Historical Clippings Book (HC-11) (314 pages)

Electric cars remind me that the Bloomfield nek mine had an electric powerhouse and lighting arc in the eighties. People collected discarded carbons to put in their pockets to prevent or cure rheumatism. J am not expecting you to print all this, I am killing time and trying to inform you, or amaze, or annoy you, in return for the pleasure your page gives us old-timers. If you like, I may write of San Juan sometime. Some North San Juan names may surprise you. —Cora Wall Swan. Woman of Marble In her early years, Mrs, Anna C. Loomer of Oakland visited an aunt and uncle in Moore’s Flat, far up in our mining lands. She was therefore more than casually interested in a recent Knave story (Edmund Kinyon contributing) of that fabled place. And now Mrs. Loomer tells me of what she knows and remembers. Of her aunt and uncle, and of what went on, she says: “They lived in a mountain cottage up on the side hill above the town and my uncle used to be superintendent of the ditch crews, who had regular beats to watch for any breaks in the ditches and flumes. Each tender had about six miles to their beat. Just below the house to the left was a short flume and I used to love to go and see the water as it came tumbling down from the ditch, going on down to what they called the ‘Chinese Diggins, which was below and to the left of the town as you entered by stage. In the early days there had been so much mining done, that the hillsides were washed away and the cemetery had to be moved,. In one grave, when it was dug, the casket was SO — heavy that those digging were curious to know , what caused the weight, so the coffin was . opened and the body, through some chemicals . that were in the ground, had turned the woman into marble and she lay there just as she had been buried 20 years before; even her black . silk dress was in perfect preservation, I have often heard my mother speak of the incident. , My aunt and uncle lived at Moore’s Flat until . around 1901, or 1902, when they moved to Oak. land. Perhaps others seeing this will remember all about the Fitzgeralds, Conleys, Vizzards, Dowlings and George Davis and Jake Seibert. In the great winter of 1899-90 my aunt, Mrs. Conley, told us that the snow fell so deep she did her washing in the kitchen, took it to the attic and she went. out a window and hung her clothes on telephone wires that were still standing. When the mines were shut down because of the law against hydraulicking, it made most of those old towns, ghost towns. My grandmother lived at Magenta Flume, of which I have spoken before and most of these ditch tenders were at her place during their trip over their beats, When my father and mother left for San Francisco in January of 1882, I can remember my aunt putting heavy red woolen socks over our shoes to keep our feet from freezing as we took the stage ride from Moore’s Flat to Nevada shifting: Townsites Account of the recent field trip of the Nevada County Historical Society to Moore’s Flat and other old camps has brought ‘many rae The Knave and more to Edmund G. Kin : who chronicled the event in the Grass Valley and Nevada City Union. Mr, Kinyon, in his column, “The Trail,” has said recently: “The Trail has heard from descendents of the ae progenitors of the settlements, particularly . Moore’s Flat. Obscured as they are by the inaccessibility of the region and the rugged topography which sentinels such once-abound ing locations as Snow Point, Moore’s Flat Wo i sey Flat, Orleans Flat, and are appa ra circled by that stream of fearsome name Bloody Run, Due to the exigency of moving the eee sites in order to make way for hydraulickin each of these towns had two or more pede As told in an earlier article, all have virtuall disappeared except Moore’s Flat, now ‘ech qe Up and down the Pacific Coast and ack across the Nation to the Atlantic operates the great House of Crown Zellerbach. It is th result of a consolidation effected 80 years a : by two paper concerns, the Crown compan i Oregon and the Zellerbach company of Califorte: Both were pioneer concerns. The Crown ellerbach corporation and its subsidiaries em ploys some 12,000 men and women and ee factures up to 800,000 tons of paper and ance products annually. The total of the operations 1s enormous. It is rated the largest paper manufacturing con i . eee ee ae Gane Seley eae Moore’s Flat developed from a seed planted in 1852 by H. M. Moore, who drove a herd of cattle across the plains and settled there, with the idea of ranching. But he soon gave up that plan and went into mining. Moore’s Flat grew up twice. The original community was practically wiped out by fire in 1869 and another was built /up on a new site about a mile and half from the old. By 1880 the second town had three hotels, a bank, half a dozen stores and many fine homes. But after 1884 it faded out of the picture and now is merely a name on road maps.

