When the winter winds howl and the rain pours down, I hunker down next to the fire and pull out my maps and one of my most treasured of books, "The History of Placer County”. Placer County is in the heart of the Northern Mother Lode with Auburn, California as it’s county seat. Auburn , in it’s early history, was called the North Fork Dry Diggings. I read the stories and locations to stoke my gold fever and to plan next season’s adventures. I have copied some of the stories below:
The Big Crevice
A wonderful place for gold is what is known as the Big Crevice, which crosses the Middle Fork of the American River diagonally at Murderer's Bar. The operations of the year 1851 enabled the working of the bed of the river, and disclosed the continuation of the crevice across the stream, it having been first broken into and worked to the depth of twelve or fifteen feet by J. D. Galbraith, in 1850, well back under the hill, upon the El Dorado side. A dyke of limestone here crosses the country, and this singular hole seems to have been a cavern which became filled with sediment rich in gold before the present river system existed, as it contains no gravel. When first found in the stream there was an overlying stratum of gravel about two feet deep, which would yield from twenty-five to fifty cents to the bucketful that was thrown away. Under this was a stratum of soapy, sedimentary slum, about the consistency of well-worked putty, that did not conatin a particle of grit, and which a shovel would cut as easily as a sharp, thin knife would go through cheese. This material yielded from one to four ounces to the bucketful. At this time of working, the flume for drainage was very imperfect and did not carry more than two thirds of the water of the stream. Constant bailing would not drain the hole in which the men were laboring, there always being one or more feet of water in which they were compelled to stand and work. The water being thrown out with buckets, this process would stir up the softer gold-bearing stratum and cause it to run away from the top stratum and let it into the hole, causing great annoyance. During this operation the gold could be seen lying upon all sides of the pit in apparent handfuls. But four men could work in the excavation, two of whom were constantly bailing out water, one was throwing out the top gravel stratum as it fell in, while the fourth was grappling up the gold-bearing slum. Only for about three hours a day could the hole be placed in condition to enable the fourth man to extract the paying stratum, and but eight days could any work at all be done there. The yield during that time was $4600.
From time to time the Big Crevice has been attacked, and is now owned by a Sacramento corporation, who have made efforts for several years past to fathom its depths, at one time endeavoring to sink a large iron tube through which to raise the auriferous slum. At one time it was worked under the superintendence of W. M. Manning to a depth of ninety feet, and, in some parts, sixty feet wide and yielded may thousands of dollars. Interspersed with the slum, the fissure contains wedge-shaped masses of limestone, that are generally but a few inches thick at one side but gradually thicken to from four to six feet upon the other, and weigh may hundreds of pounds. Stulls were placed in the crevice to prevent these from falling into the pit, but as tyhe workings were carried downward, from time to time the timbers would give way, when some of these masses would fall, and the workmen underneath were in danger. It is the opinion of Mr. Manning, who has had more experience than any other person in working it, that a million dollars will be taken from it if any method is ever adopted by which it can be thoroughly worked.
What about dredging with an 8" with hookah??!! Oh, I forgot that this was in the middle 1800s. Makes me drool though.
Pike Bell’s Luck
Placer County, Auburn, CA
1877
From the accounts of the Auburn paper, The Placer Herald, June 30, 1877.
“The richest gold strike made in this county for many years, and as rich perhaps as was ever made, we have the pleasure of recording. A.O. Bell, commonly called Pike Bell, who with his family has resided for many years on Bald Hill, a few miles north of Auburn, as many know, is a dauntless prospector. Though occasionally making a strike of some considerable importance in the past, he has managed, like most modern prospectors to keep poor. Last winter in particular, he was in very straightened circumstances; having no money and the merchants refusing to credit him, he offered his horse worth about $50.00 for $10.00, that he might buy bread for his children, and failing in his efforts to sacrifice his horse, he pawned the ring off his wife’s finger to obtain the necessaries of life. Under such circumstances many would have given up prospecting and gone at something that promised more certain results. Not so, however, with Pike. Day by day he continued his researches for the glittering treasure, and whether the passing day had revealed a color or not, his spirits were always jubilant, apparently kept up by the hope, that seemed never to desert him, of doing better on the morrow.
