Say when gold was $400.00 an ounce, then $20 dollar gravel meant 1 pennyweight of free gold distributed throughout 1 cubic yard of gold bearing placer river gravel rocks and sand.
Today ( July 22, 2011) that would be $80 dollar gravel.
2000 pounds of quartz rock sand gravel with 1 one 20th ounce of gold is...
1
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2000 x 20 = 40,000
or 25 parts per million
640,000,000,000 ounces of gold in sea water
http://goldmapleleafcoins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/2009-gold-maple-leaf.jpg
http://www.westernmininghistory.com/article_images/caligold/pg98.jpg (map of Nevada City area mines)
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/placer_gold/Coarse_gold_P2.htm
The Carlin Gold IS visible and ranges in size from flour to microscopic. Under an electron microscope the gold can be seen as blebs in the pyrite and even as coatings in the striations of crystal sulphides. This is common with many sulphide sourced gold.
He states that gold is found in the form of iron pyrite but gold is found in the form of gold and pyrite as pyrite its just that they are sometimes in very close association.
One confusing aspect is that gold found in host rock containing sulphides can have free gold, gold in association with sulphides, and gold right in the sulphides. For a panner finding gold from that kind of ore they are panning the "nuggets" and will never see the ultra fines.
It would be unfair to characterize the iron pyrite as the host when in fact many of the sulphides can be found in association. Often as a mixed bag of sulphides as during formation the sulfur was complexing with different metals. Arsenic, Iron, Copper etc and any and all of them could be associated with gold.
The idea of roasting has merit and has worked to some degree in the past though it was not so good until chloriation and cyanide came into wider use. Some mills did roast to break down the sulphides before stamp milling and mercury plates and the process did increase gold recovery but the mercury systems just could not get at a lot of the gold and even after roasting the ores were often a pain as they caused contamination of the mercury and both gold and mercury losses
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The nuclear microprobe has been used to examine gold-pyrite associations in the gold-bearing Kimberley Reefs of the Witwatersrand basin through the use of particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) dynamic mapping and spot analysis. Two morphological types of gold were found: visible gold which is spatially related to zones of high As concentration on detrital and authigenic pyrite surfaces, and invisible gold which is partially correlated with high As concentrations in authigenic pyrite grains. The spatial resolution of PIXE analysis allows the mapping of trace element distributions, at a few ppm level, in two dimensions, an application that is not accessible by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and ore microscopy. This information is of crucial importance in understanding the mechanisms of gold deposition in and on pyrite surfaces.
Author Keywords: Invisible gold; Visible gold; Pyrite; Kimberley Reef; Witwatersrand basin
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n the district of Vall de Ribes, Cambro-Ordovician schists contain several disseminated gold-bearing arsenopyrite occurrences. Close to these occurrences quartz veins parallel to the Hercynian foliation also contain arsenopyrite gold mineralization. Most of the ore is, however, within brittle structures (fractures and thrusts) crosscutting the Hercynian foliation. They occur as veins enclosed in schists and dolomites, and as replacement bodies in dolomites, and are representative of a large number of gold-bearing sulfide deposits that are known to occur in the Hercynian basement of the Pyrenees.The postfoliation veins mainly consist of quartz, siderite, ankerite, arsenopyrite, pyrite, and several minor sulfides. Gold is found in close association with the sulfides. According to fluid inclusion and arsenopyrite geothermometry, the veins formed at a temperature around 350 degrees to 400 degrees C and 2 kbars pressure. Mineralizing fluids were CO 2 -free NaCl + CaCl 2 + (KCl) brines with salinities ranging from 10 to 26 wt percent NaCl equiv. The pH of the fluid was near neutral, the sulfur fugacity was constrained by the stability of pyrite and arsenopyrite, and the oxygen fugacity was close to or higher than pyrite-pyrrhotite-magnetite equilibrium. Under these conditions, and as suggested by available experimental data, gold was most likely transported as AuCl (super -) 2 . The high dependence of gold solubility on temperature suggests a cooling of the solution as the most efficient precipitating mechanism, which is in accordance with the close association of native gold to sulfides and quartz found in the veins.
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The Eocene epoch in the Great Basin of western North America was a period of profuse magmatism and hydrothermal activity. During that period, the Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada were produced, Earth's second largest concentration of gold after deposits in South Africa. The characteristics of the Carlin-type deposits have been documented, but a widely acceptable explanation for their genesis is outstanding. Here we integrate microanalyses of ore minerals, experimental data that describe metal partitioning, and published age and isotopic data, to suggest that the gold is sourced from magma. We relate gold deposition to a change from shallow subduction to renewed magmatism and the onset of extension. We propose that upwelling asthenosphere impinged on a strongly modified subcontinental lithospheric mantle, generating magmas that released gold-bearing fluids at depths of 10 to 12km. The rising aqueous fluids with elevated hydrogen sulphide concentrations and a high ratio of gold to copper underwent phase changes and mixed with meteoric water. Within a few kilometres of the surface, the fluids dissolved and sulphidized carbonate wall rocks, leading to deposition of gold-bearing pyrite. We conclude that the large number and size of Carlin-type deposits in Nevada is the result of an unusual convergence of a specific geologic setting, together with a tectonic trigger that led to extremely efficient transport and deposition of gold.
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Economic geology
Rivers of gold
More than 35 percent of all the gold ever mined has come from a single source: the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. For over a century, geologists have debated how this basin became so enriched with gold. The answer could help prospectors isolate the highest grade ores within the basin and determine what features to look for when hunting for a new Witwatersrand-type deposit — knowledge particularly needed now because production from the basin has steadily dropped since its peak in 1970. The average grade of ore is nearly half what it once was.
Shedding light on this debate is a paper in the Sept. 13 Science that says the Witwatersrand gold first formed 3 billion years ago, when upwelling from the mantle formed a large section of the South African continental crust. The new work shows the gold is a quarter of a billion years older than its host sedimentary rock, suggesting the gold first formed outside of the basin and then washed into the basin along with sediments.
Thin layers of gold and pyrite cut through this argillite from the Witwatersrand Basin. Jason Kirk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues found that gold in samples similar to this one is older than the surrounding rock. They report that their finding indicates the gold first formed outside the basin and then washed into the basin many millions of years later. Image courtesy of Lori Stiles, University of Arizona.
“Our results support a placer model: the gold is derived from source rocks north and west of the basin and transferred by streams and rivers into the basin and converted into rock,” says Jason Kirk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson and lead author of the paper.
Rivers filled the basin with sediments between 2.7 and 2.9 billion years ago. Today the gold lies within thin sedimentary layers, or reefs, that wrap around the edge of the basin and dive to depths of 5,000 meters or more.
If the placer model is correct, prospectors looking for higher ore grades within the basin should concentrate on sediments that accumulated under calm sections of the ancient rivers. Most of the gold would have fallen out in these areas.
Furthermore, valuable remnants of the vast deposit that originally supplied the placer gold could lie near the basin. “Komatiites, magnesium-rich basalts that formed much more frequently during the Archean than they do today, are the best candidates for the initial hosts of the gold,” Kirk says.
The age of the gold Kirk’s team found weakens an alternative, hydrothermal explanation for the gold’s origin. The hydrothermal theory holds that hot water migrated up through fractures and pores in the sedimentary rock. Gold ions dissolved in the water precipitated when they brushed against hydrocarbons within the rock. This theory requires the gold to be younger or the same age as the host rock.
If the hydrothermal theory is correct, it will have dramatically different implications for gold exploration. Prospectors should look for areas with fractures that allow hot water to migrate, and for sedimentary rock riddled with cracks and crevices that could trap the gold.
A hydrothermal origin would also suggest that Witwatersrand-type deposits are not that unique and could be found in other areas. “The hydrothermal theory opens up many areas for Witwatersrand-type deposits, necessitating basins with the appropriate tectonics, but not necessarily tied to other requirements,” says Andy Barnicoat, a geologist at the University of Leeds and proponent of the hydrothermal theory.
Kirk and colleagues determined the age of the gold by measuring the amount of rhenium and osmium within the gold. These elements occur in low concentrations, on the order of a few parts per billion, but sensitive mass spectrometers are able to detect them. Rhenium-187 decays to osmium-187 with a half-life of 45 billion years. The researchers calculated the age of the gold by measuring the amount of rhenium decay.
“The rhenium-osmium system is one of the newest isotopic systems developed because of analytical advances since the mid-1980s,” Kirk says.
Previous studies dated the gold by determining the age of pyrite and other minerals thought to have formed at the same time as the gold. Some of the minerals were younger than the sedimentary rock, and some older, and it was not clear which group, if any, reflected the same process that generated the gold.
Even the rhenium-osmium system is not foolproof, Barnicoat says. The morphology of the gold within the reefs suggests that it has dissolved and recrystallized at least once during its 3 billion years within the sedimentary rock. So the gold may not have remained a closed system since its inception; it may have gained or lost rhenium and osmium atoms during recrystallization. The current concentrations of these elements in the gold may not reflect the gradual radiogenic decay required for an accurate age.
“In general, isotopic systems do not remain unaffected by recrystallization and I can’t see why the rhenium-osmium data should differ from any other radiogenic isotope system,” Barnicoat says.
The debate will continue, says Joaquin Ruiz, a geologist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the paper. “The critics of the placer model are probably going to come back to us and argue that the age dates are flawed. That is where the arguments are going to go now.”
Greg Peterson
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compiled by R. James Weick, 1994
Gold, the noblest of metals, has been used by man for more than 5000 years. Its extreme softness or malleability, and resistance to tarnish (oxidation), led to its earliest uses in art and currency. Gold is the metal of choice for jewellery, and is often used in dentistry. Gold has also been used successfully in many modern technological applications. It is used as the electrical contacts of computer chips. Minute quantities of gold (less than 3 micrograms) are vaporized to mirror lens surfaces. The intrinsic value of gold offers an attractive alternative to stocks and bonds for many investors. It remains the principle medium for setting currency values and settling international debts among the nations of the world.
Minor concentrations of gold occurs in most natural substances. In seawater, for example, there is approximately 0.012 parts per billion (ppb) of gold, and in fresh water it is slightly higher at 0.02 ppb. Its average concentration in the Earth's crust or lithosphere is approximately 5 ppb, and in certain sedimentary rocks it may achieve concentrations of up to 2100 ppb or 2.1 parts per million (ppm). At these concentrations 20 or 30 tons of rock must be processed to extract a single ounce of precious gold. As a result, gold can only be mined profitably where it is highly concentrated by natural chemical and physical processes.
Gold occurs in many different geologic settings and its classification into deposit types is complicated. However, two basic types of occurrences or deposits are recognized, primary and secondary. Both rely on similar chemical and physical processes to produce economic concentrations of gold ore. Primary deposits form where gold precipitates during chemical reactions between hydrothermal (hot fluids) mineralizing solutions (metal-bearing)and rocks in the Earth's crust. Secondary deposits form later during the chemical and mechanical processes of weathering and erosion, and the physical reconcentration of gold-bearing sediment into placer deposits.
Hydrothermal deposits can be classified as either epigenetic (deposits that form after the formation of the surrounding rocks and other events of mineralization) or syngenitic (deposits that form the same time as surrounding rocks). In epigenetic hydrothermal deposits gold may occur as the principle metal or as a secondary mineral associated with other metals, such as iron, copper, lead and zinc. In these epigenetic hydrothermal deposits. One variety of epigenetic deposit (epithermal gold deposits) form at temperatures below 350°C by the convective circulation of fluids to depths of approximately 2 kilometres, usually near hot igneous bodies or plutons in volcanically active regions. In this type of hydrothermal occurrence gold is generally at relatively low concentrations. Hot springs are modern examples of this type of mineralization process. Mesothermal gold deposits, which form at temperatures above 350°C, occur along large breaks or faults in continental crust. The origin of these is not certain, but they form at depths of 3 to 5 kilometres below the Earth's crust, and appear to be associated with the upward migration of fluids from the Earth's mantle.
Gold is often extracted as a by-product during smelting from volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits (syngenetic hyrdothermal deposits) which are generated by the accumulation of metal-rich sediments near active volcanic centres on the seafloor. Gold is also found in porphyry copper deposits, high volume (up to 1000 million tons), low grade (0.7% Cu) deposits, formed by the circulation of fluids through the Earth's crust during the volcanic activity related to mountain building above active subduction zones.
Secondary gold occurrences or placer deposits are formed by the deposition and reconcentration of gold-bearing sediments from primary gold occurrences. Placer deposits are generally classified according to their depositional environment. Marine placers occur offshore near coastlines; fluvial placers occur in river and stream valleys in the drainage basins which contain primary gold occurrences upstream. Some studies suggest that gold is not only mechanically transported in placers, but that it is also chemically transported. The unusual size and purity of nuggets in some placer deposits supports this theory for gold transportation.
Why is it important to continue the search for gold and other metals? Aside from the obvious financial benefits associated with the discovery and development of mineral deposits to mining companies, there are many benefits to communities fortunate enough to be located near producing mines. Exploration and mine development are activities that create jobs. They require highly trained professionals, and skilled technical personnel that may be found in local communities. In addition to the manpower and labour requirements, mineral property and mine development activities often require additional materials and specialized technical services. These are often provided by geologic and mining engineering companies, who locate offices in local communities to participate in exploration and mine development contracts. The economic "spin-offs" to communities from these activities are often significant. Resource-based activities, including mining and exploration often serve as the base for local and regional economies.
Where is the gold in Newfoundland? Despite an extensive exploration and mining history, gold exploration is a relatively new activity in Newfoundland and Labrador. While the gold-bearing base metal VMS deposits, such as at the former Buchans and Rambler mines, are well known, exploration over the last two decades has resulted in the recognition of numerous epigenetic gold deposits and prospects in the province. Important recent discoveries include the Hope Brook Mine, near Burgeo, and the Pine Cove and Nugget Pond deposits, near Baie Verte. There is also excellent potential for the discovery of marine placers in regions, such as the Baie Verte Peninsula, with an abundance of primary base metal and gold deposits. The potential for fluvial placers has not been investigated, but these may be discovered in some of the larger river basins.
To summarize, recent exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador has resulted in the discovery of several new, significant gold prospects. While many of these are sub-economic, a few have been successfully developed as mines. The current economic recovery in Canada, and increases in the market price of gold have already resulted in increases in the level of prospecting and exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador, activities which may lead to the development of these gold deposits. Gold should be seriously considered as a mineral commodity of great importance to the development and economic diversification of Newfoundland and Labrador.
This is the ancient alchemic symbol for gold. Innumerable experiments which were focused on transforming base metals and other materials to gold made significant contributions to the science of chemistry.
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For Archaean rock it is important to understand the interplay of metamorphism and deformation.
Deep in the earths crust the pressures and temperatures are very high. Groundwater can be at very high temperatures, up to 500 centigrade and not boil. The rock pressures are also very high, from the weight of the column of rock pushing down from above. The water pressure is called the hydrostatic pressure and the rock pressure is the lithostatic pressure. However, such high pressures result in changes to the mineral compostion of the rock. This involves the formation of new minerals within the rock, not present when the rock was formed. Examples of such minerals include (at low temps-sericite, biotite, chlorite) at middle temps (garnet, staurolite) and at high temps, wollastonite and a range of other minerals. Each rock type ( mafic and sediment) have characteristic mineral assemblages for each temperature range. Therefore, it is possible to identify the metamorphic temperature that a rock has been heated to, simply by identifying the mineral assemblage present in the rock.
Simultaneous with the metamorphic processes, deformation processes are occurring ie folding and shearing and faulting. When the hydro pressure is higher than the litho pressure, the rocks will break. These breaks will produce pathways into which the water will flow. These pathways will be lower pressure zones. When the pressure decreases, the water will precipitate any components it is carrying dissolved in it, including quartz, carbonates and gold. This will form a typical lode vein that we see in the Archaean. They will be typically quartz veins associated with shearing and faulting and to a lesser degree, folding. Typically, such deposits will occur at geological contacts between different rock types, as the contacts represent points of rheological contrasts (strength contrasts), and at such points one rock will fracture ductily and one may fracture more brittly, with the veins being formed in the brittle rock.
Hence an Archaean deposit results from the interplay of metamorphic fluids of appropriate chemistry and structural deformation.
From: Geologist ® 4/06/2004 10:46:15 PM
Subject: re: Gold post id: 1114879
What is the source of the water?
Some of the water is recycled oceanic and rainwater and groundwater. Some is released during metamorphism of minerals that have attached water molecules but most is derived from magmatic sources, most notably granites.
Granites are very important in the formation of Archaean gold deposits (most Archaean gold deposits have a granite somewhere near to them) as the granite provides the fluids necessary for the dissolving of the gold (the same fluid as the metamorphosing fluid) and they supply heat, which acts to circulate the water and to raise the fluid temperature, which increases the ability of the fluid to contain dissolved gold and other minerals. The granite also supplies a range of ions which help dissolve the gold.
Gold dissolution and deposition
Gold is a naturally occurring element with few compounds. The majority of the gold won from deposits is not compounded gold, but free gold. The biggest exception is the telluride gold compounds of Kalgoorlie, which historically ran many thousands of ppm.
Gold is however, water soluble in the right conditions. It forms AuCl- radicals as well as thiosulphate and other radicals including some organic ones, however for the majority of gold deposits, the Cl- is the most common radical.
Hence there is an interplay of the heat from the granite, rocks cracking, water flowing and dissolving as it goes to form the deposit. When the water flows into a low pressure zone the water will precipitate the Au from the radical and the gold deposit will form in the quartz vein. The formation of the vein effectively seals the fluid pathway, however this vein is often weaker than the surrounding rock and when the pressure builds again it will again fracture. An individual vein may go through many of these cycles to produce a crack seal or laminated vein.
The mineralisation itself may be free gold in a quartz +/- carbonate host +/- any other number of minerals, or it may be associated with sulphides. If the fluid contains sulphur, iron (iron pyrites or pyrrhotite), arsenic (arsenopyrite) or copper (chalcopyrite) sulphides may precipitate into the vein. In these cases, the gold atoms will substitute for some of the other metal ions in the sulphide structure. Free gold is best as it is easiest to mill. Sulphide ore requires roasting or bio leach to release the gold prior to normal processing. This decreases the recovery and increases the costs of milling these ore types.
The ore deposit cycle will last for up to several million years and hence time is a major factor in the formation of the deposit.
Replacive Deposits
Another important style of mineralisation is the replacive deposit. The AuCl- radical is able to be oxidized in the presence of carbonate or Fe3+ and this results in the gold replacing the iron or carbonate in the host rocks. Iron replacement is common in the Archaean rocks. Carbonate replacement is a typical style of mineralization within metal deposits younger than the Archaean. Such deposits are termed skarn deposits. There are not many carbonates (if any-I just cannot recall) in the Archean, and hence Archaean replacement is restricted to iron replacement
From: Geologist ® 4/06/2004 10:46:45 PM
Subject: re: Gold post id: 1114880
Ballarat
The rocks of the Ballarat area are certainly younger than Archaean, however they too are structurally controlled deposits. In this case, the rocks have been folded. During folding, the fold noses become fractured as they take the folding strain. This results in low pressure zones the fluid can flow into. Deposits hosted in the noses of folds are termed “saddle reefs”.
Porphyry Systems.
Porphyry systems are common on the east coast of Australia and are the typical deposits mined in the Andes. They represent large granites that have the Cu/Au elements as part of the granitic melt. The gold and copper minerals precipitate as a component of the granites. Typically the grades of such a deposit is very low, say 1 ppm, however, as the tonnages may be in the several billions of tons, the deposits can be economically mined over long time frames (say 30+ years).
Black Smoker deposits
Black smokers are the vents in the oceanic crust through which Cu/Zn/Pb/Ag sulphide mineralization is directly deposited. Often these deposits are rich in gold, such that the gold can be economically extracted from the ore during milling.
Hydrothermal deposits
These deposits are typical of the volcanic chains in Indonesia, PNG and Japan and NZ. Basically, the water coming from the surface has dissolved gold in it. When the fluid reaches the surface it boils due to pressure release. This results in direct precipitation of materials dissolved in the water. Veins formed this way tend to be narrow, but of very high grade.
The Wittswaterrand Basin- a special case
When gold ore is mined it is crushed then dissolved and the gold in won from the processing water by it adhering to carbon in the water. This process is called carbon in pulp (CIP) or carbon in leach (CIL). The gold is then extracted from the carbon.
The Wittswaterrand basin is located in South Africa. It is a deep sedimentary basin, that happens to have carbon in the bottom of it. When the gold bearing fluids circulated in the basin, these carbon beds soaked up all of the gold (natural CIP), hence despite being very deep, they are very rich.
Gold can also form from direct precipitation within a magma. Such deposit styles typify the South Africian deposits in the layered Bushveldt intrusive complex and in some of the Canadian deposits. Here it is associated with platinoids, chromium and nickel.
Lateritisation
Ant existing rock type can be lateritised ie have a laterite form on it. This basically involves the removal of many components and the concentration of iron. Any gold in the host rocks can be deposited into the laterite via dissolution and reprecipitation and hence laterite deposits can be very rich.
Placer deposits
As gold tends to be chemically unreactive, gold nuggets can be weathered intact from rocks undergoing destructive weathering. These nuggets deposit in streams to form alluvial (or more correctly termed) placer deposits.
There are many other deposit styles and I will do my best to answer any questions. The subject of ore formation is called economic geology
From: Geologist ® 4/06/2004 10:47:18 PM
Subject: re: Gold post id: 1114881
Now from the thread
Every so often physical processes occur that result in it being concentrated (density stratification etc) that's how there is some extractable gold around
Density stratification is an important process in nickel deposit formation, but not gold so much
it was suggested that some bacteria select for gold in their metabolism, and when they die - bob's yer uncle - lumps of gold.
I do not believe that this is a major ore forming process
Gold would melt before iron or whatever and could run off to solidify in veins of nearly pure gold under certain circumstances yeah?
As I have shown we are not dealing with liquid metals as you are thinking of them
As I recall, the (saline, I think?) water can dissolve small quantities of gold together with iron(II) oxide deep down in the ground where reducing conditions prevail. At the top of the water table, as the level rises and falls, there is a zone where oxidising conditions prevail and the minerals are concentrated by evaporation. Here the gold and iron (III) oxide are precipitatedp
This is the process by which laterite deposits are formed
*complete guess*
different elements disolve in different concentrations of liquid/acid etc, and can get transported and laid down in areas where this liquid pools?
Sort of not a bad analogy, the concentration bit is right, the pooling bit is a bit off
One way of accumulation is when the magma cools slowly, different minerals and combinations crystallise at different temperature, gold comes out of solution at the end, this liquid is pressed into fissures of the rock creating veins, thats how many ore bodies are formed. Gold is also now believed to accumulate through bacterial action.
A lot of gold is mined from secondary deposits, where gold veins were weathered away and maybe more concentrated by water and wind washing/blowing away lighter minerals.
Very good answer
i worked as a FA for sons of gwalia a couple of times. we would collect laterite for gold sampling. laterite collects layers of whatever minerals are sloshing around with it. you crush the pebbles and assay it.
The laterite (or any surface sample) may contain trace amounts of gold related to ore deposits, hence lag, soil, stream, BLEGS etc are used as a first pass exploration tool.
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YubaRoots.com
YUBA COUNTY
SMARTSVILLE MINING EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS
(and surrounding areas)
If you have any newspaper articles, or other items of interest for the Smartsville area, please send them to yubaroots@gmail.com
1857
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/19/1857 - Mining Items: A promising field for mining enterprise is indicated by the Marysville Inquirer of October 17th, which says: A gravel range of hills has for years been known to exist, running from the vicinity of Timbuctoo to Bangor, and thence about two miles from Wyandott, and terminating below Oroville some distance. Very rich leads have been found in this range at Timbuctoo and Bangor. We have a rich specimen of this gold in our office. It is found in a blue cement, mixed with sand and quartz, and to be worked to advantage requires about the same method as quartz mining. The claims are deep in places, and frequent hard ledges of quartz or something similar are said to be found in them. This region will be extensively worked the coming winter, and the foot hills between Feather and Yuba rivers will be a perfect bee-hive in point of the number of miners located there.
Daily Alta California - 12/4/1857 - Interior Correspondence - Empire Ranch, Dec. 1, 1857. Here I am from Marysville after three hours shaking up in "Big Jake's" close box. The ride was delightful - - rained all the way up - - obliged to keep the curtains closed to prevent the rain coming in, which, with two ancient T. D.'s, two ox-team regalias and a bogus meerschaum, all in successful operation, tended very materially to purify the atmosphere and render the baker's dozen inside extremely happy. - Last night I staid at the "Ranch," and this morning strolled through Smartsville, Sucker Flat and Timbuctoo, all thriving places, and of course containing some "enterprizing fellow citizens," and heavy men - - was there ever a town of a dozen inhabitants that did not? However, it must be said in favor of this vicinity that they have fewer of that class who are always "trying to get even" than any other place I have seen in the mines, and are, as a general thing, a very industrious, gentlemanly community. - In Timbuctoo the miners are making very extensive preparations for winter diggings; river mining being suspended for the season, they are putting in cuts and flumes and getting everything ready for water, which it is hoped will come sometime. All that is wanted to make this one of the liveliest places in the State, is the agua, and that, the miners tell me, they might have had ere this in abundance, were it not necessary to have so many officers to handle the funds, and so few privates in joint stock ditch companies. The population of the place is about 300, something like 20 families, and at the last election there were polled between 160 and 170 votes. The claims are here, as everywhere else in the mines, some very good, and some not so very good, and the "immense fortunes" mentioned in the Marysville papers as having been taken out last summer must have been taken out by men whose names are not on the assessment roll, nor in the Timbuctoo directory, as they are not known in the vicinity. Numerous short bits have been freely offered for a look at one of the lucky hombres. It is well enough to spread a little, but often times mining news is run in the ground and poor devils come up expecting too much to pan. Three dollars and a half a day is the amount "panned out" in this neighborhood by gentlemen who exercise muscle to advantage - - in this town no others need apply. - To add to the comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants they have the usual allowance of stores, grocery and dry goods, the latter kept as a matter of course by "shentlemen shust from pelow," a good billiard saloon, bowling alley, hotels (which might be improved a little without hurting anybody), a theater just put up, not very large, but enough for the wants of the town, a banking establishment, and last though not least, a full assortment of papers from below and a slight sprinkling of the "yaller kivered" for leisure moments. - The Celestial kingdom is but poorly represented here; but one ghostly looking specimen of the race appeared to me, and he came crying out in the language of Backus, "John, you carey one shirte washee two bittee." Hank says it must be my washman after an old debt, but the thing is impossible, as I paid seven bits, in full, before leaving the bay. Yours truly, J. K. Brown.
1858
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/27/1858 - An Aqueduct Fallen - The Marysville News learns that the high wind on Thursday blew down the aqueduct of the Excelsior Company, at Timbuctoo. This great work, which cost an immense amount of money and labor, had just been completed, and had not yet begun to perform the duty for which it was erected, when it was suddenly demolished. The loss to the Excelsior Company is not less than $40,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/27/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Express writing from Mooney Flat March 24th, gives the following intelligence: Mooney Flat is destined to be one of the first mining places in this section. That the gold is here has been proved this season. Dallas & Co. have been doing remarkably well all winter, and on last Saturday they washed up two hundred ounces for week's run, and the other companies that have water are all doing well. The scarcity of water has always been a serious drawback, but next winter there will be plenty; the Excelsior Canal will then be finished to the South Yuba, and another ditch is now being surveyed from Rough and Ready. The Keystone ditch will also be brought in here, and as there is already four, including the Excelsior (the latter is now running water from Deer Creek), there is no doubt but there will be sufficient to supply Mooney Flat, Timbuctoo, and Sucker Flat. Dallas & Co. and the Buckeye Company, have been to a great expense in getting their flumes through the ledge; the cost has been about thirty thousand dollars, and the coming summer they are going to widen them, as they are not sufficiently large to allow the side sluices to empty. Each company will put in a four foot flume. But what has given the greatest confidence, and increased the value of claims the most, is the discovery of what is called the top lead. This upper strata lies high in the hill, some seventy feet above the level or the flat, and will pay well for drifting. The gold is rather coarse and heavy for this section. The coming Summer there will be little or no washing done, but a number of tunnels will be run into the hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/7/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Express has the following notice of mining operations at Timbuctoo, Yuba county, under date of March 31st - The village is situated between two high hills, one of which is called Sand Hill, and is that upon which so many claims are located, valued at high price. Streaks of white and blue cement and gravel, varying from five to twenty feet, run through it extremely rich. Large ditches pass along at the top of the hill, one of which will carry fifteen hundred inches of water. For the distance of a mile, cast iron piping is used instead of fluming, and appears to answer much better, as there is no breakage and but little evaporation. Great encroachments have already been made upon this hill (which is destined in time to disappear altogether) by the hydraulics, and large bodies of water used to dislodge cement. The two main flumes running through the town are about half a mile long, and will each carry about twelve hundred inches of water. Most of the claims use from 150 to 200 inches, which all enter these main flumes, which have a grade of eight inches to the box. The power of the water is so tremendous that large rocks, as much as a man can lift, are borne down with terrific force. An incident occurred, the other day, which nearly cost one of our Celestial friends his life. In crossing the flume, during a storm, his foot slipped - - with lightning speed he was carried along, yelling and screaming lustily for help. There happened to be but one cross piece between him and the dumping off place. This he managed to cling to, and with great difficulty was got out alive. There was a good road and bridge across the ravine leading to town, two months back, but since they have commenced operations in earnest, such immense piles of rock have been disgorged by the flumes, that traffic is utterly impossible, not a vestige of the bridge is left uncovered. The stage, of course, has discontinued to come this way. The cement in these claims is so firmly packed together that they have to wash the tailings several times, each yield being equal to the first. The gold is extremely fine, and coins $20 per ounce. These diggings have been worked for three or four years, and it will take an indefinite number to work them out, the entire ridge having to be worked away first. Some claims are very rich. One company, in ten day's run, cleaned up $3,500; others are doing fully as well, and as soon as they are well started (for not one claim in ten is fairly opened yet), the prospect for Timbuctoo is very promising.
Daily Alta California - The Sucker Flat Iron Aqueduct - A correspondent of the Marysville Express writes thus: At Sucker Flat the Excelsior Water Co. have an iron pipe near three thousand feet in length, and twenty inches in diameter, conducting the water from Temperance Hill, across a depression of one hundred feet, on to the Timbuctoo Hill. This pipe was manufactured in New York at quite a heavy expense. The iron is three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness. The discharging end is forty feet below the receiving end; greatest depression one hundred feet; discharges in twenty-four hours six hundred inches, for ten hours miner's use, under six inch pressure.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/6/1858 - California Mines - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Barton's Bar, September 28th, gives the subjoined mining intelligence: A short distance below this place is located the enterprising Fluming Company. The length of ground claimed by this company is near 1,000 feet; about 450 feet of which is drained this season. The flume is 550 feet long, 24 wide, and four feet deep. The building of the dam, flume and other necessary works, required the labor of thirty men for six months, at a cost of $5,500. The works were constructed under the superintendence of William Green, of Timbuctoo. The first week after having everything complete was occupied in stripping and washing a small portion of the upper pay dirt, which paid a little over $2,000. The next week, in four days, the company took out $12,000, and upon Monday of the last week, one day, $3,000. On Monday night shaft gave out, which has been replaced by a new one. The claim will be entirely dry by Saturday night, when the company will commence washing. There is every appearance of a sufficient quantity of rich dirt to keep the company employed for six or eight weeks to come. At Rose's Bar, one and half miles above, there are some forty or fifty men at work. The claims have been worked over every year since 1848, and continue to pay satisfactory wages. National Bar, below the mouth of Deer creek, is being worked this season by L. B. Clark; he has some fifteen men employed. The preparations at this place required about three weeks' labor, since which time he has been enabled to wash some ten days, during which time he has taken out $2,600. The ground now being worked is the same worked by the National Company for several years. Landers' Bar, on the opposite side of Deer creek, is being worked by the Irish Wing-dam Company. There are some ten men employed by this company. The place being worked appears to be a heap of boulders, many weighing several tons; they are as nicely laid together as if placed there by the hands of a mason, but the boys, with their derrick, handle them like marbles. The dirt is rich and pays well.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/19/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Sand Hill, Yuba county, Nov. 16th, thus speaks of the rich quartz lode recently discovered in that vicinity: Since I wrote you last the company have erected one arastra, which is now in successful operation, crushing about one and a half tons a day. The rich seam of quartz is not worked in the arastra, the casing or outside only being worked at present. The lode has been further prospected during the past week, and continues to be as rich as the first discoveries. During the past week, Elenwood, of Timbuctoo, struck what is supposed to be a continuation of the same lode. He has sunk a shaft some thirty feet deep, striking one of the dips of the lode, in which the gold can be seen. The recent rich discoveries in this vicinity have caused a rivalry in prospecting, which is always a benefit to the country. - Other operations are mentioned, as follows: At Rose's Bar, Bostwick & Co. have made new discoveries, which are paying $25 a day to the man. - At Independent Hill, back of Rose's Bar, Parry & Evans, in two days' washing of drift dirt, took out 140 ounces of amalgam. - At Timbuctoo, George Mullen, in sixteen days' washing, took out $4,800.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/2/1858 - Mining at Sand Hill, Yuba. - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from the above locality, Nov. 29th, says: Bowerman's Kentucky quartz lode at this place is continuing to yield as rich as when I wrote you last. During the past week they have taken out large quantities of rock which is very rich. It is supposed to be worth several thousand dollars per ton. They have run a tunnel from the ravine some distance below the lode, striking the same at a depth of forty feet from the surface of the ground. The rock taken out at this depth is clear and solid, but literally covered with gold. The lode discovered by Elenwood & Co., some time since, is still being prospected with every prospect of its being a rich lode. Large quantities of the rock show the gold upon the surface. At Rose's Bar still further discoveries are being made. The new diggings in the banks near the lower end of the bar pay from six to twenty-five dollars a day to the man; the only drawback being the want of water, which has to be secured after being used by the hydraulic claims, near the top of the mountain back of the Bar, which are now making preparations for the rainy season. The miners of this place, Timbuctoo, Independence Hill, Squaw Creek, Sucker Flat, and Mooney Flat, are making arrangements to have the present price of water reduced to twenty-five cents per inch. Many of the claims are now paying as high as one hundred dollars per day for water, which in many cases is one-half the amount taken out. There is a meeting called at Timbuctoo Theater on Sunday next, at 10 o'clock, when the course to be adopted will be determined upon.
1859
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/5/1859 - Quartz in Yuba - We had an opportunity of examining, yesterday, a specimen of rock from the vein of the Kentucky Quartz Company, located at Timbuctoo, in Yuba county. The sample exhibits a crystalized appearance in parts, while the balance is chiefly impregnated with fine gold. The oxide of iron, also, shows plainly. We should think the rock to be of a character that would pay well with a mill.
Daily Alta California - 1/9/1859 - Mining at Sand Hill, Yuba County - A correspondent of the Sacramento Union, writing from Sand Hill, Yuba county, under date of January 2d, says: During the last few days, mining in this section of the country has been increasing rapidly. Through the warm summer months water is scarce; but the rainy season has commenced, and the rivers and creeks are filled to overflowing, and gives us a supply of water which the miners have been praying for, that their empty purses may once more be filled with the shining ore. In this immediate vicinity thirteen claims are in successful operation, with hydraulic power, having flumes from two to four feet in width, to empty their tailings in the ravine, where the mammoth flume of Hawkes & Co. conveys them to the Yuba. Quartz mining is progressing rapidly. The company owning the Kentucky lode have erected an arastra, and in six days work forty pounds of amalgam was taken from the machine. The company are well satisfied with the result of their labors, and are more than ever convinced there is a lode deep beneath the surface extensive and of unsurpassed richness. The company are running a tunnel through bed rock to reach the ledge fifty feet below the surface, and, according to the judgment of experienced quartz miners, they are about twenty feet from the lode. They are continuing to work their arrastra, believing there is plenty more of the quality. There are other lodes in this locality which will pay, provided there was a mill erected and in operation. The Galena Company have sunk an inclined shaft twenty-five feet in depth on their lode, and good prospects have been obtained; and in a number of instances gold is visible in the ledge. The owners hold their shares at $1,000 each, which is proof they have great faith in the lode. The Sacramento Company have also sunk a few feet below the surface, conveyed 2,500 pounds of ore to a mill, and $12 or $15 was taken from it. This being surface quartz, it is supposed that deeper in the earth the quartz is, the better will be the ore taken from it, the bottom of the shaft being the richest. We trust it will not be long before a mill will be in operation. All can then test the quality of the quartz. There is not a more permanent mining place in the State than this. Within the space of four years large brick stores have been erected, physicians and lawyers, and men of every profession, have settled here, believing Timbuctoo and its vicinity will outstrip all its competitors in the laborious but lucrative business of mining. [same article in Sacramento Daily Union, 1/5/1859]
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/16/1859 - California Mines - We append some details of mining intelligence from our interior exchanges: Yuba. - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Smartsville, Aug. 12th, says: D. Bovyer conceived the idea of building a ditch from some point on Deer creek to Smartsville and Timbuctoo, which at the time was thought a doubtful enterprise. On the 1st of April, 1857, the work was commenced; the length is 21 miles, commencing at Kentucky Bar, on Deer creek. The capacity of the work is 4 feet on the bottom, 2 feet deep, with a slope to 6 1/2 feet on the top. A short distance below the head dam a tunnel is cut through solid blue flint rock a distance of 500 feet, after which the course for a mile is a rough, rocky mountain side, when it passes over a deep ravine in a flume 1,000 feet long, at an elevation of 65 feet. The next five miles is what may be called a good ditch country, when we come to Stewart's Ranch, Pen[n] Valley, where the water, being very thick with mud, is run into a reservoir or mud settler; passing down this valley through Squirrel creek 1 1/2 miles, it is again taken out in a flume for 300 feet. the next five miles is ditching, and brings it to Foreman's ravine, which is crossed by a flume 1,100 feet long and 35 feet high; two miles more bring us to Slack's ravine, where the water is let into a large reservoir covering many acres of land. The reservoir is built by a dam across the ravine, 474 feet long, 15 feet high, with a base of 140 feet, sloping to 10 feet on the top; from this reservoir, when full, 4,000 inches of water, miner's measurement, can be supplied in one day. The object of the reservoir is to keep several days' water on hand, in case of accident to the main ditch. - From this point, the ditch is six feet on the bottom to eight on the top, crossing the summit between Mooney's Flat and Empire Ranch in a flume 1,400 feet long, at an elevation of thirty feet, thence to Sucker Flat, crossing another ridge to Temperance Hill, where there are branches supplying Squaw creek and neighboring diggings. From Temperance Hill to Independence Hill a sag is crossed by a flume one thousand eight hundred feet long, at an elevation of forty-seven feet, running water to Timbuctoo, Sand Flat, and adjoining country. - This work was commenced April, 1857; was completed and ready for water January, 1858. The entire cost of the work was $75,000. The first season, the water gave out early in the Summer, but the receipts were $37,000. The present year, there was a good supply early in December, and the sales thus far have been about $60,000, at an expense of less than $1,600 per month. - Since Bovyer completed his work, the price of water has been reduced thirty-three per cent., which, with a better supply than heretofore, has enabled the miners to work profitably ground that would not pay; the consequence is, the almost entire filling up of the tailing ground at Timbuctoo and vicinity. To remedy this, Bovyer has purchased the right of way from all of the small tailing flumes in Timbuctoo ravine and is constructing a flume, or double flume, ten feet in width, five feet deep, being divided, leaving one six feet and the other four feet wide, so as to carry off to the river the immense quantity of tailings now retarding the progress of the miners. The flume, the largest in the State, is fourteen hundred feet long, is nearly completed, and will cost upwards of $30,000, and it is supposed will pay a large per cent. upon the investment.
Daily Alta California - 8/23/1859 - The Deer Creek and Timbuctoo Mining Company - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat furnishes the following information about the Mining Ditch leading from Deer Creek to Timbuctoo, in Nevada county: On the first of April, 1857, the work was commenced; the length is 21 miles, commencing at Kentucky bar, on Deer creek. The capacity of the work is 4 feet on the bottom, 2 feet deep, with a slope to 6 1/2 feet on the top. A short distance below the head dam a tunnel is cut through solid blue flint rock, a distance of 500 feet, after which the course for a mile is a rough, rocky mountain side, when it passes over a deep ravine in a flume 1,000 feet long, at an elevation of 65 feet. The next five miles is what may be called a good ditch country, when we come to Stewart's ranch, Pen [sic] valley, where the water being very thick with mud is run into a reservoir, or mud settler; passing down this valley through Squirrel creek, 1 1/2 miles, it is again taken out in a flume for 300 feet. The next five miles is ditching, and brings it to Foreman's ravine, which is crossed by a flume 1,100 feet long and 35 feet high; two miles more brings us to Stack's ravine, where the water is let into a large reservoir, covering many acres of land. The reservoir is built by a dam across the ravine, 474 feet long, 45 feet high, with a base of 140 feet sloping to 10 feet on the top; from this reservoir, when full, 4,000 inches of water, miner's measurement, can be supplied in one day. The object of the reservoir is to keep several days' water on hand, in case of accident to the main ditch. - From this point the ditch is 6 feet on the bottom to 8 on top, crossing the summit between Mooney's Flat and Empire Ranch in a flume 1,400 feet long, at an elevation of 30 feet, thence to Sucker Flat, crossing another ridge to Temperance Hill, where there are branches supplying Squaw Creek and neighboring diggings. From Temperance Hill to Independence a sag is crossed by a flume 1,800 feet long, at an elevation of 47 feet, running water to Timbuctoo, Sand Flat and adjoining country. - This work was commenced April, 1857; was completed and ready for water January, 1858. The entire cost of the work was $75,000. The first season the water gave out early in the summer, but the receipts were $37,000. The present year there was a good supply early in December, and the sales thus far have been about $60,000, at an expense of less than $1,000 per month. - Since Mr. Bovyer completed his work, the price of water has been reduced 33 per cent, which, with a better supply than heretofore, has enabled the miners to work profitably ground that formerly would not pay; the consequence is the almost entire filling up of the tailing ground at Timbuctoo and vicinity. To remedy this, Mr. Bovyer has purchased the right of way from all the small tailing flumes in Timbuctoo Ravine, and is constructing a flume, or double flume, 10 feet in width, 5 feet deep, being divided, leaving one 6 feet and the other 4 feet wide, so as to carry off to the river the immense quantity of tailings now retarding the progress of the miners. This flume, the largest in the State, is 1,400 feet long, is nearly completed, and will cost upwards of $30,000, and it is supposed will pay a large per-centage upon the investment. [also appears in Sacramento Daily Union, 8/16/1859]
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/30/1859 - Life At Long Bar - The Marysville Express gives the following description of the manner in which certain parties at Long Bar, in Yuba county, enjoy themselves: On Sunday night last, September 25th, a grand fandango was held at a dance house kept by a man called "Irish Jim," at which it appears were collected an incongruous mass of the fair but frail daughters of Eve, and all sorts of men "accordin." A Mexican Greaser woman, a Digger squaw and a white woman, danced in the same set, and took frequent potations of lager, tipping cosily their glasses and wishing each other health and happiness as they swallowed the delicious beverage. The Mexican woman, it appears, was the mistress of a stage driver on the upper end of the bar, and the squaw the "beloved" of a man by the name of S----. A fancy Timbuctoo gent, having seen the squaw, became enamoured of her beauty and loveliness and determined to wrest so great a prize from S----. So he went to the fandango for that purpose. S----, hearing of P----'s determination, swore vengeance against him. In a short time harsh language passed between them, when P---- drew a knife at S----, and then drew a revolver, but did no injury. He, however, succeeded in taking the squaw. A few minutes after this, a "buck" bearing the uncommon name of Brown made an attack on another man, a Mr. C----, by drawing his knife and attempting to stab him. He struck a desperate blow at C----, who managed to escape by artfully dodging. Parties then interfered and prevented him from pursuing his adversary. Fortunately the affair ended without anybody being seriously injured, but threats of vengeance were freely indulged in on both sides.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/1/1859 - Extensive Mining in Timbuctoo - The Marysville Democrat relates the following instance of heavy mining operations: A visitor from Timbuctoo informs us that a big hill above that town literally tumbled down, on the night of Sept. 26th. It had been cut down on one side by various mining operations, until a wall of rock and dirt was presented, facing the town, of one hundred and fifty feet in hight. In order to wash off the acres of dirt incumbent upon the paying portion of the hill, several large streams of water were left sinking into the top of it and spreading through the soil for some considerable time past. On the night above alluded to the mass of dirt, with its tons of rocks, commenced falling over the bluff, and during the entire night it was crashing down with a noise like thunder, and in the morning almost the entire hill was a thing of the past.
1860
Daily Alta California - 1/19/1860 - The Diggings at Timbuctoo - The diggings of Timbuctoo, Yuba county, mostly consist of a gently-rounded gravel hill, about one mile long and perhaps not over fifteen hundred feet wide, with an altitude above its base of about three hundred feet. This hill lies in a northeast by a southwest direction, between a large ravine, where the town is on one side and the Yuba river on the other. It is partly bisected by a small gulch. The gravel - - which is very course and easily washed, but for intermediate strata of "pipe clay" and indurated sand - - is not less than two hundred feet deep, has an inclination towards the river, and rests upon trap rock, which is highest next to the stream. The first deposition upon the rock is a stratum of cemented gravel, deriving its color and hardness from iron sulphurets, and very rich in gold worth $18.50 per ounce. Overlaying this is a thick stratum of indurated clay or sand - - for it varies in character - - containing some gold but indissoluble except after being cut up and long exposed to air and water. - The blue gravel beneath has to be drifted out, and is washed several times in succession, through sluices, the tailings being saved by means of dams and allowed to "slack." Above the clay stratum the gravel is yellow and grey, very coarse, crumbling down readily beneath the action of one hundred inches of water forced against it from hose and pipe. This top-gravel, as it is called, is from one hundred to one hundred and forty feet thick, and is washed off entirely by the hydraulic process. The auriferous particles are not distributed through it uniformally, but are found most plentiful in "streaks," or thin strata following the plane of the bank. Some of these strata, lying fifty to one hundred feet above the bedrock, have been drifted, and paid from five to ten dollars a day per man. The gold in the top gravel is remarkably fine in quality, commanding from $19.20 to $19.50 per ounce from buyers, and assaying as high as 987-1,000. - The diggings were discovered about eight years ago by parties following up ravines from the river. One of these ravines contained a great deal of earth that yielded one dollar to the bucket. The blue gravel in the hill was much better. As an instance of this we were told that ten dollars had been obtained from a single prospect, and three claims, worked by Antone, Burgoyne and Boyd, yielded, in something over two years, about $100,000; several parties buying in successively at round prices, and going home with $5,000 or $6,000 not long afterwards. But drifting out bottom dirt was found to be less profitable, on the whole, than sluicing off the top. - The hydraulic process, in its crudest form, with small sluices and small streams of water, was first employed between four and five years ago. It is now the universal mode of work, and is conducted with elaborate system, galvanized from pipes leading the water into the claims, where it is distributed through rubber and canvas hose, substantial sluices carrying off the washings, and more extensive ones receiving the united "tailings" of several sets of claims. As the bed-rock lies so low, there is no necessity for tunnels, except in two or three instances. The only difficulty the miners labor under is want of sufficient fall or grade, for their sluices. The distance from the diggings to the river is nearly one mile, and the utmost grade that can be had for this distance will not exceed eight inches to every twelve feet length of sluice. The big ravine through which the tailings run is filled with them to a depth of sixty feet. Along this ravine are several large tail flumes. One, owned by the Mullen brothers, and leading from their claims, is four feet wide, three and a half feet deep, lined with pine blocks six inches thick, and is 3,000 feet long. Adjoining it is one of equal dimensions, owned by Rulison & Co. Below these, and receiving all the washings on this side of the hill, is the splendid flume of McAllis & Co., 1,200 or 1,500 feet long, and emptying into the river. It is built upon very solid timbers, in two sections - - one 6 feet the other 4 feet wide, making 10 feet wide in the clear, and 5 feet deep. The bottom is lined with wooden blocks six inches thick, made from the nut pine, a very tough variety; yet they wear out, under the friction of a flood of water and cobble stones, in about twenty days. The grade of this flume is from four to six inches to every twelve feet. Its cost, including $8,000 which was paid for the right to the ravine, was $28,000. The proprietors say it will pay a good interest on cost and expenses, and afford them advantages in washing their claims on the hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/19/1860 - The Mines Near North San Juan - The Press, of January 14th, chronicles the following mining intelligence: Since last Saturday a storm of snow and rain has occurred to check mining operations on the upper part of the ridge, and at this end an interruption has occurred by a break in the Middle Yuba ditch. About twelve boxes of flume were carried away at Badger Hill, early Thursday morning, making a breach which has required the remainder of the week to repair. During the same interval the Company has had some forty men on the ditch employed in the clearing it of sand. The removal of the latter will give an increased water capacity of two hundred inches. From all that we can learn the most extensive washing is going on at the locality of Columbia Hill, and with profitable results, though no details have come to hand. At Chimney hill, Spear & Marshall are said to be making $40 a day to the hand, clear of expenses. We learn from Timbuctoo that Jefferds & Co. cleared up, after nine days' run, $3,954, using 400 inches of water a day, at twenty-five cents an inch.
Daily Alta California - 1/20/1860 - Mining Ditches and Hydraulic Mining at Timbuctoo - Water was first brought into the diggings of Timbuctoo and vicinity by ditches from Deer creek, twelve or fifteen miles long. Three of these, one constructed by Mr. Bovyer, noted for his enterprise and skill in such works, are now consolidated and owned by the Tri-Union Company. The water which they supply, amounting during the wet season to 4,000 or 5,000 inches, is conveyed across the gap lying between Smartsville and Sucker Flat, through two flumes 2,400 feet long; the largest one, which appears to be sixty or eight feet high over the lowest part of the gap, being an elegant and substantial structure. The Excelsior Company have another ditch, which is twenty-eight miles long, draws its water from the South Yuba, has a capacity of about 4,000 inches, miners' measure, and cost in the neighborhood of $250,000. Its stream has also to cross the gap mentioned above. For this purpose a pipe 20 inches in diameter, made of boiler iron, and 2,700 feet long, has been heretofore employed. A new pipe, 40 inches in diameter, is not being put together, and will soon be laid across the gap on trestles. It will deliver 3,000 inches, as water is measured at Timbuctoo - - that is, under a pressure of ten inches, equal to perhaps 4,000 inches as measured at North San Juan under six inches pressure. The Excelsior Company is now building at Empire Ranch, two miles from the diggings, a reservoir which will have a depth at the dam of not less than fifty feet, and a superficial area of at least seventy-five acres. The dam is about 150 feet wide at the base, and pierced by a very substantial arched conduit of stone and wood work. The water will be admitted through this, when wanted, by means of a heavy iron gate, raised by a screw, a contrivance of great power and steadiness. The ditches enumerated are now supplying the diggings with about 8,000 inches of water, at 25c and inch, measuring liberally as above stated. Of this quantity, the largest portion is used at Timbuctoo, where 40 companies and nearly 300 men are at work, though not more than half that number of companies are washing. Each company uses from 400 to 600 inches of water, and the day we were at Timbuctoo the total water sales on the hill reached 6,000 inches, at a cost of $1,500. Of course this enormous supply dwindles to a very small one as the dry season approaches, and many companies have to lay by or go to drifting. Winter is the true harvest time of both ditch men and miners. During the past winter, we are told that the weekly receipts of Bovyer's ditch averaged $3,000. - Although the miners use such large heads of water, they do not direct it all against the bank. Only 100 inches flow through the pipe, the remainder being allowed to fall over the edge of the claims; much less being needed to get the earth down, then to run it off, owing to the looseness of the upper gravel and great size of the stones. In some claims, however, the earth is more compact, and to facilitate washing the bottom is drifted out leaving pillars standing which are piped away, and then down comes the mass above. From what we were told, we conclude that the Timbuctoo diggings yield as well as hydraulic diggings do anywhere. When washing is pursued under favorable circumstances the gross yield per company ranges from $300 to as high as $600 per day - - though the latter is not common. The last clean up made my Mullin & Co., after one week's washing, was two quart bowls full of amalgam, worth nearly $5,000. Jefferds & Co., who own the famous Babb claim, have been washing two years, during which time they have taken out $180,000. Of this sum $32,000 went for water. Every run has yielded enough to pay all expenses, so that no debts have been incurred, although the various expenses were enormous. These claims have yielded from one run of ten days as high as $8,000, and are now turning out regularly from $300 to $350 per diem, although the rich "blue lead" in the bottom is not touched. This is reserved by nearly every company until the top shall have been worked off, or till summer, when as many as thirty men will be employed at drifting in one set of claims. The Michigan Company, consisting of Mr. McAllis and others, own a large body of good ground, in the deepest part of the hill, which will afford $3,000 at a clean up, and has paid at the rate of $500 per day. The iron pipe conducting water to these claims cost $5,000. It is eleven inches in diameter. Cramer & Co., last winter opened a set of claims on another part of the hill, washed forty days and cleared $1,275 to each one of four shares. The expense of opening was nearly double this per share. Hereafter the profits will be larger. The company enjoys the unusual advantage of sufficient fall, and one long tail sluice running to the river on the north side of the hill, nearly pays the expenses of working the diggings, or about $150 daily. Next to Cramer & Co., lie the valuable claims of Parry &Evans. Pierce & Co., at Sucker Flat, have a fine body of ground, which they are washing profitably and expect to pay much better when their tunnel is completed. This tunnel has been under way for five years, and has cost $60,000. We are unable to particularize any further, but may add, in conclusion, that the instances given are not exceptional but representative. San Juan Press.
Daily Alta California - 2/16/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal writes thus about mining claims at Timbuctoo, Yuba county: "Last week Elenwood's claim cleaned up $2,300 - - nine days' run; Live Yankee, $2,600 - - eight days' run; George Miller, $2,400 - - nine days' run; Babb claims, $1,700 - - ten day's run; Geo. Mullen, has been averaging $500 per day, using 600 inches of water. The other companies use about 300 inches of water, each. The Marlow boys are drifting some 700 feet into the hill above town. They employ five men, and their claims have averaged, for some months past, $30 per day to the man. On Squaw Creek, Peter Carrigan took out of his tail flume, last week, $900, for six weeks' run. L. B. Clark took out of his tail flume, in what is called the Irish Cut, $950 - - five weeks' run. At Sucker Flat, the Humbug Company took out $2,629, in eleven days' run. They use 200 inches of water, which costs $50 per day. There is an average of $900 per day paid for water, within two miles of this place." [same article appears in Sacramento Daily Union, 2/11/1860]
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/3/1860 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Timbuctoo, Feb. 28th, says: Mining operations are being successfully prosecuted. Bovyer & McAllis have just completed washing up their extensive tail-flume at the lower end of the town. The many hints thrown out by correspondents, that this work was of a doubtful character, are now settled. The cost of this work, $30,000, was looked upon by many as a waste of money. $18,000 have already been expended, and boxes are being continually added. There is at this time 1,200 feet completed, which has been in running order some three or four months, and within the last two weeks they have cleaned up something over $15,000. - Joe Elenwood washed up, yesterday, $1,500 for six days' running water. The Gallegher boy, $1,200, in five days' run. The Burgoyne claim, owned by Lucius Carpenter, is paying well. He cleaned up eighteen boxes, after seven days' run, which paid $1,000. These claims have some 1,200 feet of flumes. A few of the upper boxes are washed up once in a week or ten days, which more than pay all expenses. The others are cleaned up once a month, or when the blocks want turning. The receipts from these are the profits of the claim. - Levi Yankee cleaned up eighteen boxes, of eight days' run, and the yield was $1,400. The Babb's claim, Jefferds & Co., $2,200, five days' run. Michigan claim, McAllis & Co., $3,000, nine days' run; and the Pennsylvania Company, $1,500, six days' run.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/31/1860 - Accident at Timbuctoo - On the evening of March 27th, the bank of the Bab[b] claim at Timbuctoo caved in, covering up F. Jaffords and dangerously injuring him. According to the Express, he was in a cut at work at the time. He was covered beneath dirt and water eight feet deep. Relief was afforded him, and he was taken out as early as possible. At last advices he was in a very critical condition, and it was not known whether he would survive or not, though hopes were entertained of his recovery.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/2/1860 - Pictures of California, Ten Years Later. By Baynard Taylor - Excursion among the Northern Mines - While in Sacramento I received an invitation to spend an evening in Timbuctoo, and on my way to Nevada, completed the arrangements for visiting that unknown and mysterious place. It involved a journey of twenty miles over a road I had already traveled, and a return to Nevada on the following day; but as Timbuctoo is said to be the grandest example of hydraulic mining in California, I did not grudge the extra travel. Early on Monday morning we took saddle horses, my companion being ambitious to gain experience in an art new to her. We had a pair of spirited animals - almost too much so, in fact, for such a sultry, stifling day - and got over the four miles to Grass Valley in short order. Thence to Rough and Ready and Penn's Valley, all went well; but as the sun mounted higher, and the dust rose, and the unaccustomed arm wearied of the check rein, the inspiration of the ride flagged, and never was haven more welcome than the Empire Rancho. - This place being only two miles from Timbuctoo, we took upon our quarters there, having had previous experience of its abundant good fare. The house, however, dates from the early times of California, the ceilings being of muslin and the partition walls about as solid as pasteboard, so that the snoring in one room, the infantine wail of another, and the various noises of the sleeping and the waking are heard through the whole house. - In the afternoon, Mr. Carpenter, to whom I was indebted for the opportunity of visiting the place, accompanied me to view the mining operations. A ridge about five hundred feet in hight divides the glen in which the town lies from the Yuba river, and the whole of this ridge from the summit down to the bed rock contains gold. At first the washings were confined to the bottom of the valley, and to Rose's Bar, on the Yuba. After the richest deposits are exhausted, short drifts were carried into the hills at their base, and it was finally ascertained that if any plan could be devised to curtail the expense of labor, the entire hill might be profitably washed down. In this manner originated what is called hydraulic mining - - a form of working which, I believe, is not known in any other part of the world. - The undertakings for the purpose of procuring a steady supply of water through the dry seasons, commenced as early as 1850. It was found that the deposits of gold were not only on the river bars, but that scarcely a valley , or glen, or dip among the hills, throughout the whole extent of the gold region, was barren of the precious metal. That these might be worked, the rivers were tapped high up in the mountains, and ditches carried along the intervening ridges, raised on gigantic flumes wherever a depression occurred, from distances varying from fifteen to forty miles. Here was immediately a new field for enterprise. Water companies were formed for the construction of these vast works, and the ditches led so as to supply the greatest number of mining localities. The water is furnished at so much per inch - - generally at very exorbitant rates - - and is, therefore, a surer profit than mining itself. Nothing seemed to me more remarkable, in traveling through the gold region, than the grand scale on which these operations are conducted. - The ditch which supplies Timbuctoo is thirty-five miles long, and was constructed at a cost of $600,000. Yet, on this capital it yields an annual dividend of at least forty per cent. Some ditches are still more profitable than this, and it may be said that none of them has failed to pay handsomely, except through mismanagement. One of the companies at Timbuctoo uses water to the value of $100 every day. Near the end of the ditch there is a reservoir, into which the stream is turned at night, in order to create a reserve for any emergency. - Following a line of fluming along the top of the ridge, we presently came to a great gulf, or gap, eaten out of the southern side of the hill. A wall of bare earth, more than a hundred feet high, yawned below our feet, and two streams of water, pouring over the edge, thundered upon the loose soil below, which was still further broken up by jets from hose which the workmen held. After the water had become thoroughly commingled with earth, it was again gathered into a stream and conducted into a long sluice, in the bottom of which grooves of quicksilver caught the scattered grains of gold. Nothing could be more simple than the process. The water of itself ate channels into the lofty walls of earth, and then pulverized and dissolved the dirt it has brought down. Commencing at the base of the hill, the soil has thus been gradually eaten away to the depth of two hundred yards, down to the bed rock, leaving a face exposed, in some places 150 feet in perpendicular height. The whole of the immense mass of earth which has been displaced has passed through the sluice, deposited its gold, and been carried down by the waste water to clog the currents of the Yuba, the Feather, and the Sacramento. - On the northern side a similar process was in operation, and the two excavations had approached each other so nearly, that a few months only were requisite to break the back of the hill. Crossing the narrow bridge between, I approached the end of the ridge, and found myself on the edge of a third and still grander work. Thousands on thousands of tons had been removed, leaving an immense cemi-circular [sic] cavity with a face nearly one hundred and fifty feet in hight. From the summit five streams fell in perpendicular lines of spray, trampling and boiling in cauldrons of muddy foam as they mingled with the loose dirt at the bottom. While I gazed a mass of earth, weighing at least five tons, detached itself from the top, between the channels cut by two of those streams, and fell with a thundering crash which made the hill tremble to its base. Another and another slide succeeded, while the pigmies below, as if rejoicing in the ruin, sprang upon them with six inch jets from the hose serpents which coiled around the bank, and reduced the fragments to dust. Beyond this scene of chaos the water gathered again and through the straight sluice - - like a giant bleeding to death from a single vein - - the mountain washed itself away. - It seemed a work of the Titans. When I saw what the original extent of the hill had been - - how certainly the whole ridge, which rose so defiant, as if secure of enduring until the end of the world, was doomed to disappear - - how the very aspect of Nature would be in time transformed by such simple agents as this trough of water, and those three flannel shirted creatures with their hose - - I acknowledged that there may be a granduer [sic] in gold mining beyond that of the building of the Pyramids. - Some such fascination must be connected with this labor, or men would not trifle so recklessly with the forces they attack. Scarcely a week passed without some report of workmen being buried under the falling masses of earth. Though continually warned - - though familiar with the danger from long experience - - they become so absorbed in the work of undermining the slippery bluffs, that they gradually approach nearer and nearer; the roar of the water drowns the threatening bliss of the relaxing soil - - down comes the avalanche, and if the man's foot is not as quick as his eye, he is instantly crushed out of existence. In descending to the village, I followed two miners, taking a path which led downward on the top of a narrow wall left standing between the two excavations on the southern side. In some places the top was not more than six feet wide, and the appearance of the loose, gravelly soil, dropping straight down a hundred feet on either hand, threatening to give way beneath any weight, was not calculated to inspire confidence. Seven days afterward the entire mass fell (fortunately in the night) with a crash that jarred the earth for a mile around. - In Mr. Carpenter's office I found a choice collection of standard works - - Ruskin, Coleridge, Emerson, Goethe, Mrs. Somerville, and others, whom one would not expect to find in the midst of such barren soil. I also made the acquaintance of a miner - - a hired laborer - - who had sent all the way to Boston for a copy of Tennyson's "Idyls," knew "In Memoriam" by heart, and was an enthusiastic admirer of Mrs. Browning. One of my first visitors, on reaching San Francisco, was an old Oregon farmer, who called to know whether I had ever seen the Brownings - - what was their personal appearance - - what sort of a man was Tennyson, also Longfellow, Whittier, and various other poets. Verily, no true poet need despair - "His words are driven, Like flower seeds by the far winds sown, Where'er, beneath the sky of heaven, The birds of fame have flown." - and also where such birds have not flown. If I knew, as Tennyson does, that a poem of mine made an imprisoned sailor, in the long Arctic night, shed tears, I would smile upon the critic who demonstrated, by the neatest process of logic, that there was no afflatus to be found in me. - The next day, we returned to Nevada [City] - - my companion, much less enthusiastic than before, taking the stage, while I galloped back with a led horse attached to my right arm. The day was overcast, with a presentiment of ill in the atmosphere. It was that anxious, oppressed, congested feeling which nature often experiences before a rain, when life looks cheerless and hope dies in the soul of man. Anywhere else I should have laid my hand on The Book and affirmed that rain would come - - and even here rain did come. I did not believe my ears when I heard the pattering in the night - - I could scarcely believe my eyes when I looked abroad in the morning and saw the dust laid, the trees washed and glittering, and the sky as clear and tranquil a blue as - - no matter whose eye. We were to go to North San Juan, an enterprising little place on the Middle Yuba, ten miles off, and, in spite of bruised bones, there was no thought of fatigue. With the help of that exquisite air, we could have climbed Chimborazo. - This time, however, it was a light, open buggy and a capital black horse. I have rarely seen better and more intelligent horses than there are in California. Probably the long journey across the plains sifted the stock, the poorer specimens dropping by the way, as many humans do, blood and character holding out to the end. Be this as it may, I made the acquaintance of no horse there to whom I would not willingly have done a personal favor. Merrily we rattled up the planked street of Nevada [City], around the base of the Sugar Loaf, past the mouths of mining drifts, and the muddy tails of sluices, and into a rolling upland region, about half-stripped of its timber, where every little glen or hollow was turned upside down by the miners. After a drive of three or four miles, the blueness of the air disclose a gulf in front, and we prepared for a descent to the bed of the South Yuba. - It was a more difficult undertaking than we were aware of. The road plunged down the steep at a pitch frightful to behold, turning and winding among the ledges in such a manner that one portion of it often overhung another. Broad folds of shade were flung into the gulf from the summits far above, but the opposite side, ascending even more abruptly, lay with its pines and large-leaved oaks, sparkling in the clearest sunlight. Our horse was equal to the emergency. Planting himself firmly on his fore-feet, with erect, attentive ears, he let us carefully, step by step, downt he perilous slopes. With strong harness, there is really no danger; and one speedily gets accustomed to such experiences. - After a descent of more than a mile, we reached the bottom, where a wooden bridge, suspended on strong iron rods, crossed the river high above its current. There was, of course, a toll-house, a peach orchard scattered over the stony steep, and men washing for gold in the sands below. Beyond this, all was a savage mountain-wilderness. While paying toll, I was attracted by the boxes of peaches on the verandah, and inquired the price. "For you, sir, nothing at all," replied the man, calling me by name, and therewith liberally supplied us. Being raised without irrigation, they were rather dry, but of remarkably fine color and flavor. The toll-keeper informed me that he carried on gold-mining regularly, in addition to his other business, and found it nearly equally remunerative, one year with another. - The northern bank, as beautifully diversified with picturesque knolls and glens as the rapidity of the descent would allow, confronted us with an unbroken climb of a mile and a half. Luckily we met no down-coming team on the way, for there was no chance of passing. At the summit, where there is a little mining camp called Montezuma, we again entered on that rolling platform which, like the "fields" of Norway, forms the prominent feature of this part of the Sierra Nevadas - - the beds of the rivers lying at an average depth of 2,000 feet below the level of the intervening regions. Looking eastward, we beheld a single peak of the great central chain, with a gleaming snowfield on its northern side. Montezuma has a tavern, two stores, and a cluster of primitive habitations. The genus "loafer" is also found - - no country, in fact, is so new that it does not flourish there. Far and wide the country is covered with giant pines, and not a day passes but some of them fall. They are visibly thinning, and in a few years more this district will be scorched and desolate. It is true young trees are starting up everywhere, but it will be centuries before they attain the majesty of the present forests. - Pursuing our winding way for three miles more through the woods, we saw at last the dark blue walls of the Middle Yuba rise before us, and began to look out for San Juan. First we came to Sebastopol (!), then to some other incipient village, and finally to our destination. North San Juan is a small, compact place, lying in a shallow dip among the hills. Its inhabitants prosecute both drift and hydraulic mining with equal energy and success. As at Timbuctoo, the whole mass of the hill between the town and the river is gold bearing, and enormous cavities have been washed out of it. The water descends from the flumes in tubes of galvanized iron, to which canvas hose pipes, six inches in diameter, are attached, and the force of the jets which play against the walls of earth is really terrific. The dirt, I was informed, yields but a moderate profit at present, but grows richer as it approaches the bed rock. As each company has enough material to last for years, the ultimate result of their operations is sure to be very profitable. In the course of time, the very ground on which the village stands will be washed away. We passed some pleasant cottages and gardens which must be moved in two or three years. The only rights in the gold region are those of miners. The only inviolable property is a "claim." Houses must fall, fields be ravaged, improvements of all sorts swept away, if the miner sees fit - - there is not help for it. - In the church, that evening, I met an assembly of eager, intelligent and friendly auditors. Judging not only by this, but by various other evidences, I was disposed to consider San Juan as the most spirited, wide-awake village in California. We had endurable quarters at the hotel. One disadvantage, arising from the prevailing dust is, that nothing appears clean. Wherefore, if the landlords would give us a really clean floor without carpets, linen sheets, no matter how coarse, and the crashiest towels instead of pocket-handkerchiefs, with plenty of water, and can chairs rather than damaged plush, the comfort of their hotels would be greatly increased, at less expense to them. Truly, the art of living is, of all arts, that which is understood by the fewest persons. In Italy, with all its fleas and dirt, one is better lodged than in the majority of the country taverns through the United States. - The next morning we drove back to Nevada [City] betimes, in order to reach Grass Valley before evening. Before taking leave of the pleasant little town, where we had spent three delightful days, I must not omit to mention our descent into the Nebraska mine, on the northern side of Manzanita Hill. This is as good an example of successful drift mining as can readily be found, and gave me a new insight into the character of the gold deposits. All the speculations of the early miners were wholly at fault, and it is only within the last four or five years that anything like a rational system has been introduced - - that is, so far as so uncertain a business admits of a system. Hydraulic mining, as I have before stated, is carried on in those localities where gold is diffused through the soil; but drift mining seeks the "leads" - - mostly the subterranean beds of pre-Adamite rivers - - where it is confined within narrow channels, offering a more contracted but far richer field. - These ancient river beds are a singular feature of the geology of the Sierra Nevada. They are found at a hight of 2,000 above the sea, or more, after cutting at right angles through the present axis of the hills, jumping over valleys and reappearing in the hights opposite. One of them, called the Blue Lead, celebrated for its richness, has been thus traced for more than a hundred miles. The breadth of the channels varies greatly, but they are always very distinctly marked by the bluff banks of earth on each side of the sandy bed. Their foundation is the primitive granite - - upon which, and in the holes and pockets whereof, the gold is most abundant. The usual way of mining is to sink a shaft to the bed rock, and then send out the lateral drifts in search of the buried river. The Nebraska Company, at Nevada [City], has been fortunate enough to strike a channel several hundred feet wide, and and [rept] extending for some distance diagonally through the hill. Until this lead was struck, the expenses were very great, and a considerable capital was sunk; but now the yield averages $10,000 per week, at least three-fourths of which is clear profit. - One of the proprietors who accompanied us, was kind enough to arrange matters so that we should get a most satisfactory view of the mine. After having been arrayed, in the office, in enormous India rubber boots, corduroy jackets and southwesters, without distinction of sex, we repaired to the engine house, where the sands of the lost Pactolus are drawn up again to the sunshine, after the lapse of perhaps five hundred thousand years. Here, my Eurydice was placed in a little box, from which the dirt had just been emptied, packed in the smallest coil to avoid the danger of striking the top on the way down, and, at the ringing of a bell, was whisked from my eyes and swallowed up in the darkness. I was obliged to wait until the next box came up, when, like Orpheus, I followed her to the shades. A swift descent of six hundred feet brought me to the bed rock, where I found those who had gone before, standing in a passage only four or five feet high, with candles in their hands, and their feet in a pool of water. - Square shafts, carefully boxed in with strong timbers, branched off before us through the heart of the hill. Along the bottom of each was a tram-way, and at intervals of five minutes cars laden with gray river sand were rolled up, hitched to the rope, and speedily drawn to the surface. Following our conductor, we traced some of these shafts to the end, where workmen were busy excavating the close packed sand and filling the cars. The company intend running their drifts to the end of their claim, when they will commence working back toward the beginning, cleaning out the channel as they go. Probably three or four years will be required to complete the task; and if they are not very unreasonable in their expectations, they may retire from business by that time. We sat down for half an hour, with the unstable, sandy ceiling impending over our heads, and watched the workmen. They used no other implements than the pick and shovel, and the only difficulty connected with their labor was the impossibility of standing upright. The depth of the sand varied from three to six feet; but the grains of gold were scantily distributed through the upper layers. In one place, where the bed rock was exposed, we saw distinctly the thick deposits of minute shining scales, in situ. - The air was very close and disagreeable, and the unrelieved stooping posture so tiresome, that we were not sorry when the guide, having scraped up a panful of the bottom sand, conducted us by watery ways to the entrance shaft and restored us to daylight. - The sand, on reaching the surface, is tilted down an opening in the floor, and is instantly played upon by huge jets of water, which sweep it into a long sluice. Here it is still further agitated by means of riffles across the bottom; and the gold is caught in grooves filled with quicksilver. Every week the amalgam thus produced is taken out and assayed. The tailings of these sluices are frequently corraled (a California term for "herded" or "collected") and run through a second sluice, or turned into some natural ravine, which is washed out twice a year. In spite of this, a considerable percentage of the gold, no doubt, escapes. There is a gentleman in Nevada [City] who owns a little gulley through which runs the waste of a drift on the hill above. He had the sagacity to put down a sluice and insert quicksilver, thinking sufficient gold might be left in the sand to pay for the experiment; and his net profits from this source amount to $15,000 a year. - The pan of dirt brought up with us, having been skillfully washed in the old fashioned way, produced a heap of mustard seed grains to the value of $5 or $6, which was courteously presented to my wife as a souvenir of her visit. - The Live Oak Company, on the opposite side of the ridge, carries on its operations in the same river bed and with similar result. Those who predict the speedy failure of the gold of California do not know what wonderful subterranean store-houses of the precious metal still lie untouched. The river bars were but as windfalls from the tree.
