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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
Nevada County, California (PH 1-19)(1926) (19 pages)
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Page: of 19
was hit in the leg. I went out through a window and did not
wait to sce the finish. It was too exciting for me.
QUARTZ MINING
March 8, 1851. The town is all excitement over the discovery
of gold in rocks. Over in Grass Valley they found veins of a
white stone which we call quartz and some of it has great masses
and leaves of gold mixed in. I saw one piece in Hamlet Davis’
store today that had been brought up from Grass Valley. It
was as big as my head and all covered over with gold. Davis
said there was as much as five hundred dollars in it. There was
a big crowd looking at it, discussing its origin, and a great many
were of the opinion that this was the source of the gold we had
been looking for. Others agreed that if there was much more like
it, there would be so much gold taken out that it would get to be
cheaper than iron.
(Note: The first gold bearing quartz ledge was found at Grass
Valley, then known as Centerville, in the spring of 1850.)
THE FIRST PLACER MD. THE FIRST QUARTZ
a
July 20, 1851. One thing sure, all our old theories about gold
don’t amount to much. Instead of the deposits petering out, the
miners are striking it richer in every direction and in places where
we did not think of looking for it a year ago. On Selby Flat there
is a deep channel running into the mountain and there is more
gold in it than there was on Brush Creek. On the other side of
Sugar Loaf, way up on the hill, there is another big streak that
seems to run in the same direction as Deer Creek, only it is
five hundred feet higher up. Then down at Grass Valley they
are taking out chunks of gold from quartz. Since this discovery
the miners have got it into their heads that these rocks are the
most likely source of gold and some parties have built a crushing
machine which pounds up the rock and leaves the gold free to
catch in sluices.
THE AMOUNT OF GOLD DOES NOT DIMINISH
October 26, 1851. I have changed my ideas a good deal about
* this country. I thought a year ago that by this time there would
not be any gold left, and that the foothills and mountains would
be where they were when we first came. But it isn’t so. More
and bigger deposits are found every day and there seems to be
no end to it. If it keeps on, gold won't be worth more than lead.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE ANCIENT RIVER CHANNELS
December 7, 1851. One of our friends is working a claim on
Gopher Point, just below Blue Tent, which he seems to think is
rich. He offered us a quarter interest for $2000. We rode over
to look at it and concluded that we did not want to buy. It is
different from any other diggings in this part of the county,
RESIDENCE AT EMPIRE MINE
INTERIOR OF EMPIRE MILL
and is a puzzle to all of the miners. A bed of blue gravel lies
about six hundred feet above the river, on a steep side-hill and
seems to run into the mountain. All of the gravel down on Rock
and Brush Creeks and on the Nevada side of Sugar Loaf is a
loose mixture of quartz pebbles and sand, casily washed, but
this deposit has neither sand nor quartz and is as hard as rock.
The miners have to use blasting powder to blow it up and then
it comes out in great chunks and has to be broken with sledge
hammers before it can be washed. There is no question that it
is rich, as we could see the gold sticking to the rocks; but the
men are not making very good wages on account of the difficulty
of separating the dirt from the cobbles.
THE INVENTION OF THE SLUICE
December 7, 1851. Friday we rode over and along Deer
Creek to learn about a new method of mining being done there.
The miners put in a long string of sluice boxes dovetailing into
each other with all of the riffles in the bottom, then shoveled
all of the dirt in from both sides, forking out the cobbles and
stones with a long handled, six-tined fork. A lot of dirt can be
handled in this way, and although the creek bed had been worked
over before with rockers and toms, they say they are making
more going over it the second time than when it was first mined.
Rock Creek has all been worked out and abandoned and. if
Deer Creek pays to work over it ought to do the same. We
decided to try it and will start in next week, First, however, we
had to call a miners’ meeting and adopt a new law to the effect
that in a creck that had been previously mined under the old
twenty-four foot rule, the ground could be taken up and held
in claims of three hundred feet in length and from bank to bank,
We located two this morning for ourselves and got Plate, Dixon,
McManus and Ames, our neighbors, to take up four more and
transfer them to us by purchase, we agreeing to give them one
hundred dollars each if the ground paid. That gives us control
of cighteen hundred feet. ‘Then the same crowd repeated the
deal, so that cach one holds fifteen hundred feet and among us
we have over a mile of the creck bed
(Note: About this time the miners of Nevada County created
the first mining laws for quartz claims.)
THE ARGONAUT'S HOME LIFE
February 8, 1852. Our old cabin is not much to look at
outside or inside, Dad wouldn't keep his hogs in such a place,