USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 53
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 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
FOREST HOME.
This was the center of a mining district in the north-western part of the county, which was, per- haps, the poorest in gold of any portion that was extensively worked. The serpentine range here reached its largest development, some of the peaks forming landmarks for many miles around. This development, or rather extraordinary elevation of the metamorphic series of rocks, perhaps had some influence in preventing streams or channels from being formed which could be enriched by the Mother Lode, as the country further south was. The Cos- umnes river along this tract was not rich, the pay- ing claims being farther down, in the vicinity of Michigan bar, in Sacramento and El Dorado counties.
ARKANSAS CREEK,
So called because no " Arkansaw traveler" ever came that way, has its source near Forest Home, runs westerly several miles, and empties into the Cosumnes, near the county line. At the head of this creek were some deep diggings, called the " Yankee claim" and Wind hill. These places seem to have been the remains of a pliocene river, perhaps of the same age as the hills around Stony creek, in the southern part of the county, Arkansas creek receiving its wealth from these hills.
YANKEE HILL
Was worked in 1850 by Griswold, Emerson, Pur- tham, Alexander, and others. Griswold is now an
232
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
eminent composer of music in Boston, The lower part of the creek only paid moderately. three to five dollars being the usual result of a day's work. Will- iam B. Ludlow, afterwards member of the Legis- lature, now a resident of Oakland, Edmond Tanner, Wallace Wallace, and Charles Bennett, the latter since a resident of Sutter Creek, are remembered as mining there in 1850, and since. Potter, now of Plymouth, and also Gideon Babb, kept stores there. Some coarse gold was taken ont occasionally. The hills were generally composed of sand and gravel, the gold being found in a kind of ferruginous, cemented gravel, on the bottom.
BIG NUGGET.
One day a Mexican, named Antone, struck a nug- get with his crow-bar, which refused to give way. He enlarged the drift, and approached it two or three inches farther back, and struck his bar, as he thought, behind it. To his astonishment, the nugget still continued into the hill. A second enlargement produced a like result, and not until he enlarged and extended the drift a third time, did he get behind it. He began to be rather excited by this time, and when it came out, he thought he had abont all the money he should ever want. He rushed to the nearest saloon, and treated all hands, depositing the chispa as security for payment. He continued to treat so many times, that the margin vanished, the nugget eventually falling into the hands of J. Elkins. The piece was seven and a half inches long, and worth three hundred dollars. The gold in this vicinity was mixed with silver, and was worth only thirteen dollars per ounce, forming a great contrast in appearance with the gold from Drytown, which was worth seventeen dollars and seventy-five cents per ounce.
In 1860, the sluices were often robbed. Some person would cut small creases in the bottoms of the boxes, and with a sharp, conical scraper, would clean several sets of sluices in a night. The act becoming common, Edward Evans, one of the miners, kept watch, and when the robber went at his work, gave him a load of shot. The culprit proved to be a Chinaman. The Chinese in the vicinity were compelled to bury him. Evans received no punishment. In 1850, John Ballou and Nehemiah Barnes, got into a difficulty about a right to a min- ing claim, which resulted in the fatal shooting of the former. Barnes soon after left the country. In an early day, a Frenchman named Raymond, min- ing on the river, shot a Chinaman with very little provocation. The miners gathered, and giving the Frenchman a trial, hung him. At that time there was no especial prejudice towards the Chinese race. The Arkansas House, not far from the county line, was kept by a man by the name of Haynes, who died some twenty years ago, of consumption. He was the first Justice of the Peace in that section of the county.
WILLOW SPRINGS.
This is the site of a glacial erosion, like Plymouth and other places. It was settled by - Richard- son and William Jennings, who put up a first-class hotel, the place being on the line of the travel from Drytown, Fiddletown and other places to Sacra- mento. Travelers a quarter of a century since recollect well the good fare of those days. The place was afterwards sold to Mathews. W. D. Castle, now of San Jose, owned the place for many years. The mining was never of much importance around this place.
THE CENTRAL HOUSE,
Two miles north of Drytown, is another place similar to Willow Springs in location and character. As before stated, the gold mining never attracted many persons to this vicinity. Soon after the breaking out of the copper excitement, several veins of copper were discovered, and for some years this " North- West Territory " bid fair to become a second El Dorado, or Copperopolis. This epoch of the history will receive more particular attention in the history of copper mining, which will form a chapter by itself.
