USA > California > History of California, Volume V > Part 15
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Chrome, or chromic iron ore, is not produced else- where in the United States, California having furnished the entire domestic product since 1880. Formerly, during the era of sailing vessels, considerable was shipped around Cape Horn to the eastern states, but the long railroad haul and resultant cost prevents any great extension of this industry at present. It is used for chemical and metallurgical purposes, and for furnace linings, making hard tool steel, etc.
Outside of California no magnesite is mined in the United States. The domestic output, in value a little over a hundred thousand dollars a year, is consumed on the Pacific coast as it cannot be shipped east and compete with the imported material from Greece and Austria. Most of the California product is used in the
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
manufacture of paper from wood pulp, although some is made into tiling, wainscoting, artificial marble, furnace hearths, fire-proof bricks, hard plaster, flooring, fire-proof building material, etc.
While platinum is found in other localities, California produces about ninety per cent of the domestic output annually. It is obtained mainly as a by-product in the gold dredging industry but some comes from the black sands of the ocean beaches and that from hydraulic and placer mining.
Quicksilver is another important mineral product in which California stands preeminent, the output annu- ally being from eighty to eighty-eight per cent of the entire United States. Of twenty producing mines in the country seventeen are in California. Indeed, until Texas began making a small output in 1899, followed later by Nevada, California supplied the entire product of the United States as far back as 1850. The average annual production of the state for sixty-three years has been valued at $1,465,708, and the total yield of this substance in the state since 1850 has been 2,124,732 flasks of 75 to 761/2 pounds each, valued in the aggregate at $92,275,695.
California is now the leading producer of petroleum among all the states, and yields from thirty-nine to forty per cent of the domestic product. The annual value is about $40,000,000. Pennsylvania and New York since 1859 have produced 736,205,000 barrels of forty-two gallons each, and California since 1876 has produced 542,888,881 barrels to the end of 1912. The California yield at present is from 86,000,000 to 90,000,000 barrels yearly and it is expected, if the
223
CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
proportion of the earlier months continues through the year, that the 1914 yield will exceed 100,000,000 barrels.
Vast quantities of natural gas have been allowed to escape in the state for many years, and have only been utilized in a few localities. But now active steps are being taken for its conservation and utilization at many points. Pipes have been laid to several cities of impor- tance from the wells, and more are being built. The value of that used at present is about a million dollars yearly.
Twenty-five out of the fifty-eight counties of the state contain known coal deposits, a few of which have been mined, but most of them undeveloped. Almost all carry an inferior quality of lignite or bituminous coal.
Deposits of iron ore of varying size and quality are known to exist in thirty-one counties, but the annual production is nominal and is confined to the county of Shasta at present where ores are being smelted by electricity.
California was the earliest of the western states to make any important output of copper, beginning in the "foothill belt" of Calaveras county in 1862, but it was not until the discoveries of large deposits of ore in Shasta county in 1897, that the mining of the metal became of much importance. Up to the close of 1912 the total yield of the state had been 518,487,000 pounds, and the annual output of late years has been from 35,000,000 to 57,000,000 pounds, valued at from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. The metal is very widely disseminated throughout the state but in only twelve counties is it being mined. The damages being done
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
by the fumes from the smelting furnaces in which the ore is treated, have been the cause of much litigation and the resultant closing down of several of the more important plants. The question has not yet been definitely settled for which reason the copper mining industry of the state is not as prosperous as it would otherwise be.
Silver mining, as a separate industry has not been carried on for several years but some 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 ounces annually are produced, mainly from crude smelting ores of copper and lead, although con- siderable is also obtained with the gold from quartz and placer mining.
Lead mining, owing to the decline in value of silver, is no longer of much importance in California, but within the past few years some of the reopened old mines have resumed production. The mining of zinc is a comparatively new industry in the state, but the annual yield at present is about 5,000,000 pounds, all from Inyo county.
Many varieties of gems are produced in California, some of them peculiar to the state as far as this country is concerned. There is no definite value, however, for these native gems, as the demand is largely from the tourist trade, and exceedingly irregular. The principal gems mined are tourmaline, kunzite, turquoise, beryl, and hyacinth.
The stone industry of the state is very important and includes limestone, marble, granite, sandstone, trap rock, paving blocks, etc., there being upward of one hundred and fifty active quarries. California now stands sixth in rank among the states in quarry output.
