Newspaper Notes - 1850s (NN-18.5)(1850s) (336 pages)

yo " Thehistorical significance of the area of Nevada City — shown on the accompanying map, an area which if plans for the freeway are to be carried out as presently planned, is doomed to annihilation. By H. P. Davis. ' Author of "Gold Rush Days in Nevada City”, numerous local historical articles, noted Haitian historican and author of "Black Democracy", advisor to Secretaries of State on Latin American policy. Gold was discovered at Coloma on the American River by James Marshall on January 24, 1848. : May 30 the Treaty of Peace with Mexico was ratified, The terrirotial legislature was convened at San Jose onDec. 15, 1849, and on Sept. 9, 1850 California was admitted to the Union as a state. The region north of Sacramento was then unsurveyed and only superfically explored and, although gold had been found in a number of streams over a considerable area, the vast mineral wealth of this region was yet undreamed of. The tremendous deposits of gold enriched gtavelofancient, long burried auriferous river channels , the chief source of placer gold found inthe Tunning streams, hadnot yet been revealed, and the existence of the gold bearing quartz lodes, the prime source of all the gold in California, had not yet been disclosed. FIRST MINING IN THIS AREA: Late in the summer of 1849 a party of gold seekers, led by Captain John_Pennington, working their way up Deer Creek from Rose's Bar (Timbucktu) on the South Fork of the Yuba River, found rich placer where Gold Run enters Deer Creek just east of the south end of the present Pine Street bridge. Here the Pennington party settled and built a log cabin, THE FIRST HABITATION OF WHITE MEN WITHIN THE PRESENT BOUNDS OF NEVADA CITY TOWNSHIP, (Nol on the accompanying map. ) The discovery of this concentration of unusually rich placer at Gold Run led to more intense exploration of Deer Creek. Gold seekers attracted to this new bonanza by reports of the riches to be found here soon determined that the bed of Deer Creek, from Gold Run up to the point where the Main and Broad Street bridges were later built, was extremely rich in placer gold but that above this point little gold was to be found. Further prospecting soondisclosed that the Little Flat now bisected by Main Street (see A on the map.) then largely swamp, it was exceedingly rich placer ground evidently created, through untold ages, by the gradual deposition of gold dust and nuggets washed down from the ancient river gravels deposited ages ago on the hillsides by the waters of Manzanita and Oregon ravines, thus creating one of most sensationally rich “diggins” inthis state . In the middle of October, 1849, miners were working on both sides of Deer Creek; at Gold Run the Pennington parythadinstalleda most ingenius arrangement of sluice boxes, including the first Long Tom to be employed in the “Northern Mines”. Across the creek .the little flat soon to be famous as “DEER CREEK DRY DIGGINS" made more than a thousand Men were employed with pans and rockers recovering from an ounce toa pound of gold dust and nuggets a day. In 1850 came the first indication of the existence of the ancient river channels. ‘ Miners, working up Manzanita Ravine covered greatly to their mystification, that the " pay dirt" which they were working was not merely superficial deposits and did not peter out as they dug into the banks, but persisted even under heavy overburden upon which great trees were towing. Few of thesemen had knowledge of mining EARLY other than the gained in a few weeks or months, in the California diggings. They had here encountered a condition hitherto unknown in gold mining and had no inkling of the significance of their discovery. To them however, gold was where you found it, and as this gravel was of unusual richness they lost no time in futile speculation but proceeded to gopher out the pay dirt by such primitive means as were within their ken. As these men drove into the banksit became increasingly evident that the ravines were not, as they had believed , water courses in which gold had gradually accumulated as in the flowing streams. It dawned upon them that the little streamlet which had formed the ravines had not only carved their way through overburden, but had cut to bedrock a strata of unusually rich auriferous gravel. How and when this gravel strata had been deposited and by what agency it had been enriched, the miners of Deer Creek Diggings were not competent to even guess, Lacking knowledge and equipment for drift mining, as later developed, or for major stripping operations, they * resorted to the simple expedient of driving into the