PLYMOUTH
Is on the Mother Lode, near the northern boundary of the county, fifteen miles from the county seat. It has very little history separate from the history of its quartz veins. At the lower end of the flat, on which the town is built, there was formerly a small hamlet called Puckerville, or Pokerville. It might have had twenty or thirty miners in its best days, which were nearly a quarter of a century since. At the present time, a solitary house marks the site of the ancient town. Ruined chimneys, the usual relics of a "dug-out " town, are totally wanting, and at this day the history of the town is irrevocably lost. If the name was Pokerville, we may imagine the citizens playing poker, with beans for stakes, while waiting through the long Summer for water to come, or, through the Winter for the water to go down, so their claims could be worked, a practice quite com- mon in early days in many a mining camp which has since made a town. As for Puckerville, there is no accounting for that name. There were no persim- inons to contract the beef and potato gates; no old maids to put on Sunday rig, and draw the mouth together like a rose-bud to look sweet and tempting; in fact, there were no females at all, save occasion- ally a wandering māhālā, with a basket on her broad back, gathering acorns and bugs. The Indian belle never pressed her mouth to look sweet; that were impossible, but delighted rather in an immenso spread, which showed a set of ivories like a quartz breaker. The wildest imagination fails to find a probable reason, and the question " Wherefore Puck- erville ?" must be left to the wisdom of some of the numerous debating societies of the mountains. Per- haps the orator of the "sand-lot," when he has
LITH. BRITTON & REY, S. F.
A.K.DUDLEY.
TOMPSON & WEST PUBLISHER DAK LAND, CALA.
233
NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
decided all the questions of theology, political and social economy, whether moral or financial, to the satisfaction of the people, will give this question the benefit of his profound erudition.
Plymouth proper was settled upon in an early day by Green Aden and others in search of quartz, but the commencement of its growth as a town, dates to the working of the mines by the Hoopers, father and son. About 1873 the town took a sudden start, occasioned by the purchase of the mines by Hay- ward, D. O. Mills and company. In the same year the precinct cast one hundred and seventy-five votes; in 1877, two hundred and seventy-five; in 1880, some- thing over three hundred, showing a steady growth which is likely to be permanent.
The town is identified with the prosperity of the mines, though there is considerable farming land in the vicinity, which partially supplies the demand for hay and barley. Shenandoah valley is one of the rural places in this vicinity. It has many fine farms and orchards, that of Oliver Balls being among the best.
MINERAL SPRINGS.
The White Sulphur Springs, about two miles north of Plymouth, possess relaxing qualities useful in cases of constipation and inflammatory diseases. No improvements have been made yet. The property is owned by Albert Stevens. There is also an exten- sive marble quarry in the vicinity, furnishing an abundance of rock for ornamental purposes, as well as lime for building.
FIRES.
The following letter from Plymouth to the Dispatch will explain itself :-
About three o'clock on Monday, the tenth of June, 1877, occurred the largest fire ever experienced in this town (Plymouth). The fire commeneed in the rear of J. C. Williams' stable and spread over the upper part of the town in an incredible short space of time, reducing twenty or more buildings with their contents to ashes. The following is a partial list of the losses: Easton's hotel, McMullen's boarding and lodging house, James Davis' store, John Davis' dwell- ing house, Baer & Coblentz's store, Odd Fellows' hall, P. Quin's saloon and dwelling house, dwellings of Williams, Thomas, and Richardson, Wentworth's blacksmith shop and dwelling, Jacob Smith's shoe- maker shop and dwelling, Potter's barn and out-houses, J. C. Williams' stable, five horses, lumber yard, wagons, hay, grain, etc., the residences of the Misses Snyder, and a number of other houses and buildings, about twenty-two in all.
The fire was said to have been started by some children who were playing with matches in some straw in the rear of the stable. The total loss is estimated at fifty thousand dollars, only a small por- tion being covered by insurance.
ENTERPRISE
Is the name of a town that was started up about the time that Plymouth commenced growing, and had at one time a hundred or more men busily prospecting quartz, which was thought to be very good. Whether from too much water, as some 30
allege, or from other causes, capitalists failed to take hold of the work, and explorations ceased, the town with the fine name being relegated to obscurity. A house or two keeps guard over what was once a lively camp.
