USA > California > Napa County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 19
USA > California > Lake County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 19
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" The improvements consist of one furnace of the Knox & Osborn patent, capable of reducing six hundred tons of ore a month, costing with fixtures some $30,000; * * * one twenty-five horse-power boiler set in stone masonry, with a Blake pump for feeding; one twelve horse-power hoisting engine at the top of the shaft at main tunnel ; one No. 8 steam-
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Mines and Mining.
pump at shaft, capable of throwing thirty thousand gallons of water in an hour; also No. 6 steam-pump in shop to use in sinking air shaft; one twelve horse-power engine, set in brick masonry, for driving blower and soot fan at the furnace. There are some thirty buildings which give the place the appearance of quite a town."
The mine was worked until 1878 with good success, when the price of quicksilver got so low that it was decided to suspend work for awhile. There is said to be a fine body of ore there yet, and it is considered to be a very valuable piece of property. The machinery is now rusting and the buildings going to rack, and altogether the place presents a very dilapi- dated appearance. Unfortunately we have no means of knowing the total yield of the mine, but know that it continued as good as it began.
Redington Quicksilver Mine .- This was originally known as the X. L. C. R. Mining Company, and is located in Sulphur Cañon, north of Berryessa Valley. The certificate of incorporation was filed December 16, 1861, and the capital stock amounted to $420,000, divided in four hundred and twenty shares of $1000 each. The original trustees were George N. Cornwell, R. T. Montgomery and George E. Goodman. The locators of the mine were George N .. Cornwell, R. T. Montgomery, A. Y. Easterby, James Lefferts, P. Hunsinger, John B. Phippin, Seth Dunham, Isaac Day, W. H. H. Holderman, Francis A. Sage, W. W. Stillwagon, George E. Goodman, M. G. Ritchie, L. D. Jones and J. S. Stark. This company leased their mine in 1862 to Messrs. Knox & Osborn, the inventors of the well and favorably known furnace which bears their name. These gentlemen worked the mine for a year or two, and found it to be one of the richest on the Pacific Coast, second only to the New Almaden. Most of the stock had been bought up in the meantime by Messrs. Redington & Co., of San Francisco, who still remain the principal owners. George N. Cornwell of Napa City, however, still retains a large interest in the mine. Of the discovery of this mine Robert T. Montgomery gives the following account in the "Sketch Book :"
" The writer, having been one of the original locators, is familiar with the circumstance [of its discovery]. In 1860 a company of twelve was formed in Napa City for the purpose of prospecting for mines and minerals, and two old pioneer prospectors, Seth Dunham and L. D. Jones, were sent out to examine Napa and adjacent counties. What might be found was a matter of doubt, but the company informally organized concluded to pay a small assessment of $250 per month each, in order to find out what might be the resources of the land. The prospectors were wont to bring in, about once a month, the results of their labors. The prevalent idea. then was that silver abounded in the mountains of the county, and accordingly all eyes were directed to the discovery of the ores of that metal. The company
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
individually, and the prospectors as well, were well-nigh equally ignorant of mineralogy, and the 'specimens' brought in ranged from iron pyrites to bituminous shale, all of which were supposed to contain silver. Every newspaper office and hotel bar were replete with these samples of the wealth and value of the mineral resources of the county, all of which, economically considered, were only inferior specimens of macadamizing stone-glistening, but valueless.
" At last Messrs. Jones and Dunham, in their perambulations among the hills, struck a new road, then recently built between Berryessa Valley and Lower Lake, and, on ascending a hill at the head of Sulphur Canon, just above the Elk Horn Ranch, where the soil and rock had been removed to permit the passage of teams, discovered, on the upper side of the road, at the turning point, that the rocky point, partly removed by the road-makers, was of a peculiar color and texture. Fragments broken off were very heavy and of a liver color. They were brought to town, and by the experts of those times pronounced cinnabar. And such they proved. The first discovery led to the rich mine of which it was but the indication. The ignorant workmen who had constructed the road had rolled down into the cañon below many tons of cinnabar, which would have yielded from fifty to sixty per cent. of metal."
