USA > California > Nevada County > History of Nevada County, California; with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and manufactories > Part 41
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The V Flume Co. was organized in 1874, The mill is situ- ated thirteen miles northeast of Nevada, from which a V flume carries the lumber to the yard at Town Talk. The flume is thirteen miles long, cost $38,000 and has a carrying capacity of 100,000 feet of lumber or one hundred cords of wood daily. The capacity of the mill is 25,000 feet in twelve hours; the motive power is water. The company makes 2,000,000 feet of lumber and cats 5,000 cords of woo.l annually. The officers arc :- J. E. Brown, President; J. S. Dunn, Superintendent; F. L. Cooper, Secretary.
J. C. Broderick has a steam saw mill in Little Grass Valley, erected in 1867, capacity 15,000 feet per day.
Among the old lumbermen of the county are M. L. & D. Marsh, of Nevada City, Reuben Leceh and J. C. Conaway, of Grass Valley, Louis Voss, of Oakland, J. C. Broderick, of Little Grass Valley, and A. P. Willey, of San Francisco.
HUGHES' STEAM PLANING MILL.
This establishment was built on Washington street in the rear of the Court House, in 1856. In 1857 Black & Hughes beame proprietors and Gerge M. Hughes became sole owner in 1863. The mill was destroyed by fire in the fall of that year, but was immediately rebuilt and supplied with new machinery. In 1878 the old mill was torn down, and the machinery removed to the mill at the end of Pine street bridge. This was form- erly a quartz mill and factory, kuown as Stiles' Cabinet Fac- tory, erected in 1861, by W. C. Stiles and D. A. Rich, at a cost of $12,000. It had a quartz mill in the basement, that at one time had thirty stamps. In 1865 Mr. Stiles became the sole proprietor. In 1873 Mr. Hughes purchased the property, and removed the quartz machinery. In 1874 he began to use the mill, and in 1878 tore down his old mill and removed every- thing to this one. He put in a new water wheel and generally improved the property. He manufactures doors, sash, blinds, mouldings and does general cabinet work, to the value of about $10,000 annually.
GRASS VALLEY PLANING MILL.
This mill was erected in 1862 ou the corner of Main and Bennett strects, by Peter Brunstetter, at a cost of $10,000. The mill has a capacity of turning out $25,000 worth of work annually, but owing to the limited demand the manufacture amounts but to $10,000. It has a thirty-six horse power engine, and is well supplied with machinery for the manufacture of mouldings and all kinds of dressed lumber.
168
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
THE TRUCKEE BASIN.
The Truckee basin as a lumber region is distinct from the balance of the county. Tributary to Truckee and the stations along the railroadl are about 230,000 acres of timber land, that for thirteen years have witnessed the toil of the lumber- man and furnished material for the tireless saw. When the railroad began to approach the summit, the saw mills went in advance of it, and were kept busy in furnishing timbers and wood for its construction. In 1868 there were fourteen mills at work, producing 66,000,000 feet of lumber in the following proportion :-
Brickell & Geisendorfer
8,000,000
Shaffer & Gray
5,000,000
Elle Ellen .
3,000,000
A. P. Stanford . 6,000,000
Two Proctor Mills 8,000,000
Geisendorfer
3,000,000
Starbuck, Miller & Heaton.
5,000,000
Stonewall Mill 3,000,000
T. R. Joues, two mills . 16,000,000
Rideout & Co.
4,000,000
Munger's Mill.
