Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-12-22
Future Prospects Of Calaveras.

The future prospects of Calaveras never
brighter than at present. From all portions
| of the county we receive the gratifying intel
lgence that business of every description is
reviving, and that the coming year bids fair
to be one of unexampled prosperity to all
classes of our citizens. The recent rains
have set the farmers and miners at work,
and the plough, and the pick and shovel.
which had grown rusty in idleness, are again
brought into requisition. The tide of emf
grafton to distant mining fields has been
stayed, and many who left US to try their
fortunes in other localities, have returned,
fully satisfied with their experience in for
tune hunting, and perfectly willing to re-
main at home. The idea-at one time SO
prevalent in the entire community, that all
that was necessary to become millionaire
was to procure few feet in Humboldt,
Reese River, or Silver Mountains explod-
ed, and our people are giving the mines which
| lie within our own borders their undivided
attention. The intense excitements which
steamship and stage companies have managed
TO create regularly, every year, in regard to
the fabulous richness of some far-off mining
region, has, n. reality, been the most serious
drawback to the development of our own
mineral deposits. As general thing, those
who have made these annual hegiras in
search of sudden wealth, belong to the class
which we can i'll afford to lose-hard- work
ing, practical miners-the bone and sinew of
the country. In addition to the loss of pop
ulation which we have incurred by these
chronic eXcitements, vast amount of capital
has also been diverted from its legitimate
channel, and instead of being expended in
developing the hidden resources of our own
county, as it would have been had not the
nomadic propensity Of our population been
unduly excited, has been spent in fruitless
endeavors to discover richer mining locali-
ties. The conviction that We possess mines
of unsurpassed richness and permanency,
which only require patient and persevering
is gradually taking possession of the public
mind. coupled with the sad experiences of
those who have deserted good claims and
comfortable homes for the privations and un-
-certainties of new mineral districts. will, in
our opinion, be sufficient to deter men from
making such useless sacrifices in the future.
Traversing our county in every direction are
veins of gold-be bearing quartz. That all of
them contain the precious metal in sufficient
abundance to pay for working would befolly
to suppose-as foolish as it would be to
think that all the gravel throughout the
mining portion of the State would pay for
washing4but that large majority of them
viii prove remunerative when proper ma
chinery for crushing the rock and saving the
gold is erected, there is not the least doubt.
1t is simply waste of time and money to
crush quartz without the necessary appli
ances for saving the gold after it is extricat-
ed. You might as well expect to get rich by
digging gravel which you knew contained
gold, and throwing it into the river to be
washed. Years ago, when it was first dis
covered that quartz leads contained gold,
nothing was known in regard to the proper
method of working the ore. earned away
by the Importance Of the knowledge they had
acquired, excited by the belief that they had
at last found the source of the golden wealth
of California, men erected costly but defect
i've machinery on lodges which were entirely
unprospected, and without stopping for
moment to consider the difficulties to be
overcome in securing the gold which the rock
contained. As natural sequence, quartz
mining proved a miserable failure. Since
that time, however, radical changes and i'm
provements have been made in quartz ma
chinery, and in many instances the identical
veins which could not then be made to pay,
are now proving the most largely remunera-
tive. At Angels, in this county, can be seen
a practical illustration of this fact. Several
years since a number of large mills were
erected ON different leads IN that vicinity
which were known TO contain gold in paying
quantities. Not possessing the requisite ma
chinery for saving the metal which the ore
contained, labor had soon to be discontinued
and the venture proved disastrous to the mill
owners. This, as a matter Of course, mate
rally affected the interests of the town; bust
ness declined, and many were obliged to
seek employment elsewhere. Recently, the
latest Improvements for saving gold having
been added to the machinery, labor has been
resumed on all the CLAIMS with the most fat
tering success, people are focking in from all
directions, and Angels is now one of the
liveliest mining towns in the State. Such
will be the result in other localities when
people learn to profit by experience. At
Railroad Flat the fine mill erected by Hep
burn s. Co. is now ready to commence crush
ing, ard as the numerous leads in that vicin-
ity have been thoroughly prospected and
proved to be rich. large shipments of bullion
will soon be made from that place, adding
materially to the prosperity and wealth of
the county. From West Point we have
equally cheering intelligence. Increased IA
cilities for working the lodges in that famous
locality have been recently obtained, and the
shipments Of quartz gold dust from there
will now be larger than ever. The mining
interests of Calaveras are second to none in
the State, and never were they so promising
as at present.
Calaveras has other interests besides quartz
mining which are yearly increasing in i'm
rortauca Foremost amoDp them iS that Of