Volume 008-2 - March 1954 (2 pages)

procure this fertile, fabulously rich portion of our domain? The odor of the deal does not lessen either in view of the tactics practiced by, and opposed most vigorously by us Americans, those behind the so-called Iron Curtain. The kettle cannot in all fairness call the pot black, or vice versa. The Dennis Kearney riots against the Chinese are familiar, as familiar as Bret Harte’s “The Heathen Chinee!.” However, one opera bouffe of the Chinese that took place in Weaverville, Trinity County, lends a more humorous side in contrast to the drabness occasioned by these other events. Considerable stress has been placed upon incidents such as these in order that interesting reading may result. As if the whole period from 48 to ’55 were not of sufficient interest for any reading or narrating! When the placers of the river bars, river beds, and ravines began to “peter out” and the miners began to suspect that something in the way of “hill gravel” or quartz stringers might have played their part in enriching these “placers,” the more enterprising began a search for these “higher grounds,” farther up in the mountains, and, along with the prospect of “higher diggings” that might be found, the need for the transporting of water to these areas in order to work the ground was ever before them in their thinking. Seven of these seekers happened to be men of more than average intelligence apparently, and, although tradition may state the accidental finding in 1852 of the high lakes, it was in 1853 that these seven—six Frenchmen and one Belgian —appropriated the waters of French Lake or Eureka Lake, high in the Sierras, and found thirty more lakes within the vicinity of Big Canyon Creek and its headwaters. However, capital’ was needed to dig ditches for the transporting of water over long distances. The Frenchmen could not swing it. They sought and found aid in a few men who had been instrumental in furthering other water projects, and these men, under the name of the “French Lake Water Company,” began the construction of a ditch from Canyon Creek to Eureka South, a distance of thirteen miles. This ditch was started in 1857 and within three months time seven miles of ditch and flume, extremely difficult to build, had been completed, and was to be finished before the winter storms set in. From Eureka South it was to connect with a Captain Irving’s ditch (The Irwin Ditch), it being consolidated with that company. Thus was created the Eureka Lake and Water Company. This company, after a siege of growing pains and internal wrangling and litigation, finally was consolidated with the Middle Yuba Canal and Water Company (a New York Corporation now controlled this system), the longest ditch system in the state and one of the costliest to construct. Another Frenchman, under the name of Petitjean and Company, had dug a ditch from Canyon Creek to North Bloomfield by way of Relief Hill. That portion dug from Canyon Creek to Relief Hill was utilized when the North Bloomfield Company’s ditch was constructed. But it was a Frenchman who had located the waters of Canyon Creek at Bowman in 1860 and dug the ditch, thus paving the way for the North Bloomfield Company. The knowledge of the necessity for water and hydraulics learned by the Gauls unquestionably dates back to ancient history, back to the Sumerians and their priest-kings who developed irrigation, and the skillful hydraulic engineers in the Mesopotamian areas, and then the succession of destructions by Mongolian hordes, the development of the western civilizations, again the destruction by Teutonic hordes and once more the civilization in the land of the Gauls. Small wonder indeed that the French were quick to grasp the opportunities in a foreign land, a land far more lush in scope in climate, area and wealth than that of their native land. Yet, what became of these early French or their progeny? Their start in our County exemplified in the North San Juan ridge area betokened a land of fruit, vineyards and farms. It did not materialize for the French, however. In perusing the early days mining records in the Nevada County Court House, one becomes rather amazed at the number of French names to be found inscribed on the mining locations of the late ’50's. A careful count was made of one section in particular. This was of the Virgin Valley Mining District at Humbug City, known by most people as North Bloomfield. Of the nearly 600 names found on the locations made from 1856 to 1860 it was surprising to note the names of more than one hundren thirty Frenchmen. Going farther down the ridge, to the time when the transfer of property at Montezuma Hill was made to the Montezuma Mining Company, of the more than thirty names on the list of owners of claims, at least two-thirds of them were of French origin. However, of all the ridge localities, the French predominated, as a unit, at North Bloomfield. Another singular fact was this: whereas the French appeared to have reached their peak in numbers on mining locations in 1858, a marked decrease was noticeable as years went on. This was no more than natural since the three large ditch and mining companies—the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, with its large holdings surrounding the Malekoff; the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company, with their vast mining interests, particularly in the vicinity of Columbia Hill; and the Milton Water and Mining Company, who controlled the longest continuous ditch of the three companies—the Milton Ditch, 80 miles