The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast, Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: San Francisco : The Journal
Number of Pages: 556


USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast > Part 5


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


Honolulu. Two million dollars were shipped by sea in 1848, to say nothing of the quantity remaining in the country or carried off by land. Gold dust then, and for long after, was the general medium of exchange. From June of 1848 right on, people began to flock in from all quarters, . ters and in September there were 6000 people at and near Sutter's Fort. On the 20th of that month the news had traveled East, and amidst general ridicule the Baltimore Sun announced the fact. From that on California became the cynosure of all eyes-the gaze of the world was riveted on it as the news crossed the Atlantic to Europe early in Octo- ber. Meanwhile at the mines the value of gold dust had risen to twelve dollars an ounce and it was soon advanced to sixteen dollars, though the rapid increase in price of everything salable deprived theminer of much of the advantage of the increased value of his product. Be- fore the close of January, 1849, ninety vessels, carrying eight thou- sand men, had sailed for California, and seventy more vessels were laid on, while a great multitude of peo- ple had started on the ardnous over- land route. The magic word Cali- fornia had been heard in every land, and in certain sections of the Atlan- tic States, particularly, almost every family had a representative in the ad- venturous throng that sought the shining portals of the far-off land.


In 1849 the population had trebled. In San Francisco it had increased to 15,000 in despite of the con- stant depletion by the gold fever. The adventurous crowds even spread beyond the neighborhood of Sutter's Fort, and the valleys of the Sacra- mento and the San Joaquin and their tributaries were soon crowded by adventurous gold-seekers. From Mariposa to Trinity new and valu- able placers were discovered, throw- ing the old ones far into the shade. So great was the gold fever that San Francisco harbor counted four hun-


36


BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.


dred vessels deserted by their crews. During this year 35,000 people for the mines arrived by sea and 40,000 by land. As a sign that the news had spread all over the world it may be stated that 24,000 were natives of foreign climes. From $400,000 a month in 1848 the yield of the mines rose to one million and a half dollars in 1849. The next year, 1850, saw the yield more than doubled. By sea $27,600,000 in gold was shipped, but as this was undervalued, the true value was doubtless much more. A host of 56,000 arrived came with intent to try the mines. These arrived by swift-sailing clippers, making the voyage in three months, and charg- ing as high as $50 a ton for freight. They were gold mines in themselves. They brought 27,000 immigrants in 1851, during which year $34,000,000 in gold dust was shipped by sea.


The golden harvest still continued to be reaped and the stream of immi- grants, in search of the golden fleece, to flow into the land. Sixty- seven thousand came in 1851, while $46,000,000 in California gold dust went East to enrich the merchants, the manufacturers and farmers, who supplied the toilers in the golden land.


The next year the tide began to ebb and large numbers returned, either rich or disappointed-the im- migration exceeding the emigra- tion by not over 3,000. But the mines still continued to yield their treasures, and the returns of the Custom-house showed that $55,000,000 had been exported by sea. In 1854 there was a check to the exports, which dropped off to $51,000,000, and a serious panic oc- curred in San Francisco. The year following the export was only $47,000- 000. But that year 200 business houses failed for an aggregate of $8,000,000. Those were the days that tried men's souls. Page, Bacon & Company's bank, which had bought $20,000,000 worth of gold dust in


1854, and the Adams Express Com- Fany closed their doors. It was thought that the golden promises of the earlier days were to be realized in the placers of Kern River, in Southern San Joaquin Valley, but the sanguine were doomed to disappoint- ment. The next two years were ones of comparative quiet, but in 1858 the gold fever broke out in the form it had assumed in 1849. Dur- ing the greater part of 1858 San Francisco was as it had been ten years before. Its streets were filled with excited multitudes seeking the new El Dorado. From April till September of that year the public mind was aflame. During this time the number that went to the Frazer was 23,428, or 6 per cent. of the total population. There were five times as many ready to go, when there came a revulsion of feeling and the drain ceased. The mining re- gions felt the movement worst, as some of the towns lost fifty per cent. of their inhabitants, and for a while it was dreaded that the State would be depopulated. Real estate went down one-half to three-fourths. Fra- zer River proved a disappointment, and the vast majority soon came back, when matters returned to their normal channel.


Since that time the romance of mining in California has almost ceased, and the pursuit of gold has been followed as a steady occupatior, much the same as that of agriculture and manufactures. Still the pros- pector is a broad, and though there is no longer the romance of old, the same steady perseverence in the midst of hunger and cold, from day to day and year to year, is exhibited.


