USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 17
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 17
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
Prospecting for gold in Bear Valley, high in the San Bernardino Mountains, began in 1859, and the first "pay dirt" was struck by Jack Martin and W. F. Holcomb, two well-known old-timers. The rush that always follows such a discovery was on as soon as news of the strike leaked out, and within an incredibly short time men from all over this section were engaged in feverishly panning dirt in the valley. Hol- comb also had the distinction of locating the first claims in Holcomb Vallev, five miles beyond Bear Valley, staking out selections in company with Ben Ware, May 5, 1860. This valley has been known as Holcomb Valley ever since. This brought another rush, and for several years the two valleys presented all the appearances of a typical mining camp, men coming in from all sections of the country, flourishing settle- ments being formed and hotels, stores and other enterprises becoming prosperous.
The diggings were shallow and easily worked and large quantities of gold were taken out by a number of fortunates, but suddenly the dig- gings seemed to be worked out, there was a rapid exodus of miners and the locality for a time was practically deserted. There were still those, however, who had faith in the locality, and about 1870 a forty-stamp mill was erected at Gold Mountain in Bear Valley, but its destruction by fire soon thereafter left the matter of the presence of ore in paying quantities still one of speculation. "Lucky" Baldwin was one of the owners of a ten-stamp mill erected in Bear Valley in 1876, but this proved a non-paying investment. A further experiment in Holcomb Valley was made by Alex Del Mar and an English syndicate, in 1887, and considerable money expended, but no great amount of ore was taken out, and the difficulty of obtaining water and fuel hindered the work greatly.
Considerable excitement followed the discovery of placer gold in Lytle Creek Canon, early in the '60s. The Harpending Company, a New York concern, acquired property in this locality, and in 1867, under the management of Captain Winder, of San Diego, installed a hydraulic outfit including a flume five miles long which carried 600 inches of water. The newspapers of the day reported that the company, which employed forty men, took out returns as high as $2,000 per week. This was the first successful hydraulic mining in Southern California, and at the time was the most important mining venture in San Bernardino County. The Harpending Company disposed of its interests to Louis Abadie, and other Frenchmen, who continued this method of mining.
104
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
The placer mining in this district was also profitable at the time, and it was reported that men sometimes picked up $40 per day at this method. Placer mining continued to be carried on in Lytle Creek Canon to a more or less considerable extent for many years, and as late as 1890 it was reported that 100 men were working the placers and clearing on an average of $4 per day.
BORAX. The history of the borax industry in this county dates back to the year 1861, when John W. Searles, a well-known pioneer and hunter of early days, was prospecting with his brother, Dennis, in the Slate Range, in the extreme northern edge of the county, their camp overlooking a wide marsh "that gleamed in the hot sun like molten silver." The engineer of the party complained that the carbonate of lime that was used in working the ores had borax in it, this element inter- fering with its proper influence. At the time nothing further was done about developing this mineral, but about 1863, when the first authenticated discovery of borax was made at Clear Lake, a San Francisco Company began exploiting it. The discovery of borax finds in Nevada by F. M. Smith and others, in 1872, caused a furore, and when a sample of the Nevada borax was brought into California, Searles took the opportunity of examining it. He was not slow to realize the opportunities awaiting in the Slate Range, to which point he immediately made his way with his brother, Dennis, J. D. Creigh and E. W. Skilling, where the party pre-empted claims of 160 acres each. With the spread of the news other prospectors appeared and in a short time the entire marsh was covered with men having placer claims of twenty acres each, but the most of these were unsuccessful and soon left the district. The Searles Com- pany remained, however, and soon began taking out borax, and during 1873 more than 1,000,000 pounds of borax, valued at nearly $200,000, was taken from the marshes of San Bernardino County. The Searles Company erected an extensive plant with a capacity of 100 tons per month of refined borax, situated in what was known as Searles' Marsh, a basin-like depression, or dry lake, ten miles long and five miles wide, containing an almost unlimited quantity of the material. The transpor- tation of the product brought up a problem hard of solution, for the marsh was situated far from railroads or markets, but this was solved by specially constructed wagons, carrying immense loads and drawn by twelve, eighteen or twenty mules. Stations along the route were estab- lished by placing water tanks at various points and cacheing supplies of mule feed and provisions. From 1873 to 1881 the principal borax production of the state, and of the United States as well, was from the borax marshes of San Bernardino County.