At last the lucky day came. It was about three weeks ago, when hunting around over the hills, he struck his pick into a little mound which resembled somewhat in appearance an anthill, and to his delight he unearthed some pieces of decomposed quartz, attached to which were some colors of gold. Encouraged at this prospect he began to sink on his new lead and was rewarded by finding more or less gold at every stage of descent. Last Saturday he had reached a depth of thirty feet and had taken out in sinking that far rock estimated to be worth about $1,500. The rock being rotten, or what is called by quartz miners decomposed, he had, with little effort, pounded out in a mortar enough to pay expenses as he progressed. The result thus far had been very good, and as the rock had got richer as he go deeper, he was of course entirely please at the prospect. Those he had talked to about his mine considered he had a good thing, but none ever dreamed of the great wealth that was in store for him. He had hired men to assist him in working the mine, and on last Monday morning they went to work as usual. The gouge, as we would call it, as it is too rotten to be properly called a ledge, was discovered by noon to have become suddenly richer. In the afternoon chunks of almost pure gold were taken out, and the decomposed stuff that filled the interstices between the rocks was so rich in gold that Pike began to wash it out with a pan. From three pans full washed Monday afternoon, he obtained gold estimated to be worth between $4,000 and $5,000, which he assured us all came from one pan of dirt; “but”, said he, “if you don’t believe it, I will wash another pan and show you” we told him to wash. The pan was sent down in the shaft and soon returned filled with a mass of muddy, rocky stuff that sparkled all over with pieces of gold. This was washed out, and was found to contain fully as much of the precious metal, if not more, than the one he had just finished panning when we arrived.
It was really the greatest sight we ever saw, and McCormick, who mined in California in its palmist days, says it knocked the spots off anything he ever saw, except on one particular occasion. Bell having convinced us of the richness of his mine, took us to his house to show us the proceeds of the previous days’ panning, that we might be convinced of all he had told us. The sight was one more easily imagined that described. As we looked upon the pans of gold before us, we thought of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, and wondered if the story had not been suggested by some such reality as was before us. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Bell (it is “Mr.” now since he has lots of gold, it was “Pike” before) was in town again, and he informed us that what we saw was nothing; that he had taken out $10,000 in three pans that day; that he had taken out, all told up to that time between $30,000 and $35,000.”
For those of you keeping track, $10,000 worth of gold at the going rate in 1877 was around $20 per ounce. That would mean that in three pans of material, he had panned out about 500 ounces of gold or around 40 pounds. That truly boggles my mind.
From the "History of Placer County":
The historical development of mining techniques
Dry Diggings
River and bar mining could be carried on successfully only in the summer or dry season, and the ravines, gullies and high banks were sought for the winter's work. These localities were therefore, called, "dry diggings." The large foot-hill area west of, and about Auburn constituted one of the richest and most extensive sections of dry diggings in the gold-mining region, and were first known as the "North Fork Dry Diggings." Recent reports speak of these as "Wood's Dry Diggings" but we have no early records of the name, nor do we recollect having heard it so called in 1849. With the abundant rains of 1849, every ravine contained a rivulet, and in every ravine was gold. Here the miners gathered and with pan and rocker prospered. The depressions of the higher mountains were called canyons and gulches, and there too, the miners found dry diggings. But with the summer of 1850 and the dry winter following, the dry diggings lost their popularity. They contained, however, an abundance of gold, and many miners stayed by them, waiting for the water to come or if more than usually enterprising, carting the auriferous dirt to a spring or stream, where with the pan or rocker they could wash out the gold. Some would shovel the dirt out of the water channel on to the bank, in anticipation of the water coming, sometimes finding lumps of gold sufficient to pay for their subsistence. These lumps were then called "specimens", the word "nugget", now universally adopted coming from Austrialia. The miner of a later date in 1851 or '52, would have brought the water to his dirt, or gulch, and there picking it to pieces, would have washed, or "ground sluiced" it away, and gathered the gold from the bed rock, or washed only the concentrations in the rocker.