1,000,000
L. E. Doan .
4,000,000
66,000,000
When the road was completed the demand for lumber from this region ceased to be so great and a number of the mills became idle, and their machinery was removed. Those that remained were Truckee Lumber Co. and Elle Ellen, at Truckee; George Shaffer, at Martis Valley; Kneeland & Co., on Cold- stream, Boca Mill and Ice Co., at Boca; Bragg & Folsom, at Camp 18; Joseph Gray, at Camp 20; Towle & Co., at Donner lake. The completion of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in 1872 opened up a new market for this region, and the mills made great quantities of mining timbers, and thousands of cords of wood were shipped to the mines on the Comstock. Lumber was shipped to the whole mining region of Nevada and as far east as Salt Lake, Cheyenne and Denver. One mill in 1872 had an order from Salt Lake for 10,000,000 feet. The new mills built in 1872 were McFarland's & Co.'s in Martis Valley, Seth Martin & Co. on Prosser Creek and Roberson, Machomick & Co. on Alder creck. During the year 1872 there were 48,000,000 feet of lumber sawed in this region hy eleven mills, one of them making 12,000,000 feet.
It is impossible to go into a detailed description of the methods employed in converting the stately forest monarchs into lumber for the thousands of uses man has found for that article, but the three leading features, the chute, the V flume and the logging railroad deserve special mention. The first
lumber chutes employed in the Truckee basin were made in 1867 by some Canadian lumbermen working for Geisendorfer. They were built of four or five logs forming a groove on the side of a hill leading to the river. Logs were hauled to the top of the chute, and allowed to slide down to the river. Down they went with a terrific velocity, carrying a comet-like tail of fire and smoke, raised by the friction of their rapid descent. When they plunged into the river they made a report that cchoed through the hills, and dashed a colum of water a hun- dred feet into the air. A graphic description of a scene of this kind is taken from the Truckee Republican :-
" A chute is laid from the river's brink up the steep moun- tain to the railroad, and while we are telling it the monster logs are rushing, thundering, flying, leaping down the declivity. They come with the speed of a thunderbolt and with some- what of its roar. A track of fire and smoke follows them ; fire struck out by their friction against the chute-logs. They descend the seventeen hundred feet of the chute in fourteen seconds. In doing so they drop seven hundred feet perpendic- ularly. They strike the deep water of the pond with a report that can be heard a mile distant. Logs fired from a cannon could scarcely have greater velocity than they have at the foot of the chute. Their average velocity is over one hundred feet in a second through the entire distance, and at the instant they leap from the mouth their speed must be fully two hun- dred feet per second. What a missile! How the water is dashed into the air! Like a grand flume of diamonds and rainbows, the feathery spray is hurled into the air to the hight of two hundred feet. It forms the grandest fountain ever beheld ! How the waters of the pond foam and seethe and lash against the shore! One log having spent its force by its mad plunge into the deep waters, has floated so as to be exactly at right angles with the path of the deseending monsters. The mouth of the chute is perhaps fifteen feet above the surface of the water. A linge log hurled from the chute cleaves the air and alights, not on the yieldling pond, but on the floating log. You know how a bullet glances, but can you imagine a saw log glancing? With a crash like the reverberation of artillery, the darting demou springs one hundred and fifty feet vertically into the air, and with a curve like a rocket, falls into the pond seventy yards from the log it struck."
The V flume is another of the recent conveniences for trans- portation of logs and timbers of all kinds. The first of these introduced into this region was the Alder creek tlume, by F. Burckhalter, in 1873. These flumes are sometimes five miles and more in length. They are constructed in the shape of the letter from which they derive their name. Water from some stream or reservoir runs through them, and down them float the logs, wood and shingle blocks from the logging camps to the mills, or the prepared lumber from the mills to the places
of storage or shipping. The saving in expense over the ol method of hauling is enormous, and nearly every Intubo rear now counts these as among his most neces ary convenience .
Still another convenience for transporting logs in the wool is the narrow gauge railway. The Clinton Narrow Gaste Railroad of the Pacific Wool an I Lumber Company wa bui': in 1878. Its length is four miles from the chute, down which the logs glide into the river, to the logging camp of the com- pany, and cost $10,000. The engine weighs eight tons and the little cars with but twenty inch wheels will carry half a dozen huge logs each. The road bel is the most wild and best constructed of any on the coast. The Richardson Bros. built a railroad of logs, upon which cars drawn by hor, ~ rapi lly carriel logs from the wools to the delivery point. The Truckve Lumber Co. also built a log railroadl. The Glenbrook i- another small narrow gauge road built in the forests of the mountains.
