Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 052-2 - April 1998 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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

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Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin Volume 52, No. 2 April 1998 Lake Englebright By Bedford Lampkin Lace ENGLEBRIGHT IS LOCATED on the Yuba River approximately equidistant between Marysville and Grass Valley. The county line between western Nevada County and eastern Yuba County runs up the middle of the lake. The lake is formed by the Upper Narrows Dam and was built in 1940 and is maintained by the Corps of Engineers. Named for Harry Englebright of Nevada City, a mining engineer and legislator, the dam never was used for its original purpose. But it is a fitting tribute to a deserving man and an attractive and useful addition to our state’s resources. The lake is open all year. There is a modest fee for the use ~ of the small boat launching ramp located adjacent to the picnic area. Camping areas are available, but can only be reached by boat. Visible across the lake from the launching ramp is a private concessionaire marina (licensed by the Corps of Engineers) and an armada of houseboats. The building of the Upper Narrows Dam is just one facet of a larger picture. The dam was born of a fierce battle fought on a personal level and on a legislative and judicial level. Initially the conflicting interests were the valley farmers and the hydraulic mining advocates. THE CONTROVERSY Hydraulic mining began in approximately 1852 as a fairly harmless occupation. Early on in the gold rush, the valuable metal could be found in the stream beds of the Sierra foothills with little effort. But in short order, with the arrival of many men intent upon taking the treasure, gold became more difficult to come by. The very primitive technology of the earlier argonauts was replaced by techniques for extracting gold from relatively large amounts of ore-bearing gravel. In time this led to the first attempts at hydraulic mining. Some would give credit to Anthony Chabot (Lake Chabot, Chabot Junior College near Oakland, etc.) for building a 50-foot wooden penstock to provide water pressure, attaching a canvas hose f™ and attacking a mound of gravel and washing the resultant slurry down a lengthy sluice box. Edward E. Matteson is given credit for attaching a metal nozzle to the hose making the procedure more efficient. The idea caught on rapidly. Within a few years the technology had advanced such that large-bore metal nozzles were used to blast and wash the gravel ridges. At the same time the building of ditches and flumes, tunnels and pipes accelerated to provide the high pressure water necessary for the operation. The water that had impacted the gravel now ran its course into sluices of thousands of feet in length wherein the heavier gold particles were captured in the cleats fastened to the bottom of the sluice. The lighter material was carried further downhill by the weight and velocity of the water in its gravitational flow. The sluices were cleaned of their gold content every few weeks or months. The gravel and fine dirt that washed downhill would collect in huge amounts. When the winter rains came, the waste material from the hydraulic operations would continue its downhill travel through the various water courses, until it reached one of the major rivers that arrived in California’s Central Valley. The Feather, Yuba and Bear Rivers were all major contributors to the deposits of debris which came to be known as “slickens.” The Yuba River had the reputation as being the worst offender in this regard. Hydraulic mining was a lucrative business and money in it was invested by large corporations as far away as England. In conjunction with hydraulic mining, the water companies that invested in ditches, flumes and reservoirs was also big business. Early on, farmers had speculated what the effect would be when the mine tailings reached the valley. For several years there was little effect to be seen, but in the 1860s heavy rains brought large amounts of debris into the rivers and subsequently into the valley. The heavy rains continued for several years. The assault of mine tailings continued in the valley with the result that river beds rose and slickens began to cover the farm lands adjacent to the river. Cities such as Marysville and Yuba City were forced to build dikes to protect themselves from the raging waters, but there was little that individual farmers could do to stop the flow of sand and gravel covering the land. The first legal action took place in 1873, when several farmers pooled their resources and sued the Spring Valley 9