Daily Alta California - 4/25/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writes thus: "From Ouseley's [sic] Bar I wended my way along the classic shores of the Yuba, and passed many little cottage houses, where everything around seemed to indicate prosperity and happiness. Soon I began to near Timbuctoo, and long before I could see the town, heard the roar of the water as it dashed, and leaped, and foamed through the tail-sluices leading from the diggings at this place. I find Timbuctoo, apparently, a very prosperous place. There are many substantial business houses, and a number of beautiful cottage residences. The people here, like all other places, complain of dull times. The Washoe fever rages to a considerable extent, and a great many are leaving daily, and preparing to leave for the enchanted silver land. There are some eighteen companies at work, and preparing to commence work, on the hill. These eighteen companies, I am reliably informed, average about $3,000 at a clean-up of ten day's run. This looks like a great deal of money to be taken out every ten days, and one would suppose money was plenty here; but the miners say it takes about all they take out to pay their water bills, and when that is done they have none left for spending. There are two ditches on the hill, running an average of four thousand inches of water. One of these ditches sells water at twenty cents per inch; the other keeps the price up to twenty-five cents. The miners have strong hopes that water will be reduced to fifteen cents per inch, in less than a year's time - - then the boys will have plenty of money, and Timbuctoo will flourish as of yore."
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/16/1860 - Timbuctoo - At Timbuctoo, on Saturday, May 12th, as we are informed, says the Appeal, Robert Kelley took out of his hydraulic claim the nice little sum of $1,582 in nine days run. Kelley is the sole owner of the claim.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/11/1860 - Injured at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Appeal, writing from Timbuctoo, August 9th says: A serious accident occurred in the Pennsylvania claims, yesterday, by which a man named Tupper was severely injured. A portion of the bank broke up, and partially burying him, broke one arm, dislocated his thigh, and cut his face severely.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/14/1860 - Timbuctoo Claims - We learn, says the Marysville Democrat, that the following is the yield of the Robert Kelly claim, at Timbuctoo, for about two months' operation, the company not being able to work more than half the time: First washing up, seven days run, $5,670; second, nine days run, $7,810; third, ten days run, $10,014; total, in twenty-six days' run, $23,494. Is there anything in the State that can beat this?
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/29/1860 - Claims at Timbuctoo - Last week, says the Marysville Democrat, a few companies washed up with the following result: Michigan claim - McAllis & Co. - $3,181, for six and a half days' run; Billy Marpel's claim, $2,106 for eight days' washing; Boveyer & McAllis washed up a portion of their tail flume, taking out over $5,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/19/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal gives the following mining intelligence: Boyd & Simpson employ about twenty men, and several other companies an equal number. The diggings are extensive and systematically worked. The Excelsior Water Company - - Taylor, Carpenter and others, owners - - supply the miners with a large quantity of water, at twenty cents per inch; and the Union Water Company - - D. Bovyer, Superintendent; A. D. Morrison, Agent; T. B. Simpson, Treasurer - - supplies about 3,000 inches in the Winter and Spring, at the same price, all along the line of ditch from Rough and Ready to Timbuctoo. The capital stock of this company is $100,000, divided into 100 shares.
Daily Alta California - 10/8/1860 - Interior News - Heavy Work - The Marysville Democrat states, as an evidence of the amount of hydraulicing that has been done at Timbuctoo, Yuba county, that a gulch no less than 200 feet in depth has been completely filled with tailings, and a good road is now running over the made ground. A tall pine tree, which stood in the ravine in all the pride of its perpendicularity, is completely covered, in its erect position from sight. Truly, the mountains are being leveled, and the high places brought low. To see huge mountains washed down and made completely to disappear, is indeed a wonderful sight. - The Antonio claim, at Timbuctoo, averages $300 per day.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/15/1860 - Good Yield at Timbuctoo - McAllis & Co. lately cleaned up from two veins in the "Cement claims," amounting to nineteen days, over $7,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/5/1860 - Rich - McCallas [McAllis] & Co., of the Michigan claim, at Timbuctoo, washed up, a few days ago, $4,270 in eleven days' run.
1861
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/18/1861 - A Big Clean-Up at Timbuctoo - Robert Kelley cleaned up his flume on the Ranch Claim, on Monday, March 11th, and took out the snug sum of $14,000 in thirteen days run. - Marysville Democrat.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/8/1861 - Rich Claim - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writing from Timbuctoo, says that the Union claim, Uncle Williams principal shareholder, have taken out of their diggings the snug sum of $14,000 in thirty days' run, within the last two months.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/6/1861 - A First Rate Clean Up - Last Saturday, McAllis, Stewart & Co., proprietors of the Michigan claim, Timbuctoo, cleaned up $5,944, after a run of nine and a quarter days. And that is not all, for Stewart has a long tail race from the same claim, from which he took out $1,800 at the same time, after a run of fifteen days. The prospects of the Michigan company are just as good as what they have already realized, having taken out in the past six months $49,000. Marysville Appeal, June 4th.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/16/1861 - Good Clean Up - The Union claims at Timbuctoo, cleaned up, the other day, $6,259, after a run of eleven days.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/9/1861 - A Yuba Mining Case - The Marysville Appeal of November 8th notices the following mining case in its county: Considerable interest in legal circles has been excited in the cases of the Antoine Company vs. the Ridge Company, two mining companies in Timbuctoo, whose right to a certain piece of ground, valued at $20,000, is now on trial in the District Court. It appears that the two companies own land on either side of a hill, their claims joining each other at a line in the rear of each, and where that line is appears to be the point in dispute. As usual in almost all of the claims located in the earlier history of the State, the location of the claims has not been accurately described and recorded, and great confusion has arisen as to the just boundaries of each, and now a strip of valuable ground, eighty feet by something less than two hundred feet is in litigation, the Ridge Company being in possession, and the Antoine Company bringing up a suit to make an ejectment permanent, or something of that sort. Witnesses were introduced yesterday to attempt to prove the right of ownership on the part of the Antoine Co., by right of peaceable possession, but the counsel for the Ridge Company objected to the line of plaintiff's counsel, and the Court ruled that the legality of the claim must be established, and not as based upon equity, while the plaintiff's claim that they are obliged to establish law points upon an equity case. The whole case is consequently arrested, as it would seem to be impossible for the Antoine Company, with whom is the burden of proof, to establish their legal claim to the disputed territory.
1862
Daily Alta California - 7/11/1862 - Powder Among the Gold - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, writing from Smartsville, Yuba county, says: At 6 o'clock last evening (8th inst.,) Peirce, of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, fired 269 kegs of powder in his claim, with perfect success, completely pulverizing at least half an acre, averaging sixty to seventy feet in depth. The shock was felt like the jar of a young earthquake.
1863
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/2/1863 - Copper in Yuba - Copper has been discovered in the vicinity of Timbuctoo, and traced into Nevada county. At a depth of fifteen feet copper is found, of greater richness than at Copperopolis at a depth of seventy feet. The copper in this county is found in a rock resembling quartz, but quite soft and free from grit.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/10/1863 - Copper Mines in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal at Smartsville, in Yuba county, says, under date of April 6th: The past week has been devoted almost entirely to the locating of claims, taking in a belt of country some seven miles in width, in an air line from Dr. Pearce's ranch, on the Honcut, to Bear river, some miles above McCourtney's Crossing. As many as 8,000 claims have been taken up. Meetings are being held and organizations formed for prospecting the different ledges.
California Farmer and Journal - 6/5/1863 - The prospecting for copper, which continues unabated in Yuba county, frequently leads to the discovery of valuable quartz lodes. Some parties have found quartz near Timbuctoo, which assays $35 to the ton, of silver and gold - - mostly of the former. Another recent quartz lode found, is that of the Lone Tree Ledge, four miles south of the Empire Ranch, on the Sacramento road. About three tons of rock from this ledge were recently sent to Grass Valley, crushed there, and found to yield $22.40 a ton. Preparations are making to work both the above ledges.
1865
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/8/1865 - Mining in Yuba County - The Appeal of May 6th has the following: The Blue Gravel Hydraulic Mining Company, near Smartsville, cleaned up yesterday about forty boxes of the head of their flume, after thirty days run, taking out $26,809. In working west, toward the Squaw Creek Company's line, they encounter many heavy bowlders which requires some eight men blasting nearly all the time, consequently they have run much less dirt than heretofore. But when they strike bowlders, the ground is much richer and the pay is far beyond expectations. To give some idea of the manner of working, we will state that the entire length of the company's flume is some three hundred boxes. After the first thirty days run, the upper boxes were cleaned up, paying as above stated. Then, after the next thirty days run, the entire flume cleaned up, paying from $45,000 to $60,000. There are three companies here, the Squaw Creek, Blue Point, and Blue Gravel, and when in full operation, will do as well. L. B. Clark's Squaw Creek will be running in about four months.
Daily Alta California - 11/6/1865 - Mining Matters - Yuba -An old correspondent of the Appeal says: "After taking a trip through a portion of the mining districts of Yuba and Nevada counties, I propose to give you a short account of some of the various mining operations as at present in operation, and other objects of interest that come under my observation. After leaving Marysville for Nevada City, the first mining camp of any importance is Timbuctoo, distant about 15 miles. This place has been one of the most noted mining towns in the State; noted for its rich mines, extensive litigation, and the fondness of the people for the many sports and follies of the early days of California. There are many of the early settlers still here, who, if they had taken care of what Nature had placed in their hands, could now, in their more mature years, be enjoying the fruits of their early labor instead of toiling as they now have to do for an amount that but a few years ago they would have rejected for an hour's labor. Timbuctoo at one time contained a population of five hundred, and polled nearly two hundred votes. - "At present there is about 200, and 100 voters. One half the buildings are unoccupied, and the general appearance of the place is of one of the camps of early days. But with all this seeming decay there is some enterprising men there who, after years of toil and the expenditure of thousands of dollars, are developing mines of more value than any heretofore worked at this place. Mr. J. Warren, the owner and successful manager of the celebrated "Hyde claims," two years since purchased what is known as the "Bullard claims," on Sand Hill, a short distance north from the town. These claims are 375 feet front, running into the hill 600 feet. The ground has been thoroughly prospected by shafts and drifts. Mr. Warren has been for eighteen months past working a double shift of hands, running a tunnel four hundred feet through hard bed rock, which is now completed, bringing him into the claim with a bank of seventy feet, and striking a stratum of blue dirt of the same character as that worked some years ago in the celebrated Antoine claims, near the same place. In shafts sunk on the hill this stratum increases to to the depth of thirty feet. There is every prospect of this being one of the best operations projected at this place. The flumes, pipes, and every appliance for successful operations, are of the most approved and substantial character. The cost of putting the claim in proper working order has been $15,000. - "The Babb's claim, which some years ago paid such large dividends from the working of the upper lead, and which was worked as deep as the grades of the time would permit, is being now, through the energy of Dr. Smith, of your city, and the Holmes Brothers, made more valuable than heretofore. They have at a great expense run a tunnel near one thousand feet, bringing them into very rich pay dirt, and enabling them to work to the bed rock. Their tunnel is nearly completed, and a three foot flume has been finished as the tunnel progresses. They will be washing by Christmas, and from the prospects taken from the air shafts and tunnel they expect to take out at least $1,000 per day. They have been near two years preparing to work this lead. These are the principal mining operations at Timbuctoo, and when the parties commenced to place them in working order they adopted a new way of securing supplies. They old manner of trading with the merchants of the mining towns was imposing upon them a tax of at least thirty per cent, as compared with their present mode of buying from first hands. This they find quite and improvement in their operations and is being generally adopted by mining companies. The dust which formerly passed through the hands of the traders is now sent to the mint by the Miners, yielding not quite as much per ounce as formerly sold for, but a lot of the same, sent to the Mint, will, in the aggregate, yield more. Query, where is the scale of weights?"
1866
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/21/1866 - Mines in Yuba County - A correspondent of the Union, writing from Smartsville, April 19th, has the annexed mining intelligence: The mines here all belong to the genus "gravel." There are no quartz ledges developed here yet, but the richness of the gravel fully pays for its absence. The "Blue Gravel" is the richest claim here - - perhaps because the most developed - - and is a mine of wealth surely to its owners. It is situated just north of the town, hardly a stone's throw from the main street. The site was formerly a high hill, but is now down deep in the earth many feet below the surface. As it is developed toward the bed rock, the richer is the "pay dirt." The mining operations are carried on by means of hydraulic and sluices, no dirt being found hard enough to require crushing. It requires only thirty men to work this claim, yet they make "mighty big runs" every month. The last run for thirty-five days was $50,000, making almost $1,500 per day. We had the good fortune to be present at a mammoth blast last evening, in which three hundred kegs of powder were used. It was a magnificent sight, I assure you. The huge, high bank of the hill for a moment was raised in the air, poised a few seconds, then all, with thundering sound, fell. The "Pittsburg Company" (more recently L. B. Clark's) have commenced operations, and are driving things along at a steady rate. They hope soon to reach the pay dirt, which they will if energy and skill will do it. This mine is owned by capitalists in the East. The "Shamrock Company" are digging away, and have as high hopes of its richness as they have of the ultimate triumph of the shamrock in "Ould Ireland." Creary's claim is being worked energetically - - labor going on day and night - - and is said to be giving evidences of great richness. - The Excelsior Canal Company supplies the mines in this region with all necessary water. Their canal extends a distance of thirty-five miles, connecting with the Yuba river. Their supply never fails - - in Winter and Summer it runs the same - - a never-ceasing stream. The average daily amount of water delivered to the various claims is about 2,000 inches.
Daily Alta California - 6/15/1866 - California State Items: A piece of pure gold weighing over $900 was recently found near Moore's Flat, Nevada County. - The Excelsior Canal Company supplies the mines of Smartsville and Timbuctoo with from 2,000 to 2,500 inches of water daily. The water is taken from the Yuba river, above Nevada, and brought a distance of thirty or thirty-five miles through ditches, flumes and pipes. There is an old flume at the west end of Smartsville, a quarter of a mile in length, and the greater part of the way nearly seventy-five feet high. It has not been used for several years, and is not being torn down so that the timber may be converted into something more useful than an object for travellers to comment upon. Commencing near where the old flume did, is an iron pipe 4 1/2 feet in diameter and a mile in length; part of the way it extends through the centre of a high hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/7/1866 - Mining at Timbuctoo - We understand, says the Marysville Appeal, the Babb claim, at Timbuctoo, cleaned up last week, after a very successful run, averaging $500 per day.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/5/1866 - City Intelligence - Mining Income - A late issue of the Mining Press says: The largest individual income derived from the working result of mining for the year 1865 in California was that of James B. Pierce, of San Francisco. It came from the Blue Gravel claims, near Smartsville, Yuba county, and amounted to $102,031. Jules Fricot, a Nevada quartz miner, was assessed $182,511, but we were recently informed that the larger part of his assessment came from the sale of mining ground.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/19/1866 - The Mines at Smartsville, Yuba County - A correspondent of the Marysville Californian gives the annexed mining items: The Babb Mining Company, near Timbuctoo, in opening their mine from the Bed Rock Tunnel, have struck into the Old River bed where the channel widens out, and fine gold can be seen intermixed through the gravel. - The O'Brien Tunnel, under Independence Hill, near Smartsville, is progressing at the rate of ten feet per week. Less than 600 feet more will bring them into the Old River channel. This will be the first tunnel completed that will be of sufficient depth to work the Old River bed to the bed rock. - The Pittsburg and Yuba River Company are now making their first run from their upper tunnel. They start with a bank of thirty feet. Eight to ten feet of the bottom is Old River dirt, some of which is very rich. The upper strata is also good and the prospects are very flattering. The company commence their lower tunnel immediately and it will bring them into the old channel ninety feet deeper than they are now working. - The Blue Gravel Company, a few days ago, cleaned up $25,000 from a portion of their flume. - The Nevada Reservoir Ditch Company have taken steps to increase their capital stock from $80,000 to $250,000, and the removal of their place of business to Smartsville. - The Blue Point Gravel Mining Company have commenced their long talked of tunnel in good earnest. Double gangs of men are employed and arrangements are being made to use nitro-glycerine in blasting. - The Blue Cement or Peterson Company have just completed their upper tunnel cut and flumes at a cost of some $12,000. Their first blast, which was 150 kegs of powder, has worked well. The first water - - 500 inches - - was turned on yesterday. This is a new operation and an additional source of wealth to our mines. - R. L. Crary, L. Ackley, James O'Brien and others have located a large section of mining ground which has been abandoned for many years, and are pushing forward a bed rock cut and tunnel to work the same. - The Andrew Jackson Quartz Mining Company have paid the Miners' Foundry $11,200 for a first-class mill. The miners have plenty of water, large heads, full days and every one happy.
1867
Daily Alta California - 1/7/1867 - There is a strong feeling among the quartz and cement miners in favor of nitro-glycerine. They say that a few explosions in the hands of ignorant or careless persons prove nothing. Powder does not suit them because it is spoiled by water, and the power is not great enough in a small bore. The facts that nitro-glycerine requires a high heat for explosion, and that not half so many blasts are required, raise strong presumptions in its favor. The number of accidents is proportioned to the multitude of blasts; and the number of men injured by powder in a year about the chief mining centres is frightfully large. The Blue Gravel Company at Smartsville intend to try the blasting fluid, and several owners of quartz mines at Grass Valley are talking of following their example. The Blue Gravel Company use from 125,000 to 150,000 pounds of powder a year in blasting, so they have an opportunity of making a fair comparison on an extensive scale. - The old river bed has been struck at Timbuctoo by the Babb Company, and it is found to be rich in gold.
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/11/1867 - Mining in Yuba - We find the annexed mining news in the Marysville North Californian on February 8th: We are informed by William Smith of Indiana Ranch that the owners of the Bateman ledge are now having crushed at Templar mill rock which will pay from $40 to $50 per ton. We were shown some of the rock and gold can be plainly seen. There is no doubt about the richness, as this is the second crushing. - Several of the Timbuctoo boys came down yesterday with their pockets full of dust - - they had the neat little sum of $10,000, taken from the Antone claim in fifteen days run. This does not look like the mines giving out. - John Rice of Indiana Ranch has discovered on his ranch a very rich deposit of cement gravel, which extends nearly one mile. One pan of dirt prospected $1.12. This will be a fine prospect for parties with capital.
Daily Alta California - 3/13/1867 - The Most Notable Placer Mining Claim of California - The most remarkable and the most profitable placer mining claim in California is that of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, at Smartsville, in Yuba County. The claim covers an area of 100 acres, with an average depth of 100 feet, from the surface to the bed-rock. The location is on a ridge of gravelly clay which covers the bed of an ancient stream, for under the middle of the ridge is a channel from 100 to 400 feet wide, worn down deep into the rock. A tunnel run in horizontally at the base must pass through rock before reaching the channel. - The fact that there was a rich deposit of auriferous gravel in the hill was ascertained in 1854 by sinking shafts at various points, and an incorporated Company was formed with a cash capital of $20,000, to work it. A tunnel was commenced in February, 1855, and driven ahead as rapidly as possible with the insufficient means at the command of the Company. The tunnel was to be 1,700 feet long, in rock, and to cost $80,000 - - the expense being in some places $100 per lineal foot. The partners soon found themselves straitened for money, but they felt confident of the ultimate result; they were faithful to the undertaking, and to one another; they were not afraid of honest work, and their credit was good. After having been at work for two years and having spent all the capital, they undertook to sluice away some of the higher portion of their claim. This operation, however, did not pay. At one time they owed $60,000. In 1863, after six years of sluicing, they had worked off ten acres eighty feet deep, and they owed only $20,000. The result of eight years' work were the expenditures of $20,000, a debt of $20,000 more and confidence in their claim and in one another. Meantime the tunnel was advancing, and they felt encouraged by the belief that when it would be completed they would be all right. For years the Company were at the mercy of their creditors. If the claim had been sold by the Sheriff, it would not have paid a tenth part of what it had cost. As late as 1862, stock was sold by shareholders, who could not hold out or who wished to return to the East, at the rate of $11,000 for the entire claim. - At last, early in 1864, the tunnel passed through the rock and reached the channel, at a depth of one hundred feet below the surface. It was then necessary to sink an incline down so as to make it possible to introduce the water, and the gravel that was to be washed. The incline was cut without any difficulty, but there was much trouble in washing away a hole around the head of the tunnel so large that there would be no danger of the falling of the banks, and of the obstruction of the channel. At last, however, this task was accomplished, and the Blue Gravel Claim stood out one of the most brilliant successes in the end, as it had been one of the most arduous and pecuniarily dangerous in the State. - The Company cleans up once in eight or ten weeks, and the results of the several runs since the tunnel was opened till the end of last year were as follows: March, 1864...$2,281 - May...24,275 - June...7,000 - July...22,350 - August...3,487 - September...49,440 - October...24,669 - December...45,051 - January, 1865...2,724 - February...24,051 - March...44,981 - May...24,000 - June...50,118 - August...24,679 - September...46,500 - October...26,660 - December...37,000 - February 1866...23,746 - April...43,420 - June...23,880 - August...42,494 - October...18,000 - December...25,000 - Total...$642,860 - This claim is a magnificent piece of property, but its owners have shown that they deserved it. They spent $20,000 on it, incurred heavy debts, and devoted nine years of labor without pay to it, and although confident of the ultimate result if the work was continued, they ran the risk of being ejected and seeing others reap the field which they had sown and cultivated. Their merit appears the greater when we keep in mind the fact that their company is the only one which has mined for ten years at Smartsville and has made a clear profit. There are numerous other claims upon which vast amounts of money have been spent, and which, either because of bad management, poverty of the shareholders, or poverty of the pay dirt, have not paid half of the expenses. Half a million dollars is a low estimate for the money spent on Smartsville claims that never paid. Let it not, therefore, be said that the miners of California are taking the gold of the Federal Government without compensation. They well earn all that they get out of the precious metals. Before a miner gets a good mine he has well paid for it by his money or by his labor. The time has gone by when any fool could make a fortune in the mines at brief notice. - But to return to the Blue Gravel claim. The Company has four miles of sluice, three feet wide and three feet deep, with an inclination of 6 1/2 inches in 12 feet. The bed of the sluice on which the gold is caught is made up of alternate sections of block, 17 lineal inches long, and of rock, 24 inches long. Three tons of quicksilver are used in the flume. The current in the flume is 8 inches deep, and 4 inches of that is mud, as thick as it will run. More than half the gold is caught in the first thousand feet near the head of the flume. The amount of water used is 500 inches, and the cost is $75 per day. The head of water is 150 feet, and the bank is torn down by a stream of water forced out under that pressure. In the summer the clay is so hard that it resists the water, and it is blown up by powder, so that it will dissolve more readily. The quantity of powder used annually is 125,000 pounds. About 60 per cent. of the receipts are clear profit. J. P. Pierce, the largest stockholder, and the richest miner of the State, paid taxes last year on an income of $100,000. - The tunnel finished in 1864 is not so deep as the bottom of the channel, so the Company are now engaged in cutting another tunnel, which, as it is deeper, is also longer, and will be more expensive. Three years' labor will be required to finish it. - By a lucky accident the outlet of the Company's sluice into the Yuba is far above the river bed, which, since 1855, has risen eighty feet, having been filled in to that depth with earth and gravel from the mines above. If the lower end of the sluice had been less than eighty feet above the bed, as it was in 1855, the claim could not now be worked, but fortunately it was 120 feet above, so the bed of the Yuba can rise forty feet more before work will stop on the Blue Gravel claim. That rise of forty feet, however, will not be made for two score of years at least, and the Blue Gravel claim will not last more than one score. Hitherto twenty acres of ground, 100 feet deep, have been washed away.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/21/1867 - From the North - Yuba County Mines - The Marysville North Californian thus speaks of its mines: At no time in the history of Yuba county has the mining prospects looked more flattering. The extensive discoveries that are daily being made in and about the mining camps is truly gratifying. A correspondent writing about the mines says: "Prospecting for quartz in Yuba county has only been carried on to a limited extent. It is true there were many claims taken up in the Brown's Valley district, and some few of them were worked, and those who persevered are in a fair way to be rewarded for their perseverance and expenditures. But there are now many valuable claims lying idle in this district, and many that have not been worked at all. Yet this district is but a small part of Yuba county, which contains about fourteen hundred square miles. In my opinion, many other localities in the county contain as good mines as the Brown's Valley district. In the vicinity of Indiana Ranch, Hansonville, Eagleville, Camptonville, Timbuctoo, Smartsville, and south of Mooney's Empire Ranch, in the vicinity of Allenwood's Ranch, and so on to Round Tent and McDonald's mill, and in fact all along the foothills, many fine looking ledges may be found. There are a number of good looking ledges in the vicinity of Allenwood's Ranch, and some of them very large. The most of them were left untouched during the copper excitement which raged here, because there was nothing 'green' to be seen in them. If the money and labor had been expended to prospect gold-bearing quartz that was spent in looking for copper in our county, the result would have been more beneficial to the county and the prospectors. Any person who will visit the mines at Timbuctoo and Smartsville will be convinced at once of their richness, both in gravel and quartz."
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/4/1867 - Another Rich Ledge - The Marysville Appeal of April 3d says: Mathew Smith and others have recently began work on a ledge about one mile this side of Timbuctoo, on Fillmore hill. This ledge was taken up about a week ago and it promises to be of great value. Some of the quartz was brought to this city on yesterday and tested. The result was very flattering and beyond their expectations. The quartz contains a large amount of galena sulphurets and some considerable free gold. If this claim continues to prospect as well as they go down on it, there will be no doubt of its great value.
Daily Alta California - 4/12/1867 - State Items: Huge Blasting - The Grass Valley National of April 5th says: "A late visitor at Timbuctoo informs us that he witnessed one of the biggest blasts or explosions he ever saw, at the Blue Gravel Company's claim, near Timbuctoo, yesterday. A tunnel was run into the 'hill' (or mountain, rather) some time ago, and this tunnel ended in a large depository for powder. Three hundred kegs were put in and closely packed, ignition being provided for, and when the powder was reached by the fire, it lifted the entire mountain, apparently, from its base and shook the hills with a thousand thunders. This is the way they do things in Timbuc."
Sacramento Daily Union 9/16/1867 - State Fair - Joseph M. Allenwood, of Timbuctoo, Yuba county, exhibits a patent hydraulic apparatus. This invention was patented 1864, and has been successfully used ever since.
1868
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/7/868 - City Intelligence - Incorporated - In the Secretary of State's office yesterday [snip] Articles of incorporation of the "Pactolus Gold Mining and Water Company" were likewise filed. The object of this company is the carrying on and conducting of the business of mining in the Sucker Flat, Independence Hill and Empire mining districts, Rose's Bar township, Yuba county; and also to introduce water from the Yuba river and its tributaries to the mines of Smartsville, Timbuctoo and vicinity. Capital stock, $300,000, divided into 3,000 shares of $100 each. The principal place of business will be at Smartsville. The Board of Trustees is to consist of three persons - - William Ashburner, James O'Brien and Timothy S. Brew acting as such for the first three months. [same listed in the Daily Alta California, 1/8/1868]
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/20/1868 - Mining Trouble - The Grass Valley National of February 18th has the annexed: A difficulty occurred at Smartsville on Friday last between William Carpenter and James O'Brien, in which the latter severely injured the former by striking him on the side of the head with a club. This affair grew out of a mining excitement which has for some time past agitated the Smartsville folks. A communication appeared in a Marysville paper a few days since, from which we gather the cause of the trouble. It seems that in 1846 large numbers of hill claims of one hundred feet square were located in the vicinity of Smartsville. Many of these being back claims, according to the mining laws of the district, the locators were not required to work them until the front claims had been worked out. In the meantime many of the original locators had left the place, and no care was taken of the claims for ten or twelve years. Recently a company, consisting of O'Brien and others, have located a large tract of ground, covering these claims, which they alleged had been abandoned, and have commenced operations on an extensive scale to open the mines. The old locators, however, assert their right to the ground, and the question in dispute will probably be compromised or eventually adjusted by the Courts. It appears that the O'Brien company are willing that the old locators shall retain their claims, provided they will come into the company and pay their proportion of the expense of opening the ground, but insist that the claims shall be opened and worked. The miners, however, insist on their right to hold the claims separately, and work them in the manner and when they choose.
Daily Alta California - 2/24/1868 - A dispute having arisen at Smartsville about some jumping of claims, a miners' meeting lately held decided against the jumpers, holding that the failure to work a claim in the hill was not cause of forfeiture until the claims in front had been worked so as to furnish an outlet.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/14/1868 - News of the Morning - Incorporated - Articles of Incorporation have been filed in the Secretary of State's office in behalf of the Smartsville (Yuba) Consolidated Hydraulic Company, which proposes the conducting of mining on claims or lot of mining ground in the Sucker Flat and Empire Mining Districts, Rose's Bar township, county of Yuba. Capital stock $150,000, to be divided into 1,500 shares of $100 each - - the corporation to exist fifty years, and have its principal place of business at Smartsville, in the county of Yuba.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/30/1868 - Mines in Nevada County - The Grass Valley Union of May 28th has the following: The Red Jacket mine is located on the north side of Deer creek, about one mile below the Anthony House. About eighteen months ago W. M. Pearl and others, residents of Timbuctoo and Smartsville, took it into their hearts that the site of the Red Jacket mine had deep down under it the celebrated Smartsville lead of blue gravel. A company was organized and work at once commenced. A year and a half has been spent in running a tunnel, great labor has been performed in drilling and blasting hard rock, and great expense has been incurred. Judge Pearl, the Superintendent , persevered in spite of prophecies of failure. He said that he knew the Smartsville lead had to cross Red Jacket Hill to get to French Corral and the ridge, and he kept up his spirit and work on the mine. A letter from him, dated at the mine on the 24th instant, says: "The problem as to whether the Red Jacket Mining Company is worth anything or not is solved. We have found a large deposit of blue cement, equal in richness, to all appearances, to the cement claims of Smartsville."
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/7/1868 - Yuba County. - We give the following items from the Appeal of August 6th.: A correspondent asks us to insert the following: "We give below the assessed value of the mines in the Second Assessor district. It will be perused with interest by every taxpayer in the county; possibly the interest will be tinged with disappointment. The great depreciation in their value is indirectly attributable to the Supreme Court, which, some one has said, will feel ashamed of itself when it sees all the figures: Andrew Jackson, 00; Antone, 00; Blue Point, $50; Buckly, $300; Barney Riley, $600; Big Ravine, 120 acres at $5 per acre, $600; Big Ravine Property, $300; Blue Gravel, $15,000; Babb Mining Company, $1,500; Dannebroge, 00; Dusty Mining Company, $250; Dowling Mining Company, $10; Dougherty Mining Company's claim, $15; Excelsior Canal Company's claim, consisting of ten or twelve claims 38 1/4 acres, $18,000; Essner or French, $23; Hybernia Mining Company, 00; Hyde Company's claim, $15; Jefferson, improvements and all, $5,000; Pennsylvania, improvements and all, $15,000; Live Yankee, $20; Michigan Mining Company, $25; McCallum Mining Company, $25; Marysville, $1,500; McDermot, $300; Cement, $250; Marlow, $2,000; Pactolus Great Mining and Water Company, thirty-five acres at $5, $175; Pittsburg and Yuba River Mining Company, fifty acres at $5, $250; Rattlesnake, improvements and all, $7,500; State of Maine Mining Company, $400; Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company, forty-five acres at $5, $250; Union Mining Company, $100; Vinyard Mining Company, $2,400; Union Mining Company, fifteen acres, $75; Union Gravel Mining Company, $2,350. One instance will suffice to show the depreciation of the mining wealth of the county. About three years ago nine-tenths of the Pittsburg and Yuba River Mining Company was sold for $115,000; now its fifty acres are assessed at $250; now the whole value of the mines in Brown's Valley, Timbuctoo and Smartsville will not aggregate more than one-half of that sum.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/2/1868 - Incorporations - [snip] The Union Gravel Mining Company has also incorporated, the design of the company being to carry on the business of mining on various claims on Mooney Flat, Rough and Ready township, Nevada county, California. Capital stock, $66,400, in 664 shares of $100 each. The principal place of business is in the town of Smartsville, Yuba county. Trustees for the first three months - - John Carter, George W. Bristow and Wm. J. Meredith.
1869
Daily Alta California - 1/11/1869 - The big blast of 1,201 kegs of powder in the Smartsville Consolidated, generally known as the Blue Point claim, was fired on the 29th ult. A correspondent of the Mining Press describes the result thus: "The hill was seen to raise some fifteen feet, open in a thousand places, and then settled back a pulverised mass, without making any report, there being only a slight trembling of the earth, and all was over. The space blown up was 270 feet in length, 180 feet in width, with an average depth of over 100 feet, supposed to amount to 200,000 tons of gravel and cement, which was thus prepared for washing. The cost of this blast is nearly $6,000, and it will require 150 days full running time to wash it off. The water for the same, at 600 inches per day, and fifteen cents per inch, will cost $12,000. The cost of cuts and flumes, etc., preparatory to washing, is about $20,000."
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/18/1869 - Mines at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Appeal has the annexed: The Babb Mining Company of Timbuctoo cleaned up a portion of their flume this week, taking out $6,350, after a run of twenty days. They estimate that by cleaning up the whole flume they would take out $8,000 to $10,000. This claim is situated about one mile from the Blue Gravel claim of Smartsville, and on the same lead or river channel. There are several companies working on different portions of this channel between the Babb and Blue Gravel claims. Our mines will not be exhausted till this extensive body of gravel and cement has been washed. The companies at the present time working, and in fact owning nearly all this ground, are J. O'Brien, McAllis & Gordon, Excelsior Canal Company and Pittsburg Company. All the above companies are realizing fair results from their labor; still the great drawback is that none of the above claims are sufficiently low to work their richest and best gravel. There never has been a single tunnel (not even the Blue Gravel tunnel, which is the lowest) deep enough to tap the old river bed or channel. There are two tunnels now in progress which, when completed, will unquestionably develop as rich ground as the Blue Gravel claim, possibly richer. The future of these mines is looking unusually favorable, and Yuba county bids fair to take the first rank among the mining counties of the State.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/9/1869 - Nevada County - The Transcript of March 7th has the following mining intelligence: The blue gravel mines at Smartsville are among the most valuable in the State, and the ground is principally held by three companies, as follows: The Blue Gravel Mining Company, J. P. Pierce & Co.; the Blue Point Mining Company, R. L. Crary & Co., and the Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Company. For the past three or four years these companies have been engaged in litigation about their respective boundary lines, but a short time ago all their matters were satisfactorily settled, and the three companies, now holding all the ground, have gone to work in earnest upon enterprises of great magnitude. - The Blue Gravel Company have started upon their deep bed-rock tunnel. They have been at work on this tunnel one year, and expect to reach the channel in two years more, when they will have a face sixty feet deeper than the claim has yet been worked. The Blue Point Company have been running their tunnel three years, and expect to finish it in a year and a half. They have raised two shafts, and are now working upon the tunnel in five places to strike the channel at about the same depth as the Blue Gravel Company. - The Smartsville Consolidated are washing off the top level and have ground enough to last three or four years without running a bed-rock tunnel. - From the channel at this point immense sums of money have been taken out, and the owners have become rich. When they are opened to the new level the claims will be more valuable than ever before.
1870
Daily Alta California - 1/9/1870 - Annual Gold Mining Review - The Oaks and Reece Mill crushed 9,059 tons, and extracted $130,229.10 in 1869, an average of $14.37 per ton. The mill has 23 stamps, of which 12 first commenced work a month since. The Union Hill Mine, which has lately been sold to an English Company, cleaned up for December $16,300, of which 40 per cent is profit. The monthly production seldom exceeded $12,000 before. The Empire, North Star and Banner Mines are at work, but we have no figures from them. - The Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company have opened their claim, and for nearly three months have taken out about $500 per day. The Blue Gravel (from which we have no figures for 1869) and the Blue Point, adjoining claims, are running outlet tunnels, which will require about a year for completion. Several large companies have been formed near Smartsville and Timbuctoo by the consolidation of smaller ones. It is reported that the Blue Lead has been found north of Forest City, where it was thought to exist, though numerous previous searchings for it through a period of fifteen years, some of them very expensive, were in vain. It is also supposed that the same lead has been found on the northern border of El Dorado County, but as yet these supposed discoveries has not led to any important results.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/21/1870 - Big Clean-Up - Crary, O'Brien & Co., in their hydraulic claims at Smartsville, cleaned up, after a run of thirty days, $70,000. These are new claims, this being the third run, and the yield has been about the same.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/25/1870 - Rich Mining District - The Nevada Transcript of March 24th has the following: Sucker Flat is a rich mining district and is located just beyond the Nevada line, in Yuba county. For the magnitude of its mining operations it equals any, while in the yield of its mines it probably exceeds any district yet developed in the State. The leading mine is the Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company's claims, which, from its name, has been spoken of as being located at Smartsville. This mine has an outlet on the Yuba, is just over the ridge from Mooney Flat, and about half of the ground is located in Nevada and half in Yuba county. It is being worked on a large scale. The banks are one hundred feet in depth, and they have the blue gravel channel. The claim may be considered as a new development, as only two full runs have been made. In December, after the first run, the yield was $41,000, and the last run of thirty days gave a gross yield of $70,000. The claim is now thoroughly opened, and will be worked without interruption. They have ground enough to last for twenty years.
Daily Alta California - 3/28/1870 - The North American Gravel Claim at Michigan Bluff, is yielding 120 ounces per week. The Nevada Transcript speaks thus of the Smartsville Consolidated Company's mine: It is being worked on a large scale. The banks are one hundred feet in depth, and they have the blue gravel channel. The claim may be considered as a new development, as only two full runs have been made. In December, after the first run, the yield was $41,000, and the last run of thirty days gave a gross yield of $70,000. The claim is now thoroughly opened, and will be worked without interruption. They have ground enough to last for twenty years.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/5/1870 - The New York Gold & Silver Mining Company, of Smartsville, have incorporated. Capital stock, $30,000. Trustees, John B. Stone, Lafayette Brooks and Hugh McCaffrey.
Daily Alta California - 12/27/1870 - The Eureka quartz mine at Grass Valley has been closed temporarily, because it is said some of the miners were discovered stealing specimens, and the Superintendent wants time to devise means to prevent any more theft of that kind. the tunnel of the Blue Point Mining Company, at Sucker Flat, 2,100 feet long, is completed, after four years labor, and next month a great blast of 2,500 kegs of black powder will be let off to loosen the gravel for hydraulic washing. The Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, owning the adjoining claim, will about the same time try a large blast of giant powder, partly for the purpose of making a comparison of the two explosives. The deep tunnel to drain the lowest level of this claim will not be completed for a year.
1871
DailyAlta California - 2/12/1871 - Mining With Steam and Diamonds - There is reason to hope that the day is not far distant, when much of the hand labor now done in mining, will be saved by the application of steam. The diamond-pointed and steam-driven drill which has been at work for years, with great success and much economy of both time and money, in the Mt. Cenis tunnel, has not yet been employed on our coast, underground; but an invention lately made in this city, by N. W. Robinson, promises to remove the chief obstacle in the way of it here. This invention is an adjustable attachment by means of which the drill can be turned in any direction, with very little trouble. - The diamond drill, for boring from the surface, has been at work in a dozen different places in the State. It bored a hole 325 feet deep in the Union mine, and 200 feet in the Kentucky mine at Carson Hill, five holes (the deepest 160 feet), in Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, and it is now engaged at the Picacho Quicksilver Mine in boring two holes, each to be 350 feet deep. The diamond drill has also bored several deep wells. The size of the hole made for prospecting and for wells, varies from two to thee inches. A boring machine was completed last week, in this city, for the Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, and at the end of this week it will be sent to the mine. It consists of four diamond drills of Leschot's patent, placed on an iron car. - The Smartsville Blue Gravel Company are engaged in hydraulic mining, and have for the last five years been the leading association of the kind in the State. They have taken out more than $1,000,000 in all. They buy more water for washing the auriferous gravel, than San Francisco does for the household purposes of 150,000 people, and this water needs a channel five feet wide and three feet deep, below the level of the bottom of the auriferous deposit. The rich gravel is in the midst of a hill, so an outlet is furnished by a tunnel which was finished in 1864, after six or eight years of hard labor. - But that tunnel is not deep enough, so in 1867 another was commenced at a lower level. About three years of work has been spent on it, and the miners are now in 1,247 feet from the mouth. The width is six feet, the height nine; the expense per lineal foot about $30; the present rate of progress one foot per day, and the distance still to be accomplished 243 feet, for which ten months time would be required by hand-drilling. But the present price and speed are not satisfactory, so steam and diamonds are to be tried for boring the blast holes as substitutes for flesh and steel. The expectation is that the new machine will save half the expense and four-fifths of the time. - The car will run into the tunnel on an iron track, and will be supplied from a steam engine outside through a rubber hose with compressed air, which will furnish both power and ventilation. Having arrived at the end of the tunnel, the wheels will be blocked, the machinery will be started, with four drills running at once, and each will bore a hole an inch and a quarter in diameter and a foot deep in twelve minutes. Then the drills will be adjusted again and four other holes bored, and so on until the "face" in front of the machine is "full." The machine will be run back on the track; cartridges will be put in the holes and tamped in; and all will be fired at once. In that way five, and perhaps ten feet, can be blasted in a day. - The drills can be adjusted to any part of the tunnel near the front of the machine, above, below or on the sides. Each drill makes 975 revolutions per minute, and in that time bores an inch and a half in hard granite. In 650 revolutions the drill moves forward one inch, so the diamond at each revolution cuts off one 650th part of an inch. The Smartsville machine weighs about two tons, and cost $10,000. A machine with a single drill could be made to work in a tunnel four feet square. The Robinson adjustable attachment fits the diamond drill for work in small tunnels, in which it has not been used hitherto on this coast. As soon as it is announced that the machine is a success at Smartsville - - if it should be announced as we anticipate - - several hundred miners from different parts of the coast will go to see it, and examine whether they can apply it in their workings.
Pacific Rural Press - 2/18/1871 - A New Tunnel Machine, built at the Fulton Iron Works, has just been completed. It is of large size with four drills. It was designed by the Diamond Drilling Machine Company for work on the Blue Gravel Company's tunnel near Smartsville. A trial last week was most satisfactory. We shall speak of it again at greater length.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/20/1871 - News of the Morning: Blue Point Gravel Mining Company, Smartsville, yesterday cleaned up $40,000 from their bed-rock tunnel. The tunnel has been four years in construction, and cost $146,000.
Daily Alta California - 5/22/1871 - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, writing from Sucker Flat, says: Hydraulic mining is carried on more extensively here than in any other part of the State. The first claim above Timbuctoo is called the Estner claim, and is owned by the Excelsior Canal Company. Next comes the Babb Company, who are running a bedrock tunnel which they intend to completed in six months, when they expect to strike very rich pay dirt. The Rose's Bar Company are running two heads of water. They are also running a bed rock tunnel that will tap the lead eighty feet below the present working level. This is no doubt the richest claim between here and Timbuctoo. Immediately adjoining is the Pittsburg Company, which at present have shut down. The Blue Gravel Company are piping away in the upper strata, and running at the same time their bedrock tunnel. The Union claim, owned by the Nevada Ditch Company, at present is lying idle. The Blue Point Company are making their way back down to the bedrock to obtain a place to work from. It is estimated that the next clean up will reach $80,000. The Company are using five pipes, and have ground enough to last many years. This is one of the richest hydraulic claims on the Pacific Coast. The Smartsville Company are running two heads of water, and expect to make a big cleanup next week. The Enterprise Company are running a tunnel, for a sluice way, to the upper portion of their claim, which they will not complete in less than a year. - Timbuctoo is dead and its buildings deserted.
Daily Alta California - 5/26/1871 - Condition of the Placer Mines - The traditional miner, with his slouch hat, long beard, revolver slung to his belt, who worked all the week and gambled his money away every Saturday night, is a character of the past, or at least he does not exist in this vicinity, says a Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Appeal. Here, where hundreds of thousands of dollars are taken from the mines every month, where all of the men have steady work and fair wages, such a thing as a gambling house is unknown. I doubt if there is a mining locality in California of equal size and prosperity that can make so creditable a showing. The miners seem to be frugal, saving and industrious, and give the lie to the popular impression among people not familiar with them that they are dissolute and shiftless. Many of the miners have families to support from their wages, which is $3 per day. There has been some talk of procuring cheaper labor to work the mines, but it cannot be done. Three dollars per day is surely little enough. A single man may be able to save something from it, but it barely affords support to a family, and there is no good policy in grinding a workingman down to a bare subsistence, but on the contrary he should be able to save something from his wages, and by the accumulation of money by degrees become an employe himself in course of time. It is this ambition that renders the laboring man the good citizen and useful member of society. But the occupation of the miner has measurably gone. Science is rapidly supplying substitutes for human muscle, and as science advances men are displaced, and forced to seek new fields. Formerly the mines were divided up into hundreds of small claims, each one giving employment to a number of men. Now these claims have become consolidated into about half a dozen, and the number of workmen proportionately reduced. Giant powder and water power have come into play to accomplish the work of men. Formerly hundreds of men were employed drifting under ground, making a perfect honeycomb of the hill with the view of caving down the dirt, but now they run a tunnel a mile or so, make a lot of drifts, stow them full of giant powder and touch off the explosive mass with an electric spark, blowing up acres of ground at a time. While all of these improvements are beneficial to mine owners, they lessen the demand for labor, reduce the number of employed, and hence must aid in depopulating the towns that are supported by the mines.
Daily Alta California - 5/27/1871 - The Mining Ditches at Smartsville - From the Marysville Appeal, May 26th. - The great desideratum in hydraulic mining is the article of water. Without this necessary article, this species of mining cannot be conducted, as thus far science has failed to develop any practical plan for separating the gold from the gravel without its material agency, and its use in large quantities. The gravel mines of this section are regarded as the richest in the State, and in fact, in the world, which idea is very naturally obtained from the success attending their operations. But this idea is to a great degree erroneous. The extent of these mines is exceedingly limited, and the yield per cubic yard is not extraordinary. Indeed, there are probably thousands of acres of gravel beds in California equally as rich, and no doubt many that would yield more. But the great secret underlying the profitableness of these operations is in the bountiful supply of water at their command. The Excelsior Canal Company, that supplies nearly all of the demands, is a consolidation of five companies, whose works have been projected from time to time since 1851. The Company now has three ditches running from the South Yuba and Deer Creek, which furnish all the water for which they are called upon, while the Nevada Reservoir Ditch Company, having its source at Wolf Creek, brings in large volumes in the Winter and Spring months, most of which is used in the Blue Point and Smartsville Consolidated claims. These various ditches are the arteries which furnish lifeblood to this vicinity. Sever them, permanently cutting off the supply which they send coursing through the veins (to which the many flumes may be likened), and financial death must ensue. The works now owned by the Excelsior Company cost, originally, close upon a million dollars. Of course they could be constructed cheaper now, perhaps for half the amount - - yet this is the amount of capital that has been expended in the works of this Company alone, and upon which a fair interest is sought. So you will perceive that the procurement of a claim, even if it be rich, is but a small consideration in undertakings of this character. Years ago, when hydraulic mining was comparatively in its primitive state, fifty cents per inch was charged, while it is now supplied in large quantities for ten. The latter price, under the circumstances, is by far the most profitable. The first cost of construction being paid, the expense of maintaining the ditches and flumes is comparatively trifling. The former seldom get out of repair, if properly attended to, while good flumes will last twelve years, with good care and occasional patching when necessary. Ditch operations have long been regarded as hazardous speculations, and to this view being entertained to a great degree by capitalists is due the poverty of many of the mining counties, which need only a bountiful supply of water to regain their former proud position of wealth and prosperity.
Daily Alta California - 5/28/1871 - The Diamond Drill at Smartsville - In company with Mr. McGanney, the general agent of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, says a Sucker Flat correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, under date of the 24th inst., I this morning visited the company's new tunnel, and there witnessed the working of the famous Diamond drill. This drill is a French invention, and was first brought into prominent notice by its successful employment in the Mount Cenis tunnel through the Alps. The right to manufacture and use this drill in the United States has been purchased by a New York firm, and the one employed in the Blue Gravel is the only machine of the kind ever constructed for use in mining tunnels. A number are used successfully in the East in open cuts upon the face of rocks and in railroad tunnels. The drill which I saw this morning about fills the square of the tunnel. It operates four drills at once, each boring with from 700 to 1,000 revolutions a minute. The Burleigh drill that was used in the Hoosac tunnel in Massachusetts had a large number of "strikers" that were thrust with great rapidity and velocity against the face of the rock, cutting and battering it down. The Diamond drill bores a round smooth hole an inch in diameter at the rate of an inch a minute. A peculiarity of its operations is that the rocky core is taken from the hole, as a candle is taken from the mould. The bitt is an inch in diameter, and hollow, and upon the end, arranged about the circular rim are Brazil diamonds, or "black diamonds," from three to nine each bitt, as required. The motive power of the drill is compressed air, which is forced through an iron pipe the extent of the tunnel to the machine by means of a forty horse power engine adjacent to the tunnel's mouth. Of course the operations of the drill were for some time experimental, but its value has ceased to be a matter of question. It will bore the holes in any direction, perpendicular (up or down) horizontal, or at any angle, and the operation can easily be directed and controlled. It has two cylinders, each working two drills, and requires a man to each cylinder. By manual labor, in the kind of rock now worked in the Blue Gravel tunnel, about ten inches of tunnel can be made in a day. With the Diamond drill, last week, eleven and one-half feet were made in four and one-half days. Could some method be devised for more speedily clearing the debris rock from the tunnel after each blast, the progress would be a great deal faster. After the required number of holes are drilled, they are charged with giant powder, wires are attached to each blast, which are all connected with the main wire leading to the battery, and an electric spark explodes them simultaneously. The machine is worked day and night, by three shifts of hands of two men each. Its workings thus far have been so successful that they can no longer be regarded as experimental, but the Diamond Drill, for mining tunneling, can be safely set down as one of the most valuable among the many important inventions of the age.
Daily Alta California - 5/30/1871 - Successful Application of Machinery in Mining - We use steam extensively in hoisting, pulverizing and concentrating ores; but hitherto have depended almost entirely upon hand labor for running tunnels and drifts, and breaking down the ore. The Diamond drill tunneling machine, however, has been tried at Smartsville with success, and we may now consider it an important aid in the development of our mineral resources. It will henceforth be in constant and increasing use, unless superceded, and that does not now appear probable, by some superior machine. - The Blue Gravel hydraulic claim at Smartsville is one of the most valuable and best managed pieces of mining property in the State. It has yielded at least $1,000,000, and is expected to yield much more. The Company, while washing off the upper strata of the claim, have at the same time been cutting out a deep tunnel through which to run off the lower strata. The lower tunnel was cut 1,285 feet by hand, at a cost of $40,000, and three years labor. When in 1,200 feet, eight men were constantly employed in it, working in three shifts, and making about one foot in twenty-four hours at a cost of forty dollars per foot, blasting with black powder. The whole length of the tunnel was to be 1,563 feet, and as it would be an important point to hasten the work, the Company determined to try the Diamond drill. - A machine was made for them, in this city on an original pattern, and after many delays incident to the introduction of a new method of working, the experiment is pronounced a success. Fifty feet of tunnel have been made with it, and now that everything works smoothly and the Company have sufficient experience to justify the expression of an opinion, they declare themselves satisfied. In the same kind of rock which before cost $40 per running foot with black powder for cutting the tunnel six feet wide, and eight feet high, by hand, at the rate of one foot per day, they now cut from two to two and a half feet per day in a tunnel six feet wide and nine feet high, at an expense of $25 per foot. This price covers everything save the interest on the cost of the machine and the wear and tear. The power is supplied by a fifteen horse-power steam engine at the mouth of the tunnel, and is transmitted by compressed air through a hose to the drills, which bore holes an inch and an eighth in diameter at a speed of from half an inch to an inch and a quarter in a minute. The holes are usually from 20 to 30 inches deep, and all on the face of the tunnel are blasted out at the same instant by an electric exploder. - The chief profit at the Blue Gravel mine, from the use of the machine, is in the saving of time. The tunnel, which has already cost $40,000, would be of no use for ten or eleven months yet if the drilling were done by hand, but with the help of the machine it will be ready for service in less than four months. Here is a saving of the interest on $40,000 for six months. Then the Company will get their gold dust from the mine six months sooner and they will have so much more interest on that. They have other tunnels to cut, and for the purpose of working to the best advantage they have purchased the machine now in use and ordered another. They authorize us to say, that in their opinion, when the men have more experience, and when everything is arranged for the machine in the best style, it will do much better than at present. - The success of the machine in this tunnel implies a success in any tunnel of equal size in hard rock. The larger the tunnel and the harder the rock, the greater the relative saving. We presume that there would be no economy in using a machine to cut a tunnel smaller than that at Smartsville, and that is larger than most of the mining tunnels need to be. Railroad tunnels are larger, and for them the machine is very valuable. Whether the diamond drill could be used profitably in stopping or breaking down quartz rock, is a question upon which we are not prepared to express an opinion, but which is worthy of examination.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/16/1871 - City Intelligence - Incorporations. Yesterday the Secretary of State filed a certificate of incorporation of the Golden Gate Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company, which has been formed for the purpose of buying, selling, working and otherwise manipulating titles to mining claims, and other property pertaining thereto, in the counties of Yuba and Nevada. Capital stock, $500,000, in $100 shares. Trustees - - Patrick Campbell, John Cosgrove and Samuel Hutchinson. Principal place of business, Timbuctoo, Yuba county.
Daily Alta California - 7/31/1871 - The steam drilling machine will resume work early this week in the tunnel of the Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, after having lost about five weeks in consequence of the breaking of the fly wheel, which was cast too light. The machine has done two months steady work and has given complete satisfaction for the purpose to which it is applied. A large number of visitors have examined it while in operation, and other similar machines, will, it is supposed, be ordered for cutting tunnels in hydraulic claims at Gold Run and North Bloomfield. The tunnel which it makes is larger than is needed usually in quartz mines, and there is no prospect of its application soon in this State in any mines save those in which hydraulic claims are to be drained and large quantities of gravel to be washed through spacious tunnels.
1873
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/18/1873 - Pacific Coast Items - The cement claim situated between Timbuctoo and Sucker Flat was the scene of a large blast January 16th. At noon 230 kegs were exploded, doing excellent work and shaking up an immense amount of gravel. The drifts in which the blasts were discharged were about 100 feet long.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/27/1873 - Explosion of Powder at Sucker Flat - Sucker Flat, December 26th. - Twenty thousand pounds of Santa Cruz powder was exploded in the Smartsville hydraulic mine to-day. The powder was placed in drifts under a bank of gravel over 200 feet high. It was a great success.
1875
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/5/1875 - City Intelligence - Incorporations: There were filed yesterday in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Excelsior Water Company - - to deal in water, mining claims, lands and merchandise, and to manufacture and deal in gunpowder and blasting powder. Capital, $2,000,000, in shares of $100 each. Directors - - J. P. Pierce, Daniel McGanney, S. H. Dikeman, George P. Thurston and Elliott S. Thurston. The principal place of business will be in Smartsville, Yuba county.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/23/1875 - City Intelligence - Incorporation - There were filed in the office of the Secretary of State Saturday articles of incorporation [snip] of the Smartsville Mining Company, to operate in Yuba county. Capital, $1,000,000 in shares of $100 each. Directors - Daniel McGanney, William Crainsie [Cramsie], James P. Pierce, George P. Thruston and Henry Hogarth. The principal place of business will be Smartsville.
1876
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/15/1876 - From Smartsville - - A Great Work Completed - Smartsville, July 14th. - The Excelsior Water Company to-day completed in three months a bedrock tunnel 755 feet in length in the Babb claim at Timbuctoo. The completion of this work adds greatly to the value of the company's property, as the gravel which will be washed through is of the richest kind. The short time in which this work was accomplished is remarkable and unprecedented.
1877
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/24/1877 - The Nevada Transcript says: Ed. Carney and P. S. Goodspeed, of Hunt's Hill, have sold their entire mining property to a corporation known as the Camden Mining Company. The sale was effected through John McAllis, of Smartsville, an experienced miner and a member of the Excelsior Mining Company. The property is a valuable one, and will no doubt demonstrate the advantages of investment by San Francisco capitalists in our mines. The property embraces nearly 100 acres of valuable mining ground, with fixtures, and all the tools and appliances for immediate and practical work, and at $25,000, the price said to have been paid, cannot but prove a profitable investment.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/7/1877 - Pacific Coast Items: The strike at Smartsville still continues. A report having in some way been circulated that the mine-owners were about to employ Chinamen in place of the whites, the excitement became more intense than ever. The employment of Chinamen might perhaps gain a temporary victory over the strikers, but there would be nothing effected by it more than to make that which is now only a local matter the common cause of the laboring men of California. We have not heard the mine-owners' side of the case, and only a little of that of the strikers; but as much as we are able to judge from the little we have heard, the strikers do not seem unreasonable in their demands, and it would be better for everybody if work should be resumed on their terms immediately. (Wheatland Free Press)
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/24/1877 - Incorporations - There were filed yesterday in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Equity Mill and Mining Company - - to operate in Elko county, Nevada. Capital, $3,000,000 in shares of $50 each. Directors - - T. R. Hayes, A. Badlam, Henry Coulton, Jr., H. C. Swain and S. G. Beatty. The principal place of business will be in San Francisco....Also, a certificate of removal of the principal place of business of the Enterprise Mining Company from Sucker Flat to Smartsville, Yuba county.
Sacramento Daily Union - The miners heretofore employed at Sucker Flat, Timbuctoo and Smartsville, feeling incensed and grieved at the late reduction of wages in the several mines, which reduction caused a general cessation of work on the 1st instant, on Friday turned out en masse for a street parade and demonstration. A procession of about 175 miners, headed by James Hanley as Marshal, and John McDonald as Assistant Marshal, and the Smartsville Brass Band, formed on the streets of Sucker Flat, and marched through Timbuctoo, Smartsville and Mooney Flat, and then counter marched, forming altogether the most demonstrative procession ever witnessed in the township. The procession was orderly and respectable, and evidently the miners mean to stand out for their demands. A fund is to be raised, by a ball, to aid the poorest families. A large number of tickets were sold in this city yesterday. Marysville Appeal, February 4th.
1878
Pacific Rural Press - 2/2/1878 - List of U. S. Patents Issued to Pacific Coast Inventors - (From official reports for the Mining and Scientific Press, Dewey & Co., Publishers and U. S. and Foreign Patent Agents) - By Special Dispatch from Washington, D.C. [snipped] Reissues: Ore washing apparatus for hydraulic mining - J. W. Allenwood, Timbuctoo, Cal.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/19/1878 - Editorial Expression of the Pacific Press - Butte County Register: No remedy, in our judgment, will ever be found, that permits the working of mines, until some means are devised to prevent the slum from getting into the natural water courses. We think this to be clearly within the reach of mining ingenuity. Take, for example, the Smartsville mines, (we cite these because we are acquainted with the geography and formation of the surrounding country). What is to prevent a mechanical arrangement at the lower end of the company's sluice boxes that will segregate the rock and gravel from the sand and slum? We think that any old miner with ordinary ingenuity, who has ever attended a "tom," will say at once that it is a very simple affair. This being accomplished, the light material and water could be taken in a sluice and conveyed to the foot hills, and corraled until it settled. We believe the natural fall of the country, from the point where it left the mining claim, would be sufficient to carry this light material off to any place on the plains that might be desired. There would be no danger to the navigation of the rivers, or damage to the farming lands, to be apprehended from dumping the rock and coarse gravel into the natural water courses, as in the most extreme floods but little of it would find its way below the line of the line of the foothills. It is true that accumulation of rock and gravel at the dumps of the mining companies' sluices might, and doubtless would, take place if left without the aid of the miner's water to carry it out of their way; but we think this difficulty could be met at a slight expense in the way of cars propelled by steam or man power to take the rock and gravel out of the way. If our ideas are practicable as applied to the Smartsville mines, there is no natural obstacle that we are aware of that would prevent their application to all the mines in Nevada county that dump into either branch of the Yuba river. We look upon this matter of disposing of the mining debris as a condition precedent to any intelligent system of reclamation. The first thing to be done, as we understand it, is to master the problem of working our mines independent of the natural water course as an outlet for their slum; this accomplished, the balance of the problem seems to us capable of an easy and speedy solution.
1879
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/11/1879 - Pacific Coast Items - Grass Valley Union: It has been rumored in town for several days, on what is deemed good authority, that the farmers on the Yuba river have taken measures to commence suits against the hydraulic mining companies at Smartsville, and in the "Ridge" portion of Nevada county, to restrain them from running tailings into the Yuba and its tributaries. The recent decision of Judge Keyser, in which the farmers obtained all they asked for as against the miners, is encouragement to commence similar proceedings in other sections. As the case will be commenced in Judge Keyser's Court, and about the same questions will be involved as in the original case, there appears no room to doubt that the judgment will be against the miners.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/20/1879 - News Tailings - This is the way debris is prepared to be sent down to the valleys. The Placer Herald of the 15th says: At the Dardanelles mine, near Forest Hill, there was exploded last Saturday a blast of 36,000 pounds of Judson powder. This is the second biggest blast of this kind of powder, as far as we are aware of, ever fired in the State. The biggest was at Smartsville some months ago, when 50,000 pounds was ignited at once. In that case, however, we understand, the result was a comparative failure, while in the case of the blast at the Dardanelles, last Saturday, the result was remarkably successful, the amount of dirt loosened being no less than half a million cubic yards, or fully equal to the largest amount ever before shook up by one blast in California, by any amount of any kind of powder. When we reflect that each pound of powder loosened about fourteen cubic yards of gravel, the result seems little less than wonderful. The powder drifts consisted of five and the number of T's fourteen. The explosion was performed by electricity.
1880
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/29/1880 - Mining Debris: Legislative Excursion to Marysville and Other Points to Investigate the Subject - The method of gaining information for legislative action upon the subject of debris, by the members proceeding in a body to the grounds at Marysville and along the rivers in that vicinity, was yesterday successfully carried out, and to the satisfaction of all concerned. The special train for this purpose left Sacramento at 8:45 a.m., with three cars, which were filled to their full capacity with members and ladies, legislative attaches, representatives of the press and others. There were seventy members of the Legislature that participated in the trip, as follows: Senators West, Nye, Ryan, Hill, Chase, Carlock, Burt, Conger, Johnston, Moreland, Zuck, Davis, Watson, Hudson and Anderson. Assemblymen - - Speaker Cowdery, Stoddard, McCarthy, McIntosh, McCarty, McComas, Sayle, Young, Chamberlain, Wassen, Corcoran, Chandler, Braunhart, Leach, Ward, Frink, Brown of Yuba, Brooks, Sweetland, Burns, Pickett, Streeter, Stanley, Wason, Maybell, lane, Garibaldi, Morse, Carr of Yuba, Carr of Sacramento, McCallion, May, Maguire, Mulholland, Estey, Coffman, Cuthbert, Josselyn, Nelson, Watson, Brusie, Hardy, Messenger, Gaffey, Del Valle, McDade, Bruner, DuBrutz, Hynes, Finlayson, Anthony, Felton, Gorley, Mathews, and Brown of Sonoma. State Engineer William H. Hall also accompanied the party, by request, to give information as to location of the main dam proposed to be constructed upon the Yuba river, and other matters connected with the debris subject. - Upon arriving at the Bear river, twelve miles this side of Marysville, the train stopped upon the bridge and an inspection was made of the condition of the stream and the adjacent lands destroyed by the debris. The water at this point of the river had the appearance of thin mud, and a rolling, wave-like action of the water in the central portion of the stream was said to be caused by cross reefs of sand moving down with the current, but which, from its greater weight and slow, shifting movement, produced those wave troughs of a foot or more in depth upon the surface. The channel of the river is held within levees, and the bed is about five feet above the adjacent lands. The former rich alluvial lands along this stream, ranging from one to three miles wide, and worth only a few years since from two to three hundred dollars per acre are now worthless and abandoned, from the overflow of deposits, and nearly all of which are past all hope of reclamation. The railroad track has within the past few years been two or three times raised on piles to kept the track above the increasing altitude of the river. The location of the bridge has also had to be changed by reason of the river having left its bed and found another course. The Keyes ranch, in relation to which the suit was brought against the mines, is situated about two miles below this point. - After remaining a few moments in this vicinity, the train moved on to Marysville, where carriages without number were waiting to convey the excursion party to various points which it was arranged should be visited. With the exception of a few remaining in Marysville, the party was soon transferred to carriages and proceeded to a point on the Yuba river about ten miles above the city, where it is proposed to construct the lower dam upon that river to retain the heavier detetrius, a portion of the company taking the left hand side of the river, and the other the right. Commencing at Marysville, the tract of country passed in review, which were formerly the rich, alluvial bottom lands of the Yuba, and now ruined with debris, and lying between the levees, has a width of from two to two and one-half miles in width and running at an average of about that width to the site selected for the dam. Most of this land twenty years ago was worth from one to three hundred dollars per acre and thickly populated; now it is a scene of vast desolation, with a level surface of sand, thick, muddy water, willows and cottonwood, and with no vestige of house or marks of former habitation. About three miles above the city was pointed out the place where once flourished the celebrated Briggs ranch, with its vast acreage and yield of fruit, accounts of which, published at the time in the Eastern papers, were regarded as almost fabulous. This ranch, even after threatened and injured to some extent by the early flow of debris, sold for $250,000. Now the whole site of its best lands are buried from 18 to 20 feet deep, and the roots of cottonwoods and willows are now reaching down towards the tops of the former peach and pear trees which stand engulfed far below the present surface. This location is over a mile inside the present levee, and the channel of the river, which was originally beyond this orchard, has changed, and now runs along the side of the levee, more than a mile from its former location, and upon what was then considered as high plain lands, and nothing but the levee retains it in its present course, as it is several feet higher already than the plains outside the levee. - The place proposed for the dam referred to is at DeGuerre Point, where a curve in the right bank of the river narrows its width to about a mile, with a high point upon the west side of about fifty feet, and much higher on the opposite bank. The two points are not immediately opposite, which will cause the dam to stand at an angle across the river of about thirty degrees. Both points are rocky, and the east one has ample supply of stone to make the structure. - Between these bluffs in the valley once lay the regular stage route from Marysville to mining towns on the upper Yuba. Now only the limbs of the largest trees extend above the debris to mark the location of trunks and roots sixty feet beneath. - The company that went up the left side of the river went as far as Smartsville, on the way to which place, near Timbuctoo, was pointed out a place in the valley where in early mining times was a large fruit orchard and vineyard, and which is now ninety feet under the present bed of the river, and six miles above the debris was seen accumulated to the depth of 120 feet. - Upon arriving at Smartsville they were served at hotels and private houses with bountiful refreshments, which were well appreciated after the long ride. After dinner the company returned to Marysville, arriving about quarter to 8 o'clock. The party which took the other side of the river returned to Marysville in the afternoon, arriving at about 3 o'clock; and after enjoying an ample and well-relished dinner at the Western, again took carriages and went across Feather river into Sutter county. After following about five miles along the right levee of that river below Yuba City, where thousands of acres of fine land have recently been abandoned to the debris, the return to the city was made by a circuit through some of the rich lands of Sutter county, which were greatly admired by the visitors, but which they were reminded would also soon be given up to destruction of debris unless some effective action is taken to remedy the present evils. - At the foot of D street in Marysville, where in 1852 the low-water mark was thirty feet below the level of the street, is now filled to a depth of twenty-five feet. The main sewer of the city, built about fifteen years ago, emptied into the Yuba river at this place, the bottom of which was ten feet above the bed of the river, and now the river bed is some fourteen feet above the bottom of the sewer, leaving the city without sewerage, and with only a defective drainage into a slough inside the city levee, where it is impounded until a low stage of water in the Feather river, when a gate is opened and a portion of it flows into that river. Last season the accumulation of water in the city from this drainage was so great in the lower part of the city that a small levee was made across a portion of the overflowed section, and the water pumped out over this levee, where it remained until past the middle of the summer before the Feather river got low enough to permit of its discharge in this direction. Twenty years ago the assessable property of Marysville was over $4,000,000, and now, from damage and depression from the debris, it is less than $2,000,000. - Having completed the investigation intended by the excursionists, the cars were again taken a little before 8, and reached Sacramento about 10 p.m., all seeming well satisfied with the trip, that its results would be to stimulate early legislative action looking to a restraint of the present destruction from debris.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/11/1880 - Mining Notes: Three gold bars from the Smartsville (Yuba county) hydraulic claims have lately been shipped to an assay establishment in San Francisco. Two of the bars weighed respectively $29,600 and $18,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/15/1880 - INCORPORATED - There has been filed in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Northern Belle Gold, Silver and Copper Mining Company; place of business, Smartsville, Yuba county; Trustees, C. Holland, John Boyer, A. P Brown, C. C. Bitner, B. F. Steese; capital stock $10,000,000 of 100,000 shares of $10 each.