In 1882 borax was discovered in the Calico district by W. T. Coleman and F. M. Smith. While they were very rich, they were in a different form from the marshes and not so easily worked, and the property later passed into the hands of the Pacific Borax Company, which had its reduction works at Alameda. Calico furnished most of the borax mined in the county from 1888 to 1893.
Borax mining on a large scale was commenced in 1898 with the commencement of work on the erection of a 100-ton borax plant at Borax Lake, but before it was completed it was sold to a syndicate organized that year with a capital of $7,000,000, to control all borax output. The shipment of borax from that point was facilitated in the same year by the completion of the branch railroad from Daggett to Calico, and in 1899, when the syndicate secured control of all the Cali- fornia works, the different refineries were shut down, and the Borax
105
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Consolidated Limited began shipping the crude ores, after crushing and drying in its plant at Marion, about four miles north of Daggett, to its large reduction works at Bayonne, New Jersey.
IVANPAH. Located in the Clark district, in the northeastern corner of San Bernardino County, is Ivanpah. In 1870 the McFarlane brothers located the Lizzie Bullock mine, which proved exceedingly rich in silver, and for a number of years large quantities of ore were taken from this and neighboring mines. Ivanpah was the chief silver producing district of the county during the '70s, and it is said that the amount of bullion produced amounted to millions of dollars in value. During the '80s J. S. Alley and Tom McFarlane located the Alley mines, which were profitable for a time, but the ore was mostly in stringers and for manv years the silver mines have been deserted. In 1872 Mat Palen re-located a silver mine, one of the first to be discovered in the county, which had been worked at some previous time by unknown miners. A shaft fifty feet deep, filled with debris was uncovered, but no traces of machinery or tools were found. Mr. Palen opened up a rich prospect, and a stamp mill. probably the first one in the county, was erected. Since that time it is claimed that stone hammers and evidences of pre-historic occupation have been found in the turquoise mines in the same locality. In recent years turquoise and copper mines have been worked at Ivanpah, one of the former having made considerable shipments for a number of years, and several promising gold claims have been developed.
CALICO. The many colored rocks and hills of the locality gave to the Calico district its suggestive and unique name. This community first attracted attention in the early '80s, although silver had been dis- covered prior to that time, the first location in Calico mountains being made by an old-timer, Charley Mecham, then by Lowery Silver. Several hundred locations were made about 1880, and in 1881 Hues Thomas, Tom Warden and others located the Silver King mine, a prolific pro- ducer. In 1884 this mine was the chief producer in exceeding an output of $642,000 from the Calico district, and in 1888 the state mineralogist reported that the Calico mines were the source whence came the greater part of the silver produced in San Bernardino County. which was then producing 70 per cent of all the silver mined in California. Calico at that time was a full-fledged mining "bonanza," with 170 stamps in operation. The Waterloo mine, one of the best in the district and yielding an immense amount of ore, employed from 100 to 150 men and kept a sixty stamp mill constantly in operation. The operation of this mine ceased in 1892, however, owing to the diminished price of silver and the low grade of ore, but the Silver King was kept in activity several years longer.
A history of Calico is contained in the following extracts from the reminiscences of C. L. Mecham, of San Bernardino :
"About the year 1869 or 1870 father kept a little store at Camp Cady, a government post. This post was in command of Captain Drum. It was about 106 miles from San Bernardino by wagon road. Later this post was abandoned as a government post and is now used as a cattle ranch. Father remained at the garrison about two years and then thinking the place he later named 'The Fish Ponds' would be a suitable place for a station, he left Camp Cady and moved there. One of the ponds of water just north of his house was full of fish of the chub species from whence the station derived its name.
