WATER DITCHES.

forty or sixty feet from a ditch and penstock on the hill above, played against the gravel bank would wash it away, leaving the mass above to fall down, and in this manner a large amount of earth was moved. account that the main work has to be done by the wa

On

Then the miners were washing the gravel by turning The first water ditch in this county, and without against the bank a stream of water, directed by a candoubt in the whole mining region of California, was vass hose of four or five inches diameter, with a sheetbuilt at Coloma, in 1850 to 1851, by Valentine iron pipe, or nozzle, as a fireman would direct water McDougall, Davis Thompson, Lippset, Starr and upon a burning building. This stream, first of twenty Birdsall; they took the water down to the Coloma five or fifty inches of water, coming under pressure of basin in a ditch carried around the hillsides, interrupted with short aqueducts, the whole length being three miles, and the expenses for construction are stated at $10,000. It proved a good investment for the projectors and caused others to invest in the same enterprise, selling water to the miners, and notwithstand-ter, the system took the name of "hydraulic." It was ing the expense for the construction of those ditches first adopted and invented by Mr. Edward E. Mattison were enormously high, they all paid well, water being a native of Connecticut, and was in all probability one sold in early times, as high as $1 00 per inch per of the most important inventions, though never patworking day of twelve hours. This good result invited ented. The principal parts then were about the same many others to bring their brethren in all other dry as they are now, but much simpler, and of course, less diggings the blessings of sufficient water, and a few effective; leading from a ditch, to gain pressure, was a years after the first water by artificial means had been trough set upon slight trestle, looking something like a carried to Coloma all those innumerable flats and line of telegraph poles, conveyed the water to a penstock dry diggings in gulches or on hillsides were provided for which was used an old barrel or a rough box, funwith a ditch of running water, and in some instances nel shaped, nailed together out of boards, to which the the location was so favorable that the same water could be used four, five or even eight and ten times.

DRIFT MINING

canvass hose was attached, to carry the water down to the gravel bank where the other end of the hose was armed with a muzzle rudely made out of sheet-iron. This system is appliable and, of course, soon came in use at all those deep gravel mines where sufficient water could be procured; and drift mining is only kept up where the gravel deposits are overcapped by basalt and other matter of volcanic origin, leaving far in the mountain the channel of some former river or glazier that contains the auriferous gravel. At points these deposits are cropping out, leading the miner to search beneath.

Or 'coyoting,' as it was and still is termed in California mining camps, from its similarity to the underground digging of the coyotes, used in all those localities where the gold bearing gravel is covered under a bank of twenty to fifty and more feet of solid material. The miners sink in a shaft from the top down to the bedrock, and then rather than throw off the whole surface, would coyote, or drift in, on surface of the bed-rock or wherever their gold bearing strata was found, and So affective a system was not long to remain without this was the beginning of the drift mining. The gravel improvements, and many an inventor obtained patents thus reached is to be mined out, the superincumbent for small changes whose genius was not able to conmass being supported by pillars of the natural matter left standing, and by timbers placed beneath for greater safety, if necessary. In some cases the miners took out the gravel by means of drifts, and then took a was against a rubber hose and nozzles with brass coupstream of water through the drifts to wash away from the remaining pillars what would be unsafe for men to go to work, until the whole mass would break down. This led to another improvement in mining operations,

THE HYDRAULIC MINING.

By saving the work necessary for drifting, and have the water under high pressure directly working against the gravel bank, washing the whole of it down through the sluices, that were placed in trenches in the bed-rock ready for the reception of it. The highly improved style of hydraulic mining as being worked nowadays stands hardly a comparison with the scheme when it was first applied in Nevada county, in the year 1852.

ceive the original idea, but carried home the profits that in reality were due to the original inventor. The first step from the canvass hose and sheet-iron nozzle

lings; then followed distributing boxes and iron pen. stock; the rubber hose was succeeded by the iron pipe, leading direct to a Craig's 'Monitor; or a 'Dictator,' or a 'Giant' patent nozzle, passing a stream of from 500 to 3000 inches of water from a pressure of 200 feet high, with a force that will whirl around every bowlder up to half a ton weight.

The early miners swarmed along the streams and over the shallow placers, making little progress in the main gravel deposits, except where drift mining wast profitable, until the introduction of the hydraulic process The former have been gone over and over again, until most of them have ceased to pay even grub money,

at least to white men. Although hydraulic mining has been carried on for many years, scarcely more than an impression has yet been made on the immense gravel beds which cover a large area in this county; how large is here not the place to tell.

connecting with the Park Canal, at great expense, capable of supplying 1200 inches of water to the claim, with 175 feet fall.

