Nevada County CA Archives History - Books .....Placer Mines 1867
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Book Title: Bean’s History And Directory Of Nevada County, California

PLACER MINES.

  The placer mines of Nevada township, though not yielding as much gold as in
former years, are still worked quite extensively, and are the main reliance of a
large proportion of the population. There are a few companies conducting
operations on a large scale, and generally with success, besides numerous
independent miners working the gulches and ravines in a small way, and with
varied success.

  The Brush Creek diggings are perhaps the most extensive and productive of any
now being worked in the township. The ground in the locality was originally
located in claims of sixty feet square, in 1851, each owner working his own
claim. Sixty-one of these claims are now consolidated in one body, and owned by
Hall & Peabody; and a gentleman who has long resided in the vicinity, and had
the best means of knowing, estimates that the claims have yielded an aggregate
of three million dollars. Lones & Co., who owned part of the ground, took out of
their claims $300,000, and in 1863 sold out to Hall & Peabody for $28,000. The
yield of the claims in 1866 was $32,000, the profits to the owners being
$12,000, and it is expected that the yield will be much larger in 1867. The work
is carried on entirely by ground-sluicing, the diggings being shallow, and
sixteen men are employed the most of the year.

  The Shively diggings extend from Selby Hill to Brush creek, and include about
a section of ground. It was taken up in 1851, in claims of sixty feet square,
and the yield of the ground is estimated at about a million dollars. The richest
of the ground was worked out many years ago, the original locators selling out
the portions of their claims that would not pay for working by the methods
adopted in early days. But by consolidating the claims, and working by the
hydraulic hose, the present owners have been deriving regular incomes from the
diggings for some years. The yield of these claims in 1865 was $30,000. In 1866
the yield was only $13,000, the decrease being occasioned by a failure to obtain
water a portion of the season; but the claims have always yielded a profit. It
is calculated that the ground owned by the company will not be worked out under
ten years. The claims are owned by Henry Shively, Niles, Dunn, and some others.

  The Lost Hill diggings are situated in the corporation limits of Nevada, on
the westerly side of the town proper, and were located early in the spring of
1853, by Amos T. Laird, I. Williamson, I. N. Dawley, Ferguson, and others. The
gold was found on the surface, among the grass roots, but the ground had not
been located on account of the supposed difficulty of getting water on the hill.
The locators overcome this difficulty by constructing, at a trifling cost, a
small aqueduct to convey the water across a depression in the ground. Some forty
or fifty men were employed the first season, and the work was carried on that
year by ground-sluicing. The next season, Laird, who was superintendent of the
work, attempted to use the hydraulic, but from some defect in the apparatus it
was a failure, and he threw it aside, declaring the hydraulic a humbug. A deep
cut having been made in. the hill, the work was carried on in 1854 by what was
known as "benching," and at one time a hundred miners were employed in the
claims. The claims paid remarkably well the first two seasons, worked in the
primitive style of mining. In 1855, Laird was compelled by his partners to put
up a hydraulic apparatus, by which means the claims yielded a much larger profit
to the owners. The work was continued that season and until the middle of the
summer of 1856, when operations were suspended, and in consequence of the claims
being in litigation, and the high price of water, the work was not resumed until
1865. In the spring of the latter year, Williamson made arrangements to resume
the work, which has been continued ever since when water could be had. The water
is now conducted to the diggings through thirteen-inch iron pipes, for a
distance of 4,000 feet, and having a fall of 160 feet. Some twenty-five or
thirty acres of ground has been sluiced off, the hill in some places being a
hundred feet deep. The claims have paid a profit every year, with the exception,
perhaps, of 1865, when the outlay for pipes and other preliminary expenses had
been unusually heavy. The diggings have yielded about $150,000 in all. The
claims now belong to William B. Ferguson, who was one of the original owners,
and is working them successfully this season.

  The claims on American and Wet Hills were located at a very early day, and
worked by means of shafts sunk to the bed rock. In this manner large amounts
were taken out, though the work was difficult and expensive on account of the
superabundance of water. Subsequently tunnels were run and outlets made to Deer
creek, and the ground was sluiced off from the surface down by the hydraulic.
The most of the ground at length fell into the hands of a single company, and
finally became the property of Josiah Rogers. He worked the claims some years
with varying success; and another company are now running a tunnel from the
upper part of the diggings, with the view of striking the channel in Oustomah
Hill. We have no reliable information as to the yield of the claims on American
and Wet Hills, as the most of the workers and former owners have left, but a
gentleman who was interested in some claims on Wet Hill at an early day, says it
will count up in the millions.

  The claims of R. R. Craig & Co., and of the One-Horse Company, on Oustomah
Hill, have recently been opened into the channel. The One-Horse claims were
taken up in 1853, John T. Crenshaw and W. B. Ewer being among the locators. The
company sunk a shaft to the gravel, by means of a hand windlass, and by Lard
bailing were able to get out a bucket or two of .the gravel, which prospected
rich, and encouraged the owners to go to a heavy expense in draining the ground.
   The company was not able, or at least thought they were not, to put up a
steam engine for pumping, and so adopted the far more expensive project of
running a tunnel. This was done in partnership with the Craig Company, the
tunnel being intended to drain both diggings. It has been run a distance of 700
or 800 feet, mostly through blasting rock, and at an immense cost—the One-Horse
claims changing owners over and over again. Last fall the Craig claims were
drained, and that company are now reaping the reward of their perseverance. The
drain has recently been extended to the One-Horse claims, and both companies
have splendid prospects. It is probable an effort will be made during the
present season to trace the channel eastwardly from the ground of the One-Horse
Company. Its course is supposed to be not far from the west gap of Sugar Loaf
and through Selby Flat.