The Long Tom
The miners of Nevada County were the first to take advanced steps in mining. There in the latter part of 1849, or early in 1850, some Georgia people introduced the "long tom". This is a trough of boards about twelve feet long, eight inches deep, twelve or fifteen inches wide at the head, and widening to twenty-five or thirty at the lower end. The wide portion terminates in a riddle of perforated sheet iron so curved that nothing goes over its end or sides, requiring a man to attend it with hoe and shovel to stir the gravel and water as they enter, washing all that is possible through the riddle, and with the shovel throwing the coarser gravel away. Beneath the sheet iron is a box with riffles, where the gold is retained with a small quantity of sand from which it is separated by washing in a pan or rocker. A constant stream of water runs through the tom, into which one or more men can shovel the dirt.
Mining Ditches
To use the "tom" led to the construction of the mining ditch. Water must be turned from the stream to enter the tom, and thus the advantage of such a diversion was seen, and the system extended. The first ditch in California for mining purposes was made at Coyote Hill, in Nevada County, in March, 1850. This was about two miles long, and proved a financial success. The first ditch in Placer County was constructed by H. Starr and Eugene Phelps, at Yankee Jim's, in 1851, to convey the water from Devil's Canyon to wash the dirt on their claims in a long tom. The tom and the ditch soon led to the greatest improvement of all, the "sluice." Some miners at Nevada placed a trough to carry the water to their long tom, and to save trouble threw their dirt into the trough, where the flowing water would carry it into the tom. The gold was found to remain in the trough, and thus it was discovered that the riddle and the man to attend it were unnecessary, and the trough became the sluice.
The Sluice
The trough which developed the sluice was made of two boards nailed together in the form of the letter V, and at a later date has become the V flume for carrying lumber. Soon the sluices were more systematically constructed, being of three boards, the bottom one twelve inches in width and the sides ten. The bottom boards were usually cut two inches narrower at on end than the other, in order that a number might conveniently be set in line, the smaller end of one lapping in the wider end of the other, thus making a line of sluices of any desired length. These were set at any such grade as was necessary to create such a current of water as to carry through the dirt thrown into them. Other sluice boxes for stationary work were made so as to butt against each other, and the joint securely fastened. From the single cleat nailed across the bottom to catch the gold, numerous improved "riffles" were made, and patents obtained for many. Among the devices were slats, or strips of board, lying across or lengthwise of the sluice, sometimes covered with iron to prevent their too rapid wear; planks with many auger holes were used, and many other devices to protect the bottom of the sluice and afford lodgement for the gold, while at the same time it should offer as little obstruction as possible to the passage of the water and gravel. The gold, in the small operation of the ante-hydraulic times, quickly sought the bottom, and in a line of sluices of twenty yards in length, little of the precious metal escaped. The gold and some gravel would settle in the riffles, which at night would be taken out, the matter remaining carefully gathered and washed in a pan, leaving the gold clean and pure, with the exception of a small quantity of black sand, which was afterwards removed by a magnet, being ferruginous and quickly attracted, or blown away by the breath. If quicksilver were used, this would be gathered in a similar manner, strained through a piece of canvas, and the resulting amalgam heated, either openly on a plate of iron or in a retort made for the pupose, and all the quicksilver adhering to the gold burned or evaporated away.
RifflesAs mining improved the sluices were made larger, until they have become large flumes, or tail-races, six or eight feet broad and proportionately deep, extending, if necessary and the ground permits, a mile in length, carrying a torrent of 1,000 inches or more of water loaded with the gravel from the hydraulic bank. These large sluices also have various styles of riffles. In some, scantling were fixed in frames and laid longitudinally with the box, in others, blocks of six or more inches in thickness, sawed from large trees and fastened in the bottom of the sluice, and in others, a pavement of bowlders (sic) was laid, like the cobble pavement of streets. Such riffles are expected to remain through weeks or months of washing, as to "clean up" and replacement is a formidable undertaking.
