Collection: Directories and Documents

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Title: Lost Grass Valley Gold Rush History of the Wilhelm & Binkleman Pioneer Families by Waldo C.F. Potter (2024) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Author: Waldo C.F. Potter Published: 2024 # of Pages: 374 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-12 19:32:15 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:22:43 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:22:43

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 374  

f% Ga ts Cornish miners, Grass Valley Some Cornish pumps were enormous. The one at the North Star mine weighed costly, and inefficient chlorination proc135,000 pounds and extended half a mile down into the workings. This pump operated continuously day and night from 1884 to 1925, a total of 41 years. Few Cornish pumps exist now. One from the Sneath and Clay mine, a few miles cast at Nevada City, is now displayed at the North Star museum. It is in working order. There was a decline in gold mining in the 1860's and 1870's, partly due to the Comstock silver rush in Nevada. However, during the 1880's, most of the important mines were working and expanding so that Grass Valley became one of the most impo mining districts in the west. Several thousand men were employed in the mines. Imp in mini hniq and equipment enabled the miners to go ever deeper in their search for gold. Beginning in 1890, the introduction of comexplosives, and increased efficiency in ore profitable: Cyanidation replaced the old, ess for J of precious metal from the ore. Some of the mills at Grass Valley became enormous. There was a 60-stamp mill at the Empire mine and another at the North Star mine. The invention of the rotating vacuum filter here in 1907 by ELL. Oliver made low-cost continuous filtration possible in the cyanide process. Carbide lamps and later electric lamps replaced the candles the miners used underground, From 1876 to 1942 Grass Valley was served by the Nevada County Railroad. This narrow-gauge line extended from the Southern Pacific main line at Colfax north and northwest to Grass Valley and then east and north to Nevada City (Figure 1). In its early days the railroad was a factor in lowering the costs of the gold could be shipped in much more cheaply by railroad than by wagons hauled by horses, mules, or oxen over rough roads. Another item of equipment that played an important role in the gold mines was the Pelton water wheel. This was invented CALIFORNIA GEOLOGY March 1984 by Lester Pelton in 1878 at Camptonville 20 miles to the north of Grass Valley. it was simple, efficient, and widely used to generate electric power or compressed air. The largest Pelton wheel ever built in this district, and possibly anywhere, is the 32foot wheel now on display at the North Star Mine Pelton Wheel Museum. This wheel was installed in 1898 under the direction of A.D. Foote to replace an earlier 18-foot wheel. It operated until 1933. Although electric or air-powered locomotives were used underground to pull ore cars in later years, a surprising number of mules were used until comparatively recent times. The mules lived in underground barns cut into the rock, and unless they became ill, they spent most of their adult lives in the mines. In the 1930's a circular shaft more than 1,125 feet deep was sunk by a huge core drill at the Idaho-Maryland mine under the direction of J.B. Newsom. The singlecompartment shaft was the first 5-foot diameter shaft to be sunk by a core drill. . Large cores from this shaft can be seen today at the mine site. Bt 242