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
To prove conclusively that California will long continue to be a great mining state, it is only necessary to say that, after sixty-five years work of production and exploration, there are now fifty-six out of the fifty- eight counties producing ore or mineral substances, and some counties as many as nine, ten, eleven, and twelve different ores.
In compiling statistics of mineral production of any given region the value of the products is fixed upon the refined or partly refined metals and is, of course, some- what greater than the values of the ores from which they are obtained. The ores of precious or semi- precious metals, for example, are commonly complex mixtures of several metals and no quantities or values can be expressed until the contents are extracted in metallic form and become articles of commerce. For this reason the figures of mineral output of California for 1912 (the latest available complete statistics) are given under the respective headings of "raw" and "derived," according to the character of the substances named.
It is proper to note that a mining feature which will be of great importance to the agricultural industry of the United States has just commenced to be developed in California; that is the production of potash. The government has for some time been making deep bor- ings in some of the western states in the hope of finding this important substance in commercial quantities. Meantime private enterprise has been making a similar search, and it has been found in large quantities, together with other valuable salts, in the floor of an ancient lake just south of the boundary line between
226
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
MINERAL PRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA IN 1912 (U. S. Geological Survey)
RAW
DERIVED
PRODUCT
QUANTITY
VALUE
QUANTITY
VALUE
Asphalt, short tons
36,111 $
92,139
213,220 $ 2,094,264
Borax, short tons
42,315
1,127,813
Briquets, Fuel, short tons
(a) (b) 6,093,790
(a) (b) 8,215,894
Chromite, long tons.
201
2,753
Clay Products, short tons
102,520 (b) 10,978
139,919 23,601
33,451,672
5,519,526
Feldspar, short tons .
(a)
(a)
Fuller's Earth, short tons
(a)
(a)
Gems and Precious Stones.
953,639
45,330 19,713,478 219,317 (a)
Iron Ore, long tons
(a)
(a)
(a) (b)
(a) (b) 51,512 555,822
Magnesite, short tons.
10,512
105,120
Manganese Ore, long tons
(a)
(a)
Mineral Paints, Natural Pigments, short tons .
290
3,610
Mineral Waters, gallons sold.
2,089,95I
Natural Gas
Petroleums, barrels.
86,450,767
532,97I 1,134,456 39,213,588
603
19,899
Platinum, Fine, ounces (Troy) Pumice, short tons
(a)
(a)
Pyrite, long tons
61,812
201,453
Quartz, short tons
(a)
(a)
Quicksilver, flasks
20,524 1,064,286
863,034 609,396
Salt, barrels .
(a)
(a)
Sand and Gravel, short tons
2,189,432
518,516
Sand-Lime Brick
Silver, Fine, ounces (Troy)
1,300,136
33,860 799,584 c) 3,902,313
Sulphuric Acid (60° Baume), d, short tons.
(a)
(a)
Talc, short tons
1,169
15,653
Tungsten (60° Concentrates), short tons .
(a)
Zinc, short tons
2,173
(a) 299,846
Miscellaneous.
40,835
1,112,817
Total Value, eliminating duplications.
$92,837,374
a Value included under "Miscellaneous."
b Value not included in Total Value.
c Stone sold rough included in derived product.
5,912,450
Coal, short tons.
Copper, pounds .
Gold, Fine, ounces (Troy)
Gypsum, short tons.
47,741
Infusorial Earth
Iron, Pig, long tons
Lead, short tons
Lime, short tons.
572 72,978
Stone .
(c)
Cement, barrels .
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
Inyo and San Bernardino counties, California, in the "desert region." Other and smaller dried up lakes in the same section of country have been found to contain the same commercial salines to a lesser degree. The government has withdrawn large areas of these lands so they would not fall into private control but used for the benefit of the nation at large.