A great deal of drift mining has been and is yet being done. The Cedar Springs, formerly Dickerhoff On the Georgetown divide, the deposits are found mine, up Cedar ravine, running a ten-stamp mill, has almost continuously from Pilot creek to beyond Green-been in successful operations for years. Just above is wood, except where they have been cut away by the modern streams, covering a large portion of the slope toward the Middle fork, and varying in depth from 25 to 300 feet. Besides this there are isolated masses in other sections; south and west. Many of the deposits will undoubtedly pay handsomely whenever properly opened and mined. A great deal of drift mining has been done, realizing splendid returns. All the surplus water of the California Water Company is employed in hydraulic mining, while small miners take advantage of the local supply afforded by the winter rains. A large number of claims are held by men who lack the means to properly open them, and are waiting for something to turn up which will realize their golden dreams, instead of disposing of such partially developed ledges, where good offers have been made.

South of the South Fork of the American river, the most extensive gravel deposit is the great channel commencing at White Rock, and sweeping around in a circle, through Smith's Flat to Coon Hollow. Immense sums have been spent and realized in operations on this mass and its tributary spurs, such as Nigger Hill, Clay Hill and Indian Hill. Coon Hollow was once one of the most prosperous mining camps in California; it is estimated that not less than $5,000,000 has been taken out of the mines there. Later it was known as the Excelsior mine, operated by the E. D. W. & D. G. M. Company. On the Placerville side of the ridge a great deal of gravel has been washed down Oregon ravine; the Placerville Mining Company, under the management of Mr. Varozza, has done a large amount of work here. Previous to the construction of the Main Trunk Canal, the hydraulic operations on this divide were materially kept in check, on account of the scarceity and cost of water. Now all the water from said canal is ready for use in the various mines under the control of the Water Company. The Spanish Hill section has proved exceedingly rich heretofore, and there is an immense area of gravel up that ravine that may be handled as soon as a proper outlet for the tailings has been secured.

A very rich gold bearing gravel de osit has been found on Tennessee Hill, almost the whole hill is one gravel bed, that is embraced in one claim of one mile in length by one fourth of a mile wide. Messrs. J. J. Crawford and Samuel Hale are in the possession of this property, and ditches and flume have been built

the Linden mine a shaft; not long ago sunk here struck splendid pay gravel at a depth of sixty feet. If the pay channel is as extensive as the company has reason to believe, it may not be exhausted before a good many years. The Lyon Deep Channel claim at Prospect Flat, owned by H. L. Robinson and Company, is one of the finest in the State; fifteen acres yielded nearly $200,000 and no exact estimate can be given of the extent and value of the undeveloped part; the prospecting work, however, consisting in shafts and tunnels on the hill to the south indicated a rich gravel all the way through. The mine is thoroughly equipped with a ten-stamp mill, cars, cages, engine etc. The Oak Ranch, former Crusen mine, though abandoned at present, after the opinion of experienced miners will not lie idle for a long time; it has paid handsomely in the past, and there is great confidence felt for its future.

SMITH'S FLAT.

Some of the best paying claims in the mines of California, were located at Smith's Fiat, some three miles above Placerville. We do not know who was the lucky man that first struck "big pay" on the Flat. In the winter of 1852 some very rich surface diggings were found there, and many of the Placervillians hastened to take up claims, anxious to become honest miners, when the gold could be picked up from the surface. These surface claims, however, didn't all pay largely, and conseqently many of the standing-collar miners deserted the diggings they had so eagerly staked off and trenched around, making room for a hardier and more laborious population. This second set of miners, after working the surface diggings, concluded that they would try the hills surrounding the flat so beautifully, calculating that the gold they had already found, had originally been placed on deposit within their slate-bound circumference, and had found its way from there to the Flat. Consequently, many tunnels were driven into the hills, and although not all of them proved productive, several have richly rewarded their industrious and persevering proprietors for the labor spent upon them. Of the best paying we mention : the Fremont, Hook and Ladder, Native American, Henry Clay, etc. In five or six years from the time of the first strike the appearance of the mining camp had made quite a progress; while then only two or three

two hundred feet in height, are being tumbled down and washed away through sluices, like as though they were a bed of gravel. This at present is the most re. munerative mining in that section, and although it is still in its infancy, the amounts realized at times are enormous, and not only as a novelty, but in some more directions, they well deserve a visit.