YEOMET
Is an Indian name signifying rocky falls, and was given to the forks of the Cosumnes river. Indian creek, north fork, middle fork, which received the south fork a mile or two above, all coming together here. Indian creek rises east of Oleta, runs west until it strikes the quartz range; thence along the course of the vein three miles to the Cosumnes. The north fork also runs for some miles parallel to the Mother Lode; hence, as might be expected, the river was rich, a large number not only mining here, but draw- ing their supplies from this base. Up to 1853, it had the appearance of becoming a town. Simpson, Becbee & Co., Bowman & Co., and others, had large stores, the latter persons also having a bridge across the river, and a hotel of considerable pretensions. Many of the settlers were .from Pittsburg, Penn., perhaps induced to remain here by a fancied resem- blance to the forks of the Ohio at that town. Some were steamboat captains, some merehants and clerks, some workmen from the great machine shops, that even then had learned to rival Birmingham and the Clyde in making ponderous machinery. Captain John King, who had steamed up and down the Mis- sissippi a hundred times, told his stories, how he had entrapped a load of passengers onee at New Orleans, by pretending that he had a famous French general on board, having arranged for a smart Frenchmen to play the part, which worked to a charm, his boat being crowded, while the boat having the real gen- eral was a few hours behind-empty! Some of these men made fortunes and went home; others told their stories, all the better for a drink, which at last got the better of them, leaving them in a nameless grave.
Beebee & Simpson were favorites among the miners for their thorough honesty in trade. " Have you some good coffee, sugar, flour, or bacon?" generally elicited, " only a moderately good article," which, however, was found to be as good as the market afforded; but the miners knew their men, and that answer was sufficient. Old man Simpson (E. M.), as the miners used to call him, was subsequently eleeted to the Legislature, and won the esteem of all he met, by his unswerving honesty and good sense. H. E. Hall, afterwards County Clerk, and Sam Loree, the latter now resident at Upper Rancheria, built saw-mills near the forks in the Summer of 1852. The former was swept away by the high water of the following Winter. The miners gradually encroached upon the town, one building after another giving away, and now a solitary house holds all the population, he watching for a quarter from an occasional footman across the bridge. The river now is not vexed with dam or wing-dam, but follows its own sweet will to the sea.
234
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
A general air of lost, forgotten, or dead pervades this section of the country, north as well as south of the river. Many springs pour cooling streams out of the hill-sides, but no little homes, decorated with vines and trees as at other places, relieve the eyes wearied of the everlasting brown of the hills. Some of the cabins built in 1850 maintain a tottering standing, with the aid of props and braces. Inside you may see the goldl-pan and pick as of yore, but the men, weary and worn with a quarter of a cen- tury of unsuccessful search for gold, seem waiting for the last aet of the play, though still hoping to strike it.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
EASTERN PART OF AMADOR COUNTY.
Elevation Above Tide-water -Ione, Jackson, Voleano-Pine Grove-Dentzler's Flume House-Claiborne Foster's-Ante- lope Springs-Hipkins & Wiley's Station -- Ham's Station -- Mud Springs-Stevens' Lumber Yard-Emigrant's Pass- Amount of Timber Remaining-Climatie Effeet of the Loss of Timber-Summer Pasture-As a Summer Resort-Prae- tieal Jokes-Salt Springs-Mammoth Quartz Vein -- Trout Fishing-Silver Mines-Sunset from the Sierras -- Climate -- Drouthis-Freshets-Rain Table for Amador County, as Com- piled by Frank Howard-Rain Table for Sacramento, cor- rected for Sutter Creek.
THIS eounty is shaped mueb like the famous Pan- Handle of Virginia. As the force of the name may not be apparent to our younger readers, an explana- tion may be in order. A half century ago, before the invention of the cooking stove, telephone, high-heeled shoes, creme de lis, and other modern improvements, the universal frying-pan had a handle some five feet long, to enable a woman to eook by the roaring fires that our ancestors found necessary to have in Win- ter, without roasting her face to more than a eherry red. In time every long strip of territory beeame a pan-handle. Amador county in the Sierras, has much the same attachment. The south fork of the Cosum- nes was established as the northern boundary, the north fork of the Mokelumne as the southern boundary; but as the Cosumnes was a short river, not reaching the summit, leaving the eastern boundary in doubt, Amador took the benefit of the doubt and set up a claim reaching to the State of Nevada. When Alpine county was created the dividing line between that county and Amador was fixed at Kirk- wood's house in Hope valley, leaving his house on the Amador side. This threw the line of the Amador wagon road, Silver lake and considerable of a tract of Alpine ebaracter, into Amador county. Though 10 towns or even hamlets abound in these mountain regions, they are in many respects the most interest- ing part of Amador, and no one should feel them- selves acquainted with the whole county until they have breathed the pure attenuated air, seen the tall pines, or fished in the streams of the upper Sierras.
