USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, etc., from original drawings, including biographical sketches > Part 32
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147
PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY OF THE COUNTY.
RAPID INCREASE IN PROSPERITY.
Realand Personal Property, Rates of Taxation, Progress of the County, Increase in Population, Etc.
YEAR by year the Assessor's reports show a marked increase in the assessed valuation of all property. Nor is this to he wondered at, when we mark the strides made by mechanical invention in perfecting the tools with which the farmer works. But thirty years have elapsed since the Mexican fastened the crooked brauch of a tree to the horns of his ox by thougs, and therewith lightly seratehed the hosom of Mother Earth ; then laboriously dropped the seed, one hy one, in the tiny furrows he had made. See illustrations of these tools on page 31.
Now, behold the mighty gang-plows, yoked to a score of snorting steeds, cutting a hroad swath of brown mold across the green prairie, from horizon to horizon. Next the automatic seeder scatters the germs by millions ; and where onee was scen but the Mexican's tiny acre of scanty stalks, now waves a billowy ocean of yellow grain, far as the eye can reach. Not the slow sickle, or puny scythe must reap this harvest. The swift headers come, with waving wings and rattling blades rejecting the treasured straw of the Eastern farmer, and daintily choosing only the golden heads. And last-no wooden flail with feeble beat, nor old-time fanning-mill, but the mighty steam separator, devouring heads by millions, and making immediate return in hundreds of tons of clean, hright grain.
Note also the wonderful inercase of schools, churches and all those institutions calculated to elevate and benefit mankind.
The same relative increase in all productions is shown hy export returns, and the largely increased amount of taxable property within the county limits, and there can be little doubt that the next decade will double the population, if not trehle it. Its population is as good as any State in the Union can pro- duce. Humboldt is the place of the poor and the rich. It invites honest, industrious and intelligent citizens from other States to come and make homes within its limits.
TOTAL VALUATION FROM 1854 TO 1882.
No one thing will more clearly show the rapid and suhstan- tial progress of Humboldt County from its organization to the preseut time than the increase in total valuation of property The following statement, prepared for this history by County. Assessor, Geo. H. Shaw, shows the value and increase of rea- estate and personal property in the county from its organiza- tion down to the present date, as also the rate of taxation. A large amount of land is unoccupied or untaxed, as may he seen in the table of " Comparative Sizes of Counties," on page 76 :
INCREASE OF TWENTY YEARS.
Date
Kind of Property.
Total Valuat'n
Tax Rato
1853-54
Real Fatate and Improvements .....
$192.783
$552,560
$1.10
Personal Property.
382,175
832,831
1.50
1855-56
612,355
1856-57
$25,000
1.70
1850-60
1860-61
Real Estate.
207, 618:
1,309, S01
1.57
1862-63
Real Estate.
257,540
Improvements.
296,674
Personal Property.
781,741
1,366,361
.95
1863-04
Real Estate
263,290
Improvements.
578,680
1,129,265
22.37
1864-65
Real Estate.
266,020
Personal
558,270
1,102,205
2.20
1865-66
Real Estate.
279,105
Improvements
732,128
1,383,594
2.10
Personal.
419,130
1866-67
Real Estate
332,270
l'ersonal
953,658
1,705,058
2.46
18G7-68
Real Estate.
354,280
Improvements
899,315
1,661,540
2.46
Personal
Real Estate
368,380
Personal
872,427
1,691,757
2.33
1869-70
Real Estate.
425,545
Improvements
1,0GG,055
2,071,690
2.33
Personal.
Real Estate.
456,170
Personal.
1,103,120
2,284,540
2.50
1871-72
Real Estate.
499,450
Personal.
1,248,486
2,532,911
2.48
1872-73
Real Estate.
782,260
Improvements
2,218,57G
4,803,707
1.97
Personal.
1,741.802
1873-74
Real Estate
756,231
Personal.