To accelerate the work of the hydraulic, in some of

lost miner's cabins told of the existence of the place, it presented quite a lively mining camp a few years after. The Benfeldt Blue Gravel claim, one of the finest gravel mines in El Dorado county, just south-east of Smith's Flat, is in itself a monument of industry, pluck and perseverence for the owner, Mr. Fred. Benfeldt, who, with small means, prosecuted the work of opening it until he was fortunate enough to strike a rich bed of cement gravel; generous friends built a ten- these mines tunnels were run in from the base of the stamp mill for him, run by an over-shot wheel, forty bank, with cross-drifts and chambers, in which powder. feet eight inches in diameter, and subsequently he put is placed and fuse or wires laid; the opening from the up hoisting works and an eight inch pump, all run by a outside is then again filled and the powder exploded, hurdy-gurdy wheel. The gold taken from the claim is which has the effect of jarring and loosening the of superior quality, as shown by the fact that for gravel or rock, to facilitate the attack of the water. 135.15 ounces sent to the San Francisco mint he re- From a few hundred pounds up to fifty tons of powder ceived in return $2,550.26. have been used sometimes in a single blast. The miners call this method "powder-drifting," or "bank blasting," and made quite an extensive use of it in the Excelsior mine at Coon Hollow, and in the great hydraulic claims on the Georgetown divide; at Georgia Slide, Jones Hill, etc.

A great tributary deposit is traced all the way from Plum creek, below the Esmeralda House, as shown on both sides of the plateau. It is claimed by miners who have explored the ground that a rich channel crosses from Iowa canyon, a little above the Eight-Mile House, to the valley of Weber creek. There is another large deposit between the forks of Weber creek, while the south bank of that stream shows an almost continuous mass from above Newtown nearly to Diamond Springs.

Further south, the neighborhood of Pleasant valley, Dry gulch, the valleys of Park creek, Camp creek and the other branches of the Cosumnes, all contain auriferous deposits. Extensive mining operations have been carried on at Dry Gulch, Henry's Diggings, the neighborhood of Grizzly Flat, Brownsville, Fair Play and Indian Diggings. It is evident, that there is little danger of exhausting all these gravel deposits for generations to come. With cheap water and improved appliances, operations will gradually extend to ground now looked upon as unremunerative, while much good ground is only waiting for water and capital.

Georgia Slide, located on Canyon creek, with its oper bank of slate-rock standing perpendicular for about two hundred and fifty feet, makes the most grotesque appearance. It became a mining camp in 1851, when the canyons and ravines were found to be rich placers. The first store in the place was owned by B. Spencer, a brother to Pat. Spencer, of Georgetown, in 1851 and '52; this afterwards became the property of Thomas Boarman, and in 1859 came into the possession of G. F. Barkelage, whose close attention to business and investment in mines has rewarded him with quite a fortune. The mine is owned and worked by a stock company. Beattie & Co.'s Seam Mine is just above Georgia Slide; the face of the claim. is about 150 feet in height and nearly perpendicular. The work is going on about half way up, and at that point the seams extend about twenty feet in width running in every direction; they are from a half inch to three or four inches in thickness, and most of them Or Seam Diggings, to which class the latter belong, very rich. The seams are cracks and crevices on the are peculiar to the locality of the Georgetown mining solid rock composed or filled with decomposed quartz, district, not having been discovered, as far as we know, and appear to be "oxydized;" a black oxyde covers in any other part of the State. These mines are em- some of the pieces of gold and quartz so thoroughly braced in a belt of country about ten miles wide, and that but for the weight would be passed by. There extend across the divide from the South Fork to the is some white quartz in some few of the seams, Middle Fork of the American river, a distance of containing bright gold; the black character, however, twenty miles. The character and value of these mines is most prevalent. The Nagler or French Claim, at have not until recently been well understood; the Greenwood Valley is another seam mine that has been formation is slate interspersed with numerous quartz worked on the hydraulic system for a number of years, seams, mostly decomposed and varying in size from to a depth of from fifty to eighty feet from the origithe thickness of a knife-blade to several feet. To pro-nal surface, opening the ground for a space of about cure the gold out of these crevices, the bed-rock five acres; more than $2,000,000 have bee extracted banks and the "everlasting hills," from fifty to above from this mine, and it is still estimated as one of the