1881
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/23/1881 - Mining Notes: Lively times at Smartsville. The Excelsior company are employing 350 men in their claims there and about 30 more on the company's ranch a few miles below. The Blue Point mine works about 60 men.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/4/1881 - This Morning's News: The North Bloomfield and Milton Gravel Mining Companies at Grass Valley had injunctions served on them and have shut down. - The Excelsior Water and Mining Company's works at Smartsville, Yuba county, were closed down yesterday by an injunction.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/20/1881 - Up Among The Mines - North Bloomfield, Nevada County, June 16, 1881 - A trip through the mountain counties of California during the months of June, July or August, is one of the most attractive that a person in search of recreation can take, provided always that you do not have to talk "slickens" to every one you meet. But if you are on horseback, have a given amount of time to reach certain points, your horse in favor of the eight-hour law, and with a strong inclination to shirk at that, its hard work. Your correspondent is in the latter condition. - Leaving one of the valley towns, a short ride brought me to Smartsville, Yuba county, a beautifully located village of nearly 900 population. This is the westerly point where hydraulic mining is carried on to any extent. Here are located numerous claims, the most important of which is the Excelsior Water Mining Company, who also operates mines at Timbuctoo and Mooney Flat. - The injunction restraining the miners from depositing tailings in the river has stopped all work in this as well as in most of the places along the ridge. Between 300 and 400 laborers have been thrown out of employment here in consequence, and considerable feeling is manifested against the people below who have thus sought to protect their homes. - Leaving Smartsville, I passed in succession Mooney Flat, French Corral, Birchville, Sweetland, Sebastopol, to North San Juan. At French Corral and Birchville are located mines belonging to the Milton Company, employing from sixty to a hundred men. The only mine in operation at this time in this region is the American, near Sweetland, which is running day and night, using about 1,560 inches of water. - North San Juan is a thrifty and important town of Nevada county, of nearly 1,200 inhabitants. Its business houses, dwellings, etc, indicate prosperous times in the past, but as its trade depends almost entirely upon the mines around it, the people here are feeling decidedly "blue." The San Juan Times is published here, by O. P. Stidger. He is now paying his special attention to the mining question. As an illustration of the hard times in this place, I witnessed the sale by execution of a Justice's Court of a coach dog, of the female persuasion, taken by attachment for a board bill. After several vain attempts to get a bid, the Constable gave the matter up in disgust and turned the dog over to the plaintiff. - The next point of interest is Columbia Hill, about seven miles from San Juan. Here is located the office of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company Consolidated. This company employs in its various mines at Snow Point, Eureka South, Relief Hill and Moore's Flat about 400 men. Last year they used in their own mines and sold to other companies 1,400,000 inches of water. They pay from $15,000 to $20,000 monthly for labor, running the whole year. They have patents for over 3,000 acres of mining land, which with their present facilities will keep them running for over fifty years. Several of their claims are now running, but by the time this reaches you will be closed down. - In my next I will give information of North Bloomfield, Moore's Flat, etc., as well as a few notes of some of the quartz mines of Sierra county. Phocion.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/20/1881 - Miners' Meeting At Nevada [City] - Resolutions Adopted (Special to the Record-Union) - Nevada [City], June 18th, - The city has been filling up all day with the representatives of the mining interest from all parts of this county, while many are present from adjoining counties, a delegation of about fifty coming from Smartsville, and this evening the theater is crowded, showing the deep feeling entertained by the people in reference to the attempt to shut down the hydraulic mines. - The meeting was called to order by Hon. W. D. Long, who stated that for nearly two years the suit of the city of Marysville against the hydraulic miners has been pending, but no active proceedings were taken until about two weeks ago; but, while not going on with the suit, the citizens of the valley had not been idle, but had been holding secret meetings and raising money, and the object of this meeting was that the miners might have an organization through which their rights could be protected. He hoped nothing would occur to give color to the statement that the miners were a lawless people. - Major J. S. McBride of North San Juan was elected President; J. E. Brown of Nevada [City], Secretary, with L. S. Calkins and J. B. Gray of Nevada [City], and C. H. Mitchell and Rufus Shoemaker of Grass Valley as assistants; and the following Vice-Presidents: Hon. W. D. Long, Nevada [City]; James O'Brien, Smartsville; Thomas Mein, Blue Tent; Hon. J. B. Patterson, Little York; Edward Coleman, Grass Valley; O. P. Stidger, San Juan; George G. Allen, Nevada [City]; James Marriott, North Bloomfield; J. Spaulding, Dutch Flat; James Gould, Gold Run; Charles Haggerty, Moore's Flat; Philip Nichols, Dutch Flat; George W. Cummings, Oroville; John C. Coleman, Grass Valley; H. L. Perkins, North Bloomfield; H. S. Brigham, Moore's Flat; R. C. Walrath, Nevada [City]. - The President said they were met to devise means to prevent a dire disaster. That a war had been inaugurated to prevent the prosecution of a long established business, and the agriculturists were doing all in their power to destroy one of the most important interests in the State. It was a subject demanding earnest attention, and he trusted the action would be dignified and conservative, and thus show the State that all that was desired was the protection of this important interest. - A committee consisting of Hon. W. D. Long, Hon. Niles Searles and Robert McMurray, was appointed on resolutions. - While the committee were absent, Col. G. W. Cummings, of the Miocene mine of Oroville, stated that he was one of the enjoined, and held that not a single allegation in the complaint was true - - that it was sworn to by a man 35 miles from the mine. The mines have produced $1,135,000,000. Compare that with the product of agriculture and a hundred years would not equal it. The Grangers say the mines fill up the rivers and cause them to overflow, but for every cubic yard put into the waters of this State by the miners, fifteen yards are put in by the farmers - - that the soundings made by the Secretary of the Navy at Mare Island did not show a particle of mining debris. If hydraulic mining is stopped 75 per cent. of the means for carrying on the business of the country would be lost. He referred to the fact of his being a member of the Advisory Board of the Miners' Association, and said the interests of the miners were carefully watched, and the best counsel employed. He said that they had accomplished all they had set out for, so far as Judge Keyser was concerned, and that no suit against the miners would ever be tried before him. - Mr. Searles, from the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following report, and the resolutions were unanimously adopted: To the citizens of Nevada and adjoining counties, in mass meeting assembled; Your committee, appointed to draft and present resolutions regarding the pending litigation by the city of Marysville against the hydraulic mines, beg leave to report as follows: Whereas, Mining is the parent industry of the Pacific coast, by and through which our State was mainly settled, and by which every other interest has been vitalized and built up; and whereas, the millions of gold annually yielded as the out-put of hydraulic mining can only be received by turning the debris arising therefrom into the mountain canyons and ravines; and whereas, the city of Marysville, in derogation of an implied compact to await a solution of the drainage problem, is prosecuting an action against the hydraulic miners, and has caused an injunction to issue restraining such miners from prosecuting their legitimate calling, and which, if persisted in, and successful, must eventuate in the entire destruction of our property values and in the impoverishment of our people; it is now, therefore, by the miners and citizens in mass meeting assembled, - Resolved, That most of our mining property is held by patents from the Government of the United States, and having been purchased for the express purpose of mining by the hydraulic process, was taken and is held under an implied license to use it in the only available manner. - Resolved, That we most sincerely regret any injury that has or may result to Marysville, or the agriculturists in its vicinity, from the effect of mining debris, and that we have been and still are ready to assist by every legitimate means known to science in averting the evil consequences to them from mining operations. - Resolved, That the drainage scheme inaugurated by the Legislature of the State of California, and indorsed by such eminent engineers as Captain James B. Eads and Colonel J. H. Mendell, gentlemen of world-wide celebrity in their profession, offers, as we firmly believe, a plan for the intelligent and successful solution of the vexed question at issue - - a solution alike beneficial to agriculturists and miners - - and we have faith in the skill and wisdom of our State Engineer, W. H. Hall, to carry to successful termination the provisions of the Act. - Resolved, That litigation cannot stop, that injunctions cannot restrain, the mass of mining debris now in our mountain streams, and which, like glaciers, are steadily moving forward and must eventually engulf Marysville, unless arrested by intelligent and united action. - Resolved, That by thirty years of encouragement, by the payment of taxes and by a recognition of our industry in an endless variety of forms, we have acquired a vested right to the legitimate use of our mining property, and that it illy becomes the people of Marysville and vicinity, who have fattened upon the profits of commercial intercourse with us, who have fostered mining until 150,000 people have become directly interested in and dependent upon it as a means of support, until $150,000,000 has been invested in mining operations, to yield to the selfish schemes of a few political factionists and greedy attorneys for whom ephemeral notoriety and fees are a sufficient reason for plunging us into protracted and exhausting litigation. - Resolved, That the attack upon hydraulic mining is but the entering wedge to a scheme which, if successful, has for its object the destruction of all mining property and every interest connected therewith, that the water of our mountain streams, rendered valueless for mining, may be conveyed to the valleys for other and less profitable purposes. - Resolved, That "self-preservation is a first law of nature," and for the purpose of protecting ourselves and those dependent upon us in the enjoyment of our homes and the fruits of our honest industry, we will band ourselves together, and by every effort which free men may legally make we will battle for our rights and dare to defy those who would wrest from us the privilege of enjoying our hard-earned property and gaining a livelihood by the sweat of our brows. - Resolved, That we invite the co-operation of every citizen having the welfare of the mining region at heart and assure them that their interests and ours are identical. - Resolved, That to the citizens of Marysville we say, we have cheerfully responded to taxation for your benefit, and are still willing, if permitted to work our mines, to contribute there from to protect and preserve you, but if you shall perversely deprive us of the power so to do, upon you and not upon us must the blame fall, and you cannot justly complain if we hold you "as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies of war; in peace, friends." - Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting are hereby tendered to the Miners' Association for its stalwart efforts in behalf of our interests, and we hereby declare our unfaltering confidence in the wisdom of its proceedings, and pledge to its support and maintenance each pecuniary aid as its wants and our ability will admit. - Resolved, That we deprecate as unjust and oppressive in the extreme the use of the extraordinary remedy of injunction to stay the exercise of a great industry, in which millions of capital have been invested, and which for many years past has been recognized as legitimate, and which has and still does afford employment and support to thousands of citizens, at a season when great and irremediable loss and disaster will necessarily be caused by the injunction, and before any adjuoication of the conflicting claims and rights of the parties and without affording us any adequate redress for the great damage which will necessarily ensue. - Resolved, That we recommend all hydraulic miners to employ no Chinese laborers. - Hon. Niles Searles stated the position of affairs as between the Grangers and miners, and urged the importance of all interested in mining operations combining together to protect their interests, and that by a united effort victory could be secured. - Mr. Skidmore, Secretary of the Miners' Association, made a statement, showing the operations of the Association and what it had accomplished. - C. W. Cross said that all interested must put money into this enterprise to secure the rights of the community until such time as the National Government should step in and protect them. - Remarks were made by some others, when the meeting adjourned.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/12/1881 - The Debris Dams: Official Inspection as to Their Present Condition: The Number and Nature of the Breaks - The Willows Growing and Dams Becoming a Thicket - Colonel G. W. Mendell, Assistant Engineer Payson, and Commissioner W. F. Knox returned yesterday from a visit to the Yuba and Bear river debris dams, which they inspected with a view to determine their present condition and the effects which the portions remaining had produced in the direction of retaining the sand and gravel as anticipated by the Engineers and Drainage Commission at the time of their construction. - The party went up to Marysville on Friday and left there early on Saturday morning, going up the south side of the Yuba to the dam, where they were met by Commissioner Searles and others. The inspecting members of the company were provided with rubber boots to enable them to go over the structure and for this purpose ford reasonable depths of slickens and water. - Present Conditions of Yuba Dam - All parts of the Yuba dam were thoroughly examined, and it was found to be in far better condition than has been reported or was supposed after the excessive high waters of the past winter, and the breaks which occurred so soon after their construction. Commissioner Knox, in answer to numerous questions propounded, subsequent to his return to the city, gave the result of their examination as follows: We found two breaks in the Yuba dam. One was from 300 to 400 feet wide, and about a quarter of a mile from the south end. It appears that the whole structure at this point has gone out. About half a mile further on is the other break, which is in the neighborhood of 700 feet wide. There are evidences of brush remaining at places over the break along the bottom, but this cannot be definitely determined now as the river is still running through these nearly the whole width. The most of the way, however, it is only a few inches in depth, but the slickens beneath is soft and not inviting to an over degree of curiosity. From this point to near the north end of the dam no injury has been done whatever, and so far as can be seen the crest has not settled in the least out of range. The top of the dam is covered with heavy driftwood, much of which is composed of - Logs Two Feet In Diameter - Which have caught upon the crest and been left there as the river fell. Just before reaching the north end there is a small settle in the brush work, but none is gone, and beyond the bulkhead at the end of the dam the earth embankment adjoining the high ground has cut out for a space of 200 or 300 feet and down to the original surface. This was not a portion of the dam, but a connecting embankment with the high ground outside. - Above the portions of the dam where there has been no breaks, the sand and gravel is filled in and retained within two or three feet of the crest of the dam, and the hight is apparently continued with ascending grade as far up as can be seen, with an occasional small bowlder two or three inches in diameter. Upon the lower side of the dam the sand is from four to six feet lower than above. From immediately below where the water pitches over the dam, and down for a distance of several hundred feet, there has also been a large deposit of debris caused by the slower movement of the water, and which grows less as the water regains its velocity. - Within the dam, where the breaks occurred of course the sediment which has been filled in was carried through and into the river again below, and channels with sloping sides are thus formed inside the dam, leading to these breaks and extending as far above as could be seen from the crest. We were informed by a man who resides near by that prior to the breaks in the brush-work the water above the dam presented the appearance of a lake, being nearly still, and the accumulation of sediment apparently even the whole way across. - The Dam A Growing Thicket - The dam from one end to the other, including the mattresses below, where not covered too deep with sand, is now a dense growth of willow, except at the breaks. This willow growth has sprouted from the logs and brush of which the dam is composed, and presents the appearance of a green ridge, extending from one bank of the river to the other, and is from three to four feet in hight. New roots are thus forming, and the entire structure will soon become formidable from this new growth, and indestructible to any action of floods, and by slowing the water, if the old breaks are repaired, will stop the sediment and cause a building up and raising of the crest of the dam to quite without artificial means. This is as Captain Eads and the engineers stated would be the case, and but for the untoward circumstances which caused the break, the dam would now be growing into an indestructible barrier the entire distance between the high lands upon either side of the river. - The channel of the river at this point for the past few years has been close to the north side, along the Marysville levee or Brown's grade; but the main break near the center of the dam has changed this so that it now runs through about the center of the river flat. - Confidence in the Dam - Colonel Mendell and his assistant were highly pleased with the portions of the dam which remain intact, and are extremely anxious to have the breaks repaired, being entirely confident that by doing so the experiences of another winter will demonstrate that the original opinion of the engineers, that these structures could be made to perform the office for which they were intended, was correct. So confident is Colonel Mendell upon this point, that should the Drainage Act be declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, he would, if he had Government money at his disposal, repair these dams at once to prove their success. - The party afterwards made a careful examination for several miles above, going up on one side of the river and down the other, for the purpose of determining the extent of filling which had taken place as extending up the river. Before the dam was built the State Engineer had cross-section lines run across the river every two thousand feet for three and a half miles above, and marked by stakes and bank marks on each side of the river, so that the amount of filling which should take place could be accurately ascertained. Surveyors are now employed upon both sides of the river reviewing these cross-section lines, which will furnish accurate information upon the subject when the surveys and deductions are completed. - The Bear River Dam - The next day we made a trip to the Bear river dam and gave it careful inspection the entire length. We found in it two breaks. One near the north end is from 300 to 400 feet long, and the other is about 100 feet long and near the south end. Between those two breaks are settles in three or four places, where I should think the crest is two or three feet below its original alignment, and for a distance of perhaps 100 feet or so in a place. The structure at these places, however, is perfectly intact, and only settled out of line perpendicularly. This dam is also found to be growing a thick mat of young willows the entire length, except at the breaks mentioned, the growth being even denser and greater than that upon the Yuba. My impressions are that not so much sand and gravel deposit has been made in this dam as on the other river, but a very large amount is to be seen above, and is filled in to considerable depth. The surveyors, now upon the Yuba, will also make a similar survey above the Bear river dam. They will conclude the work and computations within about ten days. We found that Mr. O'Brien, Superintendent at the mines at Smartsville, is now building brush dams at the mouths of some of the ravines to hold back the tailings, so far as possible, and prevent injury below, should the injunctions be dissolved so that the mines can be worked. It was also stated that owners of other mines were moving in the same direction, with a view to protect, if possible, injury to the country below, and still continue the working of the mines. - Debris Dams a Necessity - Question - - Suppose the injunction suits now pending, or others which may be brought, should stop the hydraulic mining, would it be thought necessary to then make repairs to the debris dams which your Commission have built? - Answer - - The necessity for repairing these dams does not in any manner depend upon the success or failure of the suits against miners. The amount of debris now in the rivers and canyons above the dams renders it the part of wisdom to keep it out of the navigable rivers, or they will be destroyed, even if no further mining should be done. Persons who have not examined the subject have but little idea of the danger from this source. The amount lodged in the canyons and rivers above these dams is simply enormous, being in one place, to my knowledge, not less than 150 feet in depth. Of course this is an exception, but the amount is very great, and even if the mining should cease now this deposit would keep working down into the rivers and valleys, producing great damage. These dams are needed to hold back the debris now in the rivers and canyons, and it will be a profitable investment to add the small amount that it will now cost to make the m effective and successful. In case the mining should be stopped the dams will not only prevent the debris above from being brought down, but will also, by doing this, keep the water from being loaded with heavy material, and enable it to scour out and carry away the deposits in the beds of the rivers below. These dams therefore should be repaired and preserved, whether hydraulic mining is stopped by the Courts or not.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/29/1881 - The Yuba Dam: Its Present Condition and What It Has Accomplished - Desirability of Repairing It - Views of Experts - The following report of an examination of the brush dam on the Yuba river, will be read with interest by all classes of people: To the Miners' Association of California - - Gentlemen: I have, at your request, made a professional examination of the dam built by the Commissioners of Drainage District No. 1, across the Yuba river in 1880, and now beg leave to submit the following report: - Present Conditions of Dam - By the courtesy of the State Engineer, I have been furnished with copies of cross-sections taken at various points above and below the dam and across the Yuba river. These sections were first taken in 1880 just before the construction of the dam, were retraced during the present month, and show in detail, with sufficient accuracy, the present condition of the dam and the amount of material which has been lodged immediately above it since it was built. - The dam is a structure of brush laid parallel with the stream, with bending poles laid at right angles, and tied together with wire. A brush mattress is placed below the down-stream slope of the dam to protect it from under-cutting as the water passes over; the upper slope was protected by tiers of sand bags. The largest trees used have a diameter of about eight inches. Earth embankments connected the ends of the brush-work with the shore lines. - The total length of the dam is nearly 10,000 feet; its greatest hight, 14 feet; its cost was in the neighborhood of $120,000. - The dam has broken in three places, as follows: The earth embankment at the northern end has been washed away nearly down to the original level, from the end of the brush-work to the shore, a distance of 400 feet; the brush dam has been cut away entirely in two places - - one 760 and the other 230 feet in length, measured on the crest; in two places there are small gaps, but with the foundation undisturbed. Out of a total length of 10,000 feet there has, therefore, been destroyed about one-seventh. - The crest of the dam has settled an average of slightly less than two feet; this apparent settlement is nearly in proportion to the original height of the structure - - that is to say, it is generally greatest where the dam was highest, and has, without doubt, been nearly altogether caused by the compression of the loose brush into a solid mass by the pressure of the water which has passed over the crest. Along the whole length of the dam there are evidences of the large stream which flowed over it; heavy water-soaked logs, of two feet or more in diameter, are still resting on its crest, and the protection mattress, where not covered with sand, shows signs of the rush of the water. - In many places, both on the dam and on the protection mattress, willows are now sprouting and growing; their roots will have a very beneficial influence in matting or tying the whole structure securely together. It is a notable fact that none of the breaks occurred at the old river channels. The southern break - -230 feet in length - - was over an old slough. The bottom at the other breaks was not thought to be comparatively soft or infirm. The brush mattress below the dam has very satisfactorily answered its purpose in protecting the lower slope of the work from under-cutting. - Cause of the Breaks - The earth embankment which gave way was in all probability first attacked by water passing with considerable pressure through the interstices of the brush-work and washing away the earth immediately next to the brush bulkhead. After the water had once commenced cutting, as a matter of course the whole embankment soon crumbled away. This supposition is confirmed by the statements of eye-witnesses, and by a knowledge of the injudicious manner in which the earth and brush-works were connected. - The breaks in the dam proper were probably caused by strong currents of water sweeping along and undermining the upper or inner slope of the dam, the water escaping through the depressions caused by the compression before alluded to. Small brush buttresses, projecting at right angles up from the dam, would have greatly lessened the danger from any such undermining. - The flood of the past winter, which at its maximum is thought to be greater than the memorable flood of 1861-2, came upon the dam, soon after its completion, with great force. Had there been only the ordinary spring freshet, thus allowing the brush to be gradually filled and compacted with sediment, there would have been much less subsequent compression, and very likely the whole work would have stood in its entirety. - The dam was commenced at a late period in the season, and from the necessary haste in which it was built, it was doubtless impossible to devote that care in its construction which would have been taken had there been more time in which to do the work. - Benefits Resulting Already From The Dam - The sections before referred to, taken across the river, shows that fifty feet below the dam there has been an average erosion of 8-10 of a foot; fifty feet above the dam there has been an average fill of 55-100 of a foot; one half mile above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 8-10 of a foot; one mile above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 3-10 of a foot; one and a half miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 8-10 of a foot; two miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 4-10 of a foot; two and a half miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 3-10 of a foot. Still higher up the river, just below Smartsville, the bed is now much lower than in 1880. The total fill since 1880, for a distance of three and a half miles above the dam, is estimated at 4,851,000 cubic yards. - To my mind the foregoing facts show conclusively that this filling or restraint of nearly 5,000,000 cubic yards has been caused entirely by the presence of the dam, or, in other words, that had not the dam been built, all this material would have been washed still further down the stream, the larger portion lodging on the slackened grade near Marysville, the residue passing into the Feather river. - The serious breaks in the dam did not occur until the flood had, in a measure, spent its force, so that at the moment when Marysville was in greatest danger of inundation, a notable quantity of water was held back, together with a flow of sand, which would otherwise have materially increased the level of high water. - Judging from the accounts given me of the flood, it seems clear that to this dam Marysville is indebted for its safety during the past winter. - Cost and Advisability of Repairing The Dam - The tests to which the work now standing have been so severe, and the results on the whole so satisfactory in an engineering point of view, that I am convinced that the dam can and should be securely repaired. The breaks should be filled with brush-work, similar in general character, but more carefully executed, to the old structure; the dam should be, where settled or compressed, raised to a little above the original hight. When thus repaired, in my judgment, the work will stand the floods, and fully answer the purposes for which it was designed. - A contract can, I think, be made with responsible parties for the sum not over $50,000, who will agree to put the dam in good repair, and only receive their pay in case it stands intact until the summer of 1882. Without such guaranty the repairs can be executed for a much less sum. - The estimated storage capacity of the reservoir to be formed by the dam is 41,500,000 of cubic yards; deducting the 5,000,000 of yards now in place there remains 36,500,000 yards of storage capacity, which can be secured for the comparatively small sum of $50,000 or less. - The State Engineer estimates that the annual flow of material which can be impounded down the Yuba river averages abut 16,000,000 yards, all the mines being at work. This Yuba dam, will therefore, when restored, hold over two years' supply. It is probable that the flow of sand down the Yuba for several years to come will be below average, as the great flood of the past winter has swept down very much more than the usual quantity. - It has been objected to this dam, that in case of a break the impounded sands would pour out in a great flood on the lower lands. Were it a reservoir of water such would be the case, but with a filling of comparatively compact material any break would only result in the discharge of the sand cut out by the narrow current of water passing through the trench. The large amount of debris held back by the dam in its presently badly broken and incomplete state, is sufficient proof that this objection is practically an unsound one. - Conclusion - Should this dam be restored, and hold back from the Yuba and Feather rivers the injurious flow of sand and gravel - - all of which I believe that it will do - - the bitter contest now pending between miners and farmers can be brought to an end, before the strife has inflicted irreparable injury to either or both sides. - There is no question but what there is ample room in the Yuba canyons in which to store the mining debris for very many years to come. The magnitude of the mining interest is so great, that if it once be shown that this debris can be stored with safety, at a reasonable expense, then certainly ways and means will be found for the execution of the necessary engineering works. - Hence, I especially hope that the mining community will do all in its power to have this dam across the Yuba thoroughly repaired, so that its value may be determined with certainty. - It may be well to add that, even supposing mining to be discontinued, still the dam will be of great service in holding back the large deposits of sand and gravel already placed above it in the beds of the river and its branches. - Colonel George H. Mendell, of the United States Engineers, has been kind enough to give me the letter which is attached to this report. The views of Colonel Mendell will doubtless receive the attention which his high standing in the profession warrants. - Very respectfully, Hamilton Smith, Jr., San Francisco, July 27, 1881. - - - U. S. Engineer Office, No. 533 Kearny street, San Francisco, Cal., July 27, 1881} Hamilton Smith, Jr., San Francisco - - Dear Sir: I give, at your request, after an examination of the brush dam in the Yuba, my opinion as to its conditions and usefulness, past and prospective. - The portion of the dam which is standing seems to me to be firmly established, and not liable to destruction from the river. - The fact that breaches were made in the dam during the past winter does not impair my confidence in the stability of this kind of construction, and I believe that the breaches can be restored at a moderate cost. - The dam in its present broken condition has arrested considerable detritus, and if restored to its original integrity and hight, must, in my judgment be efficacious in impounding a large quantity, which, if not arrested, cannot fail to do great injury below. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. W. Mendell.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/23/1881 - Mining Mention - A correspondent of the Marysville Express says that Smartsville is all excitement over a rich strike recently made in the Forlorn Hope quartz mine. The mine is situated on Deer creek, one and half miles north of Rough and Ready, but the owners reside at Smartsville. The specimen rock that has been taken out of the mine has been inspected by many persons, who pronounce it the richest they ever saw.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/8/1881 - Mining News: The noise of ten stamps pounding quartz in the Marc Anthony mill resounds among the hills near Timbuctoo. Several new claims have been located lately in that vicinity.
October 1881 - see transcriptions of The People v. The Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company court case
Daily Alta California - 10/25/1881 - At Smartsville: How the Board of Trade's Committee Were Treated, and What They Saw and Heard of Mining - Editors Alta: The long-looked for Debris Committee have come and gone, and our town has again resumed its normal state, the excitement incident upon their arrival having subsided. The Committee left Marysville yesterday morning at eight o'clock, and proceeded to Long Bar, where they were met by carriages from Smartsville. The next point of interest reached was the Excelsior Company's ranch, where they were right royally entertained by Mr. O'Brien, Superintendent of the Excelsior Company. After a splendid repast the party drove on to the dam built by the Excelsior Company to corral their tailings. This is the dam out of which grew that far-famed contempt case, the legal acumen shown by the plaintiffs being almost sufficient proof that Marysville ought to be submerged. The utility and durability of the dam was accurately explained by Mr. O'Brien and his mining colleagues. A fine opportunity was afforded the Grangers to ascertain many necessary, but alas, to them unknown facts, relative to the debris problem. We were quite willing to allow our farmer friends the benefits of an actual experience of slickens by embedding them in it yielding soil, living monuments of its fertilizing powers. Judging from to-days items of the Appeal the reporter proved himself unable to cope with the great subject at issue, and incapable of retaining correct information. Assuredly truth and justice are at a discount in that quarter. After a careful survey of the dam much wonder was expressed at the quantities of debris it had arrested; the purity of the water was also a marked feature. - The committee, as the guests of the Excelsior Company, were then taken to the Bonanza House. At seven o'clock dinner was served, and all the party did ample justice to the bountiful array before them. Among the guests so hospitably entertained we noticed many prominent Granger foes, who exhibited much surprise at the fine fruits and vegetables raised on slickens, and more so, when they were offered sufficient debris to fertilize their "barren valley lands." - In the evening a public meeting was held, but, as all the gentlemen were very much fatigued, it was not a protracted one. Judge Searls of Nevada, delivered a brief but eloquent address. His subject was of course the debris problem. He used facts as his basis, showing the depreciation of property consequent upon the stoppage of the mines, citing Nevada county as an instance. The assessable property of that county is quoted at ten millions of dollars. The permanent stoppage of the mines would render it comparatively worthless, as the mountain towns owe their support to the mines. He dwelt upon the willingness of the miners to effect an amicable adjustment of their difficulties and their earnest wish to avoid expensive litigation. The present legal warfare was aptly compared to a war between two nations - - after much suffering they are obliged to compromise. The speaker asserted the possibility of the miners impounding the debris through the instrumentality of dams, and closed by a manly appeal to the impartial judgment of the Debris Commission to aid in a satisfactory settlement of the question. - Mr. Hamilton Smith, Jr., the well-known mining engineer, was next called upon for a speech, but declined, pleading the fatigue of the Debris Committee. - The meeting was quiet and orderly, and we were sorry to notice the absence of the editor of the Bee. We would be pleased to have him see how respectably "outlaws," "criminals," etc., can behave when they come in contact with gentlemen. We learned that the gentleman in question was ill. The fever-laden atmosphere of Marysville no doubt is the cause. Why not come to Smartsville for the antidote? - The Committee left us this morning accompanied by Messrs. H. Smith, Jr., O'Brien and Madden, the members of the Press and others en route from San Juan, and from thence to North Bloomfield. - The members of the Board of Trade are intelligent, and, we trust, impartial men, as is also our noble Congressman elect Rosecrans. We gave them a hearty welcome, trusting to their clear sense of duty to aid the miners in stopping this seemingly endless litigation. Mr. O'Brien, the genial host, did his part admirably, giving the Committee the benefit of his varied knowledge of mining, acquired by a twenty-five years' residence in the heart of the mines. We hope for much from their visit, and only ask that justice be meted out to us. If our mines are to be closed, and our homes ruthlessly destroyed, then we shall appeal to a higher Court, and demand that our losses be made good. We have offered to aid the Grangers, spent money on their levees, and cheerfully paid our share of the Drainage Tax. They have refused all our overtures of peace. Among the leaders of this agitation we recognize men who have stored vast amounts of debris in the river. "We will fight for our own," is the cry of hundreds of workingmen, who will not allow their rights to be usurped by willy schemers. - We are deeply grateful to the Alta for its noble defence of the miners. It has their wishes for success, and will not lack their substantial aid in its circulation. - Mines. Smartsville, Yuba County, October 21st.
1882
Pacific Rural Press - 3/18/1882 - Debris and the Lower Sacramento Valley - Editors Press: There appeared in the Press some weeks back an article purporting to be a view of the Sacramento valley as it would be in 1890 should hydraulic mining continue. The graphic description of the prospective desolation may have seemed to some but an extravagant fancy, not possible to be realized under any circumstances in the reality. Yet evidence brought out in abundance in the late Gold Run suit showed how effectually the process of burial has been instituted, and how true in reality was the attempted depiction of the probable result. - Debris Analyzed - The material of which the debris entering the valley is composed is of a two-fold nature. The first element consists of gravel and sand, forming about two-thirds, and the second of clay, forming about one-third of the debris. The clay is carried in suspension by the water, and is not deposited unless the water reaches some place of comparative quiet. So long as the water is stirring this clay will continue with it. For this reason clay is the main element which reaches the bay. The sand is not dissolved and carried in suspension, but is lifted up and carried bodily by the water, as pebbles and bowlders are carried by torrents. In these rivers, after they reach the valley, the sand is partly carried and partly swept along the level bed in waves. Whenever the velocity ceases to be great enough to transport it, it is dropped. This deposition of sand commences in the mouths of the canyons just where the rivers issue from the hills. As fast as the channels have been filled up, it could be swept farther down, since the beds were unobstructed levels of sand. At the same time the upper courses of the rivers were raised. At Smartsville, 17 miles above Marysville, the bed of the Yuba river is raised 80 ft. At Marysville it is raised only about 20 ft. As a consequence, the velocities of the winter floods have been terrific, far into the valley. - The filling at the mouth of the Yuba, when compared to the filling below in the Sacramento, is heavy; and it is plain that it has caused a material increase in the velocity when it is considered that the fall in the valley, at least below Sacramento, is at the rate of four inches to the mile. The result has been that the sand has come to be shot right into the heart of the valley, as by sluices. It is this sand which is extensively destroying land in the valley. At points upon the Sacramento and Feather, in places where the water once entering is confined in comparative quiet, clay, or what may properly be called slickens, is being deposited. In its crude state, this is not fit for soil, because it contains no humus, while the constant floods prevent working. The result is loss to the owner equivalent to a total loss. But this covering by clay is not the burial of land which has been worked upon the Yuba, Bear, American, and parts of the Feather, and which is now fairly commencing to be worked upon the Sacramento. - That Burial is by the Sand - The clay but precedes the sand a few seasons. This distinction must be regarded, for the neglect or the failure to observe it has been the source of the false ideas in regard to the facility with which debris-covered lands could be restored to fertility, and has given the appearance of truth to the erroneous statements that the debris made good soil. Where only clay has been deposited, the process of reproducing a soil, productive in some degree at least, is one only of skillful treatment, of manuring and working. - The whole of the Yuba bottom stretching away from the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada to the Feather is covered with coarse sand, which, where too deep for willows to live from sustenance gained from the original soil a half dozen or fifteen feet below, is a level of bare sand drifting with the wind. This is the state of the Bear river valley, with the exception of a short strip on the north side next the hills, and, in the main, with the American. That the velocity of the rivers has carried this sand down the channels and filled the Sacramento channels to a depth of at least fifteen feet, is a notorious fact, but it has not been known that opposite Sacramento city, around Washington, and for twenty miles below, farms have been destroyed. This is getting rather far from the mines, and comparatively near to the bay. - In the Gold Run suit, I. N. Hoag testified: "From American river down as far as the sand goes, there are in 20 miles from 15 to 20 farms materially injured, and some of them ruined. Some are cultivated now in part, some abandoned." John Hoagland testified that on his place sand was left that would blow about with the wind. W. Hodgdon, living in Washington, testified that last year upon twenty acres of his land a deposit was left of three feet in depth of slickens, sand and debris, and in places so deep as to cover his fences. A. Henly testified that he owned 25 acres in Washington, and that it had been covered up with coarse gray sand, entirely unfitting it for agricultural purposes; and William Gwinn, that "on the road to Davisville and Woodland, he saw sand three feet deep each side of the road seven miles from Washington, and that in the willows back of Washington there was a deposit of sand from two to six feet in depth." There are heavy deposits opposite the English break, covering even the fences themselves. All this, it must be remembered, is upon the lower Sacramento. The water, also, is rising in the ground along the river in consequence of the filling so as to make the soil permanently dank, and the orchards are dying. This illustrates the - Process of Burial upon the Sacramento - In its incipiency. Yet the scale on which it has been instituted, and the early day at which it has commenced, may well cause alarm. The bottom of the American is just above and adjacent, yet that is already destroyed. C. W. Clark testified that he owned 10,000 acres fronting upon the American, which he formerly used for pasturage, but which is now more or less covered with sand and will raise nothing. Jos. Routier, of Brighton township, testified that the original banks of the American rose 40 ft. above the original low-water mark, but now the bottom has been raised more than 26 ft. The channel is filled up entirely to about two miles above his place. One thousand acres on his side are covered with white sand from 6 to 10 ft. in depth. The bottom is five miles wide. Trees along the river bank have been imbedded from 10 to 20 ft. I. N. Hoag testified that, from the overflows of '50, barely a perceptible effect upon the land was discoverable. Now, overflows cover the land with sediment. The American is in truth virtually destroyed, and the evidence shows that the front of the sand has reached the Sacramento bottom. - The effect is inevitable. The Sacramento bottom will in 10 years, if hydraulic mining continues as at present, become a stretch of sandy waste extending through the valley, as the Bear and Yuba are not extending to the Feather; and a waste that will be widening out into the valley. Washington is as desolate a looking place as any ever seen, yet the same fate awaits Sacramento. The river has filled between the two at least 15 ft., and one-third at least of its volume is now shifted to the country about and beyond Washington. It will not take more than 3 or 4 years to fill the channel up 15 ft. more, and thus to shed the water upon either side making the site of Sacramento city untenantable and its drainage impossible. These considerations merely show the ruinous nature, in the reality, of those operations which it is sought to prove in the present suits illegal, and which in case those suits are decided adversely to the plaintiffs, it will be necessary through the political action of the Legislature to make illegitimate, if the heart of the State is to be preserved from devastation. J. H. D.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/22/1882 - Pacific Slope: Rich Mining Strike - Smartsville, April 21st - While running a cut in the Blue Point mien yesterday the workmen opened into a rich bed of blue gravel. It is by far the richest strike ever known here, paying from $8 to $10 to the pan.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/27/1882 - California: Demand Upon the Hydraulic Miners. - Marysville, June 26th. - The following is furnished the press for publication: To the persons and corporations engaged in hydraulic mining upon the Yuba and Bear rivers: As the duly authorized representatives of the citizens of Marysville and of the Sacramento Valley Anti-Debris Association, we respectfully call your attention to the fact that your assumed right to use the beds of said rivers as a place for the deposit of your mining debris has been denied after a long and patient trial before a Judge of your own choice, in the test case against the Gold Run Mining Company. In view of this, it becomes our clear right and duty to demand, and we hereby demand, of you that within fifteen days from this date you cease to deposit your mining debris in said rivers or their tributary streams, and we hereby notify you that a refusal to comply with this reasonable and lawful demand will oblige the parties injured by you to resort to the Courts for appropriate redress. A. C. Bingham, Mayor of the city of Marysville, C. S. Sexey, President of the Sacramento Valley Anti-Debris Association, Marysville, June 26, 1882.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/8/1882 - California: Miners and Farmers - Council at Marysville - Marysville, July 7th. - A private conference was held here last evening between the Mayor and the officers of the Anti-Debris Association, and a number of taxpayers on one part, and Hamilton Smith, President of the Miners' Association, and James O'Brien, of Smartsville, representing the six companies controlling all the water for hydraulic mining purposes on the Yuba river. - Smith and O'Brien made this proposition as a basis of the settlement of the debris difficulty: The miners will, within thirty days from an agreement, begin the construction of a stone dam in the Yuba river at Rose's bar, just above Smartsville, and 26 miles by the river above Marysville. The river at this point is 300 feet wide, with high, precipitous walls of rock. A strong wooden crib will be first bolted immovably to the bedrock, and then masses of rock will be blasted in from the banks above the crib, to form a sold bedrock dam. The miners will engaged to spend $200,000 on the work, and to build the dam 80 feet high the first year, increasing its hight as necessity may require. They will engage to hold back all the debris, so that the water will not carry it in suspension over the dam. If the dam should fail of its object they will cease dumping debris into the river; or if one stone dam be not sufficient they will construct other supplementary dams of brush or other materials. They might agree to place in Colonel Mendell's hands a fund for this work to be expended under his direction. - The intention would be to raise the stone dam at Rose's Bar to a hight of 200 or 300 feet, thus making available for irrigation the whole flow of the river, 40,000 inches at its lowest stage. This water would irrigate 100,000 or 150,000 acres of the plains and foothill lands, greatly increasing its value. It was with a view to control the water for irrigation that the miners lately pre-empted ten miles of the river-bed, above Smartsville, to be used as a reservoir. - The miners, further, are willing to introduce into the next Legislature a bill to compel all the hydraulic companies on the Yuba to pay a pro rata tax on the dam, and also to compel the hydraulic miners, wherever practicable, to build dams in the ravines and canyons to prevent the flow of debris into the river. - The proposition, as above outlined, was discussed at length. The anti-debris men insisted that the miners must cease discharging debris into the river pending the construction of the dams. To this the mining representatives could not consent, and no settlement was reached. Negotiations, however, are not yet ended, and correspondence is to follow. Smith and O'Brien left his morning, and O'Brien says that if all the mines now running should be stopped by injunction, all the water available would still be used in hydraulic mining, as there are twenty mining claims lying idle and undeveloped for want of water, to one now in operation. These new mines would send down six cubic yards of material where the deep gravel mines now working send down one cubic yard. He contends that the mines never can be stopped by injunction, as injunctions are laid on men, not on mines, and that as fast as one set of men are enjoined, the new men will step in and resume the work.
1883
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/1/1883 - A Tour of Inspection - Marysville, December 31st - Judge Sawyer, of the United States Circuit Court, arrived this morning from Smartsville, where he has been inspecting the hydraulic mines to-day. He visited the brush dam on the Yuba, the Hock farm on Feather river and other points in this vicinity, to ascertain something of the nature and extent of the damage from debris. He leaves for San Francisco to-morrow morning by steamer, taking the water route in order to see for himself what changes mining debris has made in the rivers.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/2/1883 - California: A Sheriff Outwitted - Smartsville, March 1st. - Sheriff McCoy, of Yuba county, arrived at 7 a.m. to-day, presumably to serve an injunction. By means of signals the miners were apprised of his approach, and when he entered the Golden Gate mine not a man could be found. It is currently reported that if the men are obliged to quit their wives will work the mines, as they are not disposed to leave their homes.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/7/1883 - Brief Notes: To Visit the Mines - Judge Sawyer, of the United States Circuit Court, will go up to the mines on next Friday, for the purpose of viewing the workings of the hydraulic process previous to rendering a decision in the Woodruff case. Several weeks ago he started on a similar tour, and at Nevada City was stopped by a snow-storm, and returned by way of Smartsville to Marysville, from whence he came down the river, accompanied by a number of the members of the Anti-Debris State Association, for the purpose of seeing the effects of mining on the river.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/11/1883 - Seeking Information - Colonel J. M. Wilson, of the office of Chief Engineer, U. S. A., at Washington, was in this city yesterday. He has been sent to this coast under orders from the Secretary of War to ascertain the exact feeling of the people upon the subject of building the proposed restraining dams upon the Yuba and Bear rivers to hold back the tailings from hydraulic mines. He states that so far as data upon the debris subject is concerned the authorities at Washington are most amply supplied, and that his present visit in no way relates to, nor includes that branch of the question. He has been to San Francisco since his arrival in California, and left for Marysville yesterday in the afternoon. In this connection it may be stated as a fact known for some days past, in well informed circles, that a proposition has recently been forwarded to the Secretary of War from the Miners' Association, to furnish $125,000 towards the construction of a dam above Smartsville, on the Yuba, at the point frequently talked of, provided the Secretary of War would allow a like amount to be used upon the same structure from the appropriation made by the Government for the Sacramento river.
1884
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/9/1884 - The Mining Decision: Some Items of Interest Concerning the Hydraulic Mining Injunction - The one overshadowing topic of conversation and congratulation among the citizens of Sacramento yesterday was the great injunction suit, and the six and half column report of the decision in the Record-Union was eagerly sought after and thoroughly perused. During the day a dispatch was received in the city and published in the evening paper, announcing that the stay of proceedings granted by the United States Circuit Court did not extend to a suspension of the judgment enjoining the operation of the mines, but referred only to a stay so far as costs of the action are concerned, in order that the same may be properly adjusted. There was some inquiry as to the number of mines enjoined by the Court. The defendants in the action are: North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, the Milton Water and Mining Company, the Omega Gold Mining and Ditch Company, the Conley & Gowell Consolidated Mining Company, the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, and the firm of Chadwick & Campbell. - The Marysville Appeal says, as a matter of detail concerning a fact already understood, that "the suit was brought by Edward Woodruff, of New York, a member of the firm of Packard & Woodruff, formerly of this city. The firm own real estate in Marysville, and also on the Feather river below the mouth of the Yuba. The plaintiff, being a non-resident of the State, was entitled to bring suit in the United States Circuit Court." The action was commenced in September, 1882. The testimony was taken in June, July and August, 1883. It was charged in the suit that the companies enjoined used over 13,000 inches of water per day and deposit in the rivers or tributaries over 60,000 cubic yards of solid matter daily. The journal already quoted has this to say concerning the companies enjoined: "The North Bloomfield mines are in Nevada county, at an elevation of 2,800 feet above the sea. The tailings from these mines flow into the South Yuba, through a short and steep tributary called the Humbug Creek. The North Bloomfield Company has been constantly adding to the extent of its operations from year to year since it began the working of its mines, and has steadily added to its water supply. In 1872 the company used a total supply of 132,000 inches of water, and in 1882 it used 1,005,000 inches. The Milton mines are also in Nevada county, at French Corral, and near Sweetland. They are 1,800 feet above the sea, and their tailings are discharged into the South and Main Yuba rivers. The mines of the Omega Company, likewise in Nevada county, are situated at Omega, 3,750 feet above the sea. Their tailings flow into the South Yuba through a short and steep tributary called Scotchman's creek. The Conley & Gowell mine is at Nevada City, 2,580 feet above the sea, and its tailings are discharged into Deer creek, thence flowing into the Main Yuba river. The mines of Chadwick & Campbell are at Sailor Flat, Nevada county, 2,680 feet above the sea, and the tailings go into the South Yuba through a short and steep ravine. The mines of the Excelsior Company are near Smartsville, and are partly in Yuba and partly in Nevada county, at an elevation of about 500 feet above the sea. The tailings from these mines flowed into Deer creek and the Main Yuba river. The Excelsior mines have not been operated for many months, the company having been enjoined, in a suit brought by Yuba county, from discharging debris into the Yuba river or its tributaries."
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/21/1884 - Further Press Expressions Concerning Judge Sawyer's Decision - Upon the subject of the recent decision in the Woodruff case, the Watsonville Pajaronian says: United States Judges Sawyer and Deady have decided adversely to the hydraulic miners in the famous debris case. From a legal standpoint the decision the decision of the Judges may be correct, but it cannot be denied that the miners also had grounds for their position. The debris that is annually washed down the Yuba, Feather, Sacramento and American rivers has done untold damage, has ruined large sections of farming land, has impoverished many farmers, depreciated values of property in the Sacramento valley counties, has increased taxation in those counties, is a growing menace to the farmers of that section, has obstructed navigation of streams, and thus prevented competition for the carrying trade, and has retarded the development of the Sacramento valley. But the miners are the pioneers of the State. Long before farming had attained any degree of importance in California the miners were burrowing the earth and washing down mountains in their search for gold. In the pursuit of this hazardous enterprise - - mining - - they have invested millions of dollars. Dependent upon these mines are thousands of men and their families. Gravel mining cannot be profitably conducted except by hydraulicking. That means debris, and that debris, when rains come and streams are swollen, is washed down on the valleys. The decision of Judges Sawyer and Deady is a death-blow to hydraulic mining, and the stoppage of that industry will throw thousands out of work, will make their homes valueless, will close the great water mining ditches, and will destroy the vast capital invested in gravel mining. The question is a vexed one, and its final solution means death either to gravel mining or to farming in the Sacramento valley. It has been and is a question of importance, and Sacramento valley farmers feel joyous of the victory they have gained. But the mountain canyons are filled with debris, and even if the mines are closed down it will be many years before the mountains will cease deluging the valley with slickens at the annual flood time. Two interests of great importance, two sections representing entirely different classes, have been arrayed against each other, and as a natural consequence the most bitter feeling has been provoked. It has been a desperate struggle, one that was inevitable, and the decision is, we believe, legally sound; but to one who has seen the land wasted by slickens and has seen the great slicken sources of supply, the vast amount of people deriving their support from the mining interest, it seems that it was a question exceedingly difficult of solution. It may benefit the valley counties, but it will injure Plumas, Shasta, Butte, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado and other mining counties. - The Reno Gazette thus comments on the effects of the decision on Nevada county: California has been enjoying a season of real prosperity, and her cities have felt the influence very much, but she will experience a temporary change for the worse, unless we are very much mistaken. The set-back to hydraulic mining will certainly be felt. A county like Nevada cannot be taken out of a small State without being felt, and Judge Sawyer's decision pretty much wipes Nevada county off the map, for the time being. Her mines have employed many men, and paid heavy taxes; now they can do neither. Her villages have been good customers to the cities of the plains, but now they will probably have to compromise. Her case is that of a large parte of Butte, Placer and El Dorado counties. If there are not very heavy rains soon the valleys will suffer greatly also, and the men who sit by the Golden Gate and make their living by levying a toll on all goods that come into the country will find themselves suddenly collapsed. Property will go down, rents will drop, labor will be scarce, and money hard to get. California will be great in the future, but she will have her ups and downs, and she will be in the downs for a period, we imagine. - The Grass Valley Tidings, referring to comments about diversion of water and labor from hydraulic mining to fruit raising, etc., says: The mountain people know that the country where the hydraulic mines are is too high and the climate too cold for any kind of grapes, or for any of the fruits excepting apples. Smartsville mines are an exception in this thing of altitude. Potatoes will grow at Bloomfield and Moore's Flat. The farmer, however, who would try to make a living by raising apples, potatoes or grass at those places, where mining is stopped, would be a fit subject for the lunatic asylum. Drift mining is the only thing that can now save a number of the towns of this county. Farming all the ground around them will not support half a dozen people. If mining were stopped in Grass Valley, which is much better situated for farming than are the hydraulic mining regions of this county, our population would soon dwindle from seven thousand to about thirty people. Farming and fruit growing help us greatly, but that business is profitable because mining makes the ready market for farm and orchard products.
Daily Alta California - 1/31/1884 - Coast News: Notice to Quit - Nevada, Cal., January 30th. - C. H. Peterson, Deputy United States Marshal, who on Monday last served a copy of Judge Sawyer's anti-mining decree on the agent here of the Manzanita Hydraulic Mine, returned this non from the upper part of the country, where he had served the papers on the Superintendent of the Milton, North Bloomfield and Silver Flat claims. He was saved a visit to Omega by meeting here this afternoon N. C. Tully, Superintendent of the company operating there. In the morning he goes to Smartsville to find the Superintendent of the Excelsior, the only defendant in the Woodruff case not yet served by him.
Daily Alta California - 3/22/1884 - Hydraulicking: The Water Flumes Available for Irrigating Purposes - (Marysville Appeal) - The Excelsior Mining Company of Smartsville has about 44 miles of ditches, furnishing a minimum supply of 3,000 inches of water. The Golden Gate Company, of the same place, has 28 miles of ditches, and its least supply is 500 inches of water. Both these companies in the Winter season have very much more water at command for daily use than the quantity named. As their ditches are not in the high Sierra, the expense of maintaining them in good condition is comparatively slight. The enforced cessation of hydraulic mining by these companies does not by any means destroy the value of their water rights. There has never been any interference on the part of the Valley with the recognized water "rights" of these companies; it is only their water wrongs that have been suppressed. The right to use their water for purposes of irrigation remains to these companies, and in the future they, or their successors in interest, will probably find for all their water profitable employment in irrigation. Their ditches are high enough to irrigate a wide belt of foothill lands, extending many miles south of Smartsville, and far down into the valley. The Golden Gate Company formerly supplied water to certain mines at Spenceville, ten miles south of Smartsville. A portion of the Excelsior Company's water has for years been diverted for purposes of irrigation, and where the water has been used on the foothills profitable crops of alfalfa have been grown.
1885
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/24/1885 - Complacent Repose: Everything Quiet in Valley and Mountains: Valley People Content with Anti-Debris Decisions - Hydraulickers Running Their Monitors - The arrest on Monday of Patrick Campbell, a mining Superintendent of Smartsville, for contempt of Court in evading service of papers, and continuing for some time to run by hydraulic process the Blue Point mine at that place, calls to public attention the fact of the utter complacency with which the valley people are resting in the "safety acquired and guaranteed from further injury from slickens" by the decisions of Judge Temple and Sawyer, while with few exceptions the hydraulic mines are being worked as actively and vigorously as before, and without concealment or interference. - This fact has been plainly stated before in these columns, and no one who has eyes to see the Sacramento water as it turbidly flows by, or as the slickens settles in the bottoms of the glasses upon our tables at the daily meals, or gratuitously thickens and richly odors our asparagus and peas cooked with it, can say for an instant that they are not, and have not been fully aware that the little giants are still vigorously sending us our potions of slickens with all the regularity and freshness of any time in the past. - There were a few months, following the decision referred to, that many, or most, of the mines, even those not included in the injunction orders of Court, ceased hydraulicking, and the water in the streams coming down from the mining sections was comparatively clear. This was a subject of general observation and congratulation, except upon the part of those who had become so accustomed and attached to the slickens mixture, that the change made, rendered the water to them most distressingly thin. That complaint, however, soon lost its point and the water its thinness. The little giants were again gradually and quietly let loose in mines not specially enjoined, and their managers have continued to operate them, "with none to molest or make them afraid," while the people of the valley, including the Anti-Debris Association, have complacently sat with most profound peace and enjoyment in the ambrosial shade of their own vines and fig trees, gratefully communing over the protection and security acquired by the Temple and Sawyer decisions, and ignoringly treating the practice of hydraulic mining as a matter of the dead past, or as ancient history. - During the present session of the Legislature a decided breeze sprang up throughout the valley concerning the amendment offered by Senator Cross, of Nevada county, wherein he desired to grant to miners, through the irrigation bill then under consideration, some additional privileges in regard to water rights, and which were regarded by the entire press of this city and the valley with great jealousy, as perhaps "opening the way to the resumption of hydraulic mining." The amendment was defeated, but during the discussion the "inconsistency," as it was called, of its opponents and of the valley people was frequently broached, to the effect that we were extremely fearful that the Temple and Sawyer decisions should be interfered with, whereas hydraulic mines were then openly being worked all over the mountains, contrary to those decisions and without a word being said. The uncomfortable part of these thrusts was that they were undeniably and baldly true. - These statements are no revelation to anyone. Parties returning from trips to the mountains are constantly remarking about seeing hydraulic mining in progress at various points and that fact is not a matter "hid under a bushel," nor has it been for many months past, to anyone who had the capacity to know and realize one of the simplest and most palpable facts existing in the State. - The following communication, which is pertinent to the subject under consideration, has just been received from a prominent gentleman of this city, who has just returned from a pleasure trip of a few days in the mountains: Sacramento, April 22, 1885. Eds. Record Union: Having been on a pleasure trip through the mining sections of our mountains upon the head waters of the streams which bring us our slickens, I was somewhat surprised to see how little the people living in the valley realize what little effect has been produced by the decisions against hydraulic mining and the injunction issued under them. I have seen for myself, during my trip, that the hydraulic miners are at work as hard as ever, and send down the debris as fast as the water can bring it. At Dutch Flat the monitors are doing their destructive work, and also at Gold Run the little giants are tearing down the mountains and sending them down to us in solution and coarser detritus, not only as fast as the water will wash it down, but blasting is added to the process, and thus the slickens are more rapidly manufactured to fill up our streams. Blast after blast are constantly being sent off in this work, and the reports are heard for miles around. I was first attracted by the reports of the blasts and next by the roaring of the water and tumbling of the rocks. At Iowa Hill hydraulic mining is done at the Hobson claim when there is water to be had, and at other places in that vicinity. - When I stood and watched the monitors in those different mines running and dumping slickens down into the streams, to flow down to the valley, and especially at Gold Run, I could not help querying to myself, "What has become of the Anti-Debris Association; of the injunction of the Gold Run case, which cost Sacramento county upwards of $20,000; of the strenuous efforts put forth to secure the decisions rendered by Judge Temple and Judge Sawyer, which was to close all the mines, but which, having been secured, have been allowed to virtually stand as dead letters? What was the use in going to the great expense this county and the people of the valley did, and then as soon as the hard-earned decision of our right to enjoin hydraulic mining was obtained, and the lawyers fees paid in full, then sit down and let the unlawful method of mining continue as though the Courts had decided in favor of the miners, and granted them unlimited power to send hills and mountains down upon us in retail or wholesale, as best suited them and the supply of water permitted? - Injunctions ought to be at once obtained and served upon all these mines, and, if necessary, employ patrolmen, whose business it should be to patrol the sections where the hydraulic process is used. The men thus employed would have to be those, however, not easily bribed. Respectfully, G. F. - When the facts in this letter and the above are considered, it is easy to see how residents of the mining sections regard the arrest of any individual violator of decisions or injunctions, while "the woods are full" of others doing the very same thing, and without the slightest interference by any one with their operations. This discloses the apparent reason for the criticism contained in the following dispatch, which was published in the Record Union on Tuesday: Smartsville (Yuba county), April 21st. P. Campbell, a prominent hydraulic miner of this place, was arrested at Wheatland last night, taken to Marysville and lodged in jail for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction of the Superior Court of this county. The arrest and imprisonment is denounced in unmeasured terms by our citizens. As the managers of the Anti-Debris Association in Marysville are aware that the largest mines in Nevada and Sierra counties are being run to their fullest capacity, the opinion is generally expressed in this section that the prosecution of the debris suits is conducted more with a spirit of persecution than with a desire to stop mining. - Whether it is literally true that the "largest mines in Nevada and Sierra counties are being run to their fullest capacity," we cannot say, but that it is true that mines by the scores, which come within the spirit and prohibition of the decisions of Judges Temple and Sawyer, are being openly worked by hydraulic process every one knows, unless he is incapable of knowing anything. The injustice does not reside in the fact that one who has evaded and defied the Courts has been at last arrested, but in the pungent fact that all who have been duly enjoined from further mining by hydraulic process, and failed to desist, have not also been compelled to comply with the mandates of the Courts; and in the further fact that some of the mine proprietors have been enjoined and in good faith have obeyed the orders of Court, while others, committing like injury in violation of the law, have been permitted to continue their work and to reap profits from their wrong-doing. - The enforcement of respect for our Courts by prompt action in punishing open and defiant contempt of its orders is right and essential to the maintenance of any law or order in society, but the unequal enforcement of law, leaving a privileged class to do what others are prohibited from doing, is equally as reprehensible and dangerous as the act of contempt, and affords just ground for complaint on the part of those who honorably comply with the law of the land as ascertained and laid down by the Courts. There is but one way which is alike just to the people of the valley and those of the mountains, and that is the prompt and complete enforcement of the law concerning hydraulic mining as it has been construed and determined by the Courts.
Daily Alta California - 5/17/1885 - A Fine Paid - Marysville, May 16th. - Pat Campbell, by the advice of his attorneys, came up from San Francisco to-day and paid his fine of $500 for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction issued out of the Superior Court of Yuba county against the owner of the Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville. This is the famous case in which Chief Justice Morrison has issued seven writs of habeas corpus.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/18/1885 - Pacific Coast: Pat. Campbell, by advice of his attorneys, has paid his fine of $500 for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction issued out of the Superior Court of Yuba county against the owner of the Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/8/1885 - Vast Mineral Wealth - The Marysville Appeal of October 4th says: A gentleman and an old quartz miner just down from the foothills reports having visited the new quartz mine near Brown's valley and Timbuctoo and is much pleased with the prospects. The Rising Sun mine on Dry creek, near Brown's valley, owned by Ogden, Simms, Pender and the two McCauslands, is turning out very fine ore in quantities, and of very fine grade, the best, in fact, he has seen for many days. Landis and Loveridge are in 160 feet on a gentle incline in their mine near Timbuctoo. The ledge is three feet thick and good ore, very easily worked. The ore is sulphurets, however, and one informant is of the opinion that it cannot be worked by the free-gold process. Roasting or some other sulphuret process will have to be resorted to. There is a quartz belt commencing near Timbuctoo, and running northeasterly for a distance of three miles, which contains good ore and will be worked in time. Vast mineral wealth lies hidden in our foothills, which can be worked profitably without detriment to the valley when the right sort of men get hold of it.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/18/1885 - California: Ordered to Show Cause. - Smartsville, December 17th. - Sheriff Inlow yesterday served papers on Campbell, Rigby and Dever, citing them to appear before the Superior Court of Yuba county, to show cause why they should not be punished for an alleged contempt of Court, for violating the debris injunction. - Another Account. - Marysville, December 17th. - On the 10th instant an order was issued out of the Superior Court of this county, directing Patrick Campbell, Joseph Rigby, James Devers and Ah You to appear before the Court on January 11th, and to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt, for having violated an injunction of the Court, restraining them from hydraulic mining in the Golden Gate Consolidated mine at Smartsville, in this county. The order was made upon the affidavit of P. Butler, a watchman in the employ of the Anti-Debris Association. The papers were served on the parties yesterday by Sheriff Inlow. The mine is leased by Campbell to a gang of Chinamen, under the leadership of Ah You. When the Sheriff visited the mine for the purpose of serving the papers, the Chinese had two streams playing on the bank, and about twenty men, equally divided between white and Chinese, were at work in the mine. Campbell is the man made famous by the many writs of habeas corpus issued in his behalf in an attempt by him to evade the payment of a $500 fine for a previous contempt of the same nature, but which he was finally compelled to pay.
1886
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/4/1886 - A Mining Venture - Marysville, January 2d. - A company of thirty-six men, principally of Marysville, has been formed to run a tunnel for quartz at Timbuctoo, in this county.
Daily Alta California - 1/11/1886 - Mining News: The success of the Rising Sun quartz mine has stimulated further prospecting in the foothills of Yuba county. A company of thirty-six members, thirty-two of whom are solid citizens of Marysville and four of Smartsville, has been formed to run a tunnel in the hills near Timbuctoo.
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/22/1886 - P. Campbell, of Smartsville, came down yesterday, going to San Francisco. The mining case in which he was a defendant, and Yuba county plaintiff, which had been on trial at Marysville during the week, was closed Wednesday afternoon and submitted, each side having until the 26th inst. to file briefs. Court, lawyers, and everybody else were glad to have the matter brought to a conclusion, as the storm that day had blown down the firewalls of the Courthouse, wrecking the roof, and giving a portion of the building a drowning out.
Daily Alta California - 1/25/1886 - Coast Notes: President Bowles of the Excelsior Mining Company, of Smartsville, has called a meeting of the farmers of Penn Valley and Indian Springs, to consider a project for the construction of a large irrigating ditch.
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/24/1886 - Miners Fined for Contempt of Court - Marysville, February 23d. - In the Superior Court of Yuba county, last Friday, Pat Campbell, Joseph Rigby and Ah You were fined $500 each, and James Devers $50, for contempt of Court, by reason of violating an order of the Court, which enjoined the Golden Gate hydraulic mine at Smartsville from further hydraulicking. Sheriff Inlow yesterday arrested Devers, Rigby and Ah You, and lodged them in the County Jail. Campbell was not to be found to-day. Money was telegraphed from Grass Valley with which to pay the fines of all, Campbell included.
Daily Alta California - 2/24/1886 - Two Miners Sent to Jail - Smartsville, February 23d. - Judge Keyser, Superior Judge of this county, has fined Campbell, Dover [sic] and Rigby one thousand and fifty dollars, for contempt of court, in running a mine. In default of payment Sheriff Inslow arrested and committed to jail Dover and Rigby. The mine has been worked on a small scale. The debris being retained by a perfect system of restraining dams. The largest mines in Sierra county are being run to their fullest capacity with the tacit consent of the Anti-Debris Association. - Marysville, February 23d. - In the Superior Court of Yuba county last Friday, Pat Campbell, Joseph Rigby and Ah You were fined $500 each, and James Devers $50, for contempt of Court by reason of violating an order of Court which enjoined the Golden Gate hydraulic mine at Smartsville from hydraulicking. Sheriff Inloe yesterday arrested Devers, Rigby and Ah You and lodged them in the County Jail. Campbell was not to be found. To-day money was telegraphed from Grass Valley with which to pay the fines of all, Campbell included.
Sacramento Daily Union - debate regarding slickens as fertilizer
Daily Alta California - 3/15/1886 - Mining News - The Marysville Quartz Mining Company struck the lead in their tunnel at Timbuctoo when they had advanced seventy feet.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/17/1886 - Cited to Appear for Contempt - Smartsville, April 16th. - McPhetridge and Hoffman, anti-debris watchmen, served papers on James Dever to-day, citing him to appear before the Superior Court for alleged contempt in operating the Golden Gate mine.
Daily Alta California - 7/5/1886 - Mining Notes: About eighteen months ago James Landis and Merwin Loveridge, of Trinity county, went to Smartsville to prospect for quartz, during which time they have worked steadily to uncover a bonanza, and have sunk on the ledge 125 feet. Quartz experts pronounce it a very fine ledge. It is learned that several tons of the rock milled $7 per ton gold, the sulphurets going $63. When it is considered that the rock can be milled for $1.50 per ton it must appear that there are indications that this great quartz belt will be shown up, and that Yuba, at no distant day, will stand in the front as a quartz-mining county. With that class of mining the prosperity of the neighboring town of Smartsville is assured, and will add materially to the wealth of the entire country. ( Marysville Appeal.) - Gentlemen, whenever the Slate Creek mines convert their hydraulic ditches into irrigation canals, as the old Excelsior Mining Company has done, the anti-debris cause will be in a better way than the foolish riparian position of Sexey & Co. will warrant us in expecting in the near future. (Marysville Democrat)
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/10/1886 - Irrigation Following Hydraulicking - It will be a good thing for the mining counties, as well as for the State, when the last hydraulic monitor shall have ceased its destructive work, since drift mining employs ten men where hydraulicking makes work for but one. In its vast reservoirs and hundreds of miles of ditches, hydraulic mining has left a legacy to the State that may, through the use of water for irrigation, accomplish much benefit. It is stated that the Excelsior Company at Smartsville is making arrangements for the employment of its copious flow of water in the irrigation of thousands of acres of foothill lands. Should orange culture be extensively engaged in upon the foothills, the water could be made to yield a handsome revenue to the company. For years past the company has grown alfalfa upon its own foothill lands, by means of irrigation. It is hardly probable, however, that all the reservoirs and ditches in the mountains can be profitably used for irrigation. Some of them cost a great deal to maintain and repair, and are situated so high in the mountains as to be much above the belt where they could be available for irrigation purposes. But it is unquestionable that, in the course of time, much of the water hitherto diverted from the rivers for mining purposes will be used for irrigation, with results far more beneficial to the State. - Oakland Times
1887
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/14/1887 - Good News for Miners: The Golden Gate Hydraulic Mine Converted into a Drift Mine - The Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville - - famed because of its richness - - has been found to pay well by the drifting process and by drifting it will hereafter be worked. It is supposed that at least 100 men will thus find employment year in and year out. This being the case the beautiful little town of Smartsville will experience in a measure its former prosperity, after years of waiting. The Marysville Democrat of July 9th has the following in this connection: "Yesterday Charley Compton and W. W. Chamberlain, of Smartsville, came before the Board of Supervisors of this county with a petition, setting forth that they are the lessees of the Golden Gate mine at Smartsville, commonly known as the Pat Campbell mine; that they now propose to work the said mine as a drift mine; that they have struck a very rich drift, and that all they lack of being able to successfully operate the mine is to get the old tunnel, flume and cut (heretofore used in hydraulicking) open so as to have drainage for the mine, and that the said tunnel, cut and flume must be opened up by sluicing the material now in them through the tunnel and into the ravine adjoining the river, requiring two or three hours work; therefore they petitioned the Board to give its consent to allow them to then sluice the material out. Supervisors Malalley, Arnold and Pine signed a permit, and the petitioners went home last night rejoicing. They think they will be able to give employment at fair wages to about 120 men. This will revive things at Smartsville, and create large trade for Marysville, and will not in any sense damage the Yuba river more than any other quartz or drift mine." - Grass Valley Tidings, July 11th.
1888
Pacific Rural Press - 1/28/1888 - Agricultural Notes - Yuba - The Smartsville Ditch. - Marysville Appeal, Jan. 20: James O'Brien said yesterday concerning his irrigating ditch enterprise: "I have let the contract to two parties, and they must have it done by the first of April. There are now 40 men at work, one contractor employing some Chinamen. Before long there will be over 100 men at work. The ditches and pipes will be about 14 miles in length, running from the northeast of Timbuctoo, where I tap the river, to my ranch above Riley Lane's place. I can take 10,000 inches. My ditches will carry 8000, but I do not propose to use over 2000 at the start. This will irrigate the 4000 acres of land which I desire to use. Of course I shall sell water, and at a surprisingly low figure. The lands there now are cheap, but when the water is on them, look out for a big raise. These acres grow sheep now, but within the next few years they will grow anything."
Daily Alta California - 8/6/1888 - Mining Notes: A Smartsville correspondent of the Wheatland Four Corners writes: A party of Marysville citizens visited this place the first of the week, making a preliminary survey with a view of running a tunnel through Sand Hill for a twofold purpose - - first, to tap and prospect the quartz ledges located in the hill, and second, to run the Yuba River through the tunnel and work the bed of the river below the old Rose Bar dump. There is no doubt the scheme is practicable, and if perfect titles can be secured to the connecting properties, the venture would be immensely profitable. - The Blue Point Company, in their drift claim, are meeting with great success. They cleared up over $400 last week, paying a net dividend of $300 for the week's work, after all expenses were paid. They will soon increase their working force. - Mr. C. Wheaton of San Francisco made a business trip to Smartsville this week. Mr. W. has faith in some the quartz ledges here, and anticipates the resounding of the stamp in many hillsides in the vicinity before we grow many years older. - Frank Stees & Co. are preparing to work their quartz ledge, near Spenceville, in the old Wallis ranch.
Daily Alta California - 8/27/1888 - Mining Notes: A Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writes: The machinery for the Byrne, Devers & Co. mill has arrived and is being rapidly put in place for operation. Ere long we will heart the sound of its ponderous stamps as they crush the earth and cause the stubborn ore to yield forth its precious metal.
Daily Alta California - Mining Notes: Says the Wheatland Graphic: The Blue Point mine at Smartsville is developing unexpected richness, and eighteen miners are at work there now. More laborers will soon be needed to do the work, and a large force will undoubtedly be employed there. A tunnel 300 feet in length has just been completed, and the miners are beginning to drift out in different directions from it. An arastra has also been erected. A large number of people were in Smartsville Sunday from Marysville, looking up mining matters. Other points around Smartsville have been prospected, and favorable indications are observed. There is every probability that new mines will be opened soon. At any rate, Smartsville has the best of prospects of again becoming the lively hive of industry that it was years ago, and that, too, in the near future.
1890
Daily Alta California - 6/2/1890 - Mining Notes: The Nevada Transcript gives some interesting information regarding work carried on at Smartsville by means of arastras. It says: "These arastras are three in number and are not entirely unlike the buddle pan used in quartz mining, only they are on a much larger scale. They are driven by a three-foot Pelton water wheel, and they work, on an average, 1000 carloads of gravel or cement per week. The arastras are kept running night and day, and are just coining money. The gravel is drifted out of the bank and no loss is incurred. the vein is large, being about eight feet thick, and the end not yet reached. Several blasts were put in, and the huge chunks of gravel thrown up showed free gold in profusion. The gravel now being put through the arastras yields on an average $2 per carload, there being 1500 pounds of dirt to each car. The work is done very cheaply and the profits are large."