Mr. C. A. Livermore, the superintendent of the mine, has kindly fur- nished us with the following resume of the history and workings of the mine :
" The Redington Quicksilver Mine is located in the north-eastern portion of Napa County, about eighteen miles from Clear Lake. The mine was discovered some twenty years ago, and has been worked more or less suc- cessfully ever since. Some three hundred men, with their families, forming quite a little town known as Knoxville, owned by the company, are usually clustered around this mine, thus making, with the farmers around, a com- munity of some five hundred people. Owing to the present low prices of quicksilver, the number of men employed now, and during the past year, is very small, being a total of about fifty, all of which are white men, there never having been a Chinaman employed about the premises by the present superintendent. The policy of the company is, at present, to employ barely enough men to pay the expense of keeping up the mine, without exhaust- ing the ore bodies at so trifling a profit as can be realized at the present ruling prices of quicksilver. Should the price advance, the number of men would, of course, be augmented, and the former large production of the mine would soon again be attained. The product of this mine for the past twelve years is as follows :
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Mines and Mining.
Year.
Flasks.
Pounds.
1869
4,683
358,244
1870
4,619
353,353
1871
2,055
157,077
1872
3,206
245,259
1873
3,369
257,728
1874
7,200
550,800
1875
8,080
618,120
1876
8,702
665,703
1877
9,447
723,695
1878
6,812
521,118
1879
4,516
345,474
1880
2,114
161,739
Total
61,808
4,958,315
" This mine is worked both by shafts and tunnels, and is what is known as a contact vein, having a hanging-wall of sandstone, and a foot-wall of serpentine. The course of the vein is south-east and north-west, with a dip to the eastward of about forty-five degrees. The mine has been opened to a depth of six hundred feet, but the ore body has not been worked to any great extent below the 500-foot level. The working of the mine has de- veloped ore bodies over a thousand feet in length, the ledge being in many places over two hundred feet in width, with seams of ore of more or less richness and magnitude all through the whole.
"The first operations of the mine were with retorts. Afterwards two large Idria furnaces were put up, and these were followed by four Knox & Osborn furnaces, and finally two Livermore fine-ore furnaces were erected, and the two Idria furnaces were converted into Livermore fine-ore furnaces. There are in all eight furnaces on the premises, but at present only two are in use-the Livermore fine-ore. The machinery of the mine consists of a hoisting engine, with link motion, and a 12x24-inch cylinder. The cable is a flat wire one with six strands, and has a breaking strain of ten tons. The cage is supplied with safety hooks, and all modern improvements are applied to the shaft. There is a pumping engine with a 12x24-inch cylinder, driving an eight-inch pump, which raises water from the 600-foot level with three lifts. There is an engine which drives the crusher, as all the ores at this mine are now crushed so as to pass through the fine-ore furnaces. This is found to be the cheapest method of handling and reducing the ore. There is a blower at the shaft for the purposes of ventilation, but the mine has since been made self-ventilating. The Knox & Osborn furnaces are furnished with an engine to drive exhaust fans to create the necessary draft, the fine- ore furnaces running with a natural draft.
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
" The mine is well timbered, and the method of conducting all the oper- ations connected with it are systematic. In the shaft the following levels have been established : At forty-seven feet, ninety feet, one hundred and fifty feet, two hundred and ten feet, two hundred and seventy feet, three hundred and thirty feet, four hundred feet, five hundred feet, and six hun- dred feet. A tunnel extends to the eastward of the shaft to the distance of six hundred feet on ore of these levels, while on another level a tunnel extends to the westward a like distance. From these main tunnels drifts and cross-cuts have been driven into the ore-body in various directions, and in almost countless numbers. Stulls have been carried up through the ore- body from one level to another, through which a winze and chute have been kept open, the former for the purpose of ingress and egress and ventilation, and the latter is used to conduct the ore to the level below, whence it is taken to the shaft in cars.
" At the shaft it is placed in the cage and hoisted to the surface. There the ore is dumped into the crusher, and thence it is taken to the furnaces, a distance of perhaps three hundred yards, in horse cars. Here the method of reduction is simple and perfect, and the quicksilver, as it runs from the condensers, is conveyed to iron kettles. It is then bottled in iron flasks, each containing seventy-six and a half pounds, which are properly labeled, and then sent to San Francisco, there to be distributed through the markets, to the various countries of the world where it is used.