1,346,007
3,844, 100
1.90
1874-75
Real Estate.
758,475
Improvements
1,950,718
4,418,197
2.17
Personnl
1.885,058
1875-76
Real Estate.
859,770
Personal
2,149,482
4,894,310
2.20
1878-77
Real Estate.
1,017,915
Improvements
1,695,983
4,961,857
2.30
Personal
2,379,998
1877-78
Real Estate
1,144,6GO
Improvements
1,594,099
5,118,757
2.25
Personal.
2,700,825
1878-79
Real Estate.
1,175,170
Improvements
1,605,551
5,481,548
2.25
Personal
2,898,931
1879-80
Real Estate
1,196,630
Improvements
1,514,171
5,407,732
2.25
Personal ..
3,497,564
ISSO-SI |Real Estate.
1,226,499
Improvements
1,80,09S
8,804,181
2.00
Personal.
3,284,779
1881-S2
Real Estate.
1,233,051
Improvements
Personal
1,721,822
8,239,452
2.00
1854-55
467.161
1.60
1857-58
1,068,908
1.10
293,973
Improvements
717.210
Personal Property.
285,205
Personal Property
277,075
Improvements
372,381
407,905
450,050
1808-69
Improvements
580,090
645,250
1870-71
Improvements
786,975
Improvements
1,802,871
Improvements
1,707,004
Improvements
2,247,759
Improvements
148
STEADY INCREASE OF WEALTH AND PROSPERITY.
ASSESSMENT ROLL OF 1853-4.
The following interesting article on the assessment of 1853-4 is taken frora the Times. It was the first assessment made in the county.
A little blank hook not much more than six inches square and half an inch thick, on file in the office of the County Clerk, contains the duplicate assessinent roll of Humboldt County for the fiscal year 1853-54, The County Assessor at that time was D. D. Williams. He received $10 per day and was em- ployed hut little over two months in inaking the assessment. The assessment was under the direction of the Court of Sessions, at that time performing functions similar to those now vested in the Board of Supervisors.
The late Judge J. E. Wyman was presiding Judge of the Court at that time. Lewis K. Wood was Clerk of the Court and ox-officio Auditor.
The total assessment roll was $582,560, ahout one-tenth of present assessment. The largest tax-payer was the Eureka Mill Company, whose property was valued at $110,000. Bowles, Bowles & Codington were licavy merchants of Uniontown, and built the store now occupied hy A. Brizard. Their assessment was $8,150, Mr. Bowles hecame a large property owner, and a plateau near Areata is called Bowles' Prairie to the present tinie. C. S. Rieks & Co. were estimated by Assessor Williams to he worth $6,700, and were assessed accordingly. Roskill & Co. were a heavy firm at that time, being assessed for $15,000.
William Roberts was considered one of the rich men, his property heing valued at $7,400. John A. Kneeland, from whom Kneeland's Prairie was named, owned property valued at $5,050.
Wiley, Mills & Co. were proprietors of the American Hotel, Uniontown, which was assessed for $1,600. Mr. Wiley lias continued a citizen of the same town ever sinee, and in 1881 condueted the weekly newspaper at Arcata.
Among those who are at present blessed with large shares of this world's goods a few were here twenty years ago and were not in as affluent circumstances as at the present time.
Joseph Russ kept a butcher shop in partnership with Mr. Adams, The firm was assessed at $1,000.
The firm of John Vance & Co. was assessed at $1,600. Jonathan Clark's belongings were valued at $3,100.
It is amusiug to compare this little note-book with the three large-sized volumes necessary for the enrollments of the assess- ments of 1880-81, and interesting to note hy a glance at the pages of each how some have heen favored, and from small beginnings have become proprietors of great landed tracts or owners of saw-mills, sawing logs into money for them. A great many whose names are on the little hook have crossed the last river to the land where in the great book the good and evil actions of each one in this world is assessed at the proper valuation.
POPULATION AND INCREASE.