106
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
"Father was at this station alone for a number of years. There was a great deal of travel over the road as at that time there were no rail- roads and all transportation was carried on by horse and mule teams. "I will now give a brief history of Calico from the first discovery up to two years after. The place was called Calico because the mountain around there from a distance resembled colors of calico cloth. While we were at the station an old man by the name of Mr. Lee would come quite often to our place for provisions. We always kept sufficient amount on hand to accommodate the travelers. Mr. Lee would work around San Bernardino, doing garden work and after saving a little money he would go out to his mine and prospect until his money was all gone and then he would return to San Bernardino and repeat the same thing over again. He was of the opinion that he was the possessor of a quicksilver mine. He would bring some of this ore with him every time he came for provisions.
"Prospectors at this time were always hunting for certain kinds of rock and the right kind of formation in order to do their prospecting for mineral. This is all right to a certain extent, but this did not work out satisfactorily after the discovery of Calico. The old saying is- which has proven true-'Gold and silver are just where you find them.'
"All we had to do was to keep a supply of hay on hand at the station, so naturally during our spare time we had a splendid opportunity to become acquainted with the surrounding country and general appear- ance of things. We cut the guyette hay and pulled sand grass, both of which were close to Mr. Lee's mine and also the Calico Mountains. Then we moved into San Bernardino, that is, the family did, where I attended school until I became old enough to do a man's work, which was only a few years. My brothers and I engaged in the Artesian well boring business for a number of years. About the year 1881 the news came in to San Bernardino that a man by the name of Mr. Porter and another man by the name of Mr. Waterman (who in the year 1887 became lieutenant governor of California) had struck rich silver ore in the Lee mine. It caused quite an excitement and soon all the sur- rounding country had the mining fever. My older brother Frank, hav- ing been at the Lee mine, knew the character of the rock, so he, with Tom Warden, Huse Thomas, John King, Ellis Miller and George Yager, an uncle of mine formed a prospecting party, locating in the vicinity of the Lee mine. The team of horses belonged to Yager, so naturally he was responsible for the safe arrival of the party at their desired destina- tion, where the fortunes lay only awaiting to be uncovered. After two or three days' travel with nothing to mar the pleasure of the trip, only to realize that their dreams might come true, they arrived at Barstow, not where Barstow town is now, but just north, about a mile, where E. Miller had a station, or, in other words, a small ranch. On account of Miller being located where he was and being in a position where he was able to assist, was the reason why he was made a partner in the company. John King did not accompany the party on the trip but helped financially. He made the sixth partner to the party which com- prised the Silver King Mining Company of Calico.
"After arriving at Miller's Station and making all necessary arrange- ments, they started out with high hopes of success. They began locating and prospecting eastward. After making several locations and they were about to finish up the trip, brother Frank had a great desire to go over in the Calico Mountains, partly on account of information father
107
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
had given him. At the time father was living at the Fish Ponds and the Indians stole his horse. He remembered seeing, while chasing the Indians, these large red iron capped ledges and he always insisted on Frank going over there and investigating. Tom Warden, George Yager and Frank started for the Calico Mountains, arriving there April 6, 1881.
"They discovered a ledge which arose from the hill quite prominently and looked good to them. Consequently it must have a big name, so they called it 'The Silver King.' I have laways been of the impression they had in mind the 'Great Silver King Mine' in Arizona, when naming this one. Nevertheless, this mine has proven worthy of the name by its richness.
"After they had monumented this claim and had taken quite a quantity of the rock as samples along with them, they went back to camp, arriving late in the evening. It was rather a hard trip for one day. After return- ing home they had their samples of rock, from their various claims they had located, assayed. None assayed very high. Some were worth a dollar or two, while others only had a trace of silver in them. The Silver King assayed the largest, it was something like $8 a ton in silver. This, of course, was not encouraging enough to cause any excitement.
"About the middle of June the same year (1881) the Silver Mine Company sent Huse Thomas and myself out to do some work on all their claims and to bring in some more samples of ore. Our time was limited so we did only a very little work on each claim. There was to be a big ball on the night of the Fourth of July and I was to return for it. As I already had an engagement with a young lady for the ball, all the mines on the desert could not have kept me away. On reaching our starting point where our operation was to begin, we started to work, intending to give each claim about an equal amount of work and take samples from each. The Silver King being to the extreme east end of the other claims, was our last claim to work before our return home. We engaged Huranemous Hartman to take us over to the Calico Mountains, our baggage amounted to very little, only a pair of blankets apiece, a few provisions, a pick, a shovel and a barrel of water. We arrived about the 25th or 26th of June and camped in what we afterwards called Wall Street, which bordered on Calico town to the west.