Electric cars remind me that the Bloomfield nek mine had an electric powerhouse and lighting arc in the eighties. People collected discarded carbons to put in their pockets to prevent or cure rheumatism. J am not expecting you to print all this, I am killing time and trying to inform you, or amaze, or annoy you, in return for the pleasure your page gives us old-timers. If you like, I may write of San Juan sometime. Some North San Juan names may surprise you. —Cora Wall Swan. Woman of Marble In her early years, Mrs, Anna C. Loomer of Oakland visited an aunt and uncle in Moore’s Flat, far up in our mining lands. She was therefore more than casually interested in a recent Knave story (Edmund Kinyon contributing) of that fabled place. And now Mrs. Loomer tells me of what she knows and remembers. Of her aunt and uncle, and of what went on, she says: “They lived in a mountain cottage up on the side hill above the town and my uncle used to be superintendent of the ditch crews, who had regular beats to watch for any breaks in the ditches and flumes. Each tender had about six miles to their beat. Just below the house to the left was a short flume and I used to love to go and see the water as it came tumbling down from the ditch, going on down to what they called the ‘Chinese Diggins, which was below and to the left of the town as you entered by stage. In the early days there had been so much mining done, that the hillsides were washed away and the cemetery had to be moved,. In one grave, when it was dug, the casket was SO — heavy that those digging were curious to know , what caused the weight, so the coffin was . opened and the body, through some chemicals . that were in the ground, had turned the woman into marble and she lay there just as she had been buried 20 years before; even her black . silk dress was in perfect preservation, I have often heard my mother speak of the incident. , My aunt and uncle lived at Moore’s Flat until . around 1901, or 1902, when they moved to Oak. land. Perhaps others seeing this will remember all about the Fitzgeralds, Conleys, Vizzards, Dowlings and George Davis and Jake Seibert. In the great winter of 1899-90 my aunt, Mrs. Conley, told us that the snow fell so deep she did her washing in the kitchen, took it to the attic and she went. out a window and hung her clothes on telephone wires that were still standing. When the mines were shut down because of the law against hydraulicking, it made most of those old towns, ghost towns. My grandmother

lived at Magenta Flume, of which I have spoken before and most of these ditch tenders were at her place during their trip over their beats, When my father and mother left for San Francisco in January of 1882, I can remember my aunt putting heavy red woolen socks over our shoes to keep our feet from freezing as we took the stage ride from Moore’s Flat to Nevada shifting: Townsites Account of the recent field trip of the Nevada County Historical Society to Moore’s Flat and other old camps has brought ‘many rae The Knave and more to Edmund G. Kin : who chronicled the event in the Grass Valley and Nevada City Union. Mr, Kinyon, in his column, “The Trail,” has said recently: “The Trail has heard from descendents of the ae progenitors of the settlements, particularly . Moore’s Flat. Obscured as they are by the inaccessibility of the region and the rugged topography which sentinels such once-abound ing locations as Snow Point, Moore’s Flat Wo i sey Flat, Orleans Flat, and are appa ra circled by that stream of fearsome name Bloody Run, Due to the exigency of moving the eee sites in order to make way for hydraulickin each of these towns had two or more pede As told in an earlier article, all have virtuall disappeared except Moore’s Flat, now ‘ech qe Up and down the Pacific Coast and ack across the Nation to the Atlantic operates the great House of Crown Zellerbach. It is th result of a consolidation effected 80 years a : by two paper concerns, the Crown compan i Oregon and the Zellerbach company of Califorte: Both were pioneer concerns. The Crown ellerbach corporation and its subsidiaries em ploys some 12,000 men and women and ee factures up to 800,000 tons of paper and ance products annually. The total of the operations 1s enormous. It is rated the largest paper manufacturing con i . eee ee ae Gane Seley eae Moore’s Flat developed from a seed planted in 1852 by H. M. Moore, who drove a herd of cattle across the plains and settled there, with the idea of ranching. But he soon gave up that plan and went into mining. Moore’s Flat grew up twice. The original community was practically wiped out by fire in 1869 and another was built /up on a new site about a mile and half from the old. By 1880 the second town had three hotels, a bank, half a dozen stores and many fine homes. But after 1884 it faded out of the picture and now is merely a name on road maps.