In 1852 the population of Trinity County, hefore Humboldt was taken off, was 1,764.
Klamath, hefore Del Norte was formed from it, 530.
In 1860 Klamath was 1,803, Del Norto 2,022, Humboldt 2,694.
In 1870 Klamath was 1,686, Del Norte 2,022, Humboldt 6,140.
In 1880 Del Norte 2,499. Increase in ten years, 628. Hum- holdt 15,515, an inercase of 9,375. But it must he horne in mind that part of this large inercase came from the territory of Klamath, annexed during the time.
The county has steadily advanced in wealth and prosperity, and will compare favorably with any of the rural counties in the State.
FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTY.
It will be seen from tho following statement, prepared for us hy the County Treasurer, L. T. Kinsey, that the funds of the county are in sound condition and the Treasurer's office ahly managed.
The receipts for the year ending December 1,
1881, were $246,183.13
Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1880. 28,946.45
Total receipts $275,129.58
Total disbursements for year 1881. $249,599.87
Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1881 $25,529.71
COUNTY DEBTS.
The honded debt of Humboldt County is given at $125,000, hearing nine per cent. interest, whieli amounts to $11,250, payable annually. The bonds are known as wagon road bonds, and were issued under Acts of February 28, 1874, and Feh- ruary 12, and March 28, 1876, in the following amounts :-- Wagon road honds 1875. $60,000
1876. 45,000
= 1877 10,000
4 1
1878. 10,000
These honds run for twenty years, hut ten years from date the Supervisors begin to provide for their redemption hy levy- ing a tax of five per cent. of the whole amount of the bonds, increasing the levy for this purpose with each year until the bonds shall be canceled. When such tax shall be collected the honds may be called and interest stopped. The honds of 1875 were taken at $97.50 on the $100; and those issued under the act of 1876 hrought all the way from par to $105.74, heing issued in parcels. Besides these bonds there is a floating debt of $7,245.16, making the total deht of Humboldt County $132,245.16, less $2,996.30 available for payment of the deht. This leaves a debt of $29,248.86 to he provided for in the next sixteen years.
.
CITY RESIDENCE OF J. HETHERIMOTON. BOREKA, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.
HOME RESIDENCE OF CHAS. S.COOK.2 MILES FROM PETROLIA,ON STAGEROAD.HUMBOLDT CO.CAL.
rice client
RESIDENCE OF MRS. L.A.FREESE, EUREKA.HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.
-
RES.OF N.BULLOCK,COR.OF H &3.º STREETS, EUREKA, HUMBOLOT CO.CAL.
149
THE KLAMATH AND TRINITY GOLD MINES.
MINING IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY.
Early Mining Scenes-Klamath and Trinity Mines-Gold Placers of Humboldt- The Gold Bluffs-Beach Mining, Etc.
Few of the rarly residents of the county can have forgotten the " gold bluff" excitement of 1852, when, by all accounts, old ocean himself turned miner and washed up cart-loads of gold on the beach above Trinidad. It was represented and generally believed that any enterprising man conkl take his hat and a wheelbarrow and in half an hour gather up goll enough to last him for life! But as shown in previous articles, this excitement led to the carly settlement of the county.
Placer mining is followed with some degree of auccess on the Klumath and Trinity Rivers, but gold digging is of nomi- nal importance in comparison with agriculture.
The Klamath River country north of the redwoods is the least accessible part of the county. It is more uiountainons annual contains the only parts of the county which are rocky. The only mining in the county is here, and has been carried on sinco tho early days of the gold excitement.
Quartz mining is now chiefly occupying attention, and valu- able mines have recently been discovered. Hydraulic mining has been carried on to some extent; there are twenty-three miles of running ditches, and, during 1880, 3,790 inches of water were used daily. This hydraulic mining meets with no such embarrassments as meet the industry in the Sierra Ne- vada. There are no bottom-land farms upon the Klamath to be destroyed, so it has free scope for its operations.