Daily Alta California - 8/24/1890 - A Mining Company Closes Down - Marysville, August 23d. - The Marysville Drift Mining Company, which has been working, for the past year, the Blue Point mine at Smartsville, Yuba county, has closed down. Liabilities, $6000. Employees are owed $2000, for which Dunn, the manager, gives them a mortgage on his ranch.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/24/1890 - Mill Closed Down - Marysville, August 23d. - The Marysville Drift Mining Company, which has been working part of the Blue Point mine at Smartsvilel, Yuba county, has closed down. Liabilities, $6,000. The employes are owed $2,000, for which Dunn, the manager, gave them a mortgage on his ranch.
San Francisco Call - 11/24/1890 - While prospecting at Smartsville last week, W. J. Stewart struck the channel of an ancient river. The cement was 30 feet deep by 80 feet wide, and was rich in gold.
1891
San Francisco Call - 2/18/1891 - Hydraulic Mining: A Scheme on Foot to Dispose of the "Slickens.": Plans for a Mammoth Flume From the Mountains to the Tide Lands - - Rumors of the Formation of a Syndicate. - H. B. Wheaton, Superintendent of the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, with headquarters at Smartsville, arrived in the city yesterday and is at the Lick House. While he is extremely reticent on the subject, it is understood that he is quietly working on a scheme which, if carried out, will revolutionize the mining interests of the Pacific Coast. - It is nothing more than a solution of the debris question, and the plan involved certainly carries with it the appearance of entire feasibility. If successful it would make it possible to carry out hydraulic mining without injury to the farmers in the valleys and would open up again one of the richest gold fields in the world. - Briefly outlined, the idea is to construct a huge debris dam in the canyon to the east of Smartsville, and to build from there a mammoth flume to convey the water to the tule lands around the bay. By this means the dam would catch and hold all the rougher debris, while the flume would bear the "slickens" away and deposit it on the tule lands, where it would accumulate and convert them into rich farms, instead of leaving them to be at waste as at present. - An Expensive Feature - Probably the most expensive portion of the work would be the dam, which would be about 200 feet in height and which would give a fall of 600 feet to the tide level. It is estimated by competent engineers that this would be sufficient to scour the flume by natural means and would give the hydraulic miners in the mountains back of Nevada City an opportunity to work full force. - The cost of the entire work is estimated at from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 which is but a trifling sum compared with the $300,000,000 or more lying locked up in the hills, without any present means of extracting it, and which cannot be taken out in paying quantities by any other means. - An objection has been urged to the plan on account of the water rights involved, but this, it is said, will not interfere as the miners store their own water in reservoirs and can divert it as they chose without being interfered with by law. In other words the water thus stored is private property, in every sense of the word, and can be used as the owners see fit. - Method of Construction - In the construction of the flume, it is probable that heavy redwood timber would be used. It could be left uncovered so that if any obstruction should occur it could be easily removed, which would not be the case with iron pipe. The stream of water would be regulated that no overflow could occur. - As yet the plans are not fully formed, but it is said that some of the best engineers on the Coast have examined into the matter and have reported favorably, without a single exception. In the mean time the matter is being pushed quietly, and an effort will be made to organize a syndicate to take the matter in hand and raise the money to carry it out. - Mr. Wheaton has given the matter much attention, and is fully satisfied of its practicability. He is not inclined, however, to discuss the matter at present, and when interrogated concerning it would make no definite statement other than to say that he had investigated the matter and believed it anything but visionary.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/18/1891 - The Excelsior Mine: The Company Contemplates the Erection of a Large Dam - We have been informed, says the Marysville Democrat, by parties who are in a position to know, that the Excelsior Mining Company contemplate the erection of a large dam on the old bedrock channel leading from their mine at Smartsville to Timbuctoo. The object of the dam is to impound the debris from the mine with a view of operating said mine at times by the hydraulic process. - The dam is to have sufficient capacity to hold the debris for several years, and after it has been completed the company will ask the proper authorities to pass upon it, and if satisfactory will ask for a modification of the injunctions now upon them. At present the mine is being worked by the drift process, which is not so rapid, and far more expensive than the hydraulic method. The company hopes to satisfy all parties interested that the debris can be safely kept from the Yuba River.
San Francisco Call - 11/29/1891 - The Marysville Appeal says: C. C. Bitner at Steep Canyon, which place is between Smartsville and Spenceville, has sold his quartz mine to an English syndicate, represented by Mr. Higginbottom, for $31,000. He worked in the tunnel alone for thirteen years, and is now repaid for his patience and perseverance.
1892
San Francisco Call - 6/23/1892 - Marvelously Rich: Ore That Runs Two Hundred Dollars in Gold to the Ton - Yuba Democrat - R. H. Daly and others of San Francisco recently made locations of claims on the lead heretofore known as the Bull Head quartz mine, in the old town of Timbuctoo. The new claim is named the Boa quartz mine, and there has already been considerable work done in developing it. About three weeks ago 700 pounds of the ore was sent to this city to the care of J. R. Garrett, who sent it to the Selby Smelting Works and had it put through a working test. The return, which was shown to a representative of the Democrat, showed an average of $200 in gold and $50 in silver to the ton, both being of as fine quality as is usually seen. - This ledge averages in size from five to six feet in width and holds its own as far down as they have gone. A quartz mill of 20 stamps capacity is soon to be erected and its motive power will be run by water pressure and a Pelton wheel. [Transcriber's note: The creator of the Pelton wheel lived in Camptonville, Yuba Co.] James Gavin is the superintendent and he has great faith in the mine - - believes it will be very profitable and do much to bring out other undeveloped claims near Smartsville. - James Byrne, owner of another claim called the Peerless quartz mine, located about a half a mile northeast of Timbuctoo, was also seen, and he said his ledge has recently been relocated, it at one time being known as the Landis mine. He has recently had a milling test made of ore from his claim by Professor Thomas Price and it shows $12.40 in gold and $24.40 in silver, some of it going as high as $600 to the ton.
San Francisco Call - 8/6/1892 - Rich Mining Developments: What is Being Done in Some of the Gravel Claims of Butte County - Correspondence of The Morning Call - Twenty-five years ago the "blue lead" mines near Bangor attracted much attention. They were supposed to be inexhaustible beds of rich blue gravel that would pay enormously. Shafts were sunk, tunnels run and mines opened. The gravel was washed, but water failed to dissolve the had cement. The only plan was to let it lie for a long time exposed to the air, when it would air slack or crumble to pieces and then could be run through sluices like ordinary gravel. This was a slow process, and, as about that time hydraulic mining attracted much attention, the blue lead mines were gradually abandoned till not one was in operation. Within the past year or two a bed of this hard blue cement has been successfully worked near Smartsville, and the owners of the old mines near Bangor made some investigations. They found to work the gravel to advantage that it must be first ground up in an arrastra. They accordingly set to work and two or three arrastras were constructed, gravel was extracted and tests made.- These proved a joyful surprise. The mines yielded greater returns than the most sanguine had anticipated. Miners from different sections began to flock in, other claims were opened, further tests made. These all resulted in getting rich pay. Lately large shafts have been sunk and tunnels run so as to put a number of men at work. Steam hoisting works were erected on the Bishop mine and the arrastras were run by steam power. On the Catskill mine, owned by Marysville capitalists, a stamp-mill was erected for crushing the gravel. These improved methods of working the mines showed that each miner could earn for the owner from $4 to $5 a day, while with better facilities for handling the gravel rapidly better results could be obtained. In consequence there is now much excitement in the Bangor region.
1893
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/16/1893 - Ant-Debris Matters: Yesterday's Monthly Meeting of the Executive Committee: A Futile Experiment at Restraining Mining Debris - - Mines That Are Shutting Down - The Executive Committee of the State Anti-Debris Association met yesterday afternoon, at the room of the Board of Supervisors, Chairman Morrison of Sacramento presiding, and Robert Cosner of Colusa acting as Secretary. - The Manager, W. T. Phipps, presented his monthly report, and stated that on the last day of April the Excelsior Mining Company, which had previously begun operations at Smartsville, had shut down and had given out that it would not resume mining again until they had obtained permission from the commission appointed under the Caminetti bill. - This company had claimed that it could conduct its mining operations without allowing any of its debris to reach the river. It had constructed works at the mouth of an old tunnel, and proposed placing the material into an old excavation, and by placing a bulkhead at the mouth of the tunnel attempted to restrain the debris. After running for a day and a half, and after about fifty feet of water had been placed on the top of the bulkhead, the works gave way on April 28th, showing the futility of attempting to restrain debris by this method. - Judge Davis of Yuba County has fined six Chinamen $500 each for mining by the hydraulic process, in contempt of an injunction, and one of them, Ah Joe, is now in the County Jail at Marysville serving time for non-payment of the fine. The mines formerly operated by these Chinamen are now stopped. - The mines on the San Juan Ridge were all reported as not being worked. Some mines have been running near Scales, in Sierra County, and the persons operating them have been cited to appear in court and show cause why they should not be punished for contempt. - Manager Phipps was authorized to employ an extra watchman for such work as he might deem to be necessary. - A general discussion was then had on the work of the association, and the best means to be employed for accomplishing its objects. - The committee examined and allowed the usual monthly bills, and then adjourned, to meet on the third Monday in June in this city.
San Francisco Call - 7/23/1893 - Studying Hydraulic Mining: A Commission to Look Into the Situation - Nevada City, July 22. - Colonel Mendell, Lieutenant-Colonel Benyaurd and Major Heuer, United States Debris Commissioners, accompanied by ex-Senator Cross, World's Fair Commissioner McMurray, Superintendent Spalding of the South Yuba Company, James O'Brien of Smartsville and Superintendent Conrath of the Excelsior Company, left here this morning for a visit of inspection to the hydraulic mining regions of Northern Nevada, Sierra, Plumas and Yuba counties. They will visit all the gravel claims, large and small, in these counties, and will be absent ten days or two weeks, the return trip being made from San Juan ridge and via Smartsville to Marysville. -The trip is being made quietly, with the view to obtaining full and accurate information as to the situation. People here have the fullest confidence in the ability and fairness of the commissioners in determining where mining can by the construction of adequate restraining works be carried on without jeopardizing in any degree the farming lands along the valley rivers.
San Francisco Call - 11/12/1893 - Debris Permits Granted - Two Mines Received the Privilege and Others Desired It. - No official advices of their reappointment have yet been received by the engineers forming the United States Debris Commission, although a private dispatch contained the announcement. - Two permits only have been issued by the commission thus far. The first was granted to the O'Farrell mine at Columbia Hill, Nevada County. The second was issued to the Excelsior mine at Smartsville, on the Yuba River, twenty miles from Marysville. It is one of the largest hydraulic mines in the State, with an immense water supply. It has been closed by injunction in the anti-debris litigation for about ten years. - The permit issued allows the mining company to resume hydraulicking at a certain point, the resulting debris being discharged into an immense pit excavated by old operations. Applications have been made by the Denmire mine in Sierra County and the Polar Star at Dutch Flat.
1894
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/17/1894 - Hydraulic Mining: Permits Issued by the California Debris Commission - San Francisco, April 16. - The Debris Commission has appointed W. B. Storey an assistant engineer, to reside at Nevada City. - Permits to mine by the hydraulic process have been issued to the owners or operators of the following-named mines: The Spanish Hill Hydraulic, the Spanish Hill Gravel and the Eureka hydraulic mines, all near Placerville. The Grub Flat mine, near Meadow Valley, Plumas County. - The Quincy Water and Mining Company has been given a permit to work its Gopher Hill mine in Plumas County, but this applies to the present season only. The company will build a stone dam in Spanish Creek this summer for future use. Meanwhile it is allowed to operate, for the present season, by virtue of log dams for restraint of debris. - The Badger Hill mine, near Spanish Ranch, has been denied permission to operate until after the construction of the stone dam by the Quincy Company. The cost of the dam will be apportioned between the two companies by the commission. Pending construction of this dam a permit to the Badger Hill mine is withheld. - The Kate Hayes Company has been authorized to construct restraining works in the Manzanita mine, near San Juan. The company will utilize an old hydraulic pit as a settling reservoir. A tunnel runs under or below this pit. The escape of water into the tunnel will be solely through a chimney to be constructed in the pit. The surface water will flow into the open mouth of the chimney or shaft, descending into the tunnel, and thence flowing out of the mine. The Kate Hayes Company is operating the French Corral mien in the same way, or at least has for some time held a permit to do so. - The Excelsior mine at Smartsville, Yuba County, is the largest that is being operated by the hydraulic process under permission from the commission. It is using about 1,500 inches of water. Last month it washed 60,000 cubic yards of material. Lieutenant Gillette, who recently visited the mine, took a sample of the water entering from the ditch, and also the water flowing out below the restraining works. The water in the ditch carries sediment, and that flowing out, as shown by the samples, has less than the inflow. These samples, with numerous others from the various mines inspected, are at the office of the Commissioner in the Flood building. The Excelsior's tailings are discharged into an old mining channel that was formerly the scene of very extensive workings at Timbuctoo. This long channel or pit is now converted into a settling reservoir. The washing is chiefly in gravel.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/25/1894 - Hydraulic Mining Going On: Wherefore the Water of the Yuba is Discolored: Monthly Meeting Yesterday of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Debris Association - The Executive Committee of the State Anti-Debris Association held its regular monthly meeting yesterday afternoon at the rooms of the Board of Supervisors. J. M. Morrison, Chairman, presided, and Robert Cosner of Colusa was present as Secretary. The various standing committees made reports of their action during the past month, and the Manager, W. T. Phipps, submitted his monthly report. - The report shows that since the last meeting complaints against the O'Connor Bros. mine, the North Bloomfield mine and the Red Diamond mine have been lodged with the California Debris Commission, and that the commission had notified these mines to cease operations. No hydraulic mines, he stated, are in operation on the upper Sacramento or tributaries, so far as could be detected. Special effort had been made to ascertain just the method of operation employed by the North Bloomfield mine, with the result that it appears to be using its elevator and settling-pool, in accordance with Judge Gilbert's decree. - During the month last past the different branches of the Yuba River have shown a good condition of water, with the exception of the South Yuba, which was considerably muddied for a few days, but from what source is unknown. - On July 23d a fine for contempt was imposed by the Superior Court of Yuba County on two Chinamen for mining at the Red Diamond mine, on Deer Creek, Nevada County, and since these parties have ceased operations and left. The Excelsior mine, at Smartsville, he reported was operating as usual, but the other mines were quiet. - The attorney for the association, Robert T. Devlin, reported that he had received information from anonymous sources concerning illicit hydraulic mining, and it was agreed that these complaints would be thoroughly investigated and the parties so mining restrained. He also reported the status of certain legal matters of the association. - Hon. George Ohleyer, Chairman of the Committee on Legislation, reported what had been done since the last meeting by the committee, and submitted several newspaper clippings bearing on subjects important to the association. - The committee then allowed bills presented, and adjourned to meet at the same place the third Saturday in August.
1895
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/30/1895 - Note and Comment - The hydraulic miner appeals to the selfish and the pocket nerves of valley tradesmen, and says, "if we cannot mine you cannot sell goods to us; therefore shut up about our tearing down the hills and sending the mountains to the sea." And a considerable number of timid people are influenced by this threat. If such men would broaden the horizon of their view they would see that present gain is as vanity before future permanency and rapid development. - Here is another illustration of how difficult it is to compel observance of the anti-debris law. At Smartsville, the Excelsior Company runs its waste into a pit, and thence through a tunnel into the Yuba River. It is possible for it to drive out enough debris for its settling works, from time to time, by turning on water, to make room for more detritus, and so on ad infinitum. The tunnel is reported stopped with rock, but it is near by. - The dams, no matter how high, thick and broad, cannot restrain the passage of the finer matter that is carried in solution - - the almost impalpable matter which goes over with the water and chokes the channels of the streams. Indeed, some eminent investigators hold this matter to be more damaging than the debris.
San Francisco Call - 8/22/1895 - Mines and Mining: Some of the small gravel mines in Yuba County which were shut down many years by the Anti-Debris Association have again commenced work, by permission of the United States Debris Commissioners, having constructed works to impound their debris. - A Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Appeal says the Marysville Gravel-mining Company are making preparations for river-bed mining on a large scale. There is in place a 50-horse-power under-shot wheel, which is intended to drive two large pumps and hoist the gravel from the pits.
1896
San Francisco Call - 11/10/1896 - Miners to Sit in Convention: Arrival of the Horny-Handed From the Hills and Canyons: Reforms That Will Be Demanded in Aid of the Industry: A Federal Mining Bureau: Request That the Miners Should Be Represented by a Secretary in the Cabinet - Miners arrived in this City on every train yesterday to attend the miners' convention, which will open in Odd Fellows' hall at 2 o'clock this afternoon. The session bids fair to be one of the most interesting in the history of the association, for the reason that some important legislation will be recommended for the benefit of that industry. - Jacob H. Neff of Colfax, Placer County, is one of the early arrivals. He has been chairman of the convention for the past four years, and he says he has had enough honor and would be obliged if the convention would allow him to retire on his well-earned laurels. - Mr. Neff said yesterday that the association wanted to get the coal and iron mine owners to co-operate with the gold and silver miners for the purpose of having the industry represented at Washington by a Secretary and a Bureau of Mining, just as the industry of agriculture is represented. Mr. Neff could see no valid reason why the same consideration which is extended to the farmers should not be extended to the miners. - The miners desire also to be represented on the Board of Regents of the State University. There are now in the university a department on mining and a professor of that industry, and it should be represented on the board by a practical mining man as regent. The convention will take action with respect to some needed amendments to the mining laws relating to the manner of obtaining patents to mineral lands. Miners believe that the industry is very much hampered by the difficulty of establishing title, it often, under the present law, becoming necessary for the miner to institute and maintain a lawsuit at great expense in order to obtain title to the land on which his claim may be located. - Mr. Neff added that the hydraulic miners are very well satisfied with the operation of the Caminetti mining act. The course taken by the Debris Commission is satisfactory to the miners, and no complaint has been heard from the farmers. There are some features of the law, however, that work a hardship on the miner, and which the association will try to do away with without encroaching on the rights of the farmer. - In spite of Mr. Neff's determination not to be a candidate for chairman again prominent members of the convention are insisting that he should stand for re-election. Among available candidates mentioned are E. C. Loftus of Calaveras, Charles F. Hoffman of Placer and Harold T. Power of Placer. - Among the early arrivals of delegates and visitors to the convention were: Joseph M. Bovard and D. Boone of Angels industry and will attend the sessions of the convention as an onlooker. General Tolman is also interested in several rich placer claims in the bed of the American River, between Sacramento and Folsom. - He said he expected the coming year would witness the inauguration of a great development of the mines of this State. Capital is beginning to come in and considerable investment is already noted. Old mines that have been left untouched for years are starting up again and much new machinery is being put in. - He found that the low price of silver has had a healthy effect in encouraging investments in gold mines in California. He knew that many mining men in Idaho and Colorado are turning their attention to gold mining in this State and are disposing of their silver mines, offering them for sale at a reasonable rate since the election became known. - Formerly it was not profitable to work gold ores that did not pay more than $18 or $20 per ton, while at the present time $4 and $5 ore is considered profitable if there is enough of it. - "My idea of the way to settle the hydraulic mining proposition," continued General Tolman, "was to allow every man to mine as he formerly did and let the slickens go to the river as before, and assess the hydraulic miners so much per cubic yard to pay for the operation of dredgers and sand pumps to keep the river free, and to charge so much to the owners of swamp lands for reclaiming it. I do not believe in the permanency of brush dams. In case of storms and freshets the dams are liable to be washed away and the brush will make the river worse than it was before." - Albert Moore, a pioneer gold hunter of forty-two years' experience in California, came down from El Dorado County yesterday to attend the convention as a spectator. He had found that under the present condition of things it was very difficult for a prospector to buy a piece of land on which he had made a discovery, for as soon as the farmer who owned the land discovered what it was wanted for he put up the price 300 or 400 per cent. - Mr. Moore has discovered many valuable telluride deposits in various parts of the State from San Diego to El Dorado County. - G. W. Welch of Nevada City reported prospects looking better, with much capital coming in. - Last night Mr. Neff found it impossible to hold out any longer and yielded to the Camp, F. J. Adge of Iowa Hill, James O'Brien of Smartsville, A. B. White of Smartsville and Judge Clark of Shasta, at the Russ; James Wilson of Jackson at the Brooklyn; S. P. Dorsey, superintendent of the Maryland, at the Occidental; General Tolman of the Jackson mine, El Dorado County, J. T. Grove of Mariposa, Charles F. Hoffman and C. D. Lane, at the Palace, and Albert Moore of El Dorado and G. W. Welch of Nevada at the Lick. - Charles F. Hoffman of the Red Point mine in Placer County said the most necessary legislation for the mining industry was that which should insure a perfect title to mineral land. If the railroad companies were given a perfect title for mineral lands the miners would just as soon buy from the railroads as not, but under the present conditions the purchasers from the railroad have to go into court at their own expense and make a fight to prove that the lands obtained by them are of more value for mining than for agriculture. This is an expense and an annoyance which prospectors and laborers are unwilling to bear. - The remedy for this evil would be for a Mining Commissioner to examine the land and report upon its character, whether mineral or agricultural, and take the burden of litigation off the shoulders of the miner. - "It used to be," added Mr. Hoffman, "that the farmer had to prove that his land was agricultural, but now the miner has to prove that it contains mineral in paying quantities. This would be a very difficult fact to establish, especially in cases where the bed of the river is of a lava formation, and where the gold is deep under it. In fact, it would be impossible to prove the mineral character without going down very deep into it. These lava formations are very extensive in Sierra, El Dorado and other counties. - "The bill to establish a National Mining Commission fell through at the last session of Congress, but another attempt will be made in the coming session. The next thing most necessary is that we should have a representation in the Cabinet, in other words a Secretary of the Bureau of Mining. - "The appropriation by Congress of $250,000 and that by the State of $250,000 for the purpose of building dams to restrain mining debris have had a very good effect toward solving the vexed question of hydraulic mining. There are large numbers of mines in California that can be worked without any damage to the farmers, and the commissioners will do their best to select them. - "The mining industry is in a good position, and I expect that there will be considerable development during the next six months with the aid of foreign and home capital. New discoveries in science and the invention of new and less expensive processes for extracting the precious metal from the ore are aiding largely in the development of mining properties hitherto considered as not of great value. By the aid of these new processes $3 per ton ore may be profitably worked, while the average mine may be worked at a profit where the yield is $4.50 per ton or more. - "The mines of California have been only skimmed. The usual course was that when the first chute of ore gave out the work was abandoned and richer prospects were sought for. As an illustration of the cheapening of the processes I will say that I paid 26 cents for powder, which I now get of 8 cents, and candles that were worth 16 cents are now worth only 8 cents." - General Tolman of the Jackson mine, El Dorado County, was seen at the Palace Hotel. He is not a delegate to the convention, but being a practical miner of many years' standing, takes a lively interest in everything appertaining to that demand of his friends that he should remain in the race for the chairmanship. - There will be some contest for the vice-chairmanship, S. K. Thornton and W. W. Montague being mentioned for the position. - Julian Sonntag has no opposition for the secretaryship and will have a walk-over.
1898
San Francisco Call - 7/10/1898 - News of the Mines - The Marysville Democrat says that work in the mine of the Good Title Company at Indiana Ranch has ceased for the present, and it may be permanently. The quartz is of very low grade, and on going deeper it did not improve. There is plenty of quartz, but a run of several months demonstrated that it would not more than pay expenses. - H. Visscher is in charge of operations at the Narrows, near Smartsville, by the United States Debris Commission, to determine upon a site for the proposed debris restraining dam. From thirty to forty men have been employed there several months, sinking and trenching for bedrock. The explorations show there are in the 4000-foot gorge, known as the Narrows, at least three good sites. The funds on hand are nearly exhausted. - Mining and Scientific Press.
1899
San Francisco Call - 6/20/1899 - Restraining Wall to Be Built - Marysville, June 19. - A Government expert named McCann came down from the State of Washington and, in company with a contractor from Oakland and Colonel Hubert Vischer, went to Deguerre Point, near Smartsville, to-day to view the site of the restraining wall to be constructed by the United States Debris Commission. Everything at this time points to the early commencement of work there.
San Francisco Call - 10/15/1899 - Will Represent Yuba - Marysville, Oct. 14. - Yuba County will be represented in the annual convention of the California Miners' Association to be held in San Francisco on October 23 as follows: Smartsville - - James O'Brien, W. W. Chamberlain, Louis Conrath and Joseph Durfee; Camptonville - - William B. Meek and Fred Joubert; Brown Valley - - T. J. Hibbert.
1900
San Francisco Call - 6/30/1900 - Answers to Correspondents - Miner's Inch - E. H. M., Poplar, Cal. - A miner's inch is defined as "the amount of water which will pass through an opening one inch square under a pressure of six inches." This unit is peculiar to the Western States, used not only for mining purposes, but wherever it is desired to measure the amount of water distributed for irrigation. The average discharge from such an opening, called a module, is 1 1/2 cubic feet per minute. In the various States from California to Colorado there is some slight variation. In California it is from 1.20 to 1.76 cubic feet per minute, according to arbitrary rule adopted. For example, at Smartsville, Yuba County, an orifice 4 inches square and 250 inches long with a head of 7 inches above the top of the orifice is said to furnish 100 miners' inches. In Montana a vertical rectangle an inch deep is generally used with a head of four inches, and the number of inches is said to be the same as the number of inches in the rectangle.
1901
San Francisco Call - 8/25/1901 - Extending Dredgers' Work - The Marysville Democrat says: Two tracts recently changed hands in this county, which land will be worked in the near future by dredging. These purchases are located on the south side of the Yuba, about ten miles east of this city, one formerly owned by James O'Brien and one by S. Mitchell. Besides these, several claims recently were located by Hubert Vischer and associates, amounting to more than 1500 acres. The anxiety to obtain land is shown in two locations made on the same tract by different persons within four days, after one had bought a possessory right from a homestead claimant. Three dredgers will be constructed by one company soon and they can be steadily employed ten years to work out the pay channels of the land recently purchased. A boring machine is at work locating the pay dirt or gravel and when finished a map of the tract will be prepared showing the course of the channel, which can then be followed by the dredge and worked to advantage. With the improved machines and electric power ground can now be worked to profit that a few years ago was considered of no value for mining. These channels and pay streaks can be traced and mapped in such a way that capitalists can figure out the income from it very closely, as well as the cost of working by dredge process. Between Marysville and Timbuctoo there are several of these channels branching out from the old original stream. These are covered by deposits of debris many years ago, but the gold is there hidden from view and it can be extracted by the new process. This class of mining is not confined to the river proper, but the dredge follows the pay dirt out into the adjacent fields.
San Franciso Call - 10/22/1901 - Miners Make Energetic Move To Secure Yuba Dam Option: Sessions of the First Day Develop a Unique Episode: Seekers for Ores Have Busy Time for Taking Land: Convention Raises Money Necessary to Force the Issue - The convention of the California Miners' Association, now in session in this city, raised $2500 yesterday through a committee to pay James O'Brien, that the option he gave to the United States for lands needed for a settling basin in connection with the Yuba River dam might not lapse. There was other business before the convention, but this was the matter of emergency and it was promptly and vigorously met. Indeed, before the convention had been properly organized, before the committee on credentials had a chance to report, O'Brien's case received attention. O'Brien was in Golden Gate Hall, where the deliberations of the convention were in progress. President Voorheis was in the chair, sitting under an arch which was decorated in the center with festooned American flags, at the ends with crossed picks and shovels and heroic figures of athletic young miners of California. The handsome banner of the California Miners' Association was at his right hand. - President Voorheis had successively introduced Governor Gage and Mayor Phelan and they had welcomed the miners from the may counties of the State in well turned phrases that were pleasing and encouraging. The committee on credentials had been named by the chair and the proceedings of the first day were running along in a routine way. Just at this point Lafe Pence, who was sitting beside ex-President W. C. Ralston at the left of the president in the body of the hall, arose and made a statement that for the time dwarfed the interest in all other topics before the convention. - Mr. Pence said that he had been in communication with the members of the California Debris Commission, consisting of the United States engineers in San Francisco, for two days. He had, just before the opening of the convention, read the contract or option that had been signed by Mr. O'Brien, and he had discovered that the instrument was dated October 22, 1900, and that it provided that a payment of $2500 must be made in one year from the date mentioned. There was in the contract the customary clause that made time an essential part of the consideration. Therefore the money must be paid to O'Brien at once or the option, that is of so much importance in the work that will run up into hundreds of thousands of dollars at cost, would lapse. - This statement at once chained the attention of the convention. "The way to attend to a thing," continued Pence, "is to act quickly." - The members acted with promptness justifying the emblems of vigor typified by the picks, shovels and other adornments of the hall. Pence suggested the appointment of a committee to get the money needed. - O'Brien Makes Statement - Secretary Benjamin also had a surprise in store for the convention. He had received a letter from O'Brien, and this he read. It was dated at Smartsville, October 9, 1901, and set forth that O'Brien was as anxious as he ever had been that the dam should be built, but he also described his grounds for raising an objection to the conditions that he thought were detrimental to him, as follows: Any lands which I won or are owned by any companies that I represent can be used by the United States Government for the purpose of building barriers free of charge. No rights will be granted that can be conveyed to any one else. The settling basin spoken of is quite a distance from their lower barrier and I am not prepared to give them the right to bank tailings upon that land twenty feet high, as Colonel Heuer claims he would do, thus raising the plane of the river and endangering all the land I own south of the seepage. - There would be no objection to a reasonable amount. In short, I am as anxious those dams should be built as I ever was and will put no impediment in their way as long as my rights and the rights of my people are not jeopardized. - When the letter had been read the delegates to the convention were of the opinion that they would like to hear what Mr. O'Brien would say to questions to be asked to define his exact position. The secretary told them that O'Brien was in the hall. In response to a request by President Voorheis O'Brien went to the stage and spoke. - He supplemented his letter that had just been read. He said that when he agreed to give an option on the land he understood that it was to be used for a settling basin, but when he was told by Colonel Heuer that the tailings would bank up twenty feet he was opposed . He also said that he had never agreed to convey the land, but had merely offered to give an easement to the United States. Colonel Heuer told him that what the Government wanted was an absolute deed. He did not wish to be shut out two miles from the river and he had withdrawn the option for the reasons that he had stated. - The delegates listened attentively and respectfully to O'Brien's statement of his side of the case and then Pence asked: - "Would you be willing to extend the option three days?" - "No," answered O'Brien, decidedly, "not as it stands, but I would if certain reservations were put in." - Convention Moves Quickly - The convention had already voted to take a recess to 2 o'clock, but this answer of O'Brien's and the belief that the option might lapse before the convention could act unless something was done at once put the delegates in favor of meeting again at 1 o'clock and of appointing a committee to try to raise the $2500 needed to tie O'Brien's option up securely. There was some discussion concerning parliamentary procedure at this point, but the convention adhered to its plan of having the necessary committee named at once and President Voorheis appointed W. C. Ralston, Lafe Pence and A. Caminetti as the members of the committee. - The great importance of the Yuba River works, for which the State has appropriated $400,000 and the national Government $250,000, with the prospect of an additional appropriation of $150,000, was so apparent that when the convention met in the afternoon the announcement that was made by President Voorheis that the committee had already secured the needed coin during the recess was answered by applause from all parts of the house. Soon after that the committee's report was received, which is as follows: - For Benefit of Miners - To the President and Members of the California Miners' Association, Gentlemen: Your committee begs leave to report that in the limited time assigned it was impossible to visit many merchants and citizens who would have donated to this fund had they had the opportunity. The following named firms and citizens contributed the amount set opposite their respective names: - North Bloomfield Mining Company, $500; California Powder Works, $500; Eureka Lake Mining and Water Company, $250; Joshua Hendy Machine Works, $100; Calaveras M. W. and P. Company, $100; Miller, Sloss & Scott, $200; Dunham, Carrigan & Hayden Company, $200; Baker & Hamilton, $200; Harron, Rickard & McCone, $100; Henshaw, Bulkeley & Co., $100; John Roebling Sons Company, $100; Mining and Scientific Press, $100; W. W. Montagne & Co., $100; A. Caminetti, $100; William Nichols Jr., $100; F. R. Wehe, $100; J. M. Gleaves, $100; W. C. Ralston, $100; Colonel George Stone, $100, Total, $3150. W. C. Ralston, Lave Pence. - Seeking for O'Brien - On motion of Judge Belcher of San Francisco the committee received the thanks of the convention and was instructed to pursue the matter further. It was necessary to visit the California Debris Commission, and this the committee did at once. There the date of the expiration of the O'Brien lease was discussed. The committee was authorized to find O'Brien and to offer him the $2500, and the committeemen went out on that mission immediately after the adjournment of the conference in Colonel Heuer's office. A report will be made to the convention to-day as to the success of that part of the work of the committee. - There were two sessions only of the convention yesterday. In the usual course of things committees on credentials and resolutions were appointed. The former committee reported that there were 573 delegates who were entitled to seats on the floor as representing county associations and commercial bodies, and these were apportioned as follows: - Nevada County, 67; San Francisco, 70; Shasta, 90; Amador, 43; Calaveras, 44; Placer, 42; Sierra, 24; Alameda, 21; El Dorado, 21; Butte, 20; Yuba, 14; Tuolumne, 5; Plumas, 5; Santa Clara, 5; Kern, 5; San Bernardino, 5; Fresno, 5; Solano, 5; San Luis Obispo, 4; Marin, 5; Siskiyou, 5; Mariposa, 5; Inyo, 5; Santa Barbara, 1; Southern California Branch Association, 7; Southwest Mines, 5; California Petroleum Miners' Association, 10; San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, 5; California State Board of Trade, 5; Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, 5; Fresno Chamber of Commerce, 5; Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, 5; California State Mining Bureau, 5; California Debris Commission, 3; Trinity, 3. - The committees were made up as follows: - Credentials - - W. H. McClintock, Tuolumne County; C. H. Weatherwax, El Dorado County; S. J. Hendy, San Francisco; W. F. Englebright, Nevada County; A. G. Meyers, Siskiyou County; William Nicholls, Placer County; A. H. Ward, Mariposa County; J. M. Gleaves, California Petroleum Miners' Association; A. Ekman, Butte County; J. F. Parks, Amador County; A. R. Briggs, Fresno County; W. C. Ralston, Calaveras County; Joseph Durfee, Yuba County; A. W. Bishop, Alameda County; M. E. Dittman, Shasta County; Frank R. Wehe, Sierra County; L. E. Aubrey, Southwest Miners' Association; A. G. Lightner, Kern County, and H. J. Osborne, Southern California. - Resolutions - - Resolutions - - W. C. Ralston, chairman; W. F. Englebright, Nevada; E. A. Belcher, San Francisco; J. H. Tibbits, Shasta; W. A. Pritchard, Amador; Jacob H. Neff, Placer; Frank R. Wehe, Sierra; A. W. Bishop, Alameda; H. E. Pickett, El Dorado; A. Ekman, Butte; Joseph Durfer [sic], Yuba; W. H. McClintock, Tuolumne; S. S. Taylor, Plumas; Thomas Derby, Santa Clara; A. T. Lightner, Kern; Frank Monaghan, San Bernardino; A. R. Briggs, Fresno; A. C. Holly, Solano; Victor H. Woods, San Luis Obispo; John F. Boyd, Marin; A. I. Myers, Siskiyou; A. H. Ward, Mariposa; J. J. Gunn, Inyo; J. H. Harrington, Santa Barbara; L. E. Aubury, Southern California; H. Z. Osborne, Southwest Miners' Association; J. M. Gleaves, California Petroleum Miners' Association; R. H. Herron, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; J. F. Parks, State Mining Bureau; A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento Chamber of Commerce; Thomas Rickard, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; Craigie Sharp, State Board of Trade; John McMurray, Trinity; William Thomas, California Water and Forest Association; Colonel Heuer, California Debris Commission; J. S. McBride, Nevada; James Irving, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. - Adam I. Moore and Frank Yale were elected sergeants-at-arms. - The speechmaking of the day brought out many statements that were pleasing to the miners. The address of the principal importance to the delegates was that made by President Voorheis, which was somewhat in the nature of a report and contained recommendations for the good of the association. He suggested the appointment of a committee to revise the by-laws of the association, so that every member who contributes annual dues to carry on the work shall be entitled to take part in the association's annual conventions in this city. - The President's Address - President Voorheis said: Gentlement of the California Miners' Association: Ten years ago a number of hydraulic miners met in the city of Auburn, Placer County, to see if some means could not be devised whereby hydraulic mining might be resumed without material injury to the farming lands and navigable rivers of the State. The outgrowth of that meeting was the organization of the California Miners' Association, and this meeting to-day is the tenth annual convocation. - It is estimated that more than $300,000,000 in gold is locked up in the gravel hills of Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties which could be liberated and put into circulation if some means could be devised to prevent injury to the adjacent lands. - The first steps taken to aid the miners was by the State Legislature in making an appropriation of $250,000, and the national Congress appropriated a like sum for the construction of barriers to restrain the debris already in the ravines and channels which feed navigable rivers, and also to permit the resumption of hydraulic mining under certain restrictions. The Federal engineers comprising the California Debris Commission made estimates of the cost of the work to be $800,000. - Our representatives in the State Legislature secured a further appropriation of $150,000, and the national Government will undoubtedly appropriate a like sum - - in all $800,000 to build barriers according to the plans of the Federal engineers - - and preliminary work is now being done, such as securing the necessary land for the restraining barriers, but the engineers are having some difficulty in securing the land they deem necessary for that purpose. We trust, however, they may be able to overcome these difficulties and soon start the actual work of construction. - The association has done everything in its power to aid in the passage of the so called "Mineral Lands Bill," which was before the last Congress, and received favorable reports from the committees, but we are told owing to the lack of time it died on the files and will have to be reintroduced when the new Congress meets next December. Much could be said upon the merits of the bill and the benefit it would be to the prospecting miner if the bill could be passed and become a law, and here I wish to congratulate the members of the national Congress from California for their untiring efforts in support of this bill during the last session of Congress, and if the same energy is used by the members at the coming session of Congress I have no doubt but what they will succeed in passing the bill and have it become a law upon the statute books. - At our last annual session the Petroleum Miners' Association joined us in our deliberations and have worked harmoniously with us during the past year for the passage of such laws as would be beneficial for that industry, which is now assuming great magnitude in this State and is adding to its wealth. - The mineral productions of the United States are growing so very rapidly that the annual value is estimated at more than $1,000,000,000. It is right and proper that the mining industry of the United States should have of the Government more protection and assistance, which could be better facilitated through a Cabinet department of the executive branch of the Government, and if those engaged in the different branches of mining throughout the United States will join hands and ask for the establishment of a Cabinet Officer of Mines and Mining we certainly ought to be successful in obtaining it. - For Benefit of Miners - During the past ten years, or since the organization of the California Miners' Association, the delegates to the State Convention have been elected by county organizations, appointed by Boards of Supervisors, Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and other such organization. To the branch county organizations one delegate to each ten members has been the ration of apportionment. In some instances more delegates often desire to attend the State Convention than their county organization would permit. It also sometimes occurs that unfriendly feelings are engendered in the strife to be elected as delegates, which I think could be avoided by broadening the scope of the State association and allowing every member a seat and a voice in the deliberations of the annual convention, and I would suggest that a committee be appointed to revise the by-laws of the association so that every member who contributed his annual dues to carry on this work could feel that he had a perfect right to come to San Francisco and participate in the work of the annual convention. The State membership of the association is about 9000; the annual number of delegates elected to attend the State Convention is about 500. I think the influence of a State meeting of 1000 or 2000 members would be far greater than a meeting of four or five hundred chosen delegates. - During the year three meetings of the executive committee were held at which business in relation to the additional appropriation was transacted. At the meeting held September 14, 1901, Mr. Power of Placer, Mr. Christy of Alameda and Mr. Davis of Amador were appointed a special committee to draft resolutions of respect on the death of our late President, William McKinley, and report the same to the convention. I would recommend that we have these resolutions printed on a mourning page of our proceedings. - The increased demand made upon the State Mining Bureau owing to the increase in the mineral production of the State necessitates more liberal appropriations for its support and maintenance, and I would recommend that some action be taken toward the recommendation of the passage of a law that would give ita permanent income to carry on the work of the bureau, so that the friends of the bureau would not be obliged every two years to go to the Legislature and ask for appropriations. - I wish to congratulate all of the officers and committeemen of the association for the prompt and efficient manner in which they have attended to all their duties, and especially the secretary, who has all the work to perform during the year. The members of the executive committee have been prompt, and nearly all attended the meetings of the committee. - The association owes much to the press of San Francisco and throughout the entire State for the courtesies that have at all times been shown to the association, also to the business men of San Francisco who have always responded liberally when asked for financial aid to carry on the work. - The Union League Club of San Francisco is deserving of the thanks of the association for its kindness in giving the executive committee the use of its room for committee meetings. - Words of Encouragement - In their welcoming addresses Governor Gage and Mayor Phelan found little that was new to say. - Governor Gage said that the Government ought not to ignore the people of California and the people of California should never forget the debt of gratitude that they owe to sturdy miners, for it was the mining industry that created the nucleus of California's splendid civilization. Broadminded legislation was needed to protect the farmer, and at the same time to guarantee the welfare of the great mining interests of the State. Nowhere can capital be more profitably invested to-day than in developing the mineral resources of California. - Mayor Phelan said that every street in San Francisco bore testimony to the California miner. Buildings have been erected with the money of Mackay, Flood, O'Brien, Hayward and other miners. The name of Mackay was also connected, appropriately, with an enterprise involving the use of great quantities of metal, the Atlantic cable, in which he was interested. - Mr. Phelan welcomed the delegates heartily. He remarked that Robert Louis Stevenson had called San Francisco the smelting-pot of the world, and the city accepted that name, well pleased with it. Mayor Phelan said that President Roosevelt was in sympathy with the West and that was a favorable sign for the success of the movement for a Cabinet representation for the mining industry of the country, for the pressure for such representation came from the Western people. - In the afternoon Congressman Sam D. Woods made a pleasant address to the miners. He advised that Congressmen from this State should be kept for many terms in Congress. This advice was disinterested so far as he was concerned, he said, for he expected to retire to private life at the close of his present term as Congressman. The Eastern people knew that their Congressmen gained in influence according to the length of service and so returned them repeatedly. California had contributed great sums to the national treasury and had received very little in return. - If millions were needed to enable the miners to resume operations then the Government should expend these millions. The National Government had obligations to this State that could not be paid in money, but payment should be made by the Government so far as possible in money. The work of getting the needed improvements was evolutionary, and the Yuba River dam was not an end, but a beginning. He also said that he had worked for the California miners to the best of his ability at Washington and would continue to do so as Congressman.
San Francisco Call - 12/11/1901 - President Voorheis Names His Committee: Members of the California Miners' Association Who Will Serve During Ensuing Year - President Voorhies of the California Miners' Association yesterday announced the following committees: Executive Committee at Large - - Hon. J. H. Neff (chairman), San Francisco; W. C. Ralson, Robinsons; Harold T. Power, Michigan Bluff; Tirey L. Ford, San Francisco; A. D. Foote, Grass Valley; Edward Coleman, San Francisco; Charles G. Yale, San Francisco; W. W. Montague, San Francisco; J. J. Crawford, San Francisco; B. N. Shoecraft, San Francisco; Charles C. Derby, Mariposa; Louis Glass, San Francisco; C. C. Bush, Redding; Dr. C. T. Deane, San Francisco; David McClure Jr., Gwin Mine, Calaveras County; George E. Dow, San Francisco; J. W. C. Maxwell, San Francisco; C. M. Belshaw, Antioch; E. A. Belcher, San Francisco; Lewis T. Wright, Keswick; J. F. Halloran, San Francisco; John McMurry, Ukiah; W. S. Keyes, San Francisco; W. H. McClintock, Sonora; Willis G. Dodd, San Francisco; Dan T. Cole, San Francisco; George H. Wallis, San Francisco; F. F. Thomas, Gwin Mine, Calaveras County; A. J. McSorley, San Andreas; Fred Bradley, San Francisco. - County Executive Committee: Alameda - - Frank A. Leach, San Francisco; Professor S. B. Christy, Berkeley. Amador - - J. F. Parks, Jackson; John R. Tregloan, Amador. Butte - - A. Ekman, Oroville; W. P. Hammon, Oroville. Calaveras - - Lafe Pence, San Andreas; I. S. Foorman, San Francisco. El Dorado - - W. A. Winsboro, San Francisco; H. E. Picket, Placerville. Fresno - - A. R. Briggs, Fresno; W. H. McKenzie, Fresno. Inyo - - J. J. Gunn, Darwin; J. E. Meroney, Independence. Kern - - B. F. Brooks, Bakersfield; J. B. Treadwell, Kern City. Mariposa - - A. H. Ward, San Francisco; William Johns, Alameda. Mono - - R. T. Pierce, Lundy; J. S. Cain, Bodie. Nevada - - J. S. McBride, North San Juan; W. F. Englebright, Nevada City. Northern California - - J. H. Tibbits, Redding; E. A. Davis, San Francisco; George Hellmuth, Callahans, Cal. Placer - - William Nicholls Jr., Dutch Flat; E. J. Kendall, Auburn. Plumas - - A. B. White, Spanish Ranch; S. W. Cheney, San Francisco. Sacramento - - A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento. Santa Clara - - Thomas Derby, New Almaden; Ellard W. C. Carson, New Almaden. San Francisco - - J. O. Harron, San Francisco; Colonel George Stone, San Francisco. Shasta - - W. J. Gillespie, Redding; Fred Hurst, Redding. Sierra - - F. S. Moody, San Francisco; Frank R. Wehe, Downieville. Solano - - A. D. Holly, Dixon; Alf. Tregidgo, Vallejo. Sonoma - - Alfred Abbey, San Francisco; C. A. Grimmer, Pine Flat, Sonoma County. Southern California - - H. Z. Osborne, Los Angeles; C. A. Burcham, Los Angeles; Daniel Murphy, Los Angeles. Siskiyou - - A. G. Myers, Fort Jones; T. J. Nolton, Yreka. Trinity - - C. D. Galvin, Weaverville; W. I. Hupp Jr., Weaverville. Tuolumne - - Charles A. Long, Groveland; Samuel L. Fischer, Sonora. Yuba - - W. B. Meek, Camptonville; Joseph Durfee, Smartsville. - Committee on finance - - Andrew Carrigan, (chairman), Joseph Sloss, J. O. Harron, all of San Francisco. - Committee on legislation - - Hon. John F. Davis (chairman), Jackson; W. B. Lardner, Auburn; J. R. Tyrrell, Grass Valley; W. C. Ralston, Robinsons; C. M. Belshaw, Antioch; F. S. Moody, San Francisco; A. E. Muenter, Lathrop; R. C. Rust, Jackson. - Committee on mineral lands and conservation of water - - Harold T. Power (chairman), Michigan Bluff; Marion De Vries, New York City; Professor George Davidson, San Francisco; Mark B. Kerr, Grass Valley; H. E. Picket, Placerville; B. S. Rector, Nevada City; Marsden Manson, San Francisco. - Committee on department of mines and mining - - W. C. Ralston (chairman), Robinsons; J. F. Halloran, San Francisco; Charles G. Yale, San Francisco; W. S. Keyes, San Francisco; F. L. Stewart, Jackson. - Committee on dams - - A. Caminetti (chairman), Jackson; Fred Searls, Nevada City; J. S. McBride, North San Juan; A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento; Joseph Mooser, San Francisco; W. B. Meek, Smartsville; Mark B. Kerr, Grass Valley. - Committee on revision of constitution and bylaws - - Mark B. Kerr (chairman), Grass Valley; C. H. Dunton, Placerville; Colonel George Stone, San Francisco.
1902
San Francisco Call - 7/19/1902 - Ready To Work On Yuba Dams: Beginning on System to Hold Back Debris Is Near: Plans for Constructing One Barrier Got to Washington - Work on the restraining dam to be constructed with the use of the money of the national Government and of the State of California on the Yuba River is about to begin. The total expenditure is estimated at $800,000, including the land to be acquired. The California Debris Commission entertains the idea that the actual work will be started not later than the coming fall. Specifications have been forwarded to Washington for the construction of the first of a series of dams to be made, the cost of which, approximately, will be $35,000. This will be situated at a point about midway between Browns Valley and Smartsville, or sixteen miles east from Marysville. - Other dams will be constructed from time to time as the Government deems best. The appropriations, aggregating $800,000, are expected to provide for the storage of mining debris within the bed of the Yuba River by a system of works designed to separate the coarse material from the fine and also to provide for controlling the low water channel of the Yuba within narrower and well defined limits in order to preserve in place the extensive deposits in the river below. - The general scheme, as reported by Hubert Vischer, is to erect several barriers across the river bed, the upper ones to be located about three miles east from the mouth of Dry Creek; another to be erected just below the mouth of Dry Creek as a flood overflow barrier; another to be placed at Daguerre Point; also to form a settling basin about three miles in length and half a mile in width on the south side of the river. - This settling basin will consist of a levee, protected from the wash, to be built in the bed of the river, with its upper and lower ends connecting with the existing levee and shore on the south bank. The end walls are to have inlet and outlet weirs and conduits to regulate the inflow and outflow of the river and to cause the finer material carried in suspension to be deposited and held in the settling basin, through which, at all but flood stages, the river will be compelled to flow. Below the settling basin the river will be confined within well defined lines by necessary training works. - When the works will be completed no one can foretell. Progress will be made as needed. That is all the California Debris Commission can say. A period of more than twelve years has elapsed since the Debris Commission reported in favor of the construction of the works. In that time the Yuba dams have been discussed more than any other topic in the Sacramento Valley by farmers and miners. - Conventions of the California State Miners' Association have found the dams a topic fruitful of debate. The purpose is to improve the navigation of California rivers. The Yuba River was selected as the starting place in the work for the reason that a much larger share of detritus from the mines has been carried down that stream than all the other tributaries of the Sacramento River. The first survey was made by Hubert Vischer as long back as September, 1897.
Pacific Rural Press - 8/30/1902 - Restraining the Debris - The joint effort of State and nation to have agricultural lands and navigable rivers from ruin by the deposit of mining debris is approaching a practical test. The undertaking has an interesting history. In 1893 California appropriated $250,000 to build restraining barriers against further advancement of debris in the Sacramento valley, contingent upon the Federal appropriation of a like amount. This was secured in 1896. In 1901 a further joint appropriation of $300,000 was secured, thus making $800,000 available for the work. The whole enterprise is under the direction of the members of the U. S. engineer corps that constitute the California Debris Commission. - Sine the first half-million-dollar appropriation was made, there has been considerable preliminary prospecting, calculating, selecting, boring and estimating. The Commission reached the conclusion that a site locally known as the Narrows, in the vicinity of Smartsville, Yuba county, Cal., would be a suitable one for the proposed work; and extended series of investigations and surveys were then made under the direction of Assistant Engineer Hubert Vischer, determining the depth of the tailings in the bed of the river, the configuration and character of the bedrock, and, in general, all the existing conditions. The engravings, Figs. 1, 2 and 3, show the nature of the work. Fig. 3 shows a special device made for that work; in boring therewith pebbles 3 inches in circumference were brought up from a depth of 80 feet by the suction process of the boring machine. The test borings showed a depth of from 50 to 85 feet of gravel. - The preliminary work was completed in September, 1898, and about that time it became the settled opinion of the engineers that a further and larger project on much more extensive lines would be required to insure the largest measure of ultimate success. Much time has been consumed in making arrangements and in securing 2000 acres of land that the Commission held to be necessary for the work. Matters have, however, now so far progressed as to make it possible that the actual work may be started Oct. 15. The first of the series of dams, which will cost $35,000, is to be situated about midway between Brown's Valley and Smartsville, 16 miles east from Marysville. Other dams will be constructed from time to time as the Government deems best. The appropriations, aggregating $800,000, are expected to provide for the storage of mining debris within the bed of the Yuba river by a system of works designed to separate the coarse material from the fine, and also to provide for narrower and well defined limits in order to preserve in place the extensive deposits in the river below. The scheme, as reported by Hubert Vischer, is to erect several barriers across the river bed, the upper ones to be located about 3 miles east from the mouth of Dry creek; another to be located just below the mouth of Dry creek as a flood overflow barrier; another to be placed at Daguerre Point; also to form a settling basin about 3 miles in length and half a mile in width on the south side of the river. This settling basin will consist of a levee, protected from the wash, to be built in the bed of the river, with its upper and lower ends connecting with the existing levee and shore on the south bank. The end walls are to have inlet and outlet weirs and conduits to regulate the inflow and outflow of the river and to cause the finer material carried in suspension to be deposited and held in the settling basin, through which, at all but flood stages, the river will be compelled to flow. Below the settling basin the river will be confined within well defined lines by necessary training works. The Yuba river was selected as the starting place for the reason that a much larger share of detritus from the mines had been carried down that stream than all the other tributaries of the Sacramento river. - The project as submitted is novel, since nothing of the kind, so far as known, has ever been attempted, and it is to a certain extent experimental. The various structures are simple and are believed to be safe, practicable and reasonably permanent. They can be repaired if required, and if abandoned, not maintained, or never completed, cannot leave the river in any worse shape than at present. If constructed, it is believed that they are capable of storing the debris now in the Yuba river and its tributaries, which is far in excess of that in all the other tributaries of the Sacramento river. The result of the storage cannot be otherwise than beneficial to the navigation and commercial interests of the Sacramento and Feather rivers. - In a recent report the Commission say: "Especial attention is invited to the fact that the object sought to be accomplished is the storage of the detritus now in the Yuba and its tributaries, with a view to the improvement of the rivers below, and decidedly not with a view of permitting unlicensed or indiscriminate hydraulic mining at localities above the impounding works. When the works have been completed and in operation for several years there will be time and opportunity to determine whether or not the system is capable of sufficient expansion to warrant an attempt at storing therein the tailings from the hydraulic mines without compelling each mine to impound any or all of its debris."
1903
San Francisco Call - 4/24/1903 - Gold of Yuba Lures Capital: Seekers for the Yellow Metal Crowd Into the County - Special dispatch to The Call - Marysville, April 23. - Once again the gold fever has stirred up Yuba County and the activity bids fair to eclipse anything of the kind in many years. It is evident that the scramble that is going on for gold-bearing land is born of genuine interest. Already thousands of dollars have been passed from capitalists to landowners of this county and in the vicinity of Marysville. - It is now a well established fact that there is great demand for land bordering on the Yuba River, between Marysville and the foothills. Hardly a day passes that does not find men coming this way in search of gold. Yesterday two parties of capitalists went up the Yuba River in search of options on land, that in years past was considered of no value. In fact, since the secret leaked out that one acre of the James O'Brien Tract on the south side of the Yuba, recently prospected by drills, would yield enough gold to pay the purchase price of 2000 acres bought by Hammond & Co., who conduct extensive dredge operations on the Feather River at Oroville, there has been a rush all along the line to get in on the Yuba River land. - For the past two years a large force of men has been employed on the O'Brien Tract. The result has exceeded the anticipations of the men interested and a great effort is being made to bond all available land on the south side of the Yuba. The price per acre has advanced with astonishing rapidity and to-day large prices are being paid for the privilege of mining the land by the dredger process. In thirty days many drills will be in operation on these lands. The working force on the south side has already been increased. Orders for the most improved dredgers have been placed and are being hurried to completion. - While dredger mining is receiving most attention, men of means are also buying and bonding quartz claims in the hill region of Yuba County. From near Smartsville comes the news of the opening of a valuable quartz deposit and machinery is already on the way to the mine to work it extensively. In a dozen or more different locations of the Yuba County mountains work is being rushed on quartz mills.
San Francisco Call - 6/20/1903 - Industry is Booming - Concerning the lively interest in mining in Yuba County the Marysville Democrat says: Thirty-two claims are now in process of development, while as many more have been located or bonded. Seven are being worked to profit by the owners, two mills have been constructed, and at present there are 208 men employed. The number will be doubled in the next two months, and by the close of this year at least 1000 men will be actively at work in Yuba County taking out the precious metal. W. P. Hammon, who has bought about 3000 acres near this city and adjacent to the Yuba River, some on each side, has several drills at work. One arrived Friday to be used on the old Drum farm on the north side of the Yuba, and others are to come as soon as they can be had. Mr. Hammon has opened an office in Marysville, and he has secured the services of Joseph Durfee of Smartsville to take charge of it, one of the best informed mining men in the county. Work all along the line is to be crowded as rapidly as the necessary machinery can be obtained, as prospecting has demonstrated that there is a valuable deposit of gold. Another large company of capitalists, which is operating dredgers extensively along the American River, has secured the Beeny tract, six miles east of town on the south side of the Yuba River, and has had a force of men and a drill at work for some time. M. J. Crandall, representing the company, was in Marysville to-day and went out to the works. He will set more men to work in the near future.
San Francisco Call - 8/22/1903 - A sale of mining property in Yuba County is reported. East St. Louis men have purchased the New Blue Point mine, southeast from Smartsville. The mine will be hydraulicked under permission of the Debris Commission.
1904
San Francisco Call - 4/30/1904 - Strong Revival of Interest in the Mines of California: Yuba County's Gold Dredging, Ancient Channels in Sierra and Mother Lode Properties Drawing Attention and Causing Much Development Work - Attention is called to the growing interest in mining in this State. This morning there are published accounts of developments in Calaveras County, near Murphys, and in Yuba County, where dredger mining for gold is on the increase. These reports are taken from reliable journals and they are indicative of the new era of mining which would seem to be dawning. Facts of interest relative to mining on the mother lode are supplied by local newspapers of good standing. News is received from a trustworthy correspondent that rich rewards have been reaped recently by parties in Sierra County, who have been working an ancient river channel. As the result of this other properties along the same channel will be worked at once. In some places there is fourteen feet of snow on the channel. The warm weather soon to come will melt this and supply water for a long run. The channel mining at this point, which is near Downieville, is by the drift process. - An account of the growth of the interest in dredger mining in Yuba County is given by the Sacramento Bee. Some of its statements in relation to recent developments are as follows: - Slowly but surely a mining boom that promises to excel even the palmy days of '49 is beginning to be felt in Yuba County. The prediction is made that before another year has rolled around the country between Marysville and Smartsville will be studded with dredgers, operated by as many different companies as there are plants. Capitalists from all sections of the State are turning their attention to this section because of the dredger possibilities along the Yuba and in the foothills surrounding. The acreage owned by the Marysville Quartz Mining and Tunnel Company has attracted a number of dredger men and as high as $60,000 has been offered for the property. The stockholders are holding out for $80,000. The land is situated near Smartsville, where some of the richest tailings from the hydraulic mines operated in the good old days were dumped. - Among the recent options secured by outside parties is one by Los Angeles capitalists on the land of the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, near Smartsville. It is said that work on a big scale is proposed, the intention being to operate on the hydraulic plan, a dam to be built first in conformity with the Caminetti law. The scheme will include the new Blue Point Mining Company's property recently bonded to C. H. Hill and others. - From Colonel W. M. Rackerby, who has just returned from a visit in San Francisco, it is learned that he disposed of a tract of mining land at Rackerby to capitalists of Los Angeles, associates of J. M. Beck. Two other claims near Rackerby have been bonded to San Francisco capitalists. - These latter transactions would seem to indicate that the boom is not to be confined to the valley tracts along the river and the foothills, but will extend up into the mountains where heretofore pocket and placer mining have been considered the right sort. - All along many old timers have held to the opinion that within the confines of old Yuba there remained as good mining land as ever, and now their assertions are in a thoroughly good way to be substantially proven. Even in the excitement that carried the ambitious prospector to the frozen Klondike region these older heads were pointing out the possibilities of this section, but it remained for the dredger operators to verify their stand.
San Francisco Call - 7/10/1904 - Rich Northern Counties See A Future For Mines: Vast Stores of Mineral Wealth in Many Districts Hold Out Certain Promise of Large Reward to Intelligent Searchers for Ores - [snipped] The Blue Gravel, Deer Creek and Mooney Flat Mining Company is reported to be about to work gravel deposits that have been secured on the Yuba River in the Smartsville section. The mining lands extend from the Mooney Flat to the Yuba River, a distance of two and a half miles, and include the mineral rights of the Excelsior Water Company. The company will run a tunnel from Mooney Flat to the Smartsville mining claims.
1905
San Francisco Call - 7/9/1905 - Miners Decide to Attack Law: Benjamin Says Hydraulicking Measure Will Be Tested: Millions the Prize of Victory - Everything will be done that is possible, declares President Benjamin of the California Miners' Association, to have the Caminetti law tested soon in a court of last resort. Messrs. Golinsky and Wehe, attorneys for the association, have been instructed to proceed with due diligence and the time is approaching when the great issues that are tied up with the Caminetti measure will be settled. Whether a permit to proceed with hydraulic mining, issued by and under regulations provided by the California Debris Commission, is valid, is a leading issue. In some instances where such permits have been issued, injunctions issued by courts have put a stop to hydraulicking. - "If the law is not good," said President Benjamin yesterday, "it is time that the fact be known. The California Miners' Association is in earnest in this matter. We wish to know just where mining stands in regard to the law and so are going to do the best we can to find out as soon as may be. Heretofore obstacles have been encountered in our attempts to have the Caminetti law fully interpreted. This has been due principally to questions raised by the Anti-Debris Association relative to the validity of permits that were issued by the debris commissioners. In one case that the California Miners' Association took up, it was found that no permit had been issued. In another case we lost in the Superior Court because of some informality in the permit." - Will Battle To Finish - President Benjamin added that the entire matter will be caried [sic] to a finish. If the Supreme Court of the State of California finds adversely to the California miners, the suit will be taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. He also said that the Anti-Debris Association is willing to waive any question about the form of permit in the Polar Star case, so that the law may be tested on its merits and be interpreted by the highest court in the land, if necessary. - Events have been steadily leading up to the determination to have all the issues involved in the Caminetti law brought to a conclusion. Successive conventions of the California Miners' Association have adopted resolutions, all in the same direction, and the last annual meeting of the association went so far as to send a memorial to President Roosevelt, in behalf of the interests represented by the hydraulic miners, for a general investigation of the conditions attending the depositing of debris in the beds of streams in this State. The result has been the sending of a special agent of the Geological Survey to California, who is now engaged in viewing all sections where debris has been dropped and all sections that are subject to the depositing of materials through natural erosion. - Northern Counties Earnest - Since the convention some bitterness has been manifested in northern mining counties of California over the existing situation. Quite bitter criticism has been made of the California Debris Commission, which President Benjamin says is unjust, as the Commissioners have acted conscientiously throughout. The Anti-Debris Association has been active recently and interest is on edge throughout the mining sections and also in all sections that are affected by the mining debris as to the next move. For this reason the announcement of President Benjamin will be received with peculiar and general interest, for millions of dollars annually are at stake on the outcome of the future. - That there are many millions of dollars in the sands of California that may be saved by hydraulicking very few persons in the State will question. Whether they can be extracted without damage to the farmers is the concern of all the agricultural counties that are so situated that they can be affected by debris. The millions in comparatively easy reach are the incentive for renewing the struggle. - President Benjamin says that some explanation of the attitude of the California miners to the Caminetti act is due, in view of the fact that the passage of the law was procured through the exertions of the California Miners' Association. When a court decision put a stop to hydraulicking it was evident that something must be done, because the interests that were involved were great. It was the opinion of the miners that hydraulicking could be continued with restraining dams to hold back the debris from the beds of rivers. - What was known as the Biggs commission was created, which made an investigation and offered several recommendations. Then the California Miners' Association went before Congress, through representative men, and asked for the enactment of an adequate law that would protect the miners and the agriculturists and other landowners. - Law Was Unsatisfactory - The best measure that could be secured was the Caminetti law. This was not what was desired, but it was the best that could be had. It has enabled hundreds of mines that would otherwise have been shut down permanently to be operated in a small way, under permits from the California Debris Commission. Where injunctions have been brought the permits of the Debris Commission have not protected the miners, and, in that respect, the operation of the law is considered to be a failure. President Benjamin cannot say just when the suit will be filed in the Supreme Court of California to test the Caminetti law. There was no doubt, he said, that if defeat comes to the miners in the State Supreme Court the cause will find its way to the Supreme Court of the United States at once. - Operations In Field - The North Star silver mine at Bootjack, Merced County, will be pumped out and developed if samples of the ore warrant. The Le Grand Mining Company of Merced has taken an option on the mine. - The largest individual taxpayer in Shasta County is still the Mountain Copper Company, notwithstanding the removal of a part of its business and the curtailment of its local operations. The entire assessment of Shasta County for purposes of taxation is $10,408,224. The Mountain Copper Company alone is assessed for $1,003,275. The Mammoth Copper Company is assessed for $162,000 and the Bully Hill Mining Company for $503,275. - A copper deposit has been discovered in Yuba County, midway between Smartsville and Spenceville, less than a mile from the Nevada County line. The ledge is on the ranch of John Dempsey. [snip]
Pacific Rural Press - 9/9/1905 - How They Are Trying to Impound Mining Debris - Capt. Wm. W. Harts, U. S. Corps of Engineers, recently gave in the Academy of Science building, in San Francisco, an authentic account of what had been done and what was proposed to do in holding back mining debris in rivers now being ruined by it. - The first portion of his lecture was devoted to a history of the mining debris problem in California, the situation that gave rise to the creation of a California Debris Commission, and the scope and intent of that body's powers. This was followed by a description of the mining region assigned to the control of the Commission, and estimates of the amount of detritus lodged in the streams, and the duties of the Commission under the federal law. Following this, in speaking of the manner of work done, Capt. Harts furnished considerable further data hitherto unpublished. In the matter of individual dams, he said that various kinds of dams had been tried - - those of stone, of earth, brush and rock, log-crib filled with rock, and many others. After twelve years of experience, it has been found that the usual small mine, where impounding dams can be used, will need one of two general types - - either log-crib dams or brush dams. - The log crib is the more common type. It consists of a cob-house crib, with the logs of which it is made notched and bolted together. It is filled with quarried rock and chinked against leakage. This type of dam is seldom built over 40 feet high, this being the limit of safety placed by the Commission for the usual case. These dams are very satisfactory for their purpose when well made. Ad long as they are kept wet they are practically permanent, and in those locations where the logs rot, due to being dry part of the time, the rock being well bedded in gravel will resist erosion long after the logs have failed to bind the dam together. - The brush dam is less used, as it is permitted usually only when the water flow over the dam is small, or when the river is diverted through a spillway at one end, and only when the slope of the canyon above is slight. These brush dams are not permitted over 20 feet in total height. - There is now mined nearly a million cubic yards each year which is stored in the canyons and ravines behind debris dams especially constructed for the purpose. - Another side of the Commission's duty is the study of the rivers of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems with a view to the preparation of plans for the treatment of these streams and their tributaries, so that the injurious mining detritus may be kept out of the navigable rivers and the streams restored to their former condition of navigability as far as might be needed. - Yuba River - It was decided to commence with the Yuba river, as this stream has suffered more from mining debris than any other in California, and if the difficulties here could be surmounted, the methods found best adapted for the purpose would likely be more easily applied to the other streams. - After a study of several years and after extended surveys in which numerous borings were made, a plan was adopted by the Commission and submitted to Congress in 1900. - 1. Barriers across the river just below Smartsville, to prevent the addition of coarse detritus from the upper reaches. - 2. A cut at Daguerre point through which to divert the river at high stages, with embankments forming a settling basin for impounding fine material during the remainder of the year. - 3. Training walls 2000 feet apart, extending from Daguerre point to the Feather river, to confine the flow to a selected channel. - Barriers - The barriers were to be a system of weirs extending across the river, where the banks are high enough to afford large impounding capacity, the first located a few miles below Smartsville. This dam has just passed successfully through its first high-water season and is the first to withstand a single freshet in the lower Yuba river. - The dam consists of four rows of piles, the two upper intervals between rows being 10 feet, and the interval between the third and fourth rows being 18 feet. - Piles were 6-feet centers in the uppermost row, 12-feet centers in the two middle rows, and 3-feet centers in the lowest row. Every 12 feet the piles in a tier up and down stream were connected at their upper ends with 1-inch galvanized wire cable. A timber bulkhead 3 inches thick was spiked to the upstream and another to the downstream row of piles, and was carried as deep as the water in the river would permit. - Between the first two rows of piles was placed a fill of rock which was brought up to a subgrade, so that when covered by the concrete blocks, 1 1/2 feet thick, the height of the barrier would be 6 feet above the average level of the river bed. Concrete blocks about 10 feet square and 1 1/2 feet thick were built in place over all this fill, connecting by means of a rollerway with an apron 20 feet wide resting on the river bed below the dam. - The upstream slope was protected with an inclined layer of large rock laid in Portland cement mortar. The concrete slabs of the top surface of the dam and those of the apron were separated from each other by tar-paper joints, and, to prevent dislocation by the river currents, were connected in the direction of the stream flow with 1-inch galvanized wire cables, 3 feet apart, imbedded in the concrete. The cables connecting the piles referred to above were also imbedded in a narrow strip of concrete 18 inches square, which helps bind the heads of the piles together in each tier and separates the large blocks. - Excepting these narrow strips, the concrete slabs rest on the river bottom only and are not supported on the piles. They are jointed so that they are free to move vertically, the cables acting as a hinge. - This, it was designed, would permit the concrete blocks to follow down any considerable scour under the apron, should it occur, and thus prevent any serious damage to the dam due to back-lash. - The weak place in all over-fall dams on poor foundations is, of course, the toe. The rollerway and apron it was hoped would protect the river bed from excessive and dangerous scour. In addition, an extension or lip of masonry 6 feet wide was placed below the apron to carry the water farther away from the toe, and if underscoured it would break up, fall in the hole and offer protection against further action. In addition, for about 600 feet the dam at the south end, where the scour was believed to be strongest, was further protected by large rock or rip-rap placed at random. - The south end of the dam was joined to the bedrock of the river bank, but at the north end a concrete abutment was built, founded on piles, to act as a retaining wall for the earth embankment which was later built to connect the dam with the shore. The north shore is composed of compactly cemented gravel, through which it was originally planned to have a spillway constructed to carry the river at all stages except flood. During construction the entire river was permitted to pass between this abutment and the north shore before building the embankment, so that the concrete dam could be constructed entire on the dry river bed. When it came time to close this gap through which the river flowed, it was found to be an undertaking far greater than was anticipated, as there were about 1200 to 1300 cubic feet per second flowing around the end of the dam. This flow had to be lifted upwards of 8 feet over the completed structure. - The first pilework placed to close this gap failed with the pressure of the water, and through the serious scour in the bottom which took place while trying to close the opening. Later more piles were placed in the opening, and by the liberal use of brush and sand bags the gap was finally closed. - The first step of the permanent dam having been completed as above described, it is now proposed to build in accordance with the project similar step 8 feet higher, lying upstream of the present work and connecting with it. Contracts are already let and work has been commenced on this second step. - In the same way it is expected to put a step 8 feet high on the dam each working season. In this way the ultimate height of the dam will be reached by successive steps. This method was found advisable, as the amount of work possible in the river bed during the low-water season is limited and time must be given the river to fill each step with gravel. - The first step, already built, has been filled with gravel to its crest since the first heavy freshet, and gravel as large as pigeons eggs have been rolled over the top of the dam for several months. - It is thus plainly seen that the dam as a whole is a gravel fill dam sluiced into place by the river itself, the downstream slope of which is composed of a layer of concrete blocks having a general inclination of about 1 vertical to 3 1/2 horizontal. The concrete overlies a rock fill held in place by a framework of anchor piles and timber bulkheads. - Daguerre Point Section - The plans for the treatment of the intermediate section of the Yuba river involve the construction of high embankments across the river in a V-shape, with the apex upstream, the ends connecting, one with Daguerre point on the north, and the other with a high knoll on the south bank. - A diverting barrier connects the apex of the V with the north shore, diverting to the south all water below the elevation of its crest. Through Daguerre point is being cut a channel 600 feet wide and 25 feet deep, through which all the river flow at high stages will pass. - On the south bank, regulating works will admit all the water diverted by the diverting barrier below a limit of about 6000 to 7000 second feet, passing it into a natural depression of about 2 square miles and lying adjacent to the river on the south. These works will exclude all flow above what is considered safe, compelling the excess to pass to the north over the diverting barrier and through the cut. - This plan is simply taking advantage of the natural regimen of the river. - All rivers have their sections of active erosion, usually where slopes and velocities are highest, their sections of transportation where slopes and velocities are sufficient to carry sediment but not to scour, sections of sedimentation where the reduced velocities permit the sediment to fall and form deposits, and the section of discharge. - The construction of the embankments and the use of a large settling basin only increase the natural area of the section of sedimentation. The river is passed into an area where the velocities are checked, although not entirely overcome, so that practically all their load of sediment is dropped. The water passing back into the river at the lower end of the basin is practically clear. At stages of the river occurring for a short time only each year, where the flow of water through the settling basin would be more than could be settled, the regulating devices will exclude the excess, causing it to pass into the cut. This will happen only in such high stages that the velocities are thought to be sufficient to carry whatever fine sediment is in suspension into the Feather and Sacramento rivers, which, being in flood at the same time, will carry the sediment into the tidal currents of the bay and thence into the ocean. The solution of the extreme high water part of the problem is not thoroughly satisfactory, in view of the fact that adequate levees are not yet built on the Sacramento to control its flow; but as the periods of such high water are short, the damage, if any should result, will be limited and will vanish when the Sacramento is regulated - - a vast problem now receiving attention. - Bear River - As stated before, the Yuba river was the first to be studied and the first to be taken up for treatment. The Commission are now planning to take up the work on Bear river, and a survey is authorized and is now being arranged on which to base plans for the future improvement of this stream. - Should the Bear river work be approved by Congress and by the State of California, and funds provided, the work will be extended to the American river and other sediment-bearing streams until the entire problem is solved.