"The next morning after arriving, breakfast being over, we made a start to do our prospecting. It being quite warm and Thomas not being particularly fond of climbing up the hill, we agreed that he should go to the east end of the mine where there was more level ground and made it easier walking for Thomas. I decided to climb up on the highest point where the ledge stood up more prominent. My intentions were to prospect along the ledge eastward toward where Thomas was. When I reached the top of the ledge and began using my pick quite freely as I went along, examining the rock and forming my opinion as to its richness, I came to a big blowout or rather a high cliff which I climbed on top. Before I broke a rock I noticed some little lumps on the rocks which resembled blisters on a fir tree. Naturally I took out my knife and commenced cutting into them. It had the same effect as cutting into a lead bullet. I began to get excited and commenced using my pick. In breaking the rock up, piece by piece, the mineral showed all throughi it. By this time I was very much excited for I knew I had struck it rich. After breaking all the rock I could pack I started down the hill to camp with it. I was so excited I began yelling before I reached
108
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
camp. Thomas had reached camp ahead of me and heard me yelling and wanted to know if I had been bitten by a snake or had lost my mind. I told him 'neither, but that I certainly had struck it rich. Look here, pure horn silver!' 'Horn the devil,' said Thomas. 'It can't be silver ; no such good luck.' 'Well, that is just what it is,' I said, 'and nothing else.' After convincing him it was silver we decided to go home. I always will believe he knew the richness of the ore but did not want to confess it to me.
"The next day we started home happy and contented over our dis- covery. On reaching home there were others who felt as good as we did on seeing what we had discovered. In fact, the whole town became excited in a short time. The result was a rush for Calico. The Silver King Company got busy and hired eight or ten men, including myself, and, providing us with all necessary mining equipment to work with. started us out to Calico.
"On arriving at Calico we made our camp in Wall Street which I mentioned before. It was a deep wash west of the town. We were soon at work taking out ore, or, you might say, tearing down the ledge. It was easy mining, as there was a great deal of rich ore on the sur- face. Consequently we had no shafts to sink or tunnels to run for quite a long time.
"The first carload of ore taken out of the mine we shipped to San Francisco. This ore was worth $400 or $500 a ton. After a while the Silver King Company made a contract with Markham & John- son to mill their ore at Oragranda, where they owned a five-stamp quartz mill. This mill was run by water power. The distance being about forty miles, it cost the company $20 a ton for hauling the ore and $25 for milling. We had to ship at least eighty-dollar-rock in order that the company might get a fair dividend. We shipped a great deal of richer ore than that but our object was to send to the mill nothing under eighty-dollar-rock. A man by the name of Buckhart had the contract for hauling the ore. Mining the ore and getting it to a place where the teams could load it on was at first a rather inconvenient task. As we could send nothing but high grade ore it was necessary for us to do a great deal of sorting. Then to make sure we had the required amount for shipment when the teams returned, kept us on the jump. At first we sacked the ore and dragged it down the hill on raw-hides, as they proved to be more durable than anything else. In a short time the company put up a tramway and ore bins, making things more convenient for all concerned. Dragging it down the hill by hand on raw-hides and then pulling them up hill again for another load was rather uphill busi- ness. Everything went quite smoothly, new men came in daily, men of all trades and occupations made their appearance and the camp soon began to look like a city. Restaurants, stores, assay offices, lodging houses and saloons were quite conspicuous.
