USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
Such are the provisions for the location and pos- session of mining claims. The remainder of the Aet pertains to the obtaining of patents for mining ground and the government of United States Survey- ors, Registers, and Receivers. Under this Act, placer claims may be patented at the rate of $2.50 an acre, and vein or lode claims at the rate of $5.00 an acre, the applicant paying additional costs of advertising and fees of officers.
This Act is usually adopted by miners in organiz- ing districts as the law of the district, instead of the variable rules formerly the custom to enact. If dis- triets are not formed and Recorders elected, the county becomes the district and the County Recorder the recorder of claims.
SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS.
Subsequent amendments have but slightly changed the law, and court decisions have explained it where obscure. The "year" mentioned as the time in which work shall be done on a claim, is held to end on the 31st of December, and if, at that time, the labor or expenditures have not been made, then on January 1st the claim is re-locatable, or, as the miners usually express it, " jumpable." When work is done, or locations made, notices in the following forms, as prepared in " Copps' Mining Laws," are recorded in the mining district, or, if there is no District Recorder, then with the County Recorder:
PROOF OF LABOR.
State of - -, County of-
Before me, the subscriber, personally appeared who, being duly sworn, says that at least dollars worth of labor or improvements was performed or made upon [here describe the claim], situated in - Mining District, - County, - State (or Territory) of -, during the year ending -, 18 -. Such expenditure was made by or at the expense of -, owners of the claim, for the pur- pose of holding said claim.
[Jurat.] (signature).
NOTICE OF LOCATION.
Notice is hereby given that the undersigned, hav- ing complied with the requirements of Chapter Six of Title Thirty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and the local customs, laws, and reg. ulations, has located -- linear feet of the -- lode (20 acres of placer mining ground), situated in Mining District, - -
County, - -, and described as follows:
[Describe the claim accurately, by courses and distances if possibly, with reference to some natural object, or permanent monument, and mark the boundaries by suitable monuments; If a placer claim
is located on surveyed land, describe the legal sub- division.] - -, Locator.
Discovered, -- , 18 -. Located, - , 18 -. Attest:
Recorded, -, 18 -.
RULES AND DECISIONS.
Miners are required to obey local laws as well as the United States laws, and if these require more work or expenditure than $100 per claim each year, or a particular style of work, as shaft, tunnel, or otherwise, they must be obeyed, as the United States law says it shall not be less than that amount.
The courts have decided that a prospector on the public mineral domain may proteet himself in his posessions while seeking for mineral, and his posses- sion so held is good against all the world but the United States, but if he stands by and permits others to enter upon his claim without protest, and first discover mineral in place, the law gives to such first discoverer a title to the mineral so discovered against which the miner in possession cannot prevail. If one takes up a claim as the agent of another, the title vests in the other and the agent, by his mere act, cannot subsequently divest it.
OBTAINING PATENTS FOR MINES.
Any citizen, or one who has declared his intention to become such, or association of persons authorized to locate a claim, may obtain a patent from the United States for his or her claim or mine, by pur- suing the prescribed form. Application must be made at the Land Office of the distriet in which the mine is situated, and a sworn statement made that all the requirements of the Government and loeal laws have been complied with, and a full description of the property given.
When papers have once been filed at the Land Office, they become a part of the record, and can neither be withdrawn or returned, but must be transmitted to the General Land Office. An appli- cation will be rejected when the description of the premises is erroneous or insufficient; also when, (1) the notice was published without the knowledge of the Register; (2) the notice was not published in a newspaper designated as nearest the claim; (3) record title was found defective; (4) a previous application has been made for the same premises, which was withdrawn pending a suit in court com- menced by the adverse claimant.
An application for patent will be rejected when the survey does not accurately define the bounda- ries of the claim, or where the claim was not located in accordance with law. Where several parties own separate and distinct portions of a claim, application for patent may be made by either for that portion of the claim owned by him; but where several parties own undivided interests in a mining claim, all should join in an application for a patent. A person or
204
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
association may purchase as many placer locations as the local law admits, and embrace them all in one application for a patent. Papers sworn to, before any person purporting to act as a deputy for the Register and Receiver cannot be recorded as evi- dence.