A statement of the different elevations, with some of the characteristie productions, will be a good starting point for a general deseription.
THE ELEVATION ABOVE TIDE-WATER.
Iono 270 fect. Prevailing timber, oak and scrubby pine, nut pine predominating; no sugar pine; nat- ural grasses, wild oats, etc .; all annuals (except along water courses) in perfection; soil and climate adapted to all fruits; apples, however, lack the flavor of the colder altitudes.
Jackson 1,300 feet. Timber, oak and pine, pitch pine predominating; sugar pine makes its appear- ance; natural grasses inferior to the valley; fruits of all kinds flourish, including the orange, in favored localities; grapes are in perfection.
Voleano 2,162 feet. Prevailing timber, oak and pine, piteh pine in perfection; sugar pine improving; fir makes its appearance, also the eedar, laurel, pep- per, nutmeg pine, ete .; apples improving; grapes at this point (owing to the situation of the town in a basin) are liable to frosts; the wild plum, gooseberry and other berries, make their appearance.
Pine Grove 2,675 feet. Prevailing timber, oak and pine, piteh pine predominating; piteh pine in perfee- tion; sugar pine improving and now towers above all the trees; eedar and fir becoming frequent; grapes good but require sheltered situations; apples have a sharp flavor; peaches late but good in flavor. Snow sometimes falls a foot in depth, remaining on the ground a week or two.
Dentzler's Flume House 2,980 feet. Timber, oak and pine; nut pine eeases; pitch pine in perfection; sugar pine still improving; the fir and spruee now stately trees; new varieties of the eedar make their appearance; natural grasses searce, varieties of ferns taking their place; grapes uncertain and laek sugar; apples improving; peaches good; wild plum and gooseberry plentiful, forming thickets; best potatoes in the county raised at this elevation. This ineludes the altitude of J. A. Foster's raneb, also F. Mace's and B. F. Whitmore's. Snow falls occasionally two or three feet deep, and may remain on a month or more.
Claiborne Foster's 3,100 feet. Timber principally pine, all kinds in perfection; immense quantities in favorable localities, and so thiek that the surveyors cannot run a hundred feet in a straight line; sugar pines may now be found six feet in diameter a hun- dred feet from the ground; best apples raised at this height; peaches sure in favorable localities, though the later varieties will not ripen; potatoes in perfee- tion; wild plums, gooseberries, chinquepins (a kind of dwarf chestnut) in abundance. Snow in considera- ble quantities.
Antelope Springs 4,250 feet. Pines, firs and cedars now a solid forest; oak thinning out, only found on exposed points and dwarfed in stature; potatoes still good ; no attempts made to eultivate fruits above this point.
Ilipkin's & Wiley's Station (on the Amador wagon road) 5,000 feet. Best pine lumber; the oak becomes insignifieant.
Ham's Station 5,425 feet.
235
EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
Mud Springs 5,975 feet.
Steven's Lumber Yard 6,422 feet. Potatoes and alfalfa raised here; the best pine ceases, tamarack taking its place. Snow falls eight or ten feet deep.
Emigrant Pass (second sunimit) 8,300 feet. Above seven thousand feet the timber is found only in sheltered depressions. The snow falls any- where from ten to twenty feet in depth, which may all melt and go away in the course of three days, if a warm rain prevails. The most striking features in all this upper region are the bare volcanic or gran- itic peaks, the heavy rains and floods denuding them of every particle ofearth. This region is the source of the freshets which occasionally pour down and inundate the lower valleys.
East of Volcano but little farming is done. A few men cultivate small farms to supply the lumbermen with a portion of their needs. Hay and grain are hauled up, and exchanged for lumber. Hay, worth ten dollars in the valleys, becomes twenty dollars at the saw-mill, and lumber which is worth ten dollars at the mill, brings twenty dollars in the valleys. Though the cash values have constantly decreased for twenty years or more the relative values of cach have remained about the same. Nearly all the mountain land will raise grain or hay by ploughing and sowing it every year. It is a question of cost alone. If any means should be inaugurated whereby the lumber could be floated to market by water so that teams would not be required to haul the lumber down, and consequently have no inducement to haul hay and grain into the mountains, farming would be put on a remunerative basis.
