صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

administer the last consolations of religion to two Mexicans who had been condemned to death by the Yankee miners on the bare suspicion of having been implicated in the murder of two Americans whose dead bodies had been discovered near the tents of the Mexicans. After these miserable men had received the rites of the church, a noose was placed around their necks, the end of the rope was thrown over a limb, and they were placed on the back of a mule which was driven from under them, the men remaining suspended until life was extinct.

"On the same day several Americans discharged their revolvers into a gambling-house where seven Mexicans were seated at play, on the pretense that the Mexicans had cheated at cards. On arriving, I found three dead and the others wounded. These died the next day, and a common grave received the remains of all. The murderers escaped unpunished.

"These scenes were repeated daily. In fact, on the next day I was sent for from Melones (now Carson Hill) to confess two miners accused of robbing a sluice-box. It was necessary to cross the Stanislaus River, where I was detained for some time, and on my arrival found I was too late; the only thing to be seen was two corpses swinging from a limb projecting over a precipice.

"One night I was called to visit two sick men, one a Frenchman, the other a Mexican, who lived in a tent some distance from the town. They did not seem in immediate danger of death, and I left them at 11 p. m., promising to return early in the morning. Soon after my departure they were robbed and murdered for the gold dust in their possession, and their bodies disposed of, and on my return in the morning I found neither tent, sick men, nor corpses.

"Such," remarks the abbé, "is life in California." This journal, extending over a period of four years, is a constant record of such scenes as the above. Finally a vigilance committee was organized, whose first proceeding was the banishment of all the Mexican population who refused to surrender their arms. The flock being dispersed, the abbé sought new fields of labor.

The Sonora of to-day, with its churches, schools, stores, and pleasant residences surrounded by gardens and orchards, presents a striking contrast to the rude collection of tents and brush houses described by l'Abbé Alric, and the rude and lawless population of 1849-250 has been succeeded by a thrifty and energetic population engaged principally in the development of the wonderful resources of this locality, in fruit-raising and vine-culture, the orchards and vineyards here producing fruit in a profusion and with size and flavor unequaled in any other part of the State.

Quartz-mining near Sonora. -To the east of Sonora, high up in the Sierras, is found a belt of quartz mines, inclosed in the granite formation, which are rapidly assuming an importance second to none in the State in point of extent and productiveness, and but little known outside of the boundaries of the county. We will briefly notice a few of these claims.

The Confidence mine has been opened for more than ten years, during which period work had not been prosecuted with any degree of regularity until it passed into the hands of the present owners, Ben Holladay & Co., who purchased it for the sum of $15,000 on the recommendation of Mr. L. Gilson, a miner of experience and skill. The claim is 1,050 feet in length; its course northwest and southeast, with a dip to the west of twenty-eight to thirty degrees. Both walls are granite, and the fissure varies in width. At the north end of the drifts the vein matter is about eight feet wide and yields an average of nearly $75 per ton. The south drifts are wider, sometimes attaining a width of sixteen feet, and the yield from this part of the mine is from $12 to $15 per ton. The pay-chute, or chimney, as far as developed, has a length of 200 feet. The rock is a hard, white, sulphureted quartz, presenting no indication of its richness, and "specimen rock" is rarely found. The mine is opened by an incline, 500 feet in length, running on the vein-the perpendicular depth from surface to bottom of incline being about 240 feet. Three levels have been opened, each running 100 feet north and 100 feet south from the incline. The present owners took the mine with a ten-stamp mill. They now have a first-class forty-stamp mill and three arrastras, capable of reducing fifty tons per day. The mine is kept developed in advance of the capacity of the mill, and it is estimated that the reserves in sight will run the mill six months, without opening another level, and that these reserves will yield $200,000. About sixty men are employed. This company own 2,100 feet of a similar ledge, and as far as opened the ledge has gold visible in every part. Under its present management ment it looks as if it would last for years to come. The extraordinary fineness of the gold in this mine makes it the more valuable, the gold running from 900 to 920 fine. For the past two years the mine has been yielding at the rate of from $25,000 to $30,000 per month, sometimes as high as $40,000. The mill and hoisting-works are run by powerful steam machinery.