in length, with their extensive operations at Sweetland and French Corral, had bought up the multitude of mining locations along the San Juan Ridge for their particular interests. The question may be appropriately asked again: What became of these early French settlers or their progeny? It is scarcely likely that one would find the names of these Frenchmen on the roster of a Potter’s Field. The French are not like that. Generations of frugality does not breed a race destined for a Potter’s Field. Names such as Fauchery, who was instrumental in producing one of the finest engineering features in our state. I refer to the Magenta flume of the Eureka Lake Company, a flume 126 feet in height, requiring no splicing of timber in the bents. This situation was not to be found anywhere else on earth where single trees, from which poles 126 feet in length could be hewn right on the ground for these bents. No scaffolding was needed, as each bent was finished as a single unit and raised into place complete. Learned men such as Poquillon, a linguist of note, and one of the original Frenchmen referred to in this article; Chabot, the Frenchman working at Buckeye Hill at Nevada City and who came within a hair of becoming the originator of hydraulic mining and beating to the line by one year the distinction bestowed upon E. E. Mattieson for the discovery; Chavanne, who was the inventor of the needle nozzle here in our county which revolutionized the important part of “peak” load and “low” load for the generators of electricity, do not end up in a Potter's Field. One answer to the query of what became of these early French in Nevada County and why the land was not settled in vineyards, orchards and gardens may stem from the fact that the craze in France, after the tumultuous times of revoltings around 1848, for the founding of “associations” in order to rid itself of undesirables, the unemployed, the revolutionists, by the emigration of these elements to French Colonies. This did not materialize in containing enough of the farm element for succh undertakings. And again, probably, in the very fact that these same emigrants had been at civil war during this period and as a consequence their adjustment in a new land needed time. The speed with which these people fraternized on a foreign soil would make quite a tale itself in the telling. It is nice to dwell upon the assumption tha if men of distinction and foresight such as can be found in the records of the ’50’s could only have carried on, possibly the demoralizaion of a rich portion of our county would not have been so final, and the robbing of one section of the terrain for the aggrandizement of another section might have been avoided. The eternal wrangling which affords us amusement in these times might have been prevented.

procure this fertile, fabulously rich portion of our domain? The odor of the deal does not lessen either in view of the tactics practiced by, and opposed most vigorously by us Americans, those behind the so-called Iron Curtain. The kettle cannot in all fairness call the pot black, or vice versa. The Dennis Kearney riots against the Chinese are familiar, as familiar as Bret Harte’s “The Heathen Chinee!.” However, one opera bouffe of the Chinese that took place in Weaverville, Trinity County, lends a more humorous side in contrast to the drabness occasioned by these other events. Considerable stress has been placed upon incidents such as these in order that interesting reading may result. As if the whole period from 48 to ’55 were not of sufficient interest for any reading or narrating! When the placers of the river bars, river beds, and ravines began to “peter out” and the miners began to suspect that something in the way of “hill gravel” or quartz stringers might have played their part in enriching these “placers,” the more enterprising began a search for these “higher grounds,” farther up in the mountains, and, along with the prospect of “higher diggings” that might be found, the need for the transporting of water to these areas in order to work the ground was ever before them in their thinking. Seven of these seekers happened to be men of more than average intelligence apparently, and, although tradition may state the accidental finding in 1852 of the high lakes, it was in 1853 that these seven—six Frenchmen and one Belgian —appropriated the waters of French Lake or Eureka Lake, high in the Sierras, and found thirty more lakes within the vicinity of Big Canyon Creek and its headwaters. However, capital’ was needed to dig ditches for the transporting of water over long distances. The Frenchmen could not swing it. They sought and found aid in a few men who had been instrumental in furthering other water projects, and these men, under the name of the “French Lake Water Company,” began the construction of a ditch from Canyon Creek to Eureka South, a distance of thirteen miles. This ditch was started in 1857 and within three months time seven miles of ditch and flume, extremely difficult to build, had been completed, and was to be finished before the winter storms set in. From Eureka South it was to connect with a Captain Irving’s ditch (The Irwin Ditch), it being consolidated with that company. Thus was created the Eureka Lake and Water Company. This company, after a siege of growing pains and internal wrangling and litigation, finally was consolidated with the Middle Yuba Canal and Water Company (a New York Corporation now controlled this system), the longest ditch system in the state and one of the costliest to construct. Another