" The town of Knoxville is the property of the company, and they also own some four or five thousand acres of pasture and woodland adjoining the mine. They have large bands of cattle and supply the table for their employees. There is also a store at which the employees and the adjacent country is supplied with merchandise. In the town of Knoxville there is a Wells, Fargo & Co.'s office, a post-office, a public hotel, a school-house and a church. It is located about fifty miles from Napa City, whither all freight from the mine is drawn by heavy teams.
" This property has brought into the county of Napa a large amount of money, and has paid a large percentage of the taxes. At present, the business is under a cloud, owing to the low price of quicksilver, but the owners of the mine expect that the price will soon advance to a remunera- tive figure, when it is their intention to work the mine to its fullest ca- pacity.
" Mr. G. N. Cornwell of Napa City, and Mr. John H. Redington of San Francisco, are the chief owners. The officers of the company are at present as follows : President, Jno. H. Redington ; Treasurer, H. P. Livermore ; Superintendent, C. A. Livermore ; Secretary, in San Francisco, Geo. Red- ington ; Bookkeeper, at mine, A. McWilliam. The office of the company in San Francisco is at 531 Market street."
167
Mines and Mining.
The product of this mine has brought as high as one dollar and sixty- five cents per pound, but the ruling prices range from thirty to fifty cents at the present time; hence, it can be easily seen that quicksilver mining does not pay as it did in days of old. Quicksilver volatalizes at 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and hence, it is necessary to raise the temperature of the furnace up to that degree to effect a separation of the metal from the slag. There are several kinds of furnaces in use in the reduction of cinnabar, but the principal ones are the Knox & Osborn, Livermore, Litch- field, and Idria. For a description of the Knox & Osborn furnace, the reader is referred to the history of the Sulphur Bank Mine, in Lake County, and for a description of the Litchfield, see history of the Great Western Mine, also in Lake County.
Mr. Livermore claims for his furnace many advantages over all others, while others claim that it has its weak points. It certainly has two merits : simplicity and cheapness. It consists only of a series of trenches placed at an angle of about forty-five degrees, in which there are riffles placed to retard in a measure the motion of the ore as it passes downward. There is a channel just above the ore which gives ample draft, so that there is no need of a blower or exhaust fan. The fire passes with the draft over the face of the ore in the channels, and thus nearly the entire body is equally heated all the time, and the movement of the ore is gradual and continual. It is not necessary to superheat the ore next to the fire to get the portions further away from the fire heated enough. The cost of these furnaces are about one-half of the amount which it requires to construct others, and the capacity is unlimited, as firing places may be opened in front of the furnace. The fumes pass into a large brick receiver, and from that into a series of iron chambers, about four by six feet in size, so constructed as to form square elbows, on which a stream of water plays continually. Here the quicksilver is condensed, and the soot is precipitated. Finally, the residue of fumes pass off through long flumes and find egress from a tall chimney. Much more might be written concerning the minute details of this furnace, but sufficient has been said to give the reader a general idea of its plan and work.
The Washington Mine .- This mine is located in Pope Valley and adjoining the Phoenix Mine. The certificate of incorporation was filed December 2, 1862, with the following as original trustees: C. B. Sharp, D. D. Wickliff, R. F. Miles, J. M. Hamilton and W. W. Stillwagon. The locators of the mine were J. M. Hamilton W. W. Stillwagon, Wm. Brigham, D. D. Wickliff, C. O. Billings, R. F. Miles, Jacob Elsbury and Joseph Clayes. The capital stock was originally $50,000, but it was subsequently increased to $500,000 with fifty thousand shares held at $10 each. The stock was sub-
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
sequently mostly owned by Napa parties, Dr. W. W. Stillwagon holding a controlling interest. The mine was prospected to some extent in 1865-6, but nothing of importance was found. In 1870-1 Messrs. Stillwagon and Patten leased it and erected reduction works, and the surface ore was found rich enough to yield $1000 per month with the labor of six men. Of this mine the " Sketch Book " says :
" A recent discovery has been made of a mass or ledge of good ore (some of which is of the highest grade) which extends nearly horizontally into the hill a distance of two hundred feet and of unknown depth. It is suffi- cient, even as far as already developed, to supply a 10-ton furnace for two years. This ledge will yield probably five per cent. of quicksilver on an average, although some portions will yield as high as sixty per cent. Work on this ledge is still in progress and no signs of it giving out are yet seen. On the contrary the ore improves with every foot of progress. It seems now beyond question that the Washington will prove highly valuable property. The company have a United States patent for their mine and for one hun- dred and sixty acres adjoining, making altogether two hundred and seventy- four acres."
