USA > California > Yuba County > History of Yuba County, California, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks and manufactories > Part 38
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
In the summer of 1851, a melon patch of five neues at lang har he longing to John Squires and Kown Carroll, which had realized ion thousand dollars, was sold for mye thousand five howhed dollars. the tobeer, 1851. Ireluel & Company's much, two miles from town, on the Feather river road, was producing some were specimens of vegetable products, among which were a fine " Yankee " pumpkin, a squash measuring for and one quarter fert in cncunderones, mal line pan types. I. Is Partis planted an orchard of porches apples, Han plums, tips, grapes, etc., near dobson's crossing in 1852. The freek cost two thousand, five hundred dollars, but the orchard never anwanted to much and hus beru completely destroyed. The Blood no 1861-2 nearly ruined Mr. Chasua's beautiful orchard mil vineyard, and it has been destroyed siner, so that he has alandaned the place: altogether and now lives in Wheatland. The flood also destroyed the orchard at Johnson's crossing and a few trunks of of trees can still be seen there. A. W. Von Schmidt planted an orchard and vineyard near Wheatland in 1855 which is still there.
Messis. Ramirez & C. willand made wine in small quantities as early as 1855. Mr. t'hana made wine at his place in 1x5g and has sioce made a large quantity of that article. He came to Wheatland in 1875, where he built a winery. He has made there annually about three thou- sand gallons. Eli Hocker inade wine fromcahont 1871 to 1874, also Dr. Tifft who now lives in Smartsville. Grass Br s. Marysville, L. B. Clark, Virginia Ranch. anla minber of others are making large quantities of wine.
132
HISTORY OF YUBA COUNTY. CALIFORNIA.
Stock-raising has been and is now one of the principal industries of the county. The lands in the eastern portion of the county are too rough and rugged for agricultural pursuits. Vast lands of sheep aro fed on these hills, and herds of horses and cattle live and multi- ply in the rauches in the little valleys. There is a limit to the height of the bund upon which animals can be successfully raised. The cold winter necessities & removal of the bands and herds to the warmer regions of the valley. The cattle which were raised in such abundance before the year 1849, were used for plowing and were killed for beef, It was only in parts south and nearer Yerba Buena, or San Francisco, thint, the hides aud tallow were utilized. Mr Mooney tells a bear story that illustrates the dangers that sometimesattended the vaqueros when harding cattle. George Kinloch and a brother of Julm Rose started ont one morning fully equipped as vaqueros. Kinloch was experionced in the business and could handle a lassoo wohl, but Rose had just come, was fresh from the sen, and was entirely igrorant of the methods of the vaqueros or of the experiences they sometimes had. While ou the plains neur tho llonent they came suddenly upon a grizzly bear, und Kinloch immediately threw his lasso over his head and choked him. The bear canght tho rope in his paws and pulled on it until he got the strain looseued from his uvek, and began to pull himself up towards Kinloch. Aftor ho had pullod himself up a ways, Kinloch stuckdeuly slackened the lino and Mr. bear fell back to the ground. Then Kinloch tightened the noose about his neak again. This game was repented sovoral times, until he walked the bear up to the bank of a slongh and then gavo him a tumblo over the edge in the same way. Monnwhile Roso sat on his horse, unable to do anything. This was his first experience with a bear, The animal began to pull himself up the bank by the rope and Kinloch told Rose to go down the bank and cut his throat, while he hehl the rope tight so that the bear could do nothing. Roso onterod his domurrer to this, as ho did not want to trust himself within bruin's reach. Kinloch, who saw that this was the only way of escape, drow his revolver and told Rose that if he did not do it he would shoot him. Rose, who thought that the possibility of a bear's claws was better than the certainty of a ballet, crawled tremblingly down the bank, and succeeded in entting the bear's throat.
This adventuro disgusted Rose with the life of a vaquero, and he soon after left to resume his life on the sea, where a man conld be safe.
CHAPTER XLVIII. MINING.
Location of Leads-Coyote or Hill Diggings-Surface Diggings-Wet Surface DiggIngs-Flum- ing -- Drift. Gold- Prospecting-Panning -The Cradle-Water- Slices and Riffles-Quick- silver -- Tailings-Character of the Miner-Nomenclature-Condition of Society-Chinese- Indiaus-Rich Diggings-Yuba River Gold Dredging Company-River and Placer Mining- Traders, ele-Prices of Goods-Mining Laws-Hydraulic Mining -- Quartz Miving -- Mining Ditelres -- Mining Debris-Dinnage ov Yuba and Bear Rivers-Suit bythe City of Marysville.
