Kern County CA Archives History - Books .....Randsburg Is Discovered 1934 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 20, 2006, 2:26 am Book Title: Where Rolls The Kern CHAPTER XVII. Randsburg is Discovered. IN 1891 the following named postoffices were in existence in Kern County: Annette, Bakersfield, Caliente, Clarkson, Delano, Elmer, Freeman, Glenburn, Glenville, Greenwich (Tehachapi), Havilah, Keene, Kernville, Miramont, Mojave, Onyx, Rosamond. Rosedale, Spotiswood, Sumner (Kern City), Weldon and Woody. An idea of the County's outstanding activities of the late '80's and the early '90's is to be gleaned from the following brief paragraphs taken from the local press of that day: September, 1887—Articles of incorporation were filed in San Francisco for the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company; a camp of workmen in the Tejon Canyon were doing the preliminary work; supposed to be the Santa Fe . . . .The Tejon lemon and orange trees were in bearing. September 29, 1887—General Beale had given a right-of-way across his Tejon lands for the railroad from Mojave to Bakersfield. The road was to be completed within three years. May 13, 1889—The County, by a vote of 852 to 281, voted to issue bonds in the sum of $250,000 to build a new jail, County Hospital, an addition to the court house, and to improve highways. August 31, 1890—Carr & Haggin were working 300 head of horses, extending canals to the lands which they would colonize next Winter. September, 1890—The Kern County Land Company incorporated in San Francisco. Report said that S. W. Ferguson was to be the resident manager.... Lloyd Tevis was anxious to dispose of his Kern County lands, as he preferred other investments. April 30, 1891—President Harrison spoke at Bakersfield from the rear of his special train. . . . Colonization Agent Knewing of the Kern County Land Company arrived from England with thirty young colonists. February 10, 1893—Kern River broke through the levee and flooded part of the town of Bakersfield. August, 1893—An anti-Chinese meeting was held at Kern City. A letter was written to the United States District Attorney informing him that there were 1500 unregistered Chinese in the County, and requesting that peaceable steps be taken toward their removal. The above are outstanding news items of the period covered, and a perusal of them might lead the reader to believe that the industry of gold mining, which had first attracted attention to the Kern district, had been forgotten; but such was not the case. Back in 1893, John Searles was already hauling his now famous " 20-Mule-Team Borax" from Searles Lake to Mojave, and within a comparatively few feet of the road his mule teams traversed, a placer gold strike was made in this same year. While this strike was not one of the first magnitude, it was of more than minor importance, and was to lead, indirectly at least, to the discovery of the greatest precious mineral belt Kern County has ever known, and which has added millions to the County's total mineral production, and to the personal fortunes of some of the County's prominent citizens. The strike referred to was made at Goler, Northeast of Mojave, and led to considerable activity at Goler and at Summit Dry Diggings nearby. Ramsey Cox was one of the earliest operators in this district, and he was soon joined by many others from both Los Angeles and San Bernardino, including Henry Ross, Miles Benson, "Rum" Benson, Bob Gunduson, C. A. Burcham, John Singleton, Fred Mooers, John Kelly, E. B. McGinnis and T. A. Duke. While the strikes of 1893 were the first to attract any notable attention to the district, they did not mark the first exploration of the district, for near the site of what was to become Goler was found an old location notice posted by Hiram Johnson in 18S3, Whether this early-day prospector was any kin to his namesake and our present day senior United States Senator is not known. Early records also reveal that the district was prospected to some degree at least in the early '60's, but it remained for the discovery of 1893 to cause the first rush to the district. In the discovery year, Reed and Groves found the largest nugget ever to be taken from the district. It was valued at just a trifle less than $1,000, and its finding caused feverish excitement throughout the entire area, which included the dry washing camps of Goler, Red Rock Canyon, Last Chance Gulch and Summit Diggings, with Goler undoubtedly being entitled to be regarded as the metropolis of the district. By the Spring of 1895 Goler was the abode of 14 women, 600 men, and boasted of six saloons and two stores—a ratio that did not differ materially from the early '50's. Production estimates vary between $125,000 and $200,000, but these figures have undoubtedly been augmented considerably by activities of the past two or three years stimulated by the attack of gold hunting fever that has been prevalent throughout all Western states, due to the recent depression and the subsequent boost in the price of virgin gold. Among those attracted to these dry placer camps in 1893 were John Singleton, Fred Mooers and C. A. Burcham, the latter a San Bernardino cattle man, whose wife was Doctor Rose L. Burcham, a physician and surgeon. When Burcham was stricken with the gold fever, his wife