In all patents for mining claims situated witbin the interior boundaries of a town site, a clause is inserted, " excepting and including all town property rights upon the surface, and all houses, buildings, structures, lots, blocks, streets, alleys or other municipal improvements not belonging to the grantee herein, and all rights necessary or proper to the occupation, possession and enjoyment of the same.
Publication of notice must be made in a news- paper for the period of sixty days, designated by the Register as the nearest to the mine. Notice must be published ten consecutive weeks in weekly news- papers, and in daily newspapers sixty days must elapse between the first and the last insertions. Where the Register designates the daily issue of a newspaper for publication, or notices of a mining application for patent, it is not in compliance with law to change to the weekly edition of the same paper without authority of the Register.
The existence of a salt spring on a tract of land withdraws it from the operation of the homestead and pre-emption laws. A hearing for the purpose of proving the agricultural character of such land is not allowed. Land containing valuable deposits of slate, may be entered under the mining acts.
ADVERSE CLAIMS.
Adverse claimants must file a separate and distinet claim against each application, which it is alleged conflicts with the premises owned by such adverse claimant. The papers in an adverse claim once filed cannot be withdrawn. but become a part of the record. When an adverse claim has been filed, it cannot be amended so as to embrace a larger portion of the premises than that described in the original adverse claim. An adverse claim must be made out in proper form, and filed in the proper local office during the period of publication of the application for the patent, to be effective unless amended within sixty days from the publication of notice of the application. It is the duty of the adverse elaimant to commence suit in proper form within the required time, and if he trusts the uncertain medium of the United States mail, he must abide the consequences, should the delay ensue through misfortune or accident. An allegation of parties to a suit that they compose the company is sufficient, and they are not required to prove that they are the original locators or the identical parties who pre- sented the adverse claim.
AGRICULTURAL OR MINERAL LAND.
Where land is of little if any value for agricul- tural purposes, but is essential to the proper develop-
ment of mining claims, it should be disposed of only under the mining act. Where lands containing valuable mineral deposits have been included in an agricultural entry, said entry will be canceled at any time prior to issuanee of patent, upon satisfactory evidence of the existence of such valuable deposits. Where valuable deposits of mineral are discovered upon a tract after the same has been entered as agricultural, but before patent has been issned, the parties claiming the mine may make application for patent for same, and the agricultural entry will be canceled to that portion of the land embraced by said mining claim. Where mineral deposits are discovered on agricultural lands after the patent has been issued to an agricultural claimant, they pass with the patent.
Agricultural college scrip cannot be received in payment for claims.
ALIENS.
A foreigner may make a mining location and dispose of it, provided he becomes a citizen before disposing of the mine. Proof that the party was not a citizen before disposing of his claim must be affirmatively shown. Locators and intermediate owners other than applicants will not be presumed aliens in the absence of allegation or objection prior to issuanec of patent. The portion of a mining claim sold to an alien cannot be patented while such owner is an alien; but on his declaration to become a citizen, his right dates back to his purchase, and he may thereupon secure United States patent for his claim.
CROSS LODES.
Revised Statutes. Section 2, 336: Where two or more ledges cross or intersect each other, priority of title shall govern. and such prior location shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but the subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space of intersection, for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine. And where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take the vein below the point of union, including all the space of interseetion.
TUNNELS.
There is no authority of law for a tunnel location 3,000 by 1,500 feet. A proper location is the width of the tunnel for 3,000 feet. There is no provision of law for patenting tunnel locations; but lodes dis- covered in running a tunnel may be patented in like manner as other lodes. The right is granted to tunnel owners to 1,500 feet of each blind lode, not previously known to exist, which may be discovered in their tunnel.
When a lode is struck or discovered for the first time in running a tunnel, the tunnel owners have the option of recording their claim of 1.500 feet all on one side of the point of discovery or intersection,
205
MINING LAWS.
or partly on one side thereof and partly on the other. Prospecting for blind lodes is prohibited on the line of a located tunnel, while the tunnel is in progress, but other parties are in no way debarred from prospecting for blind lodes or running tunnels, so long as they keep without the line of such tunnel.
CHAPTER XXX.
MINING. [CONTINUED.]
