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Collection: Directories and Documents > Directories
Nevada County Mining Review (622.342.NEV)(1895) (158 pages)
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Page: of 158
SE
NEVADA COUNTY
estimated at 20,000, exclusive of Indians. The Frazer river excitement
in 1858 caused a large number of Nevada Countyans to ‘‘break camp”’
and leave for the reported rich fields, which, alas! proved almost valueless. Then, in 1859 and 1860, came the Washoe exodus, when hundreds
of men left their homes, families and business to secure a location on the
famous Comstock lode. The result was that the census of 1860 showed
a decrease of 5,000 souls. This loss was almost made up during the next
ten years, as the census of 1870 gave the county a population of 19,134.
As gold mininy brought to Nevada County its inhabitants, its wealth
and its fame, it may be well to note that the first gold found within the
boundaries of Nevada County was ‘‘ panned’? out by Jonas Spect at
Rose’s Bar on June 2, 1848, only a month or so after Marshall made the
first discovery at Coloma. Marshall himself visited Nevada County in
the summer of 1848, while engaged in escorting a party of immigrants
across the mountains. He camped on the banks of Deer creek, near
where Nevada City now stands, and, as was his usual custom, tried a few
pans of dirt, finding gold each time and convincing himself that the
surrounding country was rich, as it afterward proved to be. These are
the earliest and most authentic records we have of the finding of gold in
Nevada County. In October, 1848, David Stump and a man named Berry,
from the El Dorado dry diggings, prospected up Wolf creek and camped
near where Grass Valley is now located. They remained but a short
time, leaving as soon as winter set in, but they satisfied themselves that
there was gold in abundance in the vicinity. Their camp was where the
famous Eureka and Idaho (now the Maryland), mines were afterward
located.
Nevada County has been the home of many pioneers who have since
gained fame and fortune, and her early residents were the first to make
improvements and inventions in the apparatus used in mining, The
quartz miners of Nevada County were the first to formulate a code of
mining laws, recognizing the necessity of some general regulations. A
convention for this purpose was held at Nevada City early in the fall of
1852 by the quartz miners. On December 20th the committee appointed
at the first meeting made their report, which was adopted, and these were
the first quartz mining laws of the State, and were recognized by the
courts. These laws provided for the holding and location of what were
known as “square claims.” Nevada County can also claim the lionor of
announcing to the world the great value of the Comstock lode in the
State of Nevada, which has since made the word “Bonanza” and the
Bonanza Kings famous wherever the English language is spoken. On
June 24, 1859, J. F. Stone and W. P. Morrison walked into the office of
the Nevada Journal, bringing with them some ore from a lead discovered
MINING REVIEW
by aman named Comstock. They had purchased an interest in the lead
and had brought these samples across the mountains for the purpose of
having them tested. J. J. Ott made an assay at Nevada City which gave
startling results. The value of the ore was found to be $1,595 in gold and
$3,196 in silver to each ton. Melville Attwood, the mineralogist then
living at Grass Valley, also made an assay with similar results. This was
the real beginning of the Comstock boom, for until this time neither
Comstock nor any of his associates knew of the extreme richness of the
lode, which has since added millions of dollars to the treasury of the
world.
The method of amalgamation used in quartz mills throughout the
world at present, was known for many years as the Grass Valley system
of amalgamation, for it was at the above-named place that the many
improvements in the batteries and plates of quartz mills were first introduced and successfully used. The different systems of sluicing which
succeeded the rocker and the Long Tom were also the product of Nevada
County talent, and hydraulic mining here received its first conception
and reached its greatest development. Ground sluicing first came into
general use in 1851-2 in the ‘‘ coyote’’ claims at Nevada City. A. Chabot:
who was mining at Buckeye Hill in 1852, introduced about forty feet of
hose into his claim, the water being conducted from the bank to the
bottom of the diggings in a closed wooden box, strengthened by iron
clamps to withstand the pressure. This was found to be very useful
in sluicing off the dirt, but there was no nozzle attached, and the idea
probably never occurred to Mr. Chabot that a stream of water under
a high pressure, directed against the bank, would accomplish a great
deal. In April, 1853, E. E. Matteson, who was then working a claim on
American Hill, conceived the idea, that by directing a stream of water
against the bank he could facilitate matters. He accordingly attached a
nozzle to a piece of hose, and found that this would accomplish the work
of several men. This was the first attempt at ‘ hydraulicing,” and Mr,
Matteson’s simple appliance, which was exhibited at the California Midwinter Exposition at San Francisco in 1894, was the forerunner of the
immense steel and iron-pipe systems and the giant monitors of today,
which, unluckily, are lying idle in the great hydraulic mines of the
county at the present time.
While the great quartz mines of the county have produced millions
of dollars, and their production can be carefully estimated, the placer,
drift and hydraulic mines have also produced millions which cannot be
accounted for. Many of the pioncers left during the “fifties,” taking
with them from fifty to one hundred and fifty pounds (not ounces), of
gold, and no accurate idea of the yield of the early placer mines can be.