It is estimated that from 1867 to 1550 the lumber men of the Truckee basin have eut and shipped about 300.000,0 M) feet of lumber. They furnished material for building the railroad and for thirty-five miles of snow shels along its line, and hav: largely supplied the mines of Nevala with mining timber ant building lumber. Vast tracts of forest have been clared f the large trees, and now present nothing but underbrush anl second growth trees, interspersed with the huge stump of the fallen giants. The trees are b'ng cut Down with a pra ligalisy that seems to count upon an impossibili y to exha'ist the sap- ply, but even at this rate to rob the Sierras of their cate'y forests will require many years. What iuit rm n will then the future will have to deril. Fr t. far fature the new growth of trees is forming a > ippiv.
Thousands of cords of would have been out in in these fresh. and it is here that the railroad brain- it- supply. Canvai also. has been a great prolvet of the lumber ny n Son Wallace & Co., at Truckee, had. in 1572. three buni 1 an fifty Chinamen at work cutting wood anl biruing cards supply the railroad and the smelting works of Vivam the Utalı.
The lumber enterprises of the Tru kre losin may be up as follows :
TRUCKER LUMBER CO. In March, IST. Brick& G dorfer come to Coburn's Station, and built a wil T had a contract from the ( P. R Ret finish Iomos and 2,000,000 feet of bridge tinder In thethe improvements amounted to $500) W Hl Keer became a partner with Mr Brukell. In Ist tyn four hundred acres from the ( PREC ground on which their improvements won in SIMMel mill property now consists of the sites mill with a capacity of 75,000 feet per day
PAINE'S HOTEL & RANCH. 300 ACRES. 3.500 FEET ABOVE THE SEA . P.A. PAINE, PROPRIETOR. LAKE CITY, NEVADA Cº,
PUBLISHED BY THOMPSON & WEST.
CAL.
169
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
road, one and one-half miles long, costing $6,000, and over twenty miles of log railroad leading to a chute with a plunge of nearly half a mile, a daw across the river, costing $7,000, and a pond for logs enough to cut 2,000.000 feet of lumber. In Truckee they have the most extensive sash, door and blind factory on the coast. It is 50x250 feet, two stories high, with an L. 40x40 feet, with machinery for planing, molding, groov- ing, lath, shingles, etc. There is a fire-proof dry house, two stories high, 40x60 feet in size, and a store honse, 30x50 feet. The factory uses 4,000,000 feet of lumber annually. The buildings of the company and tbe homes of the employes form the whole upper portion of the town of Truckee. From one hundred to one hundred and fifty men are employed by the company.
ELLE ELLEN built a saw mill on Trout creek, in 1868. It was burned in 1875, and rebuilt. In 1877 he built another mill, three miles further up the stream, with a capacity of 40,000 feet per day. There is a V flume from the mill to Truckee, costing $9,000. At one time the flume delivered 85,000 feet in three and a quarter hours. The residence of Mr. Ellen, several dwelling houses of his men and a boarding house near the mill, form quite a village. He has a planing, lath and shingle mill, with a capacity of 20,000 shingles and 50,000 lath per week.
PACIFIC WOOD AND LUMBER CO. This enterprise was orig- inally started in 1870, by Bragg & Folsom, at Camp 18. In 1873 the mill was destroyed by fire, with a large quantity of lumber, loss $50,000. A new mill was immediately erected. A dam was built in 1873, costing $10,000. They also had a lath and shingle mill. In 1878 the Pacific Wood and Lumber Co. was organized, with a paid up capital of $100,000. Their mill has a capacity of 70,000 feet in twenty-four hours, and was built last fall, the old one having been destroyed in Sep- tember, 1879. A telephone line connects Mr. Bnrckhalter's store in Truckee with the camp in the woods, fifteen miles distant. This company built and owns the Clinton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The officers of the company are :- H. W. Bragg, President; F. Burckhalter, Treasurer and Superin- tendent; Nelson Martin Assistant Superintendent; J. J. L. Peel, Secretary. These gentlemen with G. N. Folsom are the Directors.