  The ground at present comprised in the Manzanita diggings, and owned by
Marsallus & Maltman, was located in 1852 by four different companies — Eversall
& Womack, Tuett, Craddock & Co., the Mountain Summit, and the Pacific Company.
Shafts were sunk to the bad rock by the different companies, and the gravel
drifted out and raised to the surface by hand windlasses and whims. The claims
were worked in this manner for some years, and at length were consolidated and
known as the Tomlinson diggings, when a bed rock tunnel was run for draining,
and the ground sluiced off by the hydraulic from the surface down. Previous to
the consolidation, it is estimated, that the four companies had taken out gold
to the amount of $750,000. How much the ground yielded subsequent to the
consolidation, we have no knowledge, but it must have been up in the hundred
thousands, as the working was expensive and a number of the owners realized snug
fortunes. Further up the ridge, and on the same channel, were the celebrated
Young America, Live Oak and Nebraska claims. The Toting America ground yielded
in all $110,000, and that of the Live Oak Company $475,000. The gross yield of
the Nebraska ground can not now be ascertained with exactness, but from
November, 1858, to June, 1860, while the work was conducted under the efficient
superintendence of C. H. Seymour, the yield was $358,000, and $30,000 was taken
out subsequently. It was estimated, at the time the work was suspended, that the
diggings had yielded, previous to the time Seymour took charge, not less than.
$250,000, making $633,000 in all, and the total of the three companies
$1,218,000. Add to this the yield of the other four companies, and we have
within a fraction of two million dollars, without counting that taken out by the
Tomlinson Company, and by the Bourbon, United States, Irish, Nevada, Keystone,
and other companies, which were mostly working on the outwashes of the main
lead, and which must have amounted to another million. Here we have a yield of
three million dollars from, one channel, within a distance of but little over
3,000 feet, and some four hundred feet of this ground, between the Pacific and
Live Oak diggings, yielded no pay, there being a break in the channel. There is
the best reason to believe that the Nebraska channel extends far up the ridge,
perhaps ten or fifteen miles. The Harmony Company got into the same channel a
mile and a quarter above the upper workings of the Nebraska Company, and took
out some $60,000, but having started in on the wrong side of the ridge they
could not work the ground profitably. There are two or three locations between
the Nebraska and Harmony, and the ground of the Cold Spring Company adjoins the
Harmony above. It is expected that some of these companies will commence
operations, under favorable auspices, this season.

  Considerable mining was carried on at Scotch Flat, seven miles above Nevada,
at an early day. The work was mostly done by sluicing, and so far as known no
very rich strikes were made, though the claims are understood to have yielded
fair returns. In the course of the mining operations, it was ascertained that
there was a deep channel, having its course under the flat, and repeated efforts
were made to reach the bottom, but without success. Several shafts were sunk—one
to the depth of 150 feet-—but they were unable to go to the bed rock on account
of the water, and inadequate pumping machinery. Gravel, containing fair
prospects of gold, extended as deep as they went. The owners of the claims,
however, had not the means to erect powerful machinery, and the locality was
pretty much abandoned by the miners for some years. In 1865, a number of the old
claims having been purchased, and additional ground located, arrangements were
made by several companies to work into the hills by hydraulic process. The
companies had some difficulty last year in procuring water, but this we
understand has now been overcome. The principal companies are Baker & Ashmun,
Merrow & Cobb., Jacobs & Sargent, and Holmes, Osborn & Co. Merrow & Cobb made
considerable money last year, which enabled them to purchase additional ground,
and greatly increase their facilities. The prospect is favorable for all the
companies this season.

  At Sailor Flat, a mile and a half above Scotch Flat, there is also a deep
channel, the bottom of which has never been reached, and is believed to be a
continuation of that at Scotch Flat. This was undoubtedly the bed of an ancient
stream, which had cut a deep gorge in the mountains, and so far as our knowledge
extends, is the only ancient channel in the township which is deeper than the
channels of the present running streams.

  There are numerous other placer mining companies carrying on operations in the
township, some of which are yielding largely, and others only moderate returns;
but we have not space to enter further into details. Two or three companies are
still working on Gold Flat, and the diggings of H. McCormick, on Hitchcock
ravine, have been yielding a fair profit for many years. The owners of the
flumes in Little Peer creek and Coyote ravine, which conduct the tailings from
the diggings above into Deer creek, have derived steady incomes therefrom, the
cleaning up of the flumes once or twice a year being the principal labor. The
Mammoth Company, further up Deer creek, are working their claims quite
extensively this season, and with good prospects. The general supposition that
the surface diggings are worked out, though it has had the effect to deter
miners from prospecting, is far from being correct. Several gravel claims have
been opened in the township this spring, which are paying remarkably well at the
present rate of wages. The big strikes, however, are not so common now as in the
early days of mining, and generally are only made after a considerable outlay in
opening the deep hill diggings, requiring steam engines for pumping, or
extensive drain tunnels.


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.


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