Plumas County CA Archives History - Books .....Spanish Peak And Monte Christo Mine 1882
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Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

SPANISH PEAK AND MONTE CHRISTO MINE.

   Towering above Meadow valley and Buck's valley, and nearly midway between
them, stands the hold, rocky mountain known as Spanish peak, of special interest
now as being the location of the Monte Christo gravel mine, of which so much is
expected in the coming few years. The peak is the abrupt and rocky termination
of a high ridge of mountains lying to the west and south of Meadow valley, and
derives its name from the same source as Spanish Ranch and Spanish creek. The
altitude of the peak is 6,920 feet, and the mouth of the tunnel into the Monte
Christo claim 6,288 feet, as given by Mr. Mills.

   Running through the mountain is one of those ancient river channels that
formed the drainage of this region long before the convulsions of nature changed
the face of the hills and the streams that form our present water-courses began
to wear through the mountains those deep channels in which we see them running
to-day. For ages the channel of gravel, rich with its deposits of gold, has been
hidden away in the earth, waiting for the hand of the prospector to uncover it.
The mine was first located sixteen years ago, and a tunnel was run into the hill
a distance of 600 feet, when the claim was abandoned. In the spring of 1879 the
ground was again located by Dr. W. Allstrom, C. Atwood, who died in August,
1880, and A. L. Patterson, of Chicago, and the Monte Christo Gold Mining Company
organized. The location consists of four claims—the Spanish Peak, Tip Top, Hard
Pan, and Wide Awake—each of which is a mile long. A United States patent has
been secured for the first two, embracing 2,500 acres of ground. The company has
a tunnel into the Monte Christo a distance of 2,540 feet, and cross-cuts every
few feet from rim to rim of the channel, which varies from 500 to 800 feet in
width. In the Tip Top claim a prospecting shaft is being sunk. No gravel is
being taken out, except that loosened in running the tunnel and drifts, and this
is being piled up to be washed the coming summer. It is the policy of the
manager to run the tunnel and drifts as far as it is intended to extend them and
then to commence breasting out the gravel from the extreme end. In this way,
there will be less danger of loss of life and damage and expensive delays
occasioned by any caving in of the mine. It is expected that the work will have
so far progressed by the coming June that the breasting out of the gravel will
be commenced. A ditch two miles long on the west side and one mile on the east
side, fed by permanent springs on the mountain, furnishes abundant water for
washing the gravel, and facilities have been prepared for washing 1,000 cars of
gravel per day. The mine is so high up that water cannot ho brought to it with
fall enough to use the method of mining with hydraulic machines, but all the
gravel has to be drifted out and conveyed in cars to the mouth of the tunnel.

   The company has a very able representative of its interests here in the
person of Captain O. B. Smith, manager and general financial agent of the mine.
He sailed on the great chain of inland lakes for twenty-one years, and still
owns shipping interests there of a large amount. He is an excellent specimen of
the hearty, genial, generous lake captain; and his great executive ability and
sterling integrity of character, coupled with what is commonly denominated "good
horse-sense," render his services invaluable to the company in the situation in
which he is placed. The captain assumed the management upon the death of Mr.
Atwood in the fall of 1880. Assisting him, and having charge of all the
engineering, is Mr. E. I. Parsons, a young gentleman of liberal ideas and fine
social qualities. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and held for a
number of years the position of superintendent of schools in Huron, Ohio. He
came to the mine in December, 1880, previous to which he had spent some time as
a civil engineer in the mines of Colorado. For the past year the superintendent
of the mine has been Mr. D. J. Mahoney, for thirteen years a foreman in Virginia
City, and for four years in the gravel mines of Sierra county.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)

File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/plumas/history/1882/illustra/spanishp127nms.txt

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