is owned by an English company, and at present is not paying dividends, but perseverance may uncover another bonanza which will repay them for all their toil.
THE POTOSI.
This mine was developed by the Hinksons of Drytown, and for many years was a source of profit, if not of fortunes. The wall rock on the east is here broken off, and for two miles, or until Plymouth is reached, the' veins are scattered, spreading in
some instances to two thousand feet in width. Some mills have been erected, and though occasional runs have been made which were profitable, the mines in general proved a poor investment. Most of the veins are held by persons too poor to sink on them, the prospects not being good enough to induce cap- italists to invest. Some of the veins, with econom- ical management, may pay for working at the top, and thus pay for testing them.
QUARTZ MOUNTAIN.
Although this is not usually considered on the range, or Mother Lode, it is most convenient to" consider it here. It is an immense body of quartz covering twenty aeres or more of ground. It seems to be a vein, perhaps one hundred feet thick, and perhaps a thousand feet long, which, from its original inclination, has fallen over to the eastward, as much as twenty acres lying nearly flat, forming a promi- nent object for miles around. It early attracted the attention of quartz miners, and was examined and claimed in 1851, at the time of the first quartz excitement. The ravines in the immediate vicinity were not rieh, although a three-hundred-dollar lump is said to have been found in the long guleh running from it towards the creek. It is rock of a peculiar character, being much purer, and more compact than the quartz of the Mother Lode. The bullion from it is of low value, being worth only ten or twelve dollars to the ounce, and very light, forty per cent. of it being silver, on which aecount it is hard to save. The quartz, notwithstanding its favor- able appearance, has not yet milled above two dol- lars per ton, and has proved a losing business to all persons engaged in it. The ore has been treated in every possible method, but the successful reduc- tion of it has not yet been accomplished. The sul- phurets are extremely rich, being worth five or six hundred dollars a ton. South of the Quartz mountain the country has been very rieh in eoarse gold. Some quartz veins crop out on the heads of Deep and Indian gulches, which have the same pitch to the west that characterizes the Quartz mountain, and are probably a part of the same formation. As Rancheria creek above the town contains little gold, and there is little indication of an ancient river bed in this vicinity, it is highly probable that Deep and Indian gulches, as well as the flats around, were enriched by the system of quartz veins, to which Quartz mountain belongs. Mack Culbert and sons are working a .vein on the hill above Indian gulch, with fair prospects of making it pay. It is likely that a thorough search will discover workable veins. Reference was made to this mountain in the article on quartz veins.
PLYMOUTH GROUP OF MINES.
It is more convenient to consider them under one heading, although there are several incorporations, the management being by one set of men. The situa- tion of the mines will be understood by a diagram :-
160
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Pacific Co., 1200 feet.
Indiana Co.
Alpine Co.
Empire ('o.,
1900 fect.
Pacific Mill Site.
Empire Mill Site.
West Oaks Co.
The Plymouth mine was discovered by Green Aden in 1853 or 1854. The mine, then ealled the Phoenix, was developed by the Hoopers, and was worked by them until 1871, when it passed into the hands of Hayward, D. O. Mills and Company. It was then worked under the superintendence of Charles Green, who developed it into its present profitable condition. The mine is singular in the faet that it is the site of a glacier erosion, whieh smoothed down every roek, however hard or soft, leaving none of the hard recfs so prominent in eon- neetion with other paying quartz veins. A reef of rocks aeross the lower end of the valley, west of Puekerville, formed the moraine or terminal line of the erosion.
The ordinary hanging-wall is thought to be some six hundred feet to the east of the vein, but as a drift has been run only eighty feet in that dircetion, the hanging-wall may be mueh nearer than is supposed. The vein, which averages fifty-two feet in thickness, had a moderate slope towards the east, until it reached a depth of one thousand feet, when it sud- denly beeame mueh flatter, having a slope of about forty-five degrees. The richest quartz was found on this slope, there being a sudden increase in quality as well as quantity at this bend. Another peculiarity of the mine is that the pay chimney runs towards the south. In this eonneetion it may be well to speak of the lawsuit now pending for trespass and damage. Though Alvinza Hayward is a principal owner in both the Empire and Pacifie, other stock- holders have interests in but one, and in working down on the chimney, which runs into the Pacifie, the Empire men received profits which accrued from the Pacifie ground; henee a suit for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars damage. The Empire aeknowl- edged a demand for eighty thousand dollars, but this did not satisfy the Pacifies. To eomplieate matters still more, the Merchants' Exchange Bank of San Francisco, through some business complications with Hayward, stepped in as an intervener, and the suit became a triangular duel. An army of lawyers and short-hand reporters was brought up from San Franeiseo and quartered around Jackson. Two thousand pages of testimony were taken to be used in the higher courts, for this was but the beginning or skirmishing line in the war. Those who have never read the account of the "triangular duel" in Captain Maryatt's " Midshipman Easy," may get an idea of this suit by imagining a three-handed game of euchre, all parties playing against Hayward, who was bound to be euchred in any event, having the most of the eost to pay. An award of seventy-one thousand dollars damage was made by Judge Moore,
before whom the case was tried, and the matter is still running through the courts.
