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

Date Scanned: 2014-03-05 08:04:50 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:00 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:00

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

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NCHS Bulletin April 1998 property owner in the Marysville area, entered the Ninth United States District Court in San Francisco and filed suit against the North Bloomfield Mine and all other mines on the Yuba River. Judge Lorenzo Sawyer heard the suit and Cadwalader was Woodruff’s attorney. After an exhaustive examination of data and testimony taken over two years and after several trips to the debated areas, Judge Sawyer announced his famous decision on January, 7, 1884. It took 344 hours to read the 225 pages, but what Judge Sawyer effectively did was to shut the major hydraulic mining companies completely down. Now began a game of cat and mouse with small mining companies operating clandestinely and government agents attempting to catch them in the act. Other mines felt that they were complying with the Sawyer decision if their tailings were restricted to settling basins and did not reach the river drainages. Further court action destroyed even this latter stratagem. The mining people were on hard times. Following Lt. Col. Mendell’s report to Congress, that body appropriated $250,000 for the building of three large dams on the Yuba, Bear and American Rivers. However, the Secretary of War had impounded these funds until the situation became more clear. At this juncture, Anthony Caminetti’s name appears for the first time. Caminetti was at this time an assemblyman from Amador County. His idea was to persuade Congress to release the $250,000 by having the California legislature declare by resolution that all hydraulic mining in the state had ceased. This brought howls of protests from the farmers. They knew that all hydraulic mining had not stopped and they had absolutely no faith in the debris containment dams. The California legislature did not dare touch it, but that didn’t stop Caminette’s proposal from continuing to be a hot topic in the press and in individual conversation. There was still a fair amount of illegal mining continuing and the farmers’ efforts to stop it met with mixed results. In the late 1880s a new aspect entered the picture. Farm prices had fallen off and the foothills had come upon an economic recession. People, even in the valley, talked about the good old days when the mines were operating and money was more abundant. In 1888 Congressman Marion Biggs introduced a bill that called for an engineering assessment of the debris problem. In 1891 the Biggs Commission published its findings to say that hydraulic mining could be resumed with the miners building their own debris-containment dams. Needless to say, the farmers cried “foul!’’ But this did bring Anthony Caminetti to the fore again. He had recently been elected to the House of Representatives, and he presented a bill to Congress based on the findings of the Biggs 12 Lake Clementine dam on North Fork of American River. Commission. It would create a federal California Debris Commission with significant powers and with the authority to allow hydraulic mining under proper regulations and rules. Caminetti’s bill became law in March 1893. Not only would the federal Debris Commission occupy itself with overseeing the mining operations, but it also had the responsibility of reclaiming the rivers. Improving the navigation standards of the rivers in northern California was a concern to a larger and more prestigious group than the farmers in the foothills. Perhaps the most significant step at this time was that the problem, heretofore faced locally or by state judicial or legislative action, was now in the hands of the federal government. ee PREPARATION In The California Debris Commission—A History, by J. J. Hagwood, the following was reported: “On May 3, 1893 President Grover Cleveland appointed Colonel G. H. Mendell, Lt. Col. W. H. Benyaurd and Major W. H. Heuer, all Corps of Engineers officers, as members of the California Commission.” Section 4 of the Act of March 1, 1893 which authorized the commission, stated: ... it shall be the duty of said commission to mature and adopt such plans ... as will improve the navigability of all the rivers comprising said systems, deepen their channels and protect their banks. Such plans shall be matured with a view of making the same effective as against the encroachment of and damage from debris resulting from mining operations, natural erosion or other causes with a view of restoring as near as practical and the necessities of commerce and navigation demands, the —™, navigability of said rivers (the Sacramento-San Joaquin and all of their tributaries) to condition existing in eighteen hundred and sixty, and permitting mining by the hydraulic process ... to be carried on provided the same