BOCA MILL AND ICE CO .. This company began operations at Boca, in 1868, L. E. Doan being the originator. They have a mill with a capacity of 60,000 feet of lumber and 10,000 laths in a run of twenty-four hours. Their dam across the Truckee cost $11,000, and the pond covers thirty acres. In 1871 the company obtained a franchise for twenty years for the use of the waters of the Little Truckee river, for which they made improvements along that stream and built dams at Weber and
Independence lakes, all costing $25,000. They have a shingle mill, with a capacity of 30,000 shingles and 10,000 laths.
George Shaffer built the first mill in Truckee, in 1867. He built a mill in 1871, three miles below Truckee, with a capacity of 35,000 feet daily. He built a box flume three miles long, in 1871, from Martis creek to his mill, and in 1872 another from the inill to Truckee, to convey lumber to the railroad. The reservoir at the mill covers fourteen acres. Siuce he con- menced operations in this region, he has made over 60,000,000 feet of lumber.
RICHARDSON BROS. have a mill one mile east of Shaffer; capacity, 40,000 feet daily; two reservoirs, cost $2,000; V flume a distance of five miles to Truckee.
NEVADA AND CALIFORNIA LUMBER Co. has a mill eight miles north of Truckee, on Prosser creek. They built a flume in 1873, five and one-half miles to the railroad track. The mill has a daily capacity of 30,000 feet. Oliver Lonkey and E. R. Sınith are the owners ; place of business, Virginia City, Nevada.
ALDER CREEK MILL was built by Roberson & Machomick, three miles from Truckee. Mill has a capacity of 60,000 feet of lumber and 18,000 shingles in twenty-four hours. A flume five miles long was built in 1873, at a cost of $12,000. The mill is idle at present.
BANNER MILL, on Sage Hen creek, was built by Seth Martin & Co., who, also, built a shingle mill at the mouth of Prosser creek, in 1874. The capacity of the mill is 40,000 fect per day. A. V flume connects the mill with the flume of the Alder creek mill. The Banner mill is idle at present.
JOHN KNEELAND'S mill on Coldstream creek, four miles from Truckee, was built in 1868 by Stanford. It has a capacity of 30,000 feet daily. It is not in operation at present.
PACIFIC SHINGLE MILL, seven miles below Truckee, at Camp 16, is owned by Thompson & Ferguson, and was built in 1873. It has a capacity of 90,000 sliingles per day, and has made 100,000. The dam and reservoir cost $20,000. It was built in 1868 by T. G. Jones, who had a saw mill at this place and which was taken down in 1871. The firm employs forty men at the mill and in the woods. Logs are cut into bolts sixteen inches long and floated down the river to the mill.
JAMES VAUGHN built a shingle mill seven miles from Truckee on the Sierra Valley road, in 1872. It was burned in 1873, and the new one was burned in 1876. Another was built in 1879, which has a capacity of 18,000 per day. Since com- menciug in 1872 Mr. Vaughn has cut 16,000,000 shingles.
JOSEPH GRAY has a saw mill at Camp 20, which has a capa- city of 30,000 feet per day, but is lying idle. McFarland &
Co. have a saw mill three miles south of Truckce, built in 1872. J. E. Marshall has a shingle mill six miles above Truckee. Casper Schock has a shingle inill, seven miles above Truckve. David G. Smith owns a mill five miles above Truckee, with a capacity of 40,000 shingles iu twenty-four hours. These last four are in Placer county, but tributary to Truckee.