The main and largest known deposit, located a few years ago under the mining laws by private parties, is the Searles or Borax lake. The deposit is on and near the floor of this ancient lake, the shore lines of which are still visible for many miles along the mountain side above the bottom. The area of the bottom is about 40,000 acres, and this has been acquired by a company which has built a railroad twenty-six miles long from Searles station to the lake deposit where an experimental plant has been erected. An investment of some $3,000,000 is required for the complete refining plant before the commercial salts may be placed upon the market. The depth of the bed in the bottom of the lake is from seventy to ninety feet and some of the mate- rial is in brine and some in solid form. From the numerous borings and chemical tests which have been made by the owners, it is estimated that this old lake bottom contains over 100,000,000 tons of sodium car- bonate; 42,000,000 tons of sodium bi-carbonate; sodium biborate to the extent of 30,000,000 tons of commercial borax; and nearly 24,000,000 tons of potassium chloride. The quantity of common salt is almost incalculable. A plant for the manufacture of soda and soda ash has been built for some time, and efforts are now in the direction of the potash plant. At the present rate of
228
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
expected to be enough in this single deposit to last many years thus freeing the country from the necessity of importing this substance from Germany as is at present the case.
Char G. Yale.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY IN CALIFORNIA
A STRONOMICAL history in California may be said to have begun with the arrival of George Davidson,* Assistant in the United States Coast Survey, in the summer of 1850,t to conduct the astronomical and magnetic departments of the Government's survey of the Pacific coast line. Davidson's first observing station was at Point Con- ception. Besides determining the latitude and longi- tude, and the variation and dip of the magnetic needle, he reported upon the best location for the proposed lighthouse at this most prominent and dangerous point on our western coast. During the first four years, other stations were occupied, successively, at Monterey, San Diego, Cape Disappointment (at the mouth of the Columbia River), Port Orford, Neah Bay (entrance to Puget's Sound), San Francisco (Presidio), and at approximately twenty minor points. Longitudes of the principal stations were determined from observed positions of the Moon with reference to surrounding stars (Moon culminations) and from the observed times of star occultations by the Moon, and the relative longitudes of minor stations were derived by means of transported chronometers.
A mass of information-astronomical, magnetic, topographic, hydrographic and general-collected by the various parties in the Coast Survey service, was
*Davidson was accompanied by Assistants John Rockwell and James S. Lawson. Assistant R. D. Cutts, in charge of the triangulation and topographic services, came to California in the fall of 1850. Rockwell, Lawson and Cutts took prominent parts in the survey of the coast for many years.
*A preliminary survey, chiefly hydrographic, extending from Monterey to the Columbia River, was made slightly earlier by Lieutenant William P. McArthur, U. S. Navy, Assistant in the Coast Survey. Through devotion to duty on this survey, McArthur's health was impaired, and he died on December 22, 1850.
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
systematized and edited by Davidson in 1855, and pub- lished as a descriptive report of the West Coast, from Rosario Strait, Washington Territory, to the southern boundary of California, for the guidance of mariners.
The partial solar eclipse of May 26, 1854, was observed, with small telescopes, by Assistant Davidson at his Humboldt Bay station, by Assistant Cutts on Black Mountain (Loma Prieta), Santa Clara county, and by Professor James Nooney, Jr., at Benicia. The partial solar eclipse of March 25, 1857, was observed by Davidson in San Francisco.
The completion of a telegraph line to San Francisco, in connection with the Pacific railways, enabled the Pacific longitudes to be put upon a modern basis. From a temporary observatory set up in Washington Square, San Francisco, Davidson interchanged time signals with Harvard College Observatory on twelve nights between February 15th and April 4, 1869.
Expeditions conducted by Professor Davidson observed the total solar eclipses of August 7, 1869, at Kohklux, Alaska, and of January II, 1880, on the summit of Santa Lucia mountain, California. The latter eclipse was also observed, at the same place, by Professor Frisbie of the U. S. Naval Observatory.
Acting under appointment from the general Govern- ment, Professor Davidson conducted expeditions to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun in Japan on December 8, 1874, and in New Mexico on December 6, 1882. Clouds vitiated the plans in Japan, but the 1882 transit was successfully observed by Davidson's party at Cerro Roblero, New Mexico, and likewise by some of Davidson's assistants at his observatory in San Francisco.
.
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ASTRONOMY IN CALIFORNIA
The transit of Mercury across the Sun was observed at Summit, in the Sierra Nevada, on May 6, 1878, by Assistant Colonna of the United States Coast Survey, and the transit of November 7, 1881, was observed by Professor Davidson's party at Yolo Base, Sacramento valley.
In the year 1860 George Madeira erected the first astronomical observatory in California, at Volcano, Amador county. The refracting telescope, of three inches aperture, was supplied with equatorial mounting and delicate clock-work motion. Madeira has recorded his discovery of the brilliant Comet 1861 II, in the late afternoon of June 30, 1861, only a few hours following its discovery in Europe.