A " bench " claim at Big Bar, eight miles below Orleans, has been worked successfully by the the hydraulic process for some five years. This latter process, Judge J P. Haynes says is revolutionizing the old Klamath mining region. Pros- pecting has been directed more recently towards the high hars and beuches on the Klamath, which the Judge says he believes to bo ono of the best mining regions in the State, and one, moreover, which has hardly been scratched for mining pur- poses. The mining properties are mostly owned by private parties who are content to pocket their own dividend. Their shares in the bank or the bar is not gazetted in the market.
A SPLENDID MINING DISTRICT.
Orleans Bar, upon the Klamath, is known to many old miuers. The gold belt, which runs transversely through the Western United States from Colorado, seems to terminate here at the coast. Placer ruining has taken a new start, and a large amount of capital is being invested in new mining enterprises. There is little or no speculation in engaging in that industry, for, with capital and good judgment and a strict adherence to business principles, the returns are as sure as any other legiti- mate enterprise.
Mr. T. M. Brown, Sheriff of Humboldt County, has at Or- leans Bar a claim consisting of 405 acres, the bank of which is not more than from forty to eighty feet deep, with a bell of pay flirt, from ten to thirty feet deep. This is considered one of the richest claims in the State; at present there is a small ditch of some five miles iu length, and only about eighty feet pres- sure. The water is conducted through an eight-inch pipe. In this primitive way the claim pays from $8 to $10 per day to the man.
The beauty of this property is that the " slickens," which is sneh a serious question in some other portions of California, cannot injure any one, as there are no farming lands to destroy between here and the ocean. With au outlay of say $25,000 Camp Creek, which is quite a stream, can be turned outo this property, which has a pressure of from 150 to 200 feet. Judg- ing from a report we saw recently, made by a miuing expert this must be an excellent property.
Gold has been found iu all parts of the county. Lately ou Dobyn's Creek fine specimens of gold quartz were found indi- cating that somewhere on the streams or in those mountains there is gold to be found. This creek and some other stnall streams have in their beds small bits of quartz and gold-bear- ing sand, and we learned that the colors had been found in many places and some gold but not in paying quantities, The best paying mines of the Trinity Section now being worked are at Scott's Bar. The largest piece of gold found on Scott River weighed 187 ounces, and was worth $18.74 per ounce, or $3,504.38. It was in the shape of a fish, seven inches long, and was found by Jaines Lindsay and T. L. Wade, January 27, 1855, while running a ent into Whiting Hill.
THE STARVATION TIMES.
The starvation times on Salmon River forms quite an inter- esting chapter in the history of this region. So great was the fear of wintering in this comparatively unknown region, that probably not half a hundred men were to be found on the stream in December of 1850.
These bad all provided themselves with an ample supply of provisions, and passed the winter very comfortably. As soon as it was supposed that the worst part of the winter had passed, miners began to flock in from Trinity River, Trinidad and Humboldt, and some came up Sacramento River and over through Scott Valley. This was in the latter part of Jannary and during the month of February, 1851. Many of these, especially those from Trinidad and Humboldt, came unprovided with supplies, expecting to find them on the river, and knowing that there were pack-trains at those points pre- paring to bring in provisions. The result was that, although a few small trains arrived with supplies, the provisions were soon eaten up and there was a crowd of several tbonsand men withont anything to eat.
At this juncture, early in the month of March, a terrific
160
THE GOLD BLUFFS AND BEACH MINING.
snow-storm set in and so completely blockaded the mountain trails that it was impossible for pack-trains to pass through to their relief. Men lived on mule meat, nu sugar, and sometimes on nothing at all. Those who took their rifles and went huut- ing met with poor success. One man killed two grouse and was offered eight dollars each for them and he declined the trade. The extremity to which some of them were reduced was very great, and for nearly a month not a pound of food came to their relief. Finally packers got as far as Orleans Bar, and men who bad made a trail through the snow took small packs on their shoulders and carried them over the mountains to their starving friends. It was nearly the last of April before a train of mules made its way clear through to Salmon, and found a most hearty welcome. Hundreds of the miners who had heen snowed in had made their way over the mountains, some to Orleans Bar, some to Trinity, and others to Scott Bar and the newly discovered mines at Yreka Flats, suffering terribly on the way, and at last reaching these places in a starving condition.
