January 27, 1971 (12 pages)

Ca) Aiea ea Cad D , ep 4 get ‘Historical Scrap Book 1 1 ra means =a ' ‘ ES . ’ 1und Kinyon 118 AT DEBRIS CONTROL jawyer assumed no arbitrary or punitive lon, Rather he left the door slightly ajar ydraulic mining under control conditions, xt of his ruling reads; e undisputed and indisputable and wellcould possibly be more adverse than we emedy to the grievance complained of that hydraulic mining, if any other can be dete continuance compatible with the safety lic, the complainant and numerous others We have, therefore, sought with painful — emedy; but none have been suggested that adequate to the exigencies of the case, or he present stage of the case, Two are sugrchase the large tracts of land in the valor may be permanently covered with water iry to navigation, or other property ownentire Yuba, with ite debris, into them etting reservoir, Second, the building dams at suitable points on the river, to tion of the debris, nsidered the first suggested plan as too ible and pointed out other objections, The as Offering some promise, But there he f engineering opinion, He pointed out that puns "made at great expense," had lures,"' » posted during the more than ten years of nide and seal game between the mountain ley adversaries, But the impounding luce ndoned, rather it was 4 into practice by g of temporary dams, These were mostly ring Seasons of low water, Congress d a ol Virtg Ee, oat if ae bal a a Pike Ny w a : much of the controversy, but no enactments were made until after 1891 when Anthony Caminetti of Amador county was elected to represent the Second District, At his instance the provision known as the Caminetti Act was adopted, It set up the existing United States Army Corps of Engineers, The commission was authorized to license hydraulic mining on a proper showing that . the ju ee a hapmpege by ihe Sawyer decision would be oba mpounding or otherwise, The commission took jurisdiction in 1893 with Col, C, H, Mendel! as president of the three member board, In all, twentytwo army officers have served as president, the present executive being Col, E, C, Kelton, The Caminett! Act was inadequate in that it failed to provide for the building of barriers with governmental participation, the undertaking manifestly being out of the reach of private enterprise, Such handicap continued for. approximeely forty years, In 1926 Harry L, Englebright, a mining engineer of Nevada City, was elected to the House of Representatives and was successively reelected until his death seventeen years later, Englebright secured amendments to the Caminetti Act whereby, under certain conditions, the government would build massive barriers the cost to be repaid on a toll basis by operators using their storage facilities, Provision was made for four dams, sites on the Yuba, the Bear and the North and Middle forks of the American being specified, The first to be completed “ the ster yal Its utility has been limited, and for the reason 8 eae ", operation was discontinued when misdemeanor rator were successfully pressed, He simquit, The dam built at the Upper Narrows war restricthrough several charges against the ply paid his fine ate Tats tae ae Yuba River, com , has feito al forms of gold mining, been utili successful seasons, By a recent act of Congress the dam erected at the Upper Narrows, which has an important hydro-electric adjunct, bears om Re err my oa sa temers 4 oo are ) 6 the name of Harry L, Englebright Dam, The dedication ceremony (1946) was conducted by a revised version of the old Hydraulic Miners Association, long since defunct, This was originated in 1935 and has held meetings monthly to the present, . The California Hydraulic Mining Association is committed to hydraulic mining under control conditions exclusively, PERSONALITIES Hydraulic mining bred a generation of fighting men and clever strategists on both sides of the imaginary "Mason and Dixon Line," In their wake was a welter of followers willing to do their b at whatever legal or personal risk, Likewise, not a few dubious characters with hand outstretched, Prominent in the group of leaders for the valley interests were such figures as George Ohleyer of Yuba City, militant editor and president of the Anti-Debris Association; W, T, Ellis of Marysville, who personally fought the miners as well as the floods which far ante-dated hydraulicking; Col, Edwards Woodruff, Yuba County ihuarg * owner, who, as such, lenthis 4 name to the famous suit of oodrutt vs, Bloomfield Mining Company; Will 8, Green of Colusa, another militant of the press, Outside newspapers put in their oar on one side or the other, Carrying the burden for the miners were L, L, Robinson, president of the Hydraulic Miners’ Association and head of the North Bloomfield Company; Robert C, McMurray, acolor~~ ful manager of mines at Moore's Flat and others of the San ~% Juan Ridge, whose spacious mansion at North San Juan still stands; Jerry Goodwin, You Bet overlord, who later wasto ,; die in a furious gunbattle, whose imposing brush dam at the mouth of the Greenhorn reputedly had a secret outlet known only to Goodwin himself; the Stewarts, father and