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Collection: Books and Periodicals

Water Use in the Yuba and Bear Rivers by Thomas Pagenhart (1970) (243 pages)

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itself of this permanent supply, became the permanent business and cultural center of San Juan Ridge, giving its name to the entire area. The Middle Yuba Canal circled the hills above the town of North San Juan and continued as far as Sweetland Creek. Large flumes carried the water across the town of San Juan to the hydraulic diggings on the far side of San Juan Hill. With later extensions to the south, it supplied mines along the entire gravel channel to French Corral. In 1857, the company bought up, for $10,000, the western end of the Grizzly Ditch, from Cherokee to North San Juan, which enabled them to operate without competition at high water rates. The Middle Yuba Company charged 30 cents per 24-hour miner’s inch of water, which cost the average mine, operating with 150 inches, $45 a day (North San Juan Hydraulic Press, October 9, 1858). Even a near-universal strike by miners in 1859 all along the Ridge hardly affected the Middle Yuba Canal Company. Some other ditch companies reduced their water rates to 15 cents per inch, but the Middle Yuba Company would go no lower than 25 cents per inch. Only the threat of invasion into its territory by the competing Eureka Lake Ditch Company finally caused the Middle Yuba Company to announce a prospective price reduction to meet its rival’s price of 16 2/3 cents per inch. Less than a month after this announcement, the company reconsidered and reneged on its projected price drop. Instead, it waited until the Eureka Lake ditch arrived in North San Juan, and got its rival to agree to fix the price at 20 cents per inch (North San Juan Hydraulic Press, December 10, 1859). The newly-elected president of the company at this time was Egbert Judson, whose name became intimately associated with the management of several of the largest of the water-and-mining companies throughout the Northern Mines. Profits from the sales, in the 1870’s, of “Judson powder”, a low-grade nitro-glycerine, made Judson one of the ranking millionaires in San Francisco. Judson furnishes an example of the interlocking interests of supposed competitors in the hydraulic mining industry. In North San Juan, four years after the entry of the Eureka Lake Company into the Middle Yuba Company’s territory, the two rival ditch companies combined forces and consolidated their interests.Miners Ditch High prices and the inadequacy of water at the Flats prompted several enterprising miners in 1855 to lay out and construct a 750-inch capacity ditch from the Middle Yuba River to their own diggings. It was somewhat of a wonder, its 20 miles being constructed and in operation within five months. Its dimensions were 5 feet by 3 feet, and it cost its {26