When the crash in the prices of quicksilver came this mine met the fate of all the other smaller ones, and suspended operations. The place has been so long deserted now that it looks in a very dilapidated condition.
The Valley Mine .- This mine was located in Pope Valley, and where the now celebrated Ætna Springs are. The certificate of incorporation was filed May 16, 1867. The capital stock was put at $30,000, and the shares were held at $50 each. The original trustees were John Newman, Ezra Carpenter, R. T. Montgomery, H. F. Swarts, Joseph L. Duchay, and Jesse Barnett. The capital stock was increased April 21, 1871, to $300,000, held in sixty thousand shares, at $5.00 per share. Soon after its organization it was leased to Col. J. W. Colt, and he erected reduction works of his own invention. These, however, proved a complete failure, and his lease was abandoned, the mine reverting to its original owners. Extensive works were afterward erected, and the mine at one time yielded as high as fifty flasks a month, but eventually the whole matter was given up, and but few vestiges now remain to show where the Valley Mine was located.
The Summit Mine .- This mine was originally located by the Whitton family, of Yountville, and patiently prospected by them for years. It was situated three miles from Rutherford, upon the very summit of the Mayaca- mas range of mountains dividing Sonoma and Napa Counties. The reduction works were situated a mile to the eastward. About 1872, J.
Simpson Thompsony
169
Mines and Mining.
Pershbaker purchased the property, paying therefor $35,000. The claim was very extensive, and there were attached to it one hundred and sixty acres of timber land. The surface ore was found on the west side of the mountain for a distance of over one thousand feet. A great amount of tun- neling, drifting, and cross-cutting was done, the mine being worked upon two levels. There was a railroad track along the main tunnel, and winzes from the upper to the lower level. Of this mine the "Sketch Book " says : " Work upon this mine upon a large scale was commenced in August last (1872). The former proprietors, Messrs. Whitton Bros., up to that time transported the ore upon the backs of mules to their furnace, which was a small affair of one and a half tons capacity, and situated upon the site of the present reduction works. The profits of the mine worked even upon that scale, were very great, considering the capital invested. After the purchase by Mr. Pershbaker, a fine mountain road was con- structed from the mine to the reduction works, which were greatly enlarged. The capacity of the present furnace is twenty-four tons per day. New buildings have been erected, very complete and convenient for ore sheds, boarding houses and other purposes. The furnace is of a new and improved construction, and can be fed and discharged hourly, thus capable of being kept in constant motion. The chimney is some eighty yards from the furnace."
The Oakville Quicksilver Mine .- This mine is located on the west side of Napa Valley, above Oakville. The certificate of incorporation was filed January 22, 1868, and the capital stock was put at $300,000, held in three thousand shares at $100 each. The original trustees were E. N. Boynton, S. Hutchinson, and O. P. Southwell. The locators of the mine were W. W. Stillwagon, E. N. Boynton, S. Hutchinson and O. P. Southwell. In the course of a few years the original stockholders disposed of their interest in the mine for the sum of $30,000, to San Francisco parties. The new company began at once to work in a vigorous manner, making extensive explorations and erecting works on quite an extensive scale. The first furnace erected had a capacity of ten tons per twenty-four hours, and the yield was from seventy-five to one hundred flasks per month. In December, 1872, a furnace of fifteen tons capacity was completed, making the reducing capacity of the works equal to twenty-five tons of ore per day. The ore was found in quite large quantities on the surface, and consisted of rich carmine-col- ored cinnabar, mixed with clay. This was made into rude adobes or sun- dried brick, and then passed through the furnace, the yield of this ore being about one per cent. This San Francisco company disposed of their property in 1873, to the Napa Mining Company, but, in company with the majority
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
of the mines in the county, it was suspended some years since; its ma- chinery is rusting out, its works going to decay, and the mine caving in.
The Manhattan Mine .- This mine is located two miles north of the Redington, and is on the same lode. It is the property of Messrs. Knox & Osborn, and they opened it in the fall of 1869. There is one Knox & Os- born furnace at the mine. There is a shaft two hundred feet deep, but the most of the work has been done in tunnels, of which there is upwards of two thousand feet. They suspended work in 1877, and have not since re- sumed. There is said to be a very fine body of ore here.