The history of gold-ligging in California presents features peculiar to itself, and the appliances for extraction and separation,-often-
times the suggestion merely of first necessity. - have answered their purposes with comparatively few improvements. These various ap- pliances, together with those evidences upon which miners rely as tests of the presence of the precious metal, form a brief, but interesting chapter for the perusal of the general reader.
THE LOCATION OF THE LEADS.
In quartz mines the " leads " or veins are generally on the bed-rock, or in its crevices, but they are sometimes found several feet above it. These leads generally vary somewhat in thickness, from a few inches to several feet in " hill diggings," depending, however, for their length, upon the locality. If the vein is struck high upon the mountain it gen- erally " runs out." or terminates at the bottom of the first canyon towards which the bed-rock inclines. Following the latter, the miner drifts into the mountain, exploring all its branchings, which are plainly distinguished from the surrounding deposits, having underneath it the hard bed-rock, and above, and surrounding on either side, the soft, reddish or grayish deposit, while, within the crevices, or near the bed- rock, is pressed the hard, smooth, glassy mass of the quartz lead. In caso the lead is struck near the foot of the mountain, its course can only be determined by working it, thongh the general vale predeter- mines its conrse to be northwesterly. If the lead be found near the bottom of the first canyon, lying northiwesterly from this " prospect," and the bed-rock inclines but slightly in that direction, the end of the gold deposit is supposed to be near, and it will probably run out in that canyon ; but if the inclination of the bed-rock is great, the lead may lie below the nearest canyon, and run out in a deeper one beyond the intervening hill or mountain. If the lead be struck near the foot of the canyon with indifferent results, and the bed-rock rise in a north- westerly direction, into the body of the mountain, the search will be useless,-it being a general rule that the yield of gold increases toward the bottom of the canyon, and if only a small quantity be found there, a larger quantity may not be anticipated at a higher ele- vation. Quartz differs in color, being gray, rose, white or brown, some being of a coarse, hard quality, at other times crumbly, and generally opaque though sometimes transparent. Tbe metal is depos- ited in the quartz in minute particles, or in larger deposits, often spread in the seams and crevices in the form of leaves or layers. A blow of the hammer separates the latter from the quartz body.
" COYOTE " OR " HILL DIGGINGS;"
Are named after the " Coyote " (Kiote) or wild dog which burrows in the hills. The gold is found in " grain," unconnected with quartz. The bed-rock and surrounding deposits generally have some resem- blance in color; thus, if the latter resembles a brick mass, the former
is dark brown or black; but if tho latter resembles ashes, the fermer is gray, the gray being much harder than the dark, while the gold in the dark bed is coarser, and therefore less pure than on the gray bed; for the smallor the particles of gold the less impurities they contain.
" SURFACE DIGGINGS "
Are generally confined to the gorges and low lands. Any surface may be broken, without respect to " color " with reasonable expecta- tion of a "find," and in passing through, the " prospect " may be readily determined by tho experienced miner. By the term " low- " land " may be comprehended all the valleys and table lands, many miles in extent, and very elevated. In these grounds gold is gene- vally found within the depths of two or three fcet, and sometimes to bed-rock when in coarse gravel. The gold is generally in small elen- gated particles or mere scales, varying in size from loss than a pin's head to that of a pea; the larger pieces being known as " lumps and "' nuggets."
" WET SURFACE DIGGINGS."
These are the beds of streams laid bare by "fluming." The waters embosom rich deposits of gold, generally finely grained and very pure, which are carried downward over the gravelly bed of the stream until it panses upon a bar or impediment in the stream higher than the general bed, when owing to the check given to its progress, it sinks sufficiently to be caught, thus forming the "Bars." It will be ob- served tbat the whole bed or the deep places seldom ever beceme deposiss of gold. Tho theory is the same in respect to eddies and whirlpools, which become deposits by checking the progress of the metal coming in contact with their sides.
" FLUMING " AND "DIVERSION OF STREAMS,"
Is accomplished by the construction of conduits varying in length from forty to one hundred feet, and more, and are generally about two feet in width, by one foot deep. They are constructed in sections, each being the length of a plank; and one end of each section is so much narrower than the other, that they fit into each other, thus forming one continnous lengtb. Thus the waters of a river are carried through them, often several feet above their old channel, leaving their bed dry for the search. Nearly all the creeks and rivers of the northern and eastern portions of the State have thus been "flumed " at vari- ons points. Great labor and expense is necessary to erect and keep the flnine in repair, and is determined principally by its height. To erect a finme twenty-five feet high costs about twice as much as to lay one on the ground, and sixty feet, it costs about four times as much. A box flume forty inches wide by twenty inches deep with a grade
....