banksas far as their skill and tools permitted. The stratum of pay dirt apparently persisting, they went on the surface, beyond the ravines or between them and sunk shallow shafts through the overburden which. carried ee no gold, to the gold-bearing gravel stratum, four or fivefeet or more, to bedrock, As is usual in auriferous gravel deposits the gold was concentrated more tichly at, ornear, thebedrock, and in many of these pits a foot or more of pay dirt of astonishing richness was encountered. As more and more men swarmed to this nhew-camp, and the area of operations extended, deeper shafts were sunk in ground further up the slopes, and rather than attempt to strip off the non-productive overlying soil, these pione~ ers enlarged their ‘Shafts at the bottom and even drove tunnels or drifts on the bedrock, extracting the rich gravel and leaving the overburden undistrubed. This, until the art of timbering became better understood, was dangerous mining but so highly profitable that despite many serious accidents hundreds of men spent their working hours delving for gold many feet below the surface of the earth. AS quartz Mining had not yet been here inaugurated, miners' regulations for this district limited claims to 30 by 30 feet, and as each man was confined to the limits of his location, the ravines, slopes and little flats from ManzanitaRavineto and beyond Oregon Ravine sobm became innumerable little dumps, The novel picture presented by this new and unusual camp bore such fancied resemblance to the burrows of a coyote village that this new type of mining became known as "Coyote Digging" , Work of this extraordinary discovery, circulat ing throughout the "northern mines," caused a rush to this camp and within a short time the slopes north and east of Point Cin Manzanita Ravine were blanketed by mining locations on ground little of which showed on the surface any indication of mineral values ' BytheendofJune, 1850, several thousand miners were congregated here in the new diggings and a town sprang into being with stores, hotels, saloons, and gambling places. By common consent this new settlement became as Coyoteville. During its brief but hectic career the coyote diggings, less than a mile in length and nowhere more than three hundred feet in width, flourished abundantly. From an ounce to twelve ounces a day was com-.

yo " Thehistorical significance of the area of Nevada City — shown on the accompanying map, an area which if plans for the freeway are to be carried out as presently planned, is doomed to annihilation. By H. P. Davis. ' Author of "Gold Rush Days in Nevada City”, numerous local historical articles, noted Haitian historican and author of "Black Democracy", advisor to Secretaries of State on Latin American policy. Gold was discovered at Coloma on the American River by James Marshall on January 24, 1848. : May 30 the Treaty of Peace with Mexico was ratified, The terrirotial legislature was convened at San Jose onDec. 15, 1849, and on Sept. 9, 1850 California was admitted to the Union as a state. The region north of Sacramento was then unsurveyed and only superfically explored and, although gold had been found in a number of streams over a considerable area, the vast mineral wealth of this region was yet undreamed of. The tremendous deposits of gold enriched gtavelofancient, long burried auriferous river channels , the chief source of placer gold found inthe Tunning streams, hadnot yet been revealed, and the existence of the gold bearing quartz lodes, the prime source of all the gold in California, had not yet been disclosed. FIRST MINING IN THIS AREA: Late in the summer of 1849 a party of gold seekers, led by Captain John_Pennington, working their way up Deer Creek from Rose's Bar (Timbucktu) on the South Fork of the Yuba River, found rich placer where Gold Run enters Deer Creek just east of the south end of the present Pine Street bridge. Here the Pennington party settled and built a log cabin, THE FIRST HABITATION OF WHITE MEN WITHIN THE PRESENT BOUNDS OF NEVADA CITY TOWNSHIP, (Nol on the accompanying map. ) The discovery of this concentration of unusually rich placer at Gold Run led to more intense exploration of Deer Creek. Gold seekers attracted to this new bonanza by reports of the riches to be found here soon determined that the bed of Deer Creek, from Gold Run up to the point where the Main and Broad Street bridges were later built, was extremely rich in placer gold but that above this point little gold was to be found. Further prospecting soondisclosed that the Little Flat now bisected by Main Street (see A on the map.) then largely swamp, it was exceedingly rich