Drift Mining
Drift mining in California was first termed "coyoting," from the work being done under ground, as coyotes were supposed to dig their holes. In 1849, the miners in the dry diggings at Nevada County would sink shafts to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet to the bed rock, and then, rather than throw off the whole surface, would "coyote" as it was called, from the bottom of their excavation, and this was the beginning of drift mining. From this circumstance the locality became known as Coyote Hill, which name it bears at the present time.
Drift mining is most extensively carried on in Placer and Sierra Counties, where it forms a most important and valuable industry. Many of the gravel deposits are overcapped by basalt and other matter from ancient volcanoes, leaving far in the mountain the channel of some formeer river or glazier that contains the auriferous gravel. At points these deposits are exposed, leading the miner to search beneath the overlying matter, and thus he has learned that where the basalt forms the mountain top, a gravel channel lies beneath. To reach this, long tunnels from some bordering canyon are requisite, both for gaining access to the channel and to drain the water therefrom. When the gravel is thus reached it is mined out, the process being called "drifting," the superincumbent mass being held in place by timbers placed beneath and by pillars of the natural matter left standing.
This branch of mining is most extensively prosecuted in the region lying between the North and Middle forks of the American River, commonly designated as the "Divide," the gravel or mining area comprising about 250 square miles. This section was prospected in 1849, and contained an active population in 1850. Gold was found near the surface, but the miners soon tried greater depths, and were thus led to the deep deposits on the bed rock, when, following the example of those of Nevada County, commenced the system of drifting. In 1853 tunneling commenced, and since then a great many have been bored, of which more will be found in subsequent pages of this book.
Hydraulic Mining
Again the improved methods is first made known in Nevada county. In June, 1853, Col. Wm. McClure, an enterprising gentleman of Yankee Jim's, a miner and stockholder in a ditch supplying the locality with water, heard reports of a more effective system of mining then adopted in Nevada County, and he therefore visited that progressive section to learn more of the novelty. He found the miners washing the gravel by turning against the bank a stream of water directed by a canvas hose of four or five inches diameter, and a sheet-iron pipe, or nozzle, as a fireman would direct water upon a burning building. This stream, first of twenty-five or fifty inches of water, coming under pressue of forty to sixty feet from a ditch and penstock on the hill above, played against the base of the gravel bank would wash it away, leaving the mass above to fall, and in this manner a large amount of earth was moved, and, by the water, carred down the sluices placed in trenches in the bed rock ready for its reception.The work being done by water, the system took the name of "hydraulic."
So effective a system was not long to remain without improvement, and many inventors obtained patents for the changes they effected, who had not the genius to conceive the original plan, and thus profited more than the real inventor. Rubber hose and nozzles, with brass couplings, distributing boxes and iron penstocks soon followed, and these were succeeded by the great iron pipe, leading direct to a Craig's "Monitor", a "Dictator", a "Giant", or other patent nozzle, passing a steam of 1000 inches of water from a pressure of 200 feet high, with a force that will send a half ton bowlder whirling over the rocks. So powerful is this stream that an ordinary brick building would quickly yield to its force. Yet so cemented is the gravel in some mines that the water abrades it very slightly. To facilitate the washing a tunnel is run into the gravel at the base of the bank, and when a sufficient distance is reached, proportionate with the depth of the mass, cross drifts and chambers are excavated, and in these powder is placed, fuse or wires laid, the opening refilled and powder exploded, jarring and loosening the gravel so that it may be more readily attacked by the water,
Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Iowa Hill, Yankee Jim's, Michigan Bluff, Todd's Valley and Bath are the principal localities where hydraulic mining is carried on, although there are large and important hydraulic claims in other parts of the county.