BEAVER RANCHO. HOTEL AND FARM OF SAMUEL AMSLER.NEW YORK TP. YUBA CO
CAL.
PUBLISHED BY THOMPSON & WEST.
C.L. SMITH & GO. LITH OAKLAND CAL.
NEW YORK RANCHO. RESIDENCE AND FARM OF L. FOSS AND SON. NEW YORK TP. YUBA CO. CAL.
133
HISTORY OF YUBA COUNTY CALIFORNIA.
of thirteen fect to the mile will carry eight hundred inches, and built on the surface of the gronud will cost at the: rate of $4,000 per mile near a saw-mill. The repairs of a flame cont ninety percent. more than that of a ditch. The duration of u high fluime is ou an average about six years, and a low one, eight or ten years, unless destroyed by floods.
DRIFT GOLI
Is not unfrequently found in nuggets of considerable size, in localities whero no leads exist and no indientions of its presence aqqwar. It is tho theory, that these isolated deposits were carried thither by drifts.
PROSPECTING.
This is a practical oxamination of the country, and tests of the suil, for the purpose of " locating u claim." The miner's principal updi- ances are his spado and gun, with a supply of provisions for several days, a hatchet, frying-jun und coffee. pot-and, thorough nequintanee with tho facts ahove recited. If ho " strikes u spot " which prospects favorably, if it bo an eddy or n " bar," he " jems the dirt " nud de- terminos first if it will "pay wuges" ubovo tho expense of " baring " the bottom " by " fluming" or otherwise. If it be " dry diggings " ho sinks n shaft fivo foot squuro, " panning " as ho descends, especially if ho finds that the nearer ho approaches " bedrock " the " richer the " dirt pans." Ho may oxmmine the rock by breaking the surface and find that it yields grains or senles of gold, or he may " striko a lend" or vein in the rock. If the load bo quartz, he powders tho Jump and soparates the gold by tho samo process.
"THE PAN" USED
In prospecting and mining is mado of sheet-iron, and in size and form, resomblos the common tin milk-pan. Panning is performed by sub- merging a panful of the dirt in wator, and then stirring and working it by tho hands of tho the operator to broak tho lumps and gradually dissolvo tho wholo muss which is borno off' in a thick, muddy cloud. By this process the gold contained in the dirt is left in the bottom of pan, its spocitie gravity preventing it from passing off with the current. A skillful operator will lose very few of the grains, The miner gene- rally estimates that the dirt which pays a dime to the pan is " pay dirt."
" THE CRADLE."
This is also employed in washing gokl. In its general outline it resembles a small child's cradle, and like it rests upen rockers. The cradle-box is about forty inches long, twenty wide and four high, and stands with the upper end about two feet higher than the lower end, which is open, so that the tailings can run out. Ou the upper end
stands a hopper twenty inches square, and sides tour inches high. The bottom of the hopper is of sheet in printed with holes hall on inch in diameter. It is irt fixed to the cradle box, but can le lifted off without difficulty. Under the riddle los is an " apron " of wand or cloth, fastened to the sides of the cradle box and sloping down to the upper end. Across the botton of the cradle. box are two ritlle- bars about an inch square, one in the middle, and the other at the end of the box. The dirt is shoveled into the hopper, the cradler 14Mrs wister upon the dirt and rocks the cradle at the same time, that daselv. ing the dirt, carrying it through the riddle, falling mimo the aprun, which carries it to the head of the cradle.box, when it runs ont, leav. ing its gold, black sand and heavier particles of sand out gravel be- hind the rithe bars.
WATER
Is always un important item in mining. For this purpose many of the streams and rivers have been tapped, and numerous canals and uqueduets have been constructed to conduct the valuable article to the " diggings" of the miner.
MEASUREMENT OF WATER.
Water is soll by the inch, and usually an iuch is the amount which escapes through an aperaturo an inch square, with the water six inches dorp above the top of the orifice. This is called a six-inch head or pressure. If a large quantity is sold, the oritice may be two or three inches high. The mode of measuremont however, is not uniform. The price of water, as sold by the Mining Ditch Companies, varios from five to twenty cents per inch for ten hours, the average being about ten cents.
" SLUICES"
Are really plauk flumes, into which the miner sometimes elevates the water by cheap machinery when his claim is located above its comnon flow.