son, of the Gold Run consolidation; Patrick (Paddy) Campbell of the Smartville giants, who, despite his wraith-like comings and goings, _‘#! was in and out of jail; John E, Kidder, railroad president, who reputedly gave asylum in the deep recesses of his Grass Valley 4 mansion to operators harried by process-servers of injunctionbearing nemensis, It was the custom of high company officials to absent themA selves, One such lingered uncertainly in New York, Atelegram 4 to Kidder asked; ‘How's the weather?" Kidder replied: "Salu. brious,"" Whether or not the mining official ventured to return is not of record, .e = a ues THE AFTERMATH P It is a valid assumption that virtually all of the operations subsequent to the Sawyer decision and its affirmation by the higher courts were without hope of continuing production, The obvious purpose of the operators was to salvage as much as possible from the catastrophe, At the best the yield of gold “t lessened and workers and populations drifted away, The insist_. ence of prejudiced observers that the companies lay inwait ‘5 ready to spring up at the least relaxation of the opposition is ' without basis in fact, By the turn of the century there was jj scarcely a hydraulic mine in the Sierra able to offer any real threat of large-scale resumption, Another decade and all equipment had been removed or lay rusting over the diggings, In, many cases water rights had lapsed or been sold for utility uses, The original owners were passing from the scene and " their successors were passive, That hundred million dollar industry had become a whited sepulcher, if A reasonable question might arise in the mind of the general lic as to the necessity of suspension of gravel-bank mining, hy not some other method, suchas drift mining? The explanation is that the gold values vary greatly and are diffused in almost infinitesimal quantities through the gravels, L en makes this sage comment: "The gravel outside of the 'pay is streak' would ordinarily be regarded as extremely rich by the = hydraulic miner, who would be content with the yield of ten cents a cubic yard; but the drift miner is obliged to leave as unpayable gravel containing from 75 cents to$2,00a cubic yard,” i That illustrates why even the bedrock concentrations are rarely sufficient to justify operations by the drift method, The paystreaks are marked by extreme wanderings which, for the ; most part, defy all but mass operations, a ae Rights Teservedbythe gt Vi ~ evade County Publishing Company —, oes tO tee { ee ie . (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK,) aff

Ca) Aiea ea Cad D , ep 4 get ‘Historical Scrap Book 1 1 ra means =a ' ‘ ES . ’ 1und Kinyon 118 AT DEBRIS CONTROL jawyer assumed no arbitrary or punitive lon, Rather he left the door slightly ajar ydraulic mining under control conditions, xt of his ruling reads; e undisputed and indisputable and wellcould possibly be more adverse than we emedy to the grievance complained of that hydraulic mining, if any other can be dete continuance compatible with the safety lic, the complainant and numerous others We have, therefore, sought with painful — emedy; but none have been suggested that adequate to the exigencies of the case, or he present stage of the case, Two are sugrchase the large tracts of land in the valor may be permanently covered with water iry to navigation, or other property ownentire Yuba, with ite debris, into them etting reservoir, Second, the building dams at suitable points on the river, to tion of the debris, nsidered the first suggested plan as too ible and pointed out other objections, The as Offering some promise, But there he f engineering opinion, He pointed out that puns "made at great expense," had lures,"' » posted during the more than ten years of nide and seal game between the mountain ley adversaries, But the impounding luce ndoned, rather it was 4 into practice by g of temporary dams, These were mostly ring Seasons of low water, Congress d a ol Virtg Ee, oat if ae bal a a Pike Ny w a : much of the controversy, but no enactments were made until after 1891 when Anthony Caminetti of Amador county was elected to represent the Second District, At his instance the provision known as the Caminetti Act was adopted, It set up the existing United States Army Corps of Engineers, The commission was authorized to license hydraulic mining on a proper showing that . the ju ee a hapmpege by ihe Sawyer decision would be oba mpounding or otherwise, The commission took jurisdiction in 1893 with Col, C, H, Mendel! as president of the three member board, In all, twentytwo army officers have served as president, the present executive being Col, E, C, Kelton, The Caminett! Act was inadequate in that it failed to provide for the building of barriers with governmental participation, the undertaking manifestly being out of the reach of private enterprise, Such handicap continued for. approximeely forty years, In 1926 Harry L, Englebright, a mining engineer of Nevada City, was elected to the House of Representatives and was successively reelected until his death seventeen years later, Englebright secured amendments to the Caminetti