1906
San Francisco Call - 3/26/1906 - Nevada County Feels Impetus. Great Gold Output: Wealth From Districts Amounts to About $250,000,000 Since Early Discoveries - [snip] In the Timbuctoo mining district a mining revival is reported. A new company has been formed to replace the old Marc Anthony Gold and Silver Mining Company. This company will reopen the Timbuctoo mine. - On a long drift of 2000 feet the Champion Company has made a strike on the Nevada City mine shoot. Work on the drift was begun a year ago. The Nevada City mine was purchased by the Champion Company some years ago. - Much is in progress in the Smartsville mining district. A double compartment shaft has been sunk on the Dempsey ranch, two miles south of Smartsville, and a tunnel will be driven at the base of the hill in a transverse direction. The Dempsey ranch was sold for $32,000. It comprises 1200 acres. Forty acres of gravel ground on the Sicard Flat channel were recently sold by Joseph D. Locey of Browns Valley to E. A. Forbes, who will dredge providing the status of the Browns Valley ditch is satisfactorily settled in the near future, the mine depending on water from that ditch. The Sicard Flat channel is supposedly the same as that on the south side of the Yuba River, on which are located Timbuctoo, Sucker Flat and Paddy Campbell's new Blue Point gravel mines.
1909
Los Angeles Herald - 8/30/1909 - Expect Return of Golden Days: Smartsville Pioneers See Dollars Ahead: Capitalists Buy Quartz and Placer Mines: Sand Hill and Timbuctoo Districts Also Enter New Era with Prospects Backed by Ample Means - Nevada City, Aug. 29. - Every indication points to Smartsville again becoming the center of big mining operations, and the pioneers are rubbing their eyes and wondering if they are about to see a return of the golden days of yore. Certainly the outlook has not been as bright since the early placer days. - Within a short time the drills for testing the river claim of the Marysville Quartz Tunnel and Mining company in the channel of the Yuba near there will arrive and be placed in operation by the parties who have taken a bond on the property for dredging purposes. - Old prospectors predict that the tests will be favorable to the introduction of the goldboats, as this section of the river has been the dumping ground, or settling basin, for the rich gravel mines in the Smartsville camp and vicinity since the early days. It is estimated that a vast amount of gold escaped through the tunnels and drifted to a resting place in this basin, where the grade of the river is comparatively small. - Small capital is also seeking opportunity in the quartz ledges of Sand Hill mining district at Timbuctoo, a suburb of Smartsville. It is reported that S. O. Gunning is about to bond the valuable Marc Anthony quartz mine to persons of means. - Money Comes At Last - This, it is argued, is what is needed to develop the district - - the sinews of war in sufficient sum to go down deep and open up the unexplored regions of the once noted field. Predictions are being made that those who are persistent will be richly rewarded, as the surface indications are alone quite encouraging. - Near the Marc Anthony the famed Bullard ledge of early days, where, in 1860, over $20,000 was taken out of one pocket, is located, and there is similar property close at hand awaiting capital to develop it. - The Erle mine near Graniteville has passed from the hands of George Mainhart to a company of capitalists of Wheeling, W.Va. R. G. Eckis of Oakland is making arrangements to being work at the Erle without delay and expects to have the mine running the early part of next month. He says that the people who have taken over the Erle have the necessary wherewith to thoroughly develop the property and the company has been organized as the Erle Consolidated Mines company. - Send Expert To Examine - The Wheeling people sent an expert to examine the Erle, and it was on the strength of his report that they concluded to secure the property. Mr. Eckis will act as manager for the new company and has had over twenty years' experience in mining, which will stand him well in hand in developing the Erle, which he looks forward to as one of the biggest propositions in the Graniteville district. - For many years the Erle group, which consists of the McCarty, Dublin Hay, Oliver and Holland claims, has been owned by George Mainhart of Grass Valley, who is now operating the Ancho mine, which adjoins the Erle, and placed it on a paying basis. There is a tunnel 1700 feet long, and while O. E. Turner worked the property a fine thirty-stamp mill, compressor and other equipment were installed, which is driven by water power.
1910
San Francisco Call - 10/20/1910 - Dredging the River Beds for Gold - An interesting project for the improvement of navigation on the Sacramento and Feather rivers with incidental benefits in the way of taking care of the winter floods is mooted in Marysville. The proposition on which the project is based is that the deposits of slickens with which the riverbeds are choked are largely charged with placer gold washed down from the mountain streams, and that this gold can be recovered by the usual process in use by dredge miners. A mining engineer is quoted: "Any old timer will tell you that the gold from the flumes was abstracted from cement gravel and that great chunks of this gold bearing material were not pulverized by the action of the water until after it had passed through the sluice boxes and was lost to the miner. All the gold contained in these large and small chunks, which was a large amount, lies today in the river channels from Smartsville to Sacramento, and by the dredge process of mining it can all be garnered. - The action of the sun, water and atmosphere has slacked these pieces of cement so that they crumble in your hands now. When they were first torn from their beds in the ancient river channels they were as hard and firm as pieces of granite." - We have no idea to what extent placer gold is carried in the deposits of silt and slickens in the river beds, but the fact should not be difficult to determine. It is not in the least likely, however, that the federal government would undertake the work as a commercial proposition, nor is it to be expected that an enterprise of this character would be carried out in an economical fashion by this agency. But if there is sufficient gold in the streams to make the proposition pay some arrangement might be made that would induce private enterprise to undertake the work. We doubt very much whether gold in paying quantity will be found in the slickens. If there had been anything of the sort in the big deposits of this stuff the dredge miners would have been after it long ago.
1911
San Francisco Call - 4/16/1911 - Marc Anthony Mine - The Marc Anthony mine in Smartsville has passed into the hand of new owners and is being overhauled for active operations. The owners have organized the Marc Anthony gold and silver mining company and will erect a stamp mill of 50 tons capacity at once. Senator Foraker of Ohio is largely interested in the new organization.
San Francisco Call - 10/22/1911 - Marc Anthony Mine - The best proof of stability of Marc Anthony mine at Smartsville, which took on a new lease of life shortly after the death of the former owner, the late S. O. Gunning, is the decision of the lessees, Foraker and Bradshaw of San Francisco, to meet November 1, and the third payment then due on the purchase price, virtually making them the owners of the mine. It was understood that the first and second payments to the family of Gunning was to show the good will of the buyers, while they were testing the ground. The third payment is in such sum that it leaves no doubt of the mining experts' opinion of the ground. They freely announce that the Marc Anthony is a mine even beyond their expectations, and that they will follow up the lead they have to prove their faith in the property. From the first they struck promising veins, but now have one that is highly encouraging. The plant is to be added to, which means the employment of more men and still better times for Smartsville. Grass Valley Union.
San Francisco Call - 11/24/1911 - New Hydraulic Mining Plant in Operation: Smartsville Company Uses Up to Date Principles (Special Dispatch to The Call.) - Smartsville, Nov. 23. - The plant of the Tarr Mining company started up today. The plant is of a new design and on the hydarulic [sic] principle, two immense monitors being used. Debris is carried from the station to settling basins through cement flumes. This is the first plant of its kind ever constructed, and this is the first hydraulic mining at Smartsville since the passage of the anti-debris law years ago.
1912
San Francisco Call - 1/16/1912 - Tarr Resigns From Hydraulic Company - (Special Dispatch to The Call) - Grass Valley, Jan. 15. - E. W. Tarr announced his resignation today from the vice presidency and general managership of the Tarr Mining company, one of the largest hydraulic companies in the state, operating immense works at Smartsville. Friction with other members of the company is assigned as the reason.
1914
Sausalito News - 5/9/1914 - Coast Happenings: Grass Valley. - Prospectors who spent the winter on the Yuba river in the Smartsville district, report that one gang of three men made as high as $150 per day for each man by sluicing gravel washed in on bars through what is known to miners as "long toms." Gold hunters report that five dollars is considered a poor day's work. The heavy winter rains made gravel mining unusually good.
1919
Sausalito News - 8/23/1919 - Grass Valley - The Blue Point mine near Smartsville, the famous "Paddy" Campbell mine, is to be sold for $20,000, according to a suit filed for receivership here. The Blue Point was once valued at $1,000,000.
1921
Pacific Rural Press - 11/5/1921 - The Woodruff Ranch at Mooney Flat, near Smartsville, Nevada county, has been sold to an Oakland family. This property has been int he possession of the Woodruff family since the early fifties.YubaRoots.com
YUBA COUNTY
SMARTSVILLE MINING EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS
(and surrounding areas)
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1857
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/19/1857 - Mining Items: A promising field for mining enterprise is indicated by the Marysville Inquirer of October 17th, which says: A gravel range of hills has for years been known to exist, running from the vicinity of Timbuctoo to Bangor, and thence about two miles from Wyandott, and terminating below Oroville some distance. Very rich leads have been found in this range at Timbuctoo and Bangor. We have a rich specimen of this gold in our office. It is found in a blue cement, mixed with sand and quartz, and to be worked to advantage requires about the same method as quartz mining. The claims are deep in places, and frequent hard ledges of quartz or something similar are said to be found in them. This region will be extensively worked the coming winter, and the foot hills between Feather and Yuba rivers will be a perfect bee-hive in point of the number of miners located there.
Daily Alta California - 12/4/1857 - Interior Correspondence - Empire Ranch, Dec. 1, 1857. Here I am from Marysville after three hours shaking up in "Big Jake's" close box. The ride was delightful - - rained all the way up - - obliged to keep the curtains closed to prevent the rain coming in, which, with two ancient T. D.'s, two ox-team regalias and a bogus meerschaum, all in successful operation, tended very materially to purify the atmosphere and render the baker's dozen inside extremely happy. - Last night I staid at the "Ranch," and this morning strolled through Smartsville, Sucker Flat and Timbuctoo, all thriving places, and of course containing some "enterprizing fellow citizens," and heavy men - - was there ever a town of a dozen inhabitants that did not? However, it must be said in favor of this vicinity that they have fewer of that class who are always "trying to get even" than any other place I have seen in the mines, and are, as a general thing, a very industrious, gentlemanly community. - In Timbuctoo the miners are making very extensive preparations for winter diggings; river mining being suspended for the season, they are putting in cuts and flumes and getting everything ready for water, which it is hoped will come sometime. All that is wanted to make this one of the liveliest places in the State, is the agua, and that, the miners tell me, they might have had ere this in abundance, were it not necessary to have so many officers to handle the funds, and so few privates in joint stock ditch companies. The population of the place is about 300, something like 20 families, and at the last election there were polled between 160 and 170 votes. The claims are here, as everywhere else in the mines, some very good, and some not so very good, and the "immense fortunes" mentioned in the Marysville papers as having been taken out last summer must have been taken out by men whose names are not on the assessment roll, nor in the Timbuctoo directory, as they are not known in the vicinity. Numerous short bits have been freely offered for a look at one of the lucky hombres. It is well enough to spread a little, but often times mining news is run in the ground and poor devils come up expecting too much to pan. Three dollars and a half a day is the amount "panned out" in this neighborhood by gentlemen who exercise muscle to advantage - - in this town no others need apply. - To add to the comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants they have the usual allowance of stores, grocery and dry goods, the latter kept as a matter of course by "shentlemen shust from pelow," a good billiard saloon, bowling alley, hotels (which might be improved a little without hurting anybody), a theater just put up, not very large, but enough for the wants of the town, a banking establishment, and last though not least, a full assortment of papers from below and a slight sprinkling of the "yaller kivered" for leisure moments. - The Celestial kingdom is but poorly represented here; but one ghostly looking specimen of the race appeared to me, and he came crying out in the language of Backus, "John, you carey one shirte washee two bittee." Hank says it must be my washman after an old debt, but the thing is impossible, as I paid seven bits, in full, before leaving the bay. Yours truly, J. K. Brown.
1858
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/27/1858 - An Aqueduct Fallen - The Marysville News learns that the high wind on Thursday blew down the aqueduct of the Excelsior Company, at Timbuctoo. This great work, which cost an immense amount of money and labor, had just been completed, and had not yet begun to perform the duty for which it was erected, when it was suddenly demolished. The loss to the Excelsior Company is not less than $40,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/27/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Express writing from Mooney Flat March 24th, gives the following intelligence: Mooney Flat is destined to be one of the first mining places in this section. That the gold is here has been proved this season. Dallas & Co. have been doing remarkably well all winter, and on last Saturday they washed up two hundred ounces for week's run, and the other companies that have water are all doing well. The scarcity of water has always been a serious drawback, but next winter there will be plenty; the Excelsior Canal will then be finished to the South Yuba, and another ditch is now being surveyed from Rough and Ready. The Keystone ditch will also be brought in here, and as there is already four, including the Excelsior (the latter is now running water from Deer Creek), there is no doubt but there will be sufficient to supply Mooney Flat, Timbuctoo, and Sucker Flat. Dallas & Co. and the Buckeye Company, have been to a great expense in getting their flumes through the ledge; the cost has been about thirty thousand dollars, and the coming summer they are going to widen them, as they are not sufficiently large to allow the side sluices to empty. Each company will put in a four foot flume. But what has given the greatest confidence, and increased the value of claims the most, is the discovery of what is called the top lead. This upper strata lies high in the hill, some seventy feet above the level or the flat, and will pay well for drifting. The gold is rather coarse and heavy for this section. The coming Summer there will be little or no washing done, but a number of tunnels will be run into the hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/7/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Express has the following notice of mining operations at Timbuctoo, Yuba county, under date of March 31st - The village is situated between two high hills, one of which is called Sand Hill, and is that upon which so many claims are located, valued at high price. Streaks of white and blue cement and gravel, varying from five to twenty feet, run through it extremely rich. Large ditches pass along at the top of the hill, one of which will carry fifteen hundred inches of water. For the distance of a mile, cast iron piping is used instead of fluming, and appears to answer much better, as there is no breakage and but little evaporation. Great encroachments have already been made upon this hill (which is destined in time to disappear altogether) by the hydraulics, and large bodies of water used to dislodge cement. The two main flumes running through the town are about half a mile long, and will each carry about twelve hundred inches of water. Most of the claims use from 150 to 200 inches, which all enter these main flumes, which have a grade of eight inches to the box. The power of the water is so tremendous that large rocks, as much as a man can lift, are borne down with terrific force. An incident occurred, the other day, which nearly cost one of our Celestial friends his life. In crossing the flume, during a storm, his foot slipped - - with lightning speed he was carried along, yelling and screaming lustily for help. There happened to be but one cross piece between him and the dumping off place. This he managed to cling to, and with great difficulty was got out alive. There was a good road and bridge across the ravine leading to town, two months back, but since they have commenced operations in earnest, such immense piles of rock have been disgorged by the flumes, that traffic is utterly impossible, not a vestige of the bridge is left uncovered. The stage, of course, has discontinued to come this way. The cement in these claims is so firmly packed together that they have to wash the tailings several times, each yield being equal to the first. The gold is extremely fine, and coins $20 per ounce. These diggings have been worked for three or four years, and it will take an indefinite number to work them out, the entire ridge having to be worked away first. Some claims are very rich. One company, in ten day's run, cleaned up $3,500; others are doing fully as well, and as soon as they are well started (for not one claim in ten is fairly opened yet), the prospect for Timbuctoo is very promising.
Daily Alta California - The Sucker Flat Iron Aqueduct - A correspondent of the Marysville Express writes thus: At Sucker Flat the Excelsior Water Co. have an iron pipe near three thousand feet in length, and twenty inches in diameter, conducting the water from Temperance Hill, across a depression of one hundred feet, on to the Timbuctoo Hill. This pipe was manufactured in New York at quite a heavy expense. The iron is three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness. The discharging end is forty feet below the receiving end; greatest depression one hundred feet; discharges in twenty-four hours six hundred inches, for ten hours miner's use, under six inch pressure.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/6/1858 - California Mines - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Barton's Bar, September 28th, gives the subjoined mining intelligence: A short distance below this place is located the enterprising Fluming Company. The length of ground claimed by this company is near 1,000 feet; about 450 feet of which is drained this season. The flume is 550 feet long, 24 wide, and four feet deep. The building of the dam, flume and other necessary works, required the labor of thirty men for six months, at a cost of $5,500. The works were constructed under the superintendence of William Green, of Timbuctoo. The first week after having everything complete was occupied in stripping and washing a small portion of the upper pay dirt, which paid a little over $2,000. The next week, in four days, the company took out $12,000, and upon Monday of the last week, one day, $3,000. On Monday night shaft gave out, which has been replaced by a new one. The claim will be entirely dry by Saturday night, when the company will commence washing. There is every appearance of a sufficient quantity of rich dirt to keep the company employed for six or eight weeks to come. At Rose's Bar, one and half miles above, there are some forty or fifty men at work. The claims have been worked over every year since 1848, and continue to pay satisfactory wages. National Bar, below the mouth of Deer creek, is being worked this season by L. B. Clark; he has some fifteen men employed. The preparations at this place required about three weeks' labor, since which time he has been enabled to wash some ten days, during which time he has taken out $2,600. The ground now being worked is the same worked by the National Company for several years. Landers' Bar, on the opposite side of Deer creek, is being worked by the Irish Wing-dam Company. There are some ten men employed by this company. The place being worked appears to be a heap of boulders, many weighing several tons; they are as nicely laid together as if placed there by the hands of a mason, but the boys, with their derrick, handle them like marbles. The dirt is rich and pays well.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/19/1858 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Sand Hill, Yuba county, Nov. 16th, thus speaks of the rich quartz lode recently discovered in that vicinity: Since I wrote you last the company have erected one arastra, which is now in successful operation, crushing about one and a half tons a day. The rich seam of quartz is not worked in the arastra, the casing or outside only being worked at present. The lode has been further prospected during the past week, and continues to be as rich as the first discoveries. During the past week, Elenwood, of Timbuctoo, struck what is supposed to be a continuation of the same lode. He has sunk a shaft some thirty feet deep, striking one of the dips of the lode, in which the gold can be seen. The recent rich discoveries in this vicinity have caused a rivalry in prospecting, which is always a benefit to the country. - Other operations are mentioned, as follows: At Rose's Bar, Bostwick & Co. have made new discoveries, which are paying $25 a day to the man. - At Independent Hill, back of Rose's Bar, Parry & Evans, in two days' washing of drift dirt, took out 140 ounces of amalgam. - At Timbuctoo, George Mullen, in sixteen days' washing, took out $4,800.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/2/1858 - Mining at Sand Hill, Yuba. - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from the above locality, Nov. 29th, says: Bowerman's Kentucky quartz lode at this place is continuing to yield as rich as when I wrote you last. During the past week they have taken out large quantities of rock which is very rich. It is supposed to be worth several thousand dollars per ton. They have run a tunnel from the ravine some distance below the lode, striking the same at a depth of forty feet from the surface of the ground. The rock taken out at this depth is clear and solid, but literally covered with gold. The lode discovered by Elenwood & Co., some time since, is still being prospected with every prospect of its being a rich lode. Large quantities of the rock show the gold upon the surface. At Rose's Bar still further discoveries are being made. The new diggings in the banks near the lower end of the bar pay from six to twenty-five dollars a day to the man; the only drawback being the want of water, which has to be secured after being used by the hydraulic claims, near the top of the mountain back of the Bar, which are now making preparations for the rainy season. The miners of this place, Timbuctoo, Independence Hill, Squaw Creek, Sucker Flat, and Mooney Flat, are making arrangements to have the present price of water reduced to twenty-five cents per inch. Many of the claims are now paying as high as one hundred dollars per day for water, which in many cases is one-half the amount taken out. There is a meeting called at Timbuctoo Theater on Sunday next, at 10 o'clock, when the course to be adopted will be determined upon.
1859
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/5/1859 - Quartz in Yuba - We had an opportunity of examining, yesterday, a specimen of rock from the vein of the Kentucky Quartz Company, located at Timbuctoo, in Yuba county. The sample exhibits a crystalized appearance in parts, while the balance is chiefly impregnated with fine gold. The oxide of iron, also, shows plainly. We should think the rock to be of a character that would pay well with a mill.
Daily Alta California - 1/9/1859 - Mining at Sand Hill, Yuba County - A correspondent of the Sacramento Union, writing from Sand Hill, Yuba county, under date of January 2d, says: During the last few days, mining in this section of the country has been increasing rapidly. Through the warm summer months water is scarce; but the rainy season has commenced, and the rivers and creeks are filled to overflowing, and gives us a supply of water which the miners have been praying for, that their empty purses may once more be filled with the shining ore. In this immediate vicinity thirteen claims are in successful operation, with hydraulic power, having flumes from two to four feet in width, to empty their tailings in the ravine, where the mammoth flume of Hawkes & Co. conveys them to the Yuba. Quartz mining is progressing rapidly. The company owning the Kentucky lode have erected an arastra, and in six days work forty pounds of amalgam was taken from the machine. The company are well satisfied with the result of their labors, and are more than ever convinced there is a lode deep beneath the surface extensive and of unsurpassed richness. The company are running a tunnel through bed rock to reach the ledge fifty feet below the surface, and, according to the judgment of experienced quartz miners, they are about twenty feet from the lode. They are continuing to work their arrastra, believing there is plenty more of the quality. There are other lodes in this locality which will pay, provided there was a mill erected and in operation. The Galena Company have sunk an inclined shaft twenty-five feet in depth on their lode, and good prospects have been obtained; and in a number of instances gold is visible in the ledge. The owners hold their shares at $1,000 each, which is proof they have great faith in the lode. The Sacramento Company have also sunk a few feet below the surface, conveyed 2,500 pounds of ore to a mill, and $12 or $15 was taken from it. This being surface quartz, it is supposed that deeper in the earth the quartz is, the better will be the ore taken from it, the bottom of the shaft being the richest. We trust it will not be long before a mill will be in operation. All can then test the quality of the quartz. There is not a more permanent mining place in the State than this. Within the space of four years large brick stores have been erected, physicians and lawyers, and men of every profession, have settled here, believing Timbuctoo and its vicinity will outstrip all its competitors in the laborious but lucrative business of mining. [same article in Sacramento Daily Union, 1/5/1859]
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/16/1859 - California Mines - We append some details of mining intelligence from our interior exchanges: Yuba. - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Smartsville, Aug. 12th, says: D. Bovyer conceived the idea of building a ditch from some point on Deer creek to Smartsville and Timbuctoo, which at the time was thought a doubtful enterprise. On the 1st of April, 1857, the work was commenced; the length is 21 miles, commencing at Kentucky Bar, on Deer creek. The capacity of the work is 4 feet on the bottom, 2 feet deep, with a slope to 6 1/2 feet on the top. A short distance below the head dam a tunnel is cut through solid blue flint rock a distance of 500 feet, after which the course for a mile is a rough, rocky mountain side, when it passes over a deep ravine in a flume 1,000 feet long, at an elevation of 65 feet. The next five miles is what may be called a good ditch country, when we come to Stewart's Ranch, Pen[n] Valley, where the water, being very thick with mud, is run into a reservoir or mud settler; passing down this valley through Squirrel creek 1 1/2 miles, it is again taken out in a flume for 300 feet. the next five miles is ditching, and brings it to Foreman's ravine, which is crossed by a flume 1,100 feet long and 35 feet high; two miles more bring us to Slack's ravine, where the water is let into a large reservoir covering many acres of land. The reservoir is built by a dam across the ravine, 474 feet long, 15 feet high, with a base of 140 feet, sloping to 10 feet on the top; from this reservoir, when full, 4,000 inches of water, miner's measurement, can be supplied in one day. The object of the reservoir is to keep several days' water on hand, in case of accident to the main ditch. - From this point, the ditch is six feet on the bottom to eight on the top, crossing the summit between Mooney's Flat and Empire Ranch in a flume 1,400 feet long, at an elevation of thirty feet, thence to Sucker Flat, crossing another ridge to Temperance Hill, where there are branches supplying Squaw creek and neighboring diggings. From Temperance Hill to Independence Hill a sag is crossed by a flume one thousand eight hundred feet long, at an elevation of forty-seven feet, running water to Timbuctoo, Sand Flat, and adjoining country. - This work was commenced April, 1857; was completed and ready for water January, 1858. The entire cost of the work was $75,000. The first season, the water gave out early in the Summer, but the receipts were $37,000. The present year, there was a good supply early in December, and the sales thus far have been about $60,000, at an expense of less than $1,600 per month. - Since Bovyer completed his work, the price of water has been reduced thirty-three per cent., which, with a better supply than heretofore, has enabled the miners to work profitably ground that would not pay; the consequence is, the almost entire filling up of the tailing ground at Timbuctoo and vicinity. To remedy this, Bovyer has purchased the right of way from all of the small tailing flumes in Timbuctoo ravine and is constructing a flume, or double flume, ten feet in width, five feet deep, being divided, leaving one six feet and the other four feet wide, so as to carry off to the river the immense quantity of tailings now retarding the progress of the miners. The flume, the largest in the State, is fourteen hundred feet long, is nearly completed, and will cost upwards of $30,000, and it is supposed will pay a large per cent. upon the investment.
Daily Alta California - 8/23/1859 - The Deer Creek and Timbuctoo Mining Company - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat furnishes the following information about the Mining Ditch leading from Deer Creek to Timbuctoo, in Nevada county: On the first of April, 1857, the work was commenced; the length is 21 miles, commencing at Kentucky bar, on Deer creek. The capacity of the work is 4 feet on the bottom, 2 feet deep, with a slope to 6 1/2 feet on the top. A short distance below the head dam a tunnel is cut through solid blue flint rock, a distance of 500 feet, after which the course for a mile is a rough, rocky mountain side, when it passes over a deep ravine in a flume 1,000 feet long, at an elevation of 65 feet. The next five miles is what may be called a good ditch country, when we come to Stewart's ranch, Pen [sic] valley, where the water being very thick with mud is run into a reservoir, or mud settler; passing down this valley through Squirrel creek, 1 1/2 miles, it is again taken out in a flume for 300 feet. The next five miles is ditching, and brings it to Foreman's ravine, which is crossed by a flume 1,100 feet long and 35 feet high; two miles more brings us to Stack's ravine, where the water is let into a large reservoir, covering many acres of land. The reservoir is built by a dam across the ravine, 474 feet long, 45 feet high, with a base of 140 feet sloping to 10 feet on the top; from this reservoir, when full, 4,000 inches of water, miner's measurement, can be supplied in one day. The object of the reservoir is to keep several days' water on hand, in case of accident to the main ditch. - From this point the ditch is 6 feet on the bottom to 8 on top, crossing the summit between Mooney's Flat and Empire Ranch in a flume 1,400 feet long, at an elevation of 30 feet, thence to Sucker Flat, crossing another ridge to Temperance Hill, where there are branches supplying Squaw Creek and neighboring diggings. From Temperance Hill to Independence a sag is crossed by a flume 1,800 feet long, at an elevation of 47 feet, running water to Timbuctoo, Sand Flat and adjoining country. - This work was commenced April, 1857; was completed and ready for water January, 1858. The entire cost of the work was $75,000. The first season the water gave out early in the summer, but the receipts were $37,000. The present year there was a good supply early in December, and the sales thus far have been about $60,000, at an expense of less than $1,000 per month. - Since Mr. Bovyer completed his work, the price of water has been reduced 33 per cent, which, with a better supply than heretofore, has enabled the miners to work profitably ground that formerly would not pay; the consequence is the almost entire filling up of the tailing ground at Timbuctoo and vicinity. To remedy this, Mr. Bovyer has purchased the right of way from all the small tailing flumes in Timbuctoo Ravine, and is constructing a flume, or double flume, 10 feet in width, 5 feet deep, being divided, leaving one 6 feet and the other 4 feet wide, so as to carry off to the river the immense quantity of tailings now retarding the progress of the miners. This flume, the largest in the State, is 1,400 feet long, is nearly completed, and will cost upwards of $30,000, and it is supposed will pay a large per-centage upon the investment. [also appears in Sacramento Daily Union, 8/16/1859]
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/30/1859 - Life At Long Bar - The Marysville Express gives the following description of the manner in which certain parties at Long Bar, in Yuba county, enjoy themselves: On Sunday night last, September 25th, a grand fandango was held at a dance house kept by a man called "Irish Jim," at which it appears were collected an incongruous mass of the fair but frail daughters of Eve, and all sorts of men "accordin." A Mexican Greaser woman, a Digger squaw and a white woman, danced in the same set, and took frequent potations of lager, tipping cosily their glasses and wishing each other health and happiness as they swallowed the delicious beverage. The Mexican woman, it appears, was the mistress of a stage driver on the upper end of the bar, and the squaw the "beloved" of a man by the name of S----. A fancy Timbuctoo gent, having seen the squaw, became enamoured of her beauty and loveliness and determined to wrest so great a prize from S----. So he went to the fandango for that purpose. S----, hearing of P----'s determination, swore vengeance against him. In a short time harsh language passed between them, when P---- drew a knife at S----, and then drew a revolver, but did no injury. He, however, succeeded in taking the squaw. A few minutes after this, a "buck" bearing the uncommon name of Brown made an attack on another man, a Mr. C----, by drawing his knife and attempting to stab him. He struck a desperate blow at C----, who managed to escape by artfully dodging. Parties then interfered and prevented him from pursuing his adversary. Fortunately the affair ended without anybody being seriously injured, but threats of vengeance were freely indulged in on both sides.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/1/1859 - Extensive Mining in Timbuctoo - The Marysville Democrat relates the following instance of heavy mining operations: A visitor from Timbuctoo informs us that a big hill above that town literally tumbled down, on the night of Sept. 26th. It had been cut down on one side by various mining operations, until a wall of rock and dirt was presented, facing the town, of one hundred and fifty feet in hight. In order to wash off the acres of dirt incumbent upon the paying portion of the hill, several large streams of water were left sinking into the top of it and spreading through the soil for some considerable time past. On the night above alluded to the mass of dirt, with its tons of rocks, commenced falling over the bluff, and during the entire night it was crashing down with a noise like thunder, and in the morning almost the entire hill was a thing of the past.
1860
Daily Alta California - 1/19/1860 - The Diggings at Timbuctoo - The diggings of Timbuctoo, Yuba county, mostly consist of a gently-rounded gravel hill, about one mile long and perhaps not over fifteen hundred feet wide, with an altitude above its base of about three hundred feet. This hill lies in a northeast by a southwest direction, between a large ravine, where the town is on one side and the Yuba river on the other. It is partly bisected by a small gulch. The gravel - - which is very course and easily washed, but for intermediate strata of "pipe clay" and indurated sand - - is not less than two hundred feet deep, has an inclination towards the river, and rests upon trap rock, which is highest next to the stream. The first deposition upon the rock is a stratum of cemented gravel, deriving its color and hardness from iron sulphurets, and very rich in gold worth $18.50 per ounce. Overlaying this is a thick stratum of indurated clay or sand - - for it varies in character - - containing some gold but indissoluble except after being cut up and long exposed to air and water. - The blue gravel beneath has to be drifted out, and is washed several times in succession, through sluices, the tailings being saved by means of dams and allowed to "slack." Above the clay stratum the gravel is yellow and grey, very coarse, crumbling down readily beneath the action of one hundred inches of water forced against it from hose and pipe. This top-gravel, as it is called, is from one hundred to one hundred and forty feet thick, and is washed off entirely by the hydraulic process. The auriferous particles are not distributed through it uniformally, but are found most plentiful in "streaks," or thin strata following the plane of the bank. Some of these strata, lying fifty to one hundred feet above the bedrock, have been drifted, and paid from five to ten dollars a day per man. The gold in the top gravel is remarkably fine in quality, commanding from $19.20 to $19.50 per ounce from buyers, and assaying as high as 987-1,000. - The diggings were discovered about eight years ago by parties following up ravines from the river. One of these ravines contained a great deal of earth that yielded one dollar to the bucket. The blue gravel in the hill was much better. As an instance of this we were told that ten dollars had been obtained from a single prospect, and three claims, worked by Antone, Burgoyne and Boyd, yielded, in something over two years, about $100,000; several parties buying in successively at round prices, and going home with $5,000 or $6,000 not long afterwards. But drifting out bottom dirt was found to be less profitable, on the whole, than sluicing off the top. - The hydraulic process, in its crudest form, with small sluices and small streams of water, was first employed between four and five years ago. It is now the universal mode of work, and is conducted with elaborate system, galvanized from pipes leading the water into the claims, where it is distributed through rubber and canvas hose, substantial sluices carrying off the washings, and more extensive ones receiving the united "tailings" of several sets of claims. As the bed-rock lies so low, there is no necessity for tunnels, except in two or three instances. The only difficulty the miners labor under is want of sufficient fall or grade, for their sluices. The distance from the diggings to the river is nearly one mile, and the utmost grade that can be had for this distance will not exceed eight inches to every twelve feet length of sluice. The big ravine through which the tailings run is filled with them to a depth of sixty feet. Along this ravine are several large tail flumes. One, owned by the Mullen brothers, and leading from their claims, is four feet wide, three and a half feet deep, lined with pine blocks six inches thick, and is 3,000 feet long. Adjoining it is one of equal dimensions, owned by Rulison & Co. Below these, and receiving all the washings on this side of the hill, is the splendid flume of McAllis & Co., 1,200 or 1,500 feet long, and emptying into the river. It is built upon very solid timbers, in two sections - - one 6 feet the other 4 feet wide, making 10 feet wide in the clear, and 5 feet deep. The bottom is lined with wooden blocks six inches thick, made from the nut pine, a very tough variety; yet they wear out, under the friction of a flood of water and cobble stones, in about twenty days. The grade of this flume is from four to six inches to every twelve feet. Its cost, including $8,000 which was paid for the right to the ravine, was $28,000. The proprietors say it will pay a good interest on cost and expenses, and afford them advantages in washing their claims on the hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/19/1860 - The Mines Near North San Juan - The Press, of January 14th, chronicles the following mining intelligence: Since last Saturday a storm of snow and rain has occurred to check mining operations on the upper part of the ridge, and at this end an interruption has occurred by a break in the Middle Yuba ditch. About twelve boxes of flume were carried away at Badger Hill, early Thursday morning, making a breach which has required the remainder of the week to repair. During the same interval the Company has had some forty men on the ditch employed in the clearing it of sand. The removal of the latter will give an increased water capacity of two hundred inches. From all that we can learn the most extensive washing is going on at the locality of Columbia Hill, and with profitable results, though no details have come to hand. At Chimney hill, Spear & Marshall are said to be making $40 a day to the hand, clear of expenses. We learn from Timbuctoo that Jefferds & Co. cleared up, after nine days' run, $3,954, using 400 inches of water a day, at twenty-five cents an inch.
Daily Alta California - 1/20/1860 - Mining Ditches and Hydraulic Mining at Timbuctoo - Water was first brought into the diggings of Timbuctoo and vicinity by ditches from Deer creek, twelve or fifteen miles long. Three of these, one constructed by Mr. Bovyer, noted for his enterprise and skill in such works, are now consolidated and owned by the Tri-Union Company. The water which they supply, amounting during the wet season to 4,000 or 5,000 inches, is conveyed across the gap lying between Smartsville and Sucker Flat, through two flumes 2,400 feet long; the largest one, which appears to be sixty or eight feet high over the lowest part of the gap, being an elegant and substantial structure. The Excelsior Company have another ditch, which is twenty-eight miles long, draws its water from the South Yuba, has a capacity of about 4,000 inches, miners' measure, and cost in the neighborhood of $250,000. Its stream has also to cross the gap mentioned above. For this purpose a pipe 20 inches in diameter, made of boiler iron, and 2,700 feet long, has been heretofore employed. A new pipe, 40 inches in diameter, is not being put together, and will soon be laid across the gap on trestles. It will deliver 3,000 inches, as water is measured at Timbuctoo - - that is, under a pressure of ten inches, equal to perhaps 4,000 inches as measured at North San Juan under six inches pressure. The Excelsior Company is now building at Empire Ranch, two miles from the diggings, a reservoir which will have a depth at the dam of not less than fifty feet, and a superficial area of at least seventy-five acres. The dam is about 150 feet wide at the base, and pierced by a very substantial arched conduit of stone and wood work. The water will be admitted through this, when wanted, by means of a heavy iron gate, raised by a screw, a contrivance of great power and steadiness. The ditches enumerated are now supplying the diggings with about 8,000 inches of water, at 25c and inch, measuring liberally as above stated. Of this quantity, the largest portion is used at Timbuctoo, where 40 companies and nearly 300 men are at work, though not more than half that number of companies are washing. Each company uses from 400 to 600 inches of water, and the day we were at Timbuctoo the total water sales on the hill reached 6,000 inches, at a cost of $1,500. Of course this enormous supply dwindles to a very small one as the dry season approaches, and many companies have to lay by or go to drifting. Winter is the true harvest time of both ditch men and miners. During the past winter, we are told that the weekly receipts of Bovyer's ditch averaged $3,000. - Although the miners use such large heads of water, they do not direct it all against the bank. Only 100 inches flow through the pipe, the remainder being allowed to fall over the edge of the claims; much less being needed to get the earth down, then to run it off, owing to the looseness of the upper gravel and great size of the stones. In some claims, however, the earth is more compact, and to facilitate washing the bottom is drifted out leaving pillars standing which are piped away, and then down comes the mass above. From what we were told, we conclude that the Timbuctoo diggings yield as well as hydraulic diggings do anywhere. When washing is pursued under favorable circumstances the gross yield per company ranges from $300 to as high as $600 per day - - though the latter is not common. The last clean up made my Mullin & Co., after one week's washing, was two quart bowls full of amalgam, worth nearly $5,000. Jefferds & Co., who own the famous Babb claim, have been washing two years, during which time they have taken out $180,000. Of this sum $32,000 went for water. Every run has yielded enough to pay all expenses, so that no debts have been incurred, although the various expenses were enormous. These claims have yielded from one run of ten days as high as $8,000, and are now turning out regularly from $300 to $350 per diem, although the rich "blue lead" in the bottom is not touched. This is reserved by nearly every company until the top shall have been worked off, or till summer, when as many as thirty men will be employed at drifting in one set of claims. The Michigan Company, consisting of Mr. McAllis and others, own a large body of good ground, in the deepest part of the hill, which will afford $3,000 at a clean up, and has paid at the rate of $500 per day. The iron pipe conducting water to these claims cost $5,000. It is eleven inches in diameter. Cramer & Co., last winter opened a set of claims on another part of the hill, washed forty days and cleared $1,275 to each one of four shares. The expense of opening was nearly double this per share. Hereafter the profits will be larger. The company enjoys the unusual advantage of sufficient fall, and one long tail sluice running to the river on the north side of the hill, nearly pays the expenses of working the diggings, or about $150 daily. Next to Cramer & Co., lie the valuable claims of Parry &Evans. Pierce & Co., at Sucker Flat, have a fine body of ground, which they are washing profitably and expect to pay much better when their tunnel is completed. This tunnel has been under way for five years, and has cost $60,000. We are unable to particularize any further, but may add, in conclusion, that the instances given are not exceptional but representative. San Juan Press.
Daily Alta California - 2/16/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal writes thus about mining claims at Timbuctoo, Yuba county: "Last week Elenwood's claim cleaned up $2,300 - - nine days' run; Live Yankee, $2,600 - - eight days' run; George Miller, $2,400 - - nine days' run; Babb claims, $1,700 - - ten day's run; Geo. Mullen, has been averaging $500 per day, using 600 inches of water. The other companies use about 300 inches of water, each. The Marlow boys are drifting some 700 feet into the hill above town. They employ five men, and their claims have averaged, for some months past, $30 per day to the man. On Squaw Creek, Peter Carrigan took out of his tail flume, last week, $900, for six weeks' run. L. B. Clark took out of his tail flume, in what is called the Irish Cut, $950 - - five weeks' run. At Sucker Flat, the Humbug Company took out $2,629, in eleven days' run. They use 200 inches of water, which costs $50 per day. There is an average of $900 per day paid for water, within two miles of this place." [same article appears in Sacramento Daily Union, 2/11/1860]
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/3/1860 - Mining in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat, writing from Timbuctoo, Feb. 28th, says: Mining operations are being successfully prosecuted. Bovyer & McAllis have just completed washing up their extensive tail-flume at the lower end of the town. The many hints thrown out by correspondents, that this work was of a doubtful character, are now settled. The cost of this work, $30,000, was looked upon by many as a waste of money. $18,000 have already been expended, and boxes are being continually added. There is at this time 1,200 feet completed, which has been in running order some three or four months, and within the last two weeks they have cleaned up something over $15,000. - Joe Elenwood washed up, yesterday, $1,500 for six days' running water. The Gallegher boy, $1,200, in five days' run. The Burgoyne claim, owned by Lucius Carpenter, is paying well. He cleaned up eighteen boxes, after seven days' run, which paid $1,000. These claims have some 1,200 feet of flumes. A few of the upper boxes are washed up once in a week or ten days, which more than pay all expenses. The others are cleaned up once a month, or when the blocks want turning. The receipts from these are the profits of the claim. - Levi Yankee cleaned up eighteen boxes, of eight days' run, and the yield was $1,400. The Babb's claim, Jefferds & Co., $2,200, five days' run. Michigan claim, McAllis & Co., $3,000, nine days' run; and the Pennsylvania Company, $1,500, six days' run.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/31/1860 - Accident at Timbuctoo - On the evening of March 27th, the bank of the Bab[b] claim at Timbuctoo caved in, covering up F. Jaffords and dangerously injuring him. According to the Express, he was in a cut at work at the time. He was covered beneath dirt and water eight feet deep. Relief was afforded him, and he was taken out as early as possible. At last advices he was in a very critical condition, and it was not known whether he would survive or not, though hopes were entertained of his recovery.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/2/1860 - Pictures of California, Ten Years Later. By Baynard Taylor - Excursion among the Northern Mines - While in Sacramento I received an invitation to spend an evening in Timbuctoo, and on my way to Nevada, completed the arrangements for visiting that unknown and mysterious place. It involved a journey of twenty miles over a road I had already traveled, and a return to Nevada on the following day; but as Timbuctoo is said to be the grandest example of hydraulic mining in California, I did not grudge the extra travel. Early on Monday morning we took saddle horses, my companion being ambitious to gain experience in an art new to her. We had a pair of spirited animals - almost too much so, in fact, for such a sultry, stifling day - and got over the four miles to Grass Valley in short order. Thence to Rough and Ready and Penn's Valley, all went well; but as the sun mounted higher, and the dust rose, and the unaccustomed arm wearied of the check rein, the inspiration of the ride flagged, and never was haven more welcome than the Empire Rancho. - This place being only two miles from Timbuctoo, we took upon our quarters there, having had previous experience of its abundant good fare. The house, however, dates from the early times of California, the ceilings being of muslin and the partition walls about as solid as pasteboard, so that the snoring in one room, the infantine wail of another, and the various noises of the sleeping and the waking are heard through the whole house. - In the afternoon, Mr. Carpenter, to whom I was indebted for the opportunity of visiting the place, accompanied me to view the mining operations. A ridge about five hundred feet in hight divides the glen in which the town lies from the Yuba river, and the whole of this ridge from the summit down to the bed rock contains gold. At first the washings were confined to the bottom of the valley, and to Rose's Bar, on the Yuba. After the richest deposits are exhausted, short drifts were carried into the hills at their base, and it was finally ascertained that if any plan could be devised to curtail the expense of labor, the entire hill might be profitably washed down. In this manner originated what is called hydraulic mining - - a form of working which, I believe, is not known in any other part of the world. - The undertakings for the purpose of procuring a steady supply of water through the dry seasons, commenced as early as 1850. It was found that the deposits of gold were not only on the river bars, but that scarcely a valley , or glen, or dip among the hills, throughout the whole extent of the gold region, was barren of the precious metal. That these might be worked, the rivers were tapped high up in the mountains, and ditches carried along the intervening ridges, raised on gigantic flumes wherever a depression occurred, from distances varying from fifteen to forty miles. Here was immediately a new field for enterprise. Water companies were formed for the construction of these vast works, and the ditches led so as to supply the greatest number of mining localities. The water is furnished at so much per inch - - generally at very exorbitant rates - - and is, therefore, a surer profit than mining itself. Nothing seemed to me more remarkable, in traveling through the gold region, than the grand scale on which these operations are conducted. - The ditch which supplies Timbuctoo is thirty-five miles long, and was constructed at a cost of $600,000. Yet, on this capital it yields an annual dividend of at least forty per cent. Some ditches are still more profitable than this, and it may be said that none of them has failed to pay handsomely, except through mismanagement. One of the companies at Timbuctoo uses water to the value of $100 every day. Near the end of the ditch there is a reservoir, into which the stream is turned at night, in order to create a reserve for any emergency. - Following a line of fluming along the top of the ridge, we presently came to a great gulf, or gap, eaten out of the southern side of the hill. A wall of bare earth, more than a hundred feet high, yawned below our feet, and two streams of water, pouring over the edge, thundered upon the loose soil below, which was still further broken up by jets from hose which the workmen held. After the water had become thoroughly commingled with earth, it was again gathered into a stream and conducted into a long sluice, in the bottom of which grooves of quicksilver caught the scattered grains of gold. Nothing could be more simple than the process. The water of itself ate channels into the lofty walls of earth, and then pulverized and dissolved the dirt it has brought down. Commencing at the base of the hill, the soil has thus been gradually eaten away to the depth of two hundred yards, down to the bed rock, leaving a face exposed, in some places 150 feet in perpendicular height. The whole of the immense mass of earth which has been displaced has passed through the sluice, deposited its gold, and been carried down by the waste water to clog the currents of the Yuba, the Feather, and the Sacramento. - On the northern side a similar process was in operation, and the two excavations had approached each other so nearly, that a few months only were requisite to break the back of the hill. Crossing the narrow bridge between, I approached the end of the ridge, and found myself on the edge of a third and still grander work. Thousands on thousands of tons had been removed, leaving an immense cemi-circular [sic] cavity with a face nearly one hundred and fifty feet in hight. From the summit five streams fell in perpendicular lines of spray, trampling and boiling in cauldrons of muddy foam as they mingled with the loose dirt at the bottom. While I gazed a mass of earth, weighing at least five tons, detached itself from the top, between the channels cut by two of those streams, and fell with a thundering crash which made the hill tremble to its base. Another and another slide succeeded, while the pigmies below, as if rejoicing in the ruin, sprang upon them with six inch jets from the hose serpents which coiled around the bank, and reduced the fragments to dust. Beyond this scene of chaos the water gathered again and through the straight sluice - - like a giant bleeding to death from a single vein - - the mountain washed itself away. - It seemed a work of the Titans. When I saw what the original extent of the hill had been - - how certainly the whole ridge, which rose so defiant, as if secure of enduring until the end of the world, was doomed to disappear - - how the very aspect of Nature would be in time transformed by such simple agents as this trough of water, and those three flannel shirted creatures with their hose - - I acknowledged that there may be a granduer [sic] in gold mining beyond that of the building of the Pyramids. - Some such fascination must be connected with this labor, or men would not trifle so recklessly with the forces they attack. Scarcely a week passed without some report of workmen being buried under the falling masses of earth. Though continually warned - - though familiar with the danger from long experience - - they become so absorbed in the work of undermining the slippery bluffs, that they gradually approach nearer and nearer; the roar of the water drowns the threatening bliss of the relaxing soil - - down comes the avalanche, and if the man's foot is not as quick as his eye, he is instantly crushed out of existence. In descending to the village, I followed two miners, taking a path which led downward on the top of a narrow wall left standing between the two excavations on the southern side. In some places the top was not more than six feet wide, and the appearance of the loose, gravelly soil, dropping straight down a hundred feet on either hand, threatening to give way beneath any weight, was not calculated to inspire confidence. Seven days afterward the entire mass fell (fortunately in the night) with a crash that jarred the earth for a mile around. - In Mr. Carpenter's office I found a choice collection of standard works - - Ruskin, Coleridge, Emerson, Goethe, Mrs. Somerville, and others, whom one would not expect to find in the midst of such barren soil. I also made the acquaintance of a miner - - a hired laborer - - who had sent all the way to Boston for a copy of Tennyson's "Idyls," knew "In Memoriam" by heart, and was an enthusiastic admirer of Mrs. Browning. One of my first visitors, on reaching San Francisco, was an old Oregon farmer, who called to know whether I had ever seen the Brownings - - what was their personal appearance - - what sort of a man was Tennyson, also Longfellow, Whittier, and various other poets. Verily, no true poet need despair - "His words are driven, Like flower seeds by the far winds sown, Where'er, beneath the sky of heaven, The birds of fame have flown." - and also where such birds have not flown. If I knew, as Tennyson does, that a poem of mine made an imprisoned sailor, in the long Arctic night, shed tears, I would smile upon the critic who demonstrated, by the neatest process of logic, that there was no afflatus to be found in me. - The next day, we returned to Nevada [City] - - my companion, much less enthusiastic than before, taking the stage, while I galloped back with a led horse attached to my right arm. The day was overcast, with a presentiment of ill in the atmosphere. It was that anxious, oppressed, congested feeling which nature often experiences before a rain, when life looks cheerless and hope dies in the soul of man. Anywhere else I should have laid my hand on The Book and affirmed that rain would come - - and even here rain did come. I did not believe my ears when I heard the pattering in the night - - I could scarcely believe my eyes when I looked abroad in the morning and saw the dust laid, the trees washed and glittering, and the sky as clear and tranquil a blue as - - no matter whose eye. We were to go to North San Juan, an enterprising little place on the Middle Yuba, ten miles off, and, in spite of bruised bones, there was no thought of fatigue. With the help of that exquisite air, we could have climbed Chimborazo. - This time, however, it was a light, open buggy and a capital black horse. I have rarely seen better and more intelligent horses than there are in California. Probably the long journey across the plains sifted the stock, the poorer specimens dropping by the way, as many humans do, blood and character holding out to the end. Be this as it may, I made the acquaintance of no horse there to whom I would not willingly have done a personal favor. Merrily we rattled up the planked street of Nevada [City], around the base of the Sugar Loaf, past the mouths of mining drifts, and the muddy tails of sluices, and into a rolling upland region, about half-stripped of its timber, where every little glen or hollow was turned upside down by the miners. After a drive of three or four miles, the blueness of the air disclose a gulf in front, and we prepared for a descent to the bed of the South Yuba. - It was a more difficult undertaking than we were aware of. The road plunged down the steep at a pitch frightful to behold, turning and winding among the ledges in such a manner that one portion of it often overhung another. Broad folds of shade were flung into the gulf from the summits far above, but the opposite side, ascending even more abruptly, lay with its pines and large-leaved oaks, sparkling in the clearest sunlight. Our horse was equal to the emergency. Planting himself firmly on his fore-feet, with erect, attentive ears, he let us carefully, step by step, downt he perilous slopes. With strong harness, there is really no danger; and one speedily gets accustomed to such experiences. - After a descent of more than a mile, we reached the bottom, where a wooden bridge, suspended on strong iron rods, crossed the river high above its current. There was, of course, a toll-house, a peach orchard scattered over the stony steep, and men washing for gold in the sands below. Beyond this, all was a savage mountain-wilderness. While paying toll, I was attracted by the boxes of peaches on the verandah, and inquired the price. "For you, sir, nothing at all," replied the man, calling me by name, and therewith liberally supplied us. Being raised without irrigation, they were rather dry, but of remarkably fine color and flavor. The toll-keeper informed me that he carried on gold-mining regularly, in addition to his other business, and found it nearly equally remunerative, one year with another. - The northern bank, as beautifully diversified with picturesque knolls and glens as the rapidity of the descent would allow, confronted us with an unbroken climb of a mile and a half. Luckily we met no down-coming team on the way, for there was no chance of passing. At the summit, where there is a little mining camp called Montezuma, we again entered on that rolling platform which, like the "fields" of Norway, forms the prominent feature of this part of the Sierra Nevadas - - the beds of the rivers lying at an average depth of 2,000 feet below the level of the intervening regions. Looking eastward, we beheld a single peak of the great central chain, with a gleaming snowfield on its northern side. Montezuma has a tavern, two stores, and a cluster of primitive habitations. The genus "loafer" is also found - - no country, in fact, is so new that it does not flourish there. Far and wide the country is covered with giant pines, and not a day passes but some of them fall. They are visibly thinning, and in a few years more this district will be scorched and desolate. It is true young trees are starting up everywhere, but it will be centuries before they attain the majesty of the present forests. - Pursuing our winding way for three miles more through the woods, we saw at last the dark blue walls of the Middle Yuba rise before us, and began to look out for San Juan. First we came to Sebastopol (!), then to some other incipient village, and finally to our destination. North San Juan is a small, compact place, lying in a shallow dip among the hills. Its inhabitants prosecute both drift and hydraulic mining with equal energy and success. As at Timbuctoo, the whole mass of the hill between the town and the river is gold bearing, and enormous cavities have been washed out of it. The water descends from the flumes in tubes of galvanized iron, to which canvas hose pipes, six inches in diameter, are attached, and the force of the jets which play against the walls of earth is really terrific. The dirt, I was informed, yields but a moderate profit at present, but grows richer as it approaches the bed rock. As each company has enough material to last for years, the ultimate result of their operations is sure to be very profitable. In the course of time, the very ground on which the village stands will be washed away. We passed some pleasant cottages and gardens which must be moved in two or three years. The only rights in the gold region are those of miners. The only inviolable property is a "claim." Houses must fall, fields be ravaged, improvements of all sorts swept away, if the miner sees fit - - there is not help for it. - In the church, that evening, I met an assembly of eager, intelligent and friendly auditors. Judging not only by this, but by various other evidences, I was disposed to consider San Juan as the most spirited, wide-awake village in California. We had endurable quarters at the hotel. One disadvantage, arising from the prevailing dust is, that nothing appears clean. Wherefore, if the landlords would give us a really clean floor without carpets, linen sheets, no matter how coarse, and the crashiest towels instead of pocket-handkerchiefs, with plenty of water, and can chairs rather than damaged plush, the comfort of their hotels would be greatly increased, at less expense to them. Truly, the art of living is, of all arts, that which is understood by the fewest persons. In Italy, with all its fleas and dirt, one is better lodged than in the majority of the country taverns through the United States. - The next morning we drove back to Nevada [City] betimes, in order to reach Grass Valley before evening. Before taking leave of the pleasant little town, where we had spent three delightful days, I must not omit to mention our descent into the Nebraska mine, on the northern side of Manzanita Hill. This is as good an example of successful drift mining as can readily be found, and gave me a new insight into the character of the gold deposits. All the speculations of the early miners were wholly at fault, and it is only within the last four or five years that anything like a rational system has been introduced - - that is, so far as so uncertain a business admits of a system. Hydraulic mining, as I have before stated, is carried on in those localities where gold is diffused through the soil; but drift mining seeks the "leads" - - mostly the subterranean beds of pre-Adamite rivers - - where it is confined within narrow channels, offering a more contracted but far richer field. - These ancient river beds are a singular feature of the geology of the Sierra Nevada. They are found at a hight of 2,000 above the sea, or more, after cutting at right angles through the present axis of the hills, jumping over valleys and reappearing in the hights opposite. One of them, called the Blue Lead, celebrated for its richness, has been thus traced for more than a hundred miles. The breadth of the channels varies greatly, but they are always very distinctly marked by the bluff banks of earth on each side of the sandy bed. Their foundation is the primitive granite - - upon which, and in the holes and pockets whereof, the gold is most abundant. The usual way of mining is to sink a shaft to the bed rock, and then send out the lateral drifts in search of the buried river. The Nebraska Company, at Nevada [City], has been fortunate enough to strike a channel several hundred feet wide, and and [rept] extending for some distance diagonally through the hill. Until this lead was struck, the expenses were very great, and a considerable capital was sunk; but now the yield averages $10,000 per week, at least three-fourths of which is clear profit. - One of the proprietors who accompanied us, was kind enough to arrange matters so that we should get a most satisfactory view of the mine. After having been arrayed, in the office, in enormous India rubber boots, corduroy jackets and southwesters, without distinction of sex, we repaired to the engine house, where the sands of the lost Pactolus are drawn up again to the sunshine, after the lapse of perhaps five hundred thousand years. Here, my Eurydice was placed in a little box, from which the dirt had just been emptied, packed in the smallest coil to avoid the danger of striking the top on the way down, and, at the ringing of a bell, was whisked from my eyes and swallowed up in the darkness. I was obliged to wait until the next box came up, when, like Orpheus, I followed her to the shades. A swift descent of six hundred feet brought me to the bed rock, where I found those who had gone before, standing in a passage only four or five feet high, with candles in their hands, and their feet in a pool of water. - Square shafts, carefully boxed in with strong timbers, branched off before us through the heart of the hill. Along the bottom of each was a tram-way, and at intervals of five minutes cars laden with gray river sand were rolled up, hitched to the rope, and speedily drawn to the surface. Following our conductor, we traced some of these shafts to the end, where workmen were busy excavating the close packed sand and filling the cars. The company intend running their drifts to the end of their claim, when they will commence working back toward the beginning, cleaning out the channel as they go. Probably three or four years will be required to complete the task; and if they are not very unreasonable in their expectations, they may retire from business by that time. We sat down for half an hour, with the unstable, sandy ceiling impending over our heads, and watched the workmen. They used no other implements than the pick and shovel, and the only difficulty connected with their labor was the impossibility of standing upright. The depth of the sand varied from three to six feet; but the grains of gold were scantily distributed through the upper layers. In one place, where the bed rock was exposed, we saw distinctly the thick deposits of minute shining scales, in situ. - The air was very close and disagreeable, and the unrelieved stooping posture so tiresome, that we were not sorry when the guide, having scraped up a panful of the bottom sand, conducted us by watery ways to the entrance shaft and restored us to daylight. - The sand, on reaching the surface, is tilted down an opening in the floor, and is instantly played upon by huge jets of water, which sweep it into a long sluice. Here it is still further agitated by means of riffles across the bottom; and the gold is caught in grooves filled with quicksilver. Every week the amalgam thus produced is taken out and assayed. The tailings of these sluices are frequently corraled (a California term for "herded" or "collected") and run through a second sluice, or turned into some natural ravine, which is washed out twice a year. In spite of this, a considerable percentage of the gold, no doubt, escapes. There is a gentleman in Nevada [City] who owns a little gulley through which runs the waste of a drift on the hill above. He had the sagacity to put down a sluice and insert quicksilver, thinking sufficient gold might be left in the sand to pay for the experiment; and his net profits from this source amount to $15,000 a year. - The pan of dirt brought up with us, having been skillfully washed in the old fashioned way, produced a heap of mustard seed grains to the value of $5 or $6, which was courteously presented to my wife as a souvenir of her visit. - The Live Oak Company, on the opposite side of the ridge, carries on its operations in the same river bed and with similar result. Those who predict the speedy failure of the gold of California do not know what wonderful subterranean store-houses of the precious metal still lie untouched. The river bars were but as windfalls from the tree.
Daily Alta California - 4/25/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writes thus: "From Ouseley's [sic] Bar I wended my way along the classic shores of the Yuba, and passed many little cottage houses, where everything around seemed to indicate prosperity and happiness. Soon I began to near Timbuctoo, and long before I could see the town, heard the roar of the water as it dashed, and leaped, and foamed through the tail-sluices leading from the diggings at this place. I find Timbuctoo, apparently, a very prosperous place. There are many substantial business houses, and a number of beautiful cottage residences. The people here, like all other places, complain of dull times. The Washoe fever rages to a considerable extent, and a great many are leaving daily, and preparing to leave for the enchanted silver land. There are some eighteen companies at work, and preparing to commence work, on the hill. These eighteen companies, I am reliably informed, average about $3,000 at a clean-up of ten day's run. This looks like a great deal of money to be taken out every ten days, and one would suppose money was plenty here; but the miners say it takes about all they take out to pay their water bills, and when that is done they have none left for spending. There are two ditches on the hill, running an average of four thousand inches of water. One of these ditches sells water at twenty cents per inch; the other keeps the price up to twenty-five cents. The miners have strong hopes that water will be reduced to fifteen cents per inch, in less than a year's time - - then the boys will have plenty of money, and Timbuctoo will flourish as of yore."
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/16/1860 - Timbuctoo - At Timbuctoo, on Saturday, May 12th, as we are informed, says the Appeal, Robert Kelley took out of his hydraulic claim the nice little sum of $1,582 in nine days run. Kelley is the sole owner of the claim.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/11/1860 - Injured at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Appeal, writing from Timbuctoo, August 9th says: A serious accident occurred in the Pennsylvania claims, yesterday, by which a man named Tupper was severely injured. A portion of the bank broke up, and partially burying him, broke one arm, dislocated his thigh, and cut his face severely.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/14/1860 - Timbuctoo Claims - We learn, says the Marysville Democrat, that the following is the yield of the Robert Kelly claim, at Timbuctoo, for about two months' operation, the company not being able to work more than half the time: First washing up, seven days run, $5,670; second, nine days run, $7,810; third, ten days run, $10,014; total, in twenty-six days' run, $23,494. Is there anything in the State that can beat this?
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/29/1860 - Claims at Timbuctoo - Last week, says the Marysville Democrat, a few companies washed up with the following result: Michigan claim - McAllis & Co. - $3,181, for six and a half days' run; Billy Marpel's claim, $2,106 for eight days' washing; Boveyer & McAllis washed up a portion of their tail flume, taking out over $5,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/19/1860 - Mining at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal gives the following mining intelligence: Boyd & Simpson employ about twenty men, and several other companies an equal number. The diggings are extensive and systematically worked. The Excelsior Water Company - - Taylor, Carpenter and others, owners - - supply the miners with a large quantity of water, at twenty cents per inch; and the Union Water Company - - D. Bovyer, Superintendent; A. D. Morrison, Agent; T. B. Simpson, Treasurer - - supplies about 3,000 inches in the Winter and Spring, at the same price, all along the line of ditch from Rough and Ready to Timbuctoo. The capital stock of this company is $100,000, divided into 100 shares.
Daily Alta California - 10/8/1860 - Interior News - Heavy Work - The Marysville Democrat states, as an evidence of the amount of hydraulicing that has been done at Timbuctoo, Yuba county, that a gulch no less than 200 feet in depth has been completely filled with tailings, and a good road is now running over the made ground. A tall pine tree, which stood in the ravine in all the pride of its perpendicularity, is completely covered, in its erect position from sight. Truly, the mountains are being leveled, and the high places brought low. To see huge mountains washed down and made completely to disappear, is indeed a wonderful sight. - The Antonio claim, at Timbuctoo, averages $300 per day.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/15/1860 - Good Yield at Timbuctoo - McAllis & Co. lately cleaned up from two veins in the "Cement claims," amounting to nineteen days, over $7,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/5/1860 - Rich - McCallas [McAllis] & Co., of the Michigan claim, at Timbuctoo, washed up, a few days ago, $4,270 in eleven days' run.
1861
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/18/1861 - A Big Clean-Up at Timbuctoo - Robert Kelley cleaned up his flume on the Ranch Claim, on Monday, March 11th, and took out the snug sum of $14,000 in thirteen days run. - Marysville Democrat.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/8/1861 - Rich Claim - A correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writing from Timbuctoo, says that the Union claim, Uncle Williams principal shareholder, have taken out of their diggings the snug sum of $14,000 in thirty days' run, within the last two months.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/6/1861 - A First Rate Clean Up - Last Saturday, McAllis, Stewart & Co., proprietors of the Michigan claim, Timbuctoo, cleaned up $5,944, after a run of nine and a quarter days. And that is not all, for Stewart has a long tail race from the same claim, from which he took out $1,800 at the same time, after a run of fifteen days. The prospects of the Michigan company are just as good as what they have already realized, having taken out in the past six months $49,000. Marysville Appeal, June 4th.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/16/1861 - Good Clean Up - The Union claims at Timbuctoo, cleaned up, the other day, $6,259, after a run of eleven days.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/9/1861 - A Yuba Mining Case - The Marysville Appeal of November 8th notices the following mining case in its county: Considerable interest in legal circles has been excited in the cases of the Antoine Company vs. the Ridge Company, two mining companies in Timbuctoo, whose right to a certain piece of ground, valued at $20,000, is now on trial in the District Court. It appears that the two companies own land on either side of a hill, their claims joining each other at a line in the rear of each, and where that line is appears to be the point in dispute. As usual in almost all of the claims located in the earlier history of the State, the location of the claims has not been accurately described and recorded, and great confusion has arisen as to the just boundaries of each, and now a strip of valuable ground, eighty feet by something less than two hundred feet is in litigation, the Ridge Company being in possession, and the Antoine Company bringing up a suit to make an ejectment permanent, or something of that sort. Witnesses were introduced yesterday to attempt to prove the right of ownership on the part of the Antoine Co., by right of peaceable possession, but the counsel for the Ridge Company objected to the line of plaintiff's counsel, and the Court ruled that the legality of the claim must be established, and not as based upon equity, while the plaintiff's claim that they are obliged to establish law points upon an equity case. The whole case is consequently arrested, as it would seem to be impossible for the Antoine Company, with whom is the burden of proof, to establish their legal claim to the disputed territory.
1862
Daily Alta California - 7/11/1862 - Powder Among the Gold - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, writing from Smartsville, Yuba county, says: At 6 o'clock last evening (8th inst.,) Peirce, of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, fired 269 kegs of powder in his claim, with perfect success, completely pulverizing at least half an acre, averaging sixty to seventy feet in depth. The shock was felt like the jar of a young earthquake.
1863
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/2/1863 - Copper in Yuba - Copper has been discovered in the vicinity of Timbuctoo, and traced into Nevada county. At a depth of fifteen feet copper is found, of greater richness than at Copperopolis at a depth of seventy feet. The copper in this county is found in a rock resembling quartz, but quite soft and free from grit.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/10/1863 - Copper Mines in Yuba - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal at Smartsville, in Yuba county, says, under date of April 6th: The past week has been devoted almost entirely to the locating of claims, taking in a belt of country some seven miles in width, in an air line from Dr. Pearce's ranch, on the Honcut, to Bear river, some miles above McCourtney's Crossing. As many as 8,000 claims have been taken up. Meetings are being held and organizations formed for prospecting the different ledges.
California Farmer and Journal - 6/5/1863 - The prospecting for copper, which continues unabated in Yuba county, frequently leads to the discovery of valuable quartz lodes. Some parties have found quartz near Timbuctoo, which assays $35 to the ton, of silver and gold - - mostly of the former. Another recent quartz lode found, is that of the Lone Tree Ledge, four miles south of the Empire Ranch, on the Sacramento road. About three tons of rock from this ledge were recently sent to Grass Valley, crushed there, and found to yield $22.40 a ton. Preparations are making to work both the above ledges.
1865
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/8/1865 - Mining in Yuba County - The Appeal of May 6th has the following: The Blue Gravel Hydraulic Mining Company, near Smartsville, cleaned up yesterday about forty boxes of the head of their flume, after thirty days run, taking out $26,809. In working west, toward the Squaw Creek Company's line, they encounter many heavy bowlders which requires some eight men blasting nearly all the time, consequently they have run much less dirt than heretofore. But when they strike bowlders, the ground is much richer and the pay is far beyond expectations. To give some idea of the manner of working, we will state that the entire length of the company's flume is some three hundred boxes. After the first thirty days run, the upper boxes were cleaned up, paying as above stated. Then, after the next thirty days run, the entire flume cleaned up, paying from $45,000 to $60,000. There are three companies here, the Squaw Creek, Blue Point, and Blue Gravel, and when in full operation, will do as well. L. B. Clark's Squaw Creek will be running in about four months.