placer ground evidently created, through untold ages, by the gradual deposition of gold dust and nuggets washed down from the ancient river gravels deposited ages ago on the hillsides by the waters of Manzanita and Oregon ravines, thus creating one of most sensationally rich “diggins” inthis state . In the middle of October, 1849, miners were working on both sides of Deer Creek; at Gold Run the Pennington parythadinstalleda most ingenius arrangement of sluice boxes, including the first Long Tom to be employed in the “Northern Mines”. Across the creek .the little flat soon to be famous as “DEER CREEK DRY DIGGINS" made more than a thousand Men were employed with pans and rockers recovering from an ounce toa pound of gold dust and nuggets a day. In 1850 came the first indication of the existence of the ancient river channels. ‘ Miners, working up Manzanita Ravine covered greatly to their mystification, that the " pay dirt" which they were

working was not merely superficial deposits and did not peter out as they dug into the banks, but persisted even under heavy overburden upon which great trees were towing. Few of thesemen had knowledge of mining EARLY other than the gained in a few weeks or months, in the California diggings. They had here encountered a condition hitherto unknown in gold mining and had no inkling of the significance of their discovery. To them however, gold was where you found it, and as this gravel was of unusual richness they lost no time in futile speculation but proceeded to gopher out the pay dirt by such primitive means as were within their ken. As these men drove into the banksit became increasingly evident that the ravines were not, as they had believed , water courses in which gold had gradually accumulated as in the flowing streams. It dawned upon them that the little streamlet which had formed the ravines had not only carved their way through overburden, but had cut to bedrock a strata of unusually rich auriferous gravel. How and when this gravel strata had been deposited and by what agency it had been enriched, the miners of Deer Creek Diggings were not competent to even guess, Lacking knowledge and equipment for drift mining, as later developed, or for major stripping operations, they * resorted to the simple expedient of driving into the banksas far as their skill and tools permitted. The stratum of pay dirt apparently persisting, they went on the surface, beyond the ravines or between them and sunk shallow shafts through the overburden which. carried ee no gold, to the gold-bearing gravel stratum, four or fivefeet or more, to bedrock, As is usual in auriferous gravel deposits the gold was concentrated more tichly at, ornear, thebedrock, and in many of these pits a foot or more of pay dirt of astonishing richness was encountered. As more and more men swarmed to this nhew-camp, and the area of operations extended, deeper shafts were sunk in ground further up the slopes, and rather than attempt to strip off the non-productive overlying soil, these pione~ ers enlarged their ‘Shafts at the bottom and even drove tunnels or drifts on the bedrock, extracting the rich gravel and leaving the overburden undistrubed. This, until the art of timbering became better understood, was dangerous mining but so highly profitable that despite many serious accidents hundreds of men spent their working hours delving for gold many feet below the surface of the earth. AS quartz Mining had not yet been here inaugurated, miners' regulations for this district limited claims to 30 by 30 feet, and as each man was confined to the limits of his location, the ravines, slopes and little flats from ManzanitaRavineto and beyond Oregon Ravine sobm became innumerable little dumps, The novel picture presented by this new and unusual camp bore such fancied resemblance to the burrows of a coyote village that this new type of mining became known as "Coyote Digging" , Work of this extraordinary discovery, circulat ing throughout the "northern mines," caused a rush to this camp and within a short time the slopes north and east of Point Cin Manzanita Ravine were blanketed by mining locations on ground little of which showed on the surface any indication of mineral values ' BytheendofJune, 1850, several thousand miners were congregated here in the new diggings and a town sprang into being with stores, hotels, saloons, and gambling places. By common consent this new settlement became as Coyoteville. During its brief but hectic career the coyote diggings, less than a mile in length and nowhere more than three hundred feet in width, flourished abundantly. From an ounce to twelve ounces a day was com-.