From 1858, with few exceptions, the yield of gold has steadily declined. By 1864 it had dropped to $35,000,- 000, in 1866 it was only $26,000,000, while in 1868 it had dropped to the level of the second year of its ex- istence. From that till 1880 it came down by degrees till it reached $20,000,000 and now does not exceed


37


CALIFORNIA.


$12,000,000 - a fraction of what it was in the fifties. It would have averaged about $16,000,000 for the past few years but for the agitation against hydraulic mining and the way that it is at present carried on.


From California the prospectors poured rapidly over the other sec- tions of the Pacific Coast. They soon found their way to Oregon, and placer deposits in Jackson and Josephine Counties have been work- ed since 1851, and have yielded up- wards of $25,000,000. Grant County has given to the world about $12,- 000,000 in gold. From 1866 to 1870 Oregon and Washington Territory together yielded each year an aver- age of about $3,000,000 worth of the precious metal; in 1868 it rose to $4,000,000. Since then it has been gradually declining, but still sends forth $1,000,000 a year. From Ore- gon the gold hunters soon found their way to Idaho, and a year after Oregon had entered the list of gold- bearing lands, Idaho was added. The first discovery was made on the Pend d'Oreille River in 1852, but there was little done till 1869, when the Clear Water River became the seat of valuable placer mines. Since then the Territory has yielded richly, the production reaching $7,000,000 in 1868. Until 1873 the mines kept up very well.


For the past ten years the yield has varied from $1,500,000 to $3,500,- 000 per year, improving during the past two years. It has no doubt great undeveloped auriferous treasures still. The great Territory of Montana, whence spring the mighty streams of the Missouri and Yellowstone, was early added to the gold-bearing reg- ions of the country. The first dig- gings at Alder Gulch, Deer Lodge Valley and Confederate Gulch were amongst the richest in America. They were worked out, or nearly so, in a remarkably short space of time. From 1864 to 1870 the Territory yielded largely-from $13,000,000 to $14,000,000 a year. Since then it


has dwindled, going as low as $3,000,- 000 in 1869. From that on there has been a gradual improvement, and in 1883 the mountain land gave to the world over $8,000,000 in the pre- cious metal.


Nevada is more famed as a silver State than as a gold mining region, nevertheless it has produced gold in large quantity-from one-fourth to one-half of the product of various mines on the Comstock. In the Humboldt and Walker River regions a good deal of gold has been found. In 1876 the gold yield of Nevada was $18,000,000-other years from $3,000,000 to $10,000,000.


While the gold-mining excitement was still at its height, in 1857, a band of Cherokee Indians tried, unsuccess- fully, to explore Colorado. Next year, however, a company of white men from Georgia and one from Kan- sas discovered gold near Pike's Peak. In 1859 it was discovered near the sources of Clear Creek. This was succeeded by a rush of gold-hunters from the South, and in 1860 the Ter- ritory had 35,000 people. Gold min- ing in Colorado was not what it had been in California -- it required skilled labor to extract it from the ores in which it was found. This checked the ardor of the gold-hunters, and it was some years ere the output of the Territory reached any considerable figure. The product has principally been silver-gold taking second place. In 1887 it was $5,500,000.


Utah has been celebrated for her mineral treasures from a very early date, but it is to the restless Gentiles that the development of that Terri- tory has been principally due. In precious metals its production is mainly represented by silver. But for every $13 in silver, it gives to the world about $1 in gold. In 1883 its gold yield was valued at $500,000. In some years it has been about $1,000,000. It has added altogether about $14,000,000 to the gold pro- duct of America.


New Mexico has been famed for


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BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.


gold as far as three centuries back. This is one of the regions where it was supposed were to be found the seven cities of Cibola, the center of the greatest auriferous region on earth. We have fow accounts of what was done till after the American occupation. In 1870 the gold pro- duced was about $343,250, and in 1874, $500,000. Since then there has been a slow increase in the pro- duction of the precious metals. More attention has been given to silver mining of late, and the average gold yield has not exceeded that of 1870, or about $6,500,000 during the past fourteen years.


Though the mines of Arizona have been worked for over a century, there was very little done prior to the American occupation. Since then, and especially during the past few years, the mineral riches of the Ter- ritory have been rapidly developed. Its production of gold has been gen- erally about one-fifth that of silver- in 1883 being $1,300,000. Since 1877 it has added about $11,000,000 to the stock of the world's gold.


The restless spirit of adventure so characteristic of our prospectors, car- ried them, a few years ago, into the Blackhills of Dakota. The first year the production was $2,500,000. From that it went up to $3,800,000 in 1882. In 1883 the production was $2,800,- 000. The total product of the Terri- tory has been $41,000,000.


