Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 062-3 - July 2008 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 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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NCHS Bulletin July 2008 We walked on in the direction of a home which belonged to a rich French miner who was at the moment working underneath his home where he was finding much gold. It was a small wood shack on the side of the road. He was a handsome man who, in his miner’s garb, looked like a highway robber. Beside him, were his jacket, a rifle and a revolver. This last object is indispensable and no-one can be a miner without it. It is what one needs to save one’s skin and one’s small earnings. He had a man working next to him whom he paid five piasters a day. As soon as he heard who we were, we were good for the usual “check hand.” He invited us to sit down inside his shack and he offered us a glass of brandy and water which we enjoyed since it was eight o’clock and we had been going around since six o’clock. On top of it, the sun was very hot. We spent about fifteen minutes with this good compatriot who promised us a lot but did not keep any of his promises then, still following the bed of the river, we left for Boston Ravine, a mile away from Grass Valley, which was at the moment one of the places where gold was the most abundant. We saw a quartz mill, but it was idle. A little further, we ran into a band of Irishman working their slons next to a group of Germans. A little further yet, we saw two men also working with a sions. The young man who was showing us around knew them and led us toward them. When we met them, we asked if they were finding anything. They told us that they were making eight piasters a day. They too soon heard that we were French officers so they offered to show us how to wash a pan. They washed one in front of us; they were pretty lucky and found about thirty “sous” worth of gold. The two—three—of us immediately took turn and each found between one, two francs fifty, to forty francs which was quite plenty for me. I was quite happy to find such an amount all by myself and I carefully put away the small grains of gold which although not very big, had one great value in my eyes: ] had found them! These two young Irishmen who spoke French perfectly, came from an excellent family. Their love of adventure had brought them to California and, since they liked the work, they had stayed. They invited us to come back and see them four hours after midday. Rifles in hand, we returned towards Grass Valley by way of the heights of Gold Hill, the mountain of gold. It is a good name for it since this mountain is filled with gold-bearing quartz. We hoped to run across a jack-rabbit or some California quail! but only saw a great quantity of gray squirrels. We arrived back at the hotel around eleven, just in time to have lunch. We were a little tired from this first excursion. But we had not come for nothing. Then, after lunch, we were to go and visit the quartz mills owned by men for whom we had letters of recommendation. I will not go on about our afternoon excursion without first speaking about this very curious lunch, owing to its composition. There were about ten people around the table, mostly compatriots, from all sorts of professions. At the end of the table sat the sister to the lady who owned the hotel; she was a “gambleuse” in Grass Valley, which is to say that together with a young man who was supposed to come from a go family but whose war name was Zéphyre, she kept a gaming, table and by stealing from the unfortunate public, earned between a hundred and six hundred piasters each evening. There was an old woman sitting opposite from me. Her manner and her speech led me to believe she was an old woman from Normandy, one of these old rakes who in order to further our conversation, asked me: “Has it been a long time since you left France, my good “m sieur”? It must be very annoying this work you have. Me when I heard people talk about California, I did not have much to my name so I left with all my family on board a three-masted ship and we gone around Cape Horn. Goodness gracious, my good Sir, I been seven months at sea without a husband, and without ever seeing land. And so, dear me, now I've had it up to here with these long voyages, and I been doing a few little things here.” I found it extremely amusing to listen to this old neighbor’s conversation, especially since she seemed to have taken a liking to me, or so it appeared. At the other end of the table sat the lady of the house who, every now and then, let slip an expression like “I were” or “I been.” Notwithstanding all this, I must acknowledge that we were the object of everyone’s care and attention. There was competition about who could pass things to us. The rest of the guests were miners who more readily enjoyed speaking about hunting or about horses than they did about their work at the mines. After lunch, we did leave for the quartz mill on Gold Hill. We gave the director, who was in the process of examining quartz, the letter of recommendation we had been given for him. After reading it, he was quite pleasant with us. He left his quartz, and showed us his entire mill, even washed a pan full of crushed quartz to show us how rich it was. There was indeed in this pan two or three ounces of gold. He put a few fistfuls of this quartz in a piece of paper and gave it to us saying: “Here is something to show in France when you return.” From the mill, he took us to his home and offered us the inevitable “Brandy and water.” He then showed us several pieces of quartz he had set aside as specimens. He gave us each some then offered to take us to the mine, which we did with pleasure. So we went to visit this “Mountain of Gold.” After walking along underground tunnels for some time, we arrived at the place where the miners worked. They were at that moment inside a vein nearly two feet wide which went on quite a ways. When light was brought close to it, the rock was a magnificent white color covered with small gold veins. I used one of the miners’ instruments to chop off a splendid chunk of the rock, but I did not take it with me in the fear that it had too great a value. This specimen was probably worth close to thirty piasters, so in spite of the good director’s insistence, I refused to take this gold and told him I took much pleasure in