It is a remarkable fact that the first research observatory planned for California, and indeed for the western half of the United States, was on a relatively large scale. James Lick's first deed of trust, dated July 16, 1874, appointed the following trustees:
Thomas H. Selby, George H. Howard,
D. O. Mills, James Otis,
Henry M. Newhall, John O. Earl,
William Alvord.
The terms of the deed directed the trustees " * to expend the sum of seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) for the purpose of constructing and putting upon the land * * * the said lands being situated on the borders of Lake Tahoe, County of Placer, State of California-a powerful telescope, superior to and more powerful than any telescope ever yet made, with all the machinery appertaining thereto and appro- priately connected therewith, or that is necessary and
234
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
convenient to the most powerful telescope now in use, or suited to one more powerful than any yet con- structed, and also a suitable observatory connected therewith.
" Provided, however, if the site above designated shall not, after investigation, be deemed by said Trustees, or a majority of them, to be a proper and suitable one on which to erect and maintain such telescope, then such Trustees, or a majority of them, shall elect a site on which to erect such telescope, but the same must be located within the state of California."
It was further directed that any unexpended balance of the gift should be invested and that the trustees should "devote the income thereof to the maintenance of said telescope and the observatory connected there- with, and make the same useful in promoting science."
The question, "What induced Mr. Lick to provide for a great telescope?" has never been satisfactorily answered; but there is no reason to doubt that he came to this determination without conscious suggestion from others. Early in 1873, he told Professor Davidson of his intention, and from that time until the summer of 1874, Davidson was his principal adviser on the subject. As Davidson has published, "James Lick originally in- tended to erect the observatory at Fourth and Market streets," San Francisco. He gained Lick's promise (not fulfilled) to make the bequest $1,200,000, to reduce the proposed diameter of the great refracting telescope from the impracticable one of seventy-two inches down to forty inches, and to locate the observatory at an altitude of 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. Later, when Lick decided to locate in the low altitude of the
235
ASTRONOMY IN CALIFORNIA
Coast range, Davidson "declined further conference with him." There can be no doubt that Davidson's advice was invaluable in giving a practical turn, at times when greatly needed, to Lick's plans; without it, the telescope might have been located at sea-level in the middle of the business district of San Francisco, or the entire proposal might have been wrecked on the rocks of impracticability; but on the score of altitude and other conditions affecting the location, the con- census of opinion amongst those who have used great telescopes and are experienced in the work of great observatories is to the effect that Lick's choice of a medium altitude was wise.
The trustees acted promptly in search of reliable information to guide them in securing a telescope "larger and more powerful than any yet made." Mr. D. O. Mills, president of the board, consulted with many astronomers in the Atlantic coast states in the summer of 1874. Professor Simon Newcomb was em- ployed to visit European makers of telescopes and telescope glass, and his report on these subjects is dated March 4, 1875. Mr. Lick contracted a personal dislike for one member of the board and demanded his resignation. The other members considered this as unjust, and a menace to their usefulness, and the entire board resigned. In several ways this was a misfortune. To mention one way: Mr. D. O. Mills has told me that this first board recognized the insufficiency of Lick's gift, and that individual members of the board had definite- ly agreed amongst themselves to increase Lick's bequest, after his death should have occurred, by more than $2,000,000, principally to provide an endowment fund.
236
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Lick's second deed of trust, dated September 21, 1875, appointed another board of trustees, and provided that the observatory, when completed, should be con- veyed to the regents of the University of California and be known as the Lick Astronomical Department of the University of California.
A third Board of Trustees, consisting of: Richard S. Floyd, President, William Sherman, Vice-President (died September 12, 1884), Edwin B. Mastick, Treasurer, Charles M. Plum, George Schoenwald,
was appointed by Mr. Lick on September 2, 1876. Lick died on October 1, 1876. The third board built the observatory, with Mr. Thomas E. Fraser, Mr. Lick's confidential business man, as superintendent of con- struction. In the summer of 1875 Mr. Fraser examined Mount St. Helena, Mount Diablo, Loma Prieta, and Mount Hamilton* with reference to their fitness for observatory sites. In September, 1875, Lick proposed to the officials of Santa Clara county to construct his observatory on Mount Hamilton (altitude 4,209 feet), provided the county would build a first class road to the summit. The officials acted promptly, and a splendid road was completed in December, 1876, at a cost of $78,000. Legal complications following Mr. Lick's death were not settled until 1879, and active construction began in that year.