Since 1848 the Pacific Coast States of the Union have given to the world over $2,000,000,000 worth of gold, of which California has con- tributed not less than $1,393,100,000. This has revolutionized the com- merce and industry of the earth, made the pulses of trade beat quicker, has spread networks of railroads over every land, has helped to build up the great cities of the earth, and has, as it were, created a new world. Without this the North could not have carried on the War of Secession to a triumphant conclusion, and could not have advanced in material wealth


as it has, while the commerce of Eng- land, France and Germany would have been twenty years behind what it is to-day. If this gigantic sum were withdrawn at once from the circulation of the world, the value of every commodity would at once fall fifty per cent., and universal bank- ruptcy and stagnation would prevail. A great part of the world's fleets would rot at the wharves, while the plough would rust in the furrow, the loom would lie idle, and grass would grow in the streets of many a city.


California still supplies one-half the gold produced in the United States, which does not vary much from $34,000,000 a year. There has been a steady decrease from the de- cade of 1850-'60, when it was double the amount, and when the Golden State supplied almost the whole of it. The following table gives the yield of California, year by year, as nearly as can be ascertained :


1848 $5,000,000


1849


22,000,000


1850


59,000,000


1851 60,000,000


1852


59,000,000


1853


68,000,000


1854


64,000,000


1855


58,000,000


1856 63,000,000


1857


61,000,000


1858


59,000,000


1859


59,000,000


1860


52,000,000


1861


50,000,000


1862


51,500,000


1863


50,000,000


1864


35,000,000


1865


35,000,000


1866


26,000,000


1867


25,000,000


1868


22,000,000


1869 21,000,000


1870 25,800,000


1871


25,850,000


1872


21,450,000


1873


20,000,000


Am't carried over .. $1,097,600,000


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CALIFORNIA.


Am't forward $1,097,600,000


1874


25,000,000


1875


25,000,000


1876


22,000,000


1877


19,500,000


1878 1879


17,700,000


17,600,000


1880


17,700,000


1881


17,000,000


1882


16,500,000


1883


15,000,000


1884


15,000,000


1885


14,000,000


1886


14,500,000


1887


15,000,000


1888


17,000,000


1889


15,000,000


1890


12,000,000


Grand total. $1,393,100,000 Some of the mines of California have been almost fabulously rich.


The Eureka Mine, at Grass Valley, in nine years yielded $4,272,148, of which a little over $2,000,000 was paid in dividends. The Idaho Mine, in the same district, has paid $1,284,- 950. It 1873 the product was valued at nearly $1,000,000. The average number of tons of quartz crushed in California, for a great many years, exceeded 500,000 tons a year, the value of which ranged from $50 to $250 a ton. It has now gone up over 2,000,000 tons and averages $5 per ton. The celebrated Eureka, above noted, has averaged a little over $80 a ton. Hydraulic mining has long been one of the notable features of California, although it is doubtful whether the decisions of the courts will not altogether stop it, or very much change its nature. It has been followed for about thirty-one years and it is indicative of the energy and vim of the early California pio- neers. Thousands of miles of ditches have been built through the moun- tains to convey the water necessary. By it gravel deposits, even when found in high hills, are washed away. The water is directed through a pipe at a pressure of as much, sometimes, as 500 feet. It is directed


sometimes with a velocity of 160 feet per second. With this, equal in itself to a small Niagara, the base of the hills is washed away, while the summit topples over like a building undermined. Great rocks of hun- dreds of pounds' weight are tossed about like straws in the current. Sometimes it is necessary to use gun- powder, and as much as 2,000 pounds has been fired at a single blast. Gold mining in California is by no means a thing of the past. The deposits are mostly those made by mighty rivers in past periods of geologic time. In their beds, far beneath the surface of the earth, the accumulated riches of ages lie. Those who are well acquainted with those deposits say that the blue lead alone can yield $20,000,000 a year for one hundred years. And the noted blue lead is only one out of many of those old world river beds where the legacy of long ages, of myriads of years, has been hidden to be uncovered in the light of the nineteenth century- the century of marvels! Drift min- ing is bound to assume more promi- nence, as hydraulic mining is ren- dered more difficult under the laws of the State for the impounding of debris. It is of most importance now in Placer, Nevada and Sierra Counties. It was pursued to a con- siderable extent early in the histo- ry of the State, and for the past ten years has been resumed with very satisfactory results. In most of the mining counties of the State, progress is the watch-word of to-day. Rich ledges of six feet in thickness, and yielding from $40 to $80 per ton, as is the case in Siskiyou, are being opened up every day. Old Gold Bluff, after being idle fully twenty years, has yielded $15 to $20 per ton at a depth of 1,000 feet.