Mineralogical Education-Copper Discoveries and Excite- ment- Lone Star District-Auburn District-Cox's Dis- trict-Garden Bar District-On the "Rampage" for Copper-High Prices for Copper-New Copper Mining Towns-Singular Rock-Copper Production-The Excite- ment Abating-Iron Mines -- Iron Ore on Lovell's Ranch -- Report of the Geological Survey --- The Iron Mountain Com- pany-Iron Mining in Oregon-Practical Mining Com- meuced-The Blast Furnace-The Hot Blast-The Process of Smelting-Feeding the Furnace-The Scene at a Casting -The Ore and Ore Supply-The Fuel Supply-Executive Officers-The Force Employed-The Town of Hotaling- What of the Future ?- The Holland Mine-Iron Product- Coal Mining-Potters' Clay-California Clay Manufactur- ing Company-Importance of Clay Deposits-Chrominm Mining.
DURING the latter part of the decade of '60, min- ing, particularly in quartz, received much more than former attention in the scientific research which attended it and the many improvements made. This important industry had received a great impetus from the developments in silver mining in the State of Nevada, which, proving so extraordinary, had attracted the people of all parts of the world to this business. New processes had been applied, and machinery for every feature and class of mining and milling been invented. Previous to the finding of silver ore in the Washoe Mountains, no study of min- eralogy had been made but by the closest scholar. Gold-hearing gravel beds, and gold-bearing quartz, were all the miner sought, and to detect them were the utmost of his mineralogical attainments. Neither schools, mining bureaus, nor cabinets of minerals existed for bis instruction, and much of the wealth of the country was passed unnoticed and neglected. The discovery that a dark and dull-looking substance in veins of quartz contained silver in unprecedented abundance led to more critical observation of the rocks, and this led to the discovery of other gold- bearing veins, and other silver-bearing veins, copper, quicksilver, iron, chromium, tin, borax, soda, and other valuable minerals.
The knowledge came slowly, and the lessons, being those of experience and self-instruction, were most ex- pensive. By accident each new mineral was reeog- nized. No scientist told the miner what to seek and how to detect the treasures; no capitalists furnished the means to prospect for unknown minerals; no schools tanght the principles of formation, or laid
down the theories which might guide the search. All was left to the miners of the hard hand and strong back, whom the scientists professed to despise, and the capitalist treated with contempt. But it was they who pointed out the ancient river channels behind the granite rim and beneath the basalt and volcanic debris, and with the courage of inspiration pierced the rock and confounded the learned and the rich with their discoveries. It is a shame to science and to the educational policy of the State that every discovery of every mineral and of every valuable mine has been made by laboring men, unaided in the least by the educated or wealthy classes. It was Marshall, a hired mechanic, who first exposed the gold of California to the world. It was Comstock, and Fenmore, and Penrod, and O'Reily, laboring miners, who discovered the silver of Nevada. It was some " State of Maine boys," miners, who declared the existence of a gravel channel beneath the " Table Mountain," in Tuolumne, and, in spite of ridicule of the more " knowing ones," proved it by long years of work; and it was Cameron and Power, who, with a simple triangle, made of sticks, so nicely surveyed the Damascus Ridge through fifteen miles of sinuous cañon and ravine, and laid out their plan of tunnel, that, when completed after six years of toil, struck the Hidden Treasure Chan- nel, that comes down from the Mountain Gate, at the precise point desired, more accurately than the meeting of the great tunnel which piereed the Alps, and for which the engineers were rewarded by knightly titles.
COPPER DISCOVERIES AND EXCITEMENT.
The discovery of silver opened the eyes of pros- pectors, and every eurious rock was critically exam- ined. Thus copper was discovered in Calaveras County July 4, 1861, and in 1862 the great wealth of the Union Mine was developed. Then came prospecting throughout all California for copper. A great belt of copper-bearing veins was found to extend through the foot-hill region of the Sierra Nevada, and a furor of copper mining pervaded the people during several years following. In November, 1862, copper mines were opened at the Zinc House in Nevada County, and at Greenwood Valley in El Dorado County. Early in 1863 similar discoveries were made in Placer County and numerous copper mining companies were organized. Before the close of February the following-named companies and their officers were recorded.
LONE STAR DISTRICT.
Gardner Company-Alex. Mills. President; David Johnson, Secretary ; William E. Miller, Treasurer.