The chimney at the depth of twelve hundred feet has gone five hundred and nincty-two feet to the south, at which point hoisting works of the most substantial kind are being constructed, the shaft being square, with four compartments. The tall tower stands over the shaft, a prominent feature in the landseape. This elevation is to give room for waste rock that often aeeumulates to an ineonven- ient degree around mining works. The eighty-stamp mill, the largest in the county, is run by water- power, the eanal being a portion of the company's works. A large portion of the timber and lagging used, eomes down the eanal, which receives its sup- ply of water from the Cosumnes river. About four thousand tons of rock are erushed each month, yield- ing forty thousand dollars or upwards.
Like other large mincs, this consumes a great amount of material, the yearly demand being ---
3,500 eords of wood valued at $21,000
7,000 pieces of round timber 21,000
35,000 pieces of lagging. 3,500
In addition to this, half as much may be reekoned for dimension timbers for new works on the surface. The names of some one hundred and fifty men are on the pay-roll.
ENTERPRISE.
North of the Plymouth group the mines have not been developed, though there are indications of extensive quartz deposits. Indian ereek, which follows nearly the course of the quartz lodes, was quite rich, as were the side gulebes putting into it. A few years since a town was started on the pros- pects of the Enterprise mine, which flourished for a time, but when the work was suspended the place shrunk away. The mines along this range seem full of water, the west or foot-wall (the west bank of Indian ereek) having numerous springs, which may come from extensive mineral deposits on that side. A mineral lode has onee been a water channel thongh subsequent erosions and eleavages may have changed its course.
NASHVILLE.
On the north side of the Cosumnes is the place called Nashville, formerly Quartzburg, which, though in El Dorado eounty, may be mentioned in connection with the Amador mines as being the extension and probable termination on the north, as the Gwin mine is on the south, of that remarkable deposit which we have endeavored to deseribe, ealled the Mother Lode in Amador county, as north of the Nashville group, and south of the Gwin mine, the quartz deposits arc irregular and eannot 'compare, in pro-
.
LITH BRITTON & REY, S.F.
RESIDENCE AND RANCH OF ALEXANDER SHEAKLEY. IONE CITY. AMADOR COUNTY , CAL.
161
QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE.
ductiveness or regularity, with the mines between the two named points. This mine was worked at an earlier day than any of the Amador mines, as the mill was a model for some of them. The mine was developed by Dr. Harris of Nashville, Tennessee, who sunk for his company some forty thousand dollars. The first power used was steam, but afterwards a dam was thrown across the river at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, which was a needless expense, as a small canal a mile or two in length, has since been equal to the power gained by the dam. During the Summer of 1851 a man by the name of Eustice, from Missouri, discovered a rich vein near Nashville, which he allowed the Mexicans to work for a royalty, which was an arrangement that they should purchase their supplies of him, which condition they generally observed. The Mexicans worked the rock with arastras, with which they are experts, and made it pay much better than did the mill men who eame after them. As many as thirty or forty of these might be seen grinding at a time. Perhaps two hundred men, women, and children were eongre- gated around the mine, which pinehed out at a depth of about a hundred feet. The arrangement was mutually satisfactory and profitable, and Eustice car- ried away about sixteen thousand dollars for his share. The mines are not worked at present, and seem never to have been asrich and as extensive as the mines in Amador county. This closes the account of the great Mother Lode as it exists in Amador county. In the chapter on the formation of mineral veins, reference to the mines is occasionally made.
CHAPTER XXIX.
QUARTZ MINING EAST OF THE MOTHER LODE.
Downs Mine-Marklee-Tellurium-Thayer-Clinton Mines- Mace Range of Mines-Pioneer and Golden Gate Mines- Quartz Veins West of the Mother Lode-Kirkendall-Soap- Stone or Steatite Mine-Quartz Mining in the Future- Put Money in Thy Purse-School Cabinets-Copper Min- ing-General Craze-Country Formed into Districts-Funny Notices-New Towns-Result of the General Search- Chrome Iron-Failure of Meader-Remarkable Discovery- Present Condition of Copper Mining .- Newton Mine.