In 1874 the Legislature granted the Donner Lumber and Boom Co. a franchise for collecting tolls on the Truckee river, on condition that $25,000 be spent in improving the channel of that stream. In 1875 the company made great improvements and cleared the channel of obstructions.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
AGRICULTURE.
Condition of the County-Early Farmers-Statistics of 1858-Prospects- Fruit-Silk Worms-Sheep-Table of Agricultural Statistics.
THE agricultural strength of Nevada couuty lies more in the possibilities of the future than iu anything that has yet been accomplished; and to the future may we confidently look for a great increase in the agricultural product of the foot hills and mountaiu valleys. The mines are and have always been the life and support of the county, aud for years to come mining will continue to be the leading enterprise; but agriculture will grow and improve as the population increases and the demand for farin produce becomes more urgent. The time will come when the rich-yielding acres in the valleys will be insufficient to supply the dense population that will have gathered on the Pacific slopc, and when that time comes every arable foot of land in the foot hills and on the mountain sides will be drawn upon for its little contribution, to sustain the lives of tbe teem- ing multitudes.
Amid the mountain fastnesses, walled in by towering peaks and granite ledges, or nestling among the gracefully rolling hills lie thousands of little, fertile valleys, through which trickle mountain streams with their ever-refreshing waters, or into which can be conducted hy artificial means aud at slight expense the needed moisture from the many reservoirs Nature has so bountifully provided. The sloping hillsides, that bear such a luxuriant growth of natural vegetation, need but the fostering hand of the husbandman to return to him their rich annuities of grain. In the densely populated regions of Europe and even in the thickly settled portions of this country, the mountain sides receive cultivation and yieldl rich returns for the labor and care expended upon them. To illustrate the nature of land that is successfully cultivated in Vermout, it is said that " all the farmers have one leg louger thau the other from plowing on a side hill."
170
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Many of the fertile valleys of Nevada county were early settled upon and brought under a state of cultivation, the rais- ing of vegetables for the thousands of miners who needed them so much being a large and profitable business. The hardships and privations of a life in the mines were great, and many an unfortunate miner, discouraged by a want of the success that crowned the efforts of hundreds around him, abandoned the pick and shovel for the spade and plow, to win from the fertile earth the wealth the sterile sands denied him. Along the streams, wherever there lay a patch of open, well watered ground requiring only to be plowed and planted, these men settled, built cabins, houses and wayside hotels. They kept cattle for beef and milk and raised a small amount of grain and a large amount of vegetables; they planted orchards of peaches, apples and other fruits, and set ont vinyards of grape vines. In 1858 it was estimated that the ranches and value of the improvements were distributed through the country in the following proportion :-
Township.
Ranches.
Improvements.
Nevada . .
35
$ 21,950
Grass Valley.
72
34,250
Rough and Ready 99
114,700
Bridgeport
23
16,610
Washington
6
7,400
Eureka
29
16,750
Little York .
7
4,550
Total.
271
$216,210
At the time the above estimate was made, Bloomfield town- ship lay partly in Bridgeport and partly in Eureka, while Meadow Lake township was in Washington. Two years later thirty thousand acres were cultivated, the largest acreage in the history of the county. Then occurred the Washoe excite- ment, that drew thousands into the silver mines; increased facilities for transportation and the agricultural growth of the great valley, all tending to retard mountain farming. Grad- nally, however, will the mountain valleys be cultivated, the fertile hills cleared for the plow, and where once was a rank growth of manzanita and giant pines, grain, tree and vine will pour their nnited offerings into the lap of the toiling husband- men.