" RIFFLES. "
Across the bottom of slnices, near one end, a small piece of board called n " rithe " is placed. It is about an inch and a half in height and is retained there by a cleat on each side of the sluice, the whole forming a low dam-some placing two or more riffles in a sluicc. Three sluice is placed on benches, the lower end upon the ground, the upper end raised to an angle of fifteen degrees, and is placed near the spot whence the earth is dug. Iuto this sluice the miner lets in a quantity of water sufficient to make a brisk stream about two inches deep. With his long·handled spade he digs np the coarse earth and casts it into the stream, filling the sluice for a distance of about twenty feet, to a point within three inches from the top. This dirt is slowly taken
---
up by the current, dissolved in its downward course, the grams of gold sinking to the bottom are returned by the rules for the " Tous." machine sometimes used by miners instead of the rite), while the water with its uupurities queses off at the lower end of the xhnice. This is sometimes continued a week or ten days before
"THE FLEAVING "F " OR "PASSING IF."
Then, the throwing in of dirt cases, and the water is shut off.
THE QUICKSILVER.
Sometimes used to catch or mualgunato the time gold, together with the dirt, gravel, and gold collected in the bottom of the shice, and gathered un the rithes, are taken up carefully, washed in the pan to five it from dirt. Then the quicksilver and gold are put into n buck skin and pressed, so that the liquid utal passes through, while the amalgait is retained, which is then heated to parcipstate the serenry. leaving the pure yellow gold. There hands of nualgam sieht om pound of gold. The dissolved earth discharged from the sluices and eradles, is denominated
" TAILINGS,"
And oftentimes contains quantities of the precious metal which the first process failed to secure, and may, at times, be worked over with profit.
The ciremustances connected with the discovery of gold in Unli- fornin and in Yuba county, have been detailed in uuother jartion of the volume. The life and the methods of mining in this region, were similar to those in other portions of the State. The miner was a class of the genus homo prenliar to itself, netive, restless, energetic, fem lexx, practical to the last degree. Everything in his eye had u vbwo iu proportion to its use. Governed by strange whims, he would name his claim or nickname his companions after any peculiarity of perant, incident or fancied resemblance. Muny were the ludicrous Ditturs applied to mining camps, the reason for giving which is a risklle to ns now, though no doubt a good one in the eyes of the christener. With the naming of each, there is no doubt something of interest. comreted, but it is impossible to learn it, as the miners who worked there know nothing about it. They cared little: what or how a place was named, so long as they could strike " pay dirt." Frequently a new man would come along and ask the miners where he should go to work. Not caring to be bothered with him, they would point out some spot, occasionally where they thought there was nothing whatever. If the man "made a strike" there, they would call it "Greenhorn Bar," or " Fool's Luck," or something of that kind. If & man becarne " dead broke," and finally made one last effort and "struck it rich," he would
134
HISTORY OF YUBA COUNTY. CALIFORNIA.
call it, " Last Chance" or " Murphy's Luck." "Cnt Eye Foster's Bar" was so jaumed, because Foster, the locator, had a eut over his eye. The reasons for naming the following are beyond our knowledge, and we simply give the unmes, leaving tho fertile imagination of the reader to supply the rest :- Whisky Gulch, Lousy Level, Liars' Flat, Shirt Tail Bond, Moonshine Creek, Old Hat Hollow, Stud Horse Canyon, Grub Ravine, P'inch 'Emu Tight, Jackass Ravine, and many others. A man's full name was seldom known, except by his personal friends, as it was custommery to call him by his given name, or a nickname was applied on account of some personal peculiarity, or the place from which he enme, such as :- Bob Kentnek, Big Jones, Red Mike, Whisky Bill, Sandy Jim, Judge, Three- Finger Jack, Curly Sam, Poker Bob, Limpy Jim, Big Foot Charlie, Texas Jack, Missouri Bill, etc.
The linbit of currying revolvers and Bowio-knives was universal, and not until 1852 and 1853, was this discontinned. Most of the emi- grants, in mublition to the nover failing revolver brought from the States, rifles und shot-guns which were found inconvonient and uscless in the mines, and wero placed in the stores to be disposed of or thrown away. The condition of society was such that every man had to rely ou himself for protection, and the revolver aud kuife being conven- iently carried, wore always ready to protect life and property, or to n vengo rent or fancied insult.
"Tho Chineso found abundant employment in the mines in the carly days. Soon after thoir first appearance, a prejudice against them bogan to gain ground minong the minors, although with a few excep- tions, thoy woro allowod to work penconbly on their elaims. After claims wore desorted by white miners, the economical Chinese located them again, and by diligent toil managed to make them pay hand- womoly.