agreed to resume her medical practice and to grub-stake him over a period of two years, the agreement being that if at the end of the period Burcham had failed to make a strike he was to return to the more prosaic occupation of cattle raising. By April, 1895, Burcham had failed to locate anything worth while and was faced with the imminent prospect of contributing to the country's beef supply. In this same month and year Burcham and his two associates Singleton and Mooers, extended their explorations some six or seven miles toward the San Bernardino County line and prospected on what later became known as Rand Mountain. There they discovered and located what later became known as the famous Yellow Aster Mine, first named the Olympus Mine. The discovery of the Yellow Aster not only marked the finding of both Kern County's and Southern California's greatest gold producer, but marked the beginning of a rush that rivaled, yes, exceeded, the rushes of the 50's and the 60's, and caused the founding of a camp whose production figures total many millions, and which has experienced many revivals during the intervening years, one such revival being experienced as these lines are being penned. Following the discovery of the Yellow Aster, or the Olympus as it was then called, other discoveries were soon made and hundreds of claims were staked. Some of these claims were developed into profitable mining properties, but none of them ever equalled or even rivaled the discovery mine. Its locators were practically without funds when they made their famed discovery, and Burcham's wife and financial backer had apparently reached a point where she had little faith in mining investments; so when she was appealed to for $50 with which to begin operations, she made a personal trip to the property and remained to take a hand in its operations, continuing active in its management throughout all its glorious years. The ore was so rich that all early production was shipped, and yielded handsome returns. These returns were so substantial that by 1901 the operators had sufficient funds to erect a thirty-stamp mill, and before the close of the same year the mill was increased to 100 stamps. With comparatively few intermissions, the mill, or at least a portion of it, has been in operation since. The discovery of this great mine quite naturally called for the founding of a town, which was named Randsburg, the name being suggested by the great South African Rand gold belt. The first commerce of the new camp was conducted on the property of the Yellow Aster, but the nucleus of the present townsite was established in the discovery year when Abram Staley and son, Homer, erected the first frame building on the flat and opened therein a blacksmith shop. Charles Keen opened the first store in the town proper. Montgomery Bros, opened the first saloon and were soon followed in the same line of business by John Crawford. Others followed suit with the same and other lines of business, and by 1896 Randsburg was a hustling, bustling mining camp with a newspaper, practically all lines of business represented and with a full, if not excessive, quota of saloons, gambling halls, vice dens and everything that goes to make up a complete mining metropolis. It can undoubtedly be said without fear of successful contradiction that Randsburg proved !to foe the greatest mining camp of which Southern California has ever boasted. Possibly, rome camps in the Southland may have for a brief period harbored a greater population, but no gold camp in this end of the State has ever equalled it in total production and permanency. It not only attracted prospectors, miners, business men and sightseers, but as is the misfortune of all mining camps, it attracted its quota of undesirables. The outstanding group of this class was locally dubbed The Dirty Dozen, and caused considerable trouble until citizens organized against them and finally sped them on their way. By 1897 the importance of the camp had been so competely established that the Santa Fe built a branch line from Kramer, on its main line, to Johannesburg, a neighboring town to Randsburg, being only a mile or so distant. Other towns in the immediate district, and being close enough to form almost one solid settlement are Atolia, Inn City, Osdick and Hampton, some of them of later origin and in San Bernardino County, Randsburg being only a stone's throw, so to speak, from the dividing line between the two counties. Detailed and accurate gold production figures for Randsburg are not available, but an estimate of $20,000,000.00 from the time of discovery until the present is not regarded as being wide of the mark, a major share of this being the yield of the Yellow Aster; and to these figures must be added more millions from other minerals, but the story of these other millions will be dealt with in a later chapter for their unearthing constitutes another era in the life of this sensational camp. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Where Rolls the Kern A History of Kern County, California By Herbert G. Comfort MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA: The ENTERPRISE Press 1934 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/kern/history/1934/whererol/randsbur283nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 11.0 Kb