Nevada County CA Archives History - Books .....Placer Mining 1867 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 5, 2005, 6:13 pm Book Title: Bean’s History And Directory Of Nevada County, California PLACER MINING. It would be impossible in the limits assigned to this paper to give any thing like a history of the rise and progress of placer mining in this county, and we can only hope to sketch some of the leading improvements and note the present condition of the business. The placer mines have been worked steadily in the county for seventeen years, and have yielded an amount of treasure that, could the figures be procured, would stagger belief, and as yet show no signs of exhaustion. True, the rich pockets in the beds of the running streams, and the shallow diggings that required no capital and but little preliminary labor to mine successfully, have been mostly worked out, and capital and skill are now indispensable to success, yet there is no perceptible diminution in the yield. As claims are worked out in one place new ones are opened in other localities, and although failure in any given enterprise is about as likely as success, yet the prospect of big strikes, anjl the hope of acquiring a fortune or a competency by one or two years of well-directed labor, are incentives that can not fail to enlist the skill of the most energetic of our population. Mining commenced in Nevada county in 1849, the rocker being the principal machine used in washing the auriferous sands. It had been used early in the summer of 1848 on the bars of the American, Yuba and Feather rivers. The rocker gave place to the long-torn, a machine called the "grizzly," and the sluice, all of which were first brought into use in Nevada county. The grizzly, which was a sort of huge rocker, proved to be less serviceable than the long-torn and was soon discarded, while the long-torn in turn gave place to the sluice. This was a most important improvement, enabling claims to be worked that would not pay with the rocker and long-tom, and gave a decided impetus to mining. Ditches at length were constructed, and as the miners were compelled to leave the river beds and shallow ravines and take to the deeper diggings, the process of shoveling the earth into the sluices became unprofitable, and the practice of ground-sluicing came into use. By this process, the surface soil being loosened up was washed away by a stream of water, leaving only the heavy gravel at the bottom to be shoveled into the sluice. Ground-sluicing was carried on very extensively in this county in 1851 and 1852, the use of the sluice proper at that time being well understood, and having superseded other methods. With most of the mining improvements there was no especial invention, but the different appliances came into use gradually, as they were needed by the changing character of mining, and may be considered as the result of the combined skill and ingenuity of the mining population. Perhaps to M. E. Hoit, now residing in Bridgeport township, but then a miner at Nevada City, more than to any other one person, is due the introduction of the sluice. It is used now in all placer mining operations, and is undoubtedly the most essential of any one contrivance in placer mining. It can hardly be called a machine. The hydraulic hose came into use in 1853, and enabled miners to work with profit a vast amount of ground that would never have paid for sluicing by the ordinary process. About April, 1852, a Frenchman named Chabot, mining on Buckeye Hill, had a hose made to work his claim. This was some four or five inches in diameter, and between thirty-five and forty feet in length. There was no pipe or nozzle at the end, but by concentrating the water and leading it into the diggings through the hose, it was found convenient to sluice off the earth and gravel that had been picked down, and a great help in cleaning up the bed-rock. We can not learn that a hose was used that season in any other claims, and it does not appear that Chabot discovered the great advantage that would result by directing the stream of water against the bank. This discovery was made by E. E. Matteson, a year later. In April, 1853, Matteson and his partners, who were working a claim on American Hill, rigged up a hose, attached a nozzle at the end, and directing it against the bank, found that a small stream of water would do the labor of a hundred men in excavating the earth. Very soon after this the hydraulic hose came into general use throughout the county, giving renewed impulse to placer mining. Successive improvements have been made in hydraulic mining, until the appliances now in use resemble but little those of 1853, but the principle is the same, and to Matteson is due the credit of the important discovery. At present, the water is usually conducted into the diggings through large iron pipes, at the end of which the hose is attached. In some of the larger operations, five or six streams of water are kept playing upon the bank, undermining the ground and melting away the hills at an incredible rate. In this manner acres of ground, frequently from one to two hundred feet deep, are washed away in a single season, and the bed-rock left bare. The hydraulic is the most effectual method ever yet devised for excavating large quantities of earth, and the process was employed to some extent last season, by the Pacific Railroad Company, in cutting through the deep hills near Dutch Flat. The placer mines have been worked longer and more steadily than the quartz mines, and their yield has been more regular. At an early day of mining it was supposed the placer diggings would soon be exhausted, and in 1852 the prediction would have been regarded as wild, that they would hold out for fifteen years with no material decrease of yield. But the longer they have been worked the more extensive they appear to be, and the labor and developments of the fifteen years have barely been sufficient to give us an idea of their vast extent. The old channels are very numerous and extend from the foot hills to near the summit of the Sierra, all containing gravel deposits, with gold in greater or less abundance. The long ridges, like the Washington and Chalk Bluff, are believed to have been the channels of ancient streams, which were filled with volcanic material, that subsequently cemented and became more impervious to the action of the elements than the surrounding bed-rock. Men of good judgment are confident they can trace the course of the old channels by surface indications, and quite extensive operations have been commenced at Chalk Bluff and Bear Valley on the probability of the correctness of this theory. Thus far the old channels have only been opened and worked at the more favorable localities—where there are bi-washes, or where they are cut transversely by more modern streams, as is the case in the Nevada basin. The old claims of the Young America, Live Oak, Nebraska and Harmony Companies, are situated on the same channel, which, beyond question, extends far up the ridge, and will eventually be traced to its source. All of these claims, except the Harmony, yielded immense profits; but the latter company were so unfortunate as to commence operations on the north side of the ridge, when the channel, at their location, swept around on the south side, thus greatly enhancing the cost of working. The result was, that they took out about $70,000, at a cost of $85,000, when the work was suspended. Latterly, the owners have been arranging to resume work, and expect to commence operations on the south side of the ridge this season. In the former operations, they had merely tapped the edge of the channel. The Cold Spring Company, whose claims adjoin the Harmony above, will probably also commence operations this season. Some years ago the channel was tapped about ten miles above Nevada, and the gravel found to be rich, but in consequence of the pumping machinery being inadequate to free the shaft of water, the work was suspended before reaching the bottom of the channel. A dozen or more owners in the Nebraska, Live Oak and Young America claims realized snug fortunes in working less than half a mile along the lead, and from this some idea may be formed of the prospective yield of the lead for twenty miles or more above. The ridge between Deer creek and Greenhorn, and the Eureka ridge, also present almost inexhaustible fields for mining enterprise. The ancient channels following the course of these ridges, together with the Washington ridge, it is probable join together at some point below Nevada, and have their outflow at Smartsville. From that point to the summit, the channels, will eventually be traced out and made to disgorge their stores of treasure. Placer mining is carried on more or less in every township in the county, except Meadow Lake. Bridgeport takes the lead, and the hydraulic works of the American Company, at North San Juan, are the most extensive of the kind in the county. The flumes and sluices of the company extend from Manzanita Hill to the South Tuba, a distance of nearly a mile, a tunnel having been run through the bed-rock for a thousand feet to drain the claims. Taking the county at large, the placer mines still retain their importance, and the longer they are worked the more confidence is entertained in their durability. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Bean’s History and Directory of Nevada County, California CONTAINING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, WITH SKETCHES OF THE VARIOUS TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS, THE NAMES AND OCCUPATION OF RESIDENTS; ALSO, FULL STATISTICS OF MINING AND ALL OTHER INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. COMPILED BY EDWIN F. BEAN. PRINTED AT THE DAILY GAZETTE BOOK AND JOB OFFICE, 1867. File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/nevada/history/1867/beanshis/placermi84gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 10.2 Kb