Act whereby, under certain conditions, the government would build massive barriers the cost to be repaid on a toll basis by operators using their storage facilities, Provision was made for four dams, sites on the Yuba, the Bear and the North and Middle forks of the American being specified, The first to be completed “ the ster yal Its utility has been limited, and for the reason 8 eae ", operation was discontinued when misdemeanor rator were successfully pressed, He simquit, The dam built at the Upper Narrows war restricthrough several charges against the ply paid his fine ate Tats tae ae Yuba River, com , has feito al forms of gold mining, been utili successful seasons, By a recent act of Congress the dam erected at the Upper Narrows, which has an important hydro-electric adjunct, bears om Re err my oa sa temers 4 oo are )

6 the name of Harry L, Englebright Dam, The dedication ceremony (1946) was conducted by a revised version of the old Hydraulic Miners Association, long since defunct, This was originated in 1935 and has held meetings monthly to the present, . The California Hydraulic Mining Association is committed to hydraulic mining under control conditions exclusively, PERSONALITIES Hydraulic mining bred a generation of fighting men and clever strategists on both sides of the imaginary "Mason and Dixon Line," In their wake was a welter of followers willing to do their b at whatever legal or personal risk, Likewise, not a few dubious characters with hand outstretched, Prominent in the group of leaders for the valley interests were such figures as George Ohleyer of Yuba City, militant editor and president of the Anti-Debris Association; W, T, Ellis of Marysville, who personally fought the miners as well as the floods which far ante-dated hydraulicking; Col, Edwards Woodruff, Yuba County ihuarg * owner, who, as such, lenthis 4 name to the famous suit of oodrutt vs, Bloomfield Mining Company; Will 8, Green of Colusa, another militant of the press, Outside newspapers put in their oar on one side or the other, Carrying the burden for the miners were L, L, Robinson, president of the Hydraulic Miners’ Association and head of the North Bloomfield Company; Robert C, McMurray, acolor~~ ful manager of mines at Moore's Flat and others of the San ~% Juan Ridge, whose spacious mansion at North San Juan still stands; Jerry Goodwin, You Bet overlord, who later wasto ,; die in a furious gunbattle, whose imposing brush dam at the mouth of the Greenhorn reputedly had a secret outlet known only to Goodwin himself; the Stewarts, father and son, of the Gold Run consolidation; Patrick (Paddy) Campbell of the Smartville giants, who, despite his wraith-like comings and goings, _‘#! was in and out of jail; John E, Kidder, railroad president, who reputedly gave asylum in the deep recesses of his Grass Valley 4 mansion to operators harried by process-servers of injunctionbearing nemensis, It was the custom of high company officials to absent themA selves, One such lingered uncertainly in New York, Atelegram 4 to Kidder asked; ‘How's the weather?" Kidder replied: "Salu.. brious,"" Whether or not the mining official ventured to return is not of record, .e = a ues THE AFTERMATH P It is a valid assumption that virtually all of the operations subsequent to the Sawyer decision and its affirmation by the higher courts were without hope of continuing production, The obvious purpose of the operators was to salvage as much as possible from the catastrophe, At the best the yield of gold “t lessened and workers and populations drifted away, The insist_. ence of prejudiced observers that the companies lay inwait ‘5 ready to spring up at the least relaxation of the opposition is ' without basis in fact, By the turn of the century there was jj scarcely a hydraulic mine in the Sierra able to offer any real threat of large-scale resumption, Another decade and all equipment had been removed or lay rusting over the diggings, In, many cases water rights had lapsed or been sold for utility uses, The original owners were passing from the scene and " their successors were passive, That hundred million dollar industry had become a whited sepulcher, if A reasonable question might arise in the mind of the general lic as to the necessity of suspension of gravel-bank mining, hy not some other method, suchas drift mining? The explanation is that the gold values vary greatly and are diffused in almost infinitesimal quantities through the gravels, L en makes this sage comment: "The gravel outside of the 'pay is streak' would ordinarily be regarded as extremely rich by the = hydraulic miner, who would be content with the yield of ten cents a cubic yard; but the drift miner is obliged to leave as unpayable gravel containing from 75 cents to$2,00a cubic yard,” i That illustrates why even the bedrock concentrations are rarely sufficient to justify operations by the drift method, The paystreaks are marked by extreme wanderings which, for the ; most part, defy all but mass operations, a ae Rights Teservedbythe gt Vi ~ evade County Publishing Company —, oes tO tee { ee ie . (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK,) aff