Weekly Trinity journal., 1864-04-16
Trinity County-Its Undeveloped Re
sources.

California is country of exctements The
early days of the State witnessed the spectacle
Of men leaving claims when they were making
from ten to twenty dollars per day, in search of
place where fortunes could be made by a few
hours labor. Gold Lake and Gold Bluff carried
away thousands who LEFT better diggngs than
they ever found again. Frazer and Kern rivers
and Cariboo, found their followers, but although
Trinity county was too we'll represented in the
later excitements we cannot now call to mind
any of our numerous acquaintance who have
realized fortune in that Ell Dorado of the North.
We don't wish to be understood as saying that
fortunes cannot be made there, large sums of
money have been made in a short time, but as
the placers always of limited extent the
first corners were the favored ones. The first
ports from Frazer river were not exaggerated in
the least menmade five hundred and thousand
dollars o day with rockers, but the diggings
were confined to few bars and of the thou
sands of gold hunters not one in a hundred
found paying claim. So too with Cariboo and
Florence City spots equal in richness to any
discovered in the palmy days of 40 were found,
but they were confined to a few small streams,
and now we scarcely hear word spoken in favor
of the once famous diggings of Salmon river or
Williams creek. And we predict that the same
fate awaits the newly discovered mines of the
Boise and Owyhee now they in every body's
thoughts, the roads leading to them from the
Atlantic as we'll as from the Pacific, are thronged
with the gold seekers but if, of the many rush.
ing there, one out of a hundred finds a claim
that will pay more than day wages, it will ex-
coed our expectations.
1t is strange to us that Calfornians Of ten or
twelve years experience, who have seen the re-
suits of former excitements, the disappointed
hopes of those who sought in the new fields to
better their fortunes, should still be led away
under the feverish impulses of the moment to
follow that which their better Judgment must
teach them will be an illusion such the rest
have been. 1t would be far better for them to
aid in developing the resources of California,
which the past fourteen years show to be in adj
vance of any other on the globe. While many
Of our most experienced miners have gone to
Boise, Humboldt, and other places, vast gold
fields all about us remain untouched and n
prospected Bars and benches on the river con-
tanning ground sufficient to afford profitable en-
ployment to thousands of miners are not worked,
simply because when a miner has made a raise
of few hundreds or thousands of dollars in
stead of investing it here; where it was earned,
he prefers to take his money and try to double
it in some other locality. Because mines do
not yield the fabulous amounts which the new
mines are said to yield, they remain year after
year comparatively unprospected.
We need two things to bring out full knowl
edge of the resources of Trinity county-labor
and capital. In point of being q worked out y
our mines are ten years behind the lower eoun-
ties of the State. There has been a most de-
plorable lack of energy in supplying the means
of working them to advantage few bitches
serve to convey the waters of the creeks to dig
gings where it can be done without much ex-
pense, which furnish water for winter use and in
the summer months when the river is at low
stage and mining could be prosecuted to the best
advantage the bitches are dry and work is sus-
pended We have abundance of water privi-
leges in the county and thousands of acres of
good paying ground, and if the was brought
upon the other the yield of gold from the placer
diggings of the county would astonish even our
selves.
One of the best and surest operations for COM
panies of men with small capital to 60 into,
would be to convey water from the Trinity river
on to the bars and banks of that stream. Per-
haps there is no other part of the county which
offers so great field for enterprise as this. The
low bars of the river have been worked less than
any other description Of mines in the county,
and since the great food of 1861 most of them
Rush creek to Texas Bar distance by the river
of about twelve miles, not than ten or
twelve white men are working. Yet nearly every
foot of the way is lined with bars that would
pay good wages to work, and many very rich
spots would be found. This is but A type of
other parts of the river which, if supplied with
water, would be place where steady labor
would find its reward. For such operations no
great amount Of capital would be required if the
company that took the matter in hand was COM
posed of working
We have said nothing about the hill and fiat
diggings of the county which wherever tried
have been found to pay richly. The same causes
which are drawback on mining operations
the river apply to all our mining sections. with
capital land no great amount would be required)
placed in the hands Of energetic working men,
in another year Trinity county would stand at
the head of the list of placer mining counties
in the State.