The Excelsior mine is situated a short distance to the northeast of the Confidence, and the geological and mineralogical features are similar. This mine produced $525,000 in twenty months with a ten-stamp mill. The mine is now closed and has been for the past five years, on account of a personal difficulty among its owners. Miners in the vicinity, who formerly worked in the mine, think it among the richest in the State. Explorations have reached a depth of 175 feet, the mine being opened laterally about 400 feet. Mr. G. F. Wright, who has been absent from the State for several years past, has returned from the East, and it is thought the mine will be re-opened early in 1872. During the working of this mine, the company's little ten-stamp mill made several runs ranging from $14,000 to $25,000 per week. One lot resulted in a clean-up of $25,800 from fifty tons of rock.

At Big Basin several ledges are worked, by means of arrastras, by Lewis & Brother. These ledges are found in talcose slate. Besides these claims, numerous veins are being opened on the same belt, which is believed to extend northerly into Calaveras County, where it outcrops at the Sheep Ranch claims, Washington district. Near Sonora and Columbia, on the slopes of Bald Mountain, numerous "pocket" veins of great richness, but limited in extent, occurring in slate, are found and worked by the adventurous class of prospectors who depend on this precarious method of mining for a subsistence. On the west side of Table Mountain we find the Mother lode, with the small mining villages of Rawhide Ranch and Tuttletown. Numerous claims at these points on which work has been suspended for several years will soon be re-opened. Among this class we may mention the Rawhide, possessing one of the finest mills in the State, closed for several years in consequence of mismanagement and litigation, and the Waters mine, near Tuttletown, which is said to contain a large amount of low-grade ore in sight, but operations have been suspended for want of machinery.

Columbia and vicinity. Four miles north of Sonora we find the towns of Columbia, Shaw's Flat, and Springfield. The first-named was once an important place, second only to Sonora in population and wealth. All these towns are situated on the limestone belt, which is here nearly three miles in width, immediately to the east of Table Mountain, and have an elevation above sea-level of about 2,100 or 2,200 feet, being but little less than that of the plane of the mountain. The surface diggings here were from three to thirty feet in depth. The limestone bed-rock, everywhere exposed by the washings of the miners, is deeply eroded and cut in the most fantastic shapes by the action of running water at some remote period. The placers here were formerly extensive and rich, but at the present time they do not yield more than two dollars a day, and the unworked area is very limited. The best ground is covered with buildings in the various towns. These buildings are being removed for the purpose of mining the ground. The auriferous character of the ancient channel under Table Mountain was first discovered in 1854, near Shaw's Flat, where the denudation of the lava crust exposed the richest ground worked in this part of the State. As late as 1855-256 it is said that some claims at Caldwell's ranch yielded ten or twelve pounds of gold per day, for many consecutive days. At that time the town of Shaw's Flat contained two hotels and a dozen stores. Now there are not a dozen houses occupied. Indian antiquities, such as pestles and mortars of stone, are here found in abundance, and the remains of the mastodon and elephant are frequently unearthed by mining operations. These remains are found at depths varying from ten to thirty feet beneath the surface. At Gold Springs, near Columbia, an elephant's tusk nine feet in length, and of proportionate thickness, was found in a good state of preservation, but did not long resist exposure to the air. Brown's Flat, situated on Wood's Creek, about half way between Sonora and Columbia, has a population of one or two hundred persons, who are engaged in mining on the creek. The limestone belt is here pinched down to very narrow limits, and the depth of pay-dirt in the creek varies from twenty to sixty feet, the crevices in the rock being still deeper. The dirt is hoisted to the surface by derricks, emptied in dump-boxes, whence it is run through sluice-boxes. Several claims are yielding from $3 to $5 per day to the hand, but the available ground is now very limited. Yankee Hill, near the head of Wood's Creek, and at the base of Bald Mountain, has been noted for the existence of coarse gold. Among the nuggets found here was one of twenty-three pounds, one of seventeen pounds, and many pieces varying in weight from one to four pounds. Mining is still carried on in the bed of the creek, but on a small scale. The basin in which these towns are situated has on one side Table Mountain, with its channel of auriferous gravel, and on the other Bald Mountain, which is noted for the richness of its "pocket" claims. The gulches and ravines of this mountain still contain much gold released by the decomposition of the quartz veins.