At first largo numbers of Indiaus wore omployod by firms and min- ing companies, and many of the more independent Diggers worked for themselves. They know nothing of tho value of the gold, and at first wero contented if they had onough to eat, and a few beads and sugar thrown in for luxuries. Later, however, they began to learn that this yellow sand was worth something, aud refused to dig for the whites, preferring to keep the result of their labors with which to buy blankets, dresses, beads, etc., and for which they refused to pay the fancy prices at first charged. They had in 1848-49 given a cup of guld for a cup of beuds, and a pound of gold for a pound of sugar. Theodore Sicard was the favorite of the daughter of a chief, and con- sequently, of the chief himself, and thus managed to accumulate a large amount of " spangle gold." Mr. Babb says that he was shown by Sicard font or five claret bottles full of this gold, and judges that he must have had at least seventy thousand dollars, all of which he had obtained from the Indians. David Parks got rich in 1848 trading
with the Indians at Parks Bar. William Foster worked Indians at Foster Bar early in 1849. All along the river in 1848, the whites had Indiaus to help them. Claude Chana used them near Rosc Bar He says that the largest day's work he ever saw was in September, 1848, at Rose Bar. Four Indians, who were working for two white men, washed out fourteen hundred dollars, an average of three lumdred and fifty dollars each. Tho white men did nothing but superintend and take the gold.
To give an idea of the richness of the mining bars we give a few instances reported in 1851-2: -.
PARKS NAR.
In August, 1851, the Ohio Company were taking out one hundred ounces per day, the Canal Company cighty ounces, and the Squad Com- pamuy forty ounces. Miners were receiving six dollars per day. The Ohio Company consisted of seven members and each received on his share about $1,400 per week. One week the Canal Company divided $25,905 among its thirty-three members. In September, 1851, one bank claim here took out in one weck four pounds of gold, or over $1,000.
INDUSTRY BAR.
A company of fivo men took out $5,000 in three days in October, 1851.
FOSTER HAR.
The Falls Fluming Company worked over old ground and averaged four to eigth ounces per man daily. October 31, 1851, eight men took out seventy-two ounces, or about $140 each.
LONG BAR.
In the spring of 1852, they began to go over the ground for the third time, and made it pay well. Also at Ousley's Bar. The usual wages made at the various bars were from five to twenty-five dollars per day; anything more than that was unusual. New discoveries were made at Parks Bar in 1852, yielding $150 to $250 per day.
Among the many devices for seeuring the gold in the bottom of the rivers, was a dredging seheme, the history of which is best related in the words of Joseph Tryon, President of the Yuba River Goldl Dredg- ing Company, under wbose charge the work was carried on. In a communication to the Herald, July 20, 1851, he says: " Early in the " summer of 1850, it was a eommon opinion that the beds of the "rivers contained large and very rich deposits of gold. Many com- " pames were formed, and various were the means resorted to, either "to dam or drain our mountain streams; and it is a notorious fact that " eight out of every teu failed of success. The reason :- the river
" beds, to the astonishment ef all, contained no more gold than the " banks and bars, except upou some rapids where the bedrock could be " found withiu a few feet of the surface. The geographic changes in " the streams, where they leave the Sierra Novada and enter the " plains, are curious, and they have not unfrequently been diverted " from former courses, and wern out new and deeper beds, in very "many places, leaving their former localities entirely dry. It was iu " tho early part of last sununer, laboring under the common error of "supposing the beds of streams to be so rich, that a small company " was formed, and in a few days the steamor ' Phoenix,' which had " been dispatched from the Atlantie States with a complete set of " machinery, was moving towards our present location.
" Much disappointment was manifestad by numbers that they could " not procure an interest in this enterprise; and as au evidence of the " goed opinion ontertained by the public, stock changed hands at one " hundred per cent. advance in less than sixty days after our con- "meucement as a company. After eight months' timo and forty " thousand dollars outlay, the company placed the steamer upon her "present ground, Ousloy's Bar. Expeetatiou, based npon her first " operation, was extravagant. On tho thirteenth of March, she was "placed upon the ground and commenced operations. The working of " her dredge was perfect; she olevated about eighteen buckets in a " minute, and raised largo stoues, weighing from one to five hundred "pounds with ease. Sonic minor changes were fonnd necossary, which " her discerning commander, Captain William M. P. Moore, readily "adjusted. The earth was poured out when brought up, and to our "astonishment-in a place on Ousley's Bar reported to be very rich- "little if any gokl was found; while upon the banks and bars strata " were paying from three to twenty cents to a pan. Her position was " changed from place to place, and in no instance but one-when sbe " struek a narrow stratum about four feet below the surface and a foot "in width, paying about twenty cents to the pan-did she sneceed in "elevating dirt as rich as could be found in certain layers upon Ous- " ley's Bar ..
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.