Daily Alta California - 11/6/1865 - Mining Matters - Yuba -An old correspondent of the Appeal says: "After taking a trip through a portion of the mining districts of Yuba and Nevada counties, I propose to give you a short account of some of the various mining operations as at present in operation, and other objects of interest that come under my observation. After leaving Marysville for Nevada City, the first mining camp of any importance is Timbuctoo, distant about 15 miles. This place has been one of the most noted mining towns in the State; noted for its rich mines, extensive litigation, and the fondness of the people for the many sports and follies of the early days of California. There are many of the early settlers still here, who, if they had taken care of what Nature had placed in their hands, could now, in their more mature years, be enjoying the fruits of their early labor instead of toiling as they now have to do for an amount that but a few years ago they would have rejected for an hour's labor. Timbuctoo at one time contained a population of five hundred, and polled nearly two hundred votes. - "At present there is about 200, and 100 voters. One half the buildings are unoccupied, and the general appearance of the place is of one of the camps of early days. But with all this seeming decay there is some enterprising men there who, after years of toil and the expenditure of thousands of dollars, are developing mines of more value than any heretofore worked at this place. Mr. J. Warren, the owner and successful manager of the celebrated "Hyde claims," two years since purchased what is known as the "Bullard claims," on Sand Hill, a short distance north from the town. These claims are 375 feet front, running into the hill 600 feet. The ground has been thoroughly prospected by shafts and drifts. Mr. Warren has been for eighteen months past working a double shift of hands, running a tunnel four hundred feet through hard bed rock, which is now completed, bringing him into the claim with a bank of seventy feet, and striking a stratum of blue dirt of the same character as that worked some years ago in the celebrated Antoine claims, near the same place. In shafts sunk on the hill this stratum increases to to the depth of thirty feet. There is every prospect of this being one of the best operations projected at this place. The flumes, pipes, and every appliance for successful operations, are of the most approved and substantial character. The cost of putting the claim in proper working order has been $15,000. - "The Babb's claim, which some years ago paid such large dividends from the working of the upper lead, and which was worked as deep as the grades of the time would permit, is being now, through the energy of Dr. Smith, of your city, and the Holmes Brothers, made more valuable than heretofore. They have at a great expense run a tunnel near one thousand feet, bringing them into very rich pay dirt, and enabling them to work to the bed rock. Their tunnel is nearly completed, and a three foot flume has been finished as the tunnel progresses. They will be washing by Christmas, and from the prospects taken from the air shafts and tunnel they expect to take out at least $1,000 per day. They have been near two years preparing to work this lead. These are the principal mining operations at Timbuctoo, and when the parties commenced to place them in working order they adopted a new way of securing supplies. They old manner of trading with the merchants of the mining towns was imposing upon them a tax of at least thirty per cent, as compared with their present mode of buying from first hands. This they find quite and improvement in their operations and is being generally adopted by mining companies. The dust which formerly passed through the hands of the traders is now sent to the mint by the Miners, yielding not quite as much per ounce as formerly sold for, but a lot of the same, sent to the Mint, will, in the aggregate, yield more. Query, where is the scale of weights?"
1866
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/21/1866 - Mines in Yuba County - A correspondent of the Union, writing from Smartsville, April 19th, has the annexed mining intelligence: The mines here all belong to the genus "gravel." There are no quartz ledges developed here yet, but the richness of the gravel fully pays for its absence. The "Blue Gravel" is the richest claim here - - perhaps because the most developed - - and is a mine of wealth surely to its owners. It is situated just north of the town, hardly a stone's throw from the main street. The site was formerly a high hill, but is now down deep in the earth many feet below the surface. As it is developed toward the bed rock, the richer is the "pay dirt." The mining operations are carried on by means of hydraulic and sluices, no dirt being found hard enough to require crushing. It requires only thirty men to work this claim, yet they make "mighty big runs" every month. The last run for thirty-five days was $50,000, making almost $1,500 per day. We had the good fortune to be present at a mammoth blast last evening, in which three hundred kegs of powder were used. It was a magnificent sight, I assure you. The huge, high bank of the hill for a moment was raised in the air, poised a few seconds, then all, with thundering sound, fell. The "Pittsburg Company" (more recently L. B. Clark's) have commenced operations, and are driving things along at a steady rate. They hope soon to reach the pay dirt, which they will if energy and skill will do it. This mine is owned by capitalists in the East. The "Shamrock Company" are digging away, and have as high hopes of its richness as they have of the ultimate triumph of the shamrock in "Ould Ireland." Creary's claim is being worked energetically - - labor going on day and night - - and is said to be giving evidences of great richness. - The Excelsior Canal Company supplies the mines in this region with all necessary water. Their canal extends a distance of thirty-five miles, connecting with the Yuba river. Their supply never fails - - in Winter and Summer it runs the same - - a never-ceasing stream. The average daily amount of water delivered to the various claims is about 2,000 inches.
Daily Alta California - 6/15/1866 - California State Items: A piece of pure gold weighing over $900 was recently found near Moore's Flat, Nevada County. - The Excelsior Canal Company supplies the mines of Smartsville and Timbuctoo with from 2,000 to 2,500 inches of water daily. The water is taken from the Yuba river, above Nevada, and brought a distance of thirty or thirty-five miles through ditches, flumes and pipes. There is an old flume at the west end of Smartsville, a quarter of a mile in length, and the greater part of the way nearly seventy-five feet high. It has not been used for several years, and is not being torn down so that the timber may be converted into something more useful than an object for travellers to comment upon. Commencing near where the old flume did, is an iron pipe 4 1/2 feet in diameter and a mile in length; part of the way it extends through the centre of a high hill.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/7/1866 - Mining at Timbuctoo - We understand, says the Marysville Appeal, the Babb claim, at Timbuctoo, cleaned up last week, after a very successful run, averaging $500 per day.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/5/1866 - City Intelligence - Mining Income - A late issue of the Mining Press says: The largest individual income derived from the working result of mining for the year 1865 in California was that of James B. Pierce, of San Francisco. It came from the Blue Gravel claims, near Smartsville, Yuba county, and amounted to $102,031. Jules Fricot, a Nevada quartz miner, was assessed $182,511, but we were recently informed that the larger part of his assessment came from the sale of mining ground.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/19/1866 - The Mines at Smartsville, Yuba County - A correspondent of the Marysville Californian gives the annexed mining items: The Babb Mining Company, near Timbuctoo, in opening their mine from the Bed Rock Tunnel, have struck into the Old River bed where the channel widens out, and fine gold can be seen intermixed through the gravel. - The O'Brien Tunnel, under Independence Hill, near Smartsville, is progressing at the rate of ten feet per week. Less than 600 feet more will bring them into the Old River channel. This will be the first tunnel completed that will be of sufficient depth to work the Old River bed to the bed rock. - The Pittsburg and Yuba River Company are now making their first run from their upper tunnel. They start with a bank of thirty feet. Eight to ten feet of the bottom is Old River dirt, some of which is very rich. The upper strata is also good and the prospects are very flattering. The company commence their lower tunnel immediately and it will bring them into the old channel ninety feet deeper than they are now working. - The Blue Gravel Company, a few days ago, cleaned up $25,000 from a portion of their flume. - The Nevada Reservoir Ditch Company have taken steps to increase their capital stock from $80,000 to $250,000, and the removal of their place of business to Smartsville. - The Blue Point Gravel Mining Company have commenced their long talked of tunnel in good earnest. Double gangs of men are employed and arrangements are being made to use nitro-glycerine in blasting. - The Blue Cement or Peterson Company have just completed their upper tunnel cut and flumes at a cost of some $12,000. Their first blast, which was 150 kegs of powder, has worked well. The first water - - 500 inches - - was turned on yesterday. This is a new operation and an additional source of wealth to our mines. - R. L. Crary, L. Ackley, James O'Brien and others have located a large section of mining ground which has been abandoned for many years, and are pushing forward a bed rock cut and tunnel to work the same. - The Andrew Jackson Quartz Mining Company have paid the Miners' Foundry $11,200 for a first-class mill. The miners have plenty of water, large heads, full days and every one happy.
1867
Daily Alta California - 1/7/1867 - There is a strong feeling among the quartz and cement miners in favor of nitro-glycerine. They say that a few explosions in the hands of ignorant or careless persons prove nothing. Powder does not suit them because it is spoiled by water, and the power is not great enough in a small bore. The facts that nitro-glycerine requires a high heat for explosion, and that not half so many blasts are required, raise strong presumptions in its favor. The number of accidents is proportioned to the multitude of blasts; and the number of men injured by powder in a year about the chief mining centres is frightfully large. The Blue Gravel Company at Smartsville intend to try the blasting fluid, and several owners of quartz mines at Grass Valley are talking of following their example. The Blue Gravel Company use from 125,000 to 150,000 pounds of powder a year in blasting, so they have an opportunity of making a fair comparison on an extensive scale. - The old river bed has been struck at Timbuctoo by the Babb Company, and it is found to be rich in gold.
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/11/1867 - Mining in Yuba - We find the annexed mining news in the Marysville North Californian on February 8th: We are informed by William Smith of Indiana Ranch that the owners of the Bateman ledge are now having crushed at Templar mill rock which will pay from $40 to $50 per ton. We were shown some of the rock and gold can be plainly seen. There is no doubt about the richness, as this is the second crushing. - Several of the Timbuctoo boys came down yesterday with their pockets full of dust - - they had the neat little sum of $10,000, taken from the Antone claim in fifteen days run. This does not look like the mines giving out. - John Rice of Indiana Ranch has discovered on his ranch a very rich deposit of cement gravel, which extends nearly one mile. One pan of dirt prospected $1.12. This will be a fine prospect for parties with capital.
Daily Alta California - 3/13/1867 - The Most Notable Placer Mining Claim of California - The most remarkable and the most profitable placer mining claim in California is that of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, at Smartsville, in Yuba County. The claim covers an area of 100 acres, with an average depth of 100 feet, from the surface to the bed-rock. The location is on a ridge of gravelly clay which covers the bed of an ancient stream, for under the middle of the ridge is a channel from 100 to 400 feet wide, worn down deep into the rock. A tunnel run in horizontally at the base must pass through rock before reaching the channel. - The fact that there was a rich deposit of auriferous gravel in the hill was ascertained in 1854 by sinking shafts at various points, and an incorporated Company was formed with a cash capital of $20,000, to work it. A tunnel was commenced in February, 1855, and driven ahead as rapidly as possible with the insufficient means at the command of the Company. The tunnel was to be 1,700 feet long, in rock, and to cost $80,000 - - the expense being in some places $100 per lineal foot. The partners soon found themselves straitened for money, but they felt confident of the ultimate result; they were faithful to the undertaking, and to one another; they were not afraid of honest work, and their credit was good. After having been at work for two years and having spent all the capital, they undertook to sluice away some of the higher portion of their claim. This operation, however, did not pay. At one time they owed $60,000. In 1863, after six years of sluicing, they had worked off ten acres eighty feet deep, and they owed only $20,000. The result of eight years' work were the expenditures of $20,000, a debt of $20,000 more and confidence in their claim and in one another. Meantime the tunnel was advancing, and they felt encouraged by the belief that when it would be completed they would be all right. For years the Company were at the mercy of their creditors. If the claim had been sold by the Sheriff, it would not have paid a tenth part of what it had cost. As late as 1862, stock was sold by shareholders, who could not hold out or who wished to return to the East, at the rate of $11,000 for the entire claim. - At last, early in 1864, the tunnel passed through the rock and reached the channel, at a depth of one hundred feet below the surface. It was then necessary to sink an incline down so as to make it possible to introduce the water, and the gravel that was to be washed. The incline was cut without any difficulty, but there was much trouble in washing away a hole around the head of the tunnel so large that there would be no danger of the falling of the banks, and of the obstruction of the channel. At last, however, this task was accomplished, and the Blue Gravel Claim stood out one of the most brilliant successes in the end, as it had been one of the most arduous and pecuniarily dangerous in the State. - The Company cleans up once in eight or ten weeks, and the results of the several runs since the tunnel was opened till the end of last year were as follows: March, 1864...$2,281 - May...24,275 - June...7,000 - July...22,350 - August...3,487 - September...49,440 - October...24,669 - December...45,051 - January, 1865...2,724 - February...24,051 - March...44,981 - May...24,000 - June...50,118 - August...24,679 - September...46,500 - October...26,660 - December...37,000 - February 1866...23,746 - April...43,420 - June...23,880 - August...42,494 - October...18,000 - December...25,000 - Total...$642,860 - This claim is a magnificent piece of property, but its owners have shown that they deserved it. They spent $20,000 on it, incurred heavy debts, and devoted nine years of labor without pay to it, and although confident of the ultimate result if the work was continued, they ran the risk of being ejected and seeing others reap the field which they had sown and cultivated. Their merit appears the greater when we keep in mind the fact that their company is the only one which has mined for ten years at Smartsville and has made a clear profit. There are numerous other claims upon which vast amounts of money have been spent, and which, either because of bad management, poverty of the shareholders, or poverty of the pay dirt, have not paid half of the expenses. Half a million dollars is a low estimate for the money spent on Smartsville claims that never paid. Let it not, therefore, be said that the miners of California are taking the gold of the Federal Government without compensation. They well earn all that they get out of the precious metals. Before a miner gets a good mine he has well paid for it by his money or by his labor. The time has gone by when any fool could make a fortune in the mines at brief notice. - But to return to the Blue Gravel claim. The Company has four miles of sluice, three feet wide and three feet deep, with an inclination of 6 1/2 inches in 12 feet. The bed of the sluice on which the gold is caught is made up of alternate sections of block, 17 lineal inches long, and of rock, 24 inches long. Three tons of quicksilver are used in the flume. The current in the flume is 8 inches deep, and 4 inches of that is mud, as thick as it will run. More than half the gold is caught in the first thousand feet near the head of the flume. The amount of water used is 500 inches, and the cost is $75 per day. The head of water is 150 feet, and the bank is torn down by a stream of water forced out under that pressure. In the summer the clay is so hard that it resists the water, and it is blown up by powder, so that it will dissolve more readily. The quantity of powder used annually is 125,000 pounds. About 60 per cent. of the receipts are clear profit. J. P. Pierce, the largest stockholder, and the richest miner of the State, paid taxes last year on an income of $100,000. - The tunnel finished in 1864 is not so deep as the bottom of the channel, so the Company are now engaged in cutting another tunnel, which, as it is deeper, is also longer, and will be more expensive. Three years' labor will be required to finish it. - By a lucky accident the outlet of the Company's sluice into the Yuba is far above the river bed, which, since 1855, has risen eighty feet, having been filled in to that depth with earth and gravel from the mines above. If the lower end of the sluice had been less than eighty feet above the bed, as it was in 1855, the claim could not now be worked, but fortunately it was 120 feet above, so the bed of the Yuba can rise forty feet more before work will stop on the Blue Gravel claim. That rise of forty feet, however, will not be made for two score of years at least, and the Blue Gravel claim will not last more than one score. Hitherto twenty acres of ground, 100 feet deep, have been washed away.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/21/1867 - From the North - Yuba County Mines - The Marysville North Californian thus speaks of its mines: At no time in the history of Yuba county has the mining prospects looked more flattering. The extensive discoveries that are daily being made in and about the mining camps is truly gratifying. A correspondent writing about the mines says: "Prospecting for quartz in Yuba county has only been carried on to a limited extent. It is true there were many claims taken up in the Brown's Valley district, and some few of them were worked, and those who persevered are in a fair way to be rewarded for their perseverance and expenditures. But there are now many valuable claims lying idle in this district, and many that have not been worked at all. Yet this district is but a small part of Yuba county, which contains about fourteen hundred square miles. In my opinion, many other localities in the county contain as good mines as the Brown's Valley district. In the vicinity of Indiana Ranch, Hansonville, Eagleville, Camptonville, Timbuctoo, Smartsville, and south of Mooney's Empire Ranch, in the vicinity of Allenwood's Ranch, and so on to Round Tent and McDonald's mill, and in fact all along the foothills, many fine looking ledges may be found. There are a number of good looking ledges in the vicinity of Allenwood's Ranch, and some of them very large. The most of them were left untouched during the copper excitement which raged here, because there was nothing 'green' to be seen in them. If the money and labor had been expended to prospect gold-bearing quartz that was spent in looking for copper in our county, the result would have been more beneficial to the county and the prospectors. Any person who will visit the mines at Timbuctoo and Smartsville will be convinced at once of their richness, both in gravel and quartz."
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/4/1867 - Another Rich Ledge - The Marysville Appeal of April 3d says: Mathew Smith and others have recently began work on a ledge about one mile this side of Timbuctoo, on Fillmore hill. This ledge was taken up about a week ago and it promises to be of great value. Some of the quartz was brought to this city on yesterday and tested. The result was very flattering and beyond their expectations. The quartz contains a large amount of galena sulphurets and some considerable free gold. If this claim continues to prospect as well as they go down on it, there will be no doubt of its great value.
Daily Alta California - 4/12/1867 - State Items: Huge Blasting - The Grass Valley National of April 5th says: "A late visitor at Timbuctoo informs us that he witnessed one of the biggest blasts or explosions he ever saw, at the Blue Gravel Company's claim, near Timbuctoo, yesterday. A tunnel was run into the 'hill' (or mountain, rather) some time ago, and this tunnel ended in a large depository for powder. Three hundred kegs were put in and closely packed, ignition being provided for, and when the powder was reached by the fire, it lifted the entire mountain, apparently, from its base and shook the hills with a thousand thunders. This is the way they do things in Timbuc."
Sacramento Daily Union 9/16/1867 - State Fair - Joseph M. Allenwood, of Timbuctoo, Yuba county, exhibits a patent hydraulic apparatus. This invention was patented 1864, and has been successfully used ever since.
1868
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/7/868 - City Intelligence - Incorporated - In the Secretary of State's office yesterday [snip] Articles of incorporation of the "Pactolus Gold Mining and Water Company" were likewise filed. The object of this company is the carrying on and conducting of the business of mining in the Sucker Flat, Independence Hill and Empire mining districts, Rose's Bar township, Yuba county; and also to introduce water from the Yuba river and its tributaries to the mines of Smartsville, Timbuctoo and vicinity. Capital stock, $300,000, divided into 3,000 shares of $100 each. The principal place of business will be at Smartsville. The Board of Trustees is to consist of three persons - - William Ashburner, James O'Brien and Timothy S. Brew acting as such for the first three months. [same listed in the Daily Alta California, 1/8/1868]
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/20/1868 - Mining Trouble - The Grass Valley National of February 18th has the annexed: A difficulty occurred at Smartsville on Friday last between William Carpenter and James O'Brien, in which the latter severely injured the former by striking him on the side of the head with a club. This affair grew out of a mining excitement which has for some time past agitated the Smartsville folks. A communication appeared in a Marysville paper a few days since, from which we gather the cause of the trouble. It seems that in 1846 large numbers of hill claims of one hundred feet square were located in the vicinity of Smartsville. Many of these being back claims, according to the mining laws of the district, the locators were not required to work them until the front claims had been worked out. In the meantime many of the original locators had left the place, and no care was taken of the claims for ten or twelve years. Recently a company, consisting of O'Brien and others, have located a large tract of ground, covering these claims, which they alleged had been abandoned, and have commenced operations on an extensive scale to open the mines. The old locators, however, assert their right to the ground, and the question in dispute will probably be compromised or eventually adjusted by the Courts. It appears that the O'Brien company are willing that the old locators shall retain their claims, provided they will come into the company and pay their proportion of the expense of opening the ground, but insist that the claims shall be opened and worked. The miners, however, insist on their right to hold the claims separately, and work them in the manner and when they choose.
Daily Alta California - 2/24/1868 - A dispute having arisen at Smartsville about some jumping of claims, a miners' meeting lately held decided against the jumpers, holding that the failure to work a claim in the hill was not cause of forfeiture until the claims in front had been worked so as to furnish an outlet.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/14/1868 - News of the Morning - Incorporated - Articles of Incorporation have been filed in the Secretary of State's office in behalf of the Smartsville (Yuba) Consolidated Hydraulic Company, which proposes the conducting of mining on claims or lot of mining ground in the Sucker Flat and Empire Mining Districts, Rose's Bar township, county of Yuba. Capital stock $150,000, to be divided into 1,500 shares of $100 each - - the corporation to exist fifty years, and have its principal place of business at Smartsville, in the county of Yuba.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/30/1868 - Mines in Nevada County - The Grass Valley Union of May 28th has the following: The Red Jacket mine is located on the north side of Deer creek, about one mile below the Anthony House. About eighteen months ago W. M. Pearl and others, residents of Timbuctoo and Smartsville, took it into their hearts that the site of the Red Jacket mine had deep down under it the celebrated Smartsville lead of blue gravel. A company was organized and work at once commenced. A year and a half has been spent in running a tunnel, great labor has been performed in drilling and blasting hard rock, and great expense has been incurred. Judge Pearl, the Superintendent , persevered in spite of prophecies of failure. He said that he knew the Smartsville lead had to cross Red Jacket Hill to get to French Corral and the ridge, and he kept up his spirit and work on the mine. A letter from him, dated at the mine on the 24th instant, says: "The problem as to whether the Red Jacket Mining Company is worth anything or not is solved. We have found a large deposit of blue cement, equal in richness, to all appearances, to the cement claims of Smartsville."
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/7/1868 - Yuba County. - We give the following items from the Appeal of August 6th.: A correspondent asks us to insert the following: "We give below the assessed value of the mines in the Second Assessor district. It will be perused with interest by every taxpayer in the county; possibly the interest will be tinged with disappointment. The great depreciation in their value is indirectly attributable to the Supreme Court, which, some one has said, will feel ashamed of itself when it sees all the figures: Andrew Jackson, 00; Antone, 00; Blue Point, $50; Buckly, $300; Barney Riley, $600; Big Ravine, 120 acres at $5 per acre, $600; Big Ravine Property, $300; Blue Gravel, $15,000; Babb Mining Company, $1,500; Dannebroge, 00; Dusty Mining Company, $250; Dowling Mining Company, $10; Dougherty Mining Company's claim, $15; Excelsior Canal Company's claim, consisting of ten or twelve claims 38 1/4 acres, $18,000; Essner or French, $23; Hybernia Mining Company, 00; Hyde Company's claim, $15; Jefferson, improvements and all, $5,000; Pennsylvania, improvements and all, $15,000; Live Yankee, $20; Michigan Mining Company, $25; McCallum Mining Company, $25; Marysville, $1,500; McDermot, $300; Cement, $250; Marlow, $2,000; Pactolus Great Mining and Water Company, thirty-five acres at $5, $175; Pittsburg and Yuba River Mining Company, fifty acres at $5, $250; Rattlesnake, improvements and all, $7,500; State of Maine Mining Company, $400; Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company, forty-five acres at $5, $250; Union Mining Company, $100; Vinyard Mining Company, $2,400; Union Mining Company, fifteen acres, $75; Union Gravel Mining Company, $2,350. One instance will suffice to show the depreciation of the mining wealth of the county. About three years ago nine-tenths of the Pittsburg and Yuba River Mining Company was sold for $115,000; now its fifty acres are assessed at $250; now the whole value of the mines in Brown's Valley, Timbuctoo and Smartsville will not aggregate more than one-half of that sum.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/2/1868 - Incorporations - [snip] The Union Gravel Mining Company has also incorporated, the design of the company being to carry on the business of mining on various claims on Mooney Flat, Rough and Ready township, Nevada county, California. Capital stock, $66,400, in 664 shares of $100 each. The principal place of business is in the town of Smartsville, Yuba county. Trustees for the first three months - - John Carter, George W. Bristow and Wm. J. Meredith.
1869
Daily Alta California - 1/11/1869 - The big blast of 1,201 kegs of powder in the Smartsville Consolidated, generally known as the Blue Point claim, was fired on the 29th ult. A correspondent of the Mining Press describes the result thus: "The hill was seen to raise some fifteen feet, open in a thousand places, and then settled back a pulverised mass, without making any report, there being only a slight trembling of the earth, and all was over. The space blown up was 270 feet in length, 180 feet in width, with an average depth of over 100 feet, supposed to amount to 200,000 tons of gravel and cement, which was thus prepared for washing. The cost of this blast is nearly $6,000, and it will require 150 days full running time to wash it off. The water for the same, at 600 inches per day, and fifteen cents per inch, will cost $12,000. The cost of cuts and flumes, etc., preparatory to washing, is about $20,000."
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/18/1869 - Mines at Timbuctoo - A correspondent of the Appeal has the annexed: The Babb Mining Company of Timbuctoo cleaned up a portion of their flume this week, taking out $6,350, after a run of twenty days. They estimate that by cleaning up the whole flume they would take out $8,000 to $10,000. This claim is situated about one mile from the Blue Gravel claim of Smartsville, and on the same lead or river channel. There are several companies working on different portions of this channel between the Babb and Blue Gravel claims. Our mines will not be exhausted till this extensive body of gravel and cement has been washed. The companies at the present time working, and in fact owning nearly all this ground, are J. O'Brien, McAllis & Gordon, Excelsior Canal Company and Pittsburg Company. All the above companies are realizing fair results from their labor; still the great drawback is that none of the above claims are sufficiently low to work their richest and best gravel. There never has been a single tunnel (not even the Blue Gravel tunnel, which is the lowest) deep enough to tap the old river bed or channel. There are two tunnels now in progress which, when completed, will unquestionably develop as rich ground as the Blue Gravel claim, possibly richer. The future of these mines is looking unusually favorable, and Yuba county bids fair to take the first rank among the mining counties of the State.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/9/1869 - Nevada County - The Transcript of March 7th has the following mining intelligence: The blue gravel mines at Smartsville are among the most valuable in the State, and the ground is principally held by three companies, as follows: The Blue Gravel Mining Company, J. P. Pierce & Co.; the Blue Point Mining Company, R. L. Crary & Co., and the Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Company. For the past three or four years these companies have been engaged in litigation about their respective boundary lines, but a short time ago all their matters were satisfactorily settled, and the three companies, now holding all the ground, have gone to work in earnest upon enterprises of great magnitude. - The Blue Gravel Company have started upon their deep bed-rock tunnel. They have been at work on this tunnel one year, and expect to reach the channel in two years more, when they will have a face sixty feet deeper than the claim has yet been worked. The Blue Point Company have been running their tunnel three years, and expect to finish it in a year and a half. They have raised two shafts, and are now working upon the tunnel in five places to strike the channel at about the same depth as the Blue Gravel Company. - The Smartsville Consolidated are washing off the top level and have ground enough to last three or four years without running a bed-rock tunnel. - From the channel at this point immense sums of money have been taken out, and the owners have become rich. When they are opened to the new level the claims will be more valuable than ever before.
1870
Daily Alta California - 1/9/1870 - Annual Gold Mining Review - The Oaks and Reece Mill crushed 9,059 tons, and extracted $130,229.10 in 1869, an average of $14.37 per ton. The mill has 23 stamps, of which 12 first commenced work a month since. The Union Hill Mine, which has lately been sold to an English Company, cleaned up for December $16,300, of which 40 per cent is profit. The monthly production seldom exceeded $12,000 before. The Empire, North Star and Banner Mines are at work, but we have no figures from them. - The Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company have opened their claim, and for nearly three months have taken out about $500 per day. The Blue Gravel (from which we have no figures for 1869) and the Blue Point, adjoining claims, are running outlet tunnels, which will require about a year for completion. Several large companies have been formed near Smartsville and Timbuctoo by the consolidation of smaller ones. It is reported that the Blue Lead has been found north of Forest City, where it was thought to exist, though numerous previous searchings for it through a period of fifteen years, some of them very expensive, were in vain. It is also supposed that the same lead has been found on the northern border of El Dorado County, but as yet these supposed discoveries has not led to any important results.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/21/1870 - Big Clean-Up - Crary, O'Brien & Co., in their hydraulic claims at Smartsville, cleaned up, after a run of thirty days, $70,000. These are new claims, this being the third run, and the yield has been about the same.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/25/1870 - Rich Mining District - The Nevada Transcript of March 24th has the following: Sucker Flat is a rich mining district and is located just beyond the Nevada line, in Yuba county. For the magnitude of its mining operations it equals any, while in the yield of its mines it probably exceeds any district yet developed in the State. The leading mine is the Smartsville Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company's claims, which, from its name, has been spoken of as being located at Smartsville. This mine has an outlet on the Yuba, is just over the ridge from Mooney Flat, and about half of the ground is located in Nevada and half in Yuba county. It is being worked on a large scale. The banks are one hundred feet in depth, and they have the blue gravel channel. The claim may be considered as a new development, as only two full runs have been made. In December, after the first run, the yield was $41,000, and the last run of thirty days gave a gross yield of $70,000. The claim is now thoroughly opened, and will be worked without interruption. They have ground enough to last for twenty years.
Daily Alta California - 3/28/1870 - The North American Gravel Claim at Michigan Bluff, is yielding 120 ounces per week. The Nevada Transcript speaks thus of the Smartsville Consolidated Company's mine: It is being worked on a large scale. The banks are one hundred feet in depth, and they have the blue gravel channel. The claim may be considered as a new development, as only two full runs have been made. In December, after the first run, the yield was $41,000, and the last run of thirty days gave a gross yield of $70,000. The claim is now thoroughly opened, and will be worked without interruption. They have ground enough to last for twenty years.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/5/1870 - The New York Gold & Silver Mining Company, of Smartsville, have incorporated. Capital stock, $30,000. Trustees, John B. Stone, Lafayette Brooks and Hugh McCaffrey.
Daily Alta California - 12/27/1870 - The Eureka quartz mine at Grass Valley has been closed temporarily, because it is said some of the miners were discovered stealing specimens, and the Superintendent wants time to devise means to prevent any more theft of that kind. the tunnel of the Blue Point Mining Company, at Sucker Flat, 2,100 feet long, is completed, after four years labor, and next month a great blast of 2,500 kegs of black powder will be let off to loosen the gravel for hydraulic washing. The Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, owning the adjoining claim, will about the same time try a large blast of giant powder, partly for the purpose of making a comparison of the two explosives. The deep tunnel to drain the lowest level of this claim will not be completed for a year.
1871
DailyAlta California - 2/12/1871 - Mining With Steam and Diamonds - There is reason to hope that the day is not far distant, when much of the hand labor now done in mining, will be saved by the application of steam. The diamond-pointed and steam-driven drill which has been at work for years, with great success and much economy of both time and money, in the Mt. Cenis tunnel, has not yet been employed on our coast, underground; but an invention lately made in this city, by N. W. Robinson, promises to remove the chief obstacle in the way of it here. This invention is an adjustable attachment by means of which the drill can be turned in any direction, with very little trouble. - The diamond drill, for boring from the surface, has been at work in a dozen different places in the State. It bored a hole 325 feet deep in the Union mine, and 200 feet in the Kentucky mine at Carson Hill, five holes (the deepest 160 feet), in Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, and it is now engaged at the Picacho Quicksilver Mine in boring two holes, each to be 350 feet deep. The diamond drill has also bored several deep wells. The size of the hole made for prospecting and for wells, varies from two to thee inches. A boring machine was completed last week, in this city, for the Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, and at the end of this week it will be sent to the mine. It consists of four diamond drills of Leschot's patent, placed on an iron car. - The Smartsville Blue Gravel Company are engaged in hydraulic mining, and have for the last five years been the leading association of the kind in the State. They have taken out more than $1,000,000 in all. They buy more water for washing the auriferous gravel, than San Francisco does for the household purposes of 150,000 people, and this water needs a channel five feet wide and three feet deep, below the level of the bottom of the auriferous deposit. The rich gravel is in the midst of a hill, so an outlet is furnished by a tunnel which was finished in 1864, after six or eight years of hard labor. - But that tunnel is not deep enough, so in 1867 another was commenced at a lower level. About three years of work has been spent on it, and the miners are now in 1,247 feet from the mouth. The width is six feet, the height nine; the expense per lineal foot about $30; the present rate of progress one foot per day, and the distance still to be accomplished 243 feet, for which ten months time would be required by hand-drilling. But the present price and speed are not satisfactory, so steam and diamonds are to be tried for boring the blast holes as substitutes for flesh and steel. The expectation is that the new machine will save half the expense and four-fifths of the time. - The car will run into the tunnel on an iron track, and will be supplied from a steam engine outside through a rubber hose with compressed air, which will furnish both power and ventilation. Having arrived at the end of the tunnel, the wheels will be blocked, the machinery will be started, with four drills running at once, and each will bore a hole an inch and a quarter in diameter and a foot deep in twelve minutes. Then the drills will be adjusted again and four other holes bored, and so on until the "face" in front of the machine is "full." The machine will be run back on the track; cartridges will be put in the holes and tamped in; and all will be fired at once. In that way five, and perhaps ten feet, can be blasted in a day. - The drills can be adjusted to any part of the tunnel near the front of the machine, above, below or on the sides. Each drill makes 975 revolutions per minute, and in that time bores an inch and a half in hard granite. In 650 revolutions the drill moves forward one inch, so the diamond at each revolution cuts off one 650th part of an inch. The Smartsville machine weighs about two tons, and cost $10,000. A machine with a single drill could be made to work in a tunnel four feet square. The Robinson adjustable attachment fits the diamond drill for work in small tunnels, in which it has not been used hitherto on this coast. As soon as it is announced that the machine is a success at Smartsville - - if it should be announced as we anticipate - - several hundred miners from different parts of the coast will go to see it, and examine whether they can apply it in their workings.
Pacific Rural Press - 2/18/1871 - A New Tunnel Machine, built at the Fulton Iron Works, has just been completed. It is of large size with four drills. It was designed by the Diamond Drilling Machine Company for work on the Blue Gravel Company's tunnel near Smartsville. A trial last week was most satisfactory. We shall speak of it again at greater length.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/20/1871 - News of the Morning: Blue Point Gravel Mining Company, Smartsville, yesterday cleaned up $40,000 from their bed-rock tunnel. The tunnel has been four years in construction, and cost $146,000.
Daily Alta California - 5/22/1871 - A correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, writing from Sucker Flat, says: Hydraulic mining is carried on more extensively here than in any other part of the State. The first claim above Timbuctoo is called the Estner claim, and is owned by the Excelsior Canal Company. Next comes the Babb Company, who are running a bedrock tunnel which they intend to completed in six months, when they expect to strike very rich pay dirt. The Rose's Bar Company are running two heads of water. They are also running a bed rock tunnel that will tap the lead eighty feet below the present working level. This is no doubt the richest claim between here and Timbuctoo. Immediately adjoining is the Pittsburg Company, which at present have shut down. The Blue Gravel Company are piping away in the upper strata, and running at the same time their bedrock tunnel. The Union claim, owned by the Nevada Ditch Company, at present is lying idle. The Blue Point Company are making their way back down to the bedrock to obtain a place to work from. It is estimated that the next clean up will reach $80,000. The Company are using five pipes, and have ground enough to last many years. This is one of the richest hydraulic claims on the Pacific Coast. The Smartsville Company are running two heads of water, and expect to make a big cleanup next week. The Enterprise Company are running a tunnel, for a sluice way, to the upper portion of their claim, which they will not complete in less than a year. - Timbuctoo is dead and its buildings deserted.
Daily Alta California - 5/26/1871 - Condition of the Placer Mines - The traditional miner, with his slouch hat, long beard, revolver slung to his belt, who worked all the week and gambled his money away every Saturday night, is a character of the past, or at least he does not exist in this vicinity, says a Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Appeal. Here, where hundreds of thousands of dollars are taken from the mines every month, where all of the men have steady work and fair wages, such a thing as a gambling house is unknown. I doubt if there is a mining locality in California of equal size and prosperity that can make so creditable a showing. The miners seem to be frugal, saving and industrious, and give the lie to the popular impression among people not familiar with them that they are dissolute and shiftless. Many of the miners have families to support from their wages, which is $3 per day. There has been some talk of procuring cheaper labor to work the mines, but it cannot be done. Three dollars per day is surely little enough. A single man may be able to save something from it, but it barely affords support to a family, and there is no good policy in grinding a workingman down to a bare subsistence, but on the contrary he should be able to save something from his wages, and by the accumulation of money by degrees become an employe himself in course of time. It is this ambition that renders the laboring man the good citizen and useful member of society. But the occupation of the miner has measurably gone. Science is rapidly supplying substitutes for human muscle, and as science advances men are displaced, and forced to seek new fields. Formerly the mines were divided up into hundreds of small claims, each one giving employment to a number of men. Now these claims have become consolidated into about half a dozen, and the number of workmen proportionately reduced. Giant powder and water power have come into play to accomplish the work of men. Formerly hundreds of men were employed drifting under ground, making a perfect honeycomb of the hill with the view of caving down the dirt, but now they run a tunnel a mile or so, make a lot of drifts, stow them full of giant powder and touch off the explosive mass with an electric spark, blowing up acres of ground at a time. While all of these improvements are beneficial to mine owners, they lessen the demand for labor, reduce the number of employed, and hence must aid in depopulating the towns that are supported by the mines.
Daily Alta California - 5/27/1871 - The Mining Ditches at Smartsville - From the Marysville Appeal, May 26th. - The great desideratum in hydraulic mining is the article of water. Without this necessary article, this species of mining cannot be conducted, as thus far science has failed to develop any practical plan for separating the gold from the gravel without its material agency, and its use in large quantities. The gravel mines of this section are regarded as the richest in the State, and in fact, in the world, which idea is very naturally obtained from the success attending their operations. But this idea is to a great degree erroneous. The extent of these mines is exceedingly limited, and the yield per cubic yard is not extraordinary. Indeed, there are probably thousands of acres of gravel beds in California equally as rich, and no doubt many that would yield more. But the great secret underlying the profitableness of these operations is in the bountiful supply of water at their command. The Excelsior Canal Company, that supplies nearly all of the demands, is a consolidation of five companies, whose works have been projected from time to time since 1851. The Company now has three ditches running from the South Yuba and Deer Creek, which furnish all the water for which they are called upon, while the Nevada Reservoir Ditch Company, having its source at Wolf Creek, brings in large volumes in the Winter and Spring months, most of which is used in the Blue Point and Smartsville Consolidated claims. These various ditches are the arteries which furnish lifeblood to this vicinity. Sever them, permanently cutting off the supply which they send coursing through the veins (to which the many flumes may be likened), and financial death must ensue. The works now owned by the Excelsior Company cost, originally, close upon a million dollars. Of course they could be constructed cheaper now, perhaps for half the amount - - yet this is the amount of capital that has been expended in the works of this Company alone, and upon which a fair interest is sought. So you will perceive that the procurement of a claim, even if it be rich, is but a small consideration in undertakings of this character. Years ago, when hydraulic mining was comparatively in its primitive state, fifty cents per inch was charged, while it is now supplied in large quantities for ten. The latter price, under the circumstances, is by far the most profitable. The first cost of construction being paid, the expense of maintaining the ditches and flumes is comparatively trifling. The former seldom get out of repair, if properly attended to, while good flumes will last twelve years, with good care and occasional patching when necessary. Ditch operations have long been regarded as hazardous speculations, and to this view being entertained to a great degree by capitalists is due the poverty of many of the mining counties, which need only a bountiful supply of water to regain their former proud position of wealth and prosperity.
Daily Alta California - 5/28/1871 - The Diamond Drill at Smartsville - In company with Mr. McGanney, the general agent of the Blue Gravel Mining Company, says a Sucker Flat correspondent of the Marysville Appeal, under date of the 24th inst., I this morning visited the company's new tunnel, and there witnessed the working of the famous Diamond drill. This drill is a French invention, and was first brought into prominent notice by its successful employment in the Mount Cenis tunnel through the Alps. The right to manufacture and use this drill in the United States has been purchased by a New York firm, and the one employed in the Blue Gravel is the only machine of the kind ever constructed for use in mining tunnels. A number are used successfully in the East in open cuts upon the face of rocks and in railroad tunnels. The drill which I saw this morning about fills the square of the tunnel. It operates four drills at once, each boring with from 700 to 1,000 revolutions a minute. The Burleigh drill that was used in the Hoosac tunnel in Massachusetts had a large number of "strikers" that were thrust with great rapidity and velocity against the face of the rock, cutting and battering it down. The Diamond drill bores a round smooth hole an inch in diameter at the rate of an inch a minute. A peculiarity of its operations is that the rocky core is taken from the hole, as a candle is taken from the mould. The bitt is an inch in diameter, and hollow, and upon the end, arranged about the circular rim are Brazil diamonds, or "black diamonds," from three to nine each bitt, as required. The motive power of the drill is compressed air, which is forced through an iron pipe the extent of the tunnel to the machine by means of a forty horse power engine adjacent to the tunnel's mouth. Of course the operations of the drill were for some time experimental, but its value has ceased to be a matter of question. It will bore the holes in any direction, perpendicular (up or down) horizontal, or at any angle, and the operation can easily be directed and controlled. It has two cylinders, each working two drills, and requires a man to each cylinder. By manual labor, in the kind of rock now worked in the Blue Gravel tunnel, about ten inches of tunnel can be made in a day. With the Diamond drill, last week, eleven and one-half feet were made in four and one-half days. Could some method be devised for more speedily clearing the debris rock from the tunnel after each blast, the progress would be a great deal faster. After the required number of holes are drilled, they are charged with giant powder, wires are attached to each blast, which are all connected with the main wire leading to the battery, and an electric spark explodes them simultaneously. The machine is worked day and night, by three shifts of hands of two men each. Its workings thus far have been so successful that they can no longer be regarded as experimental, but the Diamond Drill, for mining tunneling, can be safely set down as one of the most valuable among the many important inventions of the age.
Daily Alta California - 5/30/1871 - Successful Application of Machinery in Mining - We use steam extensively in hoisting, pulverizing and concentrating ores; but hitherto have depended almost entirely upon hand labor for running tunnels and drifts, and breaking down the ore. The Diamond drill tunneling machine, however, has been tried at Smartsville with success, and we may now consider it an important aid in the development of our mineral resources. It will henceforth be in constant and increasing use, unless superceded, and that does not now appear probable, by some superior machine. - The Blue Gravel hydraulic claim at Smartsville is one of the most valuable and best managed pieces of mining property in the State. It has yielded at least $1,000,000, and is expected to yield much more. The Company, while washing off the upper strata of the claim, have at the same time been cutting out a deep tunnel through which to run off the lower strata. The lower tunnel was cut 1,285 feet by hand, at a cost of $40,000, and three years labor. When in 1,200 feet, eight men were constantly employed in it, working in three shifts, and making about one foot in twenty-four hours at a cost of forty dollars per foot, blasting with black powder. The whole length of the tunnel was to be 1,563 feet, and as it would be an important point to hasten the work, the Company determined to try the Diamond drill. - A machine was made for them, in this city on an original pattern, and after many delays incident to the introduction of a new method of working, the experiment is pronounced a success. Fifty feet of tunnel have been made with it, and now that everything works smoothly and the Company have sufficient experience to justify the expression of an opinion, they declare themselves satisfied. In the same kind of rock which before cost $40 per running foot with black powder for cutting the tunnel six feet wide, and eight feet high, by hand, at the rate of one foot per day, they now cut from two to two and a half feet per day in a tunnel six feet wide and nine feet high, at an expense of $25 per foot. This price covers everything save the interest on the cost of the machine and the wear and tear. The power is supplied by a fifteen horse-power steam engine at the mouth of the tunnel, and is transmitted by compressed air through a hose to the drills, which bore holes an inch and an eighth in diameter at a speed of from half an inch to an inch and a quarter in a minute. The holes are usually from 20 to 30 inches deep, and all on the face of the tunnel are blasted out at the same instant by an electric exploder. - The chief profit at the Blue Gravel mine, from the use of the machine, is in the saving of time. The tunnel, which has already cost $40,000, would be of no use for ten or eleven months yet if the drilling were done by hand, but with the help of the machine it will be ready for service in less than four months. Here is a saving of the interest on $40,000 for six months. Then the Company will get their gold dust from the mine six months sooner and they will have so much more interest on that. They have other tunnels to cut, and for the purpose of working to the best advantage they have purchased the machine now in use and ordered another. They authorize us to say, that in their opinion, when the men have more experience, and when everything is arranged for the machine in the best style, it will do much better than at present. - The success of the machine in this tunnel implies a success in any tunnel of equal size in hard rock. The larger the tunnel and the harder the rock, the greater the relative saving. We presume that there would be no economy in using a machine to cut a tunnel smaller than that at Smartsville, and that is larger than most of the mining tunnels need to be. Railroad tunnels are larger, and for them the machine is very valuable. Whether the diamond drill could be used profitably in stopping or breaking down quartz rock, is a question upon which we are not prepared to express an opinion, but which is worthy of examination.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/16/1871 - City Intelligence - Incorporations. Yesterday the Secretary of State filed a certificate of incorporation of the Golden Gate Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company, which has been formed for the purpose of buying, selling, working and otherwise manipulating titles to mining claims, and other property pertaining thereto, in the counties of Yuba and Nevada. Capital stock, $500,000, in $100 shares. Trustees - - Patrick Campbell, John Cosgrove and Samuel Hutchinson. Principal place of business, Timbuctoo, Yuba county.
Daily Alta California - 7/31/1871 - The steam drilling machine will resume work early this week in the tunnel of the Smartsville Blue Gravel Company, after having lost about five weeks in consequence of the breaking of the fly wheel, which was cast too light. The machine has done two months steady work and has given complete satisfaction for the purpose to which it is applied. A large number of visitors have examined it while in operation, and other similar machines, will, it is supposed, be ordered for cutting tunnels in hydraulic claims at Gold Run and North Bloomfield. The tunnel which it makes is larger than is needed usually in quartz mines, and there is no prospect of its application soon in this State in any mines save those in which hydraulic claims are to be drained and large quantities of gravel to be washed through spacious tunnels.
1873
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/18/1873 - Pacific Coast Items - The cement claim situated between Timbuctoo and Sucker Flat was the scene of a large blast January 16th. At noon 230 kegs were exploded, doing excellent work and shaking up an immense amount of gravel. The drifts in which the blasts were discharged were about 100 feet long.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/27/1873 - Explosion of Powder at Sucker Flat - Sucker Flat, December 26th. - Twenty thousand pounds of Santa Cruz powder was exploded in the Smartsville hydraulic mine to-day. The powder was placed in drifts under a bank of gravel over 200 feet high. It was a great success.
1875
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/5/1875 - City Intelligence - Incorporations: There were filed yesterday in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Excelsior Water Company - - to deal in water, mining claims, lands and merchandise, and to manufacture and deal in gunpowder and blasting powder. Capital, $2,000,000, in shares of $100 each. Directors - - J. P. Pierce, Daniel McGanney, S. H. Dikeman, George P. Thurston and Elliott S. Thurston. The principal place of business will be in Smartsville, Yuba county.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/23/1875 - City Intelligence - Incorporation - There were filed in the office of the Secretary of State Saturday articles of incorporation [snip] of the Smartsville Mining Company, to operate in Yuba county. Capital, $1,000,000 in shares of $100 each. Directors - Daniel McGanney, William Crainsie [Cramsie], James P. Pierce, George P. Thruston and Henry Hogarth. The principal place of business will be Smartsville.
1876
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/15/1876 - From Smartsville - - A Great Work Completed - Smartsville, July 14th. - The Excelsior Water Company to-day completed in three months a bedrock tunnel 755 feet in length in the Babb claim at Timbuctoo. The completion of this work adds greatly to the value of the company's property, as the gravel which will be washed through is of the richest kind. The short time in which this work was accomplished is remarkable and unprecedented.
1877
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/24/1877 - The Nevada Transcript says: Ed. Carney and P. S. Goodspeed, of Hunt's Hill, have sold their entire mining property to a corporation known as the Camden Mining Company. The sale was effected through John McAllis, of Smartsville, an experienced miner and a member of the Excelsior Mining Company. The property is a valuable one, and will no doubt demonstrate the advantages of investment by San Francisco capitalists in our mines. The property embraces nearly 100 acres of valuable mining ground, with fixtures, and all the tools and appliances for immediate and practical work, and at $25,000, the price said to have been paid, cannot but prove a profitable investment.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/7/1877 - Pacific Coast Items: The strike at Smartsville still continues. A report having in some way been circulated that the mine-owners were about to employ Chinamen in place of the whites, the excitement became more intense than ever. The employment of Chinamen might perhaps gain a temporary victory over the strikers, but there would be nothing effected by it more than to make that which is now only a local matter the common cause of the laboring men of California. We have not heard the mine-owners' side of the case, and only a little of that of the strikers; but as much as we are able to judge from the little we have heard, the strikers do not seem unreasonable in their demands, and it would be better for everybody if work should be resumed on their terms immediately. (Wheatland Free Press)
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/24/1877 - Incorporations - There were filed yesterday in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Equity Mill and Mining Company - - to operate in Elko county, Nevada. Capital, $3,000,000 in shares of $50 each. Directors - - T. R. Hayes, A. Badlam, Henry Coulton, Jr., H. C. Swain and S. G. Beatty. The principal place of business will be in San Francisco....Also, a certificate of removal of the principal place of business of the Enterprise Mining Company from Sucker Flat to Smartsville, Yuba county.
Sacramento Daily Union - The miners heretofore employed at Sucker Flat, Timbuctoo and Smartsville, feeling incensed and grieved at the late reduction of wages in the several mines, which reduction caused a general cessation of work on the 1st instant, on Friday turned out en masse for a street parade and demonstration. A procession of about 175 miners, headed by James Hanley as Marshal, and John McDonald as Assistant Marshal, and the Smartsville Brass Band, formed on the streets of Sucker Flat, and marched through Timbuctoo, Smartsville and Mooney Flat, and then counter marched, forming altogether the most demonstrative procession ever witnessed in the township. The procession was orderly and respectable, and evidently the miners mean to stand out for their demands. A fund is to be raised, by a ball, to aid the poorest families. A large number of tickets were sold in this city yesterday. Marysville Appeal, February 4th.
1878
Pacific Rural Press - 2/2/1878 - List of U. S. Patents Issued to Pacific Coast Inventors - (From official reports for the Mining and Scientific Press, Dewey & Co., Publishers and U. S. and Foreign Patent Agents) - By Special Dispatch from Washington, D.C. [snipped] Reissues: Ore washing apparatus for hydraulic mining - J. W. Allenwood, Timbuctoo, Cal.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/19/1878 - Editorial Expression of the Pacific Press - Butte County Register: No remedy, in our judgment, will ever be found, that permits the working of mines, until some means are devised to prevent the slum from getting into the natural water courses. We think this to be clearly within the reach of mining ingenuity. Take, for example, the Smartsville mines, (we cite these because we are acquainted with the geography and formation of the surrounding country). What is to prevent a mechanical arrangement at the lower end of the company's sluice boxes that will segregate the rock and gravel from the sand and slum? We think that any old miner with ordinary ingenuity, who has ever attended a "tom," will say at once that it is a very simple affair. This being accomplished, the light material and water could be taken in a sluice and conveyed to the foot hills, and corraled until it settled. We believe the natural fall of the country, from the point where it left the mining claim, would be sufficient to carry this light material off to any place on the plains that might be desired. There would be no danger to the navigation of the rivers, or damage to the farming lands, to be apprehended from dumping the rock and coarse gravel into the natural water courses, as in the most extreme floods but little of it would find its way below the line of the line of the foothills. It is true that accumulation of rock and gravel at the dumps of the mining companies' sluices might, and doubtless would, take place if left without the aid of the miner's water to carry it out of their way; but we think this difficulty could be met at a slight expense in the way of cars propelled by steam or man power to take the rock and gravel out of the way. If our ideas are practicable as applied to the Smartsville mines, there is no natural obstacle that we are aware of that would prevent their application to all the mines in Nevada county that dump into either branch of the Yuba river. We look upon this matter of disposing of the mining debris as a condition precedent to any intelligent system of reclamation. The first thing to be done, as we understand it, is to master the problem of working our mines independent of the natural water course as an outlet for their slum; this accomplished, the balance of the problem seems to us capable of an easy and speedy solution.
1879
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/11/1879 - Pacific Coast Items - Grass Valley Union: It has been rumored in town for several days, on what is deemed good authority, that the farmers on the Yuba river have taken measures to commence suits against the hydraulic mining companies at Smartsville, and in the "Ridge" portion of Nevada county, to restrain them from running tailings into the Yuba and its tributaries. The recent decision of Judge Keyser, in which the farmers obtained all they asked for as against the miners, is encouragement to commence similar proceedings in other sections. As the case will be commenced in Judge Keyser's Court, and about the same questions will be involved as in the original case, there appears no room to doubt that the judgment will be against the miners.
Sacramento Daily Union - 11/20/1879 - News Tailings - This is the way debris is prepared to be sent down to the valleys. The Placer Herald of the 15th says: At the Dardanelles mine, near Forest Hill, there was exploded last Saturday a blast of 36,000 pounds of Judson powder. This is the second biggest blast of this kind of powder, as far as we are aware of, ever fired in the State. The biggest was at Smartsville some months ago, when 50,000 pounds was ignited at once. In that case, however, we understand, the result was a comparative failure, while in the case of the blast at the Dardanelles, last Saturday, the result was remarkably successful, the amount of dirt loosened being no less than half a million cubic yards, or fully equal to the largest amount ever before shook up by one blast in California, by any amount of any kind of powder. When we reflect that each pound of powder loosened about fourteen cubic yards of gravel, the result seems little less than wonderful. The powder drifts consisted of five and the number of T's fourteen. The explosion was performed by electricity.
1880
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/29/1880 - Mining Debris: Legislative Excursion to Marysville and Other Points to Investigate the Subject - The method of gaining information for legislative action upon the subject of debris, by the members proceeding in a body to the grounds at Marysville and along the rivers in that vicinity, was yesterday successfully carried out, and to the satisfaction of all concerned. The special train for this purpose left Sacramento at 8:45 a.m., with three cars, which were filled to their full capacity with members and ladies, legislative attaches, representatives of the press and others. There were seventy members of the Legislature that participated in the trip, as follows: Senators West, Nye, Ryan, Hill, Chase, Carlock, Burt, Conger, Johnston, Moreland, Zuck, Davis, Watson, Hudson and Anderson. Assemblymen - - Speaker Cowdery, Stoddard, McCarthy, McIntosh, McCarty, McComas, Sayle, Young, Chamberlain, Wassen, Corcoran, Chandler, Braunhart, Leach, Ward, Frink, Brown of Yuba, Brooks, Sweetland, Burns, Pickett, Streeter, Stanley, Wason, Maybell, lane, Garibaldi, Morse, Carr of Yuba, Carr of Sacramento, McCallion, May, Maguire, Mulholland, Estey, Coffman, Cuthbert, Josselyn, Nelson, Watson, Brusie, Hardy, Messenger, Gaffey, Del Valle, McDade, Bruner, DuBrutz, Hynes, Finlayson, Anthony, Felton, Gorley, Mathews, and Brown of Sonoma. State Engineer William H. Hall also accompanied the party, by request, to give information as to location of the main dam proposed to be constructed upon the Yuba river, and other matters connected with the debris subject. - Upon arriving at the Bear river, twelve miles this side of Marysville, the train stopped upon the bridge and an inspection was made of the condition of the stream and the adjacent lands destroyed by the debris. The water at this point of the river had the appearance of thin mud, and a rolling, wave-like action of the water in the central portion of the stream was said to be caused by cross reefs of sand moving down with the current, but which, from its greater weight and slow, shifting movement, produced those wave troughs of a foot or more in depth upon the surface. The channel of the river is held within levees, and the bed is about five feet above the adjacent lands. The former rich alluvial lands along this stream, ranging from one to three miles wide, and worth only a few years since from two to three hundred dollars per acre are now worthless and abandoned, from the overflow of deposits, and nearly all of which are past all hope of reclamation. The railroad track has within the past few years been two or three times raised on piles to kept the track above the increasing altitude of the river. The location of the bridge has also had to be changed by reason of the river having left its bed and found another course. The Keyes ranch, in relation to which the suit was brought against the mines, is situated about two miles below this point. - After remaining a few moments in this vicinity, the train moved on to Marysville, where carriages without number were waiting to convey the excursion party to various points which it was arranged should be visited. With the exception of a few remaining in Marysville, the party was soon transferred to carriages and proceeded to a point on the Yuba river about ten miles above the city, where it is proposed to construct the lower dam upon that river to retain the heavier detetrius, a portion of the company taking the left hand side of the river, and the other the right. Commencing at Marysville, the tract of country passed in review, which were formerly the rich, alluvial bottom lands of the Yuba, and now ruined with debris, and lying between the levees, has a width of from two to two and one-half miles in width and running at an average of about that width to the site selected for the dam. Most of this land twenty years ago was worth from one to three hundred dollars per acre and thickly populated; now it is a scene of vast desolation, with a level surface of sand, thick, muddy water, willows and cottonwood, and with no vestige of house or marks of former habitation. About three miles above the city was pointed out the place where once flourished the celebrated Briggs ranch, with its vast acreage and yield of fruit, accounts of which, published at the time in the Eastern papers, were regarded as almost fabulous. This ranch, even after threatened and injured to some extent by the early flow of debris, sold for $250,000. Now the whole site of its best lands are buried from 18 to 20 feet deep, and the roots of cottonwoods and willows are now reaching down towards the tops of the former peach and pear trees which stand engulfed far below the present surface. This location is over a mile inside the present levee, and the channel of the river, which was originally beyond this orchard, has changed, and now runs along the side of the levee, more than a mile from its former location, and upon what was then considered as high plain lands, and nothing but the levee retains it in its present course, as it is several feet higher already than the plains outside the levee. - The place proposed for the dam referred to is at DeGuerre Point, where a curve in the right bank of the river narrows its width to about a mile, with a high point upon the west side of about fifty feet, and much higher on the opposite bank. The two points are not immediately opposite, which will cause the dam to stand at an angle across the river of about thirty degrees. Both points are rocky, and the east one has ample supply of stone to make the structure. - Between these bluffs in the valley once lay the regular stage route from Marysville to mining towns on the upper Yuba. Now only the limbs of the largest trees extend above the debris to mark the location of trunks and roots sixty feet beneath. - The company that went up the left side of the river went as far as Smartsville, on the way to which place, near Timbuctoo, was pointed out a place in the valley where in early mining times was a large fruit orchard and vineyard, and which is now ninety feet under the present bed of the river, and six miles above the debris was seen accumulated to the depth of 120 feet. - Upon arriving at Smartsville they were served at hotels and private houses with bountiful refreshments, which were well appreciated after the long ride. After dinner the company returned to Marysville, arriving about quarter to 8 o'clock. The party which took the other side of the river returned to Marysville in the afternoon, arriving at about 3 o'clock; and after enjoying an ample and well-relished dinner at the Western, again took carriages and went across Feather river into Sutter county. After following about five miles along the right levee of that river below Yuba City, where thousands of acres of fine land have recently been abandoned to the debris, the return to the city was made by a circuit through some of the rich lands of Sutter county, which were greatly admired by the visitors, but which they were reminded would also soon be given up to destruction of debris unless some effective action is taken to remedy the present evils. - At the foot of D street in Marysville, where in 1852 the low-water mark was thirty feet below the level of the street, is now filled to a depth of twenty-five feet. The main sewer of the city, built about fifteen years ago, emptied into the Yuba river at this place, the bottom of which was ten feet above the bed of the river, and now the river bed is some fourteen feet above the bottom of the sewer, leaving the city without sewerage, and with only a defective drainage into a slough inside the city levee, where it is impounded until a low stage of water in the Feather river, when a gate is opened and a portion of it flows into that river. Last season the accumulation of water in the city from this drainage was so great in the lower part of the city that a small levee was made across a portion of the overflowed section, and the water pumped out over this levee, where it remained until past the middle of the summer before the Feather river got low enough to permit of its discharge in this direction. Twenty years ago the assessable property of Marysville was over $4,000,000, and now, from damage and depression from the debris, it is less than $2,000,000. - Having completed the investigation intended by the excursionists, the cars were again taken a little before 8, and reached Sacramento about 10 p.m., all seeming well satisfied with the trip, that its results would be to stimulate early legislative action looking to a restraint of the present destruction from debris.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/11/1880 - Mining Notes: Three gold bars from the Smartsville (Yuba county) hydraulic claims have lately been shipped to an assay establishment in San Francisco. Two of the bars weighed respectively $29,600 and $18,000.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/15/1880 - INCORPORATED - There has been filed in the office of the Secretary of State articles of incorporation of the Northern Belle Gold, Silver and Copper Mining Company; place of business, Smartsville, Yuba county; Trustees, C. Holland, John Boyer, A. P Brown, C. C. Bitner, B. F. Steese; capital stock $10,000,000 of 100,000 shares of $10 each.