Drift mining has done a good deal to replace the millions added to the annual production of the State under the old system. Very profitable oper- ations are being conducted at Forest Hill Divide, Placer County, The


40


BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.


same is true of other localities. Drift mining will, in future years, add scores of millions to the wealth of the State and of the world. Despite the fact that hydraulicking has been practically stopped for many years, the owners of the rich claims have not lost heart, but are trying, on the proposition to impound the debris, to be allowed to resume operations again. If this could be done so as not to inflict injury on the farmers of the valley or to shoal the bay, there is no doubt that it would be a grand thing for the State, for its gravel de- posits can yield in the future hun- dreds of millions of dollars. It looks as if they would be successful. Millions are now invested in it and lying idle which can be rendered eminently productive, and not only be a benefit to California, but to the Union, and we may add humanity. The average annual yield of gold under the system was, according to conservative au- thorities, $5,000,000 per annum. But the friends of hydraulic mining now claim that it can be made to yield fully $20,000,000 per annum. Take a goodly slice off of this and there is still a large margin left. The United States Commission will aid largely in the practical solution of the question. The system is still carried on in the northwest of the State, on the rivers emptying into the Pacific.


The interest displayed in river-bed mining is on the increase year by year, and it promises to add materi- ally to the future out-put of the State. It is now being prosecuted with very fair success. More attention is now being called to the tailings from hun- dreds of mines, and it is believed that in a great number of cases they can be profitably worked. There are millions of cubic yards from which treasures can be obtained in the future. The Chinese, years ago, pointed out the way to success in this matter.


The following is the yield of lead- ing mines of Grass Valley to 1889 :


Eureka, over


$7,000,000


Idaho


7,000,000


Empire 7,000,000


Allison Ranch.


4,700,000


Rocky Bar


4,500,000


Gold Hill


4,000,000


North Star


3,000,000


New York Hill


3,000,000


Scadden's Flat.


2,000,000


New Rocky Bar.


2,000,000


Besides these there are many other mines which have yielded over $1,- 000,000 eaclı.


The census of 1880 gave the yield in detail of the different States and Territories, from which we take tlie following excerpt :


GOLD.


DEEP MINES.


PLACER MINES.


0Z.


VALUE.


OZ.


VALUE.


Arizona ..


8,802.6


$181,966


1.451 2


$29,999


California .... 414,571.7


8,569,959


415.105.0


8,580,982


Colorado ..... 125,685.7


2,598,153


4,921.9


101,745


Dakota ....... 157.459.8


3,254,984


2.460.3


50,859


Idaho


29.025.4


600,000


42,552.8


879,644


Montana


.. 31.098.4


642,861


56,255.6


1,162,906


Nevada ...


.234,050.0


4,838,243


2.418.7


49,999


N. Mexico


.. 2,387.6


49,354


2.387.5


49,354


Oregon


8,289.8


171,365


44,811.6


926,330


Utah .


13,138.0


271,578


967.5


20,000


Wash Ter .


812.7


16,800


6,756.6


119,000


The following is the total number of ounces and value :


Arizona


10.253.8


$211,965


California


929.676.7


17,150,941


Colorado


.130,607.6


2 699,898


Dakota


159,920.1


3,305,843


Idaho ..


71,578.2


1.476,653


Montana


87,354.0


1,805.767


Nevada


236,468.7


4,888,252


New Mexico


2,387.5


49,354


Oregon.


63,101.3


1,097,701


Utah


14,105.5


291,687


Washington Territory ..


6,669.3


135,800


Deep mines, 1,025,391.6 ounces; value, $21,195,281.


Placer mines, 576,701.1 ounces; value, $11,921,470.


Total -- 1,602,022.7 ounces; value, $33,116,751.


The figures here given for Nevada and one or two Territories are esti- mated, hence the total is probably below the true figures, but not much. From this it appears that the strong- holds of placer mining are found in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. California still raises a large part of the yield by the olden system, improved by the ex- perience of forty-two years.


Alaska is fast becoming one of the


41


CALIFORNIA.


most important mining regions of America, and her yield now exceeds $1,000,000 a year. It will probably keep on increasing indefinitely. Some of our leading mining men have vast interests there.


SILVER.