No man who has made gold mining a subject for thought, ever doubted that the gold found in our gulehes and rivers originally came from the quartz veins. When the news of the discovery of gold in the quartz at Sutter Creck and other places was learned, the belief that the quartz veins on the upper range of placers, which were not inferior in richness to the lower ones, became general. Soldiers' gulch had several veins crossing it, and so had numerous other rich placers. Quartz boulders, with gold riveted through and through them, were sometimes found, as well as rough quartz, which did not appear to have been moved any great distance from the vein. Small veins were found with considerable gold in them, and in 1867 there were not less than one hundred stamps in operation within a few miles
of Volcano, and nearly two hundred on the upper range. The following table will show that the upper veins were being fully tried :---
Location in Amador county Name of Mill.
Erected.
When
No. Stamps.
No. Arastra.
Cost.
Present Occupants.
Amador City
Amador
1856 10
steam
10,000 Middleton & Co.
Bunker Hill.
1855
8
s & W
12,000 William A. Palmer.
Flecharts ..
1866
10
steam
10,000 Gardner & Fleehart.
Hazard
1857
8
water
6 000 Gardner & Fleehart.
=
Spring Hill
1856 40
s & W
40,000 Elooper & Co.
Clinton
Rocky Falls
1865 10
steam
10,000 W. J. Paugh.
Drytown
Plymouth
1860 20
s & W
20,000 Hooper & Co.
Potosi
Seaton
1865 20
s & w
100,000 Seaton M. Co.
Fiddletown
Richmond
1865 10
10,000 Eagon & Co.
Jackson
Coneys
1864
16
steam
10,000 C. T. Meader.
Hubbards
1860 10
water
8,000 S. C. Fogus.
Kearsings
1862
10
5,000 C. T. Meader.
66
Tubbs
1866
10
steanı
10,000 Tubbs & Co.
Oneida
1854
40
1864
4
1864
10
10,000 Cushing, Ryder & Co.
Rancheria.
15,000 Ilurst & Co.
Sutter Creek
Badger
1858
16
10,000 A. Hayward.
Downs
1858
10
10,000 R. C. Downs. .
Eureka
1858
40
s & W
water
10,000 R. C. Downs, Supt.
Mahoney ..
Meader
Wildmans
1859
12
10,000 C. T. Wheeler.
Volcano.
Belding
1865 10
s & W
9,000 -
- Pine, Supt.
Fogus .
1865
10
water
10,000 J. T. Farley.
Golden Gate ..
186
10
s & W
20,000 Hurd & Co.
Italian
1862
10
water
8,000 Rose & Co.
Monday
1860
10
4,000 Fogus & Co.
Mitchells
1863 20
steam
20,000 Lawton & Co.
Pioneer
1855
10
s & W
15,000 C. T. Meader.
Sirocco .
15,60
20
20,000 J. T. Farley.
Sulphuret
1864
1865 15
steam
8,000 Lawton & Co.
Tulloch
1865
1
1 water
5,000 Tulloch & Co.
Tyuan
1865 19
steam
8,000 M. Tynan.
It took twenty years of costly experience to learn quartz mining and the nature of quartz veins. There · were these differences in the veins on the Mother Lode and in the other parts of the county; on the Mother Lode the veins generally had a north and south direction; on the others they ran in all direc- tions; though, often than otherwise, conforming in directions to the rifts of the slate, they turned appar- ently at every little obstruction and had no uniformity of direction, dip, or strike. There was a gouge or selvage beside the Mother Lode; scarcely any at all on the upper veins, many of the largest of the veins being encased in solid walls, in fact, as the miners use to say, melted into it. Along the Mother Lode was a solid wall (frequently on both sides) which was continuous, and could readily be traeed through the county; on the upper ranges the wall rock, or rock adjoining the quartz, would change its eharacter every few fcet, sometimes being a hard metamor- phosed flinty rock, at other places turning to steatite, or soft, earthy slate. Those of our readers who studied the Mother Lode, in its entirety, will remem- ber the functions of a firm wall rock and the importance of a gouge, one as holding the quartz deposit to its place, the other showing a deep fissure or a greater length of deposit. There is a probability that the aggregate amount of gold in the West Point system of veins, which also crosses Amador county, is greater than in the Mother Lode of the same length, and so of the other veins that traverse the eastern part of the county within a few miles of Vol-
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