San Andreas independent., 1857-01-24
what Keeps Up San Andreas

This is question that is asked by every
newcomer who arrives in the Camp; what
keeps up San Andreas? is the general In
quiry of those who left us, years ago, with
their fortunes in their pockets; but who
are now returning fat broke, to growl over
their misfortunes and assert that San An
dreas is place, without any resources to
keep it up We shall endeavor to show
what keeps up the place, and also to answer
those grumblers who see mountain of la
Dor for every mite of gold that is pro-
duced from the soil.
Let the industrious miner take ram
BILE, making a circuit of some three to five
miles from San Andreas, through the rich
placer deposits of stream, gulch, fiat and
hillside diggings, and he will soon dis
cover where we get our resources, and then
he will not be at loss to know what
keeps up the trade of this Camp; every
gulch and fiat is teeming with gold; on
either side as he travels along, the curious
observer will find huge piles of dirt thrown
up, or carted up, ready to wash, so rich
that each may be considered fortune to
the owners. On the Calaveras and It's
tributaries, in this vicinity, millions of
dollars worth of gold lies within the grasp
OF the adventurer if he will but exhibit
sufficient industry and enterprise to DIG it
out. We say, so and get it; don't let the
Cinnamon get it-they have no business
with it, but their industry will as surely
be rewarded with plenty, as is your indo-
lence punished with want; the Chinese in
the mines live on the fat of the land, pay
their Foreign tax and dozen other taxes
and impositions, are driven to the poorest
diggings and often ruthlessly beat and
plundered by their oppressors, yet they all
manage to make money, live we'll and ride
fast horses, thereby assisting all business
operations of the Camp. Last week we
noticed two claims which would yield, re-
spectively, 100000 and $4,000 each; /;
this week, we have information of still
more positive nature, showing that other
diggings in the neighborhood of French
Gulch, are still more valuable. Now, our
readers must remember that these piles of
dirt, in most of instances, have all been
thrown up this year, and that many of the
claims will yield equally as we'll for the
next three years to come.
This is all very good, says the miner,
but we must pay for water, and in many
places cannot get it for the money What
use is the gold to us unless we can Get
water to wash it out /? This all looks very
well, in print, and will do to talk about
Well, these are the facts
There are three bitches running into and
through this mining district, as follows:
The Table Mountain Ditch, eighty sluice-
heads of water; Capt Pope's Ditch, thirty
sluice-heads, and the Union Ditch, fifteen
sluice-heads, making in all one hundred
and seventy-6ve first sluice-heads of clear,
pure water; now it is generally conceded
that the same water can be used three
times over, which would be three hundred
and seyenty-ive sluices that could be kept
constantly in operation each day; suppos-
ing four men to work at each sluice, and
it will be seen that fifteen hundred men,
are, or ought to be, proftably employed in
washing out gold within this mining dis
trict; supposing the average of wages to
be but $500 per day, Eve know of some
miners who are making four ounces per
day,) to the man, and the yield will be six
thousand dollars per day; now just carry
out the calculation for the year, or three
years, and all who do so, will readily see
what keeps up San Andreas The small
er bitches that thread along the sides
of the rivers, are not included in the above
estimate.
1t is generally conceded that this dis
trict, within circle of FIVE miles, is the
very heart of the gold region. Here is
where the richest strikes have been made,
and here the richest diggings ever worked
are yet to be discovered. The hills in this
vicinity remain unprospected; to-be-sure,
IN many instances, the gold has been trail
ed from some adjacent gulch into the hill,
as is the rich diggings in the gulch just
above town, yet there, as in many similar
cases, the lead has been lost. Not only is
San Andreas the centre of tho