GOLD PLACERS OF HUMBOLDT.
There are thousands of millions of dollars in gold-dust lying waste along the ocean beach of Humboldt County. From Tablo Bluff to the Klamath River, a distance of sixty miles, is an almost unbroken gold-bearing sand beach, exclusive of Gold Bluff beach mining claims. This deposit has accumulated from the crumbling debris of the gravel banks that cave upon the beach and from the discharge of the Klamath River. The pro- cess is going on continually, and there is not a panful of sand along this whole distanec but what will show the color, and in many places, where the action of the water has been just right. it is yellow with gold in streaks. There are more than a thousand acres of this gold-bearing sand between Table Bluff and Klam- ath River, unclaimed by any one, in fact is outside of the U. S. Survey. It contains from fifty cents upwards to as bigh as $100 to the ton.
THE GOLD BLUFFS.
John Chapmau, Esq., is one of the fortunate owners and suc- cessful operators in the region of the Gold Bluff mines. A good idea of these mines may be formed from the illustration he has had made and iuserted in this work.
Gold Blutf's are situated on the beach twenty-three miles north of Trinidad and nine miles south of the mouth of Klam- ath River. In the early days of the wild gold excitement of California, Gold Bluffs was one of the notoriously ricb placers. To-day it holds a quiet reputation as a steady paying property that nothing seems to affcet. The amount of treasure that has becu taken from the two claims runs into the millions, and still the deposit is no more exhausted than ou the day it was dis- covered by the pioneer, E. Dn Bertrand, of Trinidad.
The gold-bearing gravel bluff's extend about eight miles on tbe beach, aud iu many places they are a perpendicular wall of un-
broken gravel tliree and four hundred feet high. Every winter, after the parching heat of summer has cracked tbe earth, the soaking rains of winter cause huge slabs of earth and gravel to cave and split off the perpendicular face of the hluff, millions of tous, falling upon the beach. At high tide the surf washes to the base of the cliff, which is subjected to incalcu- lable washing and swashing during the heavy storms. The cakes of gravel become dissolved and are ground to pieces and carried about by the action of the water.
BEACH MINING UNSUCCESSFUL.
From time to time efforts have been made and considerable money invested in the attempt to save and secure the fine gold that is to be found in large quantities along the heacb from Little River to Crescent City. The gold is very fine, a mere scale, and to separate it from the sand is just what has baffled the skill of all inventors, Many machines have been invented, which, it was claimed, would accomplish tbe desired result, but on a trial on the beach, each in their turn have proved failures. The last to try tbe experiment were W. W. Stow, Jr., Cap- tain Harford, and others, and the machine used was Professor Plant's Gold Separator. After a good deal of prospecting and experimenting the field was abandoned. Tbe heacb for many miles is covered with layers of black sand in which the fine gold is found, and although tbe greater portion is taken up, it . could be obtained doubtless for a very small figure, and one which would pay a company largely if the machine could per- form tbe required work.