SEAM MINES,

1

most valuable mines in the State. The rock, a kind of their appearance is smooth and shining like polished, porphyrious formation, almost to the whole extent of resembling very much the moraines, wandering down the mine is one mass of quartz seams, all abounding from the mountains with the living glaciers. This howwith gold, and their limits are yet unknown. Indeed, ever, is a question for the geologlist to give a more they appear to increase in richness as they go deeper positive answer. down, as a shaft sunk down 150 feet on one of the seams shows a widening of the lode. The company are going to put up a thirty-stamp mill on the ground, to crush the rock and tailings piled up at the end of the sluices; there are about 200,000 tons of rock, after a rough estimate, on hand, and the assay of some five tons of the latter kind averaged a yield of $200 per ton. A trial to break this rock and tailings with a rock-breaker and Huntington Batteries was made some time ago, but abandoned on account of insufficient satisfaction. A view of this mine may be found some other place in this book.

A great many large or otherwise highly valuable nuggets have been taken out of these different mines; we may record here a few of them. At Dead man's ravine, near Poverty Point, in March 1856, a miner found a nugget worth $130. Only a short time previous two German miners were lucky enough to discover a nugget of 421⁄2 ounces in weight in Weber creek, opposite Newtown. The large and beautiful nugget of gold taken from the Grit claim, at Spanish Dry Diggings, in 1865, was 16 pounds in weight, it was broken into small pieces and presented a beautiful specimen in each and every part. Many good sized nuggets were The California Water Company are the owners of found in early days in Hise's ravine, Sugar Loaf mounseveral hydraulic mines in the northern part of El Do- tain region, by Mr. John Hise; one was valued at over rado county. A good deal of expensive work has $800. Mr. C. W. Brewster, banker at Placerville, had been done at Volcanoville; the ground there con- in his posession one of the handsomest specimens of tains many large bowlders, the flumes on that account quartz that a person could lay his eyes on, its weight were constructed with special reference to their dispo. was 514 oz. and was estimated to contain from $250 sition, four feet wide, with an incline of 18 inches to to $400 of gold, the upper side of it being literally each twelve feet. Bowlders the full size of the flume ribbed with gold, but it had to be tied up, on account to are easily washed down this steep incline and through prevent it from falling to pieces, being considerably a bed-rock tunnel of 325 feet length, and dumped shattered. This specimen was found in Mosquito canover a steel grizzly into the canyon below, discharging yon on the Carpenter & Co's claim. In May, 1872, a toward the Midde fork of the American river, 1500 nugget was found in one of the ravines of Diamond feet nearly perpendicular down. The Pilot Hill mine, Springs mining district, tributary to the Cosumnes better known as the Bowlder Claim, deriving the name river, which weighed sixteen pounds, carrying some from the number of large quartz bowlders found in quartz, its value was about $2000. A nugget of 92 this claim, from which gold, well into the thousands ounces equal to $1656, in the spring of 1872, was has been extracted. The formation is cement gravel, taken out of a claim owned by Rumondo, located round and water-worn, from the size of small pebbles about a quarter of a mile south of Hogg's Diggings, to large bowlders; this mass has to be worked up by adjoining the Hunt quartz ledge to the north. Anugpowder, previous to the hydraulic operation, and the get of pure gold, weighing about ten ounces was amount of rock to be removed and piled away after found in the Cooley claim, near Volcanoville on Febevery run of water adds much to the expense of work- ruary 13th, 1874. Mr. Rumondo living at Pilot Hill, ing the claim, which varies in depth from the rim rock since the earliest days, has been the finder of a good to thirty and forty feet in depth. number of large nuggets, during that time, in Pilot Hill mining district.

Of the smaller but none the less valuable hydraulic mining claims on the Georgetown divide we have to mention still, the Gold Deposit mine, located on Irish creek, near Columbia Flat, owned by Messrs. Voll, Anderson and Sweet, and can be called a very valuable property. An even richer one is situated about half ways between Georgetown and Volcanoville at Kentucky Flat, it is the property of Messrs A. J. Wilton and sons, apparently this claim is located in the former bed of some changed off stream, probably the Middle Fork of the American river or stil another fork, as may be proved by the many big bowlders which cover quite an area of the washed out claim;

CHAPTER XX.

QUARTZ MINES AND MINING.