1881
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/23/1881 - Mining Notes: Lively times at Smartsville. The Excelsior company are employing 350 men in their claims there and about 30 more on the company's ranch a few miles below. The Blue Point mine works about 60 men.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/4/1881 - This Morning's News: The North Bloomfield and Milton Gravel Mining Companies at Grass Valley had injunctions served on them and have shut down. - The Excelsior Water and Mining Company's works at Smartsville, Yuba county, were closed down yesterday by an injunction.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/20/1881 - Up Among The Mines - North Bloomfield, Nevada County, June 16, 1881 - A trip through the mountain counties of California during the months of June, July or August, is one of the most attractive that a person in search of recreation can take, provided always that you do not have to talk "slickens" to every one you meet. But if you are on horseback, have a given amount of time to reach certain points, your horse in favor of the eight-hour law, and with a strong inclination to shirk at that, its hard work. Your correspondent is in the latter condition. - Leaving one of the valley towns, a short ride brought me to Smartsville, Yuba county, a beautifully located village of nearly 900 population. This is the westerly point where hydraulic mining is carried on to any extent. Here are located numerous claims, the most important of which is the Excelsior Water Mining Company, who also operates mines at Timbuctoo and Mooney Flat. - The injunction restraining the miners from depositing tailings in the river has stopped all work in this as well as in most of the places along the ridge. Between 300 and 400 laborers have been thrown out of employment here in consequence, and considerable feeling is manifested against the people below who have thus sought to protect their homes. - Leaving Smartsville, I passed in succession Mooney Flat, French Corral, Birchville, Sweetland, Sebastopol, to North San Juan. At French Corral and Birchville are located mines belonging to the Milton Company, employing from sixty to a hundred men. The only mine in operation at this time in this region is the American, near Sweetland, which is running day and night, using about 1,560 inches of water. - North San Juan is a thrifty and important town of Nevada county, of nearly 1,200 inhabitants. Its business houses, dwellings, etc, indicate prosperous times in the past, but as its trade depends almost entirely upon the mines around it, the people here are feeling decidedly "blue." The San Juan Times is published here, by O. P. Stidger. He is now paying his special attention to the mining question. As an illustration of the hard times in this place, I witnessed the sale by execution of a Justice's Court of a coach dog, of the female persuasion, taken by attachment for a board bill. After several vain attempts to get a bid, the Constable gave the matter up in disgust and turned the dog over to the plaintiff. - The next point of interest is Columbia Hill, about seven miles from San Juan. Here is located the office of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company Consolidated. This company employs in its various mines at Snow Point, Eureka South, Relief Hill and Moore's Flat about 400 men. Last year they used in their own mines and sold to other companies 1,400,000 inches of water. They pay from $15,000 to $20,000 monthly for labor, running the whole year. They have patents for over 3,000 acres of mining land, which with their present facilities will keep them running for over fifty years. Several of their claims are now running, but by the time this reaches you will be closed down. - In my next I will give information of North Bloomfield, Moore's Flat, etc., as well as a few notes of some of the quartz mines of Sierra county. Phocion.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/20/1881 - Miners' Meeting At Nevada [City] - Resolutions Adopted (Special to the Record-Union) - Nevada [City], June 18th, - The city has been filling up all day with the representatives of the mining interest from all parts of this county, while many are present from adjoining counties, a delegation of about fifty coming from Smartsville, and this evening the theater is crowded, showing the deep feeling entertained by the people in reference to the attempt to shut down the hydraulic mines. - The meeting was called to order by Hon. W. D. Long, who stated that for nearly two years the suit of the city of Marysville against the hydraulic miners has been pending, but no active proceedings were taken until about two weeks ago; but, while not going on with the suit, the citizens of the valley had not been idle, but had been holding secret meetings and raising money, and the object of this meeting was that the miners might have an organization through which their rights could be protected. He hoped nothing would occur to give color to the statement that the miners were a lawless people. - Major J. S. McBride of North San Juan was elected President; J. E. Brown of Nevada [City], Secretary, with L. S. Calkins and J. B. Gray of Nevada [City], and C. H. Mitchell and Rufus Shoemaker of Grass Valley as assistants; and the following Vice-Presidents: Hon. W. D. Long, Nevada [City]; James O'Brien, Smartsville; Thomas Mein, Blue Tent; Hon. J. B. Patterson, Little York; Edward Coleman, Grass Valley; O. P. Stidger, San Juan; George G. Allen, Nevada [City]; James Marriott, North Bloomfield; J. Spaulding, Dutch Flat; James Gould, Gold Run; Charles Haggerty, Moore's Flat; Philip Nichols, Dutch Flat; George W. Cummings, Oroville; John C. Coleman, Grass Valley; H. L. Perkins, North Bloomfield; H. S. Brigham, Moore's Flat; R. C. Walrath, Nevada [City]. - The President said they were met to devise means to prevent a dire disaster. That a war had been inaugurated to prevent the prosecution of a long established business, and the agriculturists were doing all in their power to destroy one of the most important interests in the State. It was a subject demanding earnest attention, and he trusted the action would be dignified and conservative, and thus show the State that all that was desired was the protection of this important interest. - A committee consisting of Hon. W. D. Long, Hon. Niles Searles and Robert McMurray, was appointed on resolutions. - While the committee were absent, Col. G. W. Cummings, of the Miocene mine of Oroville, stated that he was one of the enjoined, and held that not a single allegation in the complaint was true - - that it was sworn to by a man 35 miles from the mine. The mines have produced $1,135,000,000. Compare that with the product of agriculture and a hundred years would not equal it. The Grangers say the mines fill up the rivers and cause them to overflow, but for every cubic yard put into the waters of this State by the miners, fifteen yards are put in by the farmers - - that the soundings made by the Secretary of the Navy at Mare Island did not show a particle of mining debris. If hydraulic mining is stopped 75 per cent. of the means for carrying on the business of the country would be lost. He referred to the fact of his being a member of the Advisory Board of the Miners' Association, and said the interests of the miners were carefully watched, and the best counsel employed. He said that they had accomplished all they had set out for, so far as Judge Keyser was concerned, and that no suit against the miners would ever be tried before him. - Mr. Searles, from the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following report, and the resolutions were unanimously adopted: To the citizens of Nevada and adjoining counties, in mass meeting assembled; Your committee, appointed to draft and present resolutions regarding the pending litigation by the city of Marysville against the hydraulic mines, beg leave to report as follows: Whereas, Mining is the parent industry of the Pacific coast, by and through which our State was mainly settled, and by which every other interest has been vitalized and built up; and whereas, the millions of gold annually yielded as the out-put of hydraulic mining can only be received by turning the debris arising therefrom into the mountain canyons and ravines; and whereas, the city of Marysville, in derogation of an implied compact to await a solution of the drainage problem, is prosecuting an action against the hydraulic miners, and has caused an injunction to issue restraining such miners from prosecuting their legitimate calling, and which, if persisted in, and successful, must eventuate in the entire destruction of our property values and in the impoverishment of our people; it is now, therefore, by the miners and citizens in mass meeting assembled, - Resolved, That most of our mining property is held by patents from the Government of the United States, and having been purchased for the express purpose of mining by the hydraulic process, was taken and is held under an implied license to use it in the only available manner. - Resolved, That we most sincerely regret any injury that has or may result to Marysville, or the agriculturists in its vicinity, from the effect of mining debris, and that we have been and still are ready to assist by every legitimate means known to science in averting the evil consequences to them from mining operations. - Resolved, That the drainage scheme inaugurated by the Legislature of the State of California, and indorsed by such eminent engineers as Captain James B. Eads and Colonel J. H. Mendell, gentlemen of world-wide celebrity in their profession, offers, as we firmly believe, a plan for the intelligent and successful solution of the vexed question at issue - - a solution alike beneficial to agriculturists and miners - - and we have faith in the skill and wisdom of our State Engineer, W. H. Hall, to carry to successful termination the provisions of the Act. - Resolved, That litigation cannot stop, that injunctions cannot restrain, the mass of mining debris now in our mountain streams, and which, like glaciers, are steadily moving forward and must eventually engulf Marysville, unless arrested by intelligent and united action. - Resolved, That by thirty years of encouragement, by the payment of taxes and by a recognition of our industry in an endless variety of forms, we have acquired a vested right to the legitimate use of our mining property, and that it illy becomes the people of Marysville and vicinity, who have fattened upon the profits of commercial intercourse with us, who have fostered mining until 150,000 people have become directly interested in and dependent upon it as a means of support, until $150,000,000 has been invested in mining operations, to yield to the selfish schemes of a few political factionists and greedy attorneys for whom ephemeral notoriety and fees are a sufficient reason for plunging us into protracted and exhausting litigation. - Resolved, That the attack upon hydraulic mining is but the entering wedge to a scheme which, if successful, has for its object the destruction of all mining property and every interest connected therewith, that the water of our mountain streams, rendered valueless for mining, may be conveyed to the valleys for other and less profitable purposes. - Resolved, That "self-preservation is a first law of nature," and for the purpose of protecting ourselves and those dependent upon us in the enjoyment of our homes and the fruits of our honest industry, we will band ourselves together, and by every effort which free men may legally make we will battle for our rights and dare to defy those who would wrest from us the privilege of enjoying our hard-earned property and gaining a livelihood by the sweat of our brows. - Resolved, That we invite the co-operation of every citizen having the welfare of the mining region at heart and assure them that their interests and ours are identical. - Resolved, That to the citizens of Marysville we say, we have cheerfully responded to taxation for your benefit, and are still willing, if permitted to work our mines, to contribute there from to protect and preserve you, but if you shall perversely deprive us of the power so to do, upon you and not upon us must the blame fall, and you cannot justly complain if we hold you "as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies of war; in peace, friends." - Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting are hereby tendered to the Miners' Association for its stalwart efforts in behalf of our interests, and we hereby declare our unfaltering confidence in the wisdom of its proceedings, and pledge to its support and maintenance each pecuniary aid as its wants and our ability will admit. - Resolved, That we deprecate as unjust and oppressive in the extreme the use of the extraordinary remedy of injunction to stay the exercise of a great industry, in which millions of capital have been invested, and which for many years past has been recognized as legitimate, and which has and still does afford employment and support to thousands of citizens, at a season when great and irremediable loss and disaster will necessarily be caused by the injunction, and before any adjuoication of the conflicting claims and rights of the parties and without affording us any adequate redress for the great damage which will necessarily ensue. - Resolved, That we recommend all hydraulic miners to employ no Chinese laborers. - Hon. Niles Searles stated the position of affairs as between the Grangers and miners, and urged the importance of all interested in mining operations combining together to protect their interests, and that by a united effort victory could be secured. - Mr. Skidmore, Secretary of the Miners' Association, made a statement, showing the operations of the Association and what it had accomplished. - C. W. Cross said that all interested must put money into this enterprise to secure the rights of the community until such time as the National Government should step in and protect them. - Remarks were made by some others, when the meeting adjourned.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/12/1881 - The Debris Dams: Official Inspection as to Their Present Condition: The Number and Nature of the Breaks - The Willows Growing and Dams Becoming a Thicket - Colonel G. W. Mendell, Assistant Engineer Payson, and Commissioner W. F. Knox returned yesterday from a visit to the Yuba and Bear river debris dams, which they inspected with a view to determine their present condition and the effects which the portions remaining had produced in the direction of retaining the sand and gravel as anticipated by the Engineers and Drainage Commission at the time of their construction. - The party went up to Marysville on Friday and left there early on Saturday morning, going up the south side of the Yuba to the dam, where they were met by Commissioner Searles and others. The inspecting members of the company were provided with rubber boots to enable them to go over the structure and for this purpose ford reasonable depths of slickens and water. - Present Conditions of Yuba Dam - All parts of the Yuba dam were thoroughly examined, and it was found to be in far better condition than has been reported or was supposed after the excessive high waters of the past winter, and the breaks which occurred so soon after their construction. Commissioner Knox, in answer to numerous questions propounded, subsequent to his return to the city, gave the result of their examination as follows: We found two breaks in the Yuba dam. One was from 300 to 400 feet wide, and about a quarter of a mile from the south end. It appears that the whole structure at this point has gone out. About half a mile further on is the other break, which is in the neighborhood of 700 feet wide. There are evidences of brush remaining at places over the break along the bottom, but this cannot be definitely determined now as the river is still running through these nearly the whole width. The most of the way, however, it is only a few inches in depth, but the slickens beneath is soft and not inviting to an over degree of curiosity. From this point to near the north end of the dam no injury has been done whatever, and so far as can be seen the crest has not settled in the least out of range. The top of the dam is covered with heavy driftwood, much of which is composed of - Logs Two Feet In Diameter - Which have caught upon the crest and been left there as the river fell. Just before reaching the north end there is a small settle in the brush work, but none is gone, and beyond the bulkhead at the end of the dam the earth embankment adjoining the high ground has cut out for a space of 200 or 300 feet and down to the original surface. This was not a portion of the dam, but a connecting embankment with the high ground outside. - Above the portions of the dam where there has been no breaks, the sand and gravel is filled in and retained within two or three feet of the crest of the dam, and the hight is apparently continued with ascending grade as far up as can be seen, with an occasional small bowlder two or three inches in diameter. Upon the lower side of the dam the sand is from four to six feet lower than above. From immediately below where the water pitches over the dam, and down for a distance of several hundred feet, there has also been a large deposit of debris caused by the slower movement of the water, and which grows less as the water regains its velocity. - Within the dam, where the breaks occurred of course the sediment which has been filled in was carried through and into the river again below, and channels with sloping sides are thus formed inside the dam, leading to these breaks and extending as far above as could be seen from the crest. We were informed by a man who resides near by that prior to the breaks in the brush-work the water above the dam presented the appearance of a lake, being nearly still, and the accumulation of sediment apparently even the whole way across. - The Dam A Growing Thicket - The dam from one end to the other, including the mattresses below, where not covered too deep with sand, is now a dense growth of willow, except at the breaks. This willow growth has sprouted from the logs and brush of which the dam is composed, and presents the appearance of a green ridge, extending from one bank of the river to the other, and is from three to four feet in hight. New roots are thus forming, and the entire structure will soon become formidable from this new growth, and indestructible to any action of floods, and by slowing the water, if the old breaks are repaired, will stop the sediment and cause a building up and raising of the crest of the dam to quite without artificial means. This is as Captain Eads and the engineers stated would be the case, and but for the untoward circumstances which caused the break, the dam would now be growing into an indestructible barrier the entire distance between the high lands upon either side of the river. - The channel of the river at this point for the past few years has been close to the north side, along the Marysville levee or Brown's grade; but the main break near the center of the dam has changed this so that it now runs through about the center of the river flat. - Confidence in the Dam - Colonel Mendell and his assistant were highly pleased with the portions of the dam which remain intact, and are extremely anxious to have the breaks repaired, being entirely confident that by doing so the experiences of another winter will demonstrate that the original opinion of the engineers, that these structures could be made to perform the office for which they were intended, was correct. So confident is Colonel Mendell upon this point, that should the Drainage Act be declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, he would, if he had Government money at his disposal, repair these dams at once to prove their success. - The party afterwards made a careful examination for several miles above, going up on one side of the river and down the other, for the purpose of determining the extent of filling which had taken place as extending up the river. Before the dam was built the State Engineer had cross-section lines run across the river every two thousand feet for three and a half miles above, and marked by stakes and bank marks on each side of the river, so that the amount of filling which should take place could be accurately ascertained. Surveyors are now employed upon both sides of the river reviewing these cross-section lines, which will furnish accurate information upon the subject when the surveys and deductions are completed. - The Bear River Dam - The next day we made a trip to the Bear river dam and gave it careful inspection the entire length. We found in it two breaks. One near the north end is from 300 to 400 feet long, and the other is about 100 feet long and near the south end. Between those two breaks are settles in three or four places, where I should think the crest is two or three feet below its original alignment, and for a distance of perhaps 100 feet or so in a place. The structure at these places, however, is perfectly intact, and only settled out of line perpendicularly. This dam is also found to be growing a thick mat of young willows the entire length, except at the breaks mentioned, the growth being even denser and greater than that upon the Yuba. My impressions are that not so much sand and gravel deposit has been made in this dam as on the other river, but a very large amount is to be seen above, and is filled in to considerable depth. The surveyors, now upon the Yuba, will also make a similar survey above the Bear river dam. They will conclude the work and computations within about ten days. We found that Mr. O'Brien, Superintendent at the mines at Smartsville, is now building brush dams at the mouths of some of the ravines to hold back the tailings, so far as possible, and prevent injury below, should the injunctions be dissolved so that the mines can be worked. It was also stated that owners of other mines were moving in the same direction, with a view to protect, if possible, injury to the country below, and still continue the working of the mines. - Debris Dams a Necessity - Question - - Suppose the injunction suits now pending, or others which may be brought, should stop the hydraulic mining, would it be thought necessary to then make repairs to the debris dams which your Commission have built? - Answer - - The necessity for repairing these dams does not in any manner depend upon the success or failure of the suits against miners. The amount of debris now in the rivers and canyons above the dams renders it the part of wisdom to keep it out of the navigable rivers, or they will be destroyed, even if no further mining should be done. Persons who have not examined the subject have but little idea of the danger from this source. The amount lodged in the canyons and rivers above these dams is simply enormous, being in one place, to my knowledge, not less than 150 feet in depth. Of course this is an exception, but the amount is very great, and even if the mining should cease now this deposit would keep working down into the rivers and valleys, producing great damage. These dams are needed to hold back the debris now in the rivers and canyons, and it will be a profitable investment to add the small amount that it will now cost to make the m effective and successful. In case the mining should be stopped the dams will not only prevent the debris above from being brought down, but will also, by doing this, keep the water from being loaded with heavy material, and enable it to scour out and carry away the deposits in the beds of the rivers below. These dams therefore should be repaired and preserved, whether hydraulic mining is stopped by the Courts or not.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/29/1881 - The Yuba Dam: Its Present Condition and What It Has Accomplished - Desirability of Repairing It - Views of Experts - The following report of an examination of the brush dam on the Yuba river, will be read with interest by all classes of people: To the Miners' Association of California - - Gentlemen: I have, at your request, made a professional examination of the dam built by the Commissioners of Drainage District No. 1, across the Yuba river in 1880, and now beg leave to submit the following report: - Present Conditions of Dam - By the courtesy of the State Engineer, I have been furnished with copies of cross-sections taken at various points above and below the dam and across the Yuba river. These sections were first taken in 1880 just before the construction of the dam, were retraced during the present month, and show in detail, with sufficient accuracy, the present condition of the dam and the amount of material which has been lodged immediately above it since it was built. - The dam is a structure of brush laid parallel with the stream, with bending poles laid at right angles, and tied together with wire. A brush mattress is placed below the down-stream slope of the dam to protect it from under-cutting as the water passes over; the upper slope was protected by tiers of sand bags. The largest trees used have a diameter of about eight inches. Earth embankments connected the ends of the brush-work with the shore lines. - The total length of the dam is nearly 10,000 feet; its greatest hight, 14 feet; its cost was in the neighborhood of $120,000. - The dam has broken in three places, as follows: The earth embankment at the northern end has been washed away nearly down to the original level, from the end of the brush-work to the shore, a distance of 400 feet; the brush dam has been cut away entirely in two places - - one 760 and the other 230 feet in length, measured on the crest; in two places there are small gaps, but with the foundation undisturbed. Out of a total length of 10,000 feet there has, therefore, been destroyed about one-seventh. - The crest of the dam has settled an average of slightly less than two feet; this apparent settlement is nearly in proportion to the original height of the structure - - that is to say, it is generally greatest where the dam was highest, and has, without doubt, been nearly altogether caused by the compression of the loose brush into a solid mass by the pressure of the water which has passed over the crest. Along the whole length of the dam there are evidences of the large stream which flowed over it; heavy water-soaked logs, of two feet or more in diameter, are still resting on its crest, and the protection mattress, where not covered with sand, shows signs of the rush of the water. - In many places, both on the dam and on the protection mattress, willows are now sprouting and growing; their roots will have a very beneficial influence in matting or tying the whole structure securely together. It is a notable fact that none of the breaks occurred at the old river channels. The southern break - -230 feet in length - - was over an old slough. The bottom at the other breaks was not thought to be comparatively soft or infirm. The brush mattress below the dam has very satisfactorily answered its purpose in protecting the lower slope of the work from under-cutting. - Cause of the Breaks - The earth embankment which gave way was in all probability first attacked by water passing with considerable pressure through the interstices of the brush-work and washing away the earth immediately next to the brush bulkhead. After the water had once commenced cutting, as a matter of course the whole embankment soon crumbled away. This supposition is confirmed by the statements of eye-witnesses, and by a knowledge of the injudicious manner in which the earth and brush-works were connected. - The breaks in the dam proper were probably caused by strong currents of water sweeping along and undermining the upper or inner slope of the dam, the water escaping through the depressions caused by the compression before alluded to. Small brush buttresses, projecting at right angles up from the dam, would have greatly lessened the danger from any such undermining. - The flood of the past winter, which at its maximum is thought to be greater than the memorable flood of 1861-2, came upon the dam, soon after its completion, with great force. Had there been only the ordinary spring freshet, thus allowing the brush to be gradually filled and compacted with sediment, there would have been much less subsequent compression, and very likely the whole work would have stood in its entirety. - The dam was commenced at a late period in the season, and from the necessary haste in which it was built, it was doubtless impossible to devote that care in its construction which would have been taken had there been more time in which to do the work. - Benefits Resulting Already From The Dam - The sections before referred to, taken across the river, shows that fifty feet below the dam there has been an average erosion of 8-10 of a foot; fifty feet above the dam there has been an average fill of 55-100 of a foot; one half mile above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 8-10 of a foot; one mile above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 3-10 of a foot; one and a half miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 1 8-10 of a foot; two miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 4-10 of a foot; two and a half miles above the dam there has been an average fill of 3-10 of a foot. Still higher up the river, just below Smartsville, the bed is now much lower than in 1880. The total fill since 1880, for a distance of three and a half miles above the dam, is estimated at 4,851,000 cubic yards. - To my mind the foregoing facts show conclusively that this filling or restraint of nearly 5,000,000 cubic yards has been caused entirely by the presence of the dam, or, in other words, that had not the dam been built, all this material would have been washed still further down the stream, the larger portion lodging on the slackened grade near Marysville, the residue passing into the Feather river. - The serious breaks in the dam did not occur until the flood had, in a measure, spent its force, so that at the moment when Marysville was in greatest danger of inundation, a notable quantity of water was held back, together with a flow of sand, which would otherwise have materially increased the level of high water. - Judging from the accounts given me of the flood, it seems clear that to this dam Marysville is indebted for its safety during the past winter. - Cost and Advisability of Repairing The Dam - The tests to which the work now standing have been so severe, and the results on the whole so satisfactory in an engineering point of view, that I am convinced that the dam can and should be securely repaired. The breaks should be filled with brush-work, similar in general character, but more carefully executed, to the old structure; the dam should be, where settled or compressed, raised to a little above the original hight. When thus repaired, in my judgment, the work will stand the floods, and fully answer the purposes for which it was designed. - A contract can, I think, be made with responsible parties for the sum not over $50,000, who will agree to put the dam in good repair, and only receive their pay in case it stands intact until the summer of 1882. Without such guaranty the repairs can be executed for a much less sum. - The estimated storage capacity of the reservoir to be formed by the dam is 41,500,000 of cubic yards; deducting the 5,000,000 of yards now in place there remains 36,500,000 yards of storage capacity, which can be secured for the comparatively small sum of $50,000 or less. - The State Engineer estimates that the annual flow of material which can be impounded down the Yuba river averages abut 16,000,000 yards, all the mines being at work. This Yuba dam, will therefore, when restored, hold over two years' supply. It is probable that the flow of sand down the Yuba for several years to come will be below average, as the great flood of the past winter has swept down very much more than the usual quantity. - It has been objected to this dam, that in case of a break the impounded sands would pour out in a great flood on the lower lands. Were it a reservoir of water such would be the case, but with a filling of comparatively compact material any break would only result in the discharge of the sand cut out by the narrow current of water passing through the trench. The large amount of debris held back by the dam in its presently badly broken and incomplete state, is sufficient proof that this objection is practically an unsound one. - Conclusion - Should this dam be restored, and hold back from the Yuba and Feather rivers the injurious flow of sand and gravel - - all of which I believe that it will do - - the bitter contest now pending between miners and farmers can be brought to an end, before the strife has inflicted irreparable injury to either or both sides. - There is no question but what there is ample room in the Yuba canyons in which to store the mining debris for very many years to come. The magnitude of the mining interest is so great, that if it once be shown that this debris can be stored with safety, at a reasonable expense, then certainly ways and means will be found for the execution of the necessary engineering works. - Hence, I especially hope that the mining community will do all in its power to have this dam across the Yuba thoroughly repaired, so that its value may be determined with certainty. - It may be well to add that, even supposing mining to be discontinued, still the dam will be of great service in holding back the large deposits of sand and gravel already placed above it in the beds of the river and its branches. - Colonel George H. Mendell, of the United States Engineers, has been kind enough to give me the letter which is attached to this report. The views of Colonel Mendell will doubtless receive the attention which his high standing in the profession warrants. - Very respectfully, Hamilton Smith, Jr., San Francisco, July 27, 1881. - - - U. S. Engineer Office, No. 533 Kearny street, San Francisco, Cal., July 27, 1881} Hamilton Smith, Jr., San Francisco - - Dear Sir: I give, at your request, after an examination of the brush dam in the Yuba, my opinion as to its conditions and usefulness, past and prospective. - The portion of the dam which is standing seems to me to be firmly established, and not liable to destruction from the river. - The fact that breaches were made in the dam during the past winter does not impair my confidence in the stability of this kind of construction, and I believe that the breaches can be restored at a moderate cost. - The dam in its present broken condition has arrested considerable detritus, and if restored to its original integrity and hight, must, in my judgment be efficacious in impounding a large quantity, which, if not arrested, cannot fail to do great injury below. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. W. Mendell.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/23/1881 - Mining Mention - A correspondent of the Marysville Express says that Smartsville is all excitement over a rich strike recently made in the Forlorn Hope quartz mine. The mine is situated on Deer creek, one and half miles north of Rough and Ready, but the owners reside at Smartsville. The specimen rock that has been taken out of the mine has been inspected by many persons, who pronounce it the richest they ever saw.
Sacramento Daily Union - 9/8/1881 - Mining News: The noise of ten stamps pounding quartz in the Marc Anthony mill resounds among the hills near Timbuctoo. Several new claims have been located lately in that vicinity.
October 1881 - see transcriptions of The People v. The Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company court case
Daily Alta California - 10/25/1881 - At Smartsville: How the Board of Trade's Committee Were Treated, and What They Saw and Heard of Mining - Editors Alta: The long-looked for Debris Committee have come and gone, and our town has again resumed its normal state, the excitement incident upon their arrival having subsided. The Committee left Marysville yesterday morning at eight o'clock, and proceeded to Long Bar, where they were met by carriages from Smartsville. The next point of interest reached was the Excelsior Company's ranch, where they were right royally entertained by Mr. O'Brien, Superintendent of the Excelsior Company. After a splendid repast the party drove on to the dam built by the Excelsior Company to corral their tailings. This is the dam out of which grew that far-famed contempt case, the legal acumen shown by the plaintiffs being almost sufficient proof that Marysville ought to be submerged. The utility and durability of the dam was accurately explained by Mr. O'Brien and his mining colleagues. A fine opportunity was afforded the Grangers to ascertain many necessary, but alas, to them unknown facts, relative to the debris problem. We were quite willing to allow our farmer friends the benefits of an actual experience of slickens by embedding them in it yielding soil, living monuments of its fertilizing powers. Judging from to-days items of the Appeal the reporter proved himself unable to cope with the great subject at issue, and incapable of retaining correct information. Assuredly truth and justice are at a discount in that quarter. After a careful survey of the dam much wonder was expressed at the quantities of debris it had arrested; the purity of the water was also a marked feature. - The committee, as the guests of the Excelsior Company, were then taken to the Bonanza House. At seven o'clock dinner was served, and all the party did ample justice to the bountiful array before them. Among the guests so hospitably entertained we noticed many prominent Granger foes, who exhibited much surprise at the fine fruits and vegetables raised on slickens, and more so, when they were offered sufficient debris to fertilize their "barren valley lands." - In the evening a public meeting was held, but, as all the gentlemen were very much fatigued, it was not a protracted one. Judge Searls of Nevada, delivered a brief but eloquent address. His subject was of course the debris problem. He used facts as his basis, showing the depreciation of property consequent upon the stoppage of the mines, citing Nevada county as an instance. The assessable property of that county is quoted at ten millions of dollars. The permanent stoppage of the mines would render it comparatively worthless, as the mountain towns owe their support to the mines. He dwelt upon the willingness of the miners to effect an amicable adjustment of their difficulties and their earnest wish to avoid expensive litigation. The present legal warfare was aptly compared to a war between two nations - - after much suffering they are obliged to compromise. The speaker asserted the possibility of the miners impounding the debris through the instrumentality of dams, and closed by a manly appeal to the impartial judgment of the Debris Commission to aid in a satisfactory settlement of the question. - Mr. Hamilton Smith, Jr., the well-known mining engineer, was next called upon for a speech, but declined, pleading the fatigue of the Debris Committee. - The meeting was quiet and orderly, and we were sorry to notice the absence of the editor of the Bee. We would be pleased to have him see how respectably "outlaws," "criminals," etc., can behave when they come in contact with gentlemen. We learned that the gentleman in question was ill. The fever-laden atmosphere of Marysville no doubt is the cause. Why not come to Smartsville for the antidote? - The Committee left us this morning accompanied by Messrs. H. Smith, Jr., O'Brien and Madden, the members of the Press and others en route from San Juan, and from thence to North Bloomfield. - The members of the Board of Trade are intelligent, and, we trust, impartial men, as is also our noble Congressman elect Rosecrans. We gave them a hearty welcome, trusting to their clear sense of duty to aid the miners in stopping this seemingly endless litigation. Mr. O'Brien, the genial host, did his part admirably, giving the Committee the benefit of his varied knowledge of mining, acquired by a twenty-five years' residence in the heart of the mines. We hope for much from their visit, and only ask that justice be meted out to us. If our mines are to be closed, and our homes ruthlessly destroyed, then we shall appeal to a higher Court, and demand that our losses be made good. We have offered to aid the Grangers, spent money on their levees, and cheerfully paid our share of the Drainage Tax. They have refused all our overtures of peace. Among the leaders of this agitation we recognize men who have stored vast amounts of debris in the river. "We will fight for our own," is the cry of hundreds of workingmen, who will not allow their rights to be usurped by willy schemers. - We are deeply grateful to the Alta for its noble defence of the miners. It has their wishes for success, and will not lack their substantial aid in its circulation. - Mines. Smartsville, Yuba County, October 21st.
1882
Pacific Rural Press - 3/18/1882 - Debris and the Lower Sacramento Valley - Editors Press: There appeared in the Press some weeks back an article purporting to be a view of the Sacramento valley as it would be in 1890 should hydraulic mining continue. The graphic description of the prospective desolation may have seemed to some but an extravagant fancy, not possible to be realized under any circumstances in the reality. Yet evidence brought out in abundance in the late Gold Run suit showed how effectually the process of burial has been instituted, and how true in reality was the attempted depiction of the probable result. - Debris Analyzed - The material of which the debris entering the valley is composed is of a two-fold nature. The first element consists of gravel and sand, forming about two-thirds, and the second of clay, forming about one-third of the debris. The clay is carried in suspension by the water, and is not deposited unless the water reaches some place of comparative quiet. So long as the water is stirring this clay will continue with it. For this reason clay is the main element which reaches the bay. The sand is not dissolved and carried in suspension, but is lifted up and carried bodily by the water, as pebbles and bowlders are carried by torrents. In these rivers, after they reach the valley, the sand is partly carried and partly swept along the level bed in waves. Whenever the velocity ceases to be great enough to transport it, it is dropped. This deposition of sand commences in the mouths of the canyons just where the rivers issue from the hills. As fast as the channels have been filled up, it could be swept farther down, since the beds were unobstructed levels of sand. At the same time the upper courses of the rivers were raised. At Smartsville, 17 miles above Marysville, the bed of the Yuba river is raised 80 ft. At Marysville it is raised only about 20 ft. As a consequence, the velocities of the winter floods have been terrific, far into the valley. - The filling at the mouth of the Yuba, when compared to the filling below in the Sacramento, is heavy; and it is plain that it has caused a material increase in the velocity when it is considered that the fall in the valley, at least below Sacramento, is at the rate of four inches to the mile. The result has been that the sand has come to be shot right into the heart of the valley, as by sluices. It is this sand which is extensively destroying land in the valley. At points upon the Sacramento and Feather, in places where the water once entering is confined in comparative quiet, clay, or what may properly be called slickens, is being deposited. In its crude state, this is not fit for soil, because it contains no humus, while the constant floods prevent working. The result is loss to the owner equivalent to a total loss. But this covering by clay is not the burial of land which has been worked upon the Yuba, Bear, American, and parts of the Feather, and which is now fairly commencing to be worked upon the Sacramento. - That Burial is by the Sand - The clay but precedes the sand a few seasons. This distinction must be regarded, for the neglect or the failure to observe it has been the source of the false ideas in regard to the facility with which debris-covered lands could be restored to fertility, and has given the appearance of truth to the erroneous statements that the debris made good soil. Where only clay has been deposited, the process of reproducing a soil, productive in some degree at least, is one only of skillful treatment, of manuring and working. - The whole of the Yuba bottom stretching away from the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada to the Feather is covered with coarse sand, which, where too deep for willows to live from sustenance gained from the original soil a half dozen or fifteen feet below, is a level of bare sand drifting with the wind. This is the state of the Bear river valley, with the exception of a short strip on the north side next the hills, and, in the main, with the American. That the velocity of the rivers has carried this sand down the channels and filled the Sacramento channels to a depth of at least fifteen feet, is a notorious fact, but it has not been known that opposite Sacramento city, around Washington, and for twenty miles below, farms have been destroyed. This is getting rather far from the mines, and comparatively near to the bay. - In the Gold Run suit, I. N. Hoag testified: "From American river down as far as the sand goes, there are in 20 miles from 15 to 20 farms materially injured, and some of them ruined. Some are cultivated now in part, some abandoned." John Hoagland testified that on his place sand was left that would blow about with the wind. W. Hodgdon, living in Washington, testified that last year upon twenty acres of his land a deposit was left of three feet in depth of slickens, sand and debris, and in places so deep as to cover his fences. A. Henly testified that he owned 25 acres in Washington, and that it had been covered up with coarse gray sand, entirely unfitting it for agricultural purposes; and William Gwinn, that "on the road to Davisville and Woodland, he saw sand three feet deep each side of the road seven miles from Washington, and that in the willows back of Washington there was a deposit of sand from two to six feet in depth." There are heavy deposits opposite the English break, covering even the fences themselves. All this, it must be remembered, is upon the lower Sacramento. The water, also, is rising in the ground along the river in consequence of the filling so as to make the soil permanently dank, and the orchards are dying. This illustrates the - Process of Burial upon the Sacramento - In its incipiency. Yet the scale on which it has been instituted, and the early day at which it has commenced, may well cause alarm. The bottom of the American is just above and adjacent, yet that is already destroyed. C. W. Clark testified that he owned 10,000 acres fronting upon the American, which he formerly used for pasturage, but which is now more or less covered with sand and will raise nothing. Jos. Routier, of Brighton township, testified that the original banks of the American rose 40 ft. above the original low-water mark, but now the bottom has been raised more than 26 ft. The channel is filled up entirely to about two miles above his place. One thousand acres on his side are covered with white sand from 6 to 10 ft. in depth. The bottom is five miles wide. Trees along the river bank have been imbedded from 10 to 20 ft. I. N. Hoag testified that, from the overflows of '50, barely a perceptible effect upon the land was discoverable. Now, overflows cover the land with sediment. The American is in truth virtually destroyed, and the evidence shows that the front of the sand has reached the Sacramento bottom. - The effect is inevitable. The Sacramento bottom will in 10 years, if hydraulic mining continues as at present, become a stretch of sandy waste extending through the valley, as the Bear and Yuba are not extending to the Feather; and a waste that will be widening out into the valley. Washington is as desolate a looking place as any ever seen, yet the same fate awaits Sacramento. The river has filled between the two at least 15 ft., and one-third at least of its volume is now shifted to the country about and beyond Washington. It will not take more than 3 or 4 years to fill the channel up 15 ft. more, and thus to shed the water upon either side making the site of Sacramento city untenantable and its drainage impossible. These considerations merely show the ruinous nature, in the reality, of those operations which it is sought to prove in the present suits illegal, and which in case those suits are decided adversely to the plaintiffs, it will be necessary through the political action of the Legislature to make illegitimate, if the heart of the State is to be preserved from devastation. J. H. D.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/22/1882 - Pacific Slope: Rich Mining Strike - Smartsville, April 21st - While running a cut in the Blue Point mien yesterday the workmen opened into a rich bed of blue gravel. It is by far the richest strike ever known here, paying from $8 to $10 to the pan.
Sacramento Daily Union - 6/27/1882 - California: Demand Upon the Hydraulic Miners. - Marysville, June 26th. - The following is furnished the press for publication: To the persons and corporations engaged in hydraulic mining upon the Yuba and Bear rivers: As the duly authorized representatives of the citizens of Marysville and of the Sacramento Valley Anti-Debris Association, we respectfully call your attention to the fact that your assumed right to use the beds of said rivers as a place for the deposit of your mining debris has been denied after a long and patient trial before a Judge of your own choice, in the test case against the Gold Run Mining Company. In view of this, it becomes our clear right and duty to demand, and we hereby demand, of you that within fifteen days from this date you cease to deposit your mining debris in said rivers or their tributary streams, and we hereby notify you that a refusal to comply with this reasonable and lawful demand will oblige the parties injured by you to resort to the Courts for appropriate redress. A. C. Bingham, Mayor of the city of Marysville, C. S. Sexey, President of the Sacramento Valley Anti-Debris Association, Marysville, June 26, 1882.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/8/1882 - California: Miners and Farmers - Council at Marysville - Marysville, July 7th. - A private conference was held here last evening between the Mayor and the officers of the Anti-Debris Association, and a number of taxpayers on one part, and Hamilton Smith, President of the Miners' Association, and James O'Brien, of Smartsville, representing the six companies controlling all the water for hydraulic mining purposes on the Yuba river. - Smith and O'Brien made this proposition as a basis of the settlement of the debris difficulty: The miners will, within thirty days from an agreement, begin the construction of a stone dam in the Yuba river at Rose's bar, just above Smartsville, and 26 miles by the river above Marysville. The river at this point is 300 feet wide, with high, precipitous walls of rock. A strong wooden crib will be first bolted immovably to the bedrock, and then masses of rock will be blasted in from the banks above the crib, to form a sold bedrock dam. The miners will engaged to spend $200,000 on the work, and to build the dam 80 feet high the first year, increasing its hight as necessity may require. They will engage to hold back all the debris, so that the water will not carry it in suspension over the dam. If the dam should fail of its object they will cease dumping debris into the river; or if one stone dam be not sufficient they will construct other supplementary dams of brush or other materials. They might agree to place in Colonel Mendell's hands a fund for this work to be expended under his direction. - The intention would be to raise the stone dam at Rose's Bar to a hight of 200 or 300 feet, thus making available for irrigation the whole flow of the river, 40,000 inches at its lowest stage. This water would irrigate 100,000 or 150,000 acres of the plains and foothill lands, greatly increasing its value. It was with a view to control the water for irrigation that the miners lately pre-empted ten miles of the river-bed, above Smartsville, to be used as a reservoir. - The miners, further, are willing to introduce into the next Legislature a bill to compel all the hydraulic companies on the Yuba to pay a pro rata tax on the dam, and also to compel the hydraulic miners, wherever practicable, to build dams in the ravines and canyons to prevent the flow of debris into the river. - The proposition, as above outlined, was discussed at length. The anti-debris men insisted that the miners must cease discharging debris into the river pending the construction of the dams. To this the mining representatives could not consent, and no settlement was reached. Negotiations, however, are not yet ended, and correspondence is to follow. Smith and O'Brien left his morning, and O'Brien says that if all the mines now running should be stopped by injunction, all the water available would still be used in hydraulic mining, as there are twenty mining claims lying idle and undeveloped for want of water, to one now in operation. These new mines would send down six cubic yards of material where the deep gravel mines now working send down one cubic yard. He contends that the mines never can be stopped by injunction, as injunctions are laid on men, not on mines, and that as fast as one set of men are enjoined, the new men will step in and resume the work.
1883
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/1/1883 - A Tour of Inspection - Marysville, December 31st - Judge Sawyer, of the United States Circuit Court, arrived this morning from Smartsville, where he has been inspecting the hydraulic mines to-day. He visited the brush dam on the Yuba, the Hock farm on Feather river and other points in this vicinity, to ascertain something of the nature and extent of the damage from debris. He leaves for San Francisco to-morrow morning by steamer, taking the water route in order to see for himself what changes mining debris has made in the rivers.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/2/1883 - California: A Sheriff Outwitted - Smartsville, March 1st. - Sheriff McCoy, of Yuba county, arrived at 7 a.m. to-day, presumably to serve an injunction. By means of signals the miners were apprised of his approach, and when he entered the Golden Gate mine not a man could be found. It is currently reported that if the men are obliged to quit their wives will work the mines, as they are not disposed to leave their homes.
Sacramento Daily Union - 3/7/1883 - Brief Notes: To Visit the Mines - Judge Sawyer, of the United States Circuit Court, will go up to the mines on next Friday, for the purpose of viewing the workings of the hydraulic process previous to rendering a decision in the Woodruff case. Several weeks ago he started on a similar tour, and at Nevada City was stopped by a snow-storm, and returned by way of Smartsville to Marysville, from whence he came down the river, accompanied by a number of the members of the Anti-Debris State Association, for the purpose of seeing the effects of mining on the river.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/11/1883 - Seeking Information - Colonel J. M. Wilson, of the office of Chief Engineer, U. S. A., at Washington, was in this city yesterday. He has been sent to this coast under orders from the Secretary of War to ascertain the exact feeling of the people upon the subject of building the proposed restraining dams upon the Yuba and Bear rivers to hold back the tailings from hydraulic mines. He states that so far as data upon the debris subject is concerned the authorities at Washington are most amply supplied, and that his present visit in no way relates to, nor includes that branch of the question. He has been to San Francisco since his arrival in California, and left for Marysville yesterday in the afternoon. In this connection it may be stated as a fact known for some days past, in well informed circles, that a proposition has recently been forwarded to the Secretary of War from the Miners' Association, to furnish $125,000 towards the construction of a dam above Smartsville, on the Yuba, at the point frequently talked of, provided the Secretary of War would allow a like amount to be used upon the same structure from the appropriation made by the Government for the Sacramento river.
1884
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/9/1884 - The Mining Decision: Some Items of Interest Concerning the Hydraulic Mining Injunction - The one overshadowing topic of conversation and congratulation among the citizens of Sacramento yesterday was the great injunction suit, and the six and half column report of the decision in the Record-Union was eagerly sought after and thoroughly perused. During the day a dispatch was received in the city and published in the evening paper, announcing that the stay of proceedings granted by the United States Circuit Court did not extend to a suspension of the judgment enjoining the operation of the mines, but referred only to a stay so far as costs of the action are concerned, in order that the same may be properly adjusted. There was some inquiry as to the number of mines enjoined by the Court. The defendants in the action are: North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, the Milton Water and Mining Company, the Omega Gold Mining and Ditch Company, the Conley & Gowell Consolidated Mining Company, the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, and the firm of Chadwick & Campbell. - The Marysville Appeal says, as a matter of detail concerning a fact already understood, that "the suit was brought by Edward Woodruff, of New York, a member of the firm of Packard & Woodruff, formerly of this city. The firm own real estate in Marysville, and also on the Feather river below the mouth of the Yuba. The plaintiff, being a non-resident of the State, was entitled to bring suit in the United States Circuit Court." The action was commenced in September, 1882. The testimony was taken in June, July and August, 1883. It was charged in the suit that the companies enjoined used over 13,000 inches of water per day and deposit in the rivers or tributaries over 60,000 cubic yards of solid matter daily. The journal already quoted has this to say concerning the companies enjoined: "The North Bloomfield mines are in Nevada county, at an elevation of 2,800 feet above the sea. The tailings from these mines flow into the South Yuba, through a short and steep tributary called the Humbug Creek. The North Bloomfield Company has been constantly adding to the extent of its operations from year to year since it began the working of its mines, and has steadily added to its water supply. In 1872 the company used a total supply of 132,000 inches of water, and in 1882 it used 1,005,000 inches. The Milton mines are also in Nevada county, at French Corral, and near Sweetland. They are 1,800 feet above the sea, and their tailings are discharged into the South and Main Yuba rivers. The mines of the Omega Company, likewise in Nevada county, are situated at Omega, 3,750 feet above the sea. Their tailings flow into the South Yuba through a short and steep tributary called Scotchman's creek. The Conley & Gowell mine is at Nevada City, 2,580 feet above the sea, and its tailings are discharged into Deer creek, thence flowing into the Main Yuba river. The mines of Chadwick & Campbell are at Sailor Flat, Nevada county, 2,680 feet above the sea, and the tailings go into the South Yuba through a short and steep ravine. The mines of the Excelsior Company are near Smartsville, and are partly in Yuba and partly in Nevada county, at an elevation of about 500 feet above the sea. The tailings from these mines flowed into Deer creek and the Main Yuba river. The Excelsior mines have not been operated for many months, the company having been enjoined, in a suit brought by Yuba county, from discharging debris into the Yuba river or its tributaries."
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/21/1884 - Further Press Expressions Concerning Judge Sawyer's Decision - Upon the subject of the recent decision in the Woodruff case, the Watsonville Pajaronian says: United States Judges Sawyer and Deady have decided adversely to the hydraulic miners in the famous debris case. From a legal standpoint the decision the decision of the Judges may be correct, but it cannot be denied that the miners also had grounds for their position. The debris that is annually washed down the Yuba, Feather, Sacramento and American rivers has done untold damage, has ruined large sections of farming land, has impoverished many farmers, depreciated values of property in the Sacramento valley counties, has increased taxation in those counties, is a growing menace to the farmers of that section, has obstructed navigation of streams, and thus prevented competition for the carrying trade, and has retarded the development of the Sacramento valley. But the miners are the pioneers of the State. Long before farming had attained any degree of importance in California the miners were burrowing the earth and washing down mountains in their search for gold. In the pursuit of this hazardous enterprise - - mining - - they have invested millions of dollars. Dependent upon these mines are thousands of men and their families. Gravel mining cannot be profitably conducted except by hydraulicking. That means debris, and that debris, when rains come and streams are swollen, is washed down on the valleys. The decision of Judges Sawyer and Deady is a death-blow to hydraulic mining, and the stoppage of that industry will throw thousands out of work, will make their homes valueless, will close the great water mining ditches, and will destroy the vast capital invested in gravel mining. The question is a vexed one, and its final solution means death either to gravel mining or to farming in the Sacramento valley. It has been and is a question of importance, and Sacramento valley farmers feel joyous of the victory they have gained. But the mountain canyons are filled with debris, and even if the mines are closed down it will be many years before the mountains will cease deluging the valley with slickens at the annual flood time. Two interests of great importance, two sections representing entirely different classes, have been arrayed against each other, and as a natural consequence the most bitter feeling has been provoked. It has been a desperate struggle, one that was inevitable, and the decision is, we believe, legally sound; but to one who has seen the land wasted by slickens and has seen the great slicken sources of supply, the vast amount of people deriving their support from the mining interest, it seems that it was a question exceedingly difficult of solution. It may benefit the valley counties, but it will injure Plumas, Shasta, Butte, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado and other mining counties. - The Reno Gazette thus comments on the effects of the decision on Nevada county: California has been enjoying a season of real prosperity, and her cities have felt the influence very much, but she will experience a temporary change for the worse, unless we are very much mistaken. The set-back to hydraulic mining will certainly be felt. A county like Nevada cannot be taken out of a small State without being felt, and Judge Sawyer's decision pretty much wipes Nevada county off the map, for the time being. Her mines have employed many men, and paid heavy taxes; now they can do neither. Her villages have been good customers to the cities of the plains, but now they will probably have to compromise. Her case is that of a large parte of Butte, Placer and El Dorado counties. If there are not very heavy rains soon the valleys will suffer greatly also, and the men who sit by the Golden Gate and make their living by levying a toll on all goods that come into the country will find themselves suddenly collapsed. Property will go down, rents will drop, labor will be scarce, and money hard to get. California will be great in the future, but she will have her ups and downs, and she will be in the downs for a period, we imagine. - The Grass Valley Tidings, referring to comments about diversion of water and labor from hydraulic mining to fruit raising, etc., says: The mountain people know that the country where the hydraulic mines are is too high and the climate too cold for any kind of grapes, or for any of the fruits excepting apples. Smartsville mines are an exception in this thing of altitude. Potatoes will grow at Bloomfield and Moore's Flat. The farmer, however, who would try to make a living by raising apples, potatoes or grass at those places, where mining is stopped, would be a fit subject for the lunatic asylum. Drift mining is the only thing that can now save a number of the towns of this county. Farming all the ground around them will not support half a dozen people. If mining were stopped in Grass Valley, which is much better situated for farming than are the hydraulic mining regions of this county, our population would soon dwindle from seven thousand to about thirty people. Farming and fruit growing help us greatly, but that business is profitable because mining makes the ready market for farm and orchard products.
Daily Alta California - 1/31/1884 - Coast News: Notice to Quit - Nevada, Cal., January 30th. - C. H. Peterson, Deputy United States Marshal, who on Monday last served a copy of Judge Sawyer's anti-mining decree on the agent here of the Manzanita Hydraulic Mine, returned this non from the upper part of the country, where he had served the papers on the Superintendent of the Milton, North Bloomfield and Silver Flat claims. He was saved a visit to Omega by meeting here this afternoon N. C. Tully, Superintendent of the company operating there. In the morning he goes to Smartsville to find the Superintendent of the Excelsior, the only defendant in the Woodruff case not yet served by him.
Daily Alta California - 3/22/1884 - Hydraulicking: The Water Flumes Available for Irrigating Purposes - (Marysville Appeal) - The Excelsior Mining Company of Smartsville has about 44 miles of ditches, furnishing a minimum supply of 3,000 inches of water. The Golden Gate Company, of the same place, has 28 miles of ditches, and its least supply is 500 inches of water. Both these companies in the Winter season have very much more water at command for daily use than the quantity named. As their ditches are not in the high Sierra, the expense of maintaining them in good condition is comparatively slight. The enforced cessation of hydraulic mining by these companies does not by any means destroy the value of their water rights. There has never been any interference on the part of the Valley with the recognized water "rights" of these companies; it is only their water wrongs that have been suppressed. The right to use their water for purposes of irrigation remains to these companies, and in the future they, or their successors in interest, will probably find for all their water profitable employment in irrigation. Their ditches are high enough to irrigate a wide belt of foothill lands, extending many miles south of Smartsville, and far down into the valley. The Golden Gate Company formerly supplied water to certain mines at Spenceville, ten miles south of Smartsville. A portion of the Excelsior Company's water has for years been diverted for purposes of irrigation, and where the water has been used on the foothills profitable crops of alfalfa have been grown.
1885
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/24/1885 - Complacent Repose: Everything Quiet in Valley and Mountains: Valley People Content with Anti-Debris Decisions - Hydraulickers Running Their Monitors - The arrest on Monday of Patrick Campbell, a mining Superintendent of Smartsville, for contempt of Court in evading service of papers, and continuing for some time to run by hydraulic process the Blue Point mine at that place, calls to public attention the fact of the utter complacency with which the valley people are resting in the "safety acquired and guaranteed from further injury from slickens" by the decisions of Judge Temple and Sawyer, while with few exceptions the hydraulic mines are being worked as actively and vigorously as before, and without concealment or interference. - This fact has been plainly stated before in these columns, and no one who has eyes to see the Sacramento water as it turbidly flows by, or as the slickens settles in the bottoms of the glasses upon our tables at the daily meals, or gratuitously thickens and richly odors our asparagus and peas cooked with it, can say for an instant that they are not, and have not been fully aware that the little giants are still vigorously sending us our potions of slickens with all the regularity and freshness of any time in the past. - There were a few months, following the decision referred to, that many, or most, of the mines, even those not included in the injunction orders of Court, ceased hydraulicking, and the water in the streams coming down from the mining sections was comparatively clear. This was a subject of general observation and congratulation, except upon the part of those who had become so accustomed and attached to the slickens mixture, that the change made, rendered the water to them most distressingly thin. That complaint, however, soon lost its point and the water its thinness. The little giants were again gradually and quietly let loose in mines not specially enjoined, and their managers have continued to operate them, "with none to molest or make them afraid," while the people of the valley, including the Anti-Debris Association, have complacently sat with most profound peace and enjoyment in the ambrosial shade of their own vines and fig trees, gratefully communing over the protection and security acquired by the Temple and Sawyer decisions, and ignoringly treating the practice of hydraulic mining as a matter of the dead past, or as ancient history. - During the present session of the Legislature a decided breeze sprang up throughout the valley concerning the amendment offered by Senator Cross, of Nevada county, wherein he desired to grant to miners, through the irrigation bill then under consideration, some additional privileges in regard to water rights, and which were regarded by the entire press of this city and the valley with great jealousy, as perhaps "opening the way to the resumption of hydraulic mining." The amendment was defeated, but during the discussion the "inconsistency," as it was called, of its opponents and of the valley people was frequently broached, to the effect that we were extremely fearful that the Temple and Sawyer decisions should be interfered with, whereas hydraulic mines were then openly being worked all over the mountains, contrary to those decisions and without a word being said. The uncomfortable part of these thrusts was that they were undeniably and baldly true. - These statements are no revelation to anyone. Parties returning from trips to the mountains are constantly remarking about seeing hydraulic mining in progress at various points and that fact is not a matter "hid under a bushel," nor has it been for many months past, to anyone who had the capacity to know and realize one of the simplest and most palpable facts existing in the State. - The following communication, which is pertinent to the subject under consideration, has just been received from a prominent gentleman of this city, who has just returned from a pleasure trip of a few days in the mountains: Sacramento, April 22, 1885. Eds. Record Union: Having been on a pleasure trip through the mining sections of our mountains upon the head waters of the streams which bring us our slickens, I was somewhat surprised to see how little the people living in the valley realize what little effect has been produced by the decisions against hydraulic mining and the injunction issued under them. I have seen for myself, during my trip, that the hydraulic miners are at work as hard as ever, and send down the debris as fast as the water can bring it. At Dutch Flat the monitors are doing their destructive work, and also at Gold Run the little giants are tearing down the mountains and sending them down to us in solution and coarser detritus, not only as fast as the water will wash it down, but blasting is added to the process, and thus the slickens are more rapidly manufactured to fill up our streams. Blast after blast are constantly being sent off in this work, and the reports are heard for miles around. I was first attracted by the reports of the blasts and next by the roaring of the water and tumbling of the rocks. At Iowa Hill hydraulic mining is done at the Hobson claim when there is water to be had, and at other places in that vicinity. - When I stood and watched the monitors in those different mines running and dumping slickens down into the streams, to flow down to the valley, and especially at Gold Run, I could not help querying to myself, "What has become of the Anti-Debris Association; of the injunction of the Gold Run case, which cost Sacramento county upwards of $20,000; of the strenuous efforts put forth to secure the decisions rendered by Judge Temple and Judge Sawyer, which was to close all the mines, but which, having been secured, have been allowed to virtually stand as dead letters? What was the use in going to the great expense this county and the people of the valley did, and then as soon as the hard-earned decision of our right to enjoin hydraulic mining was obtained, and the lawyers fees paid in full, then sit down and let the unlawful method of mining continue as though the Courts had decided in favor of the miners, and granted them unlimited power to send hills and mountains down upon us in retail or wholesale, as best suited them and the supply of water permitted? - Injunctions ought to be at once obtained and served upon all these mines, and, if necessary, employ patrolmen, whose business it should be to patrol the sections where the hydraulic process is used. The men thus employed would have to be those, however, not easily bribed. Respectfully, G. F. - When the facts in this letter and the above are considered, it is easy to see how residents of the mining sections regard the arrest of any individual violator of decisions or injunctions, while "the woods are full" of others doing the very same thing, and without the slightest interference by any one with their operations. This discloses the apparent reason for the criticism contained in the following dispatch, which was published in the Record Union on Tuesday: Smartsville (Yuba county), April 21st. P. Campbell, a prominent hydraulic miner of this place, was arrested at Wheatland last night, taken to Marysville and lodged in jail for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction of the Superior Court of this county. The arrest and imprisonment is denounced in unmeasured terms by our citizens. As the managers of the Anti-Debris Association in Marysville are aware that the largest mines in Nevada and Sierra counties are being run to their fullest capacity, the opinion is generally expressed in this section that the prosecution of the debris suits is conducted more with a spirit of persecution than with a desire to stop mining. - Whether it is literally true that the "largest mines in Nevada and Sierra counties are being run to their fullest capacity," we cannot say, but that it is true that mines by the scores, which come within the spirit and prohibition of the decisions of Judges Temple and Sawyer, are being openly worked by hydraulic process every one knows, unless he is incapable of knowing anything. The injustice does not reside in the fact that one who has evaded and defied the Courts has been at last arrested, but in the pungent fact that all who have been duly enjoined from further mining by hydraulic process, and failed to desist, have not also been compelled to comply with the mandates of the Courts; and in the further fact that some of the mine proprietors have been enjoined and in good faith have obeyed the orders of Court, while others, committing like injury in violation of the law, have been permitted to continue their work and to reap profits from their wrong-doing. - The enforcement of respect for our Courts by prompt action in punishing open and defiant contempt of its orders is right and essential to the maintenance of any law or order in society, but the unequal enforcement of law, leaving a privileged class to do what others are prohibited from doing, is equally as reprehensible and dangerous as the act of contempt, and affords just ground for complaint on the part of those who honorably comply with the law of the land as ascertained and laid down by the Courts. There is but one way which is alike just to the people of the valley and those of the mountains, and that is the prompt and complete enforcement of the law concerning hydraulic mining as it has been construed and determined by the Courts.
Daily Alta California - 5/17/1885 - A Fine Paid - Marysville, May 16th. - Pat Campbell, by the advice of his attorneys, came up from San Francisco to-day and paid his fine of $500 for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction issued out of the Superior Court of Yuba county against the owner of the Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville. This is the famous case in which Chief Justice Morrison has issued seven writs of habeas corpus.
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/18/1885 - Pacific Coast: Pat. Campbell, by advice of his attorneys, has paid his fine of $500 for contempt of Court in disobeying an injunction issued out of the Superior Court of Yuba county against the owner of the Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville.
Sacramento Daily Union - 10/8/1885 - Vast Mineral Wealth - The Marysville Appeal of October 4th says: A gentleman and an old quartz miner just down from the foothills reports having visited the new quartz mine near Brown's valley and Timbuctoo and is much pleased with the prospects. The Rising Sun mine on Dry creek, near Brown's valley, owned by Ogden, Simms, Pender and the two McCauslands, is turning out very fine ore in quantities, and of very fine grade, the best, in fact, he has seen for many days. Landis and Loveridge are in 160 feet on a gentle incline in their mine near Timbuctoo. The ledge is three feet thick and good ore, very easily worked. The ore is sulphurets, however, and one informant is of the opinion that it cannot be worked by the free-gold process. Roasting or some other sulphuret process will have to be resorted to. There is a quartz belt commencing near Timbuctoo, and running northeasterly for a distance of three miles, which contains good ore and will be worked in time. Vast mineral wealth lies hidden in our foothills, which can be worked profitably without detriment to the valley when the right sort of men get hold of it.
Sacramento Daily Union - 12/18/1885 - California: Ordered to Show Cause. - Smartsville, December 17th. - Sheriff Inlow yesterday served papers on Campbell, Rigby and Dever, citing them to appear before the Superior Court of Yuba county, to show cause why they should not be punished for an alleged contempt of Court, for violating the debris injunction. - Another Account. - Marysville, December 17th. - On the 10th instant an order was issued out of the Superior Court of this county, directing Patrick Campbell, Joseph Rigby, James Devers and Ah You to appear before the Court on January 11th, and to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt, for having violated an injunction of the Court, restraining them from hydraulic mining in the Golden Gate Consolidated mine at Smartsville, in this county. The order was made upon the affidavit of P. Butler, a watchman in the employ of the Anti-Debris Association. The papers were served on the parties yesterday by Sheriff Inlow. The mine is leased by Campbell to a gang of Chinamen, under the leadership of Ah You. When the Sheriff visited the mine for the purpose of serving the papers, the Chinese had two streams playing on the bank, and about twenty men, equally divided between white and Chinese, were at work in the mine. Campbell is the man made famous by the many writs of habeas corpus issued in his behalf in an attempt by him to evade the payment of a $500 fine for a previous contempt of the same nature, but which he was finally compelled to pay.
1886
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/4/1886 - A Mining Venture - Marysville, January 2d. - A company of thirty-six men, principally of Marysville, has been formed to run a tunnel for quartz at Timbuctoo, in this county.
Daily Alta California - 1/11/1886 - Mining News: The success of the Rising Sun quartz mine has stimulated further prospecting in the foothills of Yuba county. A company of thirty-six members, thirty-two of whom are solid citizens of Marysville and four of Smartsville, has been formed to run a tunnel in the hills near Timbuctoo.
Sacramento Daily Union - 1/22/1886 - P. Campbell, of Smartsville, came down yesterday, going to San Francisco. The mining case in which he was a defendant, and Yuba county plaintiff, which had been on trial at Marysville during the week, was closed Wednesday afternoon and submitted, each side having until the 26th inst. to file briefs. Court, lawyers, and everybody else were glad to have the matter brought to a conclusion, as the storm that day had blown down the firewalls of the Courthouse, wrecking the roof, and giving a portion of the building a drowning out.
Daily Alta California - 1/25/1886 - Coast Notes: President Bowles of the Excelsior Mining Company, of Smartsville, has called a meeting of the farmers of Penn Valley and Indian Springs, to consider a project for the construction of a large irrigating ditch.
Sacramento Daily Union - 2/24/1886 - Miners Fined for Contempt of Court - Marysville, February 23d. - In the Superior Court of Yuba county, last Friday, Pat Campbell, Joseph Rigby and Ah You were fined $500 each, and James Devers $50, for contempt of Court, by reason of violating an order of the Court, which enjoined the Golden Gate hydraulic mine at Smartsville from further hydraulicking. Sheriff Inlow yesterday arrested Devers, Rigby and Ah You, and lodged them in the County Jail. Campbell was not to be found to-day. Money was telegraphed from Grass Valley with which to pay the fines of all, Campbell included.
Daily Alta California - 2/24/1886 - Two Miners Sent to Jail - Smartsville, February 23d. - Judge Keyser, Superior Judge of this county, has fined Campbell, Dover [sic] and Rigby one thousand and fifty dollars, for contempt of court, in running a mine. In default of payment Sheriff Inslow arrested and committed to jail Dover and Rigby. The mine has been worked on a small scale. The debris being retained by a perfect system of restraining dams. The largest mines in Sierra county are being run to their fullest capacity with the tacit consent of the Anti-Debris Association. - Marysville, February 23d. - In the Superior Court of Yuba county last Friday, Pat Campbell, Joseph Rigby and Ah You were fined $500 each, and James Devers $50, for contempt of Court by reason of violating an order of Court which enjoined the Golden Gate hydraulic mine at Smartsville from hydraulicking. Sheriff Inloe yesterday arrested Devers, Rigby and Ah You and lodged them in the County Jail. Campbell was not to be found. To-day money was telegraphed from Grass Valley with which to pay the fines of all, Campbell included.
Sacramento Daily Union - debate regarding slickens as fertilizer
Daily Alta California - 3/15/1886 - Mining News - The Marysville Quartz Mining Company struck the lead in their tunnel at Timbuctoo when they had advanced seventy feet.
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/17/1886 - Cited to Appear for Contempt - Smartsville, April 16th. - McPhetridge and Hoffman, anti-debris watchmen, served papers on James Dever to-day, citing him to appear before the Superior Court for alleged contempt in operating the Golden Gate mine.
Daily Alta California - 7/5/1886 - Mining Notes: About eighteen months ago James Landis and Merwin Loveridge, of Trinity county, went to Smartsville to prospect for quartz, during which time they have worked steadily to uncover a bonanza, and have sunk on the ledge 125 feet. Quartz experts pronounce it a very fine ledge. It is learned that several tons of the rock milled $7 per ton gold, the sulphurets going $63. When it is considered that the rock can be milled for $1.50 per ton it must appear that there are indications that this great quartz belt will be shown up, and that Yuba, at no distant day, will stand in the front as a quartz-mining county. With that class of mining the prosperity of the neighboring town of Smartsville is assured, and will add materially to the wealth of the entire country. ( Marysville Appeal.) - Gentlemen, whenever the Slate Creek mines convert their hydraulic ditches into irrigation canals, as the old Excelsior Mining Company has done, the anti-debris cause will be in a better way than the foolish riparian position of Sexey & Co. will warrant us in expecting in the near future. (Marysville Democrat)
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/10/1886 - Irrigation Following Hydraulicking - It will be a good thing for the mining counties, as well as for the State, when the last hydraulic monitor shall have ceased its destructive work, since drift mining employs ten men where hydraulicking makes work for but one. In its vast reservoirs and hundreds of miles of ditches, hydraulic mining has left a legacy to the State that may, through the use of water for irrigation, accomplish much benefit. It is stated that the Excelsior Company at Smartsville is making arrangements for the employment of its copious flow of water in the irrigation of thousands of acres of foothill lands. Should orange culture be extensively engaged in upon the foothills, the water could be made to yield a handsome revenue to the company. For years past the company has grown alfalfa upon its own foothill lands, by means of irrigation. It is hardly probable, however, that all the reservoirs and ditches in the mountains can be profitably used for irrigation. Some of them cost a great deal to maintain and repair, and are situated so high in the mountains as to be much above the belt where they could be available for irrigation purposes. But it is unquestionable that, in the course of time, much of the water hitherto diverted from the rivers for mining purposes will be used for irrigation, with results far more beneficial to the State. - Oakland Times
1887
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/14/1887 - Good News for Miners: The Golden Gate Hydraulic Mine Converted into a Drift Mine - The Golden Gate hydraulic mine of Smartsville - - famed because of its richness - - has been found to pay well by the drifting process and by drifting it will hereafter be worked. It is supposed that at least 100 men will thus find employment year in and year out. This being the case the beautiful little town of Smartsville will experience in a measure its former prosperity, after years of waiting. The Marysville Democrat of July 9th has the following in this connection: "Yesterday Charley Compton and W. W. Chamberlain, of Smartsville, came before the Board of Supervisors of this county with a petition, setting forth that they are the lessees of the Golden Gate mine at Smartsville, commonly known as the Pat Campbell mine; that they now propose to work the said mine as a drift mine; that they have struck a very rich drift, and that all they lack of being able to successfully operate the mine is to get the old tunnel, flume and cut (heretofore used in hydraulicking) open so as to have drainage for the mine, and that the said tunnel, cut and flume must be opened up by sluicing the material now in them through the tunnel and into the ravine adjoining the river, requiring two or three hours work; therefore they petitioned the Board to give its consent to allow them to then sluice the material out. Supervisors Malalley, Arnold and Pine signed a permit, and the petitioners went home last night rejoicing. They think they will be able to give employment at fair wages to about 120 men. This will revive things at Smartsville, and create large trade for Marysville, and will not in any sense damage the Yuba river more than any other quartz or drift mine." - Grass Valley Tidings, July 11th.
1888
Pacific Rural Press - 1/28/1888 - Agricultural Notes - Yuba - The Smartsville Ditch. - Marysville Appeal, Jan. 20: James O'Brien said yesterday concerning his irrigating ditch enterprise: "I have let the contract to two parties, and they must have it done by the first of April. There are now 40 men at work, one contractor employing some Chinamen. Before long there will be over 100 men at work. The ditches and pipes will be about 14 miles in length, running from the northeast of Timbuctoo, where I tap the river, to my ranch above Riley Lane's place. I can take 10,000 inches. My ditches will carry 8000, but I do not propose to use over 2000 at the start. This will irrigate the 4000 acres of land which I desire to use. Of course I shall sell water, and at a surprisingly low figure. The lands there now are cheap, but when the water is on them, look out for a big raise. These acres grow sheep now, but within the next few years they will grow anything."
Daily Alta California - 8/6/1888 - Mining Notes: A Smartsville correspondent of the Wheatland Four Corners writes: A party of Marysville citizens visited this place the first of the week, making a preliminary survey with a view of running a tunnel through Sand Hill for a twofold purpose - - first, to tap and prospect the quartz ledges located in the hill, and second, to run the Yuba River through the tunnel and work the bed of the river below the old Rose Bar dump. There is no doubt the scheme is practicable, and if perfect titles can be secured to the connecting properties, the venture would be immensely profitable. - The Blue Point Company, in their drift claim, are meeting with great success. They cleared up over $400 last week, paying a net dividend of $300 for the week's work, after all expenses were paid. They will soon increase their working force. - Mr. C. Wheaton of San Francisco made a business trip to Smartsville this week. Mr. W. has faith in some the quartz ledges here, and anticipates the resounding of the stamp in many hillsides in the vicinity before we grow many years older. - Frank Stees & Co. are preparing to work their quartz ledge, near Spenceville, in the old Wallis ranch.
Daily Alta California - 8/27/1888 - Mining Notes: A Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Democrat writes: The machinery for the Byrne, Devers & Co. mill has arrived and is being rapidly put in place for operation. Ere long we will heart the sound of its ponderous stamps as they crush the earth and cause the stubborn ore to yield forth its precious metal.
Daily Alta California - Mining Notes: Says the Wheatland Graphic: The Blue Point mine at Smartsville is developing unexpected richness, and eighteen miners are at work there now. More laborers will soon be needed to do the work, and a large force will undoubtedly be employed there. A tunnel 300 feet in length has just been completed, and the miners are beginning to drift out in different directions from it. An arastra has also been erected. A large number of people were in Smartsville Sunday from Marysville, looking up mining matters. Other points around Smartsville have been prospected, and favorable indications are observed. There is every probability that new mines will be opened soon. At any rate, Smartsville has the best of prospects of again becoming the lively hive of industry that it was years ago, and that, too, in the near future.
1890
Daily Alta California - 6/2/1890 - Mining Notes: The Nevada Transcript gives some interesting information regarding work carried on at Smartsville by means of arastras. It says: "These arastras are three in number and are not entirely unlike the buddle pan used in quartz mining, only they are on a much larger scale. They are driven by a three-foot Pelton water wheel, and they work, on an average, 1000 carloads of gravel or cement per week. The arastras are kept running night and day, and are just coining money. The gravel is drifted out of the bank and no loss is incurred. the vein is large, being about eight feet thick, and the end not yet reached. Several blasts were put in, and the huge chunks of gravel thrown up showed free gold in profusion. The gravel now being put through the arastras yields on an average $2 per carload, there being 1500 pounds of dirt to each car. The work is done very cheaply and the profits are large."
Daily Alta California - 8/24/1890 - A Mining Company Closes Down - Marysville, August 23d. - The Marysville Drift Mining Company, which has been working, for the past year, the Blue Point mine at Smartsville, Yuba county, has closed down. Liabilities, $6000. Employees are owed $2000, for which Dunn, the manager, gives them a mortgage on his ranch.
Sacramento Daily Union - 8/24/1890 - Mill Closed Down - Marysville, August 23d. - The Marysville Drift Mining Company, which has been working part of the Blue Point mine at Smartsvilel, Yuba county, has closed down. Liabilities, $6,000. The employes are owed $2,000, for which Dunn, the manager, gave them a mortgage on his ranch.
San Francisco Call - 11/24/1890 - While prospecting at Smartsville last week, W. J. Stewart struck the channel of an ancient river. The cement was 30 feet deep by 80 feet wide, and was rich in gold.
1891
San Francisco Call - 2/18/1891 - Hydraulic Mining: A Scheme on Foot to Dispose of the "Slickens.": Plans for a Mammoth Flume From the Mountains to the Tide Lands - - Rumors of the Formation of a Syndicate. - H. B. Wheaton, Superintendent of the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, with headquarters at Smartsville, arrived in the city yesterday and is at the Lick House. While he is extremely reticent on the subject, it is understood that he is quietly working on a scheme which, if carried out, will revolutionize the mining interests of the Pacific Coast. - It is nothing more than a solution of the debris question, and the plan involved certainly carries with it the appearance of entire feasibility. If successful it would make it possible to carry out hydraulic mining without injury to the farmers in the valleys and would open up again one of the richest gold fields in the world. - Briefly outlined, the idea is to construct a huge debris dam in the canyon to the east of Smartsville, and to build from there a mammoth flume to convey the water to the tule lands around the bay. By this means the dam would catch and hold all the rougher debris, while the flume would bear the "slickens" away and deposit it on the tule lands, where it would accumulate and convert them into rich farms, instead of leaving them to be at waste as at present. - An Expensive Feature - Probably the most expensive portion of the work would be the dam, which would be about 200 feet in height and which would give a fall of 600 feet to the tide level. It is estimated by competent engineers that this would be sufficient to scour the flume by natural means and would give the hydraulic miners in the mountains back of Nevada City an opportunity to work full force. - The cost of the entire work is estimated at from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 which is but a trifling sum compared with the $300,000,000 or more lying locked up in the hills, without any present means of extracting it, and which cannot be taken out in paying quantities by any other means. - An objection has been urged to the plan on account of the water rights involved, but this, it is said, will not interfere as the miners store their own water in reservoirs and can divert it as they chose without being interfered with by law. In other words the water thus stored is private property, in every sense of the word, and can be used as the owners see fit. - Method of Construction - In the construction of the flume, it is probable that heavy redwood timber would be used. It could be left uncovered so that if any obstruction should occur it could be easily removed, which would not be the case with iron pipe. The stream of water would be regulated that no overflow could occur. - As yet the plans are not fully formed, but it is said that some of the best engineers on the Coast have examined into the matter and have reported favorably, without a single exception. In the mean time the matter is being pushed quietly, and an effort will be made to organize a syndicate to take the matter in hand and raise the money to carry it out. - Mr. Wheaton has given the matter much attention, and is fully satisfied of its practicability. He is not inclined, however, to discuss the matter at present, and when interrogated concerning it would make no definite statement other than to say that he had investigated the matter and believed it anything but visionary.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/18/1891 - The Excelsior Mine: The Company Contemplates the Erection of a Large Dam - We have been informed, says the Marysville Democrat, by parties who are in a position to know, that the Excelsior Mining Company contemplate the erection of a large dam on the old bedrock channel leading from their mine at Smartsville to Timbuctoo. The object of the dam is to impound the debris from the mine with a view of operating said mine at times by the hydraulic process. - The dam is to have sufficient capacity to hold the debris for several years, and after it has been completed the company will ask the proper authorities to pass upon it, and if satisfactory will ask for a modification of the injunctions now upon them. At present the mine is being worked by the drift process, which is not so rapid, and far more expensive than the hydraulic method. The company hopes to satisfy all parties interested that the debris can be safely kept from the Yuba River.
San Francisco Call - 11/29/1891 - The Marysville Appeal says: C. C. Bitner at Steep Canyon, which place is between Smartsville and Spenceville, has sold his quartz mine to an English syndicate, represented by Mr. Higginbottom, for $31,000. He worked in the tunnel alone for thirteen years, and is now repaid for his patience and perseverance.
1892
San Francisco Call - 6/23/1892 - Marvelously Rich: Ore That Runs Two Hundred Dollars in Gold to the Ton - Yuba Democrat - R. H. Daly and others of San Francisco recently made locations of claims on the lead heretofore known as the Bull Head quartz mine, in the old town of Timbuctoo. The new claim is named the Boa quartz mine, and there has already been considerable work done in developing it. About three weeks ago 700 pounds of the ore was sent to this city to the care of J. R. Garrett, who sent it to the Selby Smelting Works and had it put through a working test. The return, which was shown to a representative of the Democrat, showed an average of $200 in gold and $50 in silver to the ton, both being of as fine quality as is usually seen. - This ledge averages in size from five to six feet in width and holds its own as far down as they have gone. A quartz mill of 20 stamps capacity is soon to be erected and its motive power will be run by water pressure and a Pelton wheel. [Transcriber's note: The creator of the Pelton wheel lived in Camptonville, Yuba Co.] James Gavin is the superintendent and he has great faith in the mine - - believes it will be very profitable and do much to bring out other undeveloped claims near Smartsville. - James Byrne, owner of another claim called the Peerless quartz mine, located about a half a mile northeast of Timbuctoo, was also seen, and he said his ledge has recently been relocated, it at one time being known as the Landis mine. He has recently had a milling test made of ore from his claim by Professor Thomas Price and it shows $12.40 in gold and $24.40 in silver, some of it going as high as $600 to the ton.
San Francisco Call - 8/6/1892 - Rich Mining Developments: What is Being Done in Some of the Gravel Claims of Butte County - Correspondence of The Morning Call - Twenty-five years ago the "blue lead" mines near Bangor attracted much attention. They were supposed to be inexhaustible beds of rich blue gravel that would pay enormously. Shafts were sunk, tunnels run and mines opened. The gravel was washed, but water failed to dissolve the had cement. The only plan was to let it lie for a long time exposed to the air, when it would air slack or crumble to pieces and then could be run through sluices like ordinary gravel. This was a slow process, and, as about that time hydraulic mining attracted much attention, the blue lead mines were gradually abandoned till not one was in operation. Within the past year or two a bed of this hard blue cement has been successfully worked near Smartsville, and the owners of the old mines near Bangor made some investigations. They found to work the gravel to advantage that it must be first ground up in an arrastra. They accordingly set to work and two or three arrastras were constructed, gravel was extracted and tests made.- These proved a joyful surprise. The mines yielded greater returns than the most sanguine had anticipated. Miners from different sections began to flock in, other claims were opened, further tests made. These all resulted in getting rich pay. Lately large shafts have been sunk and tunnels run so as to put a number of men at work. Steam hoisting works were erected on the Bishop mine and the arrastras were run by steam power. On the Catskill mine, owned by Marysville capitalists, a stamp-mill was erected for crushing the gravel. These improved methods of working the mines showed that each miner could earn for the owner from $4 to $5 a day, while with better facilities for handling the gravel rapidly better results could be obtained. In consequence there is now much excitement in the Bangor region.
1893
Sacramento Daily Union - 5/16/1893 - Ant-Debris Matters: Yesterday's Monthly Meeting of the Executive Committee: A Futile Experiment at Restraining Mining Debris - - Mines That Are Shutting Down - The Executive Committee of the State Anti-Debris Association met yesterday afternoon, at the room of the Board of Supervisors, Chairman Morrison of Sacramento presiding, and Robert Cosner of Colusa acting as Secretary. - The Manager, W. T. Phipps, presented his monthly report, and stated that on the last day of April the Excelsior Mining Company, which had previously begun operations at Smartsville, had shut down and had given out that it would not resume mining again until they had obtained permission from the commission appointed under the Caminetti bill. - This company had claimed that it could conduct its mining operations without allowing any of its debris to reach the river. It had constructed works at the mouth of an old tunnel, and proposed placing the material into an old excavation, and by placing a bulkhead at the mouth of the tunnel attempted to restrain the debris. After running for a day and a half, and after about fifty feet of water had been placed on the top of the bulkhead, the works gave way on April 28th, showing the futility of attempting to restrain debris by this method. - Judge Davis of Yuba County has fined six Chinamen $500 each for mining by the hydraulic process, in contempt of an injunction, and one of them, Ah Joe, is now in the County Jail at Marysville serving time for non-payment of the fine. The mines formerly operated by these Chinamen are now stopped. - The mines on the San Juan Ridge were all reported as not being worked. Some mines have been running near Scales, in Sierra County, and the persons operating them have been cited to appear in court and show cause why they should not be punished for contempt. - Manager Phipps was authorized to employ an extra watchman for such work as he might deem to be necessary. - A general discussion was then had on the work of the association, and the best means to be employed for accomplishing its objects. - The committee examined and allowed the usual monthly bills, and then adjourned, to meet on the third Monday in June in this city.
San Francisco Call - 7/23/1893 - Studying Hydraulic Mining: A Commission to Look Into the Situation - Nevada City, July 22. - Colonel Mendell, Lieutenant-Colonel Benyaurd and Major Heuer, United States Debris Commissioners, accompanied by ex-Senator Cross, World's Fair Commissioner McMurray, Superintendent Spalding of the South Yuba Company, James O'Brien of Smartsville and Superintendent Conrath of the Excelsior Company, left here this morning for a visit of inspection to the hydraulic mining regions of Northern Nevada, Sierra, Plumas and Yuba counties. They will visit all the gravel claims, large and small, in these counties, and will be absent ten days or two weeks, the return trip being made from San Juan ridge and via Smartsville to Marysville. -The trip is being made quietly, with the view to obtaining full and accurate information as to the situation. People here have the fullest confidence in the ability and fairness of the commissioners in determining where mining can by the construction of adequate restraining works be carried on without jeopardizing in any degree the farming lands along the valley rivers.
San Francisco Call - 11/12/1893 - Debris Permits Granted - Two Mines Received the Privilege and Others Desired It. - No official advices of their reappointment have yet been received by the engineers forming the United States Debris Commission, although a private dispatch contained the announcement. - Two permits only have been issued by the commission thus far. The first was granted to the O'Farrell mine at Columbia Hill, Nevada County. The second was issued to the Excelsior mine at Smartsville, on the Yuba River, twenty miles from Marysville. It is one of the largest hydraulic mines in the State, with an immense water supply. It has been closed by injunction in the anti-debris litigation for about ten years. - The permit issued allows the mining company to resume hydraulicking at a certain point, the resulting debris being discharged into an immense pit excavated by old operations. Applications have been made by the Denmire mine in Sierra County and the Polar Star at Dutch Flat.