Captain Page Company-Joseph Walkup, Presi- dent; George L. Anderson, Secretary; E. M. Hull, Treasurer.
Warfield Company S. B. Wyman, President; S. B. Dyer, Secretary; John O Farrell, Treasurer.
206
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA.
AUBURN DISTRICT.
Newman Company-John R. Newman, President; Tabb Mitchell, Secretary; E. T. Loving, Treasurer.
Reed Company- Wm. E. Miller, President; S. B. Woodin, Secretary; J. L. Browne, Treasurer.
Twin Ledge Company-A. Raekliffe, President; Thomas Cross, Secretary; MI. Dodsworth, Treasurer.
Highland Company-Geo. Holmes, President; H. Hazell, Secretary; A. Rackliffe, Treasurer.
Cummings Company-Joseph Walkup, President; J. R. Crandall. Secretary; Robert Gordon, Treasurer.
Excelsior Company-H. Hazell, President, S. B. Woodin, Secretary; M. Dodsworth, Treasurer.
Union Company-R. C. Poland, President; James Munsell, Jr., Secretary ; John T. Reed, Treasurer.
Hilby Company-John C. Boggs, President; Wm. Sexton, Secretary; A. Rackliffe, Treasurer.
El-e-ma-tah Company-G. P. Gould, President; George L. Anderson, Secretary; Tabb Mitchell, Treasurer.
Ophir Company-C. D. Pugh, President; - Hath- away, Secretary; Daniel Choate, Treasurer.
Cruteher Company-Jacob Gibson, President; William Scott, Secretary; Robert Gordon, Treasurer.
COX'S DISTRICT.
Boggs Company-John C. Boggs, President; Wm. Sexton, Secretary; E. M. Hall, Treasurer.
Appanoose Company-S. B. Woodin. President; Geo. L. Anderson, Secretary; James McBurney, Treasurer.
Gordon Company-Robert Gordon, President; R. C. Poland. Secretary; Wm. Sexton, Treasurer.
GARDNER BAR DISTRICT.
Old Hickory Company-Joseph Walkup, Presi- dent: Tabb Mitchell, Seeretary; John R. Newman, Treasurer.
Empire Company -Robert Gordon, President; Henson Hazell, Secretary; M. Dodsworth, Treasurer.
ON THE " RAMPAGE " FOR COPPER.
Many other organizations followed, and Western Placer devoted itself to prospecting for, mining and studying. copper. In April the editor of the Herald says: " The rich placers in the hills and gulches in and about the foot-hills have been exhausted. The gold in the surface diggings in the higher mountains has been sifted from the earth, and the gold seeker is compelled to dive hundreds of feet into the dan- gerons shaft, or work for years at exhausting cost in rock of adamantine hardness, through tunnels, to reach the precious metal. But presto, just at the moment of despair comes the copper excitement. Attention is called to the veins of mineral rock inter- secting the face of the earth like the veins in the human body.
" Men creep into the abandoned shafts, examine the refuse matter cast up by the previous gold seeker, inquire into the properties of this and that curious-
looking mineral, sink new shafts, smelt new ores- in short, institute a new era of research. Gold- bearing rock is found where the pioneers of the placers never dreamed of; quartz that would not pay in gold, and was abandoned as worthless is now found rich in silver, and, searching for copper, the delver is astonished to find himself in a mine of silver, or among mineral substances new to his vision. Enough, however, has already been developed to establish the conviction that we have been around the circle, and are now entering upon the second and more permanent operations of mining."
HIGH PRICES FOR COPPER.
Great encouragement was given copper mining by the high priees prevailing for that metal, and it became the theme for the press and for conversation. Men accustomed to the copper trade and familiar with copper mining in England, Chili, and other parts of the world, spoke in the highest terms of the mines of California, nor did they confine their eulogiums to those of Copperopolis, whose riches were proven beyond controversy. Agencies for the purchase and shipment of ore were established in San Francisco, and liberal advances were made on consignments. The price paid in New York was from 85.25 to 26.00 for each unit of percentage of metal in the ore, and the price at San Francisco was $2.50 per unit of the purity of ten to sixteen per cent., with higher rates for purer ore, the rate at San Francisco in April, 1863. being $4.00 per unit of copper percentage above sixteen per cent., thus making twenty per eent. ore worth $56.00.per ton in that market. These were very high prices, and as a consequence a copper mine was thought to be a great fortune. There were no mills to build or "rebellious " ores to contend with, only to extract the crude ore and sell it to greedy agents at the mouth of the shaft. Advertisements were pub- lished proposing to buy ore assaying twelve per cent., and large quantities of such ore, and of higher grades, were reported as abundant through western Placer. Copper was found throughout all the foot-hill region west from Township No. 4.