*Named for Reverend Laurentine Hamilton, of Oakland.
237
ASTRONOMY IN CALIFORNIA
Land for the observatory site was obtained by grant of Congress (1,946 acres), by California Patent (51I acres), by gift of R. F. Morrow (40 acres), and by purchase (405 acres); total 2,902 acres.
Professor S. W. Burnham was invited to test the atmospheric conditions existing at Mount Hamilton by means of observations of double stars. This he did in the period August 17th to October 16, 1879. He con- cluded that, "so far as one may judge from the time during which these observations were made, there can be no doubt that Mount Hamilton offers advantages superior to those found at any point where a permanent observatory has been established. The remarkable steadiness of the air, the continued succession of nights of almost perfect definition, are conditions not to be hoped for in any place with which I am acquainted, and, judging from the published reports of the various observatories, are not to be met with elsewhere .* So far as there have been opportunities for judging, it is obviously an appropriate place for erecting and main- taining the telescope to be constructed under the Lick deed of trust, and required to be 'superior to and more powerful than any telescope ever yet made.'"
In 1879 Captain Floyd and Mr. Fraser consulted extensively, in Washington, with Professor Simon Newcomb and Professor Edward S. Holden, and the general plans then formed for the observatory were followed in all essential respects. These astronomers were, in fact, the scientific advisers to the three boards of trustees through their terms of office. In 1885 Professor Holden was appointed President of the University of California and director of the Lick
238
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Observatory, on the understanding that he would fill the former office until the completion of the observatory and thereafter the latter office. The construction was finished in 1888, at a total expense of $610,000. A balance of $90,000 remained, in effect the nucleus of an endowment fund. The regents of the University of California assumed control on June 1, 1888, and the scientific staff entered upon its duties on that date.
The principal equipment provided by the Lick Trustees consisted of:
A 36-inch equatorial refractor, objective by Alvan Clark & Sons, mounting by Warner & Swasey. This in- strument has also a photographic correcting lens of thir- ty-three inches aperture, figured by Mr. Alvan G. Clark. By placing the latter lens in front of the 36-inch objec- tive, the telescope becomes a photographic instrument.
A 12-inch equatorial refactor, objective and mount- ing by Alvan Clark & Sons.
A 61/2-inch meridian circle instrument, objective by Alvan Clark & Sons, mounting by Repsold.
Many smaller telescopes and other pieces of auxiliary apparatus.
Other important instruments were presented to the Lick Observatory in later years, as follows:
A 3674-inch reflecting telescope, presented to the Lick Observatory in 1895 by Edward Crossley, Esq., of Halifax, England. The mirror was constructed by Sir Howard Grubb, and mounting by Dr. A. A. Common. The cost of a building to receive this instrument and the expense of transporting the instrument and iron dome from England were met by subscriptions from prominent citizens of California.
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ASTRONOMY IN CALIFORNIA
A 61/2-inch comet seeker, objective by John A. Brashear, the gift of Miss Catharine Bruce.
A 6-inch photographic telescope, with objective by Willard and mounting by John A. Brashear, all the gift of Regent Charles F. Crocker.
A 5-inch telescope, with interchangeable photo- graphic and visual objective, by Alvan Clark & Sons, the gift of Miss Floyd, daughter of Captain Floyd.
The Mills 3-prism spectrograph, the gift of Mr. D. O. Mills.
Delicate seismographs, the gift of Mr. William Randolph Hearst.
In order that the program of determining the radial velocities of the brighter stars might be extended over the entire sky, Mr. D. O. Mills provided funds in the year 1900 for a well equipped expedition to the south- ern hemisphere. The equipment included a 361/2-inch 3-prism spectograph; a 2-prism spectrograph; a I-prism spectrograph; an instrument shop; and other acessories. The D. O. Mills Observatory, administered by the Director of the Lick Observatory, is located on the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal, at an altitude of about 2,900 feet above sea level, in the northeasterly suburbs of Santiago, Chile. This important observatory was supported by Mr. Mills until his lamented death in 1910, and the support has been continued by his son, Mr. Ogden Mills.
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