Gold was the lode-star that allured the companions-in-arms of Cortez. Gold it was which drew the pioneers to California, over desert, plain and heavy-climbing mountains, and over thousands of leagues of ocean. Yet silver, in the new world, has held a prominent place ever since the Span- iard set foot upon it. Mexico, in 300 years, has yielded over $2,000,- 000,000 in silver, and it is not, there- fore, marvelled that some amongst the earliest pioneers should single out that glittering metal that is so often the fount of inspiration in poesy and song. But their labors were not crowned with any success till 1858, when the mines of Washoe began to give indications of riches in silver and gold combined, greater than the wildest imagination of man had ever dreamed of. That discovery was a matter of the merest accident. In the placer mines of the Gold and Six Mile Canyons, the rockers be- came clogged with a black deposit, which was thrown away. One of the miners, however-James Fenimore -- examined it and worked the crop- pings whence it was derived, obtain- ing a good deal of free gold there- from. He took up a claim cover- ing the location of the Mexican and Ophir Mines. In the Spring of the next year it was found that the crop- pings extended far below the surface, and the indications of richness at- tracted the attention of those who knew something of silver mining. About two years previously the Grosch brothers had discovered the metal at the site of Silver City. Com- stock, one of Fenimore's chums, pur- chased his interest for a bob-tailed Indian pony and a bottle of whisky. He himself sold out soon after for


$6,000, but gave his name forever to the famous lode. A year after, the property sold for over $1,000,000. There was very little known of the celebrated lode till 1860, when the production of silver was about $70,- 000-about one-third as much more being gold. Then miners began to flock into the new El Dorado, and the next year witnessed $1,750,000 in silver raised from the soil of Nevada. In 1862 the lode yielded about $6, 250, - 000 in silver and gold-three-fourths being the former metal. Then it be- came a world's wonder, and Washoe was in every one's mouth. Adven- turers flocked in from every country on the earth, and people began to dream that the fabled wealth of the Mexican mines might be yet surpass- ed amongst the barren Mountains of Nevada -- and it was surpassed. Iu 1863 Washoe gave $9,250,000 in sil- ver and $3,250,000 in gold. Com- panies by the score were formed to work the mines, a Mining Exchange was organized, and the stock specula- tion that has burned so fiercely ever since was given birth to. The shares in the mines reached values almost fabulous. Gould and Curry, named after two Irishmen, the discoverers, sold in June, 1863, at $6,300 a share; Savage at $4,000; Ophir at $2,700; Hale and Norcross at $2,700; and Chollar at $1,000. Of these the Gould and Curry was the principal one, and after a few months that be- gan to give out. Stocks went down as fast as they advanced, and in San Francisco thousands of people be- came beggars. Still there was a great stimulus given to the growth of the city, and the increase of wealth aud the losses of the unfortunate were soon forgotten.


The yield of the Nevada mines still continued to increase, till 1864 saw $12,500,000 in silver and about $3,000,000 in gold produced, while the next two years showed no dimi- nution in the yield of veiny silver and of golden ore. In 1867 there was another wonderful bonanza revealed


42


BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.


at Gold Hill, and the Ophir mine did not belie its name. Nevada that year yielded $15,000,000 in silver and $5,000,000 in gold, while the dividends paid in San Francisco reached $3,800,000. This was a phenomenal year, and in 1868 and 1869 fell off $4,000,000 in the value of gold and silver extracted. At this time White Pine was discovered, and showed ore that yielded the unparal- leled product of $10,000 a ton in sil- ver. The ore was three times as rich as that of Washoe, and a great rush took place thither. In 1870 White Pine made the world richer by $4,000,000 in silver, while the State at large, though the Comstock had declined in richness and glory, reckoned her yield of the precious metals as worth $16,000,000. The excitement about White Pine lasted one brief year, and then it and the mines and the towns that they gave rise to collapse as suddenly as they had risen.


Nevada was not yet stripped of its silver, and in 1871 there were three great mines opened-the Bel- cher and the Crown Point on the Comstock, and the Raymond and Ely mine at Pioche. The stock excite- ment took a new lease of life, and the value of the stocks listed on the Stock Board advanced from $17,000,- 000 in January of that year to $81,- 000,000 in May. This sudden acces- sion of wealth gave a great impetus to the advance of San Francisco for a while. But in less than a month the stocks shrank $60,000,000 in value, and the scenes of nine years previous were repeated. But the mines yielded richly. The Pioche district contributed $8,000,000 to the general wealth, and Nevada, on the whole, was richer by $17,500,000 in silver and $5,000,000 in gold. The stock sales in San Francisco reached $200,000,000.




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