The chief promise the future has for the foot-hills is an abun- dance of fine fruit; to this the soil and climate are alike favorable. The flavor of mountain fruit, especially apples, is acknowledged to be far superior to that of the product of the valleys. Plenty of water and a good, clear atmosphere unite to give the mountain fruit a flavor that the sun parehed valleys cannot produce. At an carly day fruit trees were set out and soon commenced to bear in large quantities, peaches bearing
well as high up as Columbia Hill. The peach was at first a favorite, and in 1860 there were 32,400 trees in the county, but this number has been largely decreased, while the apple has taken the front rank. But little effort has been made to raise oranges until recently ; there are now quite a number of young orange trees, and more arc being planted annually.
In 1867, experiments were made with the silk worm, result- ing so satisfactorily that the following year a large number of tho white mulberry tree, morus alba, were set out or planted, and a number of gentlemen proeured some eggs of the French silk worm, a much better variety than the native worm, whose silk is coarse. The business largely inereased in a few years, until in 1870 the Assessor reported 129,000 mulberry trees. The Nevada Sericulture and Viniculture Association was incorporated that year, for the purpose of encouraging this industry and the culture of the grape. Nevada county was not alone in this effort, but was following in the wake of the valley counties, and like them found that the difficulties to be overcome and the want of an adequate market for the silk pro- duced rendered the culture of the silk worm impracticable, and it was abandoned.
The foot-hills and the Truckee basin are, in summer, the grazing ground of vast bands of sheep, belonging to ranchers in the valley, where they spend the winter and where they are assessed. The rich bunch grass in the Truckee valley is a special inducement and in June of each year, clouds of dust arise from the roads that lead to aud through the mountain passes, as vast bands of sheep are driven to the summer resort. From 100,000 to 150,000 sheep arc thus brought every year, are fattened on the bunch grass, are shcared of their fleeces and the wool shipped to market from the stations along the road. In October they are driven back to the warm valley to remain until spring shall again prepare for them a rich summer pasture. The sheep range in bands of from 1,000 to 5,000 cach, the herder occupying the same range every season, his possessory rights being respeeted by the others, although the land is public ‹lomain. Most of the ranchers keep cattle and make a great deal of butter, mountain butter having a firmness and flavor wanting in the valley product. As inch cannot be said of mountain steaks, for the cattle climb too many hills to render their steaks either tender or juicy.
The County Assessors in compiling the annual statistics have not discharged their duty as faithfully as they should, and, in consequence, the following table prepared from their reports is very incomplete in many respects. It is given to show the con- ution of agriculture at intervals of five years, the earliest. report being made in 1852. The table is given just as the reports mako it without further comment.
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF NEVADA COUNTY.
1852. 1855.
1860.
1865.
1870.
1875.
1879.
88,000 46,000
46,000
75,000
93.000
Acres, Inclosed ..
Cultivated.
1,587
4,300
30,000 19,100
12,600
10,000
13,500
Wheat, Acres ..
1,100
4,360
000
# Bushels ..
1,500
7,000
900
Bushels. .
14,310
350
1,900
3,400
« Bushels.
307
7,000
400
100
" Bushels
300
500
180
300
150
Tons.
299
120
102
000
Vegetables, Acres
300
35
Tons
700
3,000
8,000.
3,600
4,000
Tons
50
3,000
Butter, Pounds. .
Cheese
Honey
15
Orange
.
120
Apple
32,400
12,875
Apricot
400
1,180
Plum
800
2.566
Cherry
700
1,578
Prune
631
540
Nectarine "
289
99
860
Almond
Total Fruit Trees
3,200
$23.000
Grape Vines.
9,000
2,000
50.000 12,000
12,00
Brandy, "
142
1.200
Beer,
140.001 500.000
Horses
1,304
1,500
858
1.460
2,756
2.817
2,506
Mules
895
275
219
15
10.
Horned Cattle
7,814
2,300
2,723
1,081
10.805
6.204
5.750
Sheep.
521
4.990
4,665
4.424
4.044
Goats
174
1.135
Hogs
4.279
7.800
1.860
1,500
2.204
2.061
Poultry
2,678
7.000
11,055
5.400
5,000
1,200
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