AMOUNT OF TIMBER STILL REMAINING.
Formerly the pine timber covered the entire coun- try from the foot-hills up to the bald peaks of the Sierras. Below the altitude of one thousand feet, the timber was dwarfed and inferior. The trees lacked body. A few of the pitch pines may still be seen in the valleys, towering among oaks, but very much inferior to their tall, stately brothers of the mountains. A cluster of fair-sized pines once stood on the south side of Jackson ereck, where it runs through the green ledge. These were all eut down and hauled to Lancha Plana some twenty years since for bridge timbers. Between Ione and Jack- son scarcely a pine can be seen, and around the latter place they are by no means plenty. A few, far up the side of Butte mountain, have escaped the slaughtering axe of the lumbermen. One sugar pine, too crabbed and crooked for shakes, still holds its long arms to the breeze, the only specimen to be seen for miles around. At Pine Grove enough are left to give a plausible reason for the name of the town. Practically, the timber is cut away for a dis- tance of thirty-five miles from the foot-hills, the little that is left within that distance being in inac- cessible places. The sawed lumber is only a small portion of the amount annually uscd. Hundreds of teams are hauling lagging and timbers for the under-
ground works which daily swallow up loads of each. The introduction of water as a motive power for driving the machinery saves a consumption of wood amounting to thousands of cords a year; but no sub- stitute can be found for the underground timbers. The Plymouth cluster of mines have used up nearly all the available lumber along the line of the ditch, and now have to rely on the supplies farther up in the mountains. The side-hills along the Cosumnes and Mokelumne, as well as Dry creek and Sutter creek, are now being denuded of everything that will burn, to be floated down in the high waters of Winter. Bryant and others put an immense amount of lumber, consisting of logs, cord-wood, cuts and bolts of sugar pine, into the Mokelumne, far up in the mountains, to be floated down and taken out near Woodbridge, for a match and sash factory. Thou- sands of cords, floating ont on the bottoms of the Mokelumne, or caught in the rocks of the canons above, were left to rot. In some instances heavy damages were collected of them for the piles of tim- ber left on the overflowed ranches.
Feeble efforts have been made by the United States inspectors to prevent the waste of timber, but our liberal land laws enable any one to make a claim on the land, strip off the timber and then abandon it, without much expense or trouble.
Benjamin Ross, of Volcano, a deputy United States Surveyor, thinks the lumber belt is hardly reached; that the portion already cut over, though thirty miles or more in width, is only the ragged edge of the true belt. Others have also expressed the same opinion; while others, whose opportunities for obser- vation are good, fecl much alarm over the destruc- tion that is going on. A thorough survey of each section will be required to set the matter at rest.
In all ages the destruction of the growing timber of a country has been considered a most disastrous proceeding. The old Greeks bestowed the most opprobrious epithet on those who would wantonly kill trees. Trees werc religiously preserved as nec -. essary to the regular fall of rain. Perhaps it was for this that the priest and oracles taught, that every tree was the abode of a spirit who would certainly avenge the destruction of its home. If any tree could make a fitting residence for a god, the sugar pine with its straight shaft, as beautiful as a Grecian column, a hundred feet high, without a limb or knot to mar its magnificent proportions, would be the one. Yet a shake-splitter will ruthlessly cut one of these monarchs down, use a few feet to make shakes, or, if it does not quite suit him, abandon it, and move on to another, which he will serve in like manner. Far in advance of the regular lumberman may be seen the shake-splitter selecting the best trees, which he will destroy to get means to purchase a bottle of whisky and sack of flour, or get enough to indulge in a day or two of debanchery in the nearest town.
The only estimate of the quantity of lumber remaining in the mountains, that the writer is aware
236
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
of, is that of Capt. J. C. Ham, who built the canal known by his name. His estimate is as follows :-
Common lumber ( feet) 1,200,000,000
Sugar pine
72,000,000
Cords of wood
800,000.000
Mining timbers (sticks).
2,000,000
He proposes to carry this all to San Francisco by means of a canal and railroad. It is likely that the general government would interfere if this project was undertaken.
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.