1894
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/17/1894 - Hydraulic Mining: Permits Issued by the California Debris Commission - San Francisco, April 16. - The Debris Commission has appointed W. B. Storey an assistant engineer, to reside at Nevada City. - Permits to mine by the hydraulic process have been issued to the owners or operators of the following-named mines: The Spanish Hill Hydraulic, the Spanish Hill Gravel and the Eureka hydraulic mines, all near Placerville. The Grub Flat mine, near Meadow Valley, Plumas County. - The Quincy Water and Mining Company has been given a permit to work its Gopher Hill mine in Plumas County, but this applies to the present season only. The company will build a stone dam in Spanish Creek this summer for future use. Meanwhile it is allowed to operate, for the present season, by virtue of log dams for restraint of debris. - The Badger Hill mine, near Spanish Ranch, has been denied permission to operate until after the construction of the stone dam by the Quincy Company. The cost of the dam will be apportioned between the two companies by the commission. Pending construction of this dam a permit to the Badger Hill mine is withheld. - The Kate Hayes Company has been authorized to construct restraining works in the Manzanita mine, near San Juan. The company will utilize an old hydraulic pit as a settling reservoir. A tunnel runs under or below this pit. The escape of water into the tunnel will be solely through a chimney to be constructed in the pit. The surface water will flow into the open mouth of the chimney or shaft, descending into the tunnel, and thence flowing out of the mine. The Kate Hayes Company is operating the French Corral mien in the same way, or at least has for some time held a permit to do so. - The Excelsior mine at Smartsville, Yuba County, is the largest that is being operated by the hydraulic process under permission from the commission. It is using about 1,500 inches of water. Last month it washed 60,000 cubic yards of material. Lieutenant Gillette, who recently visited the mine, took a sample of the water entering from the ditch, and also the water flowing out below the restraining works. The water in the ditch carries sediment, and that flowing out, as shown by the samples, has less than the inflow. These samples, with numerous others from the various mines inspected, are at the office of the Commissioner in the Flood building. The Excelsior's tailings are discharged into an old mining channel that was formerly the scene of very extensive workings at Timbuctoo. This long channel or pit is now converted into a settling reservoir. The washing is chiefly in gravel.
Sacramento Daily Union - 7/25/1894 - Hydraulic Mining Going On: Wherefore the Water of the Yuba is Discolored: Monthly Meeting Yesterday of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Debris Association - The Executive Committee of the State Anti-Debris Association held its regular monthly meeting yesterday afternoon at the rooms of the Board of Supervisors. J. M. Morrison, Chairman, presided, and Robert Cosner of Colusa was present as Secretary. The various standing committees made reports of their action during the past month, and the Manager, W. T. Phipps, submitted his monthly report. - The report shows that since the last meeting complaints against the O'Connor Bros. mine, the North Bloomfield mine and the Red Diamond mine have been lodged with the California Debris Commission, and that the commission had notified these mines to cease operations. No hydraulic mines, he stated, are in operation on the upper Sacramento or tributaries, so far as could be detected. Special effort had been made to ascertain just the method of operation employed by the North Bloomfield mine, with the result that it appears to be using its elevator and settling-pool, in accordance with Judge Gilbert's decree. - During the month last past the different branches of the Yuba River have shown a good condition of water, with the exception of the South Yuba, which was considerably muddied for a few days, but from what source is unknown. - On July 23d a fine for contempt was imposed by the Superior Court of Yuba County on two Chinamen for mining at the Red Diamond mine, on Deer Creek, Nevada County, and since these parties have ceased operations and left. The Excelsior mine, at Smartsville, he reported was operating as usual, but the other mines were quiet. - The attorney for the association, Robert T. Devlin, reported that he had received information from anonymous sources concerning illicit hydraulic mining, and it was agreed that these complaints would be thoroughly investigated and the parties so mining restrained. He also reported the status of certain legal matters of the association. - Hon. George Ohleyer, Chairman of the Committee on Legislation, reported what had been done since the last meeting by the committee, and submitted several newspaper clippings bearing on subjects important to the association. - The committee then allowed bills presented, and adjourned to meet at the same place the third Saturday in August.
1895
Sacramento Daily Union - 4/30/1895 - Note and Comment - The hydraulic miner appeals to the selfish and the pocket nerves of valley tradesmen, and says, "if we cannot mine you cannot sell goods to us; therefore shut up about our tearing down the hills and sending the mountains to the sea." And a considerable number of timid people are influenced by this threat. If such men would broaden the horizon of their view they would see that present gain is as vanity before future permanency and rapid development. - Here is another illustration of how difficult it is to compel observance of the anti-debris law. At Smartsville, the Excelsior Company runs its waste into a pit, and thence through a tunnel into the Yuba River. It is possible for it to drive out enough debris for its settling works, from time to time, by turning on water, to make room for more detritus, and so on ad infinitum. The tunnel is reported stopped with rock, but it is near by. - The dams, no matter how high, thick and broad, cannot restrain the passage of the finer matter that is carried in solution - - the almost impalpable matter which goes over with the water and chokes the channels of the streams. Indeed, some eminent investigators hold this matter to be more damaging than the debris.
San Francisco Call - 8/22/1895 - Mines and Mining: Some of the small gravel mines in Yuba County which were shut down many years by the Anti-Debris Association have again commenced work, by permission of the United States Debris Commissioners, having constructed works to impound their debris. - A Smartsville correspondent of the Marysville Appeal says the Marysville Gravel-mining Company are making preparations for river-bed mining on a large scale. There is in place a 50-horse-power under-shot wheel, which is intended to drive two large pumps and hoist the gravel from the pits.
1896
San Francisco Call - 11/10/1896 - Miners to Sit in Convention: Arrival of the Horny-Handed From the Hills and Canyons: Reforms That Will Be Demanded in Aid of the Industry: A Federal Mining Bureau: Request That the Miners Should Be Represented by a Secretary in the Cabinet - Miners arrived in this City on every train yesterday to attend the miners' convention, which will open in Odd Fellows' hall at 2 o'clock this afternoon. The session bids fair to be one of the most interesting in the history of the association, for the reason that some important legislation will be recommended for the benefit of that industry. - Jacob H. Neff of Colfax, Placer County, is one of the early arrivals. He has been chairman of the convention for the past four years, and he says he has had enough honor and would be obliged if the convention would allow him to retire on his well-earned laurels. - Mr. Neff said yesterday that the association wanted to get the coal and iron mine owners to co-operate with the gold and silver miners for the purpose of having the industry represented at Washington by a Secretary and a Bureau of Mining, just as the industry of agriculture is represented. Mr. Neff could see no valid reason why the same consideration which is extended to the farmers should not be extended to the miners. - The miners desire also to be represented on the Board of Regents of the State University. There are now in the university a department on mining and a professor of that industry, and it should be represented on the board by a practical mining man as regent. The convention will take action with respect to some needed amendments to the mining laws relating to the manner of obtaining patents to mineral lands. Miners believe that the industry is very much hampered by the difficulty of establishing title, it often, under the present law, becoming necessary for the miner to institute and maintain a lawsuit at great expense in order to obtain title to the land on which his claim may be located. - Mr. Neff added that the hydraulic miners are very well satisfied with the operation of the Caminetti mining act. The course taken by the Debris Commission is satisfactory to the miners, and no complaint has been heard from the farmers. There are some features of the law, however, that work a hardship on the miner, and which the association will try to do away with without encroaching on the rights of the farmer. - In spite of Mr. Neff's determination not to be a candidate for chairman again prominent members of the convention are insisting that he should stand for re-election. Among available candidates mentioned are E. C. Loftus of Calaveras, Charles F. Hoffman of Placer and Harold T. Power of Placer. - Among the early arrivals of delegates and visitors to the convention were: Joseph M. Bovard and D. Boone of Angels industry and will attend the sessions of the convention as an onlooker. General Tolman is also interested in several rich placer claims in the bed of the American River, between Sacramento and Folsom. - He said he expected the coming year would witness the inauguration of a great development of the mines of this State. Capital is beginning to come in and considerable investment is already noted. Old mines that have been left untouched for years are starting up again and much new machinery is being put in. - He found that the low price of silver has had a healthy effect in encouraging investments in gold mines in California. He knew that many mining men in Idaho and Colorado are turning their attention to gold mining in this State and are disposing of their silver mines, offering them for sale at a reasonable rate since the election became known. - Formerly it was not profitable to work gold ores that did not pay more than $18 or $20 per ton, while at the present time $4 and $5 ore is considered profitable if there is enough of it. - "My idea of the way to settle the hydraulic mining proposition," continued General Tolman, "was to allow every man to mine as he formerly did and let the slickens go to the river as before, and assess the hydraulic miners so much per cubic yard to pay for the operation of dredgers and sand pumps to keep the river free, and to charge so much to the owners of swamp lands for reclaiming it. I do not believe in the permanency of brush dams. In case of storms and freshets the dams are liable to be washed away and the brush will make the river worse than it was before." - Albert Moore, a pioneer gold hunter of forty-two years' experience in California, came down from El Dorado County yesterday to attend the convention as a spectator. He had found that under the present condition of things it was very difficult for a prospector to buy a piece of land on which he had made a discovery, for as soon as the farmer who owned the land discovered what it was wanted for he put up the price 300 or 400 per cent. - Mr. Moore has discovered many valuable telluride deposits in various parts of the State from San Diego to El Dorado County. - G. W. Welch of Nevada City reported prospects looking better, with much capital coming in. - Last night Mr. Neff found it impossible to hold out any longer and yielded to the Camp, F. J. Adge of Iowa Hill, James O'Brien of Smartsville, A. B. White of Smartsville and Judge Clark of Shasta, at the Russ; James Wilson of Jackson at the Brooklyn; S. P. Dorsey, superintendent of the Maryland, at the Occidental; General Tolman of the Jackson mine, El Dorado County, J. T. Grove of Mariposa, Charles F. Hoffman and C. D. Lane, at the Palace, and Albert Moore of El Dorado and G. W. Welch of Nevada at the Lick. - Charles F. Hoffman of the Red Point mine in Placer County said the most necessary legislation for the mining industry was that which should insure a perfect title to mineral land. If the railroad companies were given a perfect title for mineral lands the miners would just as soon buy from the railroads as not, but under the present conditions the purchasers from the railroad have to go into court at their own expense and make a fight to prove that the lands obtained by them are of more value for mining than for agriculture. This is an expense and an annoyance which prospectors and laborers are unwilling to bear. - The remedy for this evil would be for a Mining Commissioner to examine the land and report upon its character, whether mineral or agricultural, and take the burden of litigation off the shoulders of the miner. - "It used to be," added Mr. Hoffman, "that the farmer had to prove that his land was agricultural, but now the miner has to prove that it contains mineral in paying quantities. This would be a very difficult fact to establish, especially in cases where the bed of the river is of a lava formation, and where the gold is deep under it. In fact, it would be impossible to prove the mineral character without going down very deep into it. These lava formations are very extensive in Sierra, El Dorado and other counties. - "The bill to establish a National Mining Commission fell through at the last session of Congress, but another attempt will be made in the coming session. The next thing most necessary is that we should have a representation in the Cabinet, in other words a Secretary of the Bureau of Mining. - "The appropriation by Congress of $250,000 and that by the State of $250,000 for the purpose of building dams to restrain mining debris have had a very good effect toward solving the vexed question of hydraulic mining. There are large numbers of mines in California that can be worked without any damage to the farmers, and the commissioners will do their best to select them. - "The mining industry is in a good position, and I expect that there will be considerable development during the next six months with the aid of foreign and home capital. New discoveries in science and the invention of new and less expensive processes for extracting the precious metal from the ore are aiding largely in the development of mining properties hitherto considered as not of great value. By the aid of these new processes $3 per ton ore may be profitably worked, while the average mine may be worked at a profit where the yield is $4.50 per ton or more. - "The mines of California have been only skimmed. The usual course was that when the first chute of ore gave out the work was abandoned and richer prospects were sought for. As an illustration of the cheapening of the processes I will say that I paid 26 cents for powder, which I now get of 8 cents, and candles that were worth 16 cents are now worth only 8 cents." - General Tolman of the Jackson mine, El Dorado County, was seen at the Palace Hotel. He is not a delegate to the convention, but being a practical miner of many years' standing, takes a lively interest in everything appertaining to that demand of his friends that he should remain in the race for the chairmanship. - There will be some contest for the vice-chairmanship, S. K. Thornton and W. W. Montague being mentioned for the position. - Julian Sonntag has no opposition for the secretaryship and will have a walk-over.
1898
San Francisco Call - 7/10/1898 - News of the Mines - The Marysville Democrat says that work in the mine of the Good Title Company at Indiana Ranch has ceased for the present, and it may be permanently. The quartz is of very low grade, and on going deeper it did not improve. There is plenty of quartz, but a run of several months demonstrated that it would not more than pay expenses. - H. Visscher is in charge of operations at the Narrows, near Smartsville, by the United States Debris Commission, to determine upon a site for the proposed debris restraining dam. From thirty to forty men have been employed there several months, sinking and trenching for bedrock. The explorations show there are in the 4000-foot gorge, known as the Narrows, at least three good sites. The funds on hand are nearly exhausted. - Mining and Scientific Press.
1899
San Francisco Call - 6/20/1899 - Restraining Wall to Be Built - Marysville, June 19. - A Government expert named McCann came down from the State of Washington and, in company with a contractor from Oakland and Colonel Hubert Vischer, went to Deguerre Point, near Smartsville, to-day to view the site of the restraining wall to be constructed by the United States Debris Commission. Everything at this time points to the early commencement of work there.
San Francisco Call - 10/15/1899 - Will Represent Yuba - Marysville, Oct. 14. - Yuba County will be represented in the annual convention of the California Miners' Association to be held in San Francisco on October 23 as follows: Smartsville - - James O'Brien, W. W. Chamberlain, Louis Conrath and Joseph Durfee; Camptonville - - William B. Meek and Fred Joubert; Brown Valley - - T. J. Hibbert.
1900
San Francisco Call - 6/30/1900 - Answers to Correspondents - Miner's Inch - E. H. M., Poplar, Cal. - A miner's inch is defined as "the amount of water which will pass through an opening one inch square under a pressure of six inches." This unit is peculiar to the Western States, used not only for mining purposes, but wherever it is desired to measure the amount of water distributed for irrigation. The average discharge from such an opening, called a module, is 1 1/2 cubic feet per minute. In the various States from California to Colorado there is some slight variation. In California it is from 1.20 to 1.76 cubic feet per minute, according to arbitrary rule adopted. For example, at Smartsville, Yuba County, an orifice 4 inches square and 250 inches long with a head of 7 inches above the top of the orifice is said to furnish 100 miners' inches. In Montana a vertical rectangle an inch deep is generally used with a head of four inches, and the number of inches is said to be the same as the number of inches in the rectangle.
1901
San Francisco Call - 8/25/1901 - Extending Dredgers' Work - The Marysville Democrat says: Two tracts recently changed hands in this county, which land will be worked in the near future by dredging. These purchases are located on the south side of the Yuba, about ten miles east of this city, one formerly owned by James O'Brien and one by S. Mitchell. Besides these, several claims recently were located by Hubert Vischer and associates, amounting to more than 1500 acres. The anxiety to obtain land is shown in two locations made on the same tract by different persons within four days, after one had bought a possessory right from a homestead claimant. Three dredgers will be constructed by one company soon and they can be steadily employed ten years to work out the pay channels of the land recently purchased. A boring machine is at work locating the pay dirt or gravel and when finished a map of the tract will be prepared showing the course of the channel, which can then be followed by the dredge and worked to advantage. With the improved machines and electric power ground can now be worked to profit that a few years ago was considered of no value for mining. These channels and pay streaks can be traced and mapped in such a way that capitalists can figure out the income from it very closely, as well as the cost of working by dredge process. Between Marysville and Timbuctoo there are several of these channels branching out from the old original stream. These are covered by deposits of debris many years ago, but the gold is there hidden from view and it can be extracted by the new process. This class of mining is not confined to the river proper, but the dredge follows the pay dirt out into the adjacent fields.
San Franciso Call - 10/22/1901 - Miners Make Energetic Move To Secure Yuba Dam Option: Sessions of the First Day Develop a Unique Episode: Seekers for Ores Have Busy Time for Taking Land: Convention Raises Money Necessary to Force the Issue - The convention of the California Miners' Association, now in session in this city, raised $2500 yesterday through a committee to pay James O'Brien, that the option he gave to the United States for lands needed for a settling basin in connection with the Yuba River dam might not lapse. There was other business before the convention, but this was the matter of emergency and it was promptly and vigorously met. Indeed, before the convention had been properly organized, before the committee on credentials had a chance to report, O'Brien's case received attention. O'Brien was in Golden Gate Hall, where the deliberations of the convention were in progress. President Voorheis was in the chair, sitting under an arch which was decorated in the center with festooned American flags, at the ends with crossed picks and shovels and heroic figures of athletic young miners of California. The handsome banner of the California Miners' Association was at his right hand. - President Voorheis had successively introduced Governor Gage and Mayor Phelan and they had welcomed the miners from the may counties of the State in well turned phrases that were pleasing and encouraging. The committee on credentials had been named by the chair and the proceedings of the first day were running along in a routine way. Just at this point Lafe Pence, who was sitting beside ex-President W. C. Ralston at the left of the president in the body of the hall, arose and made a statement that for the time dwarfed the interest in all other topics before the convention. - Mr. Pence said that he had been in communication with the members of the California Debris Commission, consisting of the United States engineers in San Francisco, for two days. He had, just before the opening of the convention, read the contract or option that had been signed by Mr. O'Brien, and he had discovered that the instrument was dated October 22, 1900, and that it provided that a payment of $2500 must be made in one year from the date mentioned. There was in the contract the customary clause that made time an essential part of the consideration. Therefore the money must be paid to O'Brien at once or the option, that is of so much importance in the work that will run up into hundreds of thousands of dollars at cost, would lapse. - This statement at once chained the attention of the convention. "The way to attend to a thing," continued Pence, "is to act quickly." - The members acted with promptness justifying the emblems of vigor typified by the picks, shovels and other adornments of the hall. Pence suggested the appointment of a committee to get the money needed. - O'Brien Makes Statement - Secretary Benjamin also had a surprise in store for the convention. He had received a letter from O'Brien, and this he read. It was dated at Smartsville, October 9, 1901, and set forth that O'Brien was as anxious as he ever had been that the dam should be built, but he also described his grounds for raising an objection to the conditions that he thought were detrimental to him, as follows: Any lands which I won or are owned by any companies that I represent can be used by the United States Government for the purpose of building barriers free of charge. No rights will be granted that can be conveyed to any one else. The settling basin spoken of is quite a distance from their lower barrier and I am not prepared to give them the right to bank tailings upon that land twenty feet high, as Colonel Heuer claims he would do, thus raising the plane of the river and endangering all the land I own south of the seepage. - There would be no objection to a reasonable amount. In short, I am as anxious those dams should be built as I ever was and will put no impediment in their way as long as my rights and the rights of my people are not jeopardized. - When the letter had been read the delegates to the convention were of the opinion that they would like to hear what Mr. O'Brien would say to questions to be asked to define his exact position. The secretary told them that O'Brien was in the hall. In response to a request by President Voorheis O'Brien went to the stage and spoke. - He supplemented his letter that had just been read. He said that when he agreed to give an option on the land he understood that it was to be used for a settling basin, but when he was told by Colonel Heuer that the tailings would bank up twenty feet he was opposed . He also said that he had never agreed to convey the land, but had merely offered to give an easement to the United States. Colonel Heuer told him that what the Government wanted was an absolute deed. He did not wish to be shut out two miles from the river and he had withdrawn the option for the reasons that he had stated. - The delegates listened attentively and respectfully to O'Brien's statement of his side of the case and then Pence asked: - "Would you be willing to extend the option three days?" - "No," answered O'Brien, decidedly, "not as it stands, but I would if certain reservations were put in." - Convention Moves Quickly - The convention had already voted to take a recess to 2 o'clock, but this answer of O'Brien's and the belief that the option might lapse before the convention could act unless something was done at once put the delegates in favor of meeting again at 1 o'clock and of appointing a committee to try to raise the $2500 needed to tie O'Brien's option up securely. There was some discussion concerning parliamentary procedure at this point, but the convention adhered to its plan of having the necessary committee named at once and President Voorheis appointed W. C. Ralston, Lafe Pence and A. Caminetti as the members of the committee. - The great importance of the Yuba River works, for which the State has appropriated $400,000 and the national Government $250,000, with the prospect of an additional appropriation of $150,000, was so apparent that when the convention met in the afternoon the announcement that was made by President Voorheis that the committee had already secured the needed coin during the recess was answered by applause from all parts of the house. Soon after that the committee's report was received, which is as follows: - For Benefit of Miners - To the President and Members of the California Miners' Association, Gentlemen: Your committee begs leave to report that in the limited time assigned it was impossible to visit many merchants and citizens who would have donated to this fund had they had the opportunity. The following named firms and citizens contributed the amount set opposite their respective names: - North Bloomfield Mining Company, $500; California Powder Works, $500; Eureka Lake Mining and Water Company, $250; Joshua Hendy Machine Works, $100; Calaveras M. W. and P. Company, $100; Miller, Sloss & Scott, $200; Dunham, Carrigan & Hayden Company, $200; Baker & Hamilton, $200; Harron, Rickard & McCone, $100; Henshaw, Bulkeley & Co., $100; John Roebling Sons Company, $100; Mining and Scientific Press, $100; W. W. Montagne & Co., $100; A. Caminetti, $100; William Nichols Jr., $100; F. R. Wehe, $100; J. M. Gleaves, $100; W. C. Ralston, $100; Colonel George Stone, $100, Total, $3150. W. C. Ralston, Lave Pence. - Seeking for O'Brien - On motion of Judge Belcher of San Francisco the committee received the thanks of the convention and was instructed to pursue the matter further. It was necessary to visit the California Debris Commission, and this the committee did at once. There the date of the expiration of the O'Brien lease was discussed. The committee was authorized to find O'Brien and to offer him the $2500, and the committeemen went out on that mission immediately after the adjournment of the conference in Colonel Heuer's office. A report will be made to the convention to-day as to the success of that part of the work of the committee. - There were two sessions only of the convention yesterday. In the usual course of things committees on credentials and resolutions were appointed. The former committee reported that there were 573 delegates who were entitled to seats on the floor as representing county associations and commercial bodies, and these were apportioned as follows: - Nevada County, 67; San Francisco, 70; Shasta, 90; Amador, 43; Calaveras, 44; Placer, 42; Sierra, 24; Alameda, 21; El Dorado, 21; Butte, 20; Yuba, 14; Tuolumne, 5; Plumas, 5; Santa Clara, 5; Kern, 5; San Bernardino, 5; Fresno, 5; Solano, 5; San Luis Obispo, 4; Marin, 5; Siskiyou, 5; Mariposa, 5; Inyo, 5; Santa Barbara, 1; Southern California Branch Association, 7; Southwest Mines, 5; California Petroleum Miners' Association, 10; San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, 5; California State Board of Trade, 5; Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, 5; Fresno Chamber of Commerce, 5; Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, 5; California State Mining Bureau, 5; California Debris Commission, 3; Trinity, 3. - The committees were made up as follows: - Credentials - - W. H. McClintock, Tuolumne County; C. H. Weatherwax, El Dorado County; S. J. Hendy, San Francisco; W. F. Englebright, Nevada County; A. G. Meyers, Siskiyou County; William Nicholls, Placer County; A. H. Ward, Mariposa County; J. M. Gleaves, California Petroleum Miners' Association; A. Ekman, Butte County; J. F. Parks, Amador County; A. R. Briggs, Fresno County; W. C. Ralston, Calaveras County; Joseph Durfee, Yuba County; A. W. Bishop, Alameda County; M. E. Dittman, Shasta County; Frank R. Wehe, Sierra County; L. E. Aubrey, Southwest Miners' Association; A. G. Lightner, Kern County, and H. J. Osborne, Southern California. - Resolutions - - Resolutions - - W. C. Ralston, chairman; W. F. Englebright, Nevada; E. A. Belcher, San Francisco; J. H. Tibbits, Shasta; W. A. Pritchard, Amador; Jacob H. Neff, Placer; Frank R. Wehe, Sierra; A. W. Bishop, Alameda; H. E. Pickett, El Dorado; A. Ekman, Butte; Joseph Durfer [sic], Yuba; W. H. McClintock, Tuolumne; S. S. Taylor, Plumas; Thomas Derby, Santa Clara; A. T. Lightner, Kern; Frank Monaghan, San Bernardino; A. R. Briggs, Fresno; A. C. Holly, Solano; Victor H. Woods, San Luis Obispo; John F. Boyd, Marin; A. I. Myers, Siskiyou; A. H. Ward, Mariposa; J. J. Gunn, Inyo; J. H. Harrington, Santa Barbara; L. E. Aubury, Southern California; H. Z. Osborne, Southwest Miners' Association; J. M. Gleaves, California Petroleum Miners' Association; R. H. Herron, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; J. F. Parks, State Mining Bureau; A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento Chamber of Commerce; Thomas Rickard, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; Craigie Sharp, State Board of Trade; John McMurray, Trinity; William Thomas, California Water and Forest Association; Colonel Heuer, California Debris Commission; J. S. McBride, Nevada; James Irving, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. - Adam I. Moore and Frank Yale were elected sergeants-at-arms. - The speechmaking of the day brought out many statements that were pleasing to the miners. The address of the principal importance to the delegates was that made by President Voorheis, which was somewhat in the nature of a report and contained recommendations for the good of the association. He suggested the appointment of a committee to revise the by-laws of the association, so that every member who contributes annual dues to carry on the work shall be entitled to take part in the association's annual conventions in this city. - The President's Address - President Voorheis said: Gentlement of the California Miners' Association: Ten years ago a number of hydraulic miners met in the city of Auburn, Placer County, to see if some means could not be devised whereby hydraulic mining might be resumed without material injury to the farming lands and navigable rivers of the State. The outgrowth of that meeting was the organization of the California Miners' Association, and this meeting to-day is the tenth annual convocation. - It is estimated that more than $300,000,000 in gold is locked up in the gravel hills of Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties which could be liberated and put into circulation if some means could be devised to prevent injury to the adjacent lands. - The first steps taken to aid the miners was by the State Legislature in making an appropriation of $250,000, and the national Congress appropriated a like sum for the construction of barriers to restrain the debris already in the ravines and channels which feed navigable rivers, and also to permit the resumption of hydraulic mining under certain restrictions. The Federal engineers comprising the California Debris Commission made estimates of the cost of the work to be $800,000. - Our representatives in the State Legislature secured a further appropriation of $150,000, and the national Government will undoubtedly appropriate a like sum - - in all $800,000 to build barriers according to the plans of the Federal engineers - - and preliminary work is now being done, such as securing the necessary land for the restraining barriers, but the engineers are having some difficulty in securing the land they deem necessary for that purpose. We trust, however, they may be able to overcome these difficulties and soon start the actual work of construction. - The association has done everything in its power to aid in the passage of the so called "Mineral Lands Bill," which was before the last Congress, and received favorable reports from the committees, but we are told owing to the lack of time it died on the files and will have to be reintroduced when the new Congress meets next December. Much could be said upon the merits of the bill and the benefit it would be to the prospecting miner if the bill could be passed and become a law, and here I wish to congratulate the members of the national Congress from California for their untiring efforts in support of this bill during the last session of Congress, and if the same energy is used by the members at the coming session of Congress I have no doubt but what they will succeed in passing the bill and have it become a law upon the statute books. - At our last annual session the Petroleum Miners' Association joined us in our deliberations and have worked harmoniously with us during the past year for the passage of such laws as would be beneficial for that industry, which is now assuming great magnitude in this State and is adding to its wealth. - The mineral productions of the United States are growing so very rapidly that the annual value is estimated at more than $1,000,000,000. It is right and proper that the mining industry of the United States should have of the Government more protection and assistance, which could be better facilitated through a Cabinet department of the executive branch of the Government, and if those engaged in the different branches of mining throughout the United States will join hands and ask for the establishment of a Cabinet Officer of Mines and Mining we certainly ought to be successful in obtaining it. - For Benefit of Miners - During the past ten years, or since the organization of the California Miners' Association, the delegates to the State Convention have been elected by county organizations, appointed by Boards of Supervisors, Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and other such organization. To the branch county organizations one delegate to each ten members has been the ration of apportionment. In some instances more delegates often desire to attend the State Convention than their county organization would permit. It also sometimes occurs that unfriendly feelings are engendered in the strife to be elected as delegates, which I think could be avoided by broadening the scope of the State association and allowing every member a seat and a voice in the deliberations of the annual convention, and I would suggest that a committee be appointed to revise the by-laws of the association so that every member who contributed his annual dues to carry on this work could feel that he had a perfect right to come to San Francisco and participate in the work of the annual convention. The State membership of the association is about 9000; the annual number of delegates elected to attend the State Convention is about 500. I think the influence of a State meeting of 1000 or 2000 members would be far greater than a meeting of four or five hundred chosen delegates. - During the year three meetings of the executive committee were held at which business in relation to the additional appropriation was transacted. At the meeting held September 14, 1901, Mr. Power of Placer, Mr. Christy of Alameda and Mr. Davis of Amador were appointed a special committee to draft resolutions of respect on the death of our late President, William McKinley, and report the same to the convention. I would recommend that we have these resolutions printed on a mourning page of our proceedings. - The increased demand made upon the State Mining Bureau owing to the increase in the mineral production of the State necessitates more liberal appropriations for its support and maintenance, and I would recommend that some action be taken toward the recommendation of the passage of a law that would give ita permanent income to carry on the work of the bureau, so that the friends of the bureau would not be obliged every two years to go to the Legislature and ask for appropriations. - I wish to congratulate all of the officers and committeemen of the association for the prompt and efficient manner in which they have attended to all their duties, and especially the secretary, who has all the work to perform during the year. The members of the executive committee have been prompt, and nearly all attended the meetings of the committee. - The association owes much to the press of San Francisco and throughout the entire State for the courtesies that have at all times been shown to the association, also to the business men of San Francisco who have always responded liberally when asked for financial aid to carry on the work. - The Union League Club of San Francisco is deserving of the thanks of the association for its kindness in giving the executive committee the use of its room for committee meetings. - Words of Encouragement - In their welcoming addresses Governor Gage and Mayor Phelan found little that was new to say. - Governor Gage said that the Government ought not to ignore the people of California and the people of California should never forget the debt of gratitude that they owe to sturdy miners, for it was the mining industry that created the nucleus of California's splendid civilization. Broadminded legislation was needed to protect the farmer, and at the same time to guarantee the welfare of the great mining interests of the State. Nowhere can capital be more profitably invested to-day than in developing the mineral resources of California. - Mayor Phelan said that every street in San Francisco bore testimony to the California miner. Buildings have been erected with the money of Mackay, Flood, O'Brien, Hayward and other miners. The name of Mackay was also connected, appropriately, with an enterprise involving the use of great quantities of metal, the Atlantic cable, in which he was interested. - Mr. Phelan welcomed the delegates heartily. He remarked that Robert Louis Stevenson had called San Francisco the smelting-pot of the world, and the city accepted that name, well pleased with it. Mayor Phelan said that President Roosevelt was in sympathy with the West and that was a favorable sign for the success of the movement for a Cabinet representation for the mining industry of the country, for the pressure for such representation came from the Western people. - In the afternoon Congressman Sam D. Woods made a pleasant address to the miners. He advised that Congressmen from this State should be kept for many terms in Congress. This advice was disinterested so far as he was concerned, he said, for he expected to retire to private life at the close of his present term as Congressman. The Eastern people knew that their Congressmen gained in influence according to the length of service and so returned them repeatedly. California had contributed great sums to the national treasury and had received very little in return. - If millions were needed to enable the miners to resume operations then the Government should expend these millions. The National Government had obligations to this State that could not be paid in money, but payment should be made by the Government so far as possible in money. The work of getting the needed improvements was evolutionary, and the Yuba River dam was not an end, but a beginning. He also said that he had worked for the California miners to the best of his ability at Washington and would continue to do so as Congressman.
San Francisco Call - 12/11/1901 - President Voorheis Names His Committee: Members of the California Miners' Association Who Will Serve During Ensuing Year - President Voorhies of the California Miners' Association yesterday announced the following committees: Executive Committee at Large - - Hon. J. H. Neff (chairman), San Francisco; W. C. Ralson, Robinsons; Harold T. Power, Michigan Bluff; Tirey L. Ford, San Francisco; A. D. Foote, Grass Valley; Edward Coleman, San Francisco; Charles G. Yale, San Francisco; W. W. Montague, San Francisco; J. J. Crawford, San Francisco; B. N. Shoecraft, San Francisco; Charles C. Derby, Mariposa; Louis Glass, San Francisco; C. C. Bush, Redding; Dr. C. T. Deane, San Francisco; David McClure Jr., Gwin Mine, Calaveras County; George E. Dow, San Francisco; J. W. C. Maxwell, San Francisco; C. M. Belshaw, Antioch; E. A. Belcher, San Francisco; Lewis T. Wright, Keswick; J. F. Halloran, San Francisco; John McMurry, Ukiah; W. S. Keyes, San Francisco; W. H. McClintock, Sonora; Willis G. Dodd, San Francisco; Dan T. Cole, San Francisco; George H. Wallis, San Francisco; F. F. Thomas, Gwin Mine, Calaveras County; A. J. McSorley, San Andreas; Fred Bradley, San Francisco. - County Executive Committee: Alameda - - Frank A. Leach, San Francisco; Professor S. B. Christy, Berkeley. Amador - - J. F. Parks, Jackson; John R. Tregloan, Amador. Butte - - A. Ekman, Oroville; W. P. Hammon, Oroville. Calaveras - - Lafe Pence, San Andreas; I. S. Foorman, San Francisco. El Dorado - - W. A. Winsboro, San Francisco; H. E. Picket, Placerville. Fresno - - A. R. Briggs, Fresno; W. H. McKenzie, Fresno. Inyo - - J. J. Gunn, Darwin; J. E. Meroney, Independence. Kern - - B. F. Brooks, Bakersfield; J. B. Treadwell, Kern City. Mariposa - - A. H. Ward, San Francisco; William Johns, Alameda. Mono - - R. T. Pierce, Lundy; J. S. Cain, Bodie. Nevada - - J. S. McBride, North San Juan; W. F. Englebright, Nevada City. Northern California - - J. H. Tibbits, Redding; E. A. Davis, San Francisco; George Hellmuth, Callahans, Cal. Placer - - William Nicholls Jr., Dutch Flat; E. J. Kendall, Auburn. Plumas - - A. B. White, Spanish Ranch; S. W. Cheney, San Francisco. Sacramento - - A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento. Santa Clara - - Thomas Derby, New Almaden; Ellard W. C. Carson, New Almaden. San Francisco - - J. O. Harron, San Francisco; Colonel George Stone, San Francisco. Shasta - - W. J. Gillespie, Redding; Fred Hurst, Redding. Sierra - - F. S. Moody, San Francisco; Frank R. Wehe, Downieville. Solano - - A. D. Holly, Dixon; Alf. Tregidgo, Vallejo. Sonoma - - Alfred Abbey, San Francisco; C. A. Grimmer, Pine Flat, Sonoma County. Southern California - - H. Z. Osborne, Los Angeles; C. A. Burcham, Los Angeles; Daniel Murphy, Los Angeles. Siskiyou - - A. G. Myers, Fort Jones; T. J. Nolton, Yreka. Trinity - - C. D. Galvin, Weaverville; W. I. Hupp Jr., Weaverville. Tuolumne - - Charles A. Long, Groveland; Samuel L. Fischer, Sonora. Yuba - - W. B. Meek, Camptonville; Joseph Durfee, Smartsville. - Committee on finance - - Andrew Carrigan, (chairman), Joseph Sloss, J. O. Harron, all of San Francisco. - Committee on legislation - - Hon. John F. Davis (chairman), Jackson; W. B. Lardner, Auburn; J. R. Tyrrell, Grass Valley; W. C. Ralston, Robinsons; C. M. Belshaw, Antioch; F. S. Moody, San Francisco; A. E. Muenter, Lathrop; R. C. Rust, Jackson. - Committee on mineral lands and conservation of water - - Harold T. Power (chairman), Michigan Bluff; Marion De Vries, New York City; Professor George Davidson, San Francisco; Mark B. Kerr, Grass Valley; H. E. Picket, Placerville; B. S. Rector, Nevada City; Marsden Manson, San Francisco. - Committee on department of mines and mining - - W. C. Ralston (chairman), Robinsons; J. F. Halloran, San Francisco; Charles G. Yale, San Francisco; W. S. Keyes, San Francisco; F. L. Stewart, Jackson. - Committee on dams - - A. Caminetti (chairman), Jackson; Fred Searls, Nevada City; J. S. McBride, North San Juan; A. C. Hinkson, Sacramento; Joseph Mooser, San Francisco; W. B. Meek, Smartsville; Mark B. Kerr, Grass Valley. - Committee on revision of constitution and bylaws - - Mark B. Kerr (chairman), Grass Valley; C. H. Dunton, Placerville; Colonel George Stone, San Francisco.
1902
San Francisco Call - 7/19/1902 - Ready To Work On Yuba Dams: Beginning on System to Hold Back Debris Is Near: Plans for Constructing One Barrier Got to Washington - Work on the restraining dam to be constructed with the use of the money of the national Government and of the State of California on the Yuba River is about to begin. The total expenditure is estimated at $800,000, including the land to be acquired. The California Debris Commission entertains the idea that the actual work will be started not later than the coming fall. Specifications have been forwarded to Washington for the construction of the first of a series of dams to be made, the cost of which, approximately, will be $35,000. This will be situated at a point about midway between Browns Valley and Smartsville, or sixteen miles east from Marysville. - Other dams will be constructed from time to time as the Government deems best. The appropriations, aggregating $800,000, are expected to provide for the storage of mining debris within the bed of the Yuba River by a system of works designed to separate the coarse material from the fine and also to provide for controlling the low water channel of the Yuba within narrower and well defined limits in order to preserve in place the extensive deposits in the river below. - The general scheme, as reported by Hubert Vischer, is to erect several barriers across the river bed, the upper ones to be located about three miles east from the mouth of Dry Creek; another to be erected just below the mouth of Dry Creek as a flood overflow barrier; another to be placed at Daguerre Point; also to form a settling basin about three miles in length and half a mile in width on the south side of the river. - This settling basin will consist of a levee, protected from the wash, to be built in the bed of the river, with its upper and lower ends connecting with the existing levee and shore on the south bank. The end walls are to have inlet and outlet weirs and conduits to regulate the inflow and outflow of the river and to cause the finer material carried in suspension to be deposited and held in the settling basin, through which, at all but flood stages, the river will be compelled to flow. Below the settling basin the river will be confined within well defined lines by necessary training works. - When the works will be completed no one can foretell. Progress will be made as needed. That is all the California Debris Commission can say. A period of more than twelve years has elapsed since the Debris Commission reported in favor of the construction of the works. In that time the Yuba dams have been discussed more than any other topic in the Sacramento Valley by farmers and miners. - Conventions of the California State Miners' Association have found the dams a topic fruitful of debate. The purpose is to improve the navigation of California rivers. The Yuba River was selected as the starting place in the work for the reason that a much larger share of detritus from the mines has been carried down that stream than all the other tributaries of the Sacramento River. The first survey was made by Hubert Vischer as long back as September, 1897.
Pacific Rural Press - 8/30/1902 - Restraining the Debris - The joint effort of State and nation to have agricultural lands and navigable rivers from ruin by the deposit of mining debris is approaching a practical test. The undertaking has an interesting history. In 1893 California appropriated $250,000 to build restraining barriers against further advancement of debris in the Sacramento valley, contingent upon the Federal appropriation of a like amount. This was secured in 1896. In 1901 a further joint appropriation of $300,000 was secured, thus making $800,000 available for the work. The whole enterprise is under the direction of the members of the U. S. engineer corps that constitute the California Debris Commission. - Sine the first half-million-dollar appropriation was made, there has been considerable preliminary prospecting, calculating, selecting, boring and estimating. The Commission reached the conclusion that a site locally known as the Narrows, in the vicinity of Smartsville, Yuba county, Cal., would be a suitable one for the proposed work; and extended series of investigations and surveys were then made under the direction of Assistant Engineer Hubert Vischer, determining the depth of the tailings in the bed of the river, the configuration and character of the bedrock, and, in general, all the existing conditions. The engravings, Figs. 1, 2 and 3, show the nature of the work. Fig. 3 shows a special device made for that work; in boring therewith pebbles 3 inches in circumference were brought up from a depth of 80 feet by the suction process of the boring machine. The test borings showed a depth of from 50 to 85 feet of gravel. - The preliminary work was completed in September, 1898, and about that time it became the settled opinion of the engineers that a further and larger project on much more extensive lines would be required to insure the largest measure of ultimate success. Much time has been consumed in making arrangements and in securing 2000 acres of land that the Commission held to be necessary for the work. Matters have, however, now so far progressed as to make it possible that the actual work may be started Oct. 15. The first of the series of dams, which will cost $35,000, is to be situated about midway between Brown's Valley and Smartsville, 16 miles east from Marysville. Other dams will be constructed from time to time as the Government deems best. The appropriations, aggregating $800,000, are expected to provide for the storage of mining debris within the bed of the Yuba river by a system of works designed to separate the coarse material from the fine, and also to provide for narrower and well defined limits in order to preserve in place the extensive deposits in the river below. The scheme, as reported by Hubert Vischer, is to erect several barriers across the river bed, the upper ones to be located about 3 miles east from the mouth of Dry creek; another to be located just below the mouth of Dry creek as a flood overflow barrier; another to be placed at Daguerre Point; also to form a settling basin about 3 miles in length and half a mile in width on the south side of the river. This settling basin will consist of a levee, protected from the wash, to be built in the bed of the river, with its upper and lower ends connecting with the existing levee and shore on the south bank. The end walls are to have inlet and outlet weirs and conduits to regulate the inflow and outflow of the river and to cause the finer material carried in suspension to be deposited and held in the settling basin, through which, at all but flood stages, the river will be compelled to flow. Below the settling basin the river will be confined within well defined lines by necessary training works. The Yuba river was selected as the starting place for the reason that a much larger share of detritus from the mines had been carried down that stream than all the other tributaries of the Sacramento river. - The project as submitted is novel, since nothing of the kind, so far as known, has ever been attempted, and it is to a certain extent experimental. The various structures are simple and are believed to be safe, practicable and reasonably permanent. They can be repaired if required, and if abandoned, not maintained, or never completed, cannot leave the river in any worse shape than at present. If constructed, it is believed that they are capable of storing the debris now in the Yuba river and its tributaries, which is far in excess of that in all the other tributaries of the Sacramento river. The result of the storage cannot be otherwise than beneficial to the navigation and commercial interests of the Sacramento and Feather rivers. - In a recent report the Commission say: "Especial attention is invited to the fact that the object sought to be accomplished is the storage of the detritus now in the Yuba and its tributaries, with a view to the improvement of the rivers below, and decidedly not with a view of permitting unlicensed or indiscriminate hydraulic mining at localities above the impounding works. When the works have been completed and in operation for several years there will be time and opportunity to determine whether or not the system is capable of sufficient expansion to warrant an attempt at storing therein the tailings from the hydraulic mines without compelling each mine to impound any or all of its debris."
1903
San Francisco Call - 4/24/1903 - Gold of Yuba Lures Capital: Seekers for the Yellow Metal Crowd Into the County - Special dispatch to The Call - Marysville, April 23. - Once again the gold fever has stirred up Yuba County and the activity bids fair to eclipse anything of the kind in many years. It is evident that the scramble that is going on for gold-bearing land is born of genuine interest. Already thousands of dollars have been passed from capitalists to landowners of this county and in the vicinity of Marysville. - It is now a well established fact that there is great demand for land bordering on the Yuba River, between Marysville and the foothills. Hardly a day passes that does not find men coming this way in search of gold. Yesterday two parties of capitalists went up the Yuba River in search of options on land, that in years past was considered of no value. In fact, since the secret leaked out that one acre of the James O'Brien Tract on the south side of the Yuba, recently prospected by drills, would yield enough gold to pay the purchase price of 2000 acres bought by Hammond & Co., who conduct extensive dredge operations on the Feather River at Oroville, there has been a rush all along the line to get in on the Yuba River land. - For the past two years a large force of men has been employed on the O'Brien Tract. The result has exceeded the anticipations of the men interested and a great effort is being made to bond all available land on the south side of the Yuba. The price per acre has advanced with astonishing rapidity and to-day large prices are being paid for the privilege of mining the land by the dredger process. In thirty days many drills will be in operation on these lands. The working force on the south side has already been increased. Orders for the most improved dredgers have been placed and are being hurried to completion. - While dredger mining is receiving most attention, men of means are also buying and bonding quartz claims in the hill region of Yuba County. From near Smartsville comes the news of the opening of a valuable quartz deposit and machinery is already on the way to the mine to work it extensively. In a dozen or more different locations of the Yuba County mountains work is being rushed on quartz mills.
San Francisco Call - 6/20/1903 - Industry is Booming - Concerning the lively interest in mining in Yuba County the Marysville Democrat says: Thirty-two claims are now in process of development, while as many more have been located or bonded. Seven are being worked to profit by the owners, two mills have been constructed, and at present there are 208 men employed. The number will be doubled in the next two months, and by the close of this year at least 1000 men will be actively at work in Yuba County taking out the precious metal. W. P. Hammon, who has bought about 3000 acres near this city and adjacent to the Yuba River, some on each side, has several drills at work. One arrived Friday to be used on the old Drum farm on the north side of the Yuba, and others are to come as soon as they can be had. Mr. Hammon has opened an office in Marysville, and he has secured the services of Joseph Durfee of Smartsville to take charge of it, one of the best informed mining men in the county. Work all along the line is to be crowded as rapidly as the necessary machinery can be obtained, as prospecting has demonstrated that there is a valuable deposit of gold. Another large company of capitalists, which is operating dredgers extensively along the American River, has secured the Beeny tract, six miles east of town on the south side of the Yuba River, and has had a force of men and a drill at work for some time. M. J. Crandall, representing the company, was in Marysville to-day and went out to the works. He will set more men to work in the near future.
San Francisco Call - 8/22/1903 - A sale of mining property in Yuba County is reported. East St. Louis men have purchased the New Blue Point mine, southeast from Smartsville. The mine will be hydraulicked under permission of the Debris Commission.
1904
San Francisco Call - 4/30/1904 - Strong Revival of Interest in the Mines of California: Yuba County's Gold Dredging, Ancient Channels in Sierra and Mother Lode Properties Drawing Attention and Causing Much Development Work - Attention is called to the growing interest in mining in this State. This morning there are published accounts of developments in Calaveras County, near Murphys, and in Yuba County, where dredger mining for gold is on the increase. These reports are taken from reliable journals and they are indicative of the new era of mining which would seem to be dawning. Facts of interest relative to mining on the mother lode are supplied by local newspapers of good standing. News is received from a trustworthy correspondent that rich rewards have been reaped recently by parties in Sierra County, who have been working an ancient river channel. As the result of this other properties along the same channel will be worked at once. In some places there is fourteen feet of snow on the channel. The warm weather soon to come will melt this and supply water for a long run. The channel mining at this point, which is near Downieville, is by the drift process. - An account of the growth of the interest in dredger mining in Yuba County is given by the Sacramento Bee. Some of its statements in relation to recent developments are as follows: - Slowly but surely a mining boom that promises to excel even the palmy days of '49 is beginning to be felt in Yuba County. The prediction is made that before another year has rolled around the country between Marysville and Smartsville will be studded with dredgers, operated by as many different companies as there are plants. Capitalists from all sections of the State are turning their attention to this section because of the dredger possibilities along the Yuba and in the foothills surrounding. The acreage owned by the Marysville Quartz Mining and Tunnel Company has attracted a number of dredger men and as high as $60,000 has been offered for the property. The stockholders are holding out for $80,000. The land is situated near Smartsville, where some of the richest tailings from the hydraulic mines operated in the good old days were dumped. - Among the recent options secured by outside parties is one by Los Angeles capitalists on the land of the Excelsior Water and Mining Company, near Smartsville. It is said that work on a big scale is proposed, the intention being to operate on the hydraulic plan, a dam to be built first in conformity with the Caminetti law. The scheme will include the new Blue Point Mining Company's property recently bonded to C. H. Hill and others. - From Colonel W. M. Rackerby, who has just returned from a visit in San Francisco, it is learned that he disposed of a tract of mining land at Rackerby to capitalists of Los Angeles, associates of J. M. Beck. Two other claims near Rackerby have been bonded to San Francisco capitalists. - These latter transactions would seem to indicate that the boom is not to be confined to the valley tracts along the river and the foothills, but will extend up into the mountains where heretofore pocket and placer mining have been considered the right sort. - All along many old timers have held to the opinion that within the confines of old Yuba there remained as good mining land as ever, and now their assertions are in a thoroughly good way to be substantially proven. Even in the excitement that carried the ambitious prospector to the frozen Klondike region these older heads were pointing out the possibilities of this section, but it remained for the dredger operators to verify their stand.
San Francisco Call - 7/10/1904 - Rich Northern Counties See A Future For Mines: Vast Stores of Mineral Wealth in Many Districts Hold Out Certain Promise of Large Reward to Intelligent Searchers for Ores - [snipped] The Blue Gravel, Deer Creek and Mooney Flat Mining Company is reported to be about to work gravel deposits that have been secured on the Yuba River in the Smartsville section. The mining lands extend from the Mooney Flat to the Yuba River, a distance of two and a half miles, and include the mineral rights of the Excelsior Water Company. The company will run a tunnel from Mooney Flat to the Smartsville mining claims.
1905
San Francisco Call - 7/9/1905 - Miners Decide to Attack Law: Benjamin Says Hydraulicking Measure Will Be Tested: Millions the Prize of Victory - Everything will be done that is possible, declares President Benjamin of the California Miners' Association, to have the Caminetti law tested soon in a court of last resort. Messrs. Golinsky and Wehe, attorneys for the association, have been instructed to proceed with due diligence and the time is approaching when the great issues that are tied up with the Caminetti measure will be settled. Whether a permit to proceed with hydraulic mining, issued by and under regulations provided by the California Debris Commission, is valid, is a leading issue. In some instances where such permits have been issued, injunctions issued by courts have put a stop to hydraulicking. - "If the law is not good," said President Benjamin yesterday, "it is time that the fact be known. The California Miners' Association is in earnest in this matter. We wish to know just where mining stands in regard to the law and so are going to do the best we can to find out as soon as may be. Heretofore obstacles have been encountered in our attempts to have the Caminetti law fully interpreted. This has been due principally to questions raised by the Anti-Debris Association relative to the validity of permits that were issued by the debris commissioners. In one case that the California Miners' Association took up, it was found that no permit had been issued. In another case we lost in the Superior Court because of some informality in the permit." - Will Battle To Finish - President Benjamin added that the entire matter will be caried [sic] to a finish. If the Supreme Court of the State of California finds adversely to the California miners, the suit will be taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. He also said that the Anti-Debris Association is willing to waive any question about the form of permit in the Polar Star case, so that the law may be tested on its merits and be interpreted by the highest court in the land, if necessary. - Events have been steadily leading up to the determination to have all the issues involved in the Caminetti law brought to a conclusion. Successive conventions of the California Miners' Association have adopted resolutions, all in the same direction, and the last annual meeting of the association went so far as to send a memorial to President Roosevelt, in behalf of the interests represented by the hydraulic miners, for a general investigation of the conditions attending the depositing of debris in the beds of streams in this State. The result has been the sending of a special agent of the Geological Survey to California, who is now engaged in viewing all sections where debris has been dropped and all sections that are subject to the depositing of materials through natural erosion. - Northern Counties Earnest - Since the convention some bitterness has been manifested in northern mining counties of California over the existing situation. Quite bitter criticism has been made of the California Debris Commission, which President Benjamin says is unjust, as the Commissioners have acted conscientiously throughout. The Anti-Debris Association has been active recently and interest is on edge throughout the mining sections and also in all sections that are affected by the mining debris as to the next move. For this reason the announcement of President Benjamin will be received with peculiar and general interest, for millions of dollars annually are at stake on the outcome of the future. - That there are many millions of dollars in the sands of California that may be saved by hydraulicking very few persons in the State will question. Whether they can be extracted without damage to the farmers is the concern of all the agricultural counties that are so situated that they can be affected by debris. The millions in comparatively easy reach are the incentive for renewing the struggle. - President Benjamin says that some explanation of the attitude of the California miners to the Caminetti act is due, in view of the fact that the passage of the law was procured through the exertions of the California Miners' Association. When a court decision put a stop to hydraulicking it was evident that something must be done, because the interests that were involved were great. It was the opinion of the miners that hydraulicking could be continued with restraining dams to hold back the debris from the beds of rivers. - What was known as the Biggs commission was created, which made an investigation and offered several recommendations. Then the California Miners' Association went before Congress, through representative men, and asked for the enactment of an adequate law that would protect the miners and the agriculturists and other landowners. - Law Was Unsatisfactory - The best measure that could be secured was the Caminetti law. This was not what was desired, but it was the best that could be had. It has enabled hundreds of mines that would otherwise have been shut down permanently to be operated in a small way, under permits from the California Debris Commission. Where injunctions have been brought the permits of the Debris Commission have not protected the miners, and, in that respect, the operation of the law is considered to be a failure. President Benjamin cannot say just when the suit will be filed in the Supreme Court of California to test the Caminetti law. There was no doubt, he said, that if defeat comes to the miners in the State Supreme Court the cause will find its way to the Supreme Court of the United States at once. - Operations In Field - The North Star silver mine at Bootjack, Merced County, will be pumped out and developed if samples of the ore warrant. The Le Grand Mining Company of Merced has taken an option on the mine. - The largest individual taxpayer in Shasta County is still the Mountain Copper Company, notwithstanding the removal of a part of its business and the curtailment of its local operations. The entire assessment of Shasta County for purposes of taxation is $10,408,224. The Mountain Copper Company alone is assessed for $1,003,275. The Mammoth Copper Company is assessed for $162,000 and the Bully Hill Mining Company for $503,275. - A copper deposit has been discovered in Yuba County, midway between Smartsville and Spenceville, less than a mile from the Nevada County line. The ledge is on the ranch of John Dempsey. [snip]
Pacific Rural Press - 9/9/1905 - How They Are Trying to Impound Mining Debris - Capt. Wm. W. Harts, U. S. Corps of Engineers, recently gave in the Academy of Science building, in San Francisco, an authentic account of what had been done and what was proposed to do in holding back mining debris in rivers now being ruined by it. - The first portion of his lecture was devoted to a history of the mining debris problem in California, the situation that gave rise to the creation of a California Debris Commission, and the scope and intent of that body's powers. This was followed by a description of the mining region assigned to the control of the Commission, and estimates of the amount of detritus lodged in the streams, and the duties of the Commission under the federal law. Following this, in speaking of the manner of work done, Capt. Harts furnished considerable further data hitherto unpublished. In the matter of individual dams, he said that various kinds of dams had been tried - - those of stone, of earth, brush and rock, log-crib filled with rock, and many others. After twelve years of experience, it has been found that the usual small mine, where impounding dams can be used, will need one of two general types - - either log-crib dams or brush dams. - The log crib is the more common type. It consists of a cob-house crib, with the logs of which it is made notched and bolted together. It is filled with quarried rock and chinked against leakage. This type of dam is seldom built over 40 feet high, this being the limit of safety placed by the Commission for the usual case. These dams are very satisfactory for their purpose when well made. Ad long as they are kept wet they are practically permanent, and in those locations where the logs rot, due to being dry part of the time, the rock being well bedded in gravel will resist erosion long after the logs have failed to bind the dam together. - The brush dam is less used, as it is permitted usually only when the water flow over the dam is small, or when the river is diverted through a spillway at one end, and only when the slope of the canyon above is slight. These brush dams are not permitted over 20 feet in total height. - There is now mined nearly a million cubic yards each year which is stored in the canyons and ravines behind debris dams especially constructed for the purpose. - Another side of the Commission's duty is the study of the rivers of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems with a view to the preparation of plans for the treatment of these streams and their tributaries, so that the injurious mining detritus may be kept out of the navigable rivers and the streams restored to their former condition of navigability as far as might be needed. - Yuba River - It was decided to commence with the Yuba river, as this stream has suffered more from mining debris than any other in California, and if the difficulties here could be surmounted, the methods found best adapted for the purpose would likely be more easily applied to the other streams. - After a study of several years and after extended surveys in which numerous borings were made, a plan was adopted by the Commission and submitted to Congress in 1900. - 1. Barriers across the river just below Smartsville, to prevent the addition of coarse detritus from the upper reaches. - 2. A cut at Daguerre point through which to divert the river at high stages, with embankments forming a settling basin for impounding fine material during the remainder of the year. - 3. Training walls 2000 feet apart, extending from Daguerre point to the Feather river, to confine the flow to a selected channel. - Barriers - The barriers were to be a system of weirs extending across the river, where the banks are high enough to afford large impounding capacity, the first located a few miles below Smartsville. This dam has just passed successfully through its first high-water season and is the first to withstand a single freshet in the lower Yuba river. - The dam consists of four rows of piles, the two upper intervals between rows being 10 feet, and the interval between the third and fourth rows being 18 feet. - Piles were 6-feet centers in the uppermost row, 12-feet centers in the two middle rows, and 3-feet centers in the lowest row. Every 12 feet the piles in a tier up and down stream were connected at their upper ends with 1-inch galvanized wire cable. A timber bulkhead 3 inches thick was spiked to the upstream and another to the downstream row of piles, and was carried as deep as the water in the river would permit. - Between the first two rows of piles was placed a fill of rock which was brought up to a subgrade, so that when covered by the concrete blocks, 1 1/2 feet thick, the height of the barrier would be 6 feet above the average level of the river bed. Concrete blocks about 10 feet square and 1 1/2 feet thick were built in place over all this fill, connecting by means of a rollerway with an apron 20 feet wide resting on the river bed below the dam. - The upstream slope was protected with an inclined layer of large rock laid in Portland cement mortar. The concrete slabs of the top surface of the dam and those of the apron were separated from each other by tar-paper joints, and, to prevent dislocation by the river currents, were connected in the direction of the stream flow with 1-inch galvanized wire cables, 3 feet apart, imbedded in the concrete. The cables connecting the piles referred to above were also imbedded in a narrow strip of concrete 18 inches square, which helps bind the heads of the piles together in each tier and separates the large blocks. - Excepting these narrow strips, the concrete slabs rest on the river bottom only and are not supported on the piles. They are jointed so that they are free to move vertically, the cables acting as a hinge. - This, it was designed, would permit the concrete blocks to follow down any considerable scour under the apron, should it occur, and thus prevent any serious damage to the dam due to back-lash. - The weak place in all over-fall dams on poor foundations is, of course, the toe. The rollerway and apron it was hoped would protect the river bed from excessive and dangerous scour. In addition, an extension or lip of masonry 6 feet wide was placed below the apron to carry the water farther away from the toe, and if underscoured it would break up, fall in the hole and offer protection against further action. In addition, for about 600 feet the dam at the south end, where the scour was believed to be strongest, was further protected by large rock or rip-rap placed at random. - The south end of the dam was joined to the bedrock of the river bank, but at the north end a concrete abutment was built, founded on piles, to act as a retaining wall for the earth embankment which was later built to connect the dam with the shore. The north shore is composed of compactly cemented gravel, through which it was originally planned to have a spillway constructed to carry the river at all stages except flood. During construction the entire river was permitted to pass between this abutment and the north shore before building the embankment, so that the concrete dam could be constructed entire on the dry river bed. When it came time to close this gap through which the river flowed, it was found to be an undertaking far greater than was anticipated, as there were about 1200 to 1300 cubic feet per second flowing around the end of the dam. This flow had to be lifted upwards of 8 feet over the completed structure. - The first pilework placed to close this gap failed with the pressure of the water, and through the serious scour in the bottom which took place while trying to close the opening. Later more piles were placed in the opening, and by the liberal use of brush and sand bags the gap was finally closed. - The first step of the permanent dam having been completed as above described, it is now proposed to build in accordance with the project similar step 8 feet higher, lying upstream of the present work and connecting with it. Contracts are already let and work has been commenced on this second step. - In the same way it is expected to put a step 8 feet high on the dam each working season. In this way the ultimate height of the dam will be reached by successive steps. This method was found advisable, as the amount of work possible in the river bed during the low-water season is limited and time must be given the river to fill each step with gravel. - The first step, already built, has been filled with gravel to its crest since the first heavy freshet, and gravel as large as pigeons eggs have been rolled over the top of the dam for several months. - It is thus plainly seen that the dam as a whole is a gravel fill dam sluiced into place by the river itself, the downstream slope of which is composed of a layer of concrete blocks having a general inclination of about 1 vertical to 3 1/2 horizontal. The concrete overlies a rock fill held in place by a framework of anchor piles and timber bulkheads. - Daguerre Point Section - The plans for the treatment of the intermediate section of the Yuba river involve the construction of high embankments across the river in a V-shape, with the apex upstream, the ends connecting, one with Daguerre point on the north, and the other with a high knoll on the south bank. - A diverting barrier connects the apex of the V with the north shore, diverting to the south all water below the elevation of its crest. Through Daguerre point is being cut a channel 600 feet wide and 25 feet deep, through which all the river flow at high stages will pass. - On the south bank, regulating works will admit all the water diverted by the diverting barrier below a limit of about 6000 to 7000 second feet, passing it into a natural depression of about 2 square miles and lying adjacent to the river on the south. These works will exclude all flow above what is considered safe, compelling the excess to pass to the north over the diverting barrier and through the cut. - This plan is simply taking advantage of the natural regimen of the river. - All rivers have their sections of active erosion, usually where slopes and velocities are highest, their sections of transportation where slopes and velocities are sufficient to carry sediment but not to scour, sections of sedimentation where the reduced velocities permit the sediment to fall and form deposits, and the section of discharge. - The construction of the embankments and the use of a large settling basin only increase the natural area of the section of sedimentation. The river is passed into an area where the velocities are checked, although not entirely overcome, so that practically all their load of sediment is dropped. The water passing back into the river at the lower end of the basin is practically clear. At stages of the river occurring for a short time only each year, where the flow of water through the settling basin would be more than could be settled, the regulating devices will exclude the excess, causing it to pass into the cut. This will happen only in such high stages that the velocities are thought to be sufficient to carry whatever fine sediment is in suspension into the Feather and Sacramento rivers, which, being in flood at the same time, will carry the sediment into the tidal currents of the bay and thence into the ocean. The solution of the extreme high water part of the problem is not thoroughly satisfactory, in view of the fact that adequate levees are not yet built on the Sacramento to control its flow; but as the periods of such high water are short, the damage, if any should result, will be limited and will vanish when the Sacramento is regulated - - a vast problem now receiving attention. - Bear River - As stated before, the Yuba river was the first to be studied and the first to be taken up for treatment. The Commission are now planning to take up the work on Bear river, and a survey is authorized and is now being arranged on which to base plans for the future improvement of this stream. - Should the Bear river work be approved by Congress and by the State of California, and funds provided, the work will be extended to the American river and other sediment-bearing streams until the entire problem is solved.
1906
San Francisco Call - 3/26/1906 - Nevada County Feels Impetus. Great Gold Output: Wealth From Districts Amounts to About $250,000,000 Since Early Discoveries - [snip] In the Timbuctoo mining district a mining revival is reported. A new company has been formed to replace the old Marc Anthony Gold and Silver Mining Company. This company will reopen the Timbuctoo mine. - On a long drift of 2000 feet the Champion Company has made a strike on the Nevada City mine shoot. Work on the drift was begun a year ago. The Nevada City mine was purchased by the Champion Company some years ago. - Much is in progress in the Smartsville mining district. A double compartment shaft has been sunk on the Dempsey ranch, two miles south of Smartsville, and a tunnel will be driven at the base of the hill in a transverse direction. The Dempsey ranch was sold for $32,000. It comprises 1200 acres. Forty acres of gravel ground on the Sicard Flat channel were recently sold by Joseph D. Locey of Browns Valley to E. A. Forbes, who will dredge providing the status of the Browns Valley ditch is satisfactorily settled in the near future, the mine depending on water from that ditch. The Sicard Flat channel is supposedly the same as that on the south side of the Yuba River, on which are located Timbuctoo, Sucker Flat and Paddy Campbell's new Blue Point gravel mines.
1909
Los Angeles Herald - 8/30/1909 - Expect Return of Golden Days: Smartsville Pioneers See Dollars Ahead: Capitalists Buy Quartz and Placer Mines: Sand Hill and Timbuctoo Districts Also Enter New Era with Prospects Backed by Ample Means - Nevada City, Aug. 29. - Every indication points to Smartsville again becoming the center of big mining operations, and the pioneers are rubbing their eyes and wondering if they are about to see a return of the golden days of yore. Certainly the outlook has not been as bright since the early placer days. - Within a short time the drills for testing the river claim of the Marysville Quartz Tunnel and Mining company in the channel of the Yuba near there will arrive and be placed in operation by the parties who have taken a bond on the property for dredging purposes. - Old prospectors predict that the tests will be favorable to the introduction of the goldboats, as this section of the river has been the dumping ground, or settling basin, for the rich gravel mines in the Smartsville camp and vicinity since the early days. It is estimated that a vast amount of gold escaped through the tunnels and drifted to a resting place in this basin, where the grade of the river is comparatively small. - Small capital is also seeking opportunity in the quartz ledges of Sand Hill mining district at Timbuctoo, a suburb of Smartsville. It is reported that S. O. Gunning is about to bond the valuable Marc Anthony quartz mine to persons of means. - Money Comes At Last - This, it is argued, is what is needed to develop the district - - the sinews of war in sufficient sum to go down deep and open up the unexplored regions of the once noted field. Predictions are being made that those who are persistent will be richly rewarded, as the surface indications are alone quite encouraging. - Near the Marc Anthony the famed Bullard ledge of early days, where, in 1860, over $20,000 was taken out of one pocket, is located, and there is similar property close at hand awaiting capital to develop it. - The Erle mine near Graniteville has passed from the hands of George Mainhart to a company of capitalists of Wheeling, W.Va. R. G. Eckis of Oakland is making arrangements to being work at the Erle without delay and expects to have the mine running the early part of next month. He says that the people who have taken over the Erle have the necessary wherewith to thoroughly develop the property and the company has been organized as the Erle Consolidated Mines company. - Send Expert To Examine - The Wheeling people sent an expert to examine the Erle, and it was on the strength of his report that they concluded to secure the property. Mr. Eckis will act as manager for the new company and has had over twenty years' experience in mining, which will stand him well in hand in developing the Erle, which he looks forward to as one of the biggest propositions in the Graniteville district. - For many years the Erle group, which consists of the McCarty, Dublin Hay, Oliver and Holland claims, has been owned by George Mainhart of Grass Valley, who is now operating the Ancho mine, which adjoins the Erle, and placed it on a paying basis. There is a tunnel 1700 feet long, and while O. E. Turner worked the property a fine thirty-stamp mill, compressor and other equipment were installed, which is driven by water power.
1910
San Francisco Call - 10/20/1910 - Dredging the River Beds for Gold - An interesting project for the improvement of navigation on the Sacramento and Feather rivers with incidental benefits in the way of taking care of the winter floods is mooted in Marysville. The proposition on which the project is based is that the deposits of slickens with which the riverbeds are choked are largely charged with placer gold washed down from the mountain streams, and that this gold can be recovered by the usual process in use by dredge miners. A mining engineer is quoted: "Any old timer will tell you that the gold from the flumes was abstracted from cement gravel and that great chunks of this gold bearing material were not pulverized by the action of the water until after it had passed through the sluice boxes and was lost to the miner. All the gold contained in these large and small chunks, which was a large amount, lies today in the river channels from Smartsville to Sacramento, and by the dredge process of mining it can all be garnered. - The action of the sun, water and atmosphere has slacked these pieces of cement so that they crumble in your hands now. When they were first torn from their beds in the ancient river channels they were as hard and firm as pieces of granite." - We have no idea to what extent placer gold is carried in the deposits of silt and slickens in the river beds, but the fact should not be difficult to determine. It is not in the least likely, however, that the federal government would undertake the work as a commercial proposition, nor is it to be expected that an enterprise of this character would be carried out in an economical fashion by this agency. But if there is sufficient gold in the streams to make the proposition pay some arrangement might be made that would induce private enterprise to undertake the work. We doubt very much whether gold in paying quantity will be found in the slickens. If there had been anything of the sort in the big deposits of this stuff the dredge miners would have been after it long ago.
1911
San Francisco Call - 4/16/1911 - Marc Anthony Mine - The Marc Anthony mine in Smartsville has passed into the hand of new owners and is being overhauled for active operations. The owners have organized the Marc Anthony gold and silver mining company and will erect a stamp mill of 50 tons capacity at once. Senator Foraker of Ohio is largely interested in the new organization.
San Francisco Call - 10/22/1911 - Marc Anthony Mine - The best proof of stability of Marc Anthony mine at Smartsville, which took on a new lease of life shortly after the death of the former owner, the late S. O. Gunning, is the decision of the lessees, Foraker and Bradshaw of San Francisco, to meet November 1, and the third payment then due on the purchase price, virtually making them the owners of the mine. It was understood that the first and second payments to the family of Gunning was to show the good will of the buyers, while they were testing the ground. The third payment is in such sum that it leaves no doubt of the mining experts' opinion of the ground. They freely announce that the Marc Anthony is a mine even beyond their expectations, and that they will follow up the lead they have to prove their faith in the property. From the first they struck promising veins, but now have one that is highly encouraging. The plant is to be added to, which means the employment of more men and still better times for Smartsville. Grass Valley Union.
San Francisco Call - 11/24/1911 - New Hydraulic Mining Plant in Operation: Smartsville Company Uses Up to Date Principles (Special Dispatch to The Call.) - Smartsville, Nov. 23. - The plant of the Tarr Mining company started up today. The plant is of a new design and on the hydarulic [sic] principle, two immense monitors being used. Debris is carried from the station to settling basins through cement flumes. This is the first plant of its kind ever constructed, and this is the first hydraulic mining at Smartsville since the passage of the anti-debris law years ago.
1912
San Francisco Call - 1/16/1912 - Tarr Resigns From Hydraulic Company - (Special Dispatch to The Call) - Grass Valley, Jan. 15. - E. W. Tarr announced his resignation today from the vice presidency and general managership of the Tarr Mining company, one of the largest hydraulic companies in the state, operating immense works at Smartsville. Friction with other members of the company is assigned as the reason.
1914
Sausalito News - 5/9/1914 - Coast Happenings: Grass Valley. - Prospectors who spent the winter on the Yuba river in the Smartsville district, report that one gang of three men made as high as $150 per day for each man by sluicing gravel washed in on bars through what is known to miners as "long toms." Gold hunters report that five dollars is considered a poor day's work. The heavy winter rains made gravel mining unusually good.
1919
Sausalito News - 8/23/1919 - Grass Valley - The Blue Point mine near Smartsville, the famous "Paddy" Campbell mine, is to be sold for $20,000, according to a suit filed for receivership here. The Blue Point was once valued at $1,000,000.
1921
Pacific Rural Press - 11/5/1921 - The Woodruff Ranch at Mooney Flat, near Smartsville, Nevada county, has been sold to an Oakland family. This property has been int he possession of the Woodruff family since the early fifties.
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If the estimates are correct and there has been 158,000 tones of gold recovered from “Mother Earth” (assuming 24 K purity) then that would translate into 5,079,817,925 troy oz. of the precious metal. However unless you are Bill Gates or one of the other billionaires on the planet, I still have a hard time grasping what over 5 billion ounces of gold would look like. Back to the calculator.
If a cubic centimeter of 24K gold equals 19.3 grams, then a cubic meter of gold would weight 19.3 tonnes. Likewise all the gold ever mined would amount to 8,187 cubic meters. That still doesn’t mean anything to me.
I have to put that into perspective and visualize what that much gold would look like. So , if all the gold in the world would fit into a 20.15 meter cube, or 66 feet 1.3 inches square, that would kind of be the size of a small office building. Now that I can understand.
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