"New people were now coming in every day. Buildings were going up in all directions, some making their places of abode in caves, others in tents, and, in fact, most any place suitable to spread down their blankets. It was not very long until we had a postoffice, which was very convenient for us all. It was run by a Mr. Soule. After a while there were women enough in camp so we were able to get up dancing parties. I can truthfully say that we had as many nice and orderly parties in camp as I ever attended anywhere. During the two years I stayed at Calico but one man was killed, which was a very good record for a
109
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
mining camp in those days. I remember when the railroad was completed as far as Daggett and the camp was able to get ice, a young lady took advantage of the opportunity and made ice cream from condensed milk which she sold, making quite a sum of money. Mr. Earl Ames built the first adobe house in Calico, it being used as a saloon. Afterwards he built several more adobe houses. When I first went to Calico Johnnie Peterson was the only man there and he had only been there a week or two, working on a prospect he had located a short time before. Later on Peterson was killed in San Bernardino by John Taylor, an old-time friend and partner, over some misunderstanding in regard to mining property.
"Mr. Sam Jones, an old pioneer of California, was foreman of the King Mine and held that position the two years I was in Calico.
"After the Silver King Company had worked the mine for two years they sold out to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Markham, who was governor of California in 1890, for $60,000.
"At this time I left the camp and came home to San Bernardino and was married. After I left Calico water was piped all over the town and there were custom mills put up at Daggett. All the low grade ore which we had thrown over the dump, which was many hundreds of tons, was taken to the mills and milled with a better profit than the high grade ore we had shipped for two years to Oragranda. I don't believe any- one knows the amount of silver taken out of the King mine, as it was very carelessly managed.
"My brother, G. F. Mecham, is the only one of the original Silver King Mining Company living at this time. The rest have all passed on to the other side."
PROVIDENCE MOUNTAINS. In the Providence Mountain Range, which is located in the eastern part of the county, near the Colorado, extends northeast and southwest for eighty miles, and reaches an elevation of 6,350 feet in its highest peak, Mount Edgar, was located the richest body of silver ever uncovered in California. The principal mine of the group. the Bonanza King, was located in the latter '70s, and about 1880 a ten- stamp, dry-crushing mill was erected by the Bonanza Consolidated Com- pany. In 1881 the official returns from this mine, as reported in the newspapers, were $251,604.15, for a run of 115 days, and in 1884 the superintendent's report contained the following statement : "The Bonanza King is better opened up, better worked, and we have obtained better results from the ore than any other mine in this great mineral desert. Nearly $1,000,000 has been taken from the mine in eighteen months and ten days." These mines, like others, however, proved to be veins or the ore became too low grade to pay for working after the drop in silver came, and for many years no work has been carried on.
THE BAGDAD-AMBOY MINING DISTRICTS. The history of one of the richest mining districts of San Bernardino County, that known as the Bagdad-Amboy district, is an interesting one, as given by L. A. Herald in 1904:1 "When John Suter five years ago, then in the employ of the Santa Fe as roadmaster, invaded the red looking hills that lie eight miles south of Ludlow, in San Bernardino County, for the purpose of discovering springs or any source of water, which was urgently needed by that cor- poration, he found ledges and croppings of ore that were not of the ordinary variety, but proved many feet in width and that prospected
1 Ingersoll's History of San Bernardino County.
110
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
in gold in the horn. Even his discovery at that time, owing to the inac- cessibility of the country, into which every cupful of water had to be carried on the backs of burros, and where provisions cost their weight in silver dollars, was nursed with that care that is born of every pros- pector who makes a rich find. John Suter located his claims and named the leading properties the Bagdad, protecting his lines by taking in a group. Today this property is regarded as one of the wonders of the mining world, and is surrounded by scores of properties that bear every evidence of value. Across the valley, passing an ancient river bed, filled deep with the matter eroded from surrounding hills, valuable discoveries have been made, and ledges traced; and hundreds of discovery monu- ments have been erected, and evidence, by constant prospecting, seems to accumulate that the Bagdad section is so thoroughly mineralized that it is properly described as ' poor man's mining camp.' This very fact enabled John Suter, the original discoverer, to employ his spare moments to use his wages as a railroad man, to sink his shafts and open his ledges until capital was induced to step in and create a mine that has proved a revelation to mining men. Other mines and other prop- erties in the same district with well directed energy soon will be placed in the profit column, as the opportunity is not lacking.
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.