NEW COPPER MINING TOWNS.
Ten miles northwest of Auburn, on Bear River, was Gardner Bar District, and in this were the busy eopper mining towns of Wilsontown and Superior, named after the principal mines of the localities. The Wilson mine yielded ore assaying 247, per cent. and a number of tons of such ore was shipped to San Francisco in June, 1863, and sold, realizing a fine profit at the high prices then obtained. This mine at that date was developed by a shaft sixty-five feet in depth, where the vein was found to be eight feet in width, yielding a pyritous ore. Shares in the mine had been sold at the rate of 850.00 per foot, but when developed to the depth of sixty-five feet the value was considered greatly above that price. The Auburn and the Jefferson mines were on the
207
MINING LAWS.
same vein, and were regarded as of very great value. This busy mining district was organized into a pre- cinct, and at the election in September, 1863, returned seventy-four votes, one of the large polling places of the county.
SINGULAR ROCK.
Of the singular rock brought to the surface by the miners the Herald, of June 20, 1863, relates the following :-
The eopper company, who are mining near Ala- baster Cave, are taking out rock of a very singular character. After being taken out and exposed to the air for twenty-four hours it ignites and con- sumes itself. Who can account for this singularity ?
COPPER PRODUCTION.
Of other developed claims the Cummings Company had a shaft eighty feet in depth; the Monopolus, fifty feet; the Redwine, thirty-six feet; the Granville, thirty-six feet, and many others showing the earn- estness of the workers; and all found copper ore. The great expectations of the miners were founded upon the results from the " Union " and " Keystone " Mines at Copperopolis, and a few others, which had turned out many thousand tons of ores, returning a profit of nearly half a million dollars annually. The Union Mine is reported to have con- tained the largest body of first-class copper ore ever known, having an extent of 350 feet in length and from four to nine feet thick at the upper level; twenty-one feet at the depth of 200 feet, and thirty- one feet at the depth of 250 feet.
With- sneh a mine, the first one found, and such prices for ore, why should there not be a copper mining craze. The copper mines of the Lake Supe- rior region were also pointed to as sources of won- drous fortunes. In 1862 they had produced 10,000 tons of pure copper of the value of $5,000,000. The greatest fortunes made in Chili, ranging from one to twenty-five million dollars, were the result of copper mining. The prospect appeared exceedingly bright for the copper mines of California, and their name was legion. California seemed capable ofsupplying the world with copper. From San Diego to Del Norte, in the Coast Range, the Sierra Nevada, and in the islands of the sea veins of copper were found. But the great abundance of the metal caused the collapse of copper mining in California, excepting in a few of the richest mines. The price declined during the latter part of 1863, and in 1864 only half as much was paid for ore in New York as in the beginning of 1863. With the decline in price the exeitement abated, and with the opening of 1864 very few, if any, copper mines were worked in Placer County.
THIE EXCITEMENT ABATING.
The eopper furor had eost the people much, but it bad proven the existence of the metal in Placer County in large quantities, had taught the people a lesson in mineralogy, and aided in developing other resources. Under different circumstances, these
copper veins will constitute an important resource, as undoubtedly much ore exists, and if not in such abundance as to pay the capitalists dividends upon employed labor, will pay the miner for extracting it.
Copper smelting works had been erected at Anti- och, in Contra Costa County, convenient to the coal mines of Mount Diablo, and in the fall of 1863, the managers of this institution advertised the following as the rates there paid for copper ore :-
$2.00 per one per eent. for ore yielding 8 to 12 per cent .; 82.25, from 13 to 15 per cent; $2.50 for 16 per cent .; and $3.00 per cent. for ore yielding 20 per cent. and upwards.
The period of operations of the Antioch Smelting Works was brief, and with the great deeline in cop- per, resulting from the exeessive production, closed its labors.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.