Napa Consolidated Quicksilver Mine .- This mine is commonly known as the Oat Hill, and is situated at the head of Pope Cañon, and about three miles north of Ætna Springs and two miles north of the Phoenix and Wash- ington mines. It is, however, in no wise connected with either of these mines, the lead of both of these ending at the summit of the range on the south side of the canon, over a mile from the Oat Hill. In February, 1872, a party of four men, W. P. Cook, Geo. Porter, Henry D. Vivian and Ed. Welch, all working at the time for the Phoenix Mine, were out hunting on the ridge back of the present site of the mine. A flock of grouse flew up in front of Mr. Cook and whirred away down a canon just north of the present shaft about one hundred yards. He followed them, and being a miner and on the qui vive for " prospects," discovered some sandstone with a reddish- brown substance in it. The color of the metal was all right, but to find it in sandstone was what excited his distrust as to its being cinnabar. He put a few "chunks" of the rock in his pocket, took it home, and after due tests decided that it was cinnabar. He then took into his confidence the parties who were with him on the hunting expedition and proceeded to prospect the country for the ledge whence had come the fragments found on the hill- side. They soon found where they thought it should be, and began to run a tunnel, going on with it at odd times until it was thirty-two feet in length. They did not come to the ledge as they had expected and they became dis- satisfied and began casting about for a purchaser of their claim. Then came Joseph, Elias and David Roberts and M. V. Owens, who purchased it for a trifling sum compared with the untold wealth which lay hidden beneath the surface. This new company prospected for about a year and a half, but did no real work in the way of developing the mine. They then sold out their claim to J. E. English, J. B. McGee and A. Hawkins & Co., which transac- tion occurred in the fall of 1876. These parties remained proprietors until January 1, 1881, when a Boston company purchased it.
This mine is in many respects quite an anomaly. First, the cinnabar is freqently found incorporated in the coarse sandstone which forms all the
171
Mines and Mining.
rock in the vicinity, and which belongs to the Tertiary geological period. The ledge, however, is a decomposed serpentine formation, and is called by the miners, for convenience, talc. It is very soft, and is, in fact, nearer a clay than anything else. Whence it came is a great query. It seems that these beds of sandstone, which are very deep here, were rifted by some vol- canic forces in the ages long agone, and that the seams have filled up with this talcose substance, in which the mineral seemed to be incorporated. Whence it came no one knows, for, like all precious metals, its source is a mystery. Pressure, or the natural volatility of the metal, may account for the incorporation of it with the sandstone walls of the crevice or dike. What the miners call " horses " are often found in this mine. A "horse " is a body of barren substance found in the trend of the vein, and it may be either a portion of the vein rock, or of any other foreign rock. It is usually, however, a portion of the side-walls which extends across the lead. There is no telling how deep this crevice extends into the earth, and it is fair to presume that it reaches the bottom of the sandstone formation, and as that can be traced to the bottom of the cañon to the south of the mine, which is at a much greater depth than the present shaft, it may be supposed that they are not near the bottom yet.
Another peculiarity of the mine is the fact that when the ore is being reduced in the furnace, great quantities of ammonia are evolved. This is something that is not to be found at any other quicksilver mine in Napa or Lake Counties. Generally, there is a rank odor of sul- phur, almost unbearable, but here it is different. But little sulphur fumes are generated-so little, in fact, that they are not noticed at all, while the ammoniacal fumes are virulent, and an operator is not able to endure them but a short time. The question, whence comes this ammonia ? is often asked, but is not so easily answered. We have examined into the subject to some extent, and give the following as our solution of it : Sal-ammoniac is a volcanic product, and is found in all sections where there has been volcanic action in greater or less amounts. This is in close proximity to St. Helena, which has evidently been, in days long since gone by, an active volcano, and this sal-ammoniac doubtless came to the surface through that channel. It was then washed down the mountain sides, and leeched out of the lava, and eventually found its way in large quantities into these dikes where the quicksilver is now found. It must be borne in mind that sal- ammoniac is a salt and not volatile, as we usually see ammonia on the druggists' shelves. These salts are passed along with the ores and undergo all the processes, the same as the quicksilver, being driven off by the heat of the furnace and precipitated in the condensers. When the soot is drawn from the condensing chamber, quicklime is applied to it to liberate the globules of metal, and behold, that is the very substance that is used to
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