The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-01-29
A Deserted City.
a Walk Through the silent Streets OF n
Once Bustling California Town.

esting story of one of the strangest
towns on the continent-Meadow Lake,
Gal. 1t is, says the writer, the Cali
fornia Pompeii, the years of whose an
! tiquity one can reckon on the fingers of
his hands; whose entombing lava is the
summit snow storms which sometimes
bury it twenty-five feet deep on the
! level, aud whose annual exhumation is
brought about by the summer sun.
Until 1858 nothing had been done in
the way of protecting this region. In
that year the South Yuba Canal Com
pany constructed dam /, ,150 feet long
and AZ feet high, and ut the apex Is feet
wide, across a creek tributary to the
Yuba River. The immense structure
is built entirely of solid granite, with
out a particle of cement or wood enter
ing into its composition. Thus was
created an artificial lake or reservoir
two miles long north and south, from
! 300 yards to three quarters of q mile
wide, and from 10 to 30 fathoms deep.
| This is Meadow Lake, from which this
strange city derives its appellation.
1t was not until the summer of 1866
that the new adventurous spirits sue
ceeded in attracting public attention to
| OhC hOW bOluuO. uC blou DiloC DIO-
ceeded from Virginia City, New. From
June until Autumn they came; by hun
dreds and hundreds they came, throng-
ing over the arid, alkaline roads from
Washoe to Meadow Lake. In July,
1865, public meeting was called-the
first ever held-the mining laws of
Nevada County, California, adopted by
acclamation, and the name Meadow
! 81 al1 b., to1
viously called Excelsior and Summit
City. Soon after began the location of
claims.
Meadow Lake was surveyed and laid
out as a town, covering plat of 160
acres. 1t contained spacious streets
eighty feet wide, with the blocks divided
into lots of sixty feet frontage and
eighty feet in depth; and midway
through the blocks ran broad, healthy
alleyways sixteen feet wide.
With the close of the fall of 1865, the
new city contained about one hundred
and fifty houses completed, and a num-
Der of others in course of construction.
Then came a time during which the
question, "What's going to be done
next ?" was uppermost in the minds OF
the adventurers. Finally, one by one,
| tuey uepaIteu, uuJil OulS aDOuI GWO
hundred persons remained to suffer
through the long and dreary winter
which ensued. Early the next spring,
ho wever, the returning tide set in, four
| til ousand persons arriving during the
months of May and June. Corner lots
rose to exorbitant rates buildings
went up rapidly, and, to cap the climax
stock board was organized.
| D..l H. %D
an end, and the unfortunate adventurers
soon awoke to the sad reality that
though there was plenty of gold there,
it was so combined with some sub
stance, unknown to the metallurgists,
that it was effectually locked up from
the hands of man. And so all the
dreams and the black art, the science,
the metallurgy, and the blow-pipe, were
set at naught. One after another, as
they abandoned hope, the disappointed
gold-seekers turned their backs on
Meadow Lake, and went down the
mountain. More than $2,000,00 had
been poured into that bottomless abyss
of California known as "dead work, u
to pay for mills, roads, buildings,
mining, etc., not including the i'm
mense amount of work otherwise en-
plOyed-say S3, ,OUU,O
Besides this town of over 600 houses,
which was more handsome and sub
stantial than most mountain mining
towns, and the eight quartz mills, with
their ponderous machinery and heavy
expense, there were built the neighbor-
ing villages of Ossaville, Carlyle, Paris
and Mendoza, all of which together
contained probably hundred houses.
About forty miles of good stage roads
were constructed stations and stables
built along at regular intervals; forests
leveled widely around lines of stages
established caravans of huge noun.
tain freight wagons set in motion, and
all the thousand-and-one appliances OF
civilized life provided. All this, and
ten thousand other things, done in one
brief summit summer, gives us an idef
of the prodigious energy of the gold
seeker, which goes far to cover up his
follies and his crimes.
Last year a resident of Grass Valley
had the curiosity to visit the place il
the dead of winter, q feat which h,
, could accomplish only with snow-shoes
: On these great runners, twelve or fifteel
feet long, he scaled the Arctic summit
!, of the Sierra Nevada, descending int
l the valley where lies Meadow Lake
gliding through it's empty streets on
level with the second story windows
4 and have to before one of the com
: modious hotels. Peering in througl
e the chamber windows, he beheld sleep
: ing apartments comfortably furnished
: chairs, wash-stands, mirrors, and bed
Y smoothed down with clean linen an
+ heavy comforters, pillows nicely tucke
: and puffed by the chambermaids hand
: all inviting to luxurious repose. II
+ was tempted to go in and take col
: sleep after his hard climb over til
= mountains, but the sepulchral solitud
n chilled his heart and blood. 1t wa
f like the things beheld by divers who g
n down into the waters of the sea, an
t look through portfolios of sunken al
: gosies into luxuriously upholstere
/ rooms, where the green waters flow III
!, disturbed. Not living soul did h
: behold.
/ Here, just across the street from til
+ room of the stock board above mer
h toned, is the office, handsomely ful
a nished, of stock broker. If his vault
t were plethoric with gold-and it is e1
d tremely doubtful if they ever were
d they could scarce be safer in the whol
d world, for Old Boreas has locked thel
:. fast and sure with snow. No burglar
y neeG be dreaded here. How strang
n and sad it seems, as we walk alon
o these silent streets, to see the sign
+ swing and mournfully creak in ia
breeze. But all the busy trades-peopl
are gone the customers are gone al
all are gone. And here is the office {
ho al, L