The following is an extract from the early mining laws of Columbia district. Those of other localities described did not materially differ. "A full claim for mining purposes on the flats or hills of the district shall consist of an area equal to that of one hundred feet square.

"A full claim on ravines shall consist of one hundred feet running on the ravine, and of a width at the discretion of the claimant, provided it does not exceed one hundred feet.

"No person shall hold more than one full claim within the boundaries of this district, nor shall it consist of more than two parcels of ground, the sum of the area of which shall not exceed the area of one full claim; provided, nothing in this article shall be so construed as to prevent miners from associating in companies to carry on mining operations, such companies holding no more than one full claim to each member."

Another article provided that no claim should be sold to a Chinaman under penalty of forfeiture. Those owning ground now are very willing to sell to "John."

List of quartz-mills in Tuolumne County running during 1870 and 1871.

Name.

Stamps.

Owner.

Remarks.

Blue Gulch Eagle Mill. 10 Eagle Mill and Mining | Work has been recommenced during present year

Mill.

Lombardo Mine and 10

Confidence Mine and 40

Mill.

Company.

Lombardo Company.

Ben. Holladay

Deer Creek Mill ....... 5 H. P. Gould

Buchanan Mine and 10

Mill.

American Camp Mine 10
and Mill
Golden Rule Mine and 10
Mill.

with favorable prospects; tunnel being run to drain mine at low level.

Running at intervals.

One of the best mines in the State; said to be yielding from $1,000 to $1,200 per day. The present owner took possession in 1867, since which time the mine has paid largely, and bas been developed to a depth of 500 feet by an incline. Situated in the granite belt.

Running at intervals for two years past; ledge
much broken up and pay spotted.

Buchanan Mining Com- Suspended for many years; prospecting resumed
pany.
this year; mine valuable, but will require a
large expenditure to put it in paying condition.
Running at intervals.

Jones & Woodman.
Bosworth & Co....

[blocks in formation]

Work on mine and mill temporarily suspended
during past year; will be resumed in 1872.
Running constantly, and paying well; vein wide,
but of low grade; situated on Mother lode,
Quartz Mountain.

Formerly known as Knox Mine; vein small, but
rich; running steadily.
An old location; work temporarily suspended.
Operations suspended on account of change of
management; work will be resumed.
mine has been very productive.
First-class 10-stamp mill just completed.

Vein small, but rich; in granite belt.
Working at intervals.

This

Will resume work as soon as supply of water will admit.

A productive mine, but now in pecuniary diffi-
culties and litigation.

Uses two stamps and arrastras; paying well.
Mill burned down; will be rebuilt.

A vein on west side Mother lode, parallel with it.

Patterson's Mine and 10 Patterson & Co....... Running arrastras constantly; will have 10-stamp Mill.

mill in operation next year.

It appears from the above table that twenty mills, with an aggregate of two hundred and sixty-two stamps, have been running during the past two years, and but few of these with regularity. Langley's Pacific Coast Directory for 1870-'71 gives a list of forty mills with four hundred and forty-four stamps in this county. The county assessors for that ear made no returns, so that we cannot compare the number of tons crushed with that of previous years.

CALAVERAS COUNTY.

This county adjoins Tuolumne on the north. It possesses gravel and placer deposits of considerable extent, but not of great depth, and labors under the disadvantage of scarcity of water. It contains, also, near the foot-hills, rich mines of copper, now unworked, and numerous veins of quartz of great richness. Many of the richest claims on the Mother lode are found in this county. The county assessor, in his report to the surveyor general for 1871, says: "The placer mines of this county are 'things of the past.' True, now and then, in one's journeyings, you will startle some old 'forty-niner,' in his secluded ravine, with

pick, pan, and shovel, mayhap a rocker; now and then a squad of Celestials working, for the twentieth time, old tailings. But if the bright yield of placer mines has paled, we are content with the more resplendent glories of cement and quartz; of the first, we are but in our infancy." Throughout various parts of the county gravel diggings are found, and in several basins near the head of Table Mountain the gravel has a depth of thirty or forty feet, but drainage is difficult and expensive. Mr. J. Rathgeb, of San Andreas, has made close investigation into the character and yield of many of the gravel claims of the central part of the county, and furnishes the following valuable description and data:

The mining districts of San Andreas, Lower Calaveritas, and Fourth Crossing, in Calaveras County, are situated on the range of the Mother quartz lode of California, and are about eight miles in length by three miles in width. Since last year these districts have made progress in the mining industry and have advanced by their selfsustaining capacity to profitable operations.

The principal mines of these districts are the Davis, Sceiffart, Thorn, Rhead, Union, Anton, Miner's Dream, Bachman, and Thorpe.

The principal tunnel and hydraulic claims are the Garnet, Clarks & Co., Wilson & Co., Hedrick, Johnston, Bennet, Worthmann & Co., Pfeffer & Co., Cloyd, Raggio & Co., Rivera & Co., Oneto & Co., Waters, Gay, Peregrini and Driscol.

For the year 1871, the estimated product of bullion for these districts is fifty thousand dollars.

The ruling rates of wages are, for first-class miners, $3 per day, also $2.50 and $2; common laborers, $1.50 to $2 per day; Chinamen, $1.25 to $1.50.

List of stamp mills:

Demarest, 10 stamps, overshot water-wheel.

Union, 10 stamps, overshot water-wheel, 1 pan.
Thorpe, 5 stamps, overshot water-wheel, 3 arrastras.

Irvine, 10 stamps, overshot water-wheel.

Garnet, 5 stamps, overshot water-wheel, 1 arrastra.

A 10-stamp quartz-mill at the Thorn mine, and a 10-stamp quartz-mill at the Union mine, are in contemplation.

The Thorn mine has been sunk since last year to the depth of over 200 feet. There is in the shaft a well-defined gold-bearing quartz-vein of five feet in width. The total width of vein-matter from the foot-wall to the hanging-wall is twelve feet. The mill-rock is a blue-ribbon rock, similar to that of the celebrated Eureka mine, Amador County. The hanging-wall is a blue slate, the foot-wall a variety of granite. Substantial hoisting-works and other improvements are erected on this mine.

The Union mine is yielding well, and is being sunk to another level, having a good supply of timber on hand.

The Rhead mine has two shafts, thirty-three feet each. The vein is two feet wide at the bottom. Gold is impregnated in the foot-wall, and forming a thin coating on the talcose slate or rock of the foot-wall.

The Anton is a new mine, paying well.

The Thorpe mine has been worked till June; had to stop for want of water to drive a five-stamp mill and the pump attached to it to free the mine of water.

The Bachman mine is yielding well.

Auriferous deposits of gravel occur in a nearly parallel line with these quartz-lodes, to the east of them, and arising probably from the disorganization of the net-work of quartz-veins and rocks bearing gold. Tunneling and hydraulic washing in these deposits have been lucrative. Water may be obtained in these districts from four to six months of the year.

The Garnet claim has been drifted upon 400 feet in length by 80 feet in width, has a five-stamp mill with hoisting-works, a heavy Chile mill (arrastra) attached, with 32feet overshot water-wheel. The yield has been $18,500.

Clark & Co. have extracted rich pay-dirt from a channel on the northern bank of San Andreas Gulch.

Wilson & Co. are getting out cemented gravel, hard to wash, because it will not slake. for a long time.

The Harvey Hedrick claim is worked by hydraulic washing, and drifting is done when no water can be obtained for washing.

The Wade Johnston claim is a gravel formation, a channel through a hill, worked by drifting and hydraulic washing. The Bennet is on the same channel.

Raggio & Co. are excavating deep crevices in a limestone range in the river by means of a derrick and horse-power, getting good pay.

Worthman claim is a tunnel claim now; formerly a hydraulic claim; still yielding well.

« السابقةمتابعة »