It is more than a general belief that the central lode, which passes through Placerville, is a continuation of the so-called mother lode in the adjoining counties further south. It is also believed that it is as extensive here as where it is now so successfully mined in Amador, Calaveras and Mariposa counties. Yet, for some reason, quartz mining in this county is yet in its

infancy. Capital has never taken hold vigorously, and and those satisfied of the value of the mine did not until it does so, the real extent and value of the ledges give up their efforts to organize capital for its further must remain a matter of conjecture. With a very few development. Then it fell into the hands of an exceptions, operations have been confined to mere English company under the chairmanship of John surface scratching: a pay chute is discovered, worked Henry Courtney, Esq., of London, and the manageout in the crudest manner, and the mine unceremo- ment of Prof. Thomas Price, of San Francisco. Imniously abandoned. Another mistake with owners of mediately the work of prospecting and developing the mines consists in the misdirection of capital and en- mine began, and has continued steadily and vigorergy, in erecting machinery and expending a large ously ever since. The shaft, built in two compartamount of money before they know anything about ments, has been carried down vertically to the depth the extent of their ledges, thus wasting much capital; of 600 feet, with stations at 200, 300, 400 and 500 and, therefore, it is to be wished that a change may foot levels; from all of which drifts have been driven take place in the minds of capitalists, but just as far out in the ledge, which may be estimated as thormuch with those who own mining claims, to the fur-oughly opened up. It is designed to use water-power therance of the development of mines in El Dorado exclusively, except at the hoisting-works where steam county.

The number of discovered and prospected ledges in this county is almost innumerable, and the same may be said of the quartz mining companies organized. Still, the actual results, so far as they go to determine the depth and permanence of their lodes, are comparatively small. It is the opinion of experts that true fissure veins are certainly found in the greenstone belt only, but they may exist in slate and granite also.

THE PLACERVILLE GOLD QUARTZ COMPANY,

Working the "Old Pacific mine," which is located in the greenstone, is one of the earliest known quartz ledges, and is connected with the history of Placerville to such an extent that it might just as well form part of the history of that burgh. As early as 1852, the man who did the first prospecting on the ledge, "struck it rich" in the out-cropping, and was in the habit of sending as high as four or five ounces, quilted in a buckskin bag, by mail, to his wife in the States, and as our informant assures us, in every instance it went through and arrived safely In 1854, a two-stamp mill was started in connection with Predmore's sawmill, below Placerville, and in seven years, (from 1854 to 1861,) the amount of $480,000 was taken out of this mine. The mill during that time had been increased to four stamps; the location was afterwards changed to a point south of town, and the mill increased to ten stamps, run by an overshot waterwheel. The next change introduced steam-power and a twenty-stamp mill at a cost of $54,000. While the mill stood under the hill, the ore was run out through the water tunnel, and hauled around the point with horse-cars. Notwithstanding all this clumsy work, it is a well approved fact that the product approximated closely on to $1,000,000, while the dividends amounted to over $200,000. Then it had its reverses, due partially to mismanagement and timid backing, and it lay idle for years. Experts declared it worked out, but the belief in the permanance of the ledge did not die out,

may be substituted in case the former should fail. For this purpose an immense iron pipe takes the water from the E. D. W. & D. G. M. Co.'s ditch, from a point near the city reservoir to near the hoisting works; this pipe is 1700 feet in length by 30 inches in diameter; an arrangement is made that, by means of several forks, it may supply the Brewster mill, the Rose mine and the Chester mine. The building of the hoisting works is 36 by 76 feet, and an additional boiler-shed 36 by 10 feet; a car track runs out to the ore-bin, and from there a trestle 400 feet in length, with a double track for cars, down to the mill; the mill building is 48 by 48 feet with an additional shed of 48 by 20 feet, and there is a battery of 20 stamps, worked by means of an eight-foot hurdy-gurdy wheel.

West of the Pacific or mother lode, is a rich quartz vein in the slate belt, which at several points has been quite extensively prospected. On this are located the Church Union, the Epley, Rose, Keegan, Old and Young Harmon, Hallock, Gross and St. Lawrence, reaching over a distance of about ten miles of ground. Of these, the Church Union, or Springfield, is located on the Cosumnes slope of El Dorado (Mud Springs). Work on this mine was started early in 1851 or '52, and has been run all the time continuously, never paying exceedingly rich, but averaging $20 to $25 per ton; thus having proved quite a profitable investment for the stockholders. A ten stamp mill has been erected for crushing the rock-mill and hoisting-works are to be run by steam or water-power, either. The shaft is the deepest sunk in this county. In early times it was known as the "Hermitage" ledge, and was owned by Messrs. Hoover, Crow & Co., who worked it in 1853 and '54, with the regular old Mexican machinery, and with good result. In 1855 and '56 it was owned and worked by Dr. Frost & Bro., always yielding handsomely. The present owners are Messrs. Smith & Adams. The St. Lawrence is another one of the more On December developed mines on the same lode.