Frenchman, under the name of Petitjean and Company, had dug a ditch from Canyon Creek to North Bloomfield by way of Relief Hill. That portion dug from Canyon Creek to Relief Hill was utilized when the North Bloomfield Company’s ditch was constructed. But it was a Frenchman who had located the waters of Canyon Creek at Bowman in 1860 and dug the ditch, thus paving the way for the North Bloomfield Company. The knowledge of the necessity for water and hydraulics learned by the Gauls unquestionably dates back to ancient history, back to the Sumerians and their priest-kings who developed irrigation, and the skillful hydraulic engineers in the Mesopotamian areas, and then the succession of destructions by Mongolian hordes, the development of the western civilizations, again the destruction by Teutonic hordes and once more the civilization in the land of the Gauls. Small wonder indeed that the French were quick to grasp the opportunities in a foreign land, a land far more lush in scope in climate, area and wealth than that of their native land. Yet, what became of these early French or their progeny? Their start in our County exemplified in the North San Juan ridge area betokened a land of fruit, vineyards and farms. It did not materialize for the French, however. In perusing the early days mining records in the Nevada County Court House, one becomes rather amazed at the number of French names to be found inscribed on the mining locations of the late ’50's. A careful count was made of

one section in particular. This was of the Virgin Valley Mining District at Humbug City, known by most people as North Bloomfield. Of the nearly 600 names found on the locations made from 1856 to 1860 it was surprising to note the names of more than one hundren thirty Frenchmen. Going farther down the ridge, to the time when the transfer of property at Montezuma Hill was made to the Montezuma Mining Company, of the more than thirty names on the list of owners of claims, at least two-thirds of them were of French origin. However, of all the ridge localities, the French predominated, as a unit, at North Bloomfield. Another singular fact was this: whereas the French appeared to have reached their peak in numbers on mining locations in 1858, a marked decrease was noticeable as years went on. This was no more than natural since the three large ditch and mining companies—the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, with its large holdings surrounding the Malekoff; the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company, with their vast mining interests, particularly in the vicinity of Columbia Hill; and the Milton Water and Mining Company, who controlled the longest continuous ditch of the three companies—the Milton Ditch, 80 miles in length, with their extensive operations at Sweetland and French Corral, had bought up the multitude of mining locations along the San Juan Ridge for their particular interests. The question may be appropriately asked again: What became of these early French settlers or their progeny? It is scarcely likely that one would find the names of these Frenchmen on the roster of a Potter’s Field. The French are not like that. Generations of frugality does not breed a race destined for a Potter’s Field. Names such as Fauchery, who was instrumental in producing one of the finest engineering features in our state. I refer to the Magenta flume of the Eureka Lake Company, a flume 126 feet in height, requiring no splicing of timber in the bents. This situation was not to be found anywhere else on earth where single trees, from which poles 126 feet in length could be hewn right on the ground for these bents. No scaffolding was needed, as each bent was finished as a single unit and raised into place complete. Learned men such as Poquillon, a linguist of note, and one of the original Frenchmen referred to in this article; Chabot, the Frenchman working at Buckeye Hill at Nevada City and who came within a hair of becoming the originator of hydraulic mining and beating to the line by one year the distinction bestowed upon E. E. Mattieson for the discovery; Chavanne, who was the inventor of the needle nozzle here in our county which revolutionized the important part of “peak” load and “low” load for the generators of electricity, do not end up in a Potter's Field. One answer to the query of what became of these early French in Nevada County and why the land was not settled in vineyards, orchards and gardens may stem from the fact that the craze in France, after the tumultuous times of revoltings around 1848, for the founding of “associations” in order to rid itself of undesirables, the unemployed, the revolutionists, by the emigration of these elements to French Colonies. This did not materialize in containing enough of the farm element for succh undertakings. And again, probably, in the very fact that these same emigrants had been at civil war during this period and as a consequence their adjustment in a new land needed time. The speed with which these people fraternized on a foreign soil would make quite a tale itself in the telling. It is nice to dwell upon the assumption tha if men of distinction and foresight such as can be found in the records of the ’50’s could only have carried on, possibly the demoralizaion of a rich portion of our county would not have been so final, and the robbing of one section of the terrain for the aggrandizement of another section might have been avoided. The eternal wrangling which affords us amusement in these times might have been prevented.