The parties who bave been working the beach mine below Crescent City, known as the Lockhart Mine, bave suspended operations, for the reason that they could not make it pay. In years past there has been a great amount of gold taken ont in the vicinity of this claim, but there was always a difficulty in getting machinery that would save it, and in some instances almost as good prospects could be obtained from the tailings as from the sand that bad been worked,
Tbe effect has usually been that southerly storms cast up great banks of sand, the gravel, mostly, finding some other place of deposit; while the heavy northerly winds which usually prevail at intervals during the summer, act upon this sand- beacb like an immense gold pan in the hands of a skillful miner, washing off the gray sand, leaving the black sand containing the gold upon the beach. The weather and wind are carefully watched by the owners of these beacbes, and when the gray sand begins to go out, that is the signal for active operations. Tbe pack mules are driven up from the range, the men are re-engaged, and the sand is scraped togetber upon the beach as fast as it appears and packed up to the washing box and dumpel in piles, to be washed out at leisure. The eight miles of gravel bluffs is at present owned by Jobn Chapman and one other company, and it may be truthfully said that either one is a princely fortune.
151
MANY OTHER VALUABLE METALS DISCOVERED.
THEORY OF THE FORMATION.
This deposit has given rise to many theories, hut nearly overy one holds the idea that at some remote period the Klam- ath River discharged its waters into the ocean at this point, and with inuch apparent plausibility. Another thicory is that it is the former bed of the Trinity, and that the Klamath and Trin- ity at one time had separate and distinet channels, at least as far as the present coast-line. A few miles north of the pres- ent mouth of the Klamath is a distinctly markedl line of gravel which bears as strong evidence of having been a former river bed as does the Gold Bluff' scetion, and which extends inland and northward toward the Klamath Lakes, the source of the Klamath River. This is said to be the former bed of the Klamath, separate and distinct from the Trinity, and that the lutter river found its way into the ocean at Gold Bluff. This old gravel bed has been a matter of speculation among practi- cal miners for many years. It is distinctly marked and well defined for thirty-fivo or forty miles inland from the coast, to where it intersects the present chaunel of the Trinity River a few miles above its junction with the Klamath. A prelimin- ary survey was once made which proves that the waters of the Trinity River cau be brought on to the whole line of this gravol fiold. The millions of dollars that have been gathered from the sand beach at Gold Bluff's, which was first washed by tho surf from the crumbling debris of the cliff's withont any perceptible diminution of the Bluffs, gives but a faint idea of tho immensity and value of this vast gohl deposit-from two to oight miles wide, and thirty-five to forty in length. The country produces everything immediately at hand needful wherewithi to dovelop this fiold.
THE OSSAGON,
This is tho name of the placer that was opened on the upper or northeru edgo of the Klamath gravel bed on the coast, and adjoining the Upper Gold Bluff elaim. It is nine miles south oľ' tho Klamath River. The name is a corruption of the In- dian desiguation, which is articulated by the Klamatb Indians, "Oshı-she-gan." The mine is owned by a stock company kuown as the "Eureka Gold Mining Company," and all the stock is owned in Eureka. A dam was built and water brought on from a small creek bearing the name of the mine. The dam and other works were throwu up hastily as is too frequently the case in such euterprises, and the company was calculating upou a rich returu from a trifling outlay. But the winter rains came, washed out their dam, it having been made of soil with nothing to stay it, aud otherwise destroyed the improvements such as they were.
The works were reconstructed and a strong dam built, 250 feet in length, thirteen feet high, and had a holding ca- pacity of 80,000,000 cubic feet. The ditchi was balf a muile in length, and at the pressure box bad 150 feet elevation. The sluice was composed of sixty boxes, twelve feet loug, tbree feet
widle, and six blocks or ripples, to the box. There were sixty boxes, each twelve feet long, composing the sluice, and six blocks in each box; multiplying sixty by six gives 360 of these luge blacks.
This Ossagon Creek is but one of inany that are available on and near the Klamath gravel bed, and timber is to be had on every hand. The many attempts that have been made to work over the gray sand lying along the beach have proved as many failures. The action of the surf grinds the gold so tiue that no machine has yet been invented which succeeds in sav- ing it. But in uo case have efforts to work the gravel frour the iuland feld, failed to meet with good snecess. It is river gravel, and the gold